Just a small whim of power

The Federal Parliament Building.

"Give me the coordinates."

"Councilor, please take a look." Standing beside Qian Gu Fenfeng, Pan Changwen respectfully handed him a file.

"Hmm... I propose deploying Eternal Heaven on Shrek City."

"Uh, well..."

"Councilor, you have already reached the absolute pinnacle. Why use a cannon to swat a mosquito?"

"Oh? What is your view, my loyal minister?"

"In this humble minister's opinion, you need only have others wipe out Shrek's direct line, then deploy Eternal Heaven on the Abyss Plane, and our Federation will have nothing to fear!"

"Hahaha, under ordinary circumstances, that would indeed be a good approach." Qian Gu Fenfeng's gaze was deep. "However, I intend to let the Abyss Plane invade the Douluo Continent..."

A sharp intake of breath...

The Parliament Chamber fell deathly silent.

The Council Members' faces instantly turned ashen as they looked at Qian Gu Fenfeng in disbelief.

"Don't look so surprised, everyone. After all... only turmoil can highlight my benevolence."

Hearing this, the council members immediately broke into cold sweats. Of course, no hotheaded fool would say anything like, "Your benevolence does not need suffering to highlight it," at a time like this.

"Of course, what Secretary Pan just gave me wasn't merely Shrek City's coordinates, but also every property registered under your names... My loyal ministers, who supports this, and who opposes it?"

"I support it!"

"I support it too!"

Shrek Academy, Sea God Pavilion.

Lately, Yun Ming had been lying in the loft of the Golden Ancient Tree. Although he could not move his body, his thoughts were extraordinarily active. He remembered Yali's cold treatment of him after their marriage, remembered her concern when Qian Gu Fenfeng was unconscious... and that cry of "Daddy"... These images followed him like his shadow, impossible to shake, playing over and over in his mind... Still less could he control his thoughts as he imagined Qian Gu Fenfeng and Yali alone together... those muffled sounds, one after another...

No!!

Yun Ming screamed in his heart.

He could not go on like this. Absolutely not! He had to pull himself together! He was the Sea God Pavilion Master, the focus of countless eyes! Back then, for Yali's sake... he had even told Qian Gu Fenfeng the precise location of the Tang Sect Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well!

But... now he could do nothing... He could only lie here, eating and waiting to die... It was all Qian Gu Fenfeng's fault! His fault for developing Yali into that, his fault for using him as a human shield to withstand a God Level blow!

How he hated him...

Dimly, he seemed to hear a commotion outside the door, and his brows furrowed slightly.

"Yali, how has Brother Yun been lately?"

It was Qian Gu Fenfeng's voice! Yun Ming immediately felt as though a heavy hammer had struck his chest.

"D-Daddy, I don't know... I've done all my homework these past few days..." Yali's voice trembled, whether from excitement or nervousness.

"I'll go take a look. After all, he did act courageously for a righteous cause, volunteering to take that fatal blow for me."

Yun Ming froze. Although he could not open his eyes, he still pictured Qian Gu Fenfeng's wicked face and Yali's delicate body.

He... he was supposed to be Yali's husband!!

But why had even he never seen it!

The footsteps drew closer.

Qian Gu Fenfeng looked straight at Yun Ming lying on the bed and gave a meaningful smile, thinking, This is the last time, Yun Ming.

"Daddy, please inspect my results!" As she spoke, Yali paid no heed to Yun Ming still lying there and clung to him.

"Hahaha, then it would be discourteous of me to refuse! I imagine Pavilion Master Yun won't mind."

"Oh? You're saying your fingers only reached this far?"

"Mm... yes, Director..."

"What about here?"

"Eek!"

Unfortunately, Yun Ming could not open his eyes now, or his face would already have been streaming with tears.

Mingdu, Spirit Pagoda.

Deep blue Soul Tool Displays covered an entire stone wall of the Spirit Pagoda's underground command center, and the low hum of operating Soul Tool Cores drifted through the air.

Dozens of Soul Engineers held their breath in concentration, their fingertips constantly rising and falling over the console's crystal keys as streams of data raced across the displays.

