White Emperor Child

In that instant, a violent gale howled past.

The hand hanging high in the sky slowly rose, aimed itself at the brightly lit Xin Hai City in the distance, and slowly curled its five fingers.

As though it had grasped something invisible.

Then it yanked with all its might!

A shrill screech burst from the void, like countless panes of glass being scraped together. The maddening roar spread outward.

Heaven and earth trembled.

As though someone were pulling out the wedge that fastened the vault of heaven to the solid earth.

At that very moment, a white figure landed beneath a streetlamp in the outskirts of New Sea.

"Finally, I made it!"

A white dove slowly folded its wings and landed on the girl's slender arm.

As though she had just run a marathon, she was drenched in sweat. Her fitted athletic T-shirt and running pants were soaked through, clinging wetly to her lovely figure.

Unfortunately, no one was lucky enough to see it.

Panting, she looked at the palm floating dozens of kilometers away and shook her head helplessly.

Yet beneath the streetlamp, her shadow seemed to come alive. It slowly raised both hands, as though drawing two invisible weapons.

Then it slashed forward.

Silence descended.

For an instant, the distant rumbling, the chirping insects, falling dust, flowing wind, rushing river, rising fire, and solid earth all came to a halt.

As though frozen by an invisible force.

The next instant, a faint trace too subtle to distinguish stretched out from beneath her feet, extending straight ahead for twenty-three kilometers and four hundred eleven meters.

Destruction precise to the millimeter arrived.

Cleanly and decisively, the palm split apart down the middle and fell to either side. Then it was severed at the waist, becoming four pieces.

Before those four pieces could scatter, they collapsed into eight.

One, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, one hundred twenty-eight, two hundred fifty-six... The cruel, precise geometric progression continued beyond the limits of human observation.

At last, the shattered Source Matter erupted.

It became a fire that burned everything away.

That was the end. Before that sword strike, so swift that no movement could even be described, everything came to a full stop.

It was over.

"I hope there won't be too many casualties."

She sighed mournfully, then heard the phone in her pocket ringing.

"Hello? I'll be there right away! I got lost just now, really lost... There's definitely something wrong with your airdrop! I'll be there in five minutes, five minutes... Come on, I'm already on the way..."

The dove and the girl both vanished.

"Heaven and Earth's Great Might, Divine Freedom..."

The instant the Beast of Wind Calamity's palm shattered, Red Glove's face turned ashen. He forced out a voice through clenched teeth:

"—White Emperor Child!"

Crack!

The sound of shattering suddenly erupted across his face.

Fractures spread. In an instant, as though countless blades had chopped into him, half his body turned into a bloody mangled mess. Invisible swords continued tearing apart his shell until the pendant around his neck let out a mournful cry—the blank-faced little doll crumbled into dust.

The blank doll had taken the lingering aftermath of White Emperor Child's sword strike in his place.

Yet even the final wisp of leaked "radiation" left him in unbearable agony.

A savage crack even appeared on the soul manifestation in his hand—the Laughing Fish Tank. Of the two fry inside, one had already floated belly-up.

The other swayed half-dead, clearly not long for this world.

"Damn it, those monsters..."

Red Glove suddenly doubled over and vomited blood. Heavy footsteps sounded in the distance—the military had begun moving. A vicious gleam flashed through his eyes as he pulled a detonator from his coat and slammed it down.

The plastic explosives planted throughout the church lit up with their final countdown. In fifteen seconds, all remaining traces would be completely erased.

Failure did not matter, as long as the Cauldron of Rebirth remained...

He turned and reached toward the pulpit, but both his hand and cruel smile froze in place—the pulpit was empty!

It was gone!

The Cauldron of Rebirth was gone!

That box had vanished without a trace at some point!

In a rage, he overturned the pulpit, but found nothing. He let out two hoarse roars and, with footsteps rapidly approaching, went madly to pieces, tearing apart the entire pulpit. Still, he found nothing.

When the church's remaining doors were violently smashed open and the suppression forces stormed in, all they saw was a man standing atop the platform, his eyes red like a rabid dog's.

He spat disdainfully and raised his middle finger at the soldiers. "Eat shit, you walking corpses of the Astronomical Society!"

He flung out a playing card.

The card suddenly folded in half in midair, dragging his body along with it. Then he folded again with the card, and again. In the blink of an eye, he became an insignificant dot, sucked into a deep hole and gone.

The next instant, destructive flames devoured everything.

It turned out that losing too much blood was not painful.

He could not even feel pain anymore.

He was merely sleepy. There was no strength left anywhere in his body. He felt languid, as though nothing mattered anymore... He wanted to sleep, to rest, to let this fucked-up life come to an end.

Close his eyes, and after enduring such long torment, peacefully accept the reward—an undisturbed, endless sleep.

Death was coming.

After seeing so much death, so many different kinds of death, Huai Shi realized that he had finally reached his own ending.

