Curfew Lifted

After some thought, Song Chen made his decision.

"Let's upgrade my ability first. System, upgrade my Lightning Ability."

[Are you sure you want to consume 1,000 Slaughter Points to upgrade your Lightning Ability to B-rank?]

"Confirm."

A bolt of lightning flashed through the void and surged into Song Chen's body. He immediately felt a tingling sensation throughout, his meridians filled to the brim.

[Upgrade complete. Lightning Ability has evolved into the B-rank ability: Space-Splitting Lightning.]

With a flick of his mind, a bolt of purple lightning shot from his palm, striking the wall and leaving behind a charred, deep pit.

After the upgrade, the power of the lightning had surged several times over. Its color had shifted from deep blue to purple, its destructive force and paralyzing effects were vastly improved, and he could now release multiple bolts simultaneously.

"Not bad, not bad."

Song Chen was very satisfied with Space-Splitting Lightning.

Next, he tried imbuing the lightning power onto his blade. This was a technique he had discovered through trial and error during his recent combat, and when combined with the Blood War Blade Technique, the power was astonishing.

Now, every strike he unleashed carried destructive lightning damage; at last, his ability was no longer just for crowd control.

He looked at his hands. In just over ten days, his strength had undergone a heaven-shaking transformation. If he were to encounter that second-rank Black Bear from the other day now, he wouldn't need seven strikes—one would be enough.

He stood up and walked to the window.

Outside, the sky had turned dark. The sky was illuminated by countless spiritual energy particles, dreamlike and illusory. Even after watching them for many years, he still found this starry sky to be incredibly beautiful.

Just as Song Chen was about to rest, he suddenly sensed an unusual aura. It descended from the sky—powerful, vast, and unfathomable.

Song Chen's pupils constricted sharply as he looked up at the sky.

In the night sky, a massive black shadow was slowly descending. It was an airship—a real airship. Not the small hover-cars he had seen before, but a genuine, massive vessel capable of traversing the heavens.

The hull was over a hundred meters long, entirely silver-white, gleaming coldly under the moonlight. Complex spiritual energy patterns were carved into its body, and one could see energy flowing through them.

The airship circled above Anning City. It flew very low, almost brushing the height of the city walls, its massive shadow sweeping across the city and covering several streets at once.

Song Chen stood by the window, head tilted back, motionless. This was his first time seeing an airship. He had seen them countless times in movies in his past life, but seeing one with his own eyes was a completely different kind of shock.

It was too big, too powerful. Especially the aura radiating from the ship—there was a presence there so strong it was suffocating. That aura permeated down from the ship like an invisible mountain pressing down on everyone's heads.

Song Chen's 9.6 blood-energy value felt as insignificant as an ant before that aura. He clenched his fists, his palms slick with sweat.

Who was this? What kind of cultivation realm was this?

The airship circled in the sky—once, twice, three times. It circled for two full hours before heading toward the ruins of Evergreen City.

Song Chen walked out of his room and into the camp's open area. Many people were already standing there, heads tilted back, watching the airship in the sky. There were martial artists, soldiers, and staff members; everyone was too stunned by that massive existence to speak.

"What is that?" someone asked in a low voice.

"An airship... It's an airship from Great Xia."

"Great Xia? Did it come from Shangjing?"

"It must have. A small place like our Anning wouldn't have an airship of that caliber."

"Do you feel it? The aura on that thing..."

Everyone fell silent. That aura was too strong, so strong that it made it impossible to even conceive of resisting.

Song Chen stood in the crowd, listening to the surrounding discussions.

An old martial artist suddenly spoke up: "I think that person is here to resolve the Beast King crisis. They must have been sent by the higher-ups of Great Xia. That aura up there—it's a sixth-rank Grandmaster, no doubt about it."

Sixth-rank Grandmaster. Upon hearing this term, Song Chen's breathing hitched for a moment. A Grandmaster—that was a being who truly stood at the pinnacle of the martial path.

"Alright, stop staring. Go get some rest. Since a Grandmaster is here, there shouldn't be any problems."

A staff member shouted from the side.

The airship had already flown far away, and there was no point in staying out, so Song Chen headed back.

The next day, Song Chen opened his eyes and sat up.

A new day meant heading out of the city again. He stretched his body, feeling the surging blood-energy within him, then pushed open the door and stepped out of his room.

The atmosphere in the camp was a bit strange. Usually, at this time, many martial artists would be warming up on the open ground, checking their gear, and chatting in small groups. But today, there were far fewer people, and the few who were there were huddled together, whispering with complex expressions on their faces.

Song Chen frowned. He walked over and tapped a familiar martial artist on the shoulder: "Old Wang, what's going on?"

Old Wang turned around, and his eyes lit up when he saw it was him: "Little Song, you haven't heard yet?"

"Heard what?"

Old Wang lowered his voice, though he couldn't hide the excitement in his tone: "The Level One Martial Law has been lifted!"

Song Chen was stunned: "Lifted?"

Old Wang pointed toward the city walls: "That's right, the announcement was just released. Look over there, the spiritual energy cannons are already cooling down, and the number of patrols has been cut in half!"

Song Chen looked up. On the distant city walls, the spiritual energy cannons that had been charging for over ten days indeed had much dimmer lights at their muzzles, and the teams of martial artists patrolling the walls were significantly thinner.

"How could it be lifted? What about that Beast King?"

Old Wang shrugged. "I don't know. That's what I heard. Anning City has been tracking that peak Tier 5 beast king for days, but they haven't found a trace of it since the day it was discovered. Yesterday, a grandmaster from Shangjing flew over in an airship and scoured hundreds of kilometers around Anning City and Evergreen City, but still found nothing."

"The final conclusion was that the beast king must have just been passing through and fled after being spotted by humans. After all, it was at a critical stage of breaking through and didn't want any complications. Since it ran off, the martial law order was naturally lifted."

Song Chen remained silent for a few seconds. It ran? That peak Tier 5 beast king, which had kept all of Anning City in a state of panic for over ten days, just ran away like that? He thought of Researcher Xie lying on the stretcher that day, the gruesome wound on her chest, and the scouts who had died so miserably. And it just... ran?

He couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't that simple.

He asked again, unconvinced, "Is that for real?"

"Could an official announcement be fake? Regardless, the grandmaster confirmed there's no trace of a beast king nearby. Everyone is finally breathing a sigh of relief; at least we don't have to live in constant fear anymore."

Song Chen nodded and said nothing more.

He stood where he was, gazing at the city walls in the distance.

Martial law had been lifted, but what did that mean? It meant the number of exotic beasts outside the city might decrease, and he wouldn't be able to hunt as recklessly as he had these past few days.

But that wasn't the most important thing. The most important thing was that with martial law lifted and order restored in the city, Zhao Wei would be free to move about.

At that thought, a sense of urgency gripped his heart.