Chapter 108: Equal Destruction

Under the weight of gazes that felt sharp enough to kill, Ye Shun and his group slowly departed the Chen family estate. Compared to the seven who had arrived earlier, their numbers had not grown much—only reaching twelve in total.

Clearly, not everyone possessed the resolve to defect to the enemy of that man while standing on his own turf. With Chen Cang’s arguments being logical and his set goals not overly excessive, many had chosen to change their stance.

Without looking back, Ye Shun and his companions quickened their pace, boarded the cars waiting for them, and swiftly distanced themselves more than ten kilometers from the estate.

A group of "Kingdom" members, all dressed in identical black trench coats, were waiting there. At their lead stood a youth who appeared quite young, possessing a handsome face and dark curly hair. Yet, unlike the others, he kept his eyes closed.

The Kingdom valued ability and will over seniority or age. Thus, despite being only fifteen, this youth had become a prominent figure capable of handling matters independently, thanks to his perseverance in crossing the mountains and valleys from India alone, as well as the scientific contributions of his Spirit of Words: Prophet.

"Only five were willing to join?" Qilan asked, his eyes still closed. Ever since he had eagerly signed his life away and received a unique secret martial art tailored for him by Liu Tian, he never opened his eyes unless absolutely necessary. "It seems the rest are nothing but fools."

"Indeed. They are still clinging to outdated notions," Ye Shun replied. "A century of peace and the development of science seem to have caused the Chen family—no, all hybrid families on this land, and indeed throughout the world—to lose the awe they once held. They have also lost that old-fashioned... madness."

"If this had been decades ago, had the Kingdom issued such a threat, they would have already placed nuclear warheads on their launch towers," Qilan remarked. "Though the outcome would have remained the same, had they done so, our leader might have held them in slightly higher regard and left them with their bodies intact."

"No wonder the Chen family has always been inferior to the Gattuso family. Even now, they lack that madness."

"Weakness and ignorance are not barriers to survival; arrogance is," Ye Shun said. "And if one remains unaware of their own weakness and ignorance, then they only have themselves to blame for their deaths."

"So, gentlemen, look up and witness what is about to unfold," Qilan said, turning toward the five new recruits. "This will help you align your perspective. You will realize what is truly real in this world, and what constitutes the grand design."

"Watch closely. This is the power of our leader—the heavenly scourge descending from the skies!"

The several patriarchs, who had stood their ground to defect, were no ordinary men. Knowing what was expected of them, they remained silent and watched the meteor plummeting from the sky at breakneck speed.

No, it was not a meteor. It was the heavenly scourge falling from above!

Ten minutes earlier, directly above the Chen family estate.

Liu Tian, Chu Zihang, and Xia Mi sat side-by-side, with Liu Tian at the center, gazing at a sight invisible to ordinary eyes: a sunset at an altitude of thirty thousand meters.

The lingering glow of the setting sun dyed the cloud layer below into a deep red, resembling an endless crimson carpet. The entire world, along with that red carpet, lay beneath their feet.

"It's truly beautiful," Xia Mi murmured. At some point, she had returned to her normal stature. Since her clothes were in tatters, she could only wrap herself in Liu Tian’s black trench coat for modesty. "It feels fleeting, like a dream or an illusion."

"All these years, watching the sun rise and set, watching the alternation of day and night, a sense of loneliness often wells up," Xia Mi sighed, tightening the coat around herself as if it provided a sense of security. "Sometimes I wonder about those human legends—those eternal beings: immortals, demons, monsters, gods. If they truly exist, how have they endured these countless years of solitude?"

"Do dragons feel lonely, too?" Chu Zihang interjected, a rare occurrence. "I thought only humans did."

"Where do you think the Grief of Blood originated?" Xia Mi rolled her eyes, a gesture that looked surprisingly graceful. "How much do humans really know about dragons? Countless years of loneliness, countless years of darkness... once abandoned, an inescapable loneliness naturally follows."

"Do you know despair? Being asleep for thousands of years! An endless, recurring nightmare! The unstoppable approach of death, and in the end, in the deepest darkness, you are all alone!"

"Quiet," Liu Tian said, tapping Xia Mi on the head to cut off her poetic musings. "I already promised to get you two Dragon King corpses for you and your brother to evolve. Stop your whining and sorrowful sentimentality."

"If you keep babbling and rambling, I’ll show you what true despair is."

"And you, Zihang," Liu Tian frowned. "Don't learn from this one. Being 'poetic' is a disease. If you catch it, you have to treat it, or it will spread and take root in your bones until it’s beyond cure—just like Xia Mi."

"Hey, hey, hey! Senior, that's too harsh!" Xia Mi pouted, falling backward into Liu Tian’s arms. "What do you mean 'beyond cure'? Am I really that poetic? Is it really that bad?"

"I am a sunny, lively, cheerful super-beautiful girl! How can you call me poetic?" She grinned, revealing her white fangs. "Careful, or I'll bite you."

"If you can manage to bite me, go ahead." Liu Tian placed his hand into Xia Mi’s mouth and turned to Chu Zihang. "Interested in watching a meteor shower? It will be a beautiful display of fireworks."

"Yes," Chu Zihang nodded.

"Then be prepared. A vacuum descent from tens of thousands of meters, unlike anything ever seen, is about to begin." Liu Tian smiled. At that very moment, the black metal rods that had been hovering beside them aligned in a row and shot downward, one after another.

Simultaneously, Liu Tian steered them, using the wind to push everything aside as they followed the high-density metal rods. The electrical current swirling around them transformed into a magnetic field with an ultra-high potential difference, continuously accelerating the heavy metal rods.

They broke the sound barrier instantly, followed by Mach 2, Mach 3, and Mach 4. Upon reaching Mach 15, the metal rods broke free from the magnetic field Liu Tian had barely managed to maintain, turning into dazzling meteors streaking across the horizon.

In less than eleven seconds, they covered the thirty-thousand-meter distance. Unlike the "Magnetic Field Rotation" technique, which was a well-rounded ability with no apparent weaknesses, the power system of this world was heavily skewed. Consequently, when the first strike hit, no one had any time to react.

0.1 seconds.

Within that fraction of a second, Chen Cang and the other patriarchs who had remained were pinned to the ground by the air pressure surrounding the heavenly scourge. Before their sluggish nerves could even transmit the pain to their brains, they were engulfed by overwhelming kinetic energy. Everything plunged into absolute darkness.

Driven by that immense force, the first rod buried itself hundreds of meters into the ground, followed immediately by the second, the third...

Less than a second later, the tenth rod reached its destination. The Chen family’s hidden defenses never even had a chance to activate. The estate, spanning several kilometers, was simultaneously swallowed by a massive mushroom cloud.