After the college entrance examination, my identity as a Mahayana Immortal Venerable could no longer

Rain pounded against the SUV's windshield. The dry, rubbery screeching of the wipers couldn't drown out the continuous growling outside.

Lin Zhen poured the cold, strong tea he was holding directly onto the floor mat.

He pushed open the car door. His leather boots splashed water half a foot high as they stepped into the mud.

The once wide scenic road at the foot of Panlong Mountain is now completely blocked by a dense mass of dark figures. By the dim light of the car headlights, one can make out the row of monsters lying in the rain at the very front.

Wild boars over five meters long. Black panthers with three tails. There were even several mutated brown bears with bone spurs growing on their backs.

A conservative estimate is 10,000 heads.

These mutated creatures, who usually hide deep in the mountains and forests, never dare to approach human cities. But today, the immortal pressure used to intimidate them within Panlong Mountain suddenly disappeared. The physical signal gate was forcibly severed by Zhou Ming, an insider at the Heavenly Surveillance Bureau headquarters, and the leakage of the array's aura was completely blocked.

In the eyes of these beasts, the sacred temple on the mountain, which was originally unapproachable, has now become a completely undefended, all-purpose tonic.

"Chief! The three outer high-voltage power grids have all been trampled flat!"

A Skywatch operative wearing a tactical vest came tumbling over, his automatic rifle still on safety.

"Our heavy firepower is no match for this kind of beast tide. Let's request a retreat! If we keep going, all the brothers will be wiped out here!"

Lin Zhen slapped the teammate's helmet with his backhand.

The opponent stumbled as he was struck.

"Retreat? Where to retreat to!"

Lin Zhen drew his sidearm from his waist and cocked it with a click.

"What were Mr. Lu's instructions before he left? Not a single live fly can be let into Panlong Mountain for the next seven days. If you retreat now, when that killing god returns, our entire Jiangnan branch, including our families—hundreds of people in total—will be stuffed into the fertilizer pits on the mountain!"

The team member covered his face, his jaw clenching.

"But...but Director Zhou cut off the signal, and we can't even get support from the Jiangzhou Military Region!"

"If they won't come, then we'll risk our lives!"

Lin Zhen kicked over the ammunition box next to him.

"Fire out all the depleted uranium armor-piercing rounds. Set up the heavy machine guns at the very front of the line. Anyone who dares to retreat even half a step, I'll shoot them first!"

Roar!

Lin Zhen had barely finished speaking when the massive mutated brown bear at the front suddenly stood upright.

The heavy bear claws slammed down on the asphalt road.

The ground trembled violently. The A-level mutated beast let out a deafening roar and led the charge against the Sky Surveillance Bureau's thin defensive line.

Followed by.

The black torrent formed by more than 10,000 mutated beasts was completely boiling over.

Da da da da!

Three heavy machine guns opened fire simultaneously. The flames crisscrossed the darkness, creating a deadly web.

But the depleted uranium rounds that could normally penetrate armored vehicles only sent up a series of blinding sparks when they hit the mutated brown bear's bone spurs. The brown bear didn't even pause, braving the hail of bullets to smash directly into the first armored off-road vehicle that was being used as cover.

The screeching sound of steel twisting and the muffled cracking of bones mingled together.

The defense line was on the verge of collapse the moment it made contact.

Lin Zhen gripped the gun with both hands, pulling the trigger tightly. He didn't even care when spent cartridges hit his face and burned him.

It’s over.

Only those two words remained in his mind.

......

At the same time.

The headquarters of the Beijing Astronomical Observatory. The offices of the three department heads, located 200 meters underground.

Zhou Ming held a cup of freshly brewed hand-drip coffee and sat in a large leather office chair.

Four huge LCD screens hung on the office wall. The screen representing the Jiangzhou region was currently displaying a completely flat, static white screen.

The highest-level physical gate in Jiangzhou was locked by him personally.

Without the headquarters' key, even if the people in the Jiangnan branch smashed the communication base station, they wouldn't be able to send out even a single byte of distress signal.

"Young people are just full of vigor."

Zhou Ming blew on the foam on the surface of his coffee.

"So what if you're a Grand Ascension Stage Immortal Venerable? In this world, force is always just an appendage of power. Do you really think that by subduing Ye Qingcheng, you can run rampant in the capital?"

He reached out and pressed the internal communicator on his desk.

"Technical Department. How long can the signal jamming in Jiangzhou last?"

A faint hissing sound came from the communicator. Then a technician answered nervously.

"Director Zhou... the gates over Jiangzhou have been locked. But..."

"But what? Speak clearly." Zhou Ming frowned.

