pjbooks Chapter 121 Kahn Arrives
Chapter 121 Kahn Arrives
When the global alarm was sounded, Jiang Chen was watching Shen Qingxue conduct stress tests on the second batch of students in the physical training testing area of Qingyun Academy's outer campus.
Without warning, the piercing air raid siren came from the direction of downtown Jiangzhou, followed by a second, a third, and a fourth—all the sirens in the city were triggered at the same moment, their sharp screech overlapping like a dull knife sawing back and forth on everyone's eardrums. Simultaneously, the makeshift loudspeakers erected on the factory wall blared, but instead of the usual routine announcements, a strained male voice spoke rapidly, as if reading from a script while running.
"Emergency Notice from the Dragon Kingdom Awakened Affairs Management Bureau—Energy fluctuations in the Apostle Temples worldwide are surging simultaneously. Six Apostle Temples—Northern Europe, South America, East Africa, Western Pacific, Central Asia, and the Rocky Mountains of North America—have simultaneously entered an active state. Repeat, all six Apostle Temples have simultaneously entered an active state. Black ice flowers have been observed over twelve major cities. This is not a drill. This is not a drill. All Awakened Ones, immediately enter wartime status. Civilians, please proceed to the nearest underground shelter immediately—"
The broadcast was interrupted by a piercing crackling sound of electricity. Then, the sky changed color.
Then, black snow fell.
The first frosting fell on the Qingyun Academy flag, which hadn't yet been hung on the factory wall, instantly corroding a fist-sized hole in the fabric. The second frosting fell on the locust tree next to the testing area, causing the branches and leaves to wither, char, and turn to powder within the same second. The third frosting fell on the box of pork and cabbage dumplings that Wang Kai had just placed on the folding table; the lid was corroded through, and the still-steaming dumplings inside visibly turned black, shrunk, and eventually turned into a puddle of viscous black liquid.
Recovering from his shock, Wang Kai's first reaction wasn't to run, but to turn and shout towards the second floor of the factory: "Brother Chen—dumplings! Your dumplings are gone!"
Jiang Chen had already jumped from the second floor. He landed in the center of the factory's open space, looking up at the black snow curtain falling at an alarming speed. A flash of pale golden light appeared deep in his pupils, and his divine sense spread out in all directions like a tidal wave—he sensed it. Not just one Apostle Temple. Not just one country. Not just one continent. It was the entire world. The energy fluctuations of the six Apostle Temples surged to their peak in the same second, and black ice flowers erupted simultaneously from the cores of these six Apostle Temples, precisely projected along some void passage that transcended physical distance, directly above every major city in the human world.
The phone in his pocket vibrated so hard it was burning. Su Ze's emergency contact signal lit up. Jiang Chen didn't speak first; Su Ze, panting heavily, shouted, "Jiang Chen! Globally! Six Apostle Temples have activated simultaneously! Larger than three hundred years ago! The Third Apostle Temple in Scandinavia—its energy reading has surpassed the power of your sword strike when you killed Balsalon in Liangzhou! The General Command Center is on emergency alert—"
Jiang Chen hung up the phone.
He turned around, looking at the students behind him, frozen in place. Some were trembling, some clenched their fists, and some looked up at the black snow curtain that was corroding everything, their faces pale but their bodies still. Zhao Tieshan, leaning on his prosthetic leg, stood at the front and asked in a hoarse voice, "Dean, what can we do?"
Jiang Chen didn't answer. He pulled his right hand out of his school uniform pocket, fingers spread, palm facing upward. Pale golden light surged from the sword mark on his palm, shining like a blazing star in the midday darkness. The Primordial Sword condensed and took shape in the golden light, and the seven stars on the hilt began to rotate simultaneously, their speed so fast that even the surrounding air was rippled with the naked eye.
"Wang Kai. Qingxue. Take everyone into the underground training ground. There's a defensive barrier there that I reinforced with my true essence; the ice flowers can't penetrate it for now."
"What about you, Brother Chen?"
Jiang Chen gripped the hilt of the Primordial Sword tightly. The golden light flowing along the blade illuminated his seventeen-year-old face, and also the extremely dangerous curve at the corner of his mouth. Wang Kai had seen that smile once before—in the Thirteenth Apostle Hall, when Astra unleashed his Absolute Domain, Brother Chen smiled just like that.
"I'm going to slay a god."
The Apostle Realm, beneath the eternal dark golden sky.
On the ten thrones arranged in a circle, the gazes of the ten apostles were all focused on the enormous screen of light in the center. The screen displayed in real time every city in the human world—black ice flowers fell on the tip of Big Ben in London, causing the clock tower's exterior walls to rapidly crumble as if splashed with concentrated acid; the torch in the hands of the Statue of Liberty in New York had its internal structure corroded, the entire torch, along with its raised arm, crashing into the sea from its broken point; the steel frame of the Tokyo Tower emitted a teeth-grinding metallic fatigue sound under the corrosion of the ice flowers, collapsing layer by layer inward from the top; the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro was completely swallowed by the black snow curtain, the colossal statue with outstretched arms resembling a martyr about to be hanged in the darkness.
