The wind over the ruins carried the sharp stink of smoke and the heavy reek of blood as it wailed through the shattered streets of Heaven Dou City's western district.
Buildings in the distance were still burning, the flames licking at the night sky and dyeing half the heavens a sickly red-orange.
Now and then came the sound of collapsing beams, mixed with the faint groans of the wounded far away, forming a doomsday elegy.
Tang San clenched his teeth hard and, humiliated, withdrew the already dim Clear Sky Hammer back into his body.
His back was slightly hunched. With every step he took, his ruptured meridians sent him pain that tore at his heart and lungs.
But he did not dare stop. Han Yuchen's threat, delivered so casually yet enough to cast him into an abyss beyond redemption, was like a blade suspended over the bones of his neck, forcing this once-proud transmigrator to serve as cannon-fodder bait to lure tens of thousands of Royal Knights.
Everything seemed to be advancing perfectly according to Han Yuchen's script as the one moving the pieces.
The god had been suppressed, the source had been plundered, and the Child of Destiny had been completely held in his grasp.
Han Yuchen stood atop a high pile of rubble, his dark-blue eyes flickering with the ultimate pleasure of having everything under control.
He was just about to use his communication Soul Tool to issue the next order to Dugu Bo, who was lying in wait in the shadows, and push the chaos filling the city to its climax.
However, in the very instant before his fingertip touched the Soul Tool—
"Mm—"
An extremely suppressed muffled groan, as if it had been forcibly torn from the depths of the soul, broke the dead silence of