Making Good on the Bluff!

The dead eye of the sky opened its destructive pupils, and the celestial stars fell like swords, the four fields roared, the eight winds were scorching, and an irresistible and powerful force swept across the sky of Tula Xiaye.

The impact of celestial bodies, the upheavals of the earth, the raging floods, and the fierce hurricanes—the world and history have recorded too many vicissitudes and terrifying disasters. Even though terrible calamities have been explained and defined by science in the name of nature, meteorites falling from the vast universe are most revered and feared by intelligent beings.

Floods only spread across a river basin, earthquakes only damage the foundation of a place, hurricanes eventually recede, and destroyed foundations can be rebuilt. Only the starry sky inspires fear.

Because it comes from the vast universe, solitarily traversing countless years, just for a chance encounter with a negligible probability, and bringing the Shadow of extinction... So terrifying, yet so romantic.

In fact, many people on Earth know that a slightly larger asteroid impact can severely damage human society, but they don't realize that the Yellowstone National Park volcano, which is already in an active phase, only needs a Wallace-like eruption to completely wipe out an entire Civilization.

Human beings have this understanding partly due to the nature of their souls being bound by gravity, partly due to the results of modern education, and also due to the influence of widely circulated entertainment products—everyone knows that the extinction of dinosaurs was likely caused by an asteroid impact, and has seen a wide variety of blockbuster movies and novels.

The people of Tula Xiaye were fortunate enough to witness the arrival of this destructive force firsthand.

Enormous flying stars swirled with infernal fire, tearing at the fragile wind and emitting a demonic howl. The six eyes of destruction that opened in the sky were like demon gods looking down on the Mortal World, unleashing flames of annihilation.

Annihilation descended from the sky.

Their minds went blank, devoid of even fear. They simply stared blankly at the heavens. Even soldiers and spellcasters with extraordinary powers couldn't make any extra movements, because they were the ones who could best feel the immense and violent power of the descending fire, which was irresistible and inescapable.

Destruction is imminent.

Kang De...

"How dare he!"

Inside the sanctuary, the Grand Chancellor activated the Titan Vision.

The giant star looked up at the sky, and six heavenly flames descended.

Faced with this overwhelming power, even the Council's oldest and most powerful war machine appeared small and hopeless; only by witnessing it firsthand could one truly feel the despair of its annihilation.

The Grand Speaker's hand, gripping the staff, trembled violently.

He could almost see the heavenly fire crashing down to the ground, carrying a destructive force that struck the radiant, sacred Tula Xiaye.

It would smash through wide, tree-lined avenues, tear up the blue stone paving stones, cause the magnificent and noble buildings on both sides to undulate, crumble, and collapse, burying everyone inside and crushing them into pieces.

It would plunge into the clear River of Seal Waves, polluting it into a Flame river flowing with lava, splashing in all directions. Pedestrians on both banks had no time to dodge and were swept into the torrent of death.

The person closest witnessed the scorching, high-speed celestial body colliding with the icy river water. Their eyeballs were rapidly dried out by the high-temperature microwaves, leaving only empty eye sockets. Then, their skin was peeled away, rendering beauty and ugliness meaningless. The girl's fair face melted and burned, screaming as her charred gums were revealed. Her beautiful hair burst into flames, and her lovely body instantly turned into a dried-up corpse.

In the distance, a mother may have embraced her child, guards pinned the civilians down, and then they were slammed against the wall by the hot wind, like autumn leaves in a breeze, swirling and flying horizontally, pressed against the hard wall. Then, the high-temperature steam from the river swept across, imprinting the struggles and despair of innocent mortals under the cataclysm into eternal murals and reliefs, forever leaving about a third of the flesh and traces on the broken walls.

That day, fire also crashed into Tula Xiaye University, causing all the mages in the academic affairs office who tried to raise shields to protect the students to suffer Magic Power backlash and be shattered to pieces. This killed the pillars of the arcane world decades later in their regretful youth, and the ancient buildings that embodied hundreds and thousands of years of history collapsed like clumsy mud houses.

The Destroyer descended from the sky, rampaging and killing all the librarians who were desperately casting eternal spells and preserving the books, exhausting their Magic Power and life force.

