The sky above the Jiangnan coastline had transformed into an arena of shattered brilliance. The wreckage of the two intercepted Celestial vessels fell through the upper atmosphere like dying stars, their bioluminescent white hulls tearing apart into millions of burning, ionized fragments that painted the clouds in long, bleeding streaks of silver ash.
Lin Feng stood on the charred, slag-like remains of the lead flagship's primary deck. The internal resonance of the vessel was completely silenced; the once-elegant arcs of white starlight-metal were now cold, lifeless, and jagged. High above, the final ripples of the celestial gateway were aggressively closing, snapping shut with the finality of a guillotine blade.
The audit is officially voided,
Lin Feng calculated, his internal dual-loop circuit settling into a calm, rhythmic thrum.
The Celestial Sects sent their vanguard to re-establish the hierarchy, but they left their arrogance on the wrong side of the atmospheric threshold. The ledger is balanced.
He didn't remain on the wreckage. He simply turned, his sneakers pushing off the cold, dead slag of the deck with a precise, microscopic release of kinetic pressure. He vaulted back into the freezing void, his silhouette catching the slipstream of the Bureau's remaining fighter-vessels as they banked into a high-speed extraction trajectory.
Inside the command cabin, Instructor Meng held the fighter steady against the violent, turbulent wake of the descending debris. Beside her, Bai Qingxi and Han Xue looked out through the reinforced viewports with a quiet, lingering sense of shock. They had watched the regressor dismantle a Tier-4 vanguard with nothing more than a localized tectonic inversionāa feat that defied every documented law of the Nine Heavens Domain.
"The federal military perimeter is reporting a total withdrawal of all foreign assets within the Jiangnan grid," Instructor Meng announced, her disciplined voice tight as she confirmed the final tactical readouts on her terminal. "The Western Sanctumās naval command has officially broadcast a full surrender of their regional resource claims. The coast is clear, Lin Feng."
Lin Feng sat back in the pilot's bench, pulling his hood over his eyes. He didn't boast, and he didn't offer a celebratory acknowledgment of the victory. He simply pulled his unbranded transponder from his pocket and began to draft the final registry code for the maritime inheritance.
"The audit was the final test of the capitalās institutional structure," Lin Feng said softly, his voice echoing through the cabin with the unhurried, mountain-like density of the absolute apex. "But the global ledger is still shifting. We have secured the maritime trench and the continental geocentric roots. Tomorrow morning, when the winter solstice dawn reaches its total peak, the gates to the First Celestial Realm will open beneath the capital. That is where the era will be decided."
Han Xue turned to him, her glacial gaze softening as she looked at the youth who had scoured the board clean. "You have achieved a level of cohesion that none of the Sects could ever dream of, Lin Feng. You are no longer just a protector of the forgotten; you are the architect of the new order."
Lin Feng didn't look up from his transponder. He tapped the final command into the terminal, locking the maritime inheritance data into his own
Dao Blueprint
.
"I am just a regressor," Lin Feng murmured, his vacant, golden-flecked eyes reflecting the vast, darkening horizon of the coming age. "And the era is finally mine to manage."
The fighter banked toward the capital city, its engines fading into the cold, empty indigo of the high-altitude void. The first great audit of New Huaxia was done, but the absolute ascent was only just beginning.