13: Chapter 13 A hand at 1350 degrees, a sword at 1500 degrees.

The smoke and dust cleared.

Moonlight poured down from the hole in the ceiling, a silver-white beam cutting through the factory's darkness and landing on that figure.

He wore a black trench coat, its hem fluttering in the updraft before falling back down.

He wore a bronze half-mask with mottled patterns, his hands tucked into his pockets.

He stood amidst the broken bricks and sheet metal, looking at no one.

His gaze pierced through the dust, landing straight on the Shadow Erosion Beast.

The factory was deathly silent.

"God... a god?"

Xiao Sun knelt on the ground, his lips trembling, his vocal cords out of control.

"Is it a god who has come to save us..."

No one answered him, because everyone present was thinking the same question, but no one dared to say it out loud, fearing that saying it would shatter the moment.

Wang Hao crouched in front of Chen Xiaohui, covered in blood and ash, raising his head to see that silhouette.

Black trench coat, slender shoulder line.

His pupils constricted.

This clothing—

There was no time to think.

The Shadow Erosion Beast's dark red eyes had locked onto the figure at the hole.

Black mist surged, and its limbs switched from an attack stance to alert.

The low-frequency vibration changed, from the dull pain of grinding bones to a sharper, probing pulse.

It had sensed a threat.

The Shadow Erosion Beast attacked first.

Its four paws kicked the ground, shattering the concrete slab into spiderweb patterns, its entire body turning into a cannonball wrapped in black mist as it crashed toward Su Chen.

Fast.

Everyone present only saw a black afterimage.

Su Chen disappeared.

He didn't dodge, nor did he step aside.

He vanished into thin air, as if wiped from the scene.

The next instant, he appeared on the steel platform fifteen meters behind the Shadow Erosion Beast.

The entire factory echoed with a muffled sound of gasping—the sound of dozens of people inhaling simultaneously.

The Shadow Erosion Beast's bone-grinding low frequency was still present.

All the ordinary people were kneeling, lying down, or paralyzed, the frequency pressing them down so they couldn't stand.

But that person stood firmly.

It was as if that power didn't exist for him.

The Shadow Erosion Beast stopped abruptly after missing, its claws gouging half-foot deep grooves into the ground as it turned to lock onto Su Chen's new position, its dark red light spots constricting.

Su Chen looked down at it.

His eyes beneath the mask were running at high speed, and the system popped up a data stream—

"E-Class Weird Entity: Shadow Erosion Beast. Weakness: Chest energy core. Surface black mist is a weird energy defense layer; ordinary physical attacks are ineffective. High-temperature attacks must exceed 1500°C to effectively weaken the black mist's density."

"Host's current flame limit: 1350°C."

1350 versus 1500.

A 200-degree difference.

A direct burn wouldn't pierce it even by dawn.

Su Chen's gaze swept over the Shadow Erosion Beast and the entire factory.

The partially collapsed ceiling, the extinguished welder.

The industrial oxygen tank group still humming in the corner—six large green tanks, lines welded to the wall.

And at the end of the workshop.

That steel-making furnace.

The indicator light on the side of the furnace was still red, the molten iron inside hadn't been fully drained, and the temperature—exceeded 1500 degrees.

Su Chen's mouth curved beneath the mask.

The Shadow Erosion Beast launched its second attack.

Black mist condensed into several sharp spikes that burst from the ground.

Su Chen teleported to dodge, disappeared, appeared, disappeared, and appeared again.

Each interval was less than 0.3 seconds.

Everyone's heads followed left and right, like watching a bullet ricocheting through the factory.

But he didn't counterattack.

Not even once; this terrifying monster, in front of the god, was like a stray dog on the side of the road, being toyed with.

Su Chen did three things while moving.

The first time he teleported past the oxygen tanks, his right palm turned outward, a cluster of orange-red flames licking the valve.

The welded iron port was scorched with a hair-thin crack.

Pure oxygen began to leak, colorless and odorless, dispersing into the air.

The second and third landing points were all biased toward the steel furnace.

The Shadow Erosion Beast chased him, and every turn after a missed pounce brought it closer to the furnace.

The fourth time he passed the electrical control box, a palm of flame precisely burned through three lines.

The furnace safety lock disengaged, and the steel tapping electromagnetic valve lost power.

The molten iron gate changed from automatic to manual.

Everyone only saw him toying with it.

The chess game was set.

The last teleportation.

He landed two meters in front of the steel furnace, stood still, and stopped moving.

The Shadow Erosion Beast chased over, its continuous missed pounces having made it thoroughly enraged.

Black mist surged, its body size expanded by a circle, and all dark red light spots condensed to the front, crashing over like a meteor wrapped in black mist.

Su Chen raised his right hand.

The flame in his palm lit up.

Orange-red, 1200 degrees; in a steel mill, this temperature wasn't even enough for preheating.

But this fire didn't shoot at the Shadow Erosion Beast.

It shot at the hydraulic pipe of the steel furnace's tapping port behind him.

The flame precisely scorched through the pipe wall, hydraulic oil spraying and burning.

The gate lost support and crashed down.

Molten iron over 1500 degrees gushed from the tapping port.

The light came.

Orange-white, thick, viscous light.

It wasn't illuminating; it was filling.

Every inch of shadow in the factory was crushed at this moment.