Qiangu Dongfeng stood before the raised platform, his somber gaze resting on the central main screen. On it, a three-dimensional terrain model of Shrek City slowly rotated.

"Coordinate calibration complete," the Soul Engineer responsible for positioning reported hoarsely. "Cross-verified by multiple sets of High-Altitude Detection Soul Tools. Target coordinates locked on Shrek City's central district, with an error margin of less than a hundred meters. All weather and terrain parameters have been loaded into the Eternal Heaven Fire-Control Module."

"Verify again!" Qiangu Dongfeng ordered in a low voice.

The displays flickered. A second layer of verification data streamed into the model, and the red point of light marking the positioning anchor remained firmly fixed at Shrek City's core.

"Target confirmed!"

A glaring red light lit up the console. Eternal Heaven's charging indicator began pulsing steadily, and within the heavy underground space, that oppressive sense of all-consuming destruction continued to rise as it charged.

"Deploy!" The Pagoda Master slowly raised his hand and brought it down on the final Launch Authorization Crystal.

Ten thousand meters in the sky, Eternal Heaven finished charging.

First, a dazzling speck of light appeared in the heavens, a pure white radiance capable of rending heaven and earth. In an instant, it swelled into a pillar of light spanning the firmament, like a god's descending blade of judgment, carrying the momentum to destroy heaven and earth as it thundered down upon Shrek City's heart.

The instant the white light touched the ground, time seemed to pause briefly.

Only in the next second did an unimaginable boom tear through heaven and earth. The air was utterly vaporized, and the trembling of space produced a low roar. A ring of translucent, destructive shock waves swept madly outward from the point of impact.

Shrek's thick ancient city walls, their ten-thousand-year-old masonry, were pulverized in an instant, without even time to leave broken remnants; the outer court's teaching buildings, training grounds, covered walkways, and ancient trees were carbonized and shattered directly beneath the heat wave, vanishing into the white light in a flash.

Sea God Lake's vast expanse of water abruptly boiled, and towering white mist surged into the sky. The savage force tore at the lake water, raising waves dozens of meters high, but scarcely had those waves formed before the heat evaporated them into vapor that filled the air.

The earth shook violently. A dense web of bottomless fissures split the ground, and shattered rocks were hurled high into the sky, only to melt in the heat into a crimson rain of magma that splashed in every direction.

At that critical moment, the Guardian Barrier passed down through ten thousand years of the Sea God Pavilion's history blazed to life. A gentle yet substantial pale golden dome rose from the bottom of Sea God Lake, firmly enclosing the Sea God Pavilion's core. The barrier collided violently with Eternal Heaven's torrent of destruction!

Buzzz-!

Spiderweb cracks instantly crawled across the dome's surface, and its golden radiance flickered violently between light and dark.

The barrier desperately endured the devastating impact. Brittle cracking sounds rang continuously through the air, and in just a few breaths, this defensive barrier that had protected Shrek for ten thousand years shattered completely with an earth-shaking crack. Golden motes scattered like rain into the heat wave.

Hard rock melted and flowed, and vegetation instantly turned to drifting ash. Countless teachers and students within the city hastily released their Martial Souls. Lights from Soul Skills of every color flared one after another as the Soul Masters strained with all their might to raise defenses. But before the power of a God-Slaying Level Weapon, the vast majority of Soul Skills were as thin as cicada wings, melting away completely the moment they touched the heat wave.

"Wh... why?"

"Did I do my AI badly and make the Director angry?"

Yali stared blankly into the sky and murmured.

Beside her, Yun Ming had already breathed his last before Eternal Heaven fell.

An enormous mushroom cloud rose from Shrek City's center. A crimson pillar of fire shot into the clouds, and billowing, charred-black smoke spread across a vast stretch of sky, turning daylight into something like dusk. Scorching blasts swept in every direction. Even forests hundreds of kilometers away were ignited by the heat wave, while the distant earth continued to tremble.

The light slowly faded, and the roaring gradually subsided.