Black smoke rose from the ruins.
The air was filled with a nauseating burnt smell, the unique stench of proteins carbonized under high pressure and high temperature.
“Lord Thunder, the inside has been searched.”
A soldier, his face covered in soot and grime, stepped over the shattered glass shards on the ground.
His boots crunched on the scorched earth.
He stopped before An Ning and gave an imprecise military salute, his voice betraying a hint of unconcealable terror.
“We found no traces of Revenant activity, only some completely charred, unidentified lumps of flesh…
at the center of the factory.”
“Couldn’t find the Revenant?”
An Ning’s fingers, which had been rubbing her temples, froze.
She raised her eyes, looking past the soldier’s shoulder at the factory building, now reduced to a charred skeleton.
“Could that thing…
have been completely killed?”
She seemed to be asking herself as much as anyone else.
An Ning clearly remembered the scene the last time the authorities used a single-soldier rocket launcher to bombard a Revenant.
As the smoke cleared, although a massive hole had been blown open in the monster’s body, sending flesh and blood flying, within just a few minutes, the flesh buds writhed frantically like conscious maggots, sealing the wound perfectly.
That terrifying vitality still made her spine chill to this day.
As for an explosion of this magnitude…
The authorities had indeed never tried it before.
After all, detonating a bomb of this scale in an urban area would have a bad impact, and on the other hand, the threat from the Revenants hadn’t reached that level yet.
At this thought, An Ning turned around, her gaze falling on Chen Lang, who was leaning against the Special Service Vehicle nearby and drinking water.
The SWAT Captain looked exceptionally disheveled at this moment, his protective suit covered in dust and scratches, the hand holding the water bottle still trembling slightly.
“Captain Chen.”
An Ning walked over, her voice lowering a bit.
“Are you sure the factory exploded suddenly without any warning?
Did the Bomb Disposal Squad not find any buried explosives earlier?”
“Absolutely not.”
Chen Lang put down the water bottle, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he shook his head vigorously.
“After the Revenant went out of control this morning, we conducted a carpet search of the plant building according to the highest-level contingency plan.
Let alone explosives, we didn’t even miss a single extra rat.”
He paused, a flicker of lingering fear crossing his eyes.
“Even the electric grid was running at full capacity, with no signs of being hacked or sabotaged.”
“That’s very strange…”
An Ning’s frown deepened, her fingertips unconsciously rubbing the button on her cuff.
A young man holding a great sword of flame…
This was the scene Chen Lang had described to her upon arriving here.
The moment she heard this description, the concept of a fire-type Ability User flashed through An Ning’s mind.
Just how terrifying was the energy output of a single fire-type Ability User to create such a staggering explosion in an instant, one that could even melt steel bars?
Just as An Ning was lost in thought, the sound of hurried footsteps interrupted her.
“Lord ‘Thunder’!”
A communications soldier ran over quickly, clutching a military tablet, and stopped panting before her.
“The surveillance data has been recovered.
Although the last few seconds are corrupted, the core footage has been extracted.
You can watch it directly.”
After speaking, he handed the tablet to An Ning with both hands.
“Good, thank you for your hard work.”
An Ning took the tablet, slid her finger across the screen, and clicked on the video file marked [TOP SECRET].
The footage began to play.
In the center of the dim factory, the Revenant lay on the ground like a lump of dead meat, motionless.
Time passed second by second, and the scene was as still as a photograph.
Suddenly.
A golden-red light tore through the top left corner of the screen without warning!
The light was too fast and too intense, directly dragging a stark white overexposed trail across the surveillance footage, as if splitting the entire dark space in two.
An Ning subconsciously held her breath, her finger hovering above the screen, pressed the pause button, and then dragged backward frame by frame.
The image froze.
On the Revenant’s back, which had been empty, a figure now stood unmistakably.
Due to the light and speed, the man’s face was blurry, allowing only the vague outline of a young male to be recognized.
And in his hand, a Greatsword burning with roaring flames was deeply piercing the Revenant’s body!
Where the blade sank in, the monster’s originally pitch-black skin instantly became crimson and transparent, as if a sun inside its body was about to be detonated.
An Ning’s pupils contracted slightly.
The next frame.
The youth showed no desire to linger.
He withdrew his sword and retreated like a phantom, instantly disappearing into the surveillance blind spot.
Immediately after, the Revenant let out a silent roar, because the audio device had been shattered at that very moment.
Then came the devastating explosion.
A blinding white light consumed everything, and the surveillance footage turned into a screen of static.
“It seems the youth with the Greatsword is the culprit…”
An Ning slowly exhaled, feeling a tightness in her chest.
She dragged the progress bar back to the moment just before the explosion, repeatedly watching that detail.
“But this explosion source…
is actually the Revenant itself?”
This was simply inconceivable.
When she had used high-voltage current to shock the monster before, other than making it twitch and flee, it hadn’t triggered any signs of energy instability.
“Could this monster’s body structure be like a powder keg?
Does it have to be killed by a specific attack to trigger this kind of self-destructive explosion?”
An Ning scratched her head in frustration, feeling the string in her mind stretched painfully tight.
“Forget it, I can’t figure it out anyway.”
She simply turned off the tablet, that feeling of helplessness surging through her heart again.
“I’m not one of those lunatics from the Research Department.
Since the Revenant has turned into roast meat and that mysterious youth has vanished without a trace, there’s no need for me to continue wasting time here.”
This kind of mess was better left for the big shots above to deal with.
An Ning handed the tablet back to the communication soldier and turned to walk out of the cordon.
Her boots trod on the gravel road, each step feeling somewhat heavy.
Before she had taken more than a few steps, the phone in her pocket suddenly vibrated, its urgent ringtone sounding exceptionally piercing beside the empty ruins.
An Ning stopped in her tracks, pulled out the phone, and glanced at the screen.
The caller ID was “Xinhai Special Bureau, Officer Lei.”
She took a deep breath, adjusted her breathing, and pressed the answer button.
“Officer Lei, is there a new directive?”
A low, serious male voice came from the other end of the phone, speaking rapidly.
As An Ning listened, her originally calm expression gradually became bewildered.
“What?
Cyrene’s Special Ability test?”
She unconsciously raised her voice.
“Wasn’t it scheduled for tomorrow?
It’s ready so soon?”
The other end of the phone seemed to explain something for a few moments.
Afterward, An Ning’s gaze turned toward the still-smoking ruins, a hint of contemplation flickering in her eyes.
“…Alright, I understand.”
“I’ll notify Cyrene to come over right away.”
Hanging up, An Ning clutched her phone, standing still for a long time.
The screen’s glow illuminated her thoughtful face.
Just not long ago, the Bureau said that because Cyrene’s “Memory Reading” ability was too specialized, they needed to arrange a dedicated testing team and psychological experts, so the test would be scheduled for tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.
How had the process been approved like it was on a rocket in just a few hours?
“Could it be…”
An Ning turned her head, her gaze locking onto the charred remains of the chemical plant once more.
The higher-ups are so anxious to test Cyrene.
Are they suspicious that she is involved in this explosion with the Revenant?
After all, Cyrene only got involved with the Revenant this morning, and by afternoon, the Revenant had encountered an incident.
Or could it be…
because of that “Flame Swordsman”?
“Forget it.
This is none of my business anyway.”
An Ning shook her head, tossing those complex thoughts out of her mind.
Then she lowered her head again and started dialing a phone number.