The terrifying, vibrant hum echoing from the triple rows of the Tier-2 Crimson-Scaled Maw-Beastās horizontal jaws rippled through the empty avenue of Sector 04, violently causing the remaining overhead streetlamps to explode in showers of yellow sparks. The thick sea fog rolling off the docks was instantly superheated by the creature's passive volcanic field, turning the wet, damp air into a pressurized chamber of blinding white steam.
Lin Feng stood entirely unyielding at the center of the cracking asphalt lane. Beneath his simple gray utility jacket, his internal
Dantian
spun with an immaculate, heavy density, anchoring his physical mass flawlessly against the crushing weight of the trans-dimensional vacuum dropping from the sky.
The spatial coordinates are overlapping perfectly with my memories,
Lin Feng calculated calmly, his vacant, bottomless eyes tracking the serpentine lines of liquid fire leaking from the beast's dark red bone armor.
In the original timeline, the Bureau's heavy artillery brigade detonated the chemical array trying to pin this monster, permanently rendering Sector 04 a barren, radioactive crater. Tonight, the ledger resets.
The Maw-Beast launched its massive, six-meter frame forward. Despite its staggering weight, its legsāaugmented by ancient, pre-awakening geological pressureāmoved with an explosive, terrifying kinetic velocity that left two deep, melting trenches of liquid stone in the asphalt behind its heels. It closed the twenty-meter distance in a fraction of a millisecond, its massive volcanic maw gaping wide to tear Lin Fengās entire physical container into microscopic molecular shreds.
Lin Feng didn't step back. He didn't execute an intricate speed art or invoke a traditional external barrier.
As the creature's jagged, vibrating teeth came within six inches of his forehead, Lin Feng simply stepped
inward
, shifting his center of gravity beneath the beast's primary strike axis. He raised his bare right hand, his porcelain-smooth palm meeting the dense volcanic hide of the monster's chest plate with a compact, three-inch flex of his forearm tendons.
BOOM!
A devastating, high-frequency kinetic explosion detonated outward from the point of impact. The sheer displacement of air pressure was so immense that it violently tore a half-meter deep crater into the bedrock beneath his sneakers, blowing the superheated steam five hundred feet across the logistics avenue.
The multi-ton Crimson-Scaled Maw-Beast, capable of crushing an armored military division without breaking its stride, was brought to an absolute, bone-jarring halt mid-air. Its forward momentum experienced an unconditional, total structural reflection.
CRACK. CRACK.
A series of rapid, sickening splintering sounds ripped through the beast's dark red chest matrix. The reinforced bone armor plates covering its vital core violently fractured into hundreds of smoking shards, the immense volcanic heat trapped inside leaking out into the night air in a chaotic, pressurized spray. The monster let out a high-pitched, agonizing shriek that caused the concrete seawalls to crack down to their watermarks.
"Your energetic alignment is completely hollow," Lin Feng said softly, his calm voice carrying a deep spatial resonance that easily bypassed the beast's deafening roars. "You are relying entirely on the primitive heat of the rift to maintain your cellular cohesion. Once your core is grounded by a true
Qi Circulation
channel, your evolutionary shell is no more resilient than common river clay."
Without allowing the thrashing vanguard predator to recover its balance, Lin Feng closed his fingers, his bare hand digging straight into the fractured bone armor of its chest, securing an unshakeable iron grip. He executed a fluid, low-profile spinning pivot. Leveraging the beast's own massive weight against its equilibrium, he casually hurled the six-meter monster face-first into the concrete cargo platform.
THUMPāBOOM!
The immense impact violently shattered the entire foundation of Terminal 3, digging a half-meter deep crater into the granite bedrock. Several automated cargo cranes leaning over the edge groaned as the residual shockwave bent their heavy steel support arches into useless, twisted shapes.
The Maw-Beast violently thrashed in the mud, its multiple crimson eyes flashing with an unstable, primitive madness as it tried desperately to ignite its passive thermal field to vaporize Lin Feng's arm.
But Lin Feng was already standing directly over its neck plating. He made a loose fist with his right hand, guiding a dense, circulating current of sapphire Qi straight down from his
Dantian
into his knuckles, his skin flashing with a profound, temporary pearlescent luster.
"Return to the ledger," Lin Feng whispered.
He delivered a compact, unmitigated straight punch directly into the center of the beastās skull matrix.
BOOM!
The explosion was entirely self-contained. The liquid current of his Stage 1 Qi Circulation traveled through the volcanic bone armor blocks like a high-voltage hydraulic press, completely neutralizing the creature's core abyssal engine in less than a millisecond. The Maw-Beastās three rows of crystalline teeth instantly stopped their high-frequency vibration, its massive, crimson-scaled frame violently shuddering before dissolving into a large, harmless cloud of fine, gray ash that was instantly swept into the dark coastal ocean by the coastal wind.
The western logistics docks fell into a dead, suffocating silence once more.
Lin Feng stood at the center of the smoking crater, his clothes completely unmarked by the soot or the boiling stone. He casually walked back to the concrete mooring pylon, picking up his worn utility backpack and slinging it neatly over his right shoulder.
Suddenly, a series of rapid, automated electronic pings flared inside his utility jacket pocket.
It was the unbranded transponder he had re-linked to Director-General Sunās private command network. The encrypted screen lit up with an urgent, high-intensity system update flashing from the Central Bureau's Deep Directory:
[STRATEGIC SHIFT ā ALL CORE GROUNDS]
[Source: Bureau Executive Office]
[Subject: Sector 04 Verification Alert]
[Action: The satellite telemetry shows the Western rift baseline has dropped to absolute zero. The Crimson Maw-Beast signature is permanently zeroed out from the national ledger. Director-General Sun has officially approved the immediate transition of Sector 01 assets. The academic archives of the Imperial Academy are now fully open to Student Lin Feng's entry. Secure the perimeter under Code Black.]
Lin Feng looked down at the glowing text, a cold, undefeated smile curling the corners of his lips in the dark fog of the docks.
The mishap of the early rift deployment had been thoroughly scoured from the board. The state was now completely bound to his blueprint, the legacy clans were operating in total blindness, and the true, undefeated path toward the absolute apex of modern New Huaxia was leading him straight into the secret archives of the Capitalās Imperial Academy.
He pulled the hood of his black sweatshirt low over his face, his silhouette instantly vanishing into the creeping morning fog as he stepped away from the execution grounds.