Under the golden dome, hundreds of airships were showcasing the empire’s vast prestige and dignity.
People cheered amidst the broadcast sound. Tears were shed, and the fear deep underground was released and transformed during the parade.
“Look! These are our empire’s arks!“
— “…The complete…Great Crun Plan, is the manifestation of the empire’s lion-like resolve! Buzz——“
Amid the hiss of harsh signal distortion, tens of thousands of citizens on the ground seemed disoriented for a moment, as a distant muffled roar dissipated like an apparition.
Suddenly, one person opened their mouth with an ‘ah’, pointing toward the rooftop!
On the rooftop, a faint white trail cut through the air with a sharp screech, like a cold needle piercing through all the warm clamor!
Shock and fear rendered him incapable of speaking correctly.
The shell, along a determined curved trajectory, was fired toward a seventy-meter-long medium-sized escort vessel overhead!
A small shell, carrying a cold aura, gently kissed the stern airbag of the guard boat marked “Xian 024 Wei “.
There was a brief, heart-stopping silence.
Then!
An expanding ball of orange-red fire exploded with a bang!
“Aaaah! “
Countless people instantly screamed in terror. Torn shrapnel and burning frame fragments were violently hurled in all directions, like a sudden rain of death!
The “Xian 024 Wei ” let out a deafening roar, its entire hull shuddered violently, and its bow pitched downward. Meanwhile, some debris and thick smoke enveloped by flames billowed upward.
Even higher up, a large airship with a hull length of 140 meters had its gasbag instantly ignited!
Bang! A shell shot from the skybound airship towards the rooftop, blasting the concealed mortar and its operator into dust.
But the chain of calamity had already been set ablaze.
The enormous, out-of-control hull of the “Krupp En 227 “, trailing raging flames like a torch from hell, crashed straight into the broadside of the “Krupp En 351 “, which was comparable in size, ahead and to the side.
BOOM—!
The second explosion was ten times more violent than the first!
The “Krupp En 351 “, fully loaded with a maintenance team’s gondola, instantly became a coffin of death raining down fireworks of human flesh.
The immense shockwave, like an invisible giant fist, slammed it violently into the ground, shattering every window pane in the neighboring streets.
The fallen gondola shattered into countless fragments, smashing through glass and door frames and exploding indoors. Two terrified men and women at the window were pierced through the chest and skull by fragments of burning wood.
As for the dome… Its scattered, burning debris showered the third, fourth, and fifth airships even closer by.
In an instant, a continuous symphony of destruction played out across the sky. Several airships on the fringes were emergency launched into the air.
“Ahhh!! “
“Run for it! “
One airship after another was set ablaze, with the roar of explosions echoing one after another.
The shelter overhead became a cascading inferno in an instant, as if dragging hell itself down from the sky to the mortal world.
……
Foreign Guest Reception Hall.
— “Buzz… ” The broadcast no longer produced the coherent sounds of the award ceremony.
Moffatf stared at the domed sky, the flames reflected in his eyes.
The giant hull overhead was splitting in two, plunging from the sky with a wail of despair!
“Run! What are you waiting for? ” Two figures of researchers beside him came charging over, rushing towards him.
Boom!
With a deafening crash, the guesthouse building below was breached walls by plummeting steel girders, kicking up dust mixed with sparks of fire.
This exquisite brick building instantly collapsed halfway into rubble.
“Mortafe! ” Dereiano’s swift figure, approaching the speed of sound, rushed towards the short old man and his team members.
……
In the venue of the award ceremony, the entire ground and the air trembled together in a series of heavy explosions. They resonated like a symphony, making people’s hearts clench suddenly.
“What’s happening! “
The crowd turned to look at the door that the guards had flung open.
On the spacious award stage draped with a red carpet, the Development Planning Minister, waiting to give a speech, changed his expression abruptly at the sound. Then the Military Minister, waiting in the front row, ignoring everything else, dashed towards the side door and charged out.
“Guards! Hurry, military police! “
“Organized rescue! “
Everyone was in chaos. Haimasen, the president of the Academy of Sciences, watched the panicked crowd fleeing from the stage beside him, his entire mind blank and frozen in place.
Finally, Haimasen snapped back to reality, trembling all over.
That initial explosion sounded like the firing of a 44mm anti-aircraft gun? It’s impossible.
But in an instant, he felt his life had been completely plunged into hell.
