Ian's form turned into a streak of flowing light, vanishing into the horizon in an instant, leaving behind only a battlefield scarred and broken.
Drone aerial footage spread across the global network. The once-prosperous Kyoto had not been completely wiped off the map, but very little of it remained. The city center was nearly razed to the ground; on the scorched earth, the lingering blue blood of the monsters seeped deep into the cracks, emitting a pungent, alien odor and occasionally bubbling with eerie froth. Flattened vehicles were scattered everywhere.
Amidst this vast landscape of ruins, only one building miraculously remained intact: the Huaxia embassy. It stood quietly amidst the debris, the red national flag fluttering in the dust and smoke, looking exceptionally striking. This scene was displayed before billions of viewers worldwide through live broadcast channels.
In the days that followed, the faith in Erlang Shen swept across the globe, no longer confined to Huaxia. The United States, along with various European nations, hurried to form high-level diplomatic missions. Their private jets landed at the Huaxia capital airport almost simultaneously, their goal clear: they hoped to forge some connection with this mysterious and powerful deity.
The spokesperson for the Huaxia Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded calmly to the countless camera flashes at a press conference.
"The deity has His own will and arrangements; He is not driven by mortal politics."
"He is the Celestial God of Justice. If you all abide by your duties and follow the order, you surely will not invite the wrath of God."
These words, rather than putting the nations at ease, made them even more uneasy.
...
The threat of the monsters seemed to have completely vanished following the Battle of Kyoto. The shadow that had loomed over humanity for decades temporarily dispersed, and human society restored order with startling speed.
The PPDC's Jaeger program was officially announced to be suspended indefinitely, with the reason cited as 'the current threat level has significantly decreased.' The massive funds saved were quickly funneled into reconstruction efforts around the world, as well as various aid and cooperation projects with Huaxia.
People began to widely believe that with a powerful existence like Erlang Shen protecting them, Earth was safe. The world seemed to be entering a brand-new era of prosperity.
A few days after the disaster ended.
United States, National Astronomical Observatory.
Late at night, the duty room was lit only by the faint cold glow of monitor screens. The young astronomer, Rosen, rubbed his dry eyes while performing a routine check of observation data from the space telescope. A set of data regarding Mars' orbit caught his attention. There was a deviation from the expected path, so small it was almost negligible.
'Is the equipment malfunctioning again?'
He muttered to himself, subconsciously marking the abnormal data as 'pending review' without giving it much thought. After all, a tiny disturbance of this level was usually caused by instrument error or cosmic background interference.
Three days later.
Rosen checked the data again, and his face gradually changed. The orbital deviation of Mars had not disappeared; instead, it was continuously increasing. This was no error! He immediately organized the data and reported to his superiors.
However, the response he received was, "Young man, this is just a normal deviation. Focus on your job and stop trying to make a big headline."
The superior's contempt was like a bucket of cold water dousing Rosen's passion, but it also stirred his stubbornness. Late that night, Rosen evaded the security patrols and took the risk of sneaking into the main control center of the national space telescope.
His fingers trembled as he entered the commands, pointing the lens of the Hubble telescope toward Mars. When the high-resolution image transmitted to the screen, Rosen couldn't stop shaking.
He saw a massive blue vortex slowly rotating on the desolate red surface of Mars. What made his scalp tingle even more was that the captured footage showed countless bizarre, massive shadows continuously crawling out of that blue vortex.
These creatures were conducting some sort of grand-scale construction project on the Martian surface. Countless giant components were being transported and assembled; the surface was being excavated and terraformed.
What were they building?
Rosen's mind went blank. He couldn't guess the purpose of these alien beings, but he felt an instinctive fear originating from the depths of his soul.
"Beep—Beep—Beep—"
A piercing alarm suddenly rang out. Rosen's unauthorized operation had triggered the security system. Several strong security guards rushed in and pinned him firmly to the ground.
Rosen was arrested and sent directly to the base's secret interrogation room. However, the news he brought regarding the Martian anomaly set off a massive wave. The United States urgently contacted the leaders of major global powers to open a secret meeting.
Shortly thereafter, the "Mars Observation Project" was secretly launched. In an instant, every national-level space telescope in the world capable of pointing at Mars adjusted its angle toward the increasingly ominous red planet.
The observation results confirmed Rosen's discovery, and they were even more disturbing than he had described. The progress of the engineering construction on Mars was fast beyond imagination.
News began to spread secretly among the highest decision-making levels of various nations. To avoid triggering global panic, governments chose to temporarily blockade the information. The public remained completely ignorant, still immersed in post-war reconstruction and the craze of religious faith.
Meanwhile, the suspended PPDC project was quietly restarted without any public announcement. The lights were turned back on in the dusty Jaeger bases, and the Earth United Defense Plan entered its highest level of alert.
While the heads of state accelerated war preparations, they couldn't help but pin their hopes on ethereal miracles.
"Will that deity of Huaxia take action again?"
However, accidents always happen unexpectedly.
Inside an internal work group responsible for coordinating information sharing among nations, a muddled technical official accidentally added the wrong person. A network blogger, who was not part of the core decision-making circle but was quite influential, was added to this highly classified group by mistake.
A few minutes later, a message accompanied by a blurry photo of Mars and screenshots of internal discussions appeared on the world's largest social media platform. The headline was highly provocative: "Wormhole on Mars! Endless Kaiju! The Conspiracy of the Precursor Civilization!"
This news spread like a virus. Within a few short hours, it ignited the global internet. The panic that the public had just managed to calm resurfaced. People frantically shared, commented, and speculated.
"Is this real? A wormhole on Mars?"
"It's aliens! The monsters are coming back!"
But scientists were helpless in the face of public questioning and the massive amount of data. They could confirm that an incredibly massive and structurally complex device was being built on Mars. But what was the purpose of this device? No one knew.
Methods like energy characteristic analysis, gravitational wave detection, and spectral scanning were all used, yet they still couldn't determine its operating principles. They could only be sure of one thing: this was a masterpiece of the Precursor civilization, and its scale and the technology it contained far exceeded current human technological levels.
This unknown was even more terrifying than a known threat.
Furthermore, based on the current progress of the project on Mars, the device would be fully completed within a few months. Upon receiving this news, the nations decided to assemble all high-power weapons currently possessed by humanity and send them to Mars to stop the project there.
However, a cruel reality stood before them. Even the fastest Mars probe would take several months to reach Martian orbit. This meant that by the time human weapons arrived, the project on Mars would likely have already been completed.
The leaders of the nations fell silent. Praying to a god? This became an option many held in their hearts but dared not speak aloud.
As the meeting was about to conclude, the Huaxia representative slowly stood up. He looked around the room and spoke calmly.
"Everyone, whatever the outcome may be, we must do what we can to the absolute limit!"
These words seemed to ignite a subtle emotion. The meeting room fell into an even deeper silence. No one argued, and no one agreed. Their gazes seemed to pass through the windows of the meeting room, casting toward the deep night sky.
That red planet, like a giant, cold eye in the universe, was silently watching the small and terrified Earth. An ominous premonition blanketed everyone's heart.