29: Chapter 29 One Palm Burns the Sky, Standing Treading on Fire

Six spear-lances detonated simultaneously.

White flames burst forth from within the Exotic Beast.

It was not an explosion.

It was incineration.

The entire body of the Abyssal Tide Beast was ignited from the inside.

White flames spread outward simultaneously along every blood vessel, every nerve, and every tissue pathway.

The core brain mass vaporized in the very first instant.

The body, having lost its center, did not even have time to spasm, nor could it send out a signal of struggle, before being swallowed by the torrent of flames from within.

The tentacles burned through first.

Eight giant tentacles stiffened simultaneously, and starting from the tips, the scales burst, the muscles carbonized, and the bones shattered.

The dark blue body fluids evaporated into pungent white mist, shooting tens of meters into the sky.

Then the torso.

Then the head.

Finally—a pillar of flame shot into the sky.

A white pillar of fire, over twenty meters in diameter, rose thunderously from the sea surface, like a giant sword piercing from the seabed toward the firmament.

Around the pillar of fire, the seawater was boiling.

It was not small-scale bubbling, but the sea surface within a radius of hundreds of meters, centered on the remains of the Exotic Beast, roiling, steaming, and roaring simultaneously.

A wall of white steam rose from the sea, intertwining with the pillar of fire, illuminating half the sky in a scorching orange-white.

The blood-colored firmament rapidly faded under the scouring of the fiery light.

Dark purple turned to deep blue, and deep blue turned into a normal night sky.

It was as if something had been burned away completely.

Even the filth in the sky had been burned away along with it.

On the deck of the destroyer.

Shen Nian looked up.

Tears still hung on her face, but her mouth was open, unable to close.

The white light of the flame pillar hit her face.

The twenty-one-year-old college student, who fifteen minutes ago was taking selfies on the deck of the fishing boat, bickering with her boyfriend, and making peace signs at the camera.

Now she was kneeling on the deck of the warship, soaked to the bone, watching a pillar of fire rise from the seabed to the sky, watching the silhouette of that person inside the pillar of fire.

"He is flying..."

Shen Nian's voice was so thin it was almost inaudible.

Zhou Yu held her, not speaking.

He rested his chin on the top of her head, looking up at the sky.

His lips moved, silently repeating a word.

Old Zhao was still kneeling.

He had stopped crying.

His two hands pressed against the steel plate, his ten fingers turning white from the effort, his eyes staring unblinkingly at that pillar of flame.

Thirty years ago, his father took him out to sea for the first time.

A three-meter-long wooden boat, with a sail that had been patched again and again.

His father squatted at the bow, pointing to the east and saying, "In that direction, where the sun rises, the older generation says the Dragon King lives under the sea."

He laughed and said, "Dad, you're superstitious."

His father gave him a smack on the back of the head.

Today, he wanted to give himself a smack on the back of the head.

No one in the Command Center spoke.

More than thirty people watched the pillar of flame shooting into the sky on the screen, watched the roiling, boiling sea, and watched half the sky baked into an orange color.

No one cheered.

It wasn't that they didn't want to.

It was that they didn't dare.

The thing that three destroyers had fired upon for fifteen minutes without killing just now,

He had shattered its tentacles with his fists, poured fire into it with one hand, turned it into a hedgehog with six fire spears, and finally burned it to ashes from the inside out.

The whole process took less than two minutes.

The Major General put down his binoculars.

His hands were very steady.

The steadiness honed from twenty-seven years of leading soldiers.

But when he put down the binoculars, the lens barrel knocked against the railing of the bridge.

The sound of the knock was exceptionally loud on the quiet deck.

He did not look at the binoculars.

He was looking at his own hands.

These hands had signed orders for live-fire exercises, pressed the confirmation button for missile launches, and commanded a fleet of thousands to form battle formations on the open ocean.

These hands held the firepower of the entire East Sea Fleet.

Three destroyers, one hundred and twenty-seven rounds of various ammunition, fired for fifteen minutes.

