Volume 1, Chapter 53: Aftermath of the Battle

When the first ray of dawn tore through the dark clouds on the horizon, the survivors finally dared to peer out from their hiding places.

The battle was over.

The earth-shattering thunder had vanished, and the endless roar of beasts had fallen into a deathly stillness.

The entire Thor City lay in utter ruin.

The alloy-cast city walls were covered in terrifying cracks, and countless buildings had been reduced to rubble in the aftermath of the great war. The air was filled with a pungent smell of burning, blood, and ozone.

Yet, they had survived.

When the people looked at the mountain-like corpse of the lord-tier behemoth outside the city, along with the mountains of charred mutated beast carcasses covering the earth, the suffocating despair instantly transformed into a volcanic eruption of wild ecstasy!

"We won! We won!"

"It's the God of Thunder! Lord Li Hexuan saved us!"

Countless people rushed onto the streets, embracing, weeping, and roaring, releasing the overwhelming emotion of having survived a catastrophe.

This fervent atmosphere was swiftly guided into more practical actions by Lin Feng and Zhang Nan.

"All logistics personnel! Begin clearing the battlefield!"

"All Thunder Guard reserves! Gather the source crystals! All of them!"

"Medical teams! Treat the wounded! Quick!"

The entire Thor City operated with unprecedented efficiency, roaring back to life like a colossal machine restarted amidst the flames of war.

The massive quantity of mutated beast carcasses was not only a disaster but also a treasure!

Countless survivors spontaneously joined the cleanup and excavation teams. Using improvised tools, they pried open the charred skulls of the mutated beasts, extracting glowing source crystals one by one.

Grey, white, green... The quantity of source crystals far exceeded everyone's imagination!

These precious resources, which in the past required risking one's life to obtain, were now being hauled away to the warehouses in truckloads like ordinary stones by the roadside.

Thor City had suffered heavy losses in this battle, but the city's reserve of strength had not decreased; instead, it had surged, accumulating at a terrifying speed!

Everyone understood that a wave of nationwide enhancement was about to arrive!

And the man who had created all these miracles, Li Hexuan, had vanished from everyone's sight.

The Apocalypse Building, top floor. This area had been completely cleared and designated as a maximum-security zone.

Zhang Nan and an elite squad of Thunder Guards stood like statues at the entrance, forbidding anyone from approaching.

Inside the room, Li Hexuan sat cross-legged.

His face remained pale, but his breathing was steady and profound.

Forcefully fusing the core fragment, breaking through to the king tier, and executing the "Thunder Punishment Domain" and the "Spear of Judgment" had almost completely drained him.

At this moment, he was repairing his body while simultaneously stabilizing this brand-new power.

His consciousness sank deep within, and he could clearly "see" that the seven-colored core fragment had perfectly integrated with his heart. Every heartbeat seemed to evoke the lightning elements between heaven and earth, as streams of pure energy washed over his limbs and bones.

King Tier!

This was true mastery of energy!

The so-called "electricity control" of the past was nothing more than a child's toy. Now, he felt that he was lightning, and lightning was him!

His control over the "Thunder Punishment Domain" had also shifted from the crude release of before to something far more effortless. He even felt confident that the next time he unleashed it, the consumption would be halved, while the destructive power would be far more concentrated!

While Li Hexuan was in seclusion recovering, the atmosphere inside the south district's biological research base was tense to the extreme.

Dr. Qin and his team had not closed their eyes for three days and three nights.

Before them, the metal plate retrieved from the lord-tier behemoth's body was placed within a fully isolated energy field.

"No! Still no!" A young researcher took off his goggles, sweating profusely. "All spectrum analyses have failed! Its material does not belong to any known metal or alloy in our understanding!"

"Energy detection is also completely blank; it's just like an ordinary piece of iron!"

Dr. Qin did not speak. He stared fixedly at a waveform on the holographic screen.

It was a signal that had only been captured with difficulty after extreme magnification.

"This is not an ordinary piece of iron," Dr. Qin said in a hoarse and dry voice. "It is transmitting a signal—a command wave of extremely low frequency but exceptionally high penetration. Our instruments can barely capture its existence, yet we cannot decipher its content."

He paused, then delivered a conclusion that made the hair on everyone present stand on end.

"This thing is like a remote control. A remote control... capable of issuing commands to lord-tier behemoths."

One week later.

Li Hexuan pushed open the door of the confinement chamber.

Zhang Nan and Su Mengyi, who were guarding the entrance, immediately rushed over.

They could sense that Li Hexuan had changed.

His aura was no longer as sharp and piercing as before; instead, it had become restrained and deep, resembling a profound sea harboring a tempestuous thunderstorm. Yet, precisely this calm demeanor generated an even stronger sense of oppression.

"Brother Xuan! You're alright!" Zhang Nan was as excited as a child.

Li Hexuan nodded without speaking much, cutting straight to the point.

"Meeting."

Half an hour later, inside the Thor City Supreme Command Center.

Li Hexuan, Lin Feng, Zhang Nan, Su Mengyi, and Dr. Qin—the entire core team—were present.

Dr. Qin projected the research report on the metal plate onto the holographic screen.

Upon hearing words like "remote control" and "command wave," Lin Feng, a veteran of numerous battles, broke out in a cold sweat.

"You mean..." Lin Feng's voice was somewhat dry, "that beast tide capable of destroying us was artificially manipulated?"

"Ninety-nine percent probability." Dr. Qin pushed up his glasses, his expression beneath the lenses exceptionally solemn. "What we faced was not a natural disaster, but an intelligent force possessing technology beyond our understanding—one capable of taming lord-tier behemoths!"

The entire command center fell into a dead silence.

This conclusion was a hundred times more terrifying than the lord-tier behemoth itself!

An invisible enemy—an enemy lurking in the shadows who could wield an earth-shattering beast tide as a weapon!

Everyone's heart sank.

Thor City seemingly achieved a glorious victory, but in reality, they might have merely beaten back a hound belonging to the enemy.

And the mysterious hunter holding the rifle was still hidden in the darkness where no one could see.

Li Hexuan looked at the distorted symbol on the screen and remained silent.

He recalled various events from his past life.

In his previous life, after the global floods receded, humanity did not gain a moment to catch its breath. Various powerful mutants emerged endlessly, and major bases fought ceaselessly among themselves, yet there was never a clear, common enemy.

Could it be that in this lifetime, due to his rebirth, a butterfly effect had been triggered, causing the mastermind hidden behind the scenes to bare their fangs ahead of time?

"No matter who they are," Li Hexuan spoke slowly, shattering the dead silence.

His voice was very calm, yet it carried an ironclad, unshakeable resolution.