What was assimilated into dust with them was the crystallization of wisdom and Civilization achieved by the continent's highest academy of esoteric law and the highest academic power through thousands of years of accumulation, dialectics, correction and sacrifice. These were written in books, circulated for countless years, and in an instant, they were completely annihilated in the long river of time.

The Alchemy Department Building, the Naval Building, the Six Elemental Temples, the Salandir Hotel... The architectural skills that the Arcane Council so proud of, the engineering masterpieces rarely seen in the world, all of them were reduced to ashes under that unstoppable impact, raising clouds of dust.

The Transit Bell Tower collapsed, the world's longest glass dome walkway shattered, and the Sky Zither Park was polluted by crimson smoke and dust—that music garden was a perfect fusion of the Council's aesthetics and power, with the size, angle, and position of countless violins calculated with the utmost precision. When the breeze from the heights of Tula Xiaye blew and the airflow passed through, those violins would play ethereal and beautiful sounds as if from heaven.

Now, the meticulously designed structure has been destroyed and eroded by the scorching winds and howling waves. The fierce winds, mixed with blood and sand, blow through the broken pipes, producing only a piercing, desperate scream, as if it were the last cry and wail of the unjustly killed. The music garden in the sky can no longer see the picturesque Tula Xiaye; it only sees the end of the world and plays its final mournful music and dirge.

Because millions of innocent civilians, tens of thousands of spellcasters, a great city with a thousand-year history, and all the wisdom, achievements, advancements, creations and future it contained and created, and even the most indispensable part of the Civilization of this continent and this era, were thus annihilated into dust.

If hell were to be described graphically, this scene would certainly be included.

This is Tula Xiaye.

A place of eternal, great, and magnificent wisdom, forever watching, forever moving forward, forever sacred.

This must not be allowed to happen.

Griffin Williams suddenly roared, "No--"

Phaethon witnessed the falling of the Azure Star, his expression momentarily blank, surprised, and shocked. Then, as if remembering something, a look of joy appeared on his face, and he reached out to stop the Grand Speaker: "Don't be impulsive, he's..."

The Grand Speaker slammed him away, raised his staff high, and slammed it to the ground!

The surging magical power synchronized with the Star-Bearing Titan and immediately acted on the Tower of All-Seeing. The land's arcane energy circuit, which had been wired and designed over thousands of years, activated the arcane furnace nodes located throughout the city Age of Gods Mechanism, bestowed by the Star Palace and created by the Infinite Wisdom Codex, were reborn in the Mortal World!

Kang De's expression suddenly changed as he watched the Mass Projection crash down.

The guards around him also noticed a subtle change. "Your Highness, I feel something has happened, even affecting us—but I can't quite put my finger on it!"

"Father!" Horus cried, "Mass Projection has been observed to be rapidly decelerating!"

Just then, the Parrot, who had been silent all along, suddenly raised her hand and threw a punch. Then, she showed a look of surprise, snatched the power axe from a guard, and made two quick, seemingly random slashes. She then looked even more astonished and puzzled. Finally, she reached out and grabbed a tree from the roadside, extracted plant fibers from it, and wove them into a whip.

She tossed the long whip to one of her guards and shouted, "Can you even whip it?! Whip it!"

The Valentan Guards all skilled horsemen, so this was naturally something they could do. He took the whip, flicked his wrist, and the combined strength of his wrist and the power armor made him incredibly powerful. The whip shot up like a venomous snake, the motion propagating towards the tip, the powerful kinetic energy transferring to his hand. Finally, the kinetic energy from flicking the entire whip concentrated at the narrow tip, causing it to accelerate rapidly, strike the air, and then—

Silently.

"Observation speed," Horus said coldly, "Approximately 150 meters per second."

The Parrot grabbed a 12.7mm sniper rifle, pulled the trigger, and the gunpowder roared.

Kang De watched as the machine gun bullet, whose muzzle velocity should have exceeded 800 meters per second, flew through the air and went further and further away—with his dynamic vision, he was able to capture every moment of the bullet's flight.

Horus's voice unusually carried a hint of solemnity, even bitterness.

"It's getting slower," he said. "The excess kinetic energy... is being consumed."

