Xiao Wu drove Huang Tian straight to the dedicated guesthouse of the Wuping City Hall. The accommodations were quite decent, with room furnishings comparable to a standard hotel room. After Huang Tian washed up and changed into fresh clothes, Xiao Wu brought dinner over.
"Have you eaten yet?" Huang Tian accepted the meal politely. As a martial artist in the War God realm, he had little need for regular sustenance since spiritual energy could essentially substitute for food. Still, indulging in good food now and then was enjoyable, providing at least some mental relaxation.
"I just finished eating." Xiao Wu was somewhat flattered. "Is there anything else you need? I can speak with the guesthouse staff."
"Nothing else," Huang Tian said, waving a hand dismissively.
"Th-then I'll head out. Just call me anytime if you need anything."
"All right."
The door clicked shut gently. Huang Tian sat on the sofa, ate a few bites, and pulled out his phone. The moment he unlocked the screen, several news alerts caught his eye.
"Liam, a newly minted Warrior-rank martial artist in Mili Jian, has successfully mastered the first two strikes of the Triple-Wave Saber. Operating alongside local police to purge mutant fierce beasts, he slew a Beast Soldier rank white-backed hound with a single blade strike, earning acclaim as the most talented and perceptive prodigy in Mili Jian—"
"Britain has repelled a new wave of sea beast assaults. Preliminary estimates report 1,200 dead and over 6,000 wounded. Hospitals everywhere are overcrowded, and numerous medical supplies are depleted—"
"The Russian military has slain a Lord-rank mutant fierce beast, the Winter Blizzard Bear—"
"The island nation of Bagdos has fallen entirely. Its population of roughly three hundred thousand has perished in the mouths of sea beasts."
"Huang Tian, the world's foremost martial artist, has thoroughly cleared the mutant fierce beasts of the Mangyuan Mountains without suffering any injury. Patrol Bureaus from Shangyuan City, Wuping City, and other counties and municipalities are dispatching personnel into the mountains to process the heaps of beast carcasses—"
"In South Korea, a Warrior-rank martial artist named Lee Jong-joon murdered a married couple over a dispute and was placed on the official wanted list. During his flight, he killed seventy-nine ordinary citizens and twenty-one police officers before finally being shot dead. This incident has sparked fierce debate within South Korea—"
"German biologist Halman declared during a media interview that God has cast His gaze upon the New Star, sparking the massive transformation across the world—"
One headline followed another in a dizzying cascade. Tens of thousands of civilians were being slaughtered by mutant fierce beasts; passionate martial artists were rising up to defend their homelands; scientists made conjectures or spun wild fantasies regarding the origins of the world's upheaval; tensions flared between martial artists and ordinary people—in this grand era of evolution, significant changes unfolded across the globe almost daily.
After browsing briefly, Huang Tian was about to lock his phone when a breaking news alert popped up, making his finger freeze.
"At 5:47 PM today, a mutant fierce beast codenamed the 'Twin-Winged Giant Dragon' was sighted for the first time over Manila City, the capital of Feilü Country. Measuring approximately 326 meters in length, gray-scaled across its entire body with a pair of wings spanning its back, it boasts an average flight speed of 1,130 meters per second and has been confirmed to be a mutant fierce beast above the Lord rank.
"At Manila Bay, it whipped up a tsunami that submerged nearly half the city, devouring over twenty thousand people. Countless residences collapsed, structures were devastated, and more than a million people were displaced, facing severe food shortages. The government of Feilü Country has formally petitioned nations worldwide for humanitarian aid—
"After departing Manila City, the Twin-Winged Giant Dragon flew straight toward Tianhai City in the Great Yan Federation (satellite_map.jpg). At an altitude over waters roughly 280 kilometers from Tianhai City, the Great Yan Federation launched five nuclear bombs at it. While none scored a direct hit, the beast was wounded and dove into the ocean, vanishing without a trace—"
Beneath this report were two attached videos: the first depicted the Twin-Winged Giant Dragon appearing over Manila Bay, unleashing the tsunami and devouring humans, while the second captured the nuclear bombardment targeting the dragon.
Huang Tian opened the first video first. After watching it, he clicked the second. Above the boundless ocean, a gray dragon over three hundred meters long cleaved through the air.
Its colossal form spanned the space between sea and sky, scales gleaming under the daylight. Every twist and roll whipped up gale-force winds, churning heavy clouds!
Abruptly, five points of light streaked across the horizon!
They traveled at astonishing speed, resembling falling meteors!
Evident confusion appeared in the dragon's eyes. It faintly sensed a thread of danger from those five points of light. After a fleeting hesitation, an instinctive unease prompted it to beat its wings and veer aside.
By then, the five lights had closed the distance, erupting violently!
