200: Chapter 200... It's been cleared out?!

"Bang!"

The artillery shell shot out of the barrel!

An artilleryman's hands moved faster than his brain.

Driven by fear, his index finger pulled the trigger, and an artillery shell tore through the air with a piercing shriek, heading straight for that crimson streak of light.

City Lord Ma Chong's pupils contracted violently.

"Who the fuck fired that?!"

It was too late.

The shell had already left the barrel at extreme speed, hurtling toward the crimson figure.

On the city wall, everyone's hearts skipped a beat in unison.

"Bang!"

The shell instantly came to a dead stop.

It hung in midair.

Completely motionless.

From extreme speed to a complete standstill in just an instant.

Less than half a meter from the figure, the displaced air current blew back, making his crimson robes flutter loudly.

A single hand was raised.

With fingers spread and palm facing forward, it steadily caught the still-steaming armor-piercing shell.

Caught with one hand.

Effortlessly.

No explosion.

No flames.

Even the muscles in his arm barely shifted.

Atop the city wall, there was dead silence.

City Lord Ma Chong stood with his mouth agape.

Before his brain could recover from his heart skipping a beat, the artilleryman's legs gave out, and he collapsed beside the turret, his face as pale as paper.

Su Ming held the artillery shell high over his head.

The morning light poured down behind him, and the World-Rending Heavenly Wings unfurled on his back. The dark-red wind-blade wings flapped slowly, the light refracting off their tips like scattered gold dust.

An excessively young face was sharply silhouetted against the light.

Young, so young!

A face of eighteen or nineteen.

His features were delicate, and a lazy smile played across his eyes.

This face created a bizarre contrast with the artillery shell in his hand.

Su Ming tilted his head slightly.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

"City Lord Ma, is this your way of welcoming guests?"

His voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly.

City Lord Ma Chong froze for a full three seconds.

His brain crashed, rebooted, and crashed again.

This face... it was that young man who sat at the very end of the table during the Joint Defense Conference!

Su Ming!

Pingan City Lord!

It was him!

City Lord Ma Chong sprang up as if struck by lightning, wild joy surging from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

He had waited for eight days! Eight days!

He was here! He was fucking here!

"Quick! Stand down! Turn off the alarm!"

His voice cracked from screaming.

"Stand down, all of you! If anyone so much as touches a weapon again, I'll chop off their head!"

The alarm stopped abruptly.

The defenders on the city wall exchanged bewildered looks. The turrets returned to their positions, weapons were lowered, and everyone's eyes locked onto the figure floating in midair.

"Flight? He's flying?!"

"No... his Qi and blood fluctuations are only at Level 5. It's impossible to fly at Level 5!"

"That's a spirituality! A flying spirituality!"

"So young..."

"Catching an artillery shell with one hand? Am I seeing things?"

Before the murmurs could disperse,

the earth began to tremble.

thunderous footsteps closed in from all directions.

Growing louder and louder.

Growing denser and denser.

The city walls shook.

Everyone followed the sound and looked.

To the east, on the horizon, massive black figures appeared—one, two, ten, a hundred...

To the west, the same massive figures.

To the south, to the north...

Three thousand hundred-meter-tall Prison-Suppressing Giantss converged from all directions, their bodies covered in pitch-black rock armor with dark-red rock patterns flowing across them. With every step they took, the ground caved in, and the earth groaned.

They blotted out the sun.

They were closing in on the youth.

Three thousand Hundred-meter Giants stood in neat formation behind the crimson figure.

They looked up.

Their gazes were full of reverence.

Like three thousand believers gazing upon a god.

Atop the city wall,

everyone gasped in unison, their collective breath creating a low, whistling sound.

Three thousand... Hundred-meter Giants?

A hundred meters!

What did that even mean?

Thirty stories tall!

Three thousand thirty-story-tall giants stood like a black mountain range outside Tieguan City!

"My god..."

"This, this, this..."

"Is this a human?! Can... can a human achieve such a feat?!"

