"No... don't..."
Yan, a prodigy of the Spirit Hall Golden Generation, stood with his legs trembling, nearly dropping to his knees.
He stared at the empty glass chamber, as if it had been made just for him, then at Orochimaru's golden, emotionless snake eyes. A chill shot from his tailbone straight to his scalp.
He had no doubt that if he went inside, his fate would be even more miserable than that of the Thunder Tyrannosaurus being used as a living battery!
"I... I..." Yan's lips quivered, and he couldn't get a single word out.
Xie Yue, standing beside him, was just as ashen-faced. He wanted to fight back, but the moment he thought of that bizarre force field that had twisted even a Soul Douluo's Martial Soul Avatar, he couldn't muster the slightest courage.
In the face of overwhelming technological superiority, the talent and strength they had once been so proud of were nothing but a joke.
"What? You don't want to?"
"Never mind."
Qin Feng waved his hand, a trace of disdain on his face.
"Your gene sequence is somewhat interesting, but it's riddled with impurities, and your energy conversion efficiency is pitifully low."
"Doctor, let's not dirty your lab with such poor-quality experimental material."
Poor quality?
Too many impurities?
Yan's mind went "buzz," and it hurt even more than being threatened had.
This was a deeper kind of humiliation!
He was a proud member of the Golden Generation, the wielder of the Flame Lord Martial Soul, yet in this madman's eyes, he wasn't even good enough to be an experimental subject?!
"Throw this trash out."
Qin Feng spoke as if he were telling someone to take out the rubbish, waving to a Security Robot in the corner.
"Don't use the front entrance. Dump them straight into the garbage collection site outside."
"Command confirmed."
The Security Robot glided over. One of its enormous mechanical arms picked up the unconscious Salas, while the other grabbed Xie Yue and Yan by the backs of their necks like kittens.
The two struggled desperately, their Soul Power surging, but they were as helpless as infants against the robot's cold mechanical arms.
"Let go of me! What the hell are you? Let go of me!" Xie Yue roared in a frenzy.
The only response was the robot's cold mechanical voice. "Garbage exhibiting resistance detected. Suppression mode activated."
"Bzzzt—"
A powerful electric current shot through the mechanical arms. Both men jerked violently, then rolled their eyes back and passed out.
The Security Robot dragged the three "human-shaped pieces of trash" toward another freight passage leading to the surface.
Watching this, Orochimaru licked his lips with his long tongue and spoke hoarsely. "Qin Feng, are you really letting them go? Their genes still have considerable research value."
"There's no rush." Qin Feng watched the security feed showing the robot dumping the three bodies into a garbage heap outside the city. A cruel smile tugged at his lips.
"The bait's already been cast."
"Now we just have to wait and see when that big fish, Bibi Dong, takes the hook."
Garbage collection site outside Nuoding City.
"Thud! Thud! Thud!"
With three dull thumps, Salas, Xie Yue, and Yan were unceremoniously tossed onto a heap of industrial waste that reeked of sour rot.
The night wind blew, and Salas slowly came to.
He opened his eyes and saw the towering city gates of Nuoding City, like the jaws of a steel monster.
Humiliation!
Rage!
Fear!
At that moment, all his emotions turned into a boundless hatred!
He struggled up from the garbage heap. His once-luxurious Platinum Bishop robes had been reduced to rags.
He glared at the countless surveillance cameras barely visible above the city wall and, summoning every last bit of strength, let out a venomous roar!
"Qin Feng!!"
"Just you wait!"
"Salas will never forget this humiliation! Within three days, Spirit Hall's army will trample this place flat! I'll grind you and this filthy city of yours to dust!!"
His voice echoed through the night, filled with reckless madness.
The wall stood in utter silence.
Salas thought his threats had intimidated them.
He helped Xie Yue and Yan, who had also come around, to their feet. A cruel, satisfied grin spread across his face.
Just wait, you ants! Just wait until you tremble beneath Spirit Hall's iron hooves!
But just as he was about to turn and summon the knights stationed outside the city,
Qin Feng's familiar, lazy voice sounded again from the loudspeaker on the wall.
"Oh? Is that so?"
"Spirit Hall's army? I'm terrified."
"Bishop Salas, it seems you still don't understand what it means to be outmatched."