*Rumble, rumble, boom!*
Five fireballs rose in unison, sending black-and-red mushroom clouds soaring into the heavens. A stupendous shockwave expanded wildly in every direction. Hurricanes churned across the ocean, pressing a gargantuan depression several kilometers across into the sea's surface.
Countless tons of seawater vaporized instantly. Blinding white steam mingled with raging fire, as if that entire sector of the sea had been brought to a furious boil!
At the very instant the five nuclear bombs detonated, the Twin-Winged Giant Dragon managed to evade the epicenter, yet it was still battered by the shockwave. A gaping wound dozens of meters long tore open across its flank and belly, leaving mangled flesh and blood. Scales across the rest of its body were stripped away by the blast, leaving it drenched in blood, and even its wings burst with splatters of gore.
*Roar!*
Pained and enraged, it bellowed toward the direction from which the nuclear bombs had come, its roar brimming with towering fury.
Yet whether owing to the gravity of its injuries or lingering fear, it did not retaliate. Sweeping its tail through midair, it plunged into the ocean below, throwing up a wall of water hundreds of meters high.
By the time the waves crashed back onto the surface, nothing remained but churning foam and the glittering rays of the setting sun—
The video ended there, while the comment section below was seething.
"Not even nuclear bombs could kill it?! Why is there such a monster in this world?"
"No, they actually can kill it. It just happened to dodge the blast center, which is why it survived."
"Having suffered once, it won't fall for it a second time. Next time it spots nuclear warheads flying in, it will pull away decisively. With its speed, it can almost certainly outmaneuver nuclear strikes. Sigh..."
"Hard to say. What if a blanket bombardment of hundreds of nuclear bombs were launched? Surely that would blow it to pieces?"
"Who knows? Never been tested. Nobody can answer that... What truly terrifies me is that this Twin-Winged Giant Dragon is merely the first beast above the Lord rank to reveal itself. Does that mean there's a second? A third?"
"Sigh, these mutant beasts are evolving way too fast, faster than if they were pumped full of hormones. It's utterly absurd."
"Don't panic too much. When the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up. If beasts can evolve, so can humanity. Over the past few days, plenty of martial artists have emerged around the globe, and their strength isn't inferior to beasts of the same tier."
"Difficult, so difficult. Human evolution is too slow. The fastest is only Boss Huang Tian. Even he is currently just a War General rank martial artist. Strong as he is—where ordinary beast generals can't withstand a slash or two from him—he'd still struggle against a Lord-rank beast, let alone a beast of the Twin-Winged Giant Dragon's caliber..."
Browsing through the comments, Huang Tian found that most were grim and pessimistic. Before the Great Change, humanity had revered nuclear weapons as the ultimate weapon and the sword of civilization. Yet now, five nuclear warheads had failed to kill a single mutant beast. When the ultimate weapon ceased to be ultimate, the shock it dealt to people's minds was unimaginable.
Pessimism and despair were inevitable.
In fact, had Huang Tian not created the Spiritual Energy Guidance Technique and pushed open the doorway to human evolution, humanity would be far more desperate.
Shaking his head, he switched off the phone and stood. He retrieved the eight spirit plants he had gathered from the Mangyuan Mountains, sat cross-legged, and ingested one of the exotic fruits. Boundless spiritual energy dissolved within his abdomen, surging through his limbs and bones.
*Inhale... exhale...*
Deep, steady breathing echoed through the room.
In the blink of an eye, a day and a half slipped by. He had refined all eight spirit plants, yet fell just shy of perfecting the first rank. Right around then, Yang Qiu happened to drive to Wuping from Shangyuan City, delivering the five now-mature, ice-blue exotic flowers.
Swallowing a small petal from the first flower, Huang Tian realized its primary effect was calming the mind and steadying the spirit rather than expanding spiritual energy. Still, it hardly mattered; refining it was still more efficient than absorbing spiritual energy directly from the void.
Without hesitation, Huang Tian consumed the entire flower, followed by the second and the third.
Another day passed. In the morning, beneath a warm, high sun, he finally refined the fourth flower. Suddenly, his sea of consciousness trembled as numerous mist-like currents converged, eventually condensing into a small orb of light.
The moment the light orb formed, his body underwent a swift metamorphosis. Blood boiled, bones and tendons were reforged, and every organ was thoroughly cleansed, suffusing him with an immense sense of power.
"A breakthrough—the second rank!" With a smile on his face, a brilliant golden light flashed across his eyes. "And beyond the breakthrough, I've crossed into the threshold of a new Law—the Metal Law!"
Fire! Metal!
Having stepped into both Laws, joy welled up inside him. He rose, strapped his war saber to his back, and exited the room.
"Director Huang!"
"Director!"
Several guesthouse staff members greeted him warmly as they caught sight of him, their eyes laced with curiosity and reverence. Huang Tian responded with a smile. Reaching the lobby, he spotted Yang Qiu and Xiao Wu seated on the sofa.
