Meanwhile, on the outskirts, a chubby old man riding a small green e-scooter squeezed the brake.
He glanced at the tide of black Monsters surging in the distance and mused, "So this is the Monster Association's handiwork—how amusing."
He'd stayed in seclusion; had the neighboring city not been razed he wouldn't have bothered. Lately he'd only seen the Association online—this was his first offline encounter.
"Fat geezer, I'd stay out of this if I were you. Turn back now and I'll let it slide." Tens of thousands of Hei Jin filled the old man's vision like a black carpet.
The Hei Jin at the front drawled, looking every bit the delinquent.
Li Hongping studied the identical horde; neither side moved. He merely swept his gaze across the city now completely swallowed by flames.
"Looks like I'm too late—might as well head home." The scooter spun round and zipped back the way it came.
The outcome was sealed; why dirty his hands and court trouble?
Hei Jin watched the departing geezer, mouth curling. "Hmph, scared off by my aura—so what if he's Level Six?"
Tonight, countless people would again lose sleep: He City razed, over 1.5 million casualties, multitudes homeless.
Top floor of Town City's Xuanjian Division, Bai Wenliang stared at the satellite feed on the screen and fell silent.
However optimistic he was, the Monster Association obliterating a city in their heartland stoked his rage.
'The Association isn't like past foes of the Division—they have no fixed target, strike here today, there tomorrow; the only counter is to flood the zone with manpower,' Bai Wenliang brooded.
Long Zhengqing and Zhao Zhenyi's deaths had left two squad-leader seats empty. Long's Squad One had been the garrison and rapid-response unit for Town City and beyond.
With him gone, that rapid-response vanished. Wu Yuan ignored affairs, Bai couldn't leave—if the Association wheeled round to attack Town City in his absence the loss would be catastrophic.
With that, he called, "Someone!"
Tap-tap-tap! A middle-aged man stepped in at once. "Director."
"Squads One and Ten need leaders. Contact those four civilian Fifth-Level Awakeners; I'll personally pick the new captains!" Bai Wenliang said gravely.
"Understood!" The man nodded briskly and left.
In Nanwu Country, besides the Division only four powers boasted Fifth-Level Awakeners—each a state-level titan with opaque ties to local captains… Three days after He City's fall.
Inside a Liyang Country cavern, Jiang Yan sank his consciousness into his mind.
After days of accrual, his pearl of the abyss was full again.
pearl of the abyss: 15.48M / 15.48M
"Negative energy full—commence summon?"
'Summon!' Jiang Yan willed it instantly.
Buzz! A ripple unfurled before him.
A purple-black cloud cluster appeared and ballooned outward at breakneck speed.
Rumble! Thunderous booms accompanied the spreading cloud; within moments it blanketed hundreds of metres.
'So large?' Jiang Yan's eyes flashed. He stretched out a hand toward the violet mist.
Before, lacking strength, he'd feared entering; now, powerful enough, he meant to see what lay inside.
One step into the mist and the view shifted: drifting fog everywhere. The vapour seemed to occupy a different space, passing clean through his body.
'The mist in here differs from outside.' Jiang Yan watched the violet wisps slide through him, intrigued.
Outside, the fog curves around objects like normal mist; here it phases through.
Rumble!
Thunder rolled ahead. Jiang Yan stared forward but visibility capped at a few metres.
He walked on, curious about the source of the constant roar.
The deeper he went, the louder the noise; soon the whole world seemed to shake.
After a while a colossal vortex—tens of metres across—loomed before him.
The pitch-black swirl hovered a metre above ground, its substance so dark it devoured light itself.
Jiang Yan halted; a sharp sense of crisis warned him one step closer meant instant shredding.
One step and the vortex would tear him apart.
'A spatial gate—letting otherworldly Monsters into our world,' he surmised, thoughtful.
After a moment he turned and exited; the path out felt longer than the way in.
Back outside, he glanced round—the violet mist now filled most of the cavern.
'Whatever this behemoth is, it's over a kilometre long,' Hei Jin remarked, arriving at Jiang Yan's side.
Even King of the Deep Sea and Tyrant—regular residents of the cave—joined them to watch.
The rumble lasted half an hour before the purple haze finally faded, revealing an immense Monster.
Jiang Yan gazed up at the creature: nearly two kilometres long, twenty metres wide, armoured in pure black. "Truly colossal!"
Segment after segment of angular black shell encased its body; countless scythe-like legs twitched, nightmarish for trypophobes. A nightmaric maw framed by two huge black pincers loomed; its sheer bulk radiated menace.
On the centipede's head sat a withered human face. It regarded Jiang Yan and intoned, "Master!"
Jiang Yan nodded and inspected its abilities.
Beside this titan, even Dragon God Margoth would be seated at the kids' table.
Centipede Emperor: a Monster from a special world, boasting peerless defence and regeneration—its body itself is the ultimate weapon.
Heaven-Carapace Armour: an almost unbreakable exoshell.
Hyper Regeneration: restores shattered armour in an instant.
Only two skills, both purely body-enhancing.
'Let's see how tough that armour really is.' Jiang Yan turned to King of the Deep Sea. "Test its defence."
"With pleasure!" The Sea King grinned, striding toward the Centipede Emperor.
Stopping at a body segment, he clenched his right fist; muscles bulged. With a roar—"Raaaah!"
BOOM! Air detonated under the punch, a sonic boom echoing through the cavern.
Instantly his fist slammed into the centipede's hide.
Bang! A thunderous blast; pale shockwaves fanned across the space.
Jiang Yan's hair and clothes whipped backward.
Crack!—but the sound came not from the armour; a nearby monitor split under the shockwave.
The titanic blow hadn't left even a scuff on the Centipede Emperor.
The withered face on the centipede's head sneered at King of the Deep Sea, wordlessly labelling him trash.
"Why you—!" The Sea King bristled, but Jiang Yan cut him off.
"Stand down," Jiang Yan said flatly. The Sea King obeyed without protest, stepping back behind him.
"Hei Jin, fetch a soul crystal for the Centipede Emperor," Jiang Yan ordered without turning.
Its defence now proven—King of the Deep Sea's punch could maim or kill an average Fifth-Level lacking defence—Jiang Yan smiled faintidly.
'Once it absorbs the soul crystal, even a nuke might not scratch it,' he mused, lips curving.
Strip humanity of their ultimate trump card and only a handful of Level Sixes remain—yet how could they protect every human across the continent?