The Aftermath

"I see... How about I transfer my power to you to enhance your Cultivation Body?"

"My Cultivation Body is too weak to withstand too much power. Even if I push myself to the limit, I might not be able to keep up with this level of combat."

"Divine Arts, archery, Cultivation Body, speed..." Yu Shuying quickly arranged the cards in her hand, thinking of feasible strategies. "Ha, I've got it! I've thought of a way. If it succeeds, it will give Si Ming a chance to counterattack."

Unaware that his companions were trying to help him, Si Ming, who had been suppressed by the relentless attacks and had not been able to launch a single counterattack, decided to take a desperate gamble.

Although he still had 30% of his True Qi left, enough to sustain the Solar Prominence Eruption for a while, he had to take into account the consumption of his ultimate move. 30% was the minimum. He decided to deliberately show that he was exhausted, revealing a weakness to lure his opponent into a trap, and then take the opportunity to counterattack. Whether he could succeed or not was no longer a concern, because he had no other choice. At worst, he could rely on his Bodhi Golden Body to withstand the attack and forcefully activate his ultimate move.

Just as Si Ming was about to exit the Solar Prominence Eruption, a sharp light suddenly shot straight down from below, targeting a position three meters behind him, moving with lightning speed.

Li Guang's true form is not an arrow, but a sword!

The arrow that Liu Qingqing shot out with her prophetic Divine Arts was none other than Murong Qing's Moon God's Tear. Since humans cannot withstand the power of Spirit Transformation level cultivator, then let the "arrow" bear it. And the Moon God's Tear, as a divine weapon, is sufficient to receive the power enhancement from Hongdou.

The sword light pierced the sky, moving faster than sound. If one waited until the sound of the sword cutting through the air before dodging, it would be too late.

The Moth Emperor didn't notice the movement beneath her feet because she didn't think anyone could keep up with her speed. Even if someone attacked her, she could easily dodge. So by the time she realized the danger, it was too late!

The divine sword pierced the air, overlapping with the figure of the golden moth at the exact moment Liu Qingqing had foreseen.

"Ah--"

Murong Qing's sword, Liu Qingqing's Divine Arts, Hongdou's skill, and Yu Shuying's wisdom—the combined efforts of the four resulted in half a bloodied wing falling from the sky.

At the critical moment, although the Moth Emperor managed to avoid the vital point, she couldn't completely dodge the One Sword, resulting in one of her wings being cut off in half, which immediately slowed her down.

"Now! Shatter the void and soar into the abyss!"

Si Ming seized the opportunity, drew the Wheel-Turning King Sword, and channeled the last 30% of its power, stirring up the Yin and Yang energies. His Sword Intent surged, locking onto the target and gathering its Primal Qi for the final strike.

"Oops!"

Moth Emperor wanted to interrupt, but the unique chill of the Moon God's Tear spread from her wound, slowing her movements and causing her to miss the best opportunity to interrupt. Helpless, she could only circulate her own Cultivation Body and use her ultimate move to resist.

"Heaven and earth wither and decay, yin and yang are exhausted!"

The winds of calamity howled, stripping all life from its vitality, blotting out the sky and the sun, like a giant waterfall crashing down, an unstoppable tide. The winds carried highly toxic phosphorus powder, aiming to weaken the opponent's Cultivation Body. At the same time, surging evil energy condensed into gray aurora, shooting out.

The calamity-inducing poisonous winds rolled down upon Si Ming, but with the protection of the Jade-Clad Dharma Body on the outside No-Emptiness Sound Flow on the inside, the impact on Si Ming was very weak. Moreover, the Blazing Sun True Qi was full of poison resistance and was unaffected by the phosphorus powder. The Asura Dharma Form merged with the Vajra Wrathful Form and immediately raised his sword to stab. The Asuras of the heavens absorbed the Buddha's might, and the Yin-Yang Sword Qi pierced through the void, indestructible.

As their ultimate moves clashed, the gray aurora, like a torrent crashing against a reef, scattered in all directions. It was pierced by the Yin-Yang Sword Qi, followed by a piercing scream that almost shattered eardrums.

Piercing through armor and splattering blood, severing the Moth Emperor's chest meridians, the remaining Sword Qi erupted, creating countless bloody holes and causing unbearable pain.

Although her opponent had exhausted her True Qi, the Moth Emperor lost the courage to fight. With a flap of her five wings, she quickly fled the battlefield, scattering specks of evil blood in the air.

Si Ming was determined to kill his enemy, but he couldn't catch up in time and could only watch helplessly as the wounded man disappeared into the horizon.

"That's enough. She'll be healed from that One Sword wound for at least six months. That's enough to keep her in check. We'll kill her next time we see her. Right now, saving lives is the priority."

Chapter 474 Aftermath of the War

For the vast majority of people in the Sea Continent, the severing of the Four Heavenly Divine Pillars had little impact on their lives; they continued with their routines as before. Perhaps some discovered that Technique Method could be used again, but in a time when Technique Method had been extinct for hundreds of years, how many people were willing to learn it all from scratch?

Those at the Spirit Transformation level and above felt the restriction above their heads disappear, but even in the past, there were very few Spirit Transformation experts who could break through to the Void Returning Great Grandmaster. For someone who had only run two hundred meters, whether the finish line was four hundred meters or eight hundred meters did not matter much.

