Ian's ten-thousand-foot Heavenly Law, Earthly Manifestation form looked down upon the broken earth. His golden armor shimmered with a majesty as deep as an abyss, making the writhing, ten-thousand-meter monster at his feet appear tiny. His expression was stony, his brows furrowed in a glare, and the infinite divine light of the third eye at the center of his brow flickered as he peered down at the hideous beast.
"What manner of demon is this! How dare you run wild in this place! Since you have dared to come, your death is a matter of justice!"
Ian lifted his right foot and slammed his war boot down. The air vibrated as terrifying pressure blanketed an area of several hundred miles. The moment he stepped down, the earth exploded, cracks spreading like a giant spiderweb, and a shockwave instantly swept across a hundred-mile radius.
The middle section of the monster's massive body was pinned beneath his foot; its supposedly indestructible carapace shattered as easily as if it were made of paper. Piercing shrieks echoed throughout Kyoto as blue blood geysered out, flowing into the earth along the fissures. The moment the blood touched the ground, the surfaces of Kyoto's remaining buildings began to show signs of corrosion.
Before the live broadcast screens, countless viewers held their breath, their eyes glued to the monitors.
Suddenly, the severed part of the monster surged. The wound healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the hard shell re-solidified. Its body recovered rapidly, twisting its ten-thousand-meter length to coil around Ian's right leg like a high-speed ring. Sharp fangs bit down mercilessly on the golden armor, but the indestructible divine mail remained unmoved.
"An ant trying to shake a tree. A mere insect, yet you dare soil my garments!"
Ian's voice exploded like heavenly thunder, deafeningly loud. Humans within a radius of thousands of kilometers could hear it clearly. Inside the United States military's satellite monitoring center, high-ranking officers turned pale. Coffee cups crashed to the floor, but no one paid them any attention.
A flash of disdain crossed Ian's face as he reached out and grabbed the monster's spined neck with his bare hands. The sharp, hideous horns shattered in an instant. In his hands, that ten-thousand-meter-long behemoth seemed like nothing more than a common little worm. He lifted the monster casually and gave it a powerful toss; the massive body streaked across the sky, kicking up sonic boom clouds.
Inside the PPDC headquarters, every staff member in front of a monitoring screen was dumbstruck.
"He's so huge, how can his movements be so agile?" a foreign staff member asked, failing to understand. Weren't the Titans of their myths massive but slow?
A Huaxia staff member nearby smiled. 'I see you truly understand nothing! This is the divine ability Heavenly Law, Earthly Manifestation. Not only do the movements not slow down, they might even become stronger.'
Before the monster could even hit the ground, Ian had already teleported to the landing point, moving faster than the eye could track. A giant fist smashed down head-on, glowing with golden light as if a meteorite had struck the earth. The monster's head vanished instantly, blue blood splattering everywhere.
To everyone's shock, however, the severed head restored itself to its original state within seconds. The creature displayed its startling regenerative abilities once again. The United States military experts watching the battle turned ashen, their hands trembling slightly.
"That is a god. If he wanted to destroy us, no one could stop him."
Inside the emergency conference room of the United States Department of Defense, high-level generals from every branch were terrified, cold sweat soaking their uniforms.
Five-star General MacArthur said, "The moment I saw the silhouette of this giant on the battlefield, I knew this war was over!"
Ian grabbed the monster's tail, displaying power beyond imagination as he swung the ten-thousand-meter-long body like a whip. He slammed the monster hard against the ground; all of Kyoto shook, distant mountain ranges crumbled, and seawater began to flow backward. He then hurled the monster toward the sky, teleporting tens of thousands of meters up to reappear and punch the monster back down to earth. Dust billowed into the sky as a massive crater appeared on the surface.
In the densely populated Japanese shelters, countless people witnessed this. Some wept aloud, while others knelt in pious prayer.
"There really is a god. A god truly exists."
"God-sama has come to save us!"
"The deity has three eyes; this must be our deity—Aizen Myo-o!"
"Yes! That's right, it must be so!" More and more Japanese people chimed in.
Suddenly, the monster landed right on top of a shelter, causing it to collapse. Seeing the little things in front of it crying and running around in a panic, the monster directly gobbled up a few mouthfuls.
Having supplemented itself slightly, the monster suddenly spat a blinding blue ray from its mouth—a high-energy beam capable of destroying an entire city. The energy beam struck Ian directly in the chest, but he didn't even knit his brows.
"Damned insect! You dare spit at a god!?"
"Insulting the divine! I sentence you to death!"
Ian's cold voice echoed above the clouds, sounding not like a statement to the monster, but a declaration to every being watching the fight.
In the high-level observation station of the Precursor home planet, the Precursors in collective neural linkage felt an unprecedented, strange sensation. 'Is this fear? Surely not. It's a joke; how could beings as strong as us feel fear?' the people of the Precursor civilization thought to themselves.
On every major global live streaming platform, the chat was a dense thicket of messages, mostly consisting of unbelievable awe and pious prayers.
"Erlang Shen protect Huaxia!"
"A deity has descended to save humanity!"
"We're saved!"
In the New York Stock Exchange, stock prices plunged like a cliff; stocks related to defense industries and Jaeger construction nearly collapsed. Meanwhile, religious stocks soared!
The heads of state from around the world held an emergency online meeting, the shock on their faces impossible to hide.
"This power will completely change the world order. We are utterly unprepared for this."
The President of the United States frowned deeply. "If he stands on the side of Huaxia, the global landscape will be completely rewritten."
Amidst the chaos, the Huaxia representative remained unusually calm. "That deity is the Celestial God of Justice in mythology. If you all follow the rules, he likely won't settle scores with you."
Hearing this, the high-level officials of various nations became even more afraid...
Inside the Precursor monitoring room, the high-caste members were almost driven mad with excitement. They were collecting massive amounts of combat data through the neural link with the monster.
"Collect more data at all costs! The genetic value of this organism is immeasurable!"
"Detonate the monster to test his defensive capabilities!" The Precursors decided to activate the monster's self-destruct sequence to gather more data during the explosion.
An ominous blue light began to emanate from within the monster, and its entire body swelled up like a balloon. Ian's cold eyes revealed disdain; he had long since seen through this low-level trick.
"Noisy."
His right hand grabbed the monster's head like a lightning strike, while his left hand held down its body. With an eruption of immense force, he ripped the head clean off. Blue blood erupted, forming a thousand-meter-high pillar of gore.
Ian opened his mouth and swallowed the monster's head, giving it a couple of casual chews before gulping it down. The self-destruct sequence inside the monster was forcibly interrupted; the Precursors' plan had failed.
After eating the head, Ian noticed the escape pod made of special materials inside. He casually spat it out. A wisp of a breeze carried them gently down to the ground. This was the mercy granted by a deity.
The escape pod popped open. Facing this god, the stunned pilots didn't even have the courage to open their mouths to say thank you. They knelt on both knees, thanking the deity for their salvation.
Ian's gaze looked out toward the stars; he could feel the prying eyes of the Precursor civilization.
This was all far from over.