Volume One, Chapter 51: The Thunder Punishment Domain Subdues the Entire City!
They merged into thick pools of blood, converging frantically from all directions like a closing, blood-soaked maw toward the central point representing Thunder City!
Dr. Qin pointed toward the blackened-red region in the eastern sector, his fingers trembling.
"Energy readings... have exceeded the upper limit of our instruments! Uncalculable! That is a mobile ecosystem! A war cluster driven by a unified will!"
"The source is that 'Inquisitor'!"
Before his voice faded away,
Woo—woo—woo—!!!
The highest-level combat alarm, echoing across the heavens, tore through the night sky of Thunder City! Blaring red warning lights flashed frantically in every corner of the city!
"Level One combat alert! This is not a drill! All combat personnel, immediately take your positions on the city walls! I repeat! Level One combat alert!"
Lin Feng's roar echoed throughout the city via the broadcasting system.
The survivors, who had just been immersed in peace and hope, were instantly dragged back to reality by the apocalyptic siren, the color draining entirely from their faces.
Atop the city walls, the atmosphere was oppressive to the extreme.
The earth trembled violently. On the distant horizon, the landscape seemed stained with black ink, and a black tidal wave composed of countless distorted figures surged toward the city walls at a visible speed.
The sky, too, was blotted out.
Dense flocks of mutated avian creatures formed a shadow thicker than dark clouds. They shrieked and circled, their blood-red eyes greedily staring at the brilliantly lit city below.
Neither the ground nor the sky offered any path of survival!
"Open fire!!"
Lin Feng drew his command saber and roared with all his might.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Atop the city walls, hundreds of heavy artillery pieces and energy weapons unleashed their fury simultaneously. Blazing shells and energy beams, like the scythes of death, slammed fiercely into that black tide of beasts!
The mutated beasts charging at the very front were instantly torn to shreds, flesh and blood flying as temporary zones of emptiness were blasted open within the horde.
"Thunder Guard! For our home! Attack!"
Zhang Nan stood at the very forefront of the ramparts. With a roar, he was the first to leap down from the dozens-of-meters-high wall, his massive body plunging like a meteorite heavily into the beast horde!
"Roar!"
The power of the Titan erupted fully. Wielding his customized warhammer, with every single swing, he smashed the surrounding mutated beasts into pulp!
Thousands of Thunder Guard members followed closely behind. Roaring, they formed an iron torrent that crashed violently into the endless tide of beasts!
However, all of this was ultimately in vain.
The number of beasts was simply too vast!
They feared neither death, stepping over the corpses of their comrades like a true tsunami, striking wave after wave against the city walls and the defensive line of the Thunder Guard.
The city walls were soon covered by climbing mutated beasts, the sturdy alloy structures hissing and corroding under sharp claws and potent acid.
Under the frenzied impact of the beast horde, the defensive line of the Thunder Guard was continuously compressed and torn apart. Young warriors were swallowed up by the horde one by one, unable to even release a single dying scream.
The military's defense line was already in imminent peril under the very first wave of impact.
Despair spread like a plague through every person's heart.
At that moment, the surging beast horde suddenly parted to both sides, as if the waters of the Red Sea parting.
A beast... impossible to describe in words, slowly emerged from the rear of the horde.
Its size was comparable to a moving mountain, its entire body covered in obsidian-like crystal armor that reflected a cold luster under the firelight. At the top of its head, a massive spiral horn pointed upward, its tip gathering a heart-palpitating dark red energy.
A Lord-tier!
It did not even utter a sound, yet a grand and icy mental roar exploded in everyone's mind.
It was a pure will—destruction!
"Ah—! A monster! It's a monster!"
"It's over... We're dead for sure... The heavens are destroying us!"
Inside the city, countless survivors stared at that god-and-demon-like behemoth and completely broke down. They screamed and wept, the order and hope they had just established crushed to dust in this single moment.
Li Hexuan stood at the pinnacle of the city wall, the wind blowing the desperate wails from beneath his feet toward the distance.
He did not look at the perilous defense line below his feet, nor did he look at the survivors plunged into madness.
He simply gazed calmly at the mountain-like Lord-tier behemoth in the distance.
He knew that before such an entity, any conventional means were utterly meaningless.
He slowly raised his hand. The multicolored core fragment, made even more brilliant after absorbing Zhao Wuji's ability core, lay quietly in the palm of his hand.
"My city brooks no provocation."
He murmured to himself. Then, under the horrified gazes of everyone, he pressed that core fragment fiercely into his own chest!
Splat!
The core fragment sank effortlessly into his flesh, as if it had belonged there all along.
An unimaginable, violent energy—wild enough to tear everything apart—coursed outward from his heart and instantly swept through his entire body!
"Ugh, argh, ahhh—!"
The excruciating pain forced even Li Hexuan to emit a suppressed roar. On the surface of his body, streams of deep blue lightning burst forth out of control, his skin cracking inch by inch to reveal the lightning-conducting bones beneath!
At this moment, his ability underwent the deepest level of resonance with the source energy core and every lightning element between heaven and earth!
King-tier, breakthrough!
He abruptly raised his head. Within his pupils, neither whites nor irises could be seen anymore—only two pools of pure, crackling thunder!
He spread his arms wide as if embracing the entire sky, proclaiming his existence with the tone of a deity.
"In my name, summon the heavenly punishment!"
The moment his voice fell, the entire Apocalypse Tower beneath his feet collapsed with a deafening crash!
A towering pillar of thunder lightning, centered upon him, soared into the sky, tearing through the night sky and piercing straight through the "dark cloud" formed by the mutated avian creatures!
"Thunder Punishment Domain!"
Boom—rumble—!!!!
A massive hemispherical lightning barrier, exceeding five kilometers in diameter, expanded explosively!
Within the barrier, the sky was instantly shrouded in endless dark clouds. Countless serpents of lightning darted frantically through the cloud layer, emitting a deafening roar!
The next second, judgment descended!
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Tens of thousands of bright silver bolts of judgment lightning descended from the sky like a torrential rainstorm!
They indiscriminately, densely, and frantically bombarded every single inch of land within the domain!
Those ferocious, cruel, and arrogant mutated beasts were as fragile as foam before the lightning of judgment. Whether they were rank-F cannon fodder or elite mutated entities comparable to high-tier ability users, the moment they were brushed by the thunderous light, they were instantly turned into charred ash!
The roars of the beast horde instantly transformed into shrill, distorted wails!
The entire battlefield transformed into an ocean of thunder, a place of execution personally presided over by the gods!