Hearing footsteps, the two turned. Seeing Huang Tian, they stood up immediately. "Director, you're out of seclusion?"
Huang Tian nodded. "Is there an open area around here?"
"I know one! There's a fairly large basketball court behind the guesthouse," Xiao Wu answered eagerly. "It's spacious, and no one's been using it these days."
Yang Qiu glanced sideways at Xiao Wu but said nothing.
Huang Tian nodded, looked at Yang Qiu, and instructed, "Bring the livestream equipment."
Yang Qiu perked up. "Right away!" He dashed off to his room to fetch the gear.
When he returned, the three walked together to the basketball court, arriving after only a short stroll.
Standing on the open court, Yang Qiu powered on the camera and launched the livestream. The stream title remained plain and simple—just two words: [Huang Tian]. The effect, however, was staggering; every passing second brought waves of viewers flooding in.
"The boss is streaming again? Last time was sweeping through the Mangyuan Mountains. Is something big happening today?"
"Disciple of Divine Huang checking in!"
"Hold on, bro, since when are you his disciple? Never heard of him taking apprentices!"
"I learned the boss's Spiritual Energy Guidance Technique and Triple-Wave Saber. How does that not make me a disciple?"
"Lol, by that logic, the entire world belongs to Divine Huang's school..."
Amidst the storm of bullet comments, Huang Tian faced the lens with a faint smile. "I started this livestream to announce two pieces of news. The first is good news: I've made a breakthrough. By the Federation's ranking system, that puts me in the War God realm."
*War God?!*
The bullet comments froze for an instant before rolling past at blinding speed.
"Ahhh?! Did I hear that right? War God? It's only been a few days!"
"With Divine Huang's status, he wouldn't lie just to troll us, which means—HOLY CRAP, HOLY CRAP!"
"Absurd, defying the heavens! I can't even find other words for it! There are barely any Warrior-rank martial artists in the world, not a single War General, and most ordinary folks haven't even mastered the guidance technique, yet the big boss has already broken through to War God—"
"'God' is just one word, and I'll only say it once—in short, if it's him, I'd eat him right up!"
"Bah, you only deserve to eat poop~ That's my husband, and if anyone's eating him it's me, *slurp*~"
Pausing briefly, Huang Tian continued, "Now for the second piece of news. This is also good news. During the three days I spent clearing the Mangyuan Mountains, I killed countless mutant fierce beasts and gained fresh insights, creating two secret techniques. One is for defense, the other for offense. So long as you master them, slaying several beasts of the same rank will be well within your reach."
With that, he drew his war saber and swung it at a measured pace, shifting his footwork fluidly. "This saber technique is named 'Hanging Cloud.' When clouds hang low, rain falls; when the umbrella opens, the self finds peace. It is a saber of defense."
As he spoke, the saber momentum began to circulate, appearing increasingly swift yet rolling steadily forward like a grindstone, force winding and wrapping in an unbroken flow.
Blade light coiled around his body layer upon layer, unfolding like an unrolling mat, gently enfolding his figure so seamlessly that not a single gap remained.
Even if a downpour were to crash down, the moment it reached three feet before him, it would be softly diverted by that continuous, circular intent, without a single drop touching his clothes.
After demonstrating the form, his style shifted abruptly, the saber technique turning fierce, sharp, and blindingly fast. "This saber technique is called 'Severing Flow,' an offensive saber of slaughter.
"The Triple-Wave Saber I taught previously relied primarily on exertion mechanics to exert force beyond one's own limits. Uniting the three waves into one allows a strike of double the power.
"This saber technique, however, has nothing to do with exertion mechanics. It is tied to spiritual energy. It condenses the surging spiritual energy within the body into a single strike, then unleashes it with thunderous force—parting rivers and severing currents!"
As his words drifted through the air, his footwork shifted and the blade light gleamed like snow. In an instant, he had delivered over a hundred strikes. Piercing shrieks tore through the air, carrying a chilling bite.
Suddenly, he turned his saber. Spiritual energy within him surged forth like a river bursting its banks, bursting out along with the war saber!
*Clang!*
A blade aura hundreds of meters long erupted from the edge!
Condensed as if tangible, shining with snowy radiance, the blade aura shot skyward. Everywhere it passed, the air detonated with sharp cracks, parting currents in tumbling waves!
The blade aura only began to dissipate once it reached over a thousand meters into the sky, yet its residual power continued to roil through the wind, setting the trees around the basketball court rustling loudly.
Witnessing this spectacle, Yang Qiu, Xiao Wu, and every viewer watching the livestream were left struck dumb, their hearts surging with overwhelming awe.
"Is this... the power of a War God?!"
Chapter 264