harleyscars Chapter 47 The Capital City Under the Sonic Boom Cloud
Chapter 47 The Capital City Under the Sonic Boom Cloud
"BOOM—!!!"
The deafening roar, like an ancient thunderclap, ripped the sky above Cloud Peak Manor. The aftershocks crashed against the mountain cliffs, sending rocks tumbling down in a continuous cascade. This was not the roar of cannons, nor the explosion of thunder; it was the earth-shattering sound of a body breaking the sound barrier, violently rubbing against the air, causing the entire manor to tremble slightly.
Chu Jianguo felt as if all his bones had been removed, collapsing onto the cold ground. The ringing in his ears drowned out all other sounds, and his vision blurred. He subconsciously raised his hand to touch his cheek, and a warm, sticky liquid instantly soaked his palm, trickling down between his fingers—his eardrums had already been shattered by the violent shockwave. The smell of blood mixed with dust made him nauseous, and his whole body trembled uncontrollably.
Not far away, Zhao Tiancheng squatted on the steps, the cigarette dangling from his lips long since extinguished by the blast of air. He chewed the tobacco in his mouth hard, spat it out onto the ground, and the dark brown tobacco residue mixed with saliva splattered into the soil. He looked up towards the entrance of the villa, his eyes showing no panic, only an almost numb shock—there, a half-meter-deep ravine had been cleaved open, as if by an invisible giant blade. Wisps of white smoke were still rising from the soil at the edge of the ravine, and the acrid smell permeated the air, making one's throat tighten. It was the high temperature generated by high-speed friction that had baked the soil black.
"Director Chu," Zhao Tiancheng slowly stood up, patted the dust off his trousers, and spoke in a calm tone as if he were talking about something trivial, but every word was like an ice pick, piercing Chu Jianguo's body and sending chills down his spine, "Call Beijing now to collect the body. Maybe we can still salvage a few intact bones."
"Collect the body?" Chu Jianguo shuddered, as if struck awake by a thunderbolt. His dazed consciousness returned instantly, and fear gripped his heart like vines, suffocating him. He scrambled towards the military jeep by the roadside, oblivious to the blood trickling from his knees scraping against the gravel. His hands trembled like leaves in the wind as he frantically grabbed at the encrypted communicator inside the vehicle, his fingers slipping away several times.
"Connect to headquarters! Connect to headquarters immediately! It's an emergency!" he roared into the communicator, his voice hoarse and broken, spittle flying onto the instrument panel, his eyes bloodshot, he was on the verge of collapse. "Sound the highest level air raid siren in the capital! Target... the target has already set off! Hurry!"
Only a hissing static came from the communicator. After a few seconds, the operator's impatient voice came through, tinged with perfunctoriness: "Director Chu, what's the rush? Didn't the Ye family give that kid a deadline to be in Beijing before sunset? It's only 2 PM now. Even if he had wings and took the high-speed train, he couldn't make it. Have you been confused by the blast wave?"
"Foolish?" Chu Jianguo roared hysterically into the microphone like a mad dog whose tail had been stepped on. The anger and fear in his chest almost consumed him. "He didn't take the high-speed rail! He's a missile! A monster whose body has broken the sound barrier! The radar will detect him soon! Notify the highest levels immediately! If you're a second late, Beijing is finished!"
Eighty meters underground, in the Beijing Defense Command Center, the lights were bright, yet an eerie silence permeated the air. On the green radar screen, a previously tranquil airspace was suddenly shattered by a blinding red dot, like a red-hot branding iron, instantly breaking the stillness.
The operator rubbed his eyes, thinking he was seeing things, and suddenly leaned closer to the screen. His pupils contracted sharply—the red dot was moving at an absurdly fast speed, leaving a long, blinding trail. It crossed the airspace of several provinces almost instantly, so fast that its trajectory was invisible.
"Report—Report!" The operator's voice trembled slightly. He jumped to his feet and shouted at the control panel, "Unidentified flying object spotted in the southeast! 3,000 meters altitude, rapidly approaching Beijing!"
The commander strode over, his hands gripping the control panel tightly, his knuckles white from the force. His eyes, sharp as an eagle's, were fixed on the red dot on the screen: "What's the speed? Calculate it immediately!"
The operator's hands flew across the keyboard, his fingertips dancing across the keys, and a string of cold numbers flashed across the screen. The instant he saw those numbers, his fingers froze in mid-air, trembling violently. His face turned deathly pale, and his voice, choked with sobs, practically screamed, "Mach... Mach 15! Still accelerating! It's already broken Mach 15!"
"Mach 15?!" The commander's face drained of all color instantly. He shuddered, staring at the screen in disbelief. His fist slammed into the control panel with a loud thud, sending documents crashing to the floor. "What country's intercontinental ballistic missile is this?! Why isn't our interception system reacting?! Activate the interception program immediately!"
