At the city's edge, the sky darkened without warning. Clouds churned like ink, rolling low and heavy. Lin Lan's scanner let out a piercing alarm.
"Energy spike detected—southeast ruins."
He Xuan pulled up the tactical map. "That sector was quiet yesterday."
Zhao Yang rose to his feet. Blood mist curled silently in his palm.
"It's not quiet anymore."
Lu Ye didn't hesitate. "All units—mobilize. Combat formation."
He stepped to the front of the squad. His gaze sharpened. The Eye of the World activated, and star trails spun within his irises.
They weren't fighting for a mission. They weren't protecting anyone. They were fighting—so the world wouldn't swallow them whole.
Upon reaching the ruins, the squad encountered a swarm of unknown evolved entities. They weren't formatted soldiers. They weren't typical undead. Their skin shimmered with a gray-silver hue. They moved fast—too fast. And they possessed short-range temporal jump capabilities.
Chen Mo struck one with a full-force punch— only to watch it "flash back" to its original position the instant it was hit.
Zhao Yang deployed his blood mist field, trying to lock them in place— but the creatures could briefly slip out of sensory range.
Lin Lan gasped.
"They're… mimicking shattered-time effects!"
Lu Ye recalibrated instantly.
"Chen Mo—suppress jump points. Zhao Yang—seal spatial boundaries. He Xuan—deploy magnetic interference."
He raised his head. The star trails in his eyes accelerated.
The enemy multiplied. The gray-silver entities began executing coordinated jumps, syncing their movements. The rhythm of battle surged.
Chen Mo's shattered-time punches entered their fourth burst cycle. Zhao Yang's blood mist field trembled at the edges. Lin Lan's sensory circuits lagged under pressure.
He Xuan muttered,
"We're being outpaced."
Zhao Yang gritted his teeth.
"They're adapting to us."
Lin Lan whispered,
"We need… a variable."
Lu Ye stood at the center of the battlefield. The Eye of the World spun relentlessly. He didn't respond. He simply raised his right arm.
A deep-blue energy pulse gathered in his palm. The air thickened. Tiny arcs of electricity danced across the ground. Space itself began to tremble.
Skill Activated: Thunder Domain Slash – IntermediateRange: Forward arc · 40-meter radiusEffect: Instant lightning strike · Multi-point penetration · Neural disruption
Lu Ye spoke softly.
"Clear the field."
He swung. His arm carved a wide arc through the air. Energy erupted like thunder.
A deep-blue lightning field exploded outward, engulfing the forward zone. Electricity wove into a net. Thunder rolled like waves.
The ground split open. The air filled with the scorched scent of metal. It felt like the battlefield had been reset.
The gray-silver mutants froze mid-motion. Their neural systems scrambled. Their bodies spasmed.
Then— lightning pierced their skulls and chests, shattering their core crystals with surgical precision.
Forty-three enemies collapsed in under three seconds. Their remains were charred black. Energy fragments littered the ground.
Chen Mo grinned.
"Takes me three punches to drop one. He clears the field with a single slash."
Lin Lan's eyes widened.
"Captain's Thunder Domain Slash… it's reached intermediate level."
Lu Ye lowered his arm. His breathing was steady. The star trails in his eyes slowed to a calm rotation.
He looked toward the horizon.
"Keep moving. We're not at the end yet."
Zhao Yang's blood mist began to layer itself:
The outer layer scanned and sealed the perimeter
The middle layer formed a blood-thread net, tracking jump patterns
The inner layer condensed into a blood-needle array, targeting neural nodes
His pupils glowed red. His breathing quickened. But his mind remained clear.
"I can hold it," he whispered. "I can keep it under control."
Chen Mo entered multi-phase shattered-time mode:
First punch tore space
Second punch froze time
Third punch shattered jump trajectories
Cracks formed across his skin— but he didn't stop.
Lin Lan and Qin Hao linked their sensory circuits, feeding real-time enemy movement data to Lu Ye. He Xuan deployed his disc to generate a magnetic disruption field, destabilizing enemy jumps.
Lu Ye remained at the center— calm, calculating, commanding. He wasn't just fighting. He was orchestrating the battle.
Mid-combat, Zhao Yang murmured,
"They're not trying to kill us." "They're… testing us."
Chen Mo growled,
"Who's testing us?"
Lin Lan whispered,
"Zhang Ming? Or something… higher?"
Lu Ye didn't answer. His eyes were cold.
"Doesn't matter who. We don't retreat." "We're not test subjects."
Eventually, the enemies began to self-destruct. Their gray-silver bodies crumbled into fragments.
Lin Lan collected samples. Faint energy pulses lingered in the debris.
"They didn't evolve naturally." "They were… manufactured."
Zhao Yang stared at the fragments. His blood mist slowly retracted.
"Their blood… was empty."
Chen Mo spoke quietly.
"Like they had no soul."
Lu Ye looked toward the horizon.
"We're not the only ones evolving." "The enemy… is upgrading too."