That person used two minutes.

Bare-handed.

The Major General's Adam's apple bobbed.

His lips were very dry.

Section Chief Han Zheng stared at the screen.

His fingers gripped the communicator with such force that the plastic casing cracked.

He did not make a sound.

Wang Hao stood in the corner of the Command Center, his chest burning hot.

He clenched his fists, his nails digging into the flesh of his palms, his eyes turning red.

He knew who that was.

The pillar of flame began to recede.

It shrank from twenty meters to ten, from ten to five, and finally became a three-meter-high white flame, standing quietly on the sea surface.

Within the flames, a figure emerged.

Su Chen stood above the sea surface.

There was no solid object beneath his feet.

White flames spread out from the soles of his feet in all directions, congealing into a thin, nearly transparent platform of flame.

He took a step upward.

The flame platform extended beneath his feet, congealing into a second step.

Another step. A third level.

With every step taken, another step congealed from white flames appeared under his feet.

He walked up step by step, stopping at an altitude of thirty meters.

His trench coat snapped loudly in the high-altitude airflow.

Behind him, the remnant pillar of flame had not yet completely dissipated, and the orange-white firelight rose from below, rimming his entire silhouette with a scorching golden edge.

The verdigris patterns on his half-face mask flickered in the firelight.

He stood there.

Feet upon white flames, back against the pillar of fire, the starry sky overhead, the boiling sea beneath his feet.

On the deck, Old Zhao's head knocked against the steel plate.

Once, and then again.

"Thank you, Immortal... Thank you, Immortal, for saving our lives..."

The sound of his forehead hitting the steel plate was muffled; the sailor next to him tried to pull him up, but Old Zhao shook him off and knocked his head again.

Zhou Yu helped Shen Nian stand up.

Both of their legs were trembling.

Shen Nian gripped his arm tightly, her nails digging into his flesh.

"Did you see that?"

Her voice was trembling, her eyes red and swollen, but something fiercer than tears burned within them.

"He is walking on fire. He is standing in the sky."

Zhou Yu nodded.

His Adam's apple bobbed twice, but no words were sufficient.

He had read so many years of immortal cultivation novels.

They were all fake.

This one in front of him—was real.

On the deck of the command ship, the officer with the rank of Major General looked up.

The guard tried to block the wind for him but was pushed away.

He picked up the high-power loudspeaker, his hand raised halfway, and paused for two seconds.

What to say?

How to say it?

What tone should he use to speak to someone standing on fire?

His lips moved several times.

Finally, he chose the clumsiest way.

He raised the loudspeaker to his mouth.

The sea breeze carried his voice intermittently into the high altitude, shattering and reassembling amidst the waves.

"Your Excellency... thank you... for eliminating the Exotic Beast!"

"I, on behalf of the Huaguo East Sea Fleet... formally invite you... to board the ship for a discussion!"

Thirty meters in the air.

Su Chen looked down at the officer on the deck who was looking up.

The flames danced quietly beneath his feet, the white light hitting the mask, illuminating those eyes.

No answer.

The sea breeze blew from the east, wrapped in salt and scorched water vapor.

The boiling sea surface was cooling down, and the white mist spread kilometers away, submerging half the sides of the three destroyers.

The remnant flame light behind him slowly dimmed but did not completely extinguish.

Like some ancient existence that was in no hurry to leave, waiting for him to speak.

Su Chen stood at the highest point of the white flame steps.

Beneath the mask, only he knew the curve of his lips.

In his palm, the newly acquired E-Rank Exotic Beast crystal lay quietly.

The raw material for the Fire Seed had arrived.

Liu Yuyan's extraordinary sequence could now be made.

The system panel in the corner of his vision jumped quietly.

"Killed E-Rank anomalous entity · Abyssal Tide Beast × 1."

"Obtained: E-Rank Exotic Beast crystal × 1."

"Points + 2000. Current Points: 3250."

"Reality + 215. Current Reality: 425."