I raised stunning young ladies, but they all wanted to possess me.

Yuzuru's pheasant sword severed the core of the liquid metal's aggregation.

Lin Jinyu's flames burned the parasitic bee swarm to ashes.

Pei Yuran's ice crystals sealed the gap in the city wall that had been torn open by the drill.

They killed a lot.

But they only managed to hold onto the middle section.

Both the northern and southern sections are gone.

Soldiers on the defensive line died one hundred thousand times over.

The numbers on the battle report jumped up like a runaway counter.

One hundred thousand.

Two hundred thousand.

Three hundred thousand.

Four hundred thousand.

Corpses were everywhere on the defensive line.

Some were shredded by the drill bit.

Some were dried out by liquid metal.

Some were shot and killed by their own people.

The field hospital was packed with wounded soldiers.

The bandages and blood plasma have run out.

The military doctors used torn-off military uniforms as bandages.

A young military doctor knelt beside the stretcher.

He pressed his hands against a soldier's abdomen, which had been pierced by a drill.

Blood gushed from between his fingers and wouldn't stop.

The soldier was still talking.

"Doctor, I have a younger sister at home."

"Please tell her that I've hidden the money I've saved under the bed."

The military doctor nodded.

"Okay, you'll be fine."

The soldier smiled.

Then his head lolled to the side, and he never woke up again.

The military doctor just knelt there.

Her hands were still pressed against his wound.

It took a long time before someone next to him pulled him up.

The seventh line of defense could not be held.

Xuanyuan Cheng gave the order to retreat.

The remaining troops covered the civilians as they retreated toward the eighth line of defense.

On the way back, the refugees' convoys stretched as far as the eye could see.

Someone was crying in the car.

Someone was burning paper money by the roadside.

A photo of someone holding a child shows them without saying a word.

The news from the north was even more despairing.

The Russian Federation was almost completely occupied.

The remnants have retreated into the territory of the Great Xia.

Other war zones are also struggling to hold on.

Some only have their last line of defense left.

Humanity's territory is shrinking at a visible rate.

Gu Yan stood on the city wall of the eighth defense line.

Looking at the gray sky in the distance.

His hands were trembling, not because of the cold.

He suddenly felt that his cultivation these days was a joke.

So what if it's SSS-level?

So what if we're number one in the world?

He held the middle section, but couldn't hold the northern section.

He killed a hundred plagues, and ten thousand more surged up.

He saved 10,000 people, while another 100,000 died in places he couldn't see.

He thought he was strong enough.

But he can't save everyone.

None of them can be saved.

His fingers gripped the hilt of the demon-slaying sword tightly.

He thought of Pei Youyi.

I thought of Fu Yunshu.

It reminded me of Zhuge Yuntu.

I thought of Wei Changfeng.

I thought of Han Jae-hee.

He thought of the soldiers who died in the trenches without even knowing their names.

He wants to become stronger.

He wants to become stronger.

He's strong enough to hold the entire defensive line by himself.

It's powerful enough to make the Kuroshio disappear forever.

He needs strength.

He needs more power.

A thought flashed through his mind.

A plan to create a god.

Thirty suitable candidates.

Wan Qing, Shi Wei, You Yao.

Their spiritual energy is very pure.

If I were with them...

His pupils suddenly contracted.

He loosened the hilt of the knife and took a step back.

His heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was going to jump out of his chest.

What is he thinking?

What was he thinking just now?

He was actually eyeing those people.

He covered his face with his hands and took a deep breath.

His fingers were very cold; they felt like ice cubes against his face.

He realized he had changed.

Things have really changed.

He has started to see the people around him in that way.

He began to feel afraid.

What we fear is not the Kuroshio Current.

It's that version of myself that's gradually becoming a stranger to me.

Gu Yan stood on the city wall of the eighth defense line, the north wind whipping dust across his face.

His hands were still covering his face, his fingertips were icy cold.

He knew exactly what he was thinking.

The thought, like a snake, crawled out from the darkest part of his heart, coiled around his throat, and made it hard for him to breathe.

He slowly lowered his hand and looked at the plain in the distance that had been devoured by the Black Tide.

The wreckage was still smoking, and several scrapped tanks lay askew in the shell craters, like pieces of chewed-up bones.

The Eighth Defense Line is the gateway to the inland provinces of Great Xia, with Jinghai located behind it.

If we really retreat to the ninth line of defense, it means that East Asia and even all of humanity are doomed.

The ninth line of defense is Jinghai itself.

He can't let that happen.

Therefore, his idea was not wrong.

He needs strength.

No matter what method he uses, he needs power.

But the last bit of kindness in her heart was still struggling, like a candle that had burned down to half a stick, teetering on the verge of collapse in the wind.

He didn't know how much longer he could hold on.

Perhaps when that candle goes out, he will truly become the kind of person Elena described.

That night, the global internet was simultaneously hacked.

There was no warning.

All screens, all broadcasts, and all terminals still connected to satellite signals went black in the same second.

Then a voice rang out.

The voice was hoarse and slow, with a metallic, grating quality, as if someone were speaking through two rusty iron plates.

"Humans."

Hello.

"I was once one of you."

"My name is Xu Huan."

People all over the world stopped what they were doing at that moment.

In the refugee camp, the soldiers put down their bowls and chopsticks.

On the defensive line, the guards on duty raised their heads.

The staff officers at the command post stood up from their chairs and stared at the screen.

In the center of the screen, a face slowly appeared.

That face was once aloof and handsome, but now half of it is covered with dark gold scales, one eye is a human eye, and the other has become a vertical pupil.

Xu stood amidst ruins, with countless calamities behind him, like an army awaiting inspection.

"I've brought you a choice."

"Surrender, or perish."

"I know you'll say you'll never surrender."

"I said the same thing three years ago."

"But when I actually stood here, I realized how stupid you all were."

"The Kuroshio is will, it is power, it is something you can never defeat."

"All of humanity's resistance is merely delaying its own extinction."

"Your once-proud defensive line is gone."

"Your country, your army, your strongmen, are all disappearing."

He paused for a moment, a complex emotion flashing in the human's eyes, before a stiff smile appeared on the half of his face covered by scales.

"There's one more thing."

"You've always thought that Yuzuru's second-in-command, who fought his way through the Black Tide on the battlefield, was an unknown nobody."

"You are wrong."

"His name is Gu Yan."

"It is the Imperial Jade that you thought had been dead for three years."

"He is still alive."

"He's very strong."

"But he can't save you."

"Because a month from now, I will have a decisive battle with him over the Pacific Ocean."

"I will make him understand, to his face, that his resistance is pointless."

"Let my junior sister see that she chose the wrong man back then."

The screen went black.