All players: Become a Dharma King, with unlimited skill stats.

When the words "Let there be light" were calmly uttered from An Bai's mouth.

The whole world seemed to respond to this at that moment.

The deafening shouts, roars, and explosions on the battlefield mysteriously disappeared.

Time seemed to have been paused.

Whether it was the warriors fighting bloody battles with the monsters, or the abyssal monsters with ferocious faces climbing frantically upwards, they all subconsciously stopped what they were doing and raised their heads.

Then, they saw the light.

An endless, indescribable, holy and warm light!

That light did not come from the sky.

It emanated from An Bai's body, from the palm he raised!

He is the source of light!

At this moment, An Bai was like a divine sun descending from the heavens to the mortal world!

The light was initially very soft.

But to those abyssal monsters, it is like the most deadly poison!

"Sizzle..."

"Roar... Awooo..."

All the abyssal monsters that were exposed to the light seemed to have been doused with concentrated sulfuric acid, emitting plumes of black smoke and letting out incredibly shrill and painful screams.

Their hard shells and tough bodies, under this light, are as fragile as snow meeting the scorching sun, rapidly melting and disintegrating!

For the warriors of Dawn Fortress...

This light, however, is the warmest hymn and the most effective medicine.

All the warriors enveloped in the light felt a warm current flow through their entire bodies.

Their wounds are healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Their depleted strength is rapidly recovering.

Their spirits, exhausted by despair, were rekindled with hope and fighting spirit under the light!

"It's...it's Lord Anbai!"

"Lord Anbai is back!"

"We're saved! We're saved!"

After a brief silence, a deafening roar of joy erupted from the city walls, a sound as if everyone had survived a catastrophe!

All the warriors gazed at the godlike figure in the sky with eyes full of reverence and fervor.

"No...this is impossible! What kind of power is this!"

The few king-level flying monsters hovering above Titan's head let out terrified human-like cries.

They sensed a deadly threat and tried to flap their wings to escape the area shrouded in light.

"Trying to run now?"

An Bai's icy gaze locked onto them.

"It's too late."

He suddenly clenched his five fingers!

"I say, light has the power to purify everything!"

boom------!!!

In an instant!

The light, which was originally quite gentle, suddenly became ten thousand times more powerful!

If the light just now was warm sunlight...

So now, it is a supernova explosion powerful enough to annihilate stars!

The blinding white light devoured everything!

Centered on An Bai, a huge, pure white sphere of energy spread rapidly like ripples!

Where the light sphere passes.

Whether it's the densely packed, surging low-level monsters at the foot of the city wall.

It was still hovering in the sky, a king-level monster with strength comparable to a demigod.

Even higher up, there was that hideous, blood-red spatial rift from which demons were constantly pouring out!

Everything, under the purification of this pure light, silently evaporated, annihilated, and turned into the most primitive particles, completely disappearing from this world!

He didn't even have time to let out a scream!

The entire process lasted less than three seconds.

Three seconds later.

The light dissipated.

The world is now peaceful.

Outside Dawn Fortress, the wasteland that had been submerged by the endless beast tide was now completely empty, without even a single monster's corpse remaining, as clean as if it had been thoroughly swept clean.

In the sky, the blood-red rift that pierced the heavens and brought endless despair also vanished without a trace.

It was as if it had never existed.

Only the mottled bloodstains and broken marks on the towering city walls still tell the story of the fierce battle that had just taken place.

"..."

"..."

On the city wall, there was a deathly silence.

All the surviving warriors, including the Titan who had just regained his human form and was still panting heavily, stared in disbelief at this miraculous scene.

Just moments ago, they were plunged into dire straits, facing the imminent destruction of their city and the loss of their lives—a terrifying beast tide.

That's it...gone?

Was it all cleared away by Lord Anbai with a wave of his hand?

"Gulp."

Titan swallowed hard, his eyes filled with fanatical worship as he watched the figure slowly descending from the sky.

Haven't seen you for a few days.

Just how terrifying has Lord Anbai become?

An Bai slowly landed on the city wall.

He glanced at the warriors around him who were looking at him with awe, nodded, and then walked straight up to Titan.

"Well done."

He patted Titan on the shoulder.

Those four simple words instantly brought tears to the eyes of this seven-foot-tall lava giant.

