The mont the rift opened, Garuda looked up in confusion, only to be illuminated by a light that seed to co straight from Hell.
A thunderous roar ensued.
It was as if, after a long period of brewing, a bullet had finally flown from the chamber of a gun.
In full view of everyone, a train ca hurtling out from the gaping rift, as if it had leaped the Abyss and fallen from the sky!
With seven carriages, the trendous inertia from rushing for dozens of kiloters, and a terrifying mass of three hundred and fifteen tons, the 'bullet' struck the enraged gigantic bird head-on. An explosive noise erupted.
The Treasure Bead shattered.
As if struck directly by an iron hamr, the majestic and sacred massive Treasure Bead right above Garuda's head suddenly cracked open with a chilling fissure.
In that instant, the giant bird instinctively tilted its head. Then, its slender neck, massive body, and wings riddled with holes ruptured, spilling glassy-colored Plasma.
The iron train plowed through the freshly born Sacred Beast's body, tearing open a huge wound. In this pure collision of mass, its weight, inertia, and the savage laws of physics were brutally applied to the creature.
As the carriages suspended at the rear flew off amidst the intense vibrations, the foremost engine had already penetrated Garuda's chest like an iron pillar.
Blood gushed out like a waterfall, igniting spontaneously in mid-air and spreading around like a scorching flow of lava.
Garuda let out an enraged shriek, raising its resentful eyes toward the void rift that had suddenly opened, only to see the Teenage Girl standing in the darkness at the end of the track.
It looked at Ai Qing.
Ai Qing also looked back at it.
Even tortured by the high temperatures wrapped within that gaze, her expression remained indifferent. She slowly raised the handle in her hand, nimbly flipped open the lid with her thumb, and then pressed down on the red button.
"Goodbye."
Ai Qing indifferently lifted her finger and waved goodbye to Garuda.
In that mont, the tunnel seed to stretch dozens of tis longer amidst the rapidly twisting space. Nurous streaks of light shifted as the rifts in the void abruptly closed.
The Teenage Girl vanished.
In her place, a light shone from Garuda's chest.
From within the wrecked carriage that had bored into its chest, over a hundred kilograms of Alchemy Explosive suddenly ignited with the deathly toxic flas of Hell.
These explosives, formulated by Scholars and composed of various tals, were originally killing weapons designed for Border exploitation and Hell exploration.
At that mont, they detonated from within Garuda's lungs.
Endless light and intense heat spread out from within, unleashing a thousand-fold shockwave and aftermath.
Instantly, the once solemn and stately giant bird rapidly swelled, torn apart by the Terrible Power exploding from within its vitals. Its wide eyes and beak shot out scorching flas that burned the entire ceiling above to a bright red.
The horrifying aftermath swept outwards, toppling countless altars into the Abyss, which then crashed onto the still-warm corpse of the Nine Phoenix.
The suppressive force from the Great Secret: Chalatustra was now conveyed to Garuda's body through pure physics. This Terrible Power, capable of sending an entire stadium sky-high, erupted from within, nearly blasting it to smithereens.
When the flas dissipated, what remained of Garuda was revealed for all to see—a sight almost too horrific to behold.
One wing had completely evaporated in the flas, while the other was burned to a charred remnant. Its lower half was utterly gone, incinerated along with the lake of black blood.
No organs could be seen in the gaping hole in its chest; only sections of a dark skeletal fra, resembling towering ancient trees, could be discerned.
Glassy-colored blood rained down like a torrent, igniting a purifying fla wherever it touched.
"How was the effect?" Ai Qing's voice ca through the earpiece.
Liu DongLi whistled delightedly and lowered his rifle's scope. "Critical hit!"
"Good," Ai Qing's voice was calm. "With such a retaliation, no one can say that the Xinhai branch of the Astronomical Society did nothing, right?"
"But..." Liu DongLi carefully peeked out, looking towards Garuda screaming in the Abyss, "it seems like it's trying to escape."
"Then let it run," Ai Qing chuckled, "if it can get away, that is."
The communication cut off.
In that instant, inside this broken Mirror World, the do, burned to a reddish hue, was suddenly covered by darkness—or, more accurately, sothing like the cosmic light of the firmant.
The night sky unfurled like a scroll from above. Then, amidst the eternal Yuan An of the cosmos, the light of stars began to twinkle.
First were tal, wood, water, fire, and earth—the Five stars complete. Then a river of stars crossed the sky, the Southern and Northern Dippers appeared, and the Star Field revolved. From the divisions of east, south, west, and north, the Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, White Tiger, and Black Turtle—the twenty-eight constellations—shone with a splendid yet stern light.
