[039] A Grain of Meteor

11:50 AM. Yu Xian and Qingniao sat together inside the bubble, gazing from afar at the emerald mountains ahead. There were ten minutes left before the operation began. Both were fully prepared for battle; now it all came down to how General Zhao Yi would break open the situation. "Qingniao, what is General Zhao's ability?" Yu Xian asked curiously. Qingniao shook her head. "No idea. For higher-ups at Dragon-rank and above, abilities are classified matters. Even if someone knows, they aren't allowed to say." Then she recalled something amusing and couldn't help chuckling. Looking into the distance, she said, "Supposedly a long time ago, the powerhouses from the island nation loved showing off their abilities in combat, even going out of their way to kindly explain the principles behind them to their opponents. As a result, other nations conducted targeted research on them later, killing off a large number of their Transcendents before they finally learned their lesson and stopped casually leaking intelligence on themselves." "..." Yu Xian's expression turned odd upon hearing that, and in the end, he burst out laughing. That really was somewhat hilarious. Amid their lighthearted banter, the time finally reached twelve o'clock. Suddenly, both noticed an extra figure in the sky. He stood high above in the upper atmosphere, his not-particularly-burly frame radiating an indescribable aura. "It's finally starting," Qingniao muttered to herself, watching that imposing silhouette. Yu Xian looked up and asked, "That's General Zhao?" "Yeah. Watch closely—what comes next isn't something you see often," Qingniao nodded, her tone turning solemn. In the distant sky, Zhao Yi stood atop an atom, quietly looking down at the mountains below. His ability was extraordinarily unique, known as "Reference Frame of Micro and Macro." Just as he could tread upon a single atom, he could also grant small things the properties of something vast, or bestow the attributes of the tiny upon large objects. In essence, he could not literally make things larger or smaller, but in practice, he could imbue objects with the characteristics of being relatively massive or relatively minute. "A grain of meteor!" With a gentle flick of his finger, a speck of dust in the air plunged toward the earth. The moment the dust struck the ground, the entire world seemed to lose all sound. The earth collapsed inward layer by layer, followed by a blinding, terrifying white glare, immediately after which a shockwave erupted. The scene looked just like a colossal meteorite slamming into the Earth. The surrounding mountains were directly obliterated into ash, and countless living creatures dissolved into wisps of smoke within the brilliance, leaving behind only pitch-black silhouettes. A mushroom cloud slowly billowed upward. Not long after seeing the light, Yu Xian felt a wild gale blast past, causing subtle ripples across the bubble's energy membrane. One had to realize that they were actually an enormous distance away; being able to see General Zhao Yi at all was solely due to both of their ridiculously sharp eyesight. After the first shockwave passed, a second and third followed in rapid succession. In a mere half hour, the topography within the entire cordon zone underwent a fundamental transformation. Billowing black smoke soared into the sky, the landscape lay in utter ruins, and across the cratered, uneven ground, boiling magma churned everywhere. Without question, once the magma cooled and a torrential downpour arrived, a massive lake would be born here. Although Yu Xian had prepared himself mentally, he was still left dumbstruck by the exaggerated spectacle before his eyes. He hadn't even clearly seen how Zhao Yi attacked, completely unable to fathom General Zhao's ability. Judging by the cratering of the earth, something had definitely struck the ground, yet he hadn't detected a thing. Just what kind of ability was that? Yu Xian was certain that against an ability whose attack trajectory he couldn't even perceive, there was no way to counter it other than relying on defensive abilities to endure it head-on. In other words, against a powerhouse like Zhao Yi, he had absolutely zero chance of winning. "Is this Dragon-rank?" Yu Xian muttered to himself as he took in the sight before him. Beside him, Qingniao snapped out of her daze and said, "No, General Zhao Yi didn't go all out. After all, this is our homeland—he couldn't bear to cause too much devastation." "How do you know?" Yu Xian asked curiously. Qingniao smiled. "Classified. All right, time for us to get to work too." Below, numerous wild animals were fleeing frantically. Their location hadn't been within Zhao Yi's strike zone, allowing them to survive, but having been terrified out of their wits, they had instinctively begun to run. Unfortunately, this operation permitted no living survivors, so they were doomed to have no way out. "Let me handle it. I happen to have a little idea," Yu Xian said to Qingniao, watching the wildlife surge over the ridge and race in their direction. He reached a hand outside the bubble. Then, numerous tiny bubbles emerged continuously from his fingertips. Iridescent and gorgeous, they seemed dreamy and ethereal beneath the sunlight. After generating a vast swarm of bubbles, he directed them all to move swiftly toward the ground. On the ground, wild boars, leopards, wolves, snakes, tigers, squirrels, herds of deer, pheasants, bison, and rats stampeded in panic; predators and prey even ran side by side. Suddenly, a large cluster of bubbles descended from the sky, coming to a halt directly in front of the animals. Before many of the beasts could even realize what was happening, their bodies tilted and collapsed to the earth, only to be trampled to death by the rest of the stampede. Yu Xian had anchored the vast majority of the bubbles in place along the animals' inevitable path of flight, functioning on the same principle as a speeding motorcyclist whose neck would be sliced if they ran into a piano wire. Those fallen animals had actually crashed into the bubbles themselves. Because the bubbles were fixed at those spatial coordinates, so long as something was not harder than their energy membrane, slamming into them meant certain death. However, some smaller, low-slung creatures did not collide with the bubbles. So, Yu Xian manipulated a single bubble to weave continuously through these critters; rats, snakes, and squirrels all dropped one after another, their bodies pierced with small bloody holes as if struck by bullets. "Salty Fish, your ability... is terrifying," Qingniao couldn't help exclaiming as she watched hundreds of beasts below wiped out in just seconds. She simulated a battle between herself and Yu Xian in her mind, only to realize in despair that even if she used every trick in her arsenal, she likely wouldn't be a match for him. These spatial bubbles alone were enough to place Yu Xian in an invincible position against her. Of course, the main reason was that her offensive power was still far from reaching Eagle rank. If it attained Eagle rank, she might have a chance to contend with Yu Xian. Below Eagle rank, unless someone possessed a top-tier ability like the Pangu Herculean Divine Ability, fighting Yu Xian was practically courting death. Hearing Qingniao's words and looking at the gigantic crater in the distance, Yu Xian said modestly, "It's all right, I suppose. Compared to General Zhao Yi's ability, mine is nothing at all." "..." Qingniao rolled her eyes at him, not finding him modest at all, but rather thinking he was humblebragging. Just then, a loud boom suddenly erupted not far away. Both looked toward the direction of the noise. "Teammates are fighting." Qingniao's eyesight was sharper than Yu Xian's, and she instantly spotted a burly, ferocious, red-skinned monster relentlessly pursuing and attacking two operatives. However, those two were not members of the Evil-Slaying Squad, but likely belonged to another squad.