"No! Sir!" The operator was on the verge of tears, his hands frantically pounding the keyboard, his voice filled with despair. "The target is too small! The radar cross-section is less than 0.5 square meters, the system... the system has identified it as a bird! We can't initiate the interception procedure at all!"
"What the hell is that Mach 15 Flying Bird?!" The commander roared, slamming his fist on the control panel again, his knuckles instantly turning bruised. "Useless! All useless! Sound the highest alert immediately! All anti-aircraft missiles, launch them! Even if it's a flying bird, shoot it down!"
"yes!"
As soon as the words were spoken, the entire underground base was instantly illuminated by a bright red light. The piercing sound of sirens penetrated the thick concrete walls, so sharp that it hurt the eardrums. Each sirens seemed to announce the arrival of death. All the soldiers in the base sprang into action, and the atmosphere became extremely tense.
Three minutes later, the operator stared intently at the trajectory graph on the screen, his body stiff. He swallowed hard, his voice dry and hoarse like sandpaper scraping: "Report...Reporting, sir! Target trajectory calculated! It didn't fly towards Central Lake, the landing point is...is in the East District, at the Ye family's old residence!"
The commander froze, his pupils contracting sharply. A cold sweat broke out on his back, trickling down his spine and soaking his uniform. He stared intently at the red dot on the screen, about to reach Beijing. After a few seconds of silence, his teeth grinding, he ordered, word by word: "Cancel the interception."
"Sir! No!" the operator shouted anxiously. "If the target crashes, its kinetic energy will be equivalent to a small meteorite. The area around the Ye family's old residence will be razed to the ground, and countless people will die!"
"I know!" the commander growled, pointing to the newly printed fax paper beside him, veins bulging on the back of his hand. His tone was full of helplessness and gravity. "The Bureau of Extraordinary Immortals just issued a top-secret report. That's not a missile, nor is it any kind of aircraft... It's a person! A monster capable of breaking the sound barrier with its bare body and running at Mach 15! Our missiles won't stop it; instead, they'll enrage it. In that case, the entire capital will be wiped out!"
Meanwhile, in the Dongcheng District of Beijing, at the Ye family's old residence.
Sunlight streamed through the carved wooden windows into the secret chamber behind the ancestral hall, casting a soft glow that couldn't dispel the oppressive atmosphere. Envoy Kunlun sat regally in the highest position, his fingertips holding a blue-and-white porcelain teacup. He gently skimmed the foam from the surface, a few emerald green snow lotus petals floating in the tea. A refreshing medicinal aroma permeated the chamber, yet carried an air of condescending arrogance.
Ye Zhenting knelt on the cold prayer mat, his back bent low, holding a sandalwood box high in his hands. His forehead almost touched the ground, and his tone was so respectful that he dared not even breathe loudly: "Your Excellency, this is a snow lotus from the Tianshan Mountains that the Ye family has treasured for a hundred years. It has icy skin and jade-like bones and can prolong life. Please accept it, Your Excellency."
Kunlun Zunshi didn't even lift his eyelids. He simply took a sip of tea, a sneer curling at the corner of his mouth. His tone was full of disdain and contempt, as if Ye Zhenting had presented him not a century-old snow lotus, but roadside weeds: "Just some shabby weeds from the mortal world, crude and unbearable. Only you frogs in a well would consider such a thing a treasure."
Ye Zhenting froze, his respectful expression growing even stronger. He quickly and carefully put the sandalwood box back, his forehead pressed tightly to the ground, barely daring to breathe: "Your Excellency is right. The Ye family has a shallow foundation and limited knowledge. In the future, we will have to rely on Your Excellency and the Kunlun Immortal Sect for cultivation. We will never dare to slack off in the slightest."
Lying on the stretcher beside him, Ye Tiannan was covered in bandages, which were already soaked with blood. His face was ashen, and his breath was weak. Each gasp seemed to drain all his strength. He struggled to lift his head, his eyes filled with resentment and unwillingness, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Your Excellency... will that brat surnamed Lu really come to his death obediently? If he doesn't dare to come, we..."
"Does he have a choice?" Venerable Kunlun interrupted him, setting down his teacup. The teacup clinked softly against the table, yet carried an undeniable air of authority. "I order him to kneel and beg for forgiveness at the Ye family before sunset. If he dares to be even a moment late, I will personally go to Jiangnan City and grind all those he cares about to dust, making him taste the most painful flavors in the world."
He slowly stood up, straightening his moon-white robe. The robe fluttered, yet exuded a chilling aura. His eyes were filled with arrogance and indifference, as if all things in the world were merely ants in his eyes: "Mortals of the secular world ultimately know nothing of power. They think that by creating a few firearms and building a few missiles, they can contend with my Kunlun Immortal Path. It's utterly laughable."
At this point, a cruel smile curled at the corner of his lips, his tone icy and chilling: "When that brat arrives, I will extract his soul in front of you all, and light it like a celestial lamp for three days and three nights, ensuring he can never be reincarnated. I will also let all mortals in the secular world know what the consequences are for provoking the Kunlun Immortal Sect and for provoking me!"