"grown ups!"

Titan knelt down on one knee with a thud, his voice choked with emotion.

"Your subordinates are incompetent! We failed to defend the fortress, resulting in heavy casualties among our brothers!"

"stand up."

An Bai helped him up, his voice calm.

"This isn't your fault. What's the situation regarding casualties?"

"Preliminary statistics show that the defending legion suffered more than 30% casualties, and... and..." Titan's voice was strained.

"explain."

"And this is just the first wave. According to our intelligence, the rift has appeared all over the world! Right now, the whole world is in complete chaos!"

Upon hearing this, An Bai frowned.

It seems the situation is worse than he imagined.

"Return to the city lord's mansion and summon all the high-ranking officials. I need to know the full story."

"yes!"

……

Ten minutes later, in the City Lord's Mansion conference room.

An Bai sat in the first seat.

Below are Wei Zheng, Titan, Raine, and several of the fortress legion's highest commanders.

On everyone's face was a mixture of relief at surviving a disaster and deep anxiety about the future.

Liliana, who had just woken up, sat in the corner, her face pale.

She had already learned from Wei Zheng everything that had happened during the days An Bai was away.

"Tell me, what's the situation now?" An Bai got straight to the point.

Wei Zheng stepped forward and reported to his superior in a deep voice:

"My lord, on the third day after your disappearance, which is this morning, abyssal rifts appeared simultaneously all over the world. We call them the 'Heavenly Rifts'."

"Endless monsters surged forth, launching a devastating all-out attack on all survivor strongholds."

"Our Dawn Fortress, with its most fortified defenses and elite warriors, barely held out until your return. But other places... I'm afraid they're already..."

Wei Zheng didn't finish his sentence, but everyone understood what he meant.

"What about those Eclipse Kings?" An Bai asked the most crucial question.

"Based on the descriptions in the intermittent distress signals from various parties, it has been confirmed that at least five Eclipse Kings have descended upon this world, and they have attacked the most powerful surviving civilizations."

Liliana stood up, took out an ancient star map from her spatial storage, and added:

"Our elven ancient texts record that the only way to avert the apocalypse is to reactivate the planet's ultimate defensive barrier, the Eternal Shield, at the very core of the world's origin—the Creation Forge deep within the Earth!"

"Once the Holy Shield is activated, it will completely isolate all abyssal power from the world!"

"And the keys to unlock the Holy Shield are seven [Keys] scattered throughout the world!"

As Liliana spoke, she placed her [Green Key] and the [Red Key] that Anbai had previously obtained on the table.

"We already have two of the seven keys."

An Bai looked at the two keys, his eyes flickering.

"What about the remaining five?"

"According to the records," Liliana took a deep breath and said, "it was in the hands of the only remaining human super fortress located on the western continent, the City of the Sanctuary."

"One, in the hands of the Orc Empire in the Northern Ice Plains."

"One, in the hands of the Atlantean sea creatures deep beneath the sea."

"There are two more, their whereabouts unknown. Ancient books only record their approximate locations: one is in the endless sands of the south, and the other is in the misty islands of the east."

After listening, the entire conference room fell silent once again.

Each name represents a powerful civilization, one that has a long-standing feud with humanity.

To think that they could obtain the key from them in this chaotic world during the apocalypse is simply a pipe dream.

"Time is running out."

Wei Zheng's voice was extremely heavy.

"Even if we can convince them, just finding them and getting to the Earth's core would probably mean the world has already been devoured by the Eclipse King."

despair.

A deep sense of despair once again enveloped everyone's hearts.

However, Anbai.

But he slowly stood up.

He looked at the two keys on the table, then at the sky outside the window, which was gradually returning to calm.

His face showed no despair, only a cold resolve.

"Who said we were going to try and persuade them?"

His voice wasn't loud, but it startled everyone present.

An Bai's hand gently brushed over the two keys on the table.

"Time is indeed running out."

"Therefore, we must use the fastest and most effective method."

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping over everyone present, and spoke, word by word.

"Relay my orders."

"From this moment forward, unite all survivor factions."

"If they don't submit, beat them until they do."

"As for those keys..."

An Bai's lips curled up slightly, revealing a sinister smile.

"Have them wash it clean, then bring it to me themselves."