Suddenly, time seemed to freeze at this very moment.
The half of the city that had fallen into a deathly silence due to the Electromagnetic Pulse suddenly began to recover. First, the power supply to the PPDC Command Center was restored. Next came the Jaegers, which had been emitting sparks; the damage to their hulls repaired at high speed, their searchlights flickered on, and the pilots inside regained consciousness.
On the other side, a helicopter pilot—who had been relying on powerful reflexes and superb skill to avoid crashing—suddenly found his aircraft flying steadily back into the sky.
The global livestream resumed as well.
Billions of gazes from around the world, peering through countless screens, were frozen on a single, staggering scene.
Above the Hong Kong coastline.
The hundred-meter-tall god of war—the Emperor-class Titan transformed from the Taoist temple—stood quietly in the seawater. On the high platform atop the Titan's head, the figure in white robes and golden armor opened his eyes.
He raised a single hand and made a hollow grasping motion in front of him.
Beneath his palm, the surrounding time began to flow backward. The terrifying Electromagnetic Pulse wave released by Leatherback's deathbed struggle—enough to paralyze the electronic equipment of an entire city—was rapidly shrinking.
Then, he pinched it in his hand.
At this moment, his golden armor reflected a holy luster under the searchlights and energy glow, and his snow-white sleeves snapped loudly in the night wind.
In this instant, a single thought took root in the hearts of everyone watching the livestream: He is no mortal.
He is a deity.
The global internet exploded completely.
It wasn't the previous bickering, questioning, or mockery. It was a total, mountain-collapsing, ocean-boiling eruption of fervor.
"Holy crap! Time reversal! It's time reversal!"
"Yang Jian! He really is Yang Jian!"
"WTF! WTF! WTF!"
"God! He's really a god!"
"An Eastern deity has descended!"
"What am I seeing? He caught the EMP?!"
"My mom asked me why I'm watching the livestream on my knees!"
"Where are the people who were insulting him earlier? Why aren't you barking anymore? Scared speechless?"
"I'm sorry! Great God Yang Jian! I was blind!"
"As expected of a god of our Huaxia! He's just so handsome!"
"Weren't you just clamoring to sanction our country? Go ahead, sanction us!"
"Quick, check it—this god definitely has Korean blood in him."
In an instant, the domestic netizens who had been suppressed and insulted earlier rose up in force, but the foreign netizens were nowhere to be found in the replies.
Countless similar keywords instantly surged to the top of the trending lists on all social media and news platforms. The previous insults, doubts, and mockery were quickly deleted by authors or platforms. In their place was an overwhelming tide of shock, awe, and fanaticism—even worship and veneration.
The people of China were so excited they became incoherent, able only to vent their internal shock with the simplest of words.
"Crap! Awesome!"
At the very moment this global emotional wave reached its peak.
Ian clearly perceived surges of pure, majestic Power of Faith flowing into his body from all over the world. It was no longer the previous, insignificant trickles generated by his looks. This was power generated from the deepest, most genuine awe and belief in the hearts of billions.
The corners of his mouth curled up slightly.
Under the gaze of billions, Ian lightly squeezed the palm that held the concentrated Electromagnetic Pulse wave.
It was as if he were popping a fragile soap bubble.
Pop.
The terrifying EMP energy capable of paralyzing a modern city was utterly annihilated just like that, vanishing into nothingness as if it had never existed.
Only after doing this did Ian's gaze slowly drift downward, landing on the remains of Leatherback, which was still twitching slightly on the sea surface. This massive Category IV Kaiju now had only half a body left, its blue blood staining the nearby waters.
Ian raised his hand and made a grasping motion toward the massive wreckage from a distance.
Leatherback's mountain-like remains seemed to be decomposed by an invisible force, vanishing instantly and converting into EMC values.
Next, a laser emitter extended from the Titan's shoulder. A beam of purification light shot out; the monster blood polluting the sea vanished instantly, and even the human trash accumulated on the seabed was eliminated along with it.
On the spot, only clean, washed seawater remained, as if that terrifying monster had never appeared.
Immediately after, Ian's thought shifted slightly.
The massive, menacing Taoist temple Titan beneath his feet, filled with Gothic industrial aesthetics, let out a low roar. Light flowed across it. The gargantuan metal structure began to shrink rapidly in a way that defied the laws of physics.
Cannon ports retracted, armor plates closed, and energy conduits hid their glow.
Within a few short seconds.
That hundred-meter-tall war Titan that deterred heaven and earth had turned into a miniature model of a Taoist temple floating in his hand.
Ian reached out, tucked the model into his sleeve, and then disappeared in a flash of movement.
This scene caused the eyeballs of countless viewers—who had only just begun to calm down—to nearly pop out again. This had completely exceeded the scope of their understanding.
"Holy crap, that's a Dharma Treasure!"
"I was thinking, it's super weird for an immortal to pilot a Jaeger, right? Turns out it was a Dharma Treasure all along!"
"Oh god, did he master some kind of spatial technology? He actually put a Jaeger that big into his sleeve," a foreign netizen couldn't help but ask.
"I know this one! That's the Universe in a Sleeve!"
Meanwhile, inside the PPDC Global Supreme Command Center, the top-level leaders of various countries were connected via remote conference. The atmosphere in the meeting room was heavy to the extreme. Whether they were national representatives, top scientists, or battle-hardened generals, everyone was dead silent.
On the massive screen, the recording of what had just happened was playing.
The Taoist temple rising from the ground, transforming into a Titan, effortlessly blocking Crimson Typhoon, then defeating the Category IV Kaiju in a few moves. Then, the mysterious man behind it waving his hand to reverse time and easily extinguishing the powerful EMP. Decomposing Leatherback with a wave of his hand. And finally, the Titan turning into a model and being taken into his sleeve.
Every frame was like a heavy hammer striking everyone's heart.
"Technical department, can we analyze the Titan's materials? Structure? Energy source?"
A general from the Eagle Country was the first to break the silence, his voice dry.
The chief scientist, a grey-haired German man, shook his head with a bitter smile.
"General, we used the highest-precision scanning equipment and analyzed all the data we could capture."
"The conclusion is... incomprehensible."
"Its material composition doesn't seem to belong to any known substance on the periodic table."
"The way its structure deforms completely violates the principles of material mechanics and engineering."
"As for the energy source... aside from the energy released during its attacks and the energy generated by the work it does on the outside, we cannot detect any form of energy radiation whatsoever."
"It's like... it appeared out of nowhere, something that doesn't belong to our physical world."
Another physicist added.
"More accurately, certain characteristics it displayed violate the fundamental laws of physics."
"It couldn't be an alien too, right? This is definitely not Earth technology!"
The meeting room fell back into a deathly silence.
Non-Earth technology?
While the many nations were engaged in joint discussion, a series of continuous, faint energy fluctuations emanated once again from the portal beneath the sea.