City Lord Ma Chong stood at the battlement.

Sweat glistened on his bald head. His mouth was open, forgotten to be closed, his Adam's apple bobbing several times, but he couldn't squeeze out a single word.

In the footage shown at the Joint Defense Conference, they were only thirty-two meters tall.

Now they were a hundred meters.

Tripled in size!

How many days had it been?!

Su Ming let go.

The artillery shell slipped from his palm and hit the ground with a dull thud.

He raised his head,

looking at the shiny bald head on the city wall.

"I, Su Ming, City Lord of Pingan City, have brought three thousand warriors of the Wilderness Suppression Bureau to reinforce Tieguan City."

He paused.

"Within three hundred kilometers of the city, the exotic beasts have been cleared out."

City Lord Ma Chong was stunned.

Cleared... cleared out?

Three hundred kilometers?

His brain couldn't process this.

A three-hundred-kilometer radius around Tieguan City—how vast an area was that? How many exotic beasts were in there? Last year's satellite data showed that there were over two thousand beasts of Tier 3 and above alone!

"Deputy!"

City Lord Ma Chong snapped his head around.

"Pull up the satellite feed! The latest one! Now!"

The Deputy beside him was shaking like a leaf, tapping the terminal several times before finally opening the interface.

The holographic screen expanded.

Centered on Tieguan City, with a three-hundred-kilometer radius.

On the screen...

...it was pitch black.

No red dots. Not a single one!

City Lord Ma Chong stared at the dark screen. He rubbed his eyes and looked again.

Still pitch black!

They really fucking...

cleared them out?!

"Oh my god..." The Deputy's voice trembled. "Not a single red dot... This is impossible... Last week's data still showed thousands of them..."

The city wall erupted in an uproar.

"They really cleared them all out?!"

"Thousands of exotic beasts! Just gone like that?!"

"Incredible!!!"

"Does this mean our Tieguan City won't have to fear beast tides anymore?"

City Lord Ma Chong's bald head gleamed in the morning light.

He looked up at the floating figure, his lips trembling, his eyes growing warm.

Eight days, he had waited for eight days!

From being full of anticipation to falling into despair, and then from despair to today.

It was worth it. It was so fucking worth it!

Su Ming ignored the clamor of the crowd.

He closed his eyes.

In his Soul Palace, three thousand golden chains went dark simultaneously.

—Ten Directions Prison-Suppressing Manifestation, deactivated.

Outside the city,

the three thousand Hundred-meter Giants began to shrink simultaneously.

The Subjugating Hell rock armor receded, the dark-red rock patterns faded, and their hundred-meter bodies rapidly shrank back—sixty meters, thirty meters, ten meters—until they returned to normal.

Three thousand Wilderness Suppression Bureau warriors stood at the base of the city wall.

They were covered in blood and utterly exhausted.

Yet, every single face wore a satisfied smile.

Some sat flat on the ground, some leaned against the wall with their eyes closed, and some fell asleep the moment they lay down.

Ghost Blade lay down on the ground, spreading his limbs.

"We're here?"

"We're here."

"Then I'm going to sleep."

The moment the words left his mouth, he began to snore.

City Lord Ma Chong watched the scattered, exhausted warriors below the wall for a long moment.

Then, he turned around.

He raised his voice to its absolute limit.

"Men!"

"Bring out the best alcohol from the warehouse! Unseal all the meat!"

"Serve all the best dishes! Make sure there's plenty of meat!"

The Deputy froze for a moment. "Boss, those are combat readiness supplies..."

"Combat readiness my ass!"

City Lord Ma Chong slapped him on the back of the head.

"Our brothers just wiped out every single exotic beast within three hundred kilometers for us! Combat readiness?! What the hell are we still preparing for?!"

"Supplies, bedding, hot water—bring out whatever we have!"

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

He roared down toward the base of the wall.

"Brothers! Tieguan City might be short on everything else, but we have plenty of booze!"

"Today, drink your fill!"

"Let's wash away your fatigue!"