The Golden Crow descended.
Across the vast forest, towering flames first erupted into the sky.
Then, hundreds of thousands of colossal trees and countless red-named monsters…
All turned to ashes in an instant beneath the terrifying heat!
As far as the eye could see, everything was filled with blindingly intense, pure-white light.
Then, the Golden Crow transformed into a rapidly expanding fireball that shot into the heavens.
The raging waves of flame became a tangible ring-shaped shock wave, sweeping in all directions with unstoppable force.
The gale, carrying heat hot enough to melt steel, crossed dozens of kilometers in an instant before crashing violently into the impregnable defensive barrier surrounding Sea-Watch City.
Crack!
Boom!
The deafening sound of the barrier shattering tore through the sky.
The outermost two layers of Sea-Watch City’s defensive barrier shattered and dispersed like fragile glass the instant they came into contact with the shock wave, transforming into a rain of glittering fragments!
The third layer trembled violently, its surface instantly covered in countless spiderweb-like cracks. It barely withstood the impact of the aftershock, but after holding out for more than ten seconds, it shattered as well!
Only the final protective barrier managed to withstand the wave of destruction.
And this was not even the center of the explosion—it was merely the shock wave that had spread outward!
Everyone closed their eyes and shielded their heads. Several minutes passed before the blinding light that had filled the heavens and earth gradually faded.
What appeared before everyone was a true vision of apocalypse.
The once-vibrant Toxic Mist Forest, shrouded in poisonous miasma, had vanished completely, along with a small mountain range stretching for dozens of kilometers beside it.
In its place was a silent, despairing sea of searing flames!
Only roiling fire and dazzling crimson remained. Nothing else could be seen.
The scorching waves surging into the heavens tore apart every cloud in the sky, forming a spectacular ring-shaped shock cloud that spread toward the ends of the horizon.
…
Several dozen kilometers away from the sea of flames.
Qin Lie and Zhao Tianhe stared fixedly at the apocalyptic scene, their minds completely blank.
It was only when a series of violent coughs reached their ears that the two of them suddenly snapped back to reality.
They turned their heads and discovered that the bright-blue protective barrier surrounding them was already covered in spiderweb-like cracks. Its light had dimmed to the extreme, and it was on the verge of collapsing.
Farther away, the low-level professionals who had been unable to evacuate from Gold Coast, as well as the subordinates of the Ironwall Army who had left the city to carry out the blockade, were also covered by identical barriers.
It was these barriers that had preserved everyone’s lives during the world-destroying shock wave just now.
Qin Lie and Zhao Tianhe were both shaken to the core.
This was the power of a sixth-tier professional!
With a single thought, he had protected tens of thousands of people!
This was the true strength of Sea-Watch City’s guardian—the legendary barrier mage and foremost expert of the city!
In fact, he was even one of the top experts throughout Jiangnan Province.
Yet at this moment, his condition was abysmal.
Qin Wanshan’s face was as pale as paper. His hunched body leaned on a black staff, and the hand gripping it trembled incessantly. His aura was so weak that it was barely perceptible.
He had been injured—and very seriously, at that.
“Old Qin, are you all right?”
Zhao Tianhe hurriedly stepped forward, wanting to support him.
Qin Lie’s voice was still filled with lingering fear. “Grandpa, thank you for saving my subordinates!”
Qin Wanshan waved his hand, refusing Zhao Tianhe’s assistance.
He closed his eyes and forcibly adjusted the chaotic energy within his body. Only after a long while did he stand upright again.
The power of the massive explosion in the distance had mostly dissipated.
But the scars it had left upon the land were still enough to fill the three high-tier professionals present with dread.
The entire Toxic Mist Forest and the surrounding region had become a gigantic, bottomless crater!
The original mountain range had been completely melted away. Scorching lava poured into the crater, forming a bubbling, roiling lava lake at its center.
The highest-level leveling zone around Sea-Watch City had been erased from the map.