"But five minutes ago, Elder Li personally issued the highest order. A nuclear explosion occurred in the mountains behind the Beijing Defense Zone, and Elder Li led a team to the scene."

The technician swallowed hard.

"News just came from the defense zone. The nuclear bomb... didn't kill Lu Yuan. Elder Li has already picked him up and put him on a supersonic fighter jet, which is heading towards Jiangzhou. It's expected to arrive in Jiangzhou airspace in two minutes."

boom.

Zhou Ming slammed the bone china coffee cup in his hand onto the keyboard.

The scalding coffee spilled all over him. But he didn't feel the heat at all.

His well-maintained face lost all color in a fraction of a second. A violent spasm shot through his stomach, and acid reflux rushed down his esophagus and into his throat.

What did you say?!

Zhou Ming suddenly stood up, his knee slamming against the table with a dull thud.

"A 5,000-ton tactical nuclear bomb... and it didn't kill him? How the hell is that possible?!"

The technician on the other end of the communicator was almost in tears.

"Absolutely true. Director Zhou, Elder Li has already retrieved the operation logs. He discovered that you overstepped your authority by cutting off the Jiangzhou signal, and Elder Li's internal security forces are now outside the gate..."

boom!

Before the technician could finish speaking, the heavy blast-proof door to Zhou Ming's office was violently kicked open from the outside.

Four fully armed bodyguards rushed in, their dark gun barrels pressed against Zhou Ming's forehead.

Zhou Ming's legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the chair.

He knew he was finished. Not only was he finished, but the powerful figures in Beijing behind him couldn't protect him either. That monster that emerged from the epicenter of the nuclear explosion would chew them all up, skin and bones, for trying to manipulate power.

......

Above Jiangzhou. 8,000 meters.

A jet-black supersonic fighter jet was hurtling above the clouds.

Rear row of the cabin.

Lu Yuan leaned back in the leather seat, his eyes closed.

His breathing was slow, each exhale carrying the smell of scorching gunpowder. There wasn't a single drop of true essence in his dantian; the black chains of the Heavenly Dao Life-Stealing Curse tightly bound his nascent soul.

Without the protection and suppression of true essence, the purest destructive power of the Mahayana stage physical body was rampaging through his blood vessels.

The cockpit door was pushed open.

The pilot emerged, his brow beaded with sweat.

"Sir, we've reached Jiangzhou airspace. However, the radar below shows a large area of ​​high-energy life forms gathering, and Panlong Mountain is completely surrounded. Ground guidance signals have been cut off, and we can't find the runway at all."

Lu Yuan opened his eyes.

Without the support of true energy, his eyes no longer held that profound, otherworldly wisdom, but instead revealed a wild, beast-like ferocity.

"No need to land."

Lu Yuan unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up.

"Open the hatch."

The pilot stood frozen in place. He glanced at the data on the fighter jet's control panel.

"Sir, we are currently at an altitude of 8,000 meters and a flight speed of Mach 1.5. The airflow outside is supersonic; opening the hatch without an anti-G suit would result in a sudden pressure difference that would tear a human body to shreds!"

Lu Yuan didn't even have the patience to explain.

He strode to the emergency exit on the side of the cabin.

He spread his right hand and gripped the thick bulletproof glass.

No magical powers are needed.

A burst of pure muscle power.

crunch--

A piercing sound of metal snapping echoed through the cabin.

He ripped off the alloy hatch, designed to withstand missile fragments, with one hand, using the hydraulic rod.

The violent supersonic airflow instantly rushed into the cabin.

The pilot was slammed against the cockpit wall by the blast of air and couldn't even catch his breath.

He stared intently at the figure standing at the edge of the hatch.

Lu Yuan did not carry a parachute. He didn't even wear any protective equipment.

He glanced at the Jiangzhou land shrouded in dark clouds at his feet, then took a step forward without hesitation.

He was plunged directly into the torrential rain.

......

At the foot of Panlong Mountain.

The defenses collapsed completely.

The A-grade mutated brown bear had already rushed to within five meters of Lin Zhen.

The bullets were all used up. Lin Zhen hurled the empty gun at the brown bear's face, then drew his military dagger.

He knew it was futile. The bear's claws were bigger than millstones; a single blow could turn him, bones and all, into a pulp.

The brown bear roared and stood upright, its enormous shadow completely enveloping Lin Zhen.

Just as the bear's paw was about to strike.

A sharp sonic boom echoed through the sky.

It wasn't thunder. It was an aerodynamic boom produced by an object of terrifying mass tearing through the air without slowing down at all.

Boom!

A sonic boom cloud carrying high temperatures exploded suddenly less than 20 meters above the ground.

