Chapter 79 One Millimeter
“Boom——!”
The thunder that shook the heavens and the earth echoed, as if announcing something to all living beings under this sky, instantly capturing the attention of all spiritual ability users and urban legends around Shancheng.
They did not dare to look directly, only able to glance or look to the sky through external objects.
But there are always those who do not believe in omens and insist on taking a look, only to be dazzled and temporarily blinded.
The first flash of lightning seemed to scout and probe, cutting through the sky before scattering a myriad of tiny arcs of electricity that were difficult to perceive with the n*ked eye, quickly swallowed by the night and thick fog.
In an instant, the tops of skyscrapers within a several-kilometer radius flickered with electric lights, crackling.
Even the fine rain falling gently was imbued with the power of lightning, shimmering with a deep blue glow.
Perhaps fearing the majesty of the lightning, the thick fog enveloping Shancheng rapidly dissipated and drifted away.
Realizing something was wrong, the Haze God was already preparing to make a run for it.
At this juncture, it cared little for the minuscule opportunity to devour the core of the urban legend that was its progeny; its own life was always more important than the enhancement of power.
However, even faster than its escape was Jumeng.
As the storm dispersed, flocks of magpies, led by one particularly brilliant and resplendent magpie, flew straight toward the city edge, just like animals sensing an impending disaster, migrating early to leave a troublesome place.
Following closely, the scattered tiny arcs of electricity were drawn by some power, darting through the air like a school of piranhas smelling bl**d, agilely converging beside a massive shadow looming over the Jiaochangkou subway station.
As if some deity were using thunder as ink, drawing dragons and snakes, arcs of electricity swiftly etched out a swirling sigil upon the body of that huge shadow.
As the sigil condensed into shape, an elder thousands of miles away exhaled a mouthful of turbid air.
Target locked.
The lightning, solid as if it were substance, flew from the horizon as if slicing through fabric, leaving a mark of several kilometers across the dark sky, thick with clouds and fog.
In the next moment, a bolt of thunder crashed down from above, and the world was instantly swallowed by a pale silence.
Only the mournful cries of that immense shadow erupted, sending waves of sound rippling outward.
In that moment, it seemed as if thousands of people were simultaneously crying out in voice—some lamenting, some screaming, some weeping, as if the apocalypse had arrived.
Upon its vast body, deep and gruesome scars manifested, as if something had been obliterated in an instant; terrifying radiant light burst forth from those wounds, floating in the air like a dazzling galaxy.
Every star in that galaxy was violently trembling, emanating chaotic and ominous spiritual energy fluctuations, plunging the surroundings into an oppressive atmosphere akin to the end of the world.
Yet the blue-purple lightning, after striking its target, did not dissipate but instead poured into the massive shadow’s body, continuing to wreak havoc. Under the cover of darkness, explosions erupted unceasingly, tearing at the colossal form, accompanied by a sound like a steam whistle, emitting pale shock waves.
In various legends, thunder as a phenomenon of nature is often seen as a symbol of judgment, divine punishment, and calamity; before thunder, all things are equal, even cataclysm-grade urban legends share only one fate—destruction!
——————
On the rooftop of Shancheng 101.
Once the second flash of thunder gradually faded away, the Void finally mustered up the courage to look up at the sky above Jiaochangkou subway station, unable to help but sigh.
“Is this the power of Zixiao Terrace? This doesn’t look like it’s even at maximum output? Hmm, perhaps it could even be overclocked…”
The Zixiao Terrace, constructed from the most favored spiritual energy items of the past sages of Dachunyang Palace, already harnessed tremendous strength, under the control of the highly compatible spiritual patterns of its leader.
According to the limited information known to the Void, if the Zixiao Terrace were to output at full capacity, it might only take one blow to severely injure a cataclysm-grade being like the Haze God.
The previously appeared Pink Fluffy Rabbit, if it weren’t for its dormant core not existing in reality, leading to the Zixiao Terrace being unable to effectively lock on and strike, dealing with it wouldn’t have been so troublesome. Perhaps only that one figure from Dachunyang Palace could have resolved the crisis.
Of course, the powers of the Pink Fluffy Rabbit might corrupt the spiritual energy items within the Zixiao Terrace, which was also a significant reason why that figure did not utilize the Zixiao Terrace.
Now, since that massive shadow could still stand there, he felt it was likely due to the fact that the target was located at the city center, necessitating that figure from Dachunyang Palace to reduce power for precise targeting.
In fact, the existing high-level urban legends, despite possessing strong abilities, still fear the Siye Society not entirely because of the presence of the guardians, but also because the Siye Society controls super-specification large-scale spiritual energy items like the Zixiao Terrace and the Tonggong.
After all, if the guardians cannot fight back, they can at least flee, but those super-specification large-scale spiritual energy items need no one to appear to strike.