As soon as he finished speaking, dust suddenly began to fall from the ceiling of the secret room, landing on Ye Zhenting's head and shoulders. He subconsciously looked up, his face full of confusion.
The next second, a muffled rumble of thunder came from overhead, getting closer and louder—it wasn't thunder, but the roar of air being compressed at an extreme speed and exploding instantly, shaking the entire sealed room violently, and the tables and chairs creaked and groaned as if they were about to fall apart at any moment.
"Wha...what happened?!" Ye Zhenting suddenly stood up, his face turning deathly pale, his eyes filled with panic. He instinctively looked at Envoy Kunlun, "Your Excellency, what is this...?"
Envoy Kunlun frowned, a hint of displeasure flashing in his eyes. He snorted coldly, and a powerful divine sense instantly emanated from his body, probing outwards to see what dared to act so presumptuously in front of him.
However, the moment his divine sense reached the sky above the ancestral hall, his expression suddenly changed drastically, his pupils contracted sharply, and the arrogance and indifference on his face vanished without a trace, replaced by disbelief, shock, and a hint of barely perceptible fear.
"boom--!!!"
Without any warning or preparation, the air above the Ye family's old residence was instantly sucked out by an extremely terrifying force, forming a huge vacuum zone. Immediately afterwards, a black shadow with earth-shattering kinetic energy crashed down from a height of three thousand meters at a vertical ninety-degree angle, like a meteorite falling to earth, onto the bluestone square in front of the ancestral hall!
This wasn't a landing; it was a devastating impact!
The incredibly hard bluestone slab couldn't withstand this terrifying kinetic energy for even a millisecond, instantly turning into dust and scattering in the wind. A visible white shockwave, mixed with high temperature and debris, spread wildly outwards in a ring from the point of impact, destroying everything in its path.
The solid wood gate of the ancestral hall was instantly torn apart by the shockwave, sending wood chips flying everywhere; the thick main beam snapped in half and collapsed with a crash; the Ye family's elite patrolling guards in the courtyard were thrown against the wall more than ten meters away by the violent shockwave before they could even scream. The sound of bones cracking rang out, and blood instantly stained the wall red. Their bodies slid down limply, lifeless.
The secret door to the chamber was shattered by the impact, and rubble and dust rushed in, instantly engulfing most of the chamber. Ye Zhenting was violently thrown to the ground by a tremendous force, rolling several times like a rag doll before coming to a heavy stop. He clutched his chest, spitting out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs. His face was ashen, and he was barely breathing, lacking even the strength to stand up.
Ye Tiannan on the stretcher was in an even more gruesome state. A collapsed beam had slammed into his legs with two sharp cracks, accompanied by his heart-wrenching screams. He fainted on the spot from the pain, his legs twisted at an eerie angle, and blood instantly soaked the stretcher beneath him.
In the entire secret chamber, only Venerable Kunlun remained standing in place. A layer of cyan light shielded his body, attempting to block the flying debris and shockwaves. However, the light shield he was so proud of, capable of withstanding missile bombardment, proved utterly vulnerable in the face of this terrifying impact—the surface of the light shield was instantly covered with spiderweb-like cracks, flickering on and off, as if it would shatter at any moment.
Kunlun Zunshi's eyes twitched violently, his fingers, which were maintaining the light shield, trembled uncontrollably, and a trace of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. He stared intently in the direction of the square, his eyes filled with disbelief, shock, and fear—he simply couldn't understand how such terrifying power existed in the world, or how someone could cause such a devastating impact with their physical body!
Smoke and dust filled the air, obscuring the sky and the sun. The entire Ye family mansion was in a state of chaos, with broken walls and ruins everywhere, blood and rubble scattered all over the ground, and the air was filled with the stench of blood and burnt food, making people want to vomit.
In the center of the square, a huge meteorite crater ten meters deep appeared. The soil at the bottom of the crater had been burned into dark red, glassy crystals by the high temperature, emitting a scorching heat that even distorted the air.
Just then, a figure slowly emerged from the bottom of the pit, stepping on the scorching hot earth. He was dressed in ordinary casual clothes, the hem of which was clean and tidy, without a speck of dust on it, as if the earth-shattering impact had nothing to do with him.
Lu Yuan raised his wrist, glanced at the digital watch, and a faint smile appeared on his lips. His tone was relaxed, as if he were going to an ordinary date, without a trace of hostility, yet carrying an aura that could crush everything: "2:45 PM, just in time, not late."
He slowly raised his head, his gaze like a sharp sword, piercing through the swirling dust and over the ruins of the collapsed ancestral hall, landing precisely on the Kunlun Venerable Envoy, dressed in a moon-white robe with blood trickling from his lips. His eyes held no fear, only deep disdain and mockery. His voice, though not loud, carried clearly throughout the ruins, radiating a chilling coldness: "You are the one who spoke arrogantly, threatening to slaughter those I care about and even to tear my soul apart and burn it like a lantern?"