Holy Light Thunder Prison, New York's Dawn

Lin Ye's thunderous punch, containing the dual powers of purification and shock, smashed through some invisible glass vessel and slammed fiercely into the core of the pale energy vortex!

Boom—!!!

An indescribably terrifying explosion of energy erupted across Brooklyn! But this explosion was not one of pure destruction. Instead, it was filled with contradictions—

Utmost brilliance and profound darkness burst forth at once! Purifying lightning and death energy clashed and annihilated each other with unprecedented violence! A savage shockwave rapidly spread outward in a ring. Every low-level undead creature in its path vaporized and vanished before it could even scream! The buildings lining both sides of the street were swept by the force like a gale, their windows shattered and walls cracked!

Yet at the same time, because the energy vortex had been forcibly interrupted, the city's electrical power and life energy, which had originally been siphoned away, lost their guidance and violently surged back! New York City's power grid let out an overwhelmed wail as multiple substations overloaded and exploded, triggering secondary fires and chaos! Countless citizens felt dizzy and disoriented from the sudden disruption of their life energy, with some even fainting briefly!

Lin Ye bore the brunt of it, violently blasted away by the shockwave of pure lightning mixed with filthy death energy. Lightning around his body flickered fiercely, and [Soul Barrier] let out a faint cracking sound. A sweetness rose in his throat, and he nearly coughed up blood. But he forcibly steadied himself and stared fixedly at the heart of the explosion.

With its energy supply abruptly cut off, the enormous phantom pyramid became extremely unstable. Cracks spread over its surface, while its release of death mist and grayish-white beams came to an abrupt halt! It flickered and twisted violently, as though it might collapse at any moment!

"Now!" Lin Ye suppressed his injuries and gathered lightning in his hands once more, preparing to deliver the final blow!

However, the phantom pyramid seemed to realize that it had reached its end and launched one final, most vicious counterattack! It no longer tried to sustain itself. Instead, it compressed and condensed all its remaining energy into a tiny gray-black beam refined to the utmost extreme. Ignoring the distance through space, it shot before Lin Ye in an instant! The laws of death and decay contained within this beam far surpassed anything from before!

Lin Ye's pupils contracted sharply as [Thunderflash: Time Lag] activated instinctively! Everything around him instantly slowed, but the death beam was still astonishingly fast! He barely twisted aside as the beam grazed his chest!

Hiss!

Though it had only grazed him, Lin Ye felt an extreme coldness and deathly stillness invade his body in an instant! The flesh in its path seemed to lose all vitality immediately, turning gray and numb! Even the lightning energy circulating within him became slightly sluggish!

What a terrifying law of death!

Just as Lin Ye was injured and the phantom pyramid was about to fire a second beam—

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

Several brilliant golden portals lit up simultaneously in different locations above New York City!

Kamar-Taj's reinforcements had finally arrived!

Dozens of elite battle mages led by Baron Mordo rushed out first. Well-trained, they immediately spread out, using their Sling Rings to form golden energy whips and Shields of Seraphim. They precisely struck and bound the remaining undead creatures while establishing temporary defensive lines to protect the panicked citizens.

"Holy light of the Vishanti, dispel the darkness!" Mordo raised both hands, and an enormous Vishanti rune appeared in the air, casting down a warm golden radiance. It effectively neutralized the lingering death mist in the air and eased the citizens' discomfort.

Immediately afterward, Wong led another group of mages in constructing powerful sealing formations before each dimensional rift. Golden runic chains wrapped around the edges of the rifts, forcibly shrinking and sealing them shut!

The Ancient One herself appeared directly above the unstable phantom pyramid! Her expression was calm as her hands formed an incomparably complex seal. The Orb of Agamotto floated before her, radiating immense power over time and space.

"By the ancient body of Hoggoth, the primordial feet of Oshtur, and in the name of Agamotto's gaze—Spatiotemporal Prohibition!"

An invisible yet incomparably vast force of time and space descended like a giant net, instantly solidifying and freezing the phantom pyramid and the surrounding space together! Its second death beam had only just left its body by an inch before it was forcibly fixed in midair, unable to advance another fraction!

"Lin Ye!" The Ancient One shouted.

No words were needed! Enduring the numbness and deathly stillness in his chest, Lin Ye pushed the power of [Soul-Purifying Thunder] to its limit and incorporated the slight new insight he had just gained into [Thunder Law]—not merely destruction and purification, but also a trace of the law of "dispersing" and "negating" negative states!

