"Let them see the heroic bearing of our Cloud City's prodigy."
"Yes, sir!"
And while they were taking action, the slaughter on screen continued.
They couldn't help but focus their gazes on Chu Han.
"Slash!"
An explosive shout. In an instant, the sword body was enveloped by a layer of strange energy. One swing of the sword—sharp sword qi directly carved through several hundred meters. Every mutant beast in its path was severed at the waist.
In this world of Spiritual Energy Revival, when one reached a certain stage on a particular path, strange abilities would naturally emerge.
For instance... sword qi!
Though merely ordinary swings, under sword qi's amplification they seemed like streaming light. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of mutant beasts were slain.
The carnage continued. At this moment, Chu Han had no mind to think of anything else. Only one desire existed in his mind.
Kill!
Kill more!
"Too terrifying. Truly too terrifying."
A staff member in the Spiritual Energy Bureau couldn't help but exclaim.
One person blocking an entire Beast Tide—this was something he'd truly only seen in videos before.
During the Second Spiritual Energy Tide, many cities had no way to resist because the Beast Tide came not only from outside but from within. Many large weapons couldn't be used. Support required time.
The main reason was also that at the time, they hadn't imagined the impact would be so great—even triggering Beast Tides. So there weren't many stationed troops.
Later, after the Dragon Emperor, Ice Emperor, and Flame Emperor resolved their own cities' Beast Tides, they'd swiftly rushed to other regions for support. They'd essentially monopolized the external Beast Tides of other cities.
Those scenes had all been displays of ultimate power.
Dragon Emperor's flames. Ice Emperor's ice. Flame Emperor's summoned beast legions.
There were also videos from Oceanside City that similarly displayed the three's strength—but also made them realize humanity's enemies existed not just on land. The ocean was even more terrifying than land.
However, Oceanside City's videos ultimately showed the White Emperor's figure. His interaction with an angel of equal standing made people realize there was a reason the White Emperor ranked first among the Four Emperors.
Though Chu Han's scene wasn't as grand as the Dragon Emperor's or Ice Emperor's, that image of one person, one sword shuttling through the mutant beast tide—each swing claiming a life—made people's minds conjure wuxia images of swordsmen killing one person every ten steps, leaving no trace for a thousand miles.
"Was that attack just now sword qi?"
"Though there were spiritual energy fluctuations, they weren't strong. Normally it shouldn't be possible to have such great lethality. Could it really be sword qi?"
"Who would've thought something from novels would actually become real?"
"No, wait—the Spiritual Energy Revival itself became reality. Sword qi appearing is only natural."
"But though Chu Han's demonstrated strength is formidable, is it really okay? One person blocking an entire Beast Tide—Chu Han isn't First Sequence after all. If this continues, won't he run out of stamina?"
"Support is already on the way. But I believe Chu Han can do it."
"Though Chu Han is only Second Sequence, combined with this exquisite swordsmanship and sword qi, he's not necessarily inferior to First Sequence."
"Even if he can't match the Dragon Emperor and the others, he should be fine compared to slightly ordinary First Sequence."
"At least he shouldn't be worse than Ning City's Nathaniel Gray, right?"
As they spoke, they compared Chu Han to Nathaniel Gray.
Cloud City and Ning City were close in distance and similar in scale. Before the Spiritual Energy Revival, the two cities had engaged in friendly competition, with Cloud City's various metrics slightly higher than Ning City's. But after the Spiritual Energy Revival, Ning City produced the First Sequence Nathaniel Gray.
This directly caused Cloud City to be suppressed.
During "friendly exchanges" online, because of this single point, their Cloud City had lost every advantage.
Though this matter was rather strange—clearly at such a time, people still had the mood for "friendly exchanges." But accepting reality... after accepting it, things naturally settled down.
Whether you live or die, life goes on.
No matter how afraid you are inside, when it's your turn, it's your turn.
Telling themselves this every day, they slowly accepted it.
No matter how the world changed, life still had to go on.
At the same time, outside Cloud City, rumbling sounds rang out one after another. Fully armed convoys drove out from within the city, advancing toward Chu Han's position.
Within the convoy, they discussed Chu Han's matter.
"Headquarters said someone from our Cloud City named Chu Han is blocking the entire Beast Tide alone. The reason we only have a few mutant beasts appearing here is because of him."
"If this wasn't information from headquarters, I'd think it was fake."
"Who wouldn't? With that kind of strength—even if not First Sequence—he far exceeds Second Sequence, right? Why haven't we heard of such a person before?"
"Maybe he kept a low profile. Or maybe it's an exaggerated description. We'll know the specific situation when we arrive."
"Exaggeration seems unlikely. One person blocking a Beast Tide—that's absolutely not something Second Sequence can do."
"..."
Within the convoy, people were half-believing, half-doubting about Chu Han blocking an entire Beast Tide alone. Because such strength absolutely wasn't what Second Sequence could achieve—but if Cloud City had such a person, they couldn't possibly not have heard of him.
The Spiritual Energy Bureau had records of ability users' information. Whether becoming mercenaries or joining the Bureau—unless the person constantly hid their abilities.
If he truly had been hiding his abilities all along, they found it hard to understand why he'd conceal himself.
But if he possessed First Sequence talent, they couldn't possibly not know. All of Cloud City would cheer for him.
However, regardless of the actual situation—if he truly was blocking the entire Beast Tide with his own strength alone—his power undoubtedly far exceeded Second Sequence.
Even with First Sequence, it depended on who you compared to.
If comparing to the Four Emperors—truly nothing to compare. But if comparing to Nathaniel Gray...
Well, they didn't actually know what level Nathaniel Gray's strength was either.
Because Nathaniel Gray's ability was Mist. When he used his ability, filming wasn't possible.
So to this day, no one knew what the situation was inside the mist.
But as members of Cloud City—previously having no one was one thing, but now they had Chu Han. They would absolutely not acknowledge that Chu Han was inferior to Nathaniel Gray.
Absolutely not!
Chu Han had no idea he'd already been detected by the Spiritual Energy Bureau. Even less did he know Cloud City had dispatched support out of concern for his safety.
Right now, he'd already killed until his eyes were red, immersed in slaughter.
"ROAR!"
A mutant boar the size of a truck bellowed and charged toward him. Along the way, it even sent several mutant beasts blocking its path flying.
"Die!"
Chu Han gripped his longsword and leapt up, bringing the blade down on the charging mutant boar.
"Riiip—"
The sharp blade split the mutant boar's body in two. Its hard scales were virtually nonexistent before the sword body—sliced through like tofu.
"BOOM—"
The massive body crashed heavily to the ground, triggering tremors.
(End of Chapter)