Larkan, within the fog.
"BOOM!!!"
A giant foot descended from the sky, flattening three armored vehicles of the Suroma Empire's forces into tal pancakes, killing everyone inside.
The other surviving soldiers were on the verge of collapse upon seeing this. "Captain, this Nightmare Beast is too powerful, we must retreat!"
"No!" The voice of the Captain Commander ca through the walkie-talkie. "Your mission is to delay the giant Nightmare Beast. Retreating without orders will land you in a court-martial!"
"But—"
"It's coming again!!!"
"BOOM!!!"
The giant foot descended once more, instantly pulverizing a dozen Suroma soldiers who couldn't dodge in ti into a bloody mist.
The remaining twenty or thirty people couldn't take it anymore. Even a court-martial was better than waiting to be stomped to death.
They began to retreat, disregarding the captain's orders. At that mont, the giant foot lifted again, aiming to crush them.
"No!"
Hum—
A ripple invisible to the naked eye seed to vibrate through the air.
The giant foot abruptly stopped right above the soldiers' heads, as if restrained by so force, unable to fall.
The soldiers froze in place, their blood running cold, utterly confused about what had happened. In that split second, their lives had flashed before their eyes. They never expected to survive.
"You can withdraw. I'll handle things here."
A voice snapped the soldiers out of their stupor. They looked over—it was Adam!
The soldiers who had just escaped death imdiately withdrew. Only then did the giant foot crash down with a thunderous impact.
"Please search the vicinity for a fog gate," Adam said to the four won. "I'll deal with this big guy."
"Adam, be careful!"
Even though the four won knew Adam's imnse strength and the uniqueness of his abilities, facing such a gigantic enemy still made them worry.
The four of them scattered to search for the fog gate. Adam watched as the giant foot lifted again. He removed his protective helt, looked up, and smiled. "Friend from the alien planet, I know you are guarding the fragnt. Let
prove to you that I am worthy of obtaining it."
As he spoke, he raised his palm. The surrounding fog began to move aside in a strange manner. It was as if soone had sliced a block of tofu in half with a knife, then pushed the two halves apart.
Once the fog was split open, the true form of the giant foot's owner—a creature dozens of ters tall—was revealed.
If Guan Tong were present, he would have recognized it imdiately—this creature appeared in the murals of Fragnt 3, one of the largest alien beasts depicted there.
Adam looked up at the giant beast. When he saw its facial features, he smiled slightly. "It seems my guess was correct. You, like the giant creature near the fog gate in the Suroma Empire's mist, are not a Nightmare Beast."
At this mont, the super-giant beast with the massive foot was also looking down at Adam. It had a single blue eye the size of several basketballs, its gaze carrying a hint of scrutiny, as if it possessed a certain degree of intelligence.
Looking at Adam, it lifted its giant foot again and stomped down towards him.
Adam raised both hands. An invisible ripple appeared once more, holding up the giant foot the mont it descended.
The foot stopped less than three ters from Adam, unable to advance any further. Both sides maintained the sa posture, seemingly engaged in an intense, invisible contest of strength.
The stalemate lasted about a minute. The alien beast lifted its foot and placed it to the side, as if giving up the attack.
Adam also lowered his hands, a slight sheen of sweat appearing on his forehead. He smiled and said, "It seems I have passed your test, alien friend?"
"Adam!" Amanda's voice ca from not far away. "I found the fragnt!"
The giant beast turned and walked away, quickly disappearing into the fog.
Adam thought for a mont, then went to find Amanda. She was holding a fragnt.
"I found it on the ground. How strange," she said, her expression puzzled as she handed the fragnt to Adam. "Shouldn't it be inside the fog gate cavern?"
Adam reached out and took it, looking at the fragnt. "Most likely, soone retrieved it from the cavern but couldn't keep hold of it after coming out."
Amanda was taken aback. "Adam, are you saying the person who got the fragnt was stomped to death by that giant-footed Nightmare Beast just now?"
"Probably. However, that giant beast is our alien friend, not a Nightmare Beast assimilated by the fog."
"...The fog seems to be dispersing. Congratulations, Adam! Now you have two fragnts!"
Holding the fragnt, Adam sensed the locations of the other fragnts. "I'm not the only one with two. The holder in Beixing Country should also have two by now—or perhaps the holder in Andai State has two. Regardless of who it is, those two fragnts are now concentrated in one person's hands."
At that mont, the other three won also gathered, looking at him with concern.
"Did you get the fragnt?"
"Adam, are you alright?"
Adam chuckled. "You all know my ability. Is there really a need to worry so much?"
The four won exchanged glances. Indeed, Adam's "Force Field Manipulation" ability was the strongest they knew of or had witnessed, and Adam wielded it with incredible mastery.
"However, obtaining the other three fragnts definitely won't be this easy anymore," Adam sighed lightly. "We'll just have to let fate decide."
The four won nodded in agreent.
This ti, the Suroma Empire could easily transport troops for a landing because Larkan, a small country, was already finished, with no military or defense forces left.
But other countries with fragnt holders, like Sakura Prayer Country, definitely still retained substantial ard forces. The Suroma Empire wouldn't dare act recklessly there.