Therefore, even though the government of Su State issued this news to the entire Sea Continent and listed Heaven-Defying Society as the most wanted person with a huge bounty, the citizens of other countries were still skeptical. Many people thought that "this is a new way for Su State to eliminate dissidents." Even those who believed in this matter mostly thought, "What does this have to do with me?"

The saying goes, "Boiling a frog in lukewarm water," but people aren't that different from frogs. If the water isn't heated all at once, but rather gradually heated, people won't jump out of the pot, since their own interests aren't actually harmed.

Even if they are injured, if the injury is too minor, people often choose to endure it. By the time they realize that the water temperature is unbelievably high and their skin and flesh are being scalded, it is too late to jump out of the pot.

Regardless of what outsiders thought, even the citizens of Linked Mountains City were plunged into immense grief. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to describe the city as being draped in white mourning. Nearly 20,000 spectators and staff attended the semi-final award ceremony, and almost half of them perished after the appearance of the cocoon. After all, not everyone possessed the ability to fight the zombie monster. Many were killed by falling rocks, trampled by panicked crowds, or crushed by the inner walls of the cocoon.

In the week following the anomaly, the citizens of Linked Mountains City were either attending their own family funerals or those of relatives and friends. Sobbing could be heard day and night, and the city was filled with a somber melody. Paper money was flying everywhere. Even those who ran funeral businesses could not be happy, because they also had family members and relatives on the funeral list.

Many students from Linked Mountains University also perished in the anomaly. In addition to notifying their parents, the university held a collective memorial service for all the students who died unexpectedly.

Among the row of black and white photos, the members of the Second Martial Arts Club saw Chu Gengyin's handsome face and couldn't help but sigh.

"This is really... They say good people don't live long, but bad people live a long life. This guy actually left us like this, it's just too unreasonable."

Even Ke Chajing, who disliked Chu Gengyin the most, never intended for him to die. When she heard the news of his death, she had an indescribable complex feeling. It wasn't a sense of shared sorrow or schadenfreude, but a more subtle emotion. After all, while she disliked him, she was far from hating him.

Si Ming was also greatly surprised. He thought that a character like Chu Gengyin would harbor resentment after losing his qualification for the national competition, and would use all sorts of insidious and despicable means to take revenge on the Second Martial Arts Club, like a clown constantly jumping out to disgust people, using some underhanded schemes and tricks, and then be killed by him with one palm. But in the end, he just "gave up halfway".

Based on the injuries on the corpses, Chu Gengyin was not killed when the anomaly occurred. After all, he was a highly skilled martial artist, and those who died at that time were ordinary people with average skills. However, he was separated from his teammates in the chaos, and only two other classmates were with him. Then, the three of them encountered the zombie monsters together, and like Ke Chajing and the others, they were trapped in a corner.

The difference is that none of the three are named Chen Shimi, and none of them reveal the secret they've been hiding by feigning madness, thus failing to help them break through the encirclement.

Finally, they were exhausted by the overwhelming numbers of corpses and died from exhaustion.

In response, Si Ming could only lament that life is unpredictable and people are prone to misfortune. In novels, villains are always incredibly resilient. They are the kind of people with low emotional intelligence who are particularly prone to courting death, yet they only die when they run into the protagonist. But in reality, such people don't live long at all. They might be killed by some enemy or die in an accident, and the protagonist doesn't even have a chance to make a move.

Incidentally, after Chen Shimi unleashed that claw attack, he was exhausted and listless, and is currently hospitalized, perfectly embodying the term "One-Hit Superman."

"Now that the Miaotian Society Remote Heaven Society come to the forefront, their true purpose has been exposed, which means their greatest advantage has disappeared. Although we are still in the shadows while the enemy remains in the open, we now have clues to follow up. As long as the Mohist Knight Guard truly take action and investigate the Four Heavenly Divine Pillars, it won't be difficult to discover their whereabouts."

In the club activity room, Si Ming told Yu Shuying and Murong Qing the information he had learned from Yuezheng Yao.

"It's hard to say," Yu Shuying sneered twice. "Didn't that woman mention that 'the facts should be reversed'? It's not that the Remote Heaven Society infiltrated the upper echelons of the government, but rather that someone in the upper echelons of the government is a member of the Remote Heaven Society, perhaps even a veteran? Actually, if you think about it, you'll understand. Putting aside the threat of force, where would a small, mysterious organization get its intelligence channels? And scientific research isn't something you can do with just your bare hands. Without the corresponding experimental equipment and resources, what kind of results can you produce? Scientific research requires a huge investment of funds. Where does that money come from?"

"A mysterious organization..."

Si Ming sighed. It was impossible for a threatening mysterious organization to exist on Earth because the individual strength of humans on Earth was too weak. Their military power relied entirely on weapons. Let alone dozens or hundreds of people, even millions of people wouldn't be enough. Without land and resources, it meant that you didn't have enough industry and weapons. Even if you obtained technological data from a hundred years in the future, you would be like a skilled cook without rice to cook, unable to create anything. Mysterious organizations on Earth were a joke.