At that very moment, the Star-Bearing Titan at the top of the Tower of All-Seeing gathered lightning in its hand.

Malegith shouted, "Kang De!"

Kang De snapped back to reality, looking at the meteorite that was slowing down in the sky. No matter what happened, no matter what was going on, they couldn't let the Star-Bearing Titan shoot down these Mass Projection!

He opened his arms, pulled and cleaved, and the Paradox Sacred Pillar, driven into the projected star, was immediately activated. The warp array was instantly activated, and the blazing Destruction Star disappeared into the fiery Gates of Hell. Only the distorted air still radiated scorching heat, reminding everyone that what had happened before was no illusion.

In the blink of an eye, the suspended star sword vanished without a trace.

But those six eyes of destruction remained wide open, looking down upon the Mortal World like demons. Their dark and deep eyes seemed to reveal a disdainful sneer, reminding the ants on the ground that their earlier withdrawal was out of mercy.

The city fell silent, followed by the cries and screams of survivors.

But the Legion's jump site was completely deserted.

The Valentan Guards were all wearing power armor, obscuring their complexions, yet an eerie atmosphere permeated the air. Horus's data analysis revealed that each of them had a rapid heartbeat, indicating mental turmoil—a perfectly understandable consequence of their knowledge of the truth.

The reason and mechanism are unknown, but the result is known—their revered Prince Kang De, whose powerful and influential Forbidden Spell had rendered ineffective, had lost its power.

What does this mean?

A moment of silence followed, then the Parrot broke it. "Stop standing there—let's go!"

Kang De stood silently, his eyes flashing with intense emotion.

"Walk..."

He gritted his teeth, and the words squeezed out from between them.

"Screw you leaving!"

The Earthling declared resolutely, "We can't leave! If we run now, we'll be completely screwed over!"

The surprise attack on Tula Xiaye was intended to give the mastermind behind all this a harsh blow by this clumsy attack—but now, if the Forbidden Spell is stopped and they turn around and leave, the morale, reputation, and hatred of the Council will be maximized!

Especially since the Forbidden Spell disappeared and he ran away without saying a word, leaving the council with the power of Council to say whatever they want—and Distant Harbor's strategic deterrence against the continental countries will immediately drop to freezing point, unless he runs back to Earth to borrow nuclear weapons, otherwise all sorts of small fry will jump out!

The Parrot's voice held a hint of anxiety. "You see, whatever it is—everything has been stripped of its kinetic energy, its speed has been restricted. Not only are guns useless, but even martial artists' strength is weakened! The situation is too dangerous; we must leave immediately!"

"--No, the sound didn't slow down, and the energy didn't slow down either!"

Kang De roared, "Horus, change weapons! Switch to heavy ammunition! Bring out low-velocity grenades! Replace all heavy support firepower—get all the mine-laying vehicles out here!"

The Parrot grabbed his arm. "Are you going to hit me again?"

Kang De coldly replied, "Fuck you, I'm going to get my revenge on this guy today!"

With a thought, he activated his divine power of space and time.

Exclamations rang out throughout the city as people, still reeling from the shock, stared at the sky. The devastating meteor did not return, but above the sky, dark eyes began to open, growing from six to ten, twenty, thirty... The eyes were empty and dark, as terrifying and deep as a demon's vortex!

"... Gods!"

After those Demon God's Eye opened, a change occurred.

Some were filled with surging tides, some were shrouded in fierce storm clouds, some were burning with blazing flames, and some radiated scorching light like the sun. And among the original six Eyes of Destruction, new flying stars were suspended... Clearly visible, they were the ones that had failed to strike before!

Anyone with even the most basic associative abilities can guess what this means.

Whether they were superhumans or ordinary people, everyone was screaming in despair, "What are they trying to do now! What are they going to do this time! What on earth do they want?!"

In the White Mist World, winds and clouds surged, and spatial portals opened everywhere. Kang De's voice swirled through the fierce clouds, and with the help of the Fire Thief's godlike spatial control, he used nature as a giant amplifier, broadcasting his thunderous, divine voice through each spatial portal to the weak, pitiful, and helpless Tula Xiaye.

You all saw it!