The air twisted and deformed, the outlines of distant steel beams shaking in the heat waves like reflections on water.

The sound of surging molten iron wasn't water, but a thick, scorching, rumbling low hum, like the earth breathing.

Su Chen spread his arms.

Flames transformed from his ten fingers into fine silk threads, entangling the surging molten iron.

His flames couldn't burn through the Shadow Erosion Beast.

But he didn't need to burn it.

He only needed to guide it.

The molten iron, guided by the flame threads, left its natural flow trajectory and condensed into shapes in the air—

One, two, three.

Six.

Six molten iron spears, orange-white throughout, dragging flames at their tails, hovered behind Su Chen.

Heat waves rushed into his face, the bronze face of the mask reflecting the light of the molten iron, like a burning face.

Using 1350-degree hands to wield a 1500-degree sword.

The Shadow Erosion Beast rushed in front of him.

Su Chen clenched his fist.

The six molten iron spears shot out simultaneously.

The leaked industrial pure oxygen had been permeating around the Shadow Erosion Beast for nearly thirty seconds.

In the high-concentration oxygen, the black mist on the Shadow Erosion Beast's surface fluctuated violently, and cracks and fissures appeared in the defense layer—

The molten iron spears pierced through the black mist.

There was no resistance; high temperature and pure oxygen underwent a violent oxidation reaction at the contact surface, and the black mist wasn't burned through—it was decomposed.

Six spears pierced into the Shadow Erosion Beast's torso from different angles, penetrating the surface and pinning it inside.

The Shadow Erosion Beast let out that low-frequency vibrating scream.

The sound waves shook several more pieces of sheet metal from the partially collapsed ceiling, clattering to the ground.

Su Chen clenched his right fist, pulling it back sharply.

"Burn."

One word.

The six spears exploded simultaneously.

The molten iron exploded inside the Shadow Erosion Beast.

1500-degree liquid metal and high-concentration oxygen formed a miniature steel-making furnace—and the Shadow Erosion Beast was the ore thrown into it.

A flame storm erupted from within it, orange-white flame pillars shooting into the sky, spraying out from the hole in the ceiling, blooming into a dazzling spark in the night sky.

The entire factory was filled with firelight.

But the flames didn't hurt anyone.

While detonating, Su Chen poured the last bit of control into the exploding flames.

It wasn't blocking, but pulling.

Every tongue of fire from the spraying molten iron was forcibly bent in direction when it got within three steps of the crowd, grazing over the workers' heads and shoulders, hot wind scraping their skin, but not a single spark landed on any living person.

The fire only burned what it should.

The Shadow Erosion Beast's body disintegrated in the flames.

The black mist evaporated, the charred, bark-like shell shattered and fell off, revealing the dark red core inside.

The core rapidly dimmed and cracked under the coating of molten iron.

Shattered into powder.

The flames gradually receded.

Su Chen stood amidst the embers.

The concrete slab under his feet had been burned into a glass-like texture, reflecting the orange-red afterglow.

The hem of his trench coat was lifted and dropped by the last wisp of heat.

His gaze swept over the embers, over every upturned face.

The remaining flames danced tamely beside him, shrinking from knee-height down to his ankles, like a pack of hunting dogs quietly crouching around their master.

All the workers, kneeling, lying down, or paralyzed on the ground—all looked up at him.

No one could speak.

Xiao Sun's mouth was half-open, his jaw trembling, his eyes pinned in that direction, unable to move a muscle.

Old Liu lay on the ground, his broken left leg already numb, but his eyes were wider than ever before.

Zhang Tiezhu's Adam's apple rolled.

His lips moved three times, only squeezing out one word.

"God..."

Wang Hao hugged Chen Xiaohui.

His teeth were clenched, his eyes full of tears.

His ten fingers were still bleeding, his pregnant wife trembling in his arms.

But his eyes were not filled with fear.

Su Chen's gaze swept over the crowd and finally landed on Wang Hao.

Beneath the mask, he looked at the man covered in blood and ash who had smashed through the steel wall with a ride-sharing car and blocked the path in front of his pregnant wife with bent rebar.

His gaze paused for a second.

Then he turned.

Stepped into the last wisp of flame.

Disappeared.

The flames extinguished instantly the moment he left, as if they had never burned.

The factory fell back into the silver-white of the moonlight.

Floating in the silver-white beam were tiny ashes and iron filings, silently rotating and falling, like snow without temperature.

The cooling molten iron condensed into dark red river patterns on the ground, winding among the workers.

No one stood up, no one spoke.

The whole world was left with only moonlight and the sound of breathing.

—

Dark alley.

Su Chen teleported three times in a row, exiting the industrial area.

His back hit the wall, his knees went weak, and he almost slid to the ground.

His pants made a harsh friction sound against the rough brick surface.

Controlling the flames had hollowed out seventy percent of his stamina.

Consecutive teleports ate up the remaining thirty percent.

Now his limbs felt like they were filled with lead, and he didn't even want to bend his fingers.

The system panel jumped wildly in his field of vision.

"Killed E-Class Weird Entity × 1."

"Obtained: Beast Crystal · E-Tier × 1."

"Realism +50. Current Realism: 110."

"Points +1000. Current Points: 1050."

"—Realism reached 100, system upgrade conditions met."

"Congratulations to the Host, system upgraded to LV1."

"Unlocked function: Extraordinary Sequence Endowment (Basic)."