Qin Lie asked hoarsely, “Grandpa, what exactly happened?”
Qin Wanshan gazed at the lava lake and slowly shook his head.
“The moment I sensed that terrifying aura, I immediately activated the city formation and raised all four layers of the protective barrier.”
“Sea-Watch City should be safe.”
“But even so, the formation sustained extremely severe damage.”
“The first three layers are completely ruined, and the innermost layer will require a large quantity of materials to repair…”
“If that force had come even ten kilometers closer, Sea-Watch City would be nothing but ruins by now.”
Qin Wanshan paused. An extremely grave look flashed through his murky eyes.
“I have two theories regarding that power.”
“First, a massive rift leading directly to the Flame Demon Abyss suddenly formed at the heart of the Toxic Mist Forest, allowing a demon king-level powerhouse from the Abyssal World to cross over.”
Qin Lie and Zhao Tianhe felt their scalps go numb at those words.
But Qin Wanshan immediately rejected the idea.
“That should be impossible.”
“If that were really the case, we wouldn’t still be standing here talking.”
“The abyssal demons and our people are locked in a life-or-death struggle. If a true demon king had emerged, Sea-Watch City would already have been destroyed.”
Zhao Tianhe swallowed hard and hurriedly asked, “Then what’s your other theory?”
The corners of Qin Wanshan’s mouth twitched into a bitter smile. Even he found what he was about to say absurd.
“The other possibility is that a supreme powerhouse with strength of at least the eighth tier—or perhaps even one who has entered the Sacred Realm—attacked here.”
The moment he said this, Qin Lie and Zhao Tianhe exchanged looks.
Indeed, only those two explanations could account for that world-destroying power.
But both explanations were more outrageous than the last…
A Sacred-Realm professional?
Across the entire Great Xia nation, there were fewer than a thousand Sacred-Realm powerhouses publicly known to exist!
But why would someone of that level come to a small place like Sea-Watch City and unleash such a terrifying attack on a leveling zone where the highest-level monsters were only in their teens?
…
At the center of what had once been the Toxic Mist Forest.
More precisely, he stood at the center of the lava lake.
Lin Ye stood amid the roiling sea of fire, beneath his feet nothing but molten, scorched earth.
Lin Ye was incredibly grateful that friendly fire was disabled in this world.
At least the destruction caused by the mythical-grade fire-element rune he had used could not affect him.
Otherwise, even with his Void Incarnation, Lin Ye felt that his mental strength would not have lasted this long.
As for the Golden Crow from earlier—
Lin Ye had seen it too, and his perspective had been the most shocking of all.
A lifelike creature, seemingly ripped straight from the pages of mythology, had crashed down right before his eyes.
The word “shocking” was nowhere near enough to describe how he felt.
So mythical-grade abilities could truly summon creatures from myth!
Just as Lin Ye was marveling at this revelation, dazzling white light suddenly erupted from his body.
Countless notifications began flooding his mind!
Ding! You have killed the LV. 18 Spider Queen. You have achieved a level-difference kill and gained 1,080 experience points!
【Ding! You’ve slain the Level 12 Venomous Guard Spider. For defeating an enemy above your level, you’ve gained 88 experience points!】
【Ding! You’ve slain...】
White light flashed repeatedly from Lin Ye’s body. Countless orbs of light, large and small, shot toward him from every direction like rivers converging into the sea.
They were the vast amounts of experience dropped after tens of thousands of monsters were instantly vaporized and killed!
The orbs of light gathered into dazzling rivers of stars, surging one after another into Lin Ye’s body.
His level, which had been only Level 2, began skyrocketing as if he had boarded a rocket.
Just as Lin Ye watched his experience bar rapidly fill up, empty out, and fill again—
enjoying the unparalleled thrill of leveling up at the speed of light—
Gloop~!
A treasure chest radiating a mysterious aura and shimmering with an alluring copper-green glow suddenly floated up from the lava lake.
A Bronze-tier treasure chest!