The building suddenly shook violently. A canvas of flame, several dozen meters long, collapsed onto the structure and stone steps.
Some soldiers and people who had run out were instantly set ablaze by the fire.
More skeletal frames toppled down, and burning fragments rained indiscriminately like fiery hail onto the crowded squares and streets of Kruun City. Every piece of falling canvas could take away many lives of flesh and blood.
Amid the shaking earth and trembling mountains, Yang Zicang grabbed Hailikoni, who was staggering. Zorro, on the other hand, half-hugged the waist of Jennifer, who was completely unable to stand steady in her seat.
“Why is this happening? “
Jennifer said in a tense, breathless tone. Suddenly, the lights overhead flickered a few times and then went out.
“Oh no, Mortav and the others are still in the hotel! ” Yang Zicang’s scalp tingled as he glanced towards the door.
“Dereiano is with him. Damn it, if Mortav is still watching these things outside, Dereiano might not be able to protect everyone from escaping the flames. “
Zorro suddenly sensed a shadow looming over them. The flying carpet appeared, wrapped around them, and turned into a high-speed black shadow that shot towards the entrance.
With a whoosh, the air exploded in a loud pop at the doorway as the flying carpet passed through.
“Help! “
Beside the flying carpet soaring through the sky, a gondola was plummeting amidst the flames.
Yang Zicang saw the terrified faces of the warriors and control personnel inside the tilted cabin.
A thin strand of light rose from the circular emblem on his chest and wrapped around it. The descending speed of the pod immediately slowed significantly. However, they were still hundreds of meters from the ground, and his own range of influence was nowhere near this distance.
“Get out! Hurry up and go!“
In that single instant, Zorro made his decision on the giant carpet. He sprinted toward its edge, leaped off, and fell toward the area below the airship.
Seeing Zorro plummet in a freefall, unleashing no Model ability at all, Yang Zicang instantly understood his intention. Gritting his teeth, he relinquished control of the pod two seconds later.
The flying carpet accelerated once more, rushing toward the Reception Hall near the east of the city.
The pod, having lost its gravity control, accelerated again as it plunged toward the ground.
Zorro, landing on the ground, looked up to see a dark shadow hurtling toward him at high speed.
Bang!
In the very instant before the pod crashed into the ground, a hexagonal forcefield suddenly expanded!
It vanished in the next moment, then rapidly expanded and vanished several more times, each time lowering its position.
The young man underneath the pod shimmered with a faint, golden phantom aura. Crouching and struggling with effort, he strained to support the forcefield and the pod above him, rapidly dissipating its heavy falling momentum to a safe speed within half a second.
……
The Reception Hall was reduced to a pile of ruins enveloped in flames.
Yang Zicang looked down from mid-air. The flying carpet tilted, carrying him and the two women clutching its surface, as it dove toward the ground covered in debris and fire.
The secret art circuits of the Frost-Snow Sword Art within him hummed rapidly, drawing wisps of frigid aura close to his body. As they neared the ground, Yang Zicang pulled back his arm, activated the secret art circuits of the Explosive Wind Fist, and punched out!
A gale erupted, the chill almost extinguishing the flames scattered across the small courtyard.
“Dereiano! Motaf! “
The first thing he saw upon landing were two bodies on the ground. One was in a military uniform, the other the young man who had been beside Motaf!
A chill shot up his spine, and Yang Zicang’s breath caught for a moment.
He forcefully suppressed the still-active Explosive Wind Fist technique, channeling the Musing Night to expand through his meridians despite the backlash.
“Yang Buchen! I’m over here! “
Dereiano’s voice finally came through. Yang Zicang immediately rushed towards the house that hadn’t yet completely collapsed. The moment he neared the doorway, the high heat stirred the Chrono-Void Flame layers covering him. A series of dense descriptions of years and months canceling out echoed within his consciousness.
He looked at the people gathered inside the room, covering their mouths and noses with their clothes. Then his gaze froze.
“What happened to Motaf! “
In the grimy Dereiano’s arms was the old man, unconscious. His body was stained with blood.
As Yang Zicang ran in and looked closely, he saw that half of Motaf’s arm had been blown clean off by the explosion, the entire wound a charred, seared mixture of flesh and burnt flesh.
“He’s still alive. Hurry up! Get your train over here. “
“Me! It… ” Yang Zicang turned his head to look at the gradually brightening blue sky outside, then abruptly turned back to look at the group of people in the room.
