"Heh, heh-haha, hahahahaha..."
Suspended in midair, Edward felt surprised even by his own display. But then the corners of his mouth slowly curled up until he could no longer contain the wild ecstasy bubbling inside him, and he burst into manic laughter.
That strike just now had merely been delivered with a touch of seriousness; it was nowhere near his true limit.
If he went all out, who in this world could possibly stand in his way?
Just then, a crimson gleam flashed in his eyes. His cape swirled around him in an instant, and the Demon Cross carried him thousands of kilometers away in the blink of an eye.
At the edge of the ruins, numerous superheroes stared forward in horror. What had once been a prosperous metropolis, encircled by the towering walls of the federation, had been completely leveled to the ground. Tens of millions of lives had vanished right before their eyes—without even a single corpse left behind.
"Edward... Has he already reached the God rank?" superhero Mantis Man murmured to himself as he looked out at the devastation.
Green Titan clenched his fists. "Edward is far too powerful right now. We need to stay out of his way for the moment. Once Supreme Man advances to the God rank in the future, we'll settle the score with him."
"The God rank? Settle the score with me?"
Edward's voice rang out without warning. Before anyone could react, a flash of red light streaked past the front of the crowd and reappeared right behind them.
Green Titan's eyes widened, and he slowly looked down at his own chest.
In a split second, a beam of red light had blasted clean through his torso. The regenerative abilities he took such pride in failed to make the slightest difference. His lips parted, and he sank limply to his knees.
Everyone spun around to face Edward hovering in the air, each of them braced as if facing their mortal doom.
Looking down upon them with utter disdain, Edward said flatly, "Now, kneel and submit to me, or... die!"
He was fully capable of slaughtering every living creature on the planet at this very moment, but what good would that do him?
What he wanted was to rule this planet. He wanted to turn fifty percent of humanity into vampires, transforming them into a ceaseless source of power for himself.
As long as he maintained that equilibrium, his power would be inexhaustible.
Of course, ruling an entire planet couldn't be done entirely with his own hands; he needed lackeys, and these superheroes were exceptionally well-suited to be his dogs.
He had absolute confidence in his ability to train dogs.
After all, he had trained every member of the Blood Clan like hounds for over five hundred years, playing them like puppets in the palm of his hand right up until their deaths.
"You hellbound demon, I will never bow to you!" Mantis Man cursed, trembling as he glared furiously at Edward.
The next instant, a beam of red light shot out from the Demon Cross behind Edward, and Mantis Man was instantly reduced to only his lower half.
Edward's gaze swept over the remaining superheroes before coming to rest on Supreme Man. "Supreme Man, what about you? What is your choice? Step forward and set an example!"
"..."
Supreme Man stood among the crowd. Though the bleeding from his severed hands had stopped, he still needed at least two more hours to regenerate them completely.
Looking up at Edward hovering in the air, he waged a desperate battle within himself. He knew all too well that if he uttered the word 'no,' he would be the next one to die.
"It seems..." A look of disappointment crossed Edward's face, the crimson gleam in his pupils growing ever more vivid.
Supreme Man's heart seized. Under the looming threat of death, he quickly dropped to his knees. "I... am willing to submit!"
Despair engulfed every superhero present. Soon, more and more of them knelt in succession just to stay alive. Seeing this spectacle, Edward burst into wild laughter once more.
Meanwhile, the superheroes kneeling on the ground were as pale as ash.
Yu Xian knew the outcome was decided. Most of his eyeballs, each smaller than a speck of dust, slowly drifted shut.
The Meilong Empire was already in Edward's pocket, and before long, even the entire Earth would become his plaything.
***
Inside the Island Grotto-Heaven World.
Yu Xian sat on a beach chair, his eyes slowly opening with a heavy expression.
If he had previously lacked a concrete sense of how formidable a Star Rank combatant truly was, he certainly possessed one now.
Just then, Zhang Shou rushed over holding his phone and shouted, "Disaster! Edward has appeared—he's in the capital of the Meilong Empire!"
Hearing this, Gong Qian and the others promptly took out their phones to check. Even though Yu Xian was already fully aware of the situation, he took out his phone as well to see how much information was circulating online.
Opening the news app he usually browsed, he saw that Edward's appearance had indeed shot straight to the top of the trending list.
Yu Xian opened the video. Judging by the angle of the footage, whoever filmed it had likely been hiding inside an office building about two hundred meters away from Edward.
Evidently, that person was already dead, but they had managed to upload the video before meeting their end, allowing the public to witness it.
After watching the clip, Yu Xian felt it failed to capture the full extent of Edward's terrifying might. The moment Edward lost his temper, the surrounding glass and walls had begun cracking apart, causing the camera on the phone to malfunction.
Closing his eyes, Yu Xian edited the footage he had seen with his own senses in his mind. Once he finished piecing it together, he looked pleadingly toward Zhenwo Changjing. "Auntie, please!"
Zhenwo Changjing took no offense at Yu Xian treating her like a handy tool. So long as it did not violate her principles, she was more than happy to help him, as she also derived joy—and power—from assisting others.
With a faint smile, she tapped Yu Xian's forehead with her finger, then tapped his phone.
Yu Xian opened his local storage, and sure enough, a new video file had appeared. Delighted, he said, "Thank you, Auntie!"
He immediately sent the video to his dedicated Qilin phone, then used that device to upload the clip onto the Qilin app.
"Old Zhang, hurry and check out the video I just posted on the Qilin app!" Yu Xian called out to Zhang Shou.
Zhang Shou hurried to open the Qilin app. But after watching the video, his usual clamor died away entirely. Gong Qian and Qingniao fell silent as well. Xiong Da, who had crowded beside Zhang Shou to watch, remained comparatively calm thanks to his frequent life-and-death skirmishes out in the wilderness.
He looked at Yu Xian and asked, "Proprietor, did this Edward really intend to come here first?"
The video Yu Xian had edited opened with the eruption of red light on the Moon, followed by its voyage across outer space. Upon entering the atmosphere, its clear initial heading was Huaxia; only after discovering that Huaxia was gone did it pause briefly before veering toward the Meilong Empire.
The entire progression was crystal clear, and everyone understood what it signified.
"Edward... Sooner or later, I'm going to beat him to death!" Gong Qian fumed in anger.
Yu Xian addressed the group with a solemn expression. "Edward's hostility toward Huaxia is plain for all to see. That means we have to grow stronger as fast as possible. Before Edward figures out how to breach the Huaxia grotto-heaven, we must become stronger than him."
The Huaxia grotto-heaven was not entirely invincible.
Yu Xian didn't know whether a countermeasure existed on Earth, but he was one hundred percent certain that one could be found within the Abyss.
After all, the Art of Grotto-Heaven itself originated from the Abyss.
With Edward's immense strength, if he deliberately searched the Abyss, there was a very real possibility he could discover a way to break the Art of Grotto-Heaven. If that happened, Huaxia would be doomed beyond redemption.
And it wouldn't just be rivers of blood; it would mean the total extinction of their nation and race.
Edward harbored blatant, overwhelming malice toward Huaxia, to the point where he hadn't even bothered concealing it when descending from the Moon.
Precisely because of this, Yu Xian understood clearly that Huaxia was not safe—in fact, it had entered its most perilous hour.
Now, it all came down to whether Edward would find a way into the Huaxia grotto-heaven first, or if someone on Huaxia's side could advance to the Star Rank in time to stand against him.
Chapter 178