As for Beixing Country, that was even more out of the question. Even before the Doomsday Rules era, Beixing Country's national power could rival the Suroma Empire. After entering the Doomsday Rules era, its official rapid response had preserved a large population.
Under these circumstances, it would be good if Beixing Country didn't cause trouble for the Suroma Empire. The idea of the latter sending warships near the forr's borders was absolutely impossible.
anwhile, on the other side of the planet, in Bandzhen, the capital of Andai State.
At Basong's estate in a northern town, a large number of people were excavating the exploded building.
At first, they unearthed large quantities of supplies and weapons, thinking it was a secret armory that had accidentally exploded due to a misfire.
But when they dug out a dust-covered corpse and discovered it was the estate owner, Basong, they were all stunned.
"That's the boss?!"
"What happened??"
Basong's few trusted subordinates couldn't believe their eyes when they saw their boss's body.
After the explosion, they had found they couldn't contact the boss, and his room was empty, which had worried them. But they never imagined the boss would die here!
Who did it? How?!
No one knew.
"Enemies, it must be enemies!" one of the trusted subordinates shouted. "It's the people who killed Mara! They want to, uh—!!!"
Before he could finish, he suddenly felt himself choking.
The others looked and clearly saw a tightening black line wrapped around his neck.
"An, an attack!"
"Enemies!!"
"Uh!!!"
Chaos erupted. They saw nurous black lines spreading across the ground, crawling onto people, wrapping around necks and strangling them.
So tried to escape but couldn't. Others, in despair, raised their guns and sprayed bullets, only killing many of their own comrades while causing little harm to the dense web of shadow lines.
In no ti, all the ard personnel at the estate had been strangled to death by the shadow lines, without exception.
Guan Tong manipulated the Shadow to release the imprisoned people. After they all left, he set a fire, igniting and burning down this evil place.
Conveniently, for his own safety, Basong had no other residences around his estate, so Guan Tong didn't have to worry about the fire spreading to innocent people's hos.
As he gazed at the fiery clouds ford in the sky by the estate blaze, his mood couldn't help but feel much more at ease.
By the ti the fire had burned for over ten minutes—long after Guan Tong had left—Andai State's official personnel and fire trucks finally arrived belatedly to fight the fire.
After the firefighting efforts concluded, personnel from so intelligence agencies conducted an investigation.
Although Basong was just a minor warlord, his estate was in Bandzhen. And Bandzhen, as the capital of Andai State, had witnessed over a hundred people slaughtered in broad daylight and a massive estate burned to the ground. The Andai State officials couldn't let this slide, especially regarding their reputation.
Particularly the official insiders who had been secretly colluding with Basong. Losing this financial backer naturally infuriated them, and they demanded a thorough investigation.
Before entering the shelter, Basong had made a phone call. It was to his contact within the official agency, informing them that a Beixing Country team had infiltrated and was coming to cause trouble for him.
At the ti, the official personnel hadn't taken it seriously. But now, with Basong's forces completely destroyed, they realized the severity of the situation.
When the news reached the highest echelons of Andai State, the few decision-makers there were both furious and humiliated.
Bandzhen was their capital. Basong and his subordinates were all Andai State citizens. Now, a person or team from Beixing Country had infiltrated, carried out a massacre, and even if Andai State's national power was inferior to Beixing Country's, they couldn't tolerate such humiliation.
Especially since those few decision-makers also felt fear. If the infiltrator could wipe out Basong's forces like this, what if they targeted them next?
The highest echelons of Andai State imdiately ordered a detailed investigation of the incident. They also sealed the borders as a first step and dispatched nurous agents to search for the Beixing Country national responsible.
The intelligence departnt soon produced a result, concluding that the perpetrator was likely the legendary Ascendant, "Shadow." This judgnt was based on the condition of the nurous corpses found at the estate.
The investigation revealed Basong's subordinates had all been strangled, while Basong himself had been killed by so kind of sharp weapon piercing his heart. Combined with the earlier discovery of over a dozen of Basong's subordinates' bodies near a construction site, also killed by sharp weapons piercing their hearts, these two thods of death matched Shadow's signature killing style.
Furthermore, it was now widely known among nations that "Shadow" was most likely from Beixing Country. So once the investigation results ca out, Andai State's diplomats imdiately contacted their Beixing Country counterparts, demanding an explanation.
Upon receiving the ssage, Beixing Country's foreign affairs departnt, while feeling perplexed, also relayed the information to other departnts.
Thus, relevant materials soon found their way onto the conference table of the Counterasures Research Office.
The eting began. After all attendees understood the situation, their expressions all turned sowhat odd.
"Shadow actually crossed the border into Bandzhen, the capital of Andai State, went on a killing spree, took out over a hundred people, and burned down an estate?"
"This... what was the purpose?"
"The current problem is that Andai State is addressing this through diplomatic channels, hoping our Beixing Country will provide an explanation. After all, the whole world now tacitly assus Shadow is from our country."
"This matter is tricky... How do we give an explanation? Should we issue a dostic warrant for Shadow on charges of intentional homicide?"
"That won't do!" soone objected. "That would just push Shadow away! He's one of the world's most powerful Ascendants right now!"
"But, looking at the evidence, it does point to Shadow's handiwork. If our Beixing Country doesn't make a statent, could it cause diplomatic issues with Andai State?"
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