CHAPTER 196 — THE NINE AGAINST THE JADE TYRANT
The battlefield had stopped looking like Earth.
Where plains once stretched between cities, the land now resembled a broken mirror—miles of shattered rock, molten glass, and vast emerald crystal veins spreading like a disease through the soil.
Five cities were already gone.
The sixth still stood behind the Nine.
Smoke rose from the horizon like funeral incense.
Above the devastation—
The Jade Dragon hovered.
Six kilometers of ancient power suspended in the sky.
Its wings moved slowly, each beat compressing the air like invisible gravity waves. The emerald veins beneath its scales pulsed brighter than ever.
It was adapting.
Growing stronger with every exchange.
Below it—
The Nine regrouped.
Blood on armor.
Breathing heavy.
But still standing.
Dean Xu Canglong raised his sword again, the blade humming softly with azure light.
"Again."
General Han Dae-Woo wiped blood from his knuckles and grinned.