“Everyone, get ready to board my flying carpet. “
Under Dereiano’s gloomy gaze as he watched Mortav’s condition, Yang Zicang punched away half of the wall by the doorway, controlling the flying carpet – which was half-covering the two ladies – to come closer.
Dereiano didn’t hesitate for a second; he jumped onto the flying carpet holding Mortav. Following him were the four surviving members of Mortav’s team in the room, plus personnel from the envoy group and the reception hall.
Over a dozen people hunched their backs and moved up amidst the dust and smoke. Yang Zicang was the last to jump on, taking control of the flying carpet as it rose.
“Finally saved, ” someone said.
Everyone looked sorrowfully at the entire city outside, engulfed in a raging sea of fire, interspersed with occasional off-key howls of grief.
The flying carpet swiftly streaked across the sky. Soon after, Yang Zicang instructed everyone to close their eyes and turn around. Although they didn’t know why, they did as they were told.
Then Dereiano saw the stone coffin that Yang Zicang had summoned.
“This is… this is wonderful. ” Dereiano, who had been constantly worried that Mortav would die, finally collapsed weakly onto the carpet’s surface, gasping in large gulps of fresh air.
After selecting and using a healing-type Ability Sphere, Yang Zicang turned to Dereiano, whose eyes lacked any spirit, and said:
“Three of the experts he brought with him are dead. Do you think… we just happened to run into a saboteur, or have we caught the attention of our time, as the rumors say? “
Upon hearing this, Dereiano felt a surge of uncontrollable anger burst from his chest.
“I hope no one is pulling a reverse glow act. “
Then, after a moment of contemplation, he analyzed rationally:
“To say fate is specifically targeting the Motaafu team… That should, hmm, be unlikely. “
“Is that so? ” Yang Zicang felt Motaafu’s breathing gradually stabilize on the flying carpet.
“But even if it’s not specifically targeting us, being affected is certain. ” The man let out a deep sigh:
“It is said that the destiny woven by our times is always heavy-handed yet subtle. A single ripple is enough to sweep all relevant figures into its net. As your people say, ‘The net of Heaven stretches wide, yet nothing slips through its coarse mesh.’ So we’re just collateral damage. Damn it. “
Amidst the sounds of air raid sirens, Yang Zicang used a flying carpet, scouring the city for residents still in need of rescue.
Some gunshots and buzzing sounds began to ring out.
Flying past a street, Yang Zicang saw several tanks rumbling, crushing and grinding their way towards the city center over streets littered with debris and charred corpses.
— “We are the righteous Odelifu Legion. Do not resist! “
Such warning declarations occasionally blared from the military’s loudspeakers.
Yang Zicang guided the flying carpet closer to the ground and looked into the distance, watching the army with the flag of a black, double-headed lion march through the thoroughfare.
— “The corrupt empire faction cannot lead us toward survival! They do not understand that the only path to life lies in all the southern territories.“
Inside buildings billowing with thick smoke across the city, some people pricked up their ears, listening to the distant, blaring sound.
The army’s loudspeakers broadcast the cold declaration of a general.
— “The escapism that serves only a minority must be completely dismantled! All imperial troops, for the survival of two hundred million people, please heed the command of our General Odelif.“
— “Our future has and only has the wide eastern coast! This is the final action program of the Complete Redemption, Lion-like Serdievine!“
Suddenly, Jennifer patted Yang Zicang on the shoulder. The few of them turned to look. The woman with slight freckles on her face pointed outside the city, her voice trembling with alarm:
“What is that over there!“
The more than twenty people in mid-air looked in the direction she pointed.
On the edge of the city, a massive flock of pitch-black goats, led by goatherds, was approaching the smoke-belching city of Keroun.
Seiji Rikyoni stood up, stunned, and murmured:
“That’s… the Goatherd.“
……
“The Goatherd? What is that?” Yang Zicang felt the atmosphere turning somewhat eerie and looked at her.
Several people in the crowd trembled in terror. A staff member from the reception hall said:
“That’s an ancient legend. Once, the people of a city were massacred by a suicidal civilian militia; pushed to the brink, the militia sought to invoke a demon’s disaster to take revenge on the kingdom. “
Another person swallowed hard and said:
“But in the end, they didn’t succeed. It is said that exactly a goatherd convoy driving over a thousand sheep for transfer and sale happened to pass by the edge of that city. Word among the people spread that it was the goatherd’s sheep and goats that led the demons away. “
Yang Zicang turned around again and took another look at the distant sheep herd lingering on the city’s edge. They shimmered faintly in the sunlight, like a black silk satin.
