Boom!
A deafening explosion echoed from the other side of the street.
The sound jolted the stunned crowd, scattering them like frightened birds in all directions.
"Get down!"
Wang Xian turned and immediately pulled the dazed Ye Miyue to the inner side of the subway station.
A tremor, akin to an earthquake, followed shortly after.
After a long while, when the commotion finally subsided,
the two slowly rose from the dust-covered ground.
As soon as they stood up,
"Hiss—!"
Intense gasps began to ripple through the surroundings.
When Ye Miyue looked toward the scene across the street, she couldn't help but cover her mouth, her eyes widening in shock.
The ion defense shield above the city had been pierced with several gaping holes.
The bustling commercial street just over ten meters away was now a pile of ruins.
Even more terrifying was the eerie silence that followed.
The guardrail in the center of the road served as a stark dividing line.
One side was paradise; the other, hell.
Amid the ruins lay several blood-red feathers, each resembling a soul-reaping blade.
The mere aftermath of these feathers had instantly turned an entire street into rubble.
Almost no survivors remained.
"The reports from my past life only mentioned thousands of casualties..."
Wang Xian fell silent.
Thousands...
One thousand was thousands.
But so was nine thousand.
At that moment,
the speakers outside the shops and the giant billboard on the central building suddenly changed:
"Attention! Attention! This is the Rongcheng Defense Security Bureau. An emergency notice is now in effect: Our city has been attacked by an S-Class Mutant Beast. A temporary state of emergency has been declared. Citizens near Tianfu District, Hongxing District, Donglai Plaza, and surrounding areas, please proceed to the nearest bomb shelters immediately..."
"Grandmaster Bai Hongtian has already engaged the enemy. Citizens are advised to remain calm..."
"Martial artists below the third realm should not attempt rescue operations in disaster zones to avoid secondary injuries..."
"Fire rescue teams, defense special forces, and ambulances will arrive at the affected areas within half an hour..."
The crowd on the street snapped out of their daze and quickly formed orderly lines, moving toward the nearby bomb shelters.
Wang Xian glanced at Ye Miyue, who was unharmed, and let out a sigh of relief.
Suddenly,
someone in the line shouted,
"Look! There seems to be someone still alive in the ruins..."
Everyone turned to look.
Sure enough, a small figure was seen curled up on the third-floor balcony of a collapsed shopping mall.
The balcony, isolated and surrounded by raging flames and billowing smoke, was barely holding together.
The person who spoke was clearly a martial artist with exceptional eyesight.
"It looks like a child..."
The once-orderly line came to a halt, buzzing with chatter.
Yet, no one stepped forward.
"Is there no one here above the third realm?" someone asked.
The chatter immediately died down, replaced by an awkward silence.
Then, a woman in the crowd turned to the burly man beside her and asked,
"Brother Xiong, won't you try to save that child?"
"You just need to climb over that guardrail, rush over, jump onto the balcony, and carry the child down... It wouldn't take long, right?"
As she spoke, she glanced at the guardrail in the center of the road.
Climbing over it would be easy.
All eyes turned to the man.
The burly man's expression stiffened, and he frowned.
"Save who? We're just ordinary citizens. Let's follow the broadcast instructions and not cause trouble for the authorities."
"Do you even know what that place is?"
He pointed to the ruins.
"S-Class Mutant Beasts emit natural energy fields. Even their fallen feathers radiate immense pressure and release a special 'malignant aura.' If this aura enters your body, it can corrode a martial artist's physique and drive them mad..."
"Without specialized combat gear and spiritual equipment, and while enduring the mental pressure, you have no idea how dangerous it is over there!"
"And if a few more feathers fall, you could die on the spot!"
"The broadcast clearly said martial artists below the third realm shouldn't attempt rescues..."
Before he could finish, the woman whispered,
"But aren't you a third-realm martial artist?"
The man paused, then replied calmly,
"My life force is at 989 points. It hasn't reached 1,000, so I'm not a third-realm martial artist."
In the martial arts world, realms are determined by life force.
The higher the life force, the stronger the overall capabilities.
The threshold for an entry-level martial artist is 10 points.
Second realm: 100 points. Third realm: 1,000 points...
"But didn't you already pass the third-realm martial artist exam?" the woman asked, her eyes filled with hope.
The man's face turned red, and he barked,
"If I die, what will happen to you all? Let's go!"
The woman was stunned and fell silent.
"Your husband is right. We shouldn't interfere..."
"Yeah, going now would just cause more trouble..."
"Rescues like this require professional teams..."
"Exactly, the broadcast said help would arrive within half an hour. They might already be on their way..."
The crowd chimed in,
as if comforting the man and woman, or perhaps reassuring themselves.
Yet, as they looked at the guardrail in the center of the road,
their voices grew softer.
Deep down, everyone knew that a child couldn't possibly hold on for half an hour.
Life could slip away in mere moments.
But they weren't wrong.
There were indeed third-realm martial artists among them.
That guardrail was easy to cross.
Yet,
the moment the S-Class Mutant Beast appeared, it had drained everyone's courage.
The guardrail was only a meter tall, but the wall of fear in their hearts was insurmountable.
Ye Miyue tightly gripped Wang Xian's sleeve.
She bit her lip lightly, her gaze lingering on the ruins, lost in thought.
That was the street she often took on her way home...
If only she had arrived a little earlier...
Suddenly, the sleeve slipped from her grasp.
She turned to see Wang Xian had stopped and stepped out of the line, facing forward.
Ye Miyue's heart skipped a beat. She quickly grabbed Wang Xian's arm with both hands and pleaded,
"Wang... Wang Xian, what are you doing?"
"What do you think?" Wang Xian replied, his eyes fixed ahead.
"Don't be reckless..." Ye Miyue's heart raced as she tightened her grip. "This isn't something we can help with. I won't let you do something so foolish!"
"This isn't like saving someone from drowning..."
Even third-realm martial artists wouldn't dare... Ye Miyue had never even considered such a thing.
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
Wang Xian flashed a confident smile.
Ye Miyue was momentarily stunned but still didn't let go.
Seeing this, Wang Xian didn't force his way free. Instead, he spoke slowly,
"Ye Miyue, tell me, who am I?"
Ye Miyue was caught off guard by the question and stammered,
"You're Wang Xian... a student at Rongcheng Martial Arts High..."
Wang Xian shook his head. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
Unfolding it, he pointed to the heroic figure drawn on it and grinned.
"I am the future Martial God!"
As the words left his mouth,
Ye Miyue's eyes widened in shock. She stared at the drawing, overwhelmed with emotions, unable to speak.
Her hands loosened their grip.
"As the future protector of humanity, the guardian of our homeland..."
Wang Xian handed the drawing to Ye Miyue and slowly removed his jacket. "If I turn a blind eye to those in need, if I cower in the face of beasts..."
He paused, locking eyes with Ye Miyue, who avoided his gaze.
"Then I would be betraying the person who drew this for me..."
"Could I still become the Martial God?"
Ye Miyue lowered her head, her cheeks flushed.
"Hold onto this."
Wang Xian placed the drawing in her hands.
"Why... why are you giving this to me?" Ye Miyue instinctively released his arm and accepted the paper.
"Keep it safe for me. When I return, give it back to me."
With that, Wang Xian tossed his jacket aside and dashed forward.
In a single leap, he vaulted over the meter-high guardrail.
From paradise, he stepped into hell.
And in doing so, he shattered the wall of fear in everyone's hearts.
Ye Miyue...
I save you because I am Wang Xian.
I save others because...
I was once the first half-step Martial God of the Old Martial Arts, reaching the eighth realm in the history of Blue Star!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
