The wind sweeping off the ocean and into the industrial maze of Capital Grid Sector 04 was freezing, damp, and heavy with the sharp, toxic tang of stagnant chemical vapors. By 01:15 AM, the sprawling maze of the western logistics docks was completely desolate. Under the strict, administrative martial law implemented by Director-General Sun’s private commands, the typical midnight shifts had been entirely frozen. Over thirty thousand civilian laborers and factory technicians had been silently, efficiently evacuated under the public ledger of a "critical regional gas line variance."
The only lights remaining were the dull, rhythmic amber strobes of the automated cargo cranes, casting long, mechanical shadows across mountains of rusted shipping containers.
Lin Feng walked slowly down the center line of the main logistics avenue, his hands tucked loosely into the pockets of his gray utility jacket. His sneakers crunched softly against the cracked asphalt, the sound entirely swallowed by the rhythmic roaring of the coastal tide against the concrete seawalls. Within his lower abdomen, the liquid engine of his
Dantian
spun with a massive, highly condensed density, guiding his sapphire Qi loop smoothly through his primary pathways.
01:22 AM,
Lin Feng tracked, his vacant, bottomless eyes looking through the thick, swirling sea fog toward the dark silhouette of the primary container terminal.
The Bureau has successfully cleared a three-kilometer exclusion grid. Bai Qingxi’s drone fleets are currently circling the outer perimeter borders, frantically trying to intercept the telemetry lines, assuming I am here to secure another cache of high-grade mineral stones.
They still didn't understand the true nature of the fault lines. They thought the rifts were stationary treasure troves. They failed to realize that before a sanctuary can bear fruit, the gateway must be scoured of its initial primeval predators.
Suddenly, a violent, high-pitched shriek ripped through the air.
It wasn't a mechanical siren or a human voice. It was a sudden, terminal fracture in the localized spatial frequency. The heavy overcast sky directly above Terminal 3 violently twisted, the dark clouds warping into a tight, crushing spiral that turned the ambient air pressure to a suffocating vacuum baseline. The concrete floorboards beneath Lin Feng's feet violently groaned, deep, glowing violet fissures splitting across the asphalt like structural spiderwebs.
CRACK—BOOM!
The spatial fabric of New Huaxia tore wide open. A massive, jagged horizontal line of pure, bleeding purple void erupted twenty feet above the crane rails, letting out a torrent of volatile abyssal energy that instantly vaporized the nearest steel shipping containers into nothingness.
From the dark, smoking mouth of the trans-dimensional tear, a heavy, suffocating heat wave detonated outward, turning the freezing sea drizzle into a dense column of white steam.
Slowly, a towering, nightmarish silhouette began to drag its massive frame through the threshold.
The Tier-2 Crimson-Scaled Maw-Beast stood nearly six meters tall, its massive, reptilian torso covered in thick, overlapping plates of dark red bone armor that pulsed with a continuous, liquid volcanic heat. Its enormous, horizontal maw was lined with three rows of crystalline, razor-sharp teeth that violently vibrated, generating a low-frequency hum designed to shatter a mortal's equilibrium from fifty meters away. Its multiple crimson eyes locked instantly onto the lone human youth standing at the baseline of the avenue.
"A Tier-2 vanguard," Lin Feng whispered, his voice smooth, completely unbothered by the crushing atmospheric weight crashing from the sky.
He didn't draw a prototype firearm or summon a flashy defensive stance. He calmly pulled his hands from his jacket pockets, letting his worn utility backpack slide down his arm to rest against a concrete mooring pylon. Beneath his shirt, his porcelain-smooth skin flared with a brief, temporary pearlescent luster, his
Ren Channel
accelerating to maximum circulation velocity.
The Maw-Beast let out a deafening, gravelly roar that caused the sea walls to crack, its massive, armored legs exploding with kinetic force as it lunged forward, dragging a trail of melting asphalt behind its heels.
The next execution grounds had opened, and the undefeated apex of modern Huaxia was already stepping into the smoke.