It was not terrifying, nor was it painful. He did not even feel much reluctance.

There was only drowsiness and confusion.

In his daze, he felt someone pushing his body, struggling to brace it with a stick and shove it forward bit by bit, like a snail pushing a stone.

He was rolled over onto a ragged carpet, then pulled along and dragged somewhere.

He smelled burning, heard things breaking, and heard hoarse groans, as though the entire world were being destroyed.

Water dripped onto Huai Shi's face.

There was the smell of blood.

He forced his eyes open and saw Liu Dongli beside him, his fate unknown, and ahead of them, an old man limping and crawling as he dragged the carpet.

The figure with one crippled leg lunged forward and shoved open a door, then turned back.

His face looked shattered. One half was unchanged, corpse-pale; the other half convulsed violently, along with half his body.

It was as though half of him had already died, while the remaining half struggled desperately, beyond any cure.

Seeing Huai Shi's dazed eyes, he avoided his gaze. He merely struggled to roll up the carpet, wrapping Huai Shi and Liu Dongli together before laboriously rolling it forward.

"I'm sorry... I have to save her... Huai Shi, only I can save her now... I'm sorry..."

He muttered hoarsely, as though apologizing, but he expected no response. He was only speaking to himself. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

A phone began ringing. The booming speaker of a cheap knockoff phone cheerfully sang some love song, calling out husband, husband, but no one answered.

"I'm sorry..."

Blood fell onto Huai Shi's face, carrying the warmth of tears.

He was shoved into the darkness beyond the door, tumbling down a long flight of stairs and falling into a cellar piled with junk and jars of pickled vegetables.

Amid the violent rolling and fall, Huai Shi saw Old Yang's face one last time.

Leaning against the doorframe, he looked at the boy. His twitching mouth pulled into an awkward angle, almost like a smile. He held the still-vibrating phone in his hand and waved at him.

As though saying goodbye.

Huai Shi opened his mouth, wanting to call out to him, but no sound came.

The door closed.

In the darkness, an explosion thundered in the distance. Terrifying flames and High Temperature swept through the entire church, reducing everything that remained to ashes.

Huai Shi closed his eyes.

Death embraced him.

"Someone asked me... to pass a message... to everyone..."

The stiff, expressionless man was trapped in a chair, twitching neurotically. The goldfish in his eyes swam lifelessly.

"He said... he said... he said..."

His expression suddenly turned crazed, revealing a savage smile.

"—The Green Sun shall shine upon the world."

Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

As gunshots suddenly rang out, his head exploded. But the shooting did not stop. After emptying one magazine, another was loaded, and the trigger continued to be pulled.

Until the thing on the chair had become a lump of rotten flesh.

A shattered goldfish leaped from the empty skull, only to be blasted into a stinking paste by the bullets. It quickly dried into a pinch of powder.

"Did you catch him?"

Ai Qing expressionlessly tossed away her gun. Looking up at the middle-aged man's face, she no longer bothered hiding her displeasure. "No need to say it. He got away, right? We held on for so long just to arrive in time for cleanup?"

"He was carrying a Border Relic capable of short-range jumps. We've already sealed off the area around New Sea..."

"What about the survivors?"

Ai Qing had no interest in hearing any more.

"...We're searching."

"Then keep searching."

Ai Qing withdrew her gaze. "Dig up every inch of ground if you have to. Keep going until you find the bodies."

No one objected.

When midnight arrived, news came from the church ruins, which were rumbling and collapsing under the excavation: "Liu Dongli and Huai Shi have been found!"

Outside the ruins, Ai Qing still sat in her wheelchair, her expression calm. "Their condition?"

"Liu Dongli is alive, severely injured. As for Huai Shi..."

The person reporting paused, his expression turning hesitant.

"He is being resuscitated."

.

The temporary emergency room had already descended into chaos. Ai Qing waited silently outside the door, listening to the noisy confusion within.

"How's his breathing? Is it still there?"

"No, his pulse is almost gone too. Inject it, hurry..."

"No, his heartbeat is irregular. It's almost gone... Where's the defibrillator? Get me the defibrillator!"

"One, two, three!"

Thump!

"One, two, three!"

Thump!

After a long time, no sound came from inside anymore. The doctor who had been treating him emerged, removed his mask, and looked regretful. "Sorry, we were too late..."

Ai Qing nodded without speaking, letting them walk past her.

Soon, Ai Qing finally saw Huai Shi.

As though asleep, the boy lay on the operating table. The bullet hole in his chest was pale, and no blood had flowed from it for a long time.

His empty pupils stared at the shadowless surgical lamp overhead.

His final heartbeat stopped.

Ai Qing remained silent, lowering her eyes. The hand gripping her wheelchair armrest had gone deathly white. After a long while, she said calmly, "Then... then follow procedure."

She turned her wheelchair, intending to leave.

But then the wheelchair came to an abrupt halt.

She seemed to hear something.

A bad cold...