Lin Zhen felt a sharp pain in his eardrums, and was thrown more than ten meters away by a violent shockwave, crashing heavily into the muddy water.

Ignoring the excruciating pain all over his body, he struggled to lift his head.

The scene before him completely robbed this veteran agent, who had worked for the Bureau of Extraordinary Immortals for over a decade, of his ability to think.

That enormous, arrogant mutated brown bear.

I didn't have time to take a picture of the paw.

Because a "meteorite" hit it directly on the top of its head.

That wasn't a meteorite at all.

That was a person.

Lu Yuan remained kneeling on one knee.

The asphalt road beneath his feet was blasted into a massive crater, several meters in diameter, by the kinetic energy of his Mahayana-stage physical body. Spiderweb-like cracks spread along the foundation for over a hundred meters.

The A-grade mutated brown bear didn't even manage to let out a scream.

Its skull, cervical vertebrae, and massive torso were compressed into a mass of mangled flesh by the impact of tens of thousands of tons. Dark red blood mixed with fragments of internal organs splattered radially within a radius of several meters.

There was no fluctuation of true essence.

There are no fancy magical effects or light effects.

Only the purest and most violent physical crushing.

Lu Yuan stood up from the bottom of the pit.

His down jacket had been burned to ashes by the intense heat of the fall. His muscular upper body was covered in the blood and flesh of the brown bear.

He twisted his neck. His cervical vertebrae made a sickeningly loud cracking sound.

"Eight thousand meters. Free fall."

Lu Yuan glanced at his unharmed palm.

"The Earth's gravity is barely enough for moving your muscles and bones."

The more than 10,000 mutated beasts that were charging wildly around them all slammed on the brakes at that moment.

Although these beasts were not very intelligent, their wild instincts made them feel a terrifying pressure from the absolute top of the food chain the moment Lu Yuan landed.

The nearest dozens of wild boars and black leopards lay trembling on the ground, completely drained of the strength to run away.

Lin Zhen crawled out of the mud and looked at Lu Yuan standing in a pool of blood.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but found his throat too dry to make a sound.

Lu Yuan did not look at Lin Zhen.

He strode out of the giant pit and headed straight for the area where the beasts were most concentrated.

No sword was drawn. No hand seals were made.

He walked straight forward and grabbed the upper and lower jaws of an S-class mutated giant wolf with both hands.

The giant wolf tried to bite his arm off. But its fangs, capable of biting through steel bars, broke into several pieces as they struck Lu Yuan's skin.

tear up.

The sound of cloth tearing.

Lu Yuan exerted force with both arms. Hundreds of tons of wrist strength erupted.

They forcefully tore the four-meter-long giant wolf in half.

The scalding wolf blood poured over him like a waterfall.

He casually tossed away the mangled corpse in his hand and continued walking.

He smashed a wild boar's head with one punch. He broke a black panther's spine with one kick.

He was like a meat grinder that had gone out of control, using the most primal methods of killing to carve a bloody alley in this black torrent.

No mutated beast could withstand a single punch from him. A glancing blow meant certain death, a direct hit meant certain annihilation.

In just three minutes.

At the foot of Panlong Mountain, a small mountain made up of the corpses of mutated beasts has been piled up.

The remaining wild beasts completely broke down. They screamed, trampled each other, and fled frantically into the deep forests, ten times faster than when they came.

Lu Yuan did not chase after him.

He stopped and shook off the bits of meat from his hands.

He walked to the giant wolf's carcass, which had been torn in two. He bent down and pried out a dark red crystal core the size of a fingernail from the wolf's head.

Lu Yuan rubbed the crystal core between his fingertips.

Although he lacked the perception of true essence, his sense of smell remained sharp even during his Mahayana stage.

This mutated crystal core contains not only the violent energy generated by the revival of Earth's spiritual energy.

It also contained a faint trace of death energy, completely identical to that of the Yin Corpse beneath the capital's prison.

Sirius region.

Lu Yuan raised his head and looked in the direction of the Panlong Mountain villa.

These scum from outside the capital not only planted water pumps in the capital.

They were also using the recently leaked spiritual energy tide on Earth to artificially catalyze these mutated beasts. Zhou Ming's decision to cut off Panlong Mountain's signal at this juncture was not at all to prevent official rescue efforts.

Rather, it was to cooperate with these beasts, which were tainted by the aura of the Sirius Star Domain, to attack the Nine Yin Profound Vein that he had suppressed inside Panlong Mountain.

That was his sister Lu Qingxue's Achilles' heel.

"Zhou Ming."

Lu Yuan crushed the crystal core in his hand into powder.

"Before dawn, I will dig out everything from your head, bit by bit."