The blinding pillar of dark violet light continued to lacerate the night sky over Capital Grid Sector 01, turning the low-hanging rain clouds into a swirling, turbulent vortex. Beneath the shattered framework of the North Training Grounds' concrete roof, the air was toxic with the smell of vaporized sulfur and ozone.
The Tier-1 Abyssal Dread-Hound fully crossed the spatial threshold, its four massive, obsidian-plated legs slamming into the ruined granite flooring. The beast stood nearly four meters tall, its entire skeletal frame covered in jagged, overlapping bone armor that pulsed with a volatile purple heat. Its two crimson ocular lenses locked onto the paralyzed military line, and it let out a low, bass-heavy growl that caused the remaining standing window panes across the campus to instantly shatter.
"Heavy artillery units! Re-engage!" Director-General Sun roared into his emergency tactical loop, his midnight-blue military coat completely drenched by the freezing drizzle. He frantically fired his prototype sidearm toward the beastâs skull, but the compressed kinetic bullets simply disintegrated against the creature's passive abyssal field like small drops of water hitting a hot furnace plate.
The fifty black-ops operatives who had managed to scramble back to their feet fired a continuous, desperate volley of live ammunition. Armor-piercing kinetic rounds, tracking lasers, and tactical darts rained down on the dread-hound, but the immense density of the spatial tear protected the beast, scattering the projectiles across the grass in flat, meaningless scrap.
Zhao Ming lay flat on his stomach in the mud, his teeth clicking frantically together as his unawakened lungs gasped for oxygen within the suffocating vacuum.
This is an Abyssal Calamity...
his mind screamed, his legacy pride thoroughly crushed.
Our ancestral manuals never recorded a beast breaching the capital gates before the global solstice... Itâs over. The academy is lost.
"You're aiming at the wrong matrix, Director-General."
The calm, smooth voice bypassed the chaotic screaming of the tactical alarms and the rhythmic clicking of the dread-hound's claws, falling directly into Director-General Sun's receiver.
Sun raised his head violently, his eyes locking onto the center of the ruined roof structure.
Lin Feng stepped off the narrow steel concrete beam. He didn't drop toward the ground with the clumsy kinetic deceleration of a mortal; instead, his body glided down through the white steam with an absolute, feather-like lightness. The moment his sneakers touched the fractured granite blocks of the training pit, the liquid Qi circulating within his
Ren Channel
experienced a massive, high-velocity surge.
The Abyssal Dread-Hound detected the sudden shift in the energetic baseline. It snapped its massive armored jaw toward the thin youth in the black t-shirt, its crimson ocular lenses burning with a ravenous, primitive hunger. It launched its multi-ton frame forward, its obsidian claws destroying the bedrock as it closed the thirty-meter distance in a fraction of a millisecond.
"A linear kinetic rush," Lin Feng murmured softly, his vacant, bottomless eyes remaining completely flat as the massive shadow of the monster dropped over his head.
He didn't draw a ballistic sidearm, nor did he attempt to invoke an external barrier to absorb the blow. As the creature's jagged bone-plated maw opened to crush his chest cavity, Lin Feng simply stepped
forward
, entering the absolute defensive radius of the beast.
He raised his bare right hand, his porcelain-smooth palm intercepting the dread-hound's massive lower jaw with a compact, three-inch flex of his forearm tendons.
BOOM.
A devastating, high-frequency kinetic shockwave detonated outward from the point of impact, blowing the torrential drizzle fifty meters backward and clearing a perfect, dry dome in the air. The heavy armored vehicles surrounding the perimeter groaned as the sheer displacement of air pressure pushed their multi-ton chassis an additional three feet back across the grass.
Director-General Sun stared in absolute, uncomprehending psychological paralysis.
The multi-ton Abyssal Dread-Hound, capable of running through a reinforced military bunker without reducing its velocity, had been brought to a complete, dead stop by a single, bare human hand. Lin Feng's arm hadn't bent, his boots hadn't slid back an inch into the mud, and his face remained completely undisturbedâas if he were merely catching a falling leaf.
"Your energetic cohesion is hollow," Lin Feng said softly, his voice carrying a deep spatial vibration that caused the violet light of the rift to flicker erratically. "You are relying entirely on the pressure of the tear to maintain your physical mass. Once the connection to the void is grounded, your shell is no more resilient than common river clay."
Lin Feng closed his fingers, his bare palm gripping the obsidian bone plating of the creature's lower jaw with an iron vise-like hold.
Crunch.
The reinforced, trans-dimensional bone armorâa material engineered to withstand the atmospheric friction of the abyssal riftsâinstantly cracked and crumpled under the immense squeezing pressure of his Stage 1 Qi Circulation. The beast let out a sharp, high-pitched shriek of agony, its crimson lenses flashing frantically with red errors as it tried desperately to tear its jaw free from the youth's grip.
Lin Feng didn't let go. He executed a fluid, low-profile spinning pivot, using the multi-ton mass of the thrashing dread-hound as a physical counterweight. With a casual, effortless flick of his wrist, he slammed the entire four-meter monster face-first into the concrete flooring.
THUMPâCRASH!
The immense impact violently shattered the entire foundation of the North Training Grounds, digging a three-meter-deep crater into the granite bedrock. The creature's upper skeletal frame split open from the structural backlash, its volatile purple heat leaking out into the humid air in long, smoking wisps.
Before the dread-hound could recover its spatial orientation, Lin Feng stepped onto its cracked neck plating. He made a loose fist with his right hand, guiding a dense, liquid current of sapphire Qi straight down from his
Dantian
into his knuckles.
"Return to the ledger," Lin Feng whispered.
He delivered a compact, unmitigated straight punch directly into the center of the beastâs skull matrix.
BOOM!
The explosion was entirely internal. The liquid Qi traveled through the obsidian armor blocks, completely neutralizing the creature's core abyssal engine in less than a millisecond. The dread-hound's crimson ocular lenses went completely dark, its massive frame violently shuddering before dissolving into a large, harmless cloud of fine, gray ash that was instantly washed away by the returning downpour.
The North Training dome fell into a dead, suffocating silence, save for the steady, mechanical thrumming of the undisturbed mobile command vehicles.
Lin Feng stood at the center of the smoking crater, his black t-shirt completely dry, his posture straight and blade-like under the flashing emergency spotlights. He casually walked back to the edge of the pit, picking up his worn utility backpack and slinging it neatly over his right shoulder.
He turned his vacant, bottomless gaze toward the upper evaluation platform, looking directly at the shivering, ashen face of Director-General Sun.
"The nest is clear, Director-General," Lin Feng said softly, his smooth voice echoing through the valley with the unshakeable weight of a mountain. "The capital branchâs playbook is thoroughly broken. Now... letâs see if your bureau is ready to redraw the country's defense lines before the winter solstice."
The mishap of the accelerated timeline had been completely liquidated. The first true kill of the Capital stage belonged to him, and the undefeated path toward the apex of New Huaxia had officially established its first absolute baseline.