"Thunder Edict: Repel All Evil!"

He held two fingers together like a sword, and an immensely condensed bolt of violet-gold lightning, seemingly formed from the very concepts of "negation" and "purification," shot out instantly and precisely entered the core of the time-space-frozen phantom pyramid!

There was no explosion.

Like a snow sculpture meeting its natural nemesis, the phantom pyramid silently melted and dissipated from within, turning into the most fundamental particles and vanishing completely into time and space! The frozen death beam disappeared along with it!

The core threat had finally been removed!

With the phantom pyramid gone, the remaining undead creatures seemed to have lost both their backbone and their source of energy. Their movements slowed, and their strength greatly diminished. The pressure on Kamar-Taj's mages and the ground forces dropped sharply as they began efficiently clearing out the remaining enemies.

The dimensional rifts in the sky were also successfully sealed and closed one after another through the efforts of Wong and the others.

The dim yellow hue over New York gradually faded, revealing the deepest night sky before dawn. Though the air was still filled with smoke and sorrow, the suffocating oppression of death finally began to disperse.

Lin Ye slowly descended from the sky and stood amid the wreckage of the street, breathing lightly. The place on his chest grazed by the death beam still throbbed with numbness and pain. The residual power of the law of death was extraordinarily stubborn, clashing and annihilating itself against the lightning within him. He needed some time to eliminate it completely.

"You're injured?" The Ancient One appeared beside him, her gaze falling upon his grayish chest.

"Just a minor injury. It's nothing." Lin Ye shook his head and looked toward the mages and rescue teams busy with relief efforts and cleanup. "Thank you for arriving in time."

"Likewise. If you hadn't decisively destroyed its energy source and borne the brunt of its attack, we wouldn't have been able to seal it so smoothly." The Ancient One spoke evenly. "Your methods against the undead are more effective than those of many masters who specialize in such matters."

At that moment, Spider-Man, Peter Parker, swung down on a web. His suit was covered in dust and a little green pus. He looked somewhat bedraggled, but his eyes were bright. "Mr. Lin! Master Ancient One! Those ghost things seem to be disappearing! That's great!" His voice was weary, yet filled with excitement and relief.

"Well done, child." The Ancient One rarely showed such a gentle smile to a stranger. "You saved many lives."

Peter scratched his head awkwardly. "I just... did what I was supposed to do."

Lin Ye nodded at him as well. "Your reactions were quick, and you acted decisively. Keep it up."

Receiving approval from two major figures, Peter immediately became so excited that he hardly knew what to do with himself.

The sky gradually turned pale. Dawn was approaching.

Through the combined efforts of Kamar-Taj, Lin Ye, the police, firefighters, and countless street heroes and ordinary people like Peter, New York's sudden undead catastrophe was finally contained.

Though the city was devastated, casualties were severe, and an indelible shadow had been left in people's hearts, at least the worst possible outcome had been avoided.

Cleanup and reconstruction continued for several days.

After purging the residual law of death from his body, Lin Ye also helped deal with scattered undead incidents and energy contamination in the aftermath.

During that time, Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. personally called to express his gratitude once again and hoped to establish a deeper cooperative framework for dimensional defense. Tony Stark also publicly and privately thanked "Thunder" and "Kamar-Taj" for their aid during the crisis, promising that Stark Industries would fully support New York's reconstruction.

After this battle, the existence and power of Lin Ye, "Thunder," as well as the mysterious organization known as "Kamar-Taj," truly entered the view of major powers and ordinary people across the world. People's understanding of and attitudes toward supernatural power underwent subtle yet far-reaching changes.

However, both Lin Ye and the Ancient One knew that in this battle, they had merely repelled one large-scale attack from their enemy. Those cold eyes hidden deep within the Endless Bone Graveyard had not vanished.

On the contrary, through this test, the enemy had gained a clearer understanding of Lin Ye's strength and Earth's defensive capabilities.

The next time it opened its eyes, what it brought would likely be a true world-ending calamity.

Lin Ye stood atop the newly restored Sanctuary, the [Thunder Pact] mark on the back of his hand faintly heating up as if yearning for the next battle.

He knew that peace was only temporary.

He had to become stronger.

(End of Chapter 48)