Once identified by the Siye Society as dangerous factors that must be eliminated at all costs, what awaits is the terrifying circumstance of potentially being struck by thunderstorms or shot through with arrows at any moment.
Though activating those super-specification large-scale spiritual energy items places a tremendous burden on the operator, from exhaustion of spiritual energy to severe backlash, no one wants to be on constant guard, living in fear day in and day out!
“Tsk, so it is often the unshot weapons that are the most terrifying; this is the deterrent power of weapons…” the Void murmured, “Alright, I’ve seen enough of the commotion; it’s time to leave.”
In his view, it was a foregone conclusion that the Zixiao Terrace would k*ll that immense shadow.
And once that immense shadow was vanquished by the Zixiao Terrace, what would happen next was something he could guess with a couple of bytes of brainpower.
It would merely be that the Siye Association operatives supporting Shancheng and its surrounding areas would enter the city, arresting the Haze God’s fanatic progeny and urban legends taking advantage of the chaos, purging the Night Erosion left behind by the toxic fog around Jiaochang, and finally releasing some barely reasonable news as a cover-up.
There was nothing to watch in this, just as boring as the end credits and special thanks in a movie. If he really wanted to see it, he could wait until he returned and check through the surveillance cameras covering every corner of the city.
This is what the Void thought, yet the next scene was beyond his expectations.
He saw, after the second flash of lightning, that massive shadow twisting its enormous body, gazing skyward, appearing to ponder something as its actions briefly stalled.
For some unknown reason, staring at that immobile colossal form, a series of thoughts that did not belong to him surged through the Void’s mind as if skipping frequencies—time was up, it would leave, but in some future moment, disaster and I would meet it once again.
As he contemplated this, lost in thought, the next moment thunder roared in his ears.
“Boom——!”
With a thunderous sound, lightning fell from the sky, engulfing the night over the city, instantly shrouded in rampant light from all directions.
The gazes fixated on that massive shadow suddenly blurred.
In the next moment, the gigantic shadow, the long-fading sparks in mid-air, and the ominous spiritual energy fluctuations permeating the air simply vanished without a trace.
As if the light had been abruptly turned off, the area where the massive shadow had stood was momentarily plunged into darkness. When the fallen lightning illuminated that area, it had already quietly disappeared without a trace.
No warning, not a trace of spiritual energy disturbance left, as if it had never existed.
“How could this be?” the Void exclaimed, “How could it disappear so completely? Not a single trace left behind…”
Just when he was puzzled, feeling his processor heating up subtly, he suddenly seemed to remember something, looking up sharply to the sky.
The lightning created by the Zixiao Terrace was still falling, and after it suddenly lost its target, it seemed to possess a vague feeling of about to go out of control.
If it truly lost control…
Unfortunately, he was within the strike range.
“d*mn!”
With a low curse, without time to think, the Void turned into a stream of emerald light and dove into the fiber optic junction box, fleeing down the fiber optics without looking back.
————
For Luxianbei, while playing a game, figuring out a way to skip class by studying the game mechanics, and watching a boss that could originally k*ll her being slowly worn down by her, being both anxious and angry yet helpless, was absolutely an extremely joyful thing.
Generally speaking, to damage the Haze God’s vigorous life force, the most reasonable method would be to sever its supply of spiritual energy, that is, to destroy the gruesome network of flesh that greedily extracts spiritual energy from the earth’s atmosphere, covering the underground space of Shancheng.
However, this conventional and typical operation was beyond Luxianbei’s capability due to lack of strength. It was far too difficult to clean out all the flesh hiding the cancer-causing urban legend within Shancheng’s underground.
Even if she could do it, she wouldn’t want to go through all that trouble to torment it; how delightful it was!
Watching the Haze God’s progeny gradually being worn down by her brought her immense pleasure and led her to completely disregard the lightning in the sky.
That lightning was clearly produced by the Zixiao Terrace, and the only one capable of controlling the Zixiao Terrace for a remote strike was that old man Zhang Hainan.
Who are we to each other! Our relationship is as tight as brothers.
Could he really strike down this innocent bystander, she thought.
However, joy is often brief.
When she felt her long hair hanging down from the gaps of her helmet rise quietly, spreading out, the fine hairs on her skin beneath the armor began to stir, generating static electricity that crackled, she suddenly realized something was not quite right.
She raised her head sharply and saw the massive shadow disappearing into thin air, followed closely by a thunderous lightning bolt coming at her like a stray b*llet.
Luxianbei, “??? What the heck? What’s going on? Is that old man Zhang Hainan getting so old that he can’t aim anymore? What should I do?”
As she pondered this, the thunder light had already pierced through the dome of the underground shelter, with countless arcs of blue and purple electricity suddenly filling her vision, a branch of destruction came at her, mere millimeters away, the end of the arc was less than one millimeter from her eye…