Mephistopheles's short, silver-gray hair turned pure black in the same instant. Her mirror law was frantically replicating, analyzing, and reflecting back the corrosion rate and energy distribution of every ice flower on the globe. Her deep purple pupils moved slower and slower, something solidifying deep within them.
"Six Apostle Temples activated simultaneously. Each teleportation channel underwent hundreds of folds and twists, with landing points distributed across sixty-three major cities on the Earth's surface. Kahn—this was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, nor was it a test like those in the Demon Realm. This was a comprehensive global strike, meticulously planned and precise down to the population density of every single city, prepared over an unknown period of time."
The light-membrane runes in Sorger's eye sockets swirled at a critical speed, so fast that even his pure white eyes began to glow with a faint purple light. He was deducing Jiang Chen's response path, countless times, and each time the result was the same: "Jiang Chen only has one sword. Even if the power of the Primordial Sword far surpasses the previous Severing Thought, even if his sword-wielding speed can reach any point on Earth within a quarter of an hour—he cannot possibly intercept the ice flower storms of six Apostle Temples simultaneously. There are far too many human-inhabited cities on this planet."
"So you think this attack is for the slaughter of humanity?" Kahn leaned back on the first throne, his amber pupils reflecting the blue planet being covered in black ice flowers on the light screen. His slender fingers tapped lightly on the armrest. The scene on the light screen instantly switched to a city—Jiangzhou. The density of the black ice flowers dropped sharply as they approached the center of Jiangzhou. The ice flowers still floated, but they couldn't reach the ground. A pale golden light shield covered the entire area within a ten-mile radius of Qingyun Academy, and the ice flowers evaporated into nothingness the moment they touched the shield. The image zoomed in, and at the center of the shield floated the phantom of a golden greatsword—a wisp of sword intent left by the Primordial Sword in the academy's defensive array.
"He left the sword intent of the Primordial Sword in the academy. No matter how fast he is, he can't protect the whole world, but the magic array he set up outside the academy was set up by himself, and even ten S-rank apostles working together couldn't break through it. This protective shield is effective for at least seven days, enough for him to kill his way through all the apostle halls on the global battlefield. From beginning to end, he only had a few weaknesses, and he knew them better than anyone else, so he put his most vulnerable things into the strongest shield in advance."
On the light screen, the illusory image of the Primordial Sword's sword intent slowly rotated within the golden light barrier. At the edge of the barrier, by a flowerbed under a streetlamp, the old woman who walked her Teddy Bear dog every day stood up, leaning against the back of a bench, and bent down to scoop the frightened dog into her arms. She looked up at the black snow curtain ten meters above her, blocked by the golden light barrier, muttered, "Oh dear, it's snowing again," then pulled her coat collar tighter and slowly walked towards the building entrance, still holding the dog.
Kahn's gaze lingered on the old woman for a moment longer, then his voice returned to its timeless calm. "We don't need to be stronger than him. We just need to be faster. His Dao heart is something that shield can't protect."
Meanwhile, in the command center of the Dragon Kingdom Awakeners Affairs Management Bureau.
The images on the holographic projection screen were so dense that they were completely indistinguishable to the naked eye—sixty-three cities were simultaneously attacked by ice flowers, each city's image flickering alternately. Chu Tianxiong stood in front of the control panel, his hands gripping the cold metal surface, feeling a chill run down his spine. Three days ago, humanity was celebrating the great victory in Liangzhou; a day ago, the line to register for Qingyun Academy stretched from Jiangzhou to the highway exit; now, human civilization was once again pressed to the brink of destruction.
A technician abruptly ripped off his headphones and stood up, his voice shrill and distorted: "Headquarters! Urgent dispatch from the European Bureau of Exotic Affairs—Deep within the Alps, the energy readings of the First Apostle's Temple have exceeded the critical threshold! The law fluctuations of the First Apostle, Kahn, have been detected penetrating from the depths of the void into the material world! The First Apostle—it's Kahn himself! He has personally descended! Descendance coordinates—"
The technician's voice suddenly stopped. He stared wide-eyed at the screen, as if checking if the coordinates were displayed incorrectly. Then, in a completely distorted, almost screaming voice, he shouted out the coordinates: "Jiangzhou! The First Apostle, Kahn, has personally descended upon Jiangzhou—coordinates locked—Qingyun Academy's main gate!"
All sound in the command hall vanished in an instant. Chu Tianxiong grabbed the communicator and roared, "Su Ze! Notify Jiang Chen! Kahn's target isn't him—it's Qingyun Academy! Kahn wants to dismantle his shield before he gets back!"