Chapter Eighty-Four: Divine Punishment, the Sea and Sky Frozen Over

Are you all right, boss?

Amid the endless cries echoing through the sky, Dark Cloud shouted in delight and strode quickly toward Thunderbolt. Behind him, Lang Tianyu, Bei Shiliang, and the others followed close at heel. Shui Yaoxian hesitated a little, lingering at the back, her gaze on Thunderbolt filled with relief and joy.

The sky had cleared, the crushing pressure was gone, and most important of all, the enemy had been utterly destroyed, while everyone on their side remained safe and sound, even reaping a great harvest. How could one not be overjoyed? Even Thunderbolt, looking at his rushing companions, wore a face full of relief.

But after only a moment, the whole group suddenly stopped in perfect unison, spun around, and ran for their lives. The relief on Shui Yaoxian’s face turned to alarm as she cried out, “Thunderbolt, run!”

“Run from what?” Thunderbolt was still baffled when a harsh, creaking sound suddenly reached his ears. He turned back, let out a shout of, “Hell!” and took off at once.

Behind him, the hundred-meter-tall statue of the Holy Emperor of Light was riddled with cracks that kept widening, emitting a grating, gut-wrenching sound. A sea breeze swept past, and chips of stone and powder began to patter down. The statue swayed, then started to collapse. Huge rocks broke free from its base amid a thunderous roar. In an instant, the entire monument came crashing down. Thousands upon thousands of stones fell from the sky, smashing into the ground with a shrieking wind. Dust billowed everywhere, and where the statue had stood there was only ruin.

“Good thing I ran fast,” Thunderbolt said from several hundred meters away, turning back to look at the monument that had suddenly become a pile of rubble. He let out a long breath. “Otherwise I’d have been buried alive.”

But the smile on Thunderbolt’s face froze almost at once.

At the very moment the statue collapsed completely, an invisible white radiance suddenly surged up from the ground and shot straight into the void, vanishing in an instant.

Thunderbolt was no stranger to that white radiance. Just a few hours earlier, it had been that very light that struck the statue of the Holy Emperor of Light and triggered everything that followed. It had also been that same radiance, continuously condensing and transforming, that had caused James Sam to revive in that bizarre fashion and to gain immense power.

So where was this white light going now? What changes would it bring?

Thunderbolt’s brows had barely begun to ease when the mutation already arrived.

A vast voice rolled through the void: “Sinner, your blood shall wash away your crimes.”

It carried limitless majesty, seeming to ring beside the ear and also directly in every heart.

With that authoritative voice, a mighty white brilliance suddenly blazed from the endless void, descending with boundless chill. In an instant, bone-deep cold spread across the sea and sky.

The white light was so vast that everything within a radius of one hundred kilometers lay beneath its reach.

The white light was so overwhelming that every living thing between sea and sky was suppressed to the point of nearly being unable to breathe.

The white light was so cold that, almost the instant it descended, a thick layer of frost blanketed the area within a hundred kilometers. Even the ocean itself, surging and churning under the sun’s mighty tidal force, froze at once, forming a thick ice layer more than ten meters deep.

Thunderbolt only felt that the piercing cold carried with it a searing sensation, as though even his soul were being burned.

“O ignorant sinner, accept the judgment of the gods. Divine punishment—”

That majestic, vast voice rang out again, and another white beam shot down from the sky. Faster than lightning, it crossed the immeasurable distance between heaven and earth in an instant, striking straight down at Thunderbolt.

The white beam made no sound. Only Thunderbolt could sense the supreme pressure and boundless power contained within it. Before that beam, he felt his body, and even his frozen, burning, stabbing soul, were utterly immobilized. He could not think, could not even summon the slightest will to resist. It was as though he faced a ferocious dragon baring its fangs and claws, while he was nothing more than a tiny, pitiful ant destined to be crushed at any moment.

For the first time, Thunderbolt truly and clearly felt mortal peril. He could even sense that if this white beam struck him, he would be vaporized instantly, leaving not even a speck of ash behind.

“Are we really just going to let them butcher us like this?” A fierce unwillingness surged from Thunderbolt’s heart, crashing through his body and mind, gnawing at his soul, leaving him in searing pain as though pierced through to the marrow. In a daze, he seemed to have returned to that nightmare once more, seeing the winged figure plunging down like a canopy blotting out the sky, seeing the man and woman battered and bloody yet still throwing themselves at their foe and detonating themselves without hesitation. He saw the unwillingness deep in their souls, their refusal to submit, and even a trace of warm, lingering attachment...

“Aaaah—!”

Thunderbolt roared madly like a grievously wounded beast.

The abundant true energy within him surged into frenzied motion. His nascent soul, which had only just reached full mastery, opened its eyes wide in fury. Endless, pure, fundamental spiritual power of heaven and earth poured out from every part of his body as though it cost nothing, racing through his meridians. The strength of every muscle in his body gathered together and burst forth with a thunderous detonation.

“Boom!”

Like a massive high-explosive grenade going off, the ice layer covering his body shattered into fragments in an instant and sprayed outward like arrows in all directions.

“Damn you!” Thunderbolt burst out of the ice, roared in fury, and concentrated all his strength into his right fist, driving it straight at the white beam.

Even if you are stronger, I’ll fight you with my life. Even if I die, I’ll drag you down with me!

Before his fist even made contact, a vast force had already crashed down upon him like Mount Tai. Thunderbolt felt his entire chest being crushed inward, his breathing stopping at once, and the wildly surging true energy within him was pressed so hard it could not move in the slightest. Under that tremendous pressure, he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Thunderbolt smiled bitterly. He knew that relying solely on brute force to withstand such a devastating strike was impossible no matter what. Today, perhaps his life would end here. Farewell, my brothers. Farewell, my comrades. Farewell, my family. Farewell, my love, my quiet life, and farewell too to Shui Yaoxian, whom I have only known for a single day...

Countless thoughts and familiar faces flashed through Thunderbolt’s mind like turning lanterns. A nameless fury and grief rose from his chest, and that fist, swift as thunder, somehow erupted once more with terrifying speed and power under impossible circumstances, driving at the white beam with everything he had.

By then, every bone in Thunderbolt’s body seemed on the verge of breaking, emitting harsh cracking sounds. Blood gushed from his mouth. His body was forced backward by the pressure, yet he still straightened his back by sheer force of will, eyes wide and bloodshot, and shouted wildly, “Come on, you son of a bitch! Holy Emperor my ass, divine punishment my ass! I’ll flatten you—”

Watching Thunderbolt bathed in blood, fighting desperately against the endless pressure, Dark Cloud, Shui Yaoxian, Lang Tianyu, and Bei Shiliang all silently cried out in their hearts, Don’t—

But before a force beyond all imagination, they could not even make a sound. Each of them had eyes nearly splitting open, their gaze almost bleeding.