As soon as he finished speaking,
"BOOM—"
A tremendous, muffled roar came from inside Nuoding City.
Salas whirled around.
He saw the armored panels atop a tower in the city sliding open. A massive cylinder, tens of meters long and gleaming with a metallic chill, slowly rose into the air.
That wasn't a cannon!
What was it?!
A dazzling blue flame erupted from the cylinder's tail. Its terrifying thrust made the surrounding air wail as if it could no longer bear the strain!
It wasn't aimed at Salas. Instead, it tilted sharply upward and shot into the sky!
Fast!
Too fast!
In just one second, it had shrunk to a tiny point of fire and vanished tens of thousands of meters above them.
"Just putting on a show!" Salas snorted, thinking it was nothing more than an attempt to scare them.
But in the next instant, Xie Yue, behind him, pointed at the distant sky and let out a scream as if he'd seen a ghost.
"Th-that's... what is that?!"
Salas whipped around and followed Xie Yue's gaze.
At least fifty kilometers from Nuoding City, a point of fire trailed a long tail of flame as it plummeted from the eastern horizon!
Its target was a towering barren mountain on the distant horizon!
Time seemed to slow.
There was no sound.
No explosion.
Only a blinding white light erupted atop the barren mountain!
Its radiance was a million times brighter than the sun!
Pain stabbed through Salas's eyes, and tears streamed down his face.
Then an enormous mushroom cloud of smoke and flame slowly rose, reaching for the sky!
The towering mountain, which had stood for countless millennia, vanished silently beneath that mushroom cloud, like a sandcastle crushed in someone's hand.
Silence.
The whole world fell silent.
Salas, Xie Yue, Yan, and the Spirit Hall knights in the distance all stared blankly at the mushroom cloud as it slowly dispersed. Their minds went completely blank.
The mountain... was gone?
A mountain had just... vanished?
What kind of Soul Skill was that?
No! That wasn't a Soul Skill! Even a god couldn't unleash an attack so devastating!
More than ten seconds passed.
"RUMBLE!!!"
Only then did the deafening explosion arrive!
Right behind it came a horrifying shock wave, like a category eighteen storm!
Sand and rocks flew everywhere. The sky darkened, and the earth shook!
The shock wave hurled Salas, Xie Yue, and Yan into the air. They tumbled across the ground more than a dozen times before coming to a stop.
Ignoring the pain all over their bodies, they stared in terror at the distant plain where the mountain had stood, trembling like leaves in the wind.
Just then, Qin Feng's voice rang out from the wall again, like a devil delivering judgment. Every word carried clearly to everyone's ears.
"Bishop Salas, did you see that?"
"That's the Dongfeng-1 surface-to-surface conventional tactical missile. It has a range of three hundred kilometers and an error margin of no more than ten meters."
"That one just now was only an expired model I was clearing out of storage. Its payload had been reduced by eighty percent."
Qin Feng paused, his voice full of mockery and cold amusement.
"You said Spirit Hall's army was coming?"
"Good."
"I happen to need some moving targets to test my new toys."
"Give Bibi Dong my thanks."
"I'll take the missiles you sent me."
"Thump!"
Salas could hold himself up no longer. His knees buckled, and he dropped straight to the ground.
There was no hatred left in his eyes, only an all-consuming fear that had sunk into his bones.
An army?
Trample the city flat?
What were they supposed to use to do that?!
Throw their lives away?!
"Run! Run!!"
Salas let out a shrill scream and scrambled toward the knights outside the city, as wretched as a stray dog driven from its home.
Inside the Central Control Room.
Qin Feng watched Salas and the others flee in disgrace on the screen, his expression unchanged.
He turned to Grey Wolf and Orochimaru behind him and issued new orders.
"Brother Wolf, push every production line to maximum capacity. Within three days, I want a thousand Dongfeng missiles and a hundred thousand Tyrant Power Armor suits ready for deployment."
"Doctor, it's time to put those captured 'experimental subjects' of yours to use."
"Implant the T-Virus in every one of them. I want a Biochemical Legion that's utterly loyal and fears nothing, not even death."
Qin Feng's gaze shifted to the map on the screen, toward Spirit City. His eyes were cold.
"Tell Ning Fengzhi to speed up the delivery of all mineral resources."
"The war has begun."
Before you continue