“Something like this… people actually believe it? “
“Because, for the past hundred years or so, some indeed have made the statistics—after a goatherd shows up near a fiercely fighting army, the probability of a demon being born does decrease. So… these little-known traditions gradually took shape across the various nations. “
Yang Zicang looked at Haili Koni, as if trying to confirm from her whether this matter was real or absurd.
Haili Koni nodded slightly.
……
At noon, the Fogfolk in the city gathered under the call of some initiators, discussing the division of rescue areas and action plans.
“Those troops really deserve to die. “
“Forget about them. That damned general is probably forcing all Steffen people to unite and wage war against the outside world. “
“There are flames everywhere. Luckily, some airships escaped. “
“Don’t say anymore, or more people trapped in the buildings will die from dehydration due to the heat. “
After discussing the city’s situation for a few words, several people frowned and began to deliberate on the rescue of some still trapped inside the rooms. Now, the only ones who could spare a hand for safe rescue were themselves, this small group.
“With so many buildings needing to be searched, we simply don’t have enough hands. “
A young man with slightly dark skin said, “Hasn’t Yang Buchen, who initiated the borderless rescue, been in Kruen for the past couple of days? “
“Yes, I’ve heard his train can carry hundreds or even thousands of people at once. But I haven’t seen the shadow of that train yet. “
They looked at the surrounding buildings billowing with thick smoke. One person said to the two dozen or so fellow townspeople nearby,
“Frankly speaking, I simply don’t have enough extra chronological sequences to spend an afternoon in the high-temperature flame zone. That’s the crux of the problem. “
As they were speaking, a voice echoed from a street corner nearby.
“I can give you some investment. “
They turned their heads to look, and was surprised to find the very person they had been talking about had already appeared at the edge of the small square.
The dark-skinned young man said to Yang Zicang, who was approaching,
“Hello, Yang Buchen. From now until dawn tomorrow are the critical hours for rescue. Even if you have hundreds of thousands of chronological sequences, under the scorching flames every ten seconds, or even every five seconds, each of which essentially counters the chronological consumption needed for natural death once, it’s still not enough. “
“Then each person would need at least four hundred thousand sequences, ” one person said.
Yang Zicang then spoke to the people looking his way,
“The high temperature passing through the exterior of these buildings will indeed make us offset a lot of Chrono. But if everyone wears protective suits, we can slightly reduce Chrono consumption to a burning level. Moreover, we’re not traveling through high-temperature areas every second and minute. “
Yang Zicang’s answer set these people thinking. He looked at the more than twenty people here and continued:
“I can invest twenty thousand Chrono for each of you. With amplification, that’s offsetting thirty to sixty years per minute. So within the golden ten-hour rescue window, it will consume about twenty to forty thousand Amplified Chrono, which is completely sufficient. “
“But… the protective suits won’t last that long, ” one person said.
As soon as this man finished speaking, one among the twenty people said:
“I can also invest ten thousand Chrono for each of you. Alright, let’s just get moving like this. Later contact other brother teams to ask if we can share a bit more, or if someone is responsible for logistics. “
As the temperature gradually dropped in some places, ordinary people and the military began to appear in the rescue area.
But as more tanks entered from outside the city, the sound of shells and gunfire also increased.
The residents and the trapped people on the streets and in the houses could only listen to these sounds in confusion.
They had no idea what was happening.
Ordinary people on the street could only continue their rescue work amid the gunfire.
The magnificent banners became burial shrouds. A mother holding her child turned into charcoal fixed at a street corner, stone statues melting and deforming in the blazing flames. The survivors were engulfed by a deeper despair.
After two hours of frantic work, Yang Zicang realized that his efforts in this manner were merely a drop in the bucket, as many rescuers who entered the building still had to shift through vast amounts of collapsed debris to find people.
The haze had also thoroughly shattered the hopes of the military, government, and civilians in Croon for any end-times salvation.
Within a few hours, the news of the airship fleet’s annihilation and declarations of war drifted like dim haze toward Steffen and the rest of the world.
……
Over two thousand kilometers away, Cheng Yunze and the hundred or so assembled workers had already placed over fifty urgently modified relay stations onto the train.
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