Kang De retorted sharply, "If I wanted to attack you, like the meteorite that just struck the city, do you think you fools, like mantises trying to stop a chariot, could possibly withstand it!"

"... Shameless!"

Inside the sanctuary, the Grand Speaker, enraged, cursed, "Shameless!"

But others don't know.

As the meteor slowed down, everyone thought their deaths were imminent. Even though a small number of spellcasters observed this phenomenon, they were puzzled. When the meteor disappeared, they assumed that Kang De had shown mercy.

They didn't know, and no one would know, that at this critical moment, it was Grand Speaker Griffin Williams who stepped forward and unhesitatingly activated the Star Palace's secret weapon of aid—a plan he had laid long ago, meticulously and painstakingly crafted, originally intended to catch Kang De off guard, but instead revealed his trump card ahead of time, all for the sake of Tula Xiaye.

This behavior was almost instinctive, stemming from a love for the country and Tula Xiaye. This made the Grand Speaker dare not take even the slightest risk—even though there was only a very small chance that Kang De would allow the Forbidden Spell to destroy Tula Xiaye, he dared not entrust the future of the city and even the entire country to the good intentions of others.

If this awareness, sense of responsibility, passion, decisiveness, contribution, and wisdom were known to ordinary people, officials, and soldiers, it would immediately bring the Grand Speaker unprecedented popularity and prestige.

But no one will know.

Because he had killed all the senators and key members of Congress who were in the same room as the Speaker.

Moreover, Kang De also relied on his loud voice to argue his point.

The Grand Speaker, his chest brimming with rage, manipulated the Star-Bearing Titan, controlling the speech module, his voice booming like thunder. "All citizens of Tula Xiaye, I..."

Before the words were finished, a series of "beep--" silencing sounds came from the Phase Gate located above the Tower of All-Seeing, completely drowning out the Grand Speaker's voice.

At the same time, Kang De quickly ordered, "Did you record that sound? -- Use the sound source and tuning to fake some speech, quick!"

After he finished speaking, he immediately continued his performance, "So, do you understand now! You fools of Tula Xiaye! If I wanted to attack you, would I need to ram you with planes? I would simply crush you all! And those planes aren't even from Distant Harbor —they might even Council itself!"

The Fire Thief let out a cold laugh, and the sky rumbled, countless eyes focusing the power of nature. "Who do you think I am? I can destroy you with meteors, or pour countless seas from the Western Sea directly onto Tula Xiaye. Can you stop me? I can move the vast cloud storms from the heavens above your heads. Can you dispel them?"

"--But I won't do that!"

"I came to Tula Xiaye not to kill strangers! I have come here with only one purpose... to prevent war!"

"We live and work in peace in Distant Harbor, developing peacefully and wanting no conflict with anyone. But some people just can't stand to see us doing well! Even without war, they want to start one! If I hadn't come today, then this plane was sent by me! The attack on the Tower of All-Seeing will also be blamed on me! You will believe my lies, hate me, and incite war against Distant Harbor until I throw the Forbidden Spell back at your heads!"

"... not good!"

Inside the sanctuary, the Grand Speaker's expression changed drastically; he had already understood Kang De's intention.

He wanted to brand the souls of the Tula Xiaye people with the lingering, profound fear that had not yet dissipated, leaving an indelible mark of war-weariness!

"Damn it!" he roared, "There's no time to mobilize the army—shut him up now!"

"What are you trying to do?" Phaethon, who was accelerating his healing, said sternly upon hearing the Grand Speaker's words, "We can't start now—what if we alert him!"

"If I don't start it soon, I'm going to lose!"

The Grand Speaker raised his staff and activated it once more— the Infinite Wisdom Codex from the Star Palace. Besides countering Forbidden Spell, its most important secret technique was to suppress Kang De's... spatial teleportation!

Another Age of Gods Mechanism silently activated, sealing off space. Dozens of Phase Gate that had opened in the sky contracted in response. Kang De's expression changed drastically; he raised an eyebrow and sneered, "Griffin! You've got some nerve! Pretty good at sucking up!"

--Brother Tu, please help me!

Then, the entire universe crashed into the Age of Gods Mechanism that sealed off space.