Under the reflection of the stars, a scorching starlight flared in the center of the night sky.
It swiftly magnified, like a falling star.
A blazing light descended from the nothingness of the star map, like a burning teorite smashing onto an invisible ground in mid-air. An explosive roar followed, and pale shockwaves surged.
Under the aegis of the starfla, an imposing old man in a black crane-feather cloak appeared in the void.
His mottled long hair was tied back in a Daoist topknot. His eyes were long and narrow, radiating an innate dominance and grim aura, as if he looked down upon all creation. His imposing presence would have been complete, if only he wasn't holding that cup of instant noodles. And, perhaps, if he had changed out of the mismatched flip-flops he was wearing: the left one yellow, adorned with SpongeBob, the right one pink, imprinted with a white HELLO KITTY.
The mont he appeared, Liu DongLi, Li Jian Amber, and all other Sublimators simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief.
This is secure now.
Liu DongLi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and let out a long breath.
Director of the Dongxia Social Security Bureau, Cabinet Minister of Wen Yuan, and the true power-holder in the Dongxia Genealogy—
—Sky Destiny Xuan Bird!
"You've all worked hard. Finish up soon and head ho for dinner," the elder said, glancing back at his subordinates. He then looked at the instant noodles in his hands and couldn't help but sigh. "Eating instant noodles from working overti is tough on the stomach, huh."
While speaking, he lowered his head and slurped up the last of the noodles in the bowl. Then, with an expression of lingering satisfaction, he lifted the bowl and drank all the soup. Only after wiping his mouth did he gaze down at Garuda, cowering in the terrified Abyss below.
"Your idea wasn't bad; you had potential," Xuan Niao casually comnted. "What a pity."
As he spoke, he raised the plastic fork in his hand and pointed it towards Garuda from afar.
Although they were both at the Fifth Stage, Garuda's expression was one of sheer terror, as if it had seen a ghost. It began to scream and roar in fright, desperately flapping its broken left wing.
In an instant, countless afterimages rose from its location, flying off in all directions, leaving the tiny Xinhai City far behind in a single leap of millions of miles.
The boundless sky!
If Garuda wanted to flee, no one could stop it!
That's what the Mythological Source Text said, anyway. Unfortunately… those bastards who wrote the setting now had to eat their words!
Even if it split into thousands of copies, under the elder's indifferent gaze, the nurous copies dissipated as quickly as bubbles.
It struggled to escape, fleeing millions of miles. Yet, under that slowly approaching plastic fork, no matter how desperately it flapped its wings, it could not increase the distance by even an inch.
In the end, it let out a piercing shriek, rising resoundingly from above the Sea. It smashed through a section of space, attempting to escape the Current Circumstances.
But when it erged, battered from the tumultuous spatial turbulence, it despaired to find that it was back where it started, immobile.
Only the plastic fork approached its eyeball with casual ease.
In that final mont, a look of determination flashed in Garuda's eyes as the sacred fire of purification rose from within its shell, consuming it in an instant.
The fractured Mirror World shook violently, engulfing it.
Mirror World Transition!
This was the covenant between Paradise of Bliss and the Mirror World.
Ninety-one years ago, during the calamity of the realms, the Ranch Owner wed the ruler of the Mirror World, the 'Rotten Dream Queen'. These two non-human beings mated in the blurry realm for sixteen years, giving birth to an offspring—one of the Remaining Evils of the World—before sealing an eternal covenant.
Since then, all The Purified People have been granted the power of the Mirror World by the Ranch Owner.
At this mont, Garuda had delved deep into the innermost layer of the Mirror World Maze, hiding itself in the deepest part of countless rifts.
It underwent Reality Conversion. All that remained in its place was a Reflection.
The next instant, the Phantom shattered. Garuda, who was deep in the Mirror World, was ejected along with it. Its head now bore a huge hole, and it was clearly not long for this world. Yet this brief respite had bought it enough ti.
At that mont, it raised its head and let out a resounding scream.
It sought to summon the power of the Ranch Owner to co to its aid!
—He was calling for reinforcents!
So, in the blink of an eye, behind it, the grand gates of Paradise of Bliss burst open. A majestic presence solidified the underground, and countless Predator Angels surged out like a flood.
Blood arced like a rainbow.
It erupted from that swarm of mutilated Predator Angels. Even before Xuan Niao made a move, they were slashed into pieces before fully erging from the gate.
In the midst of that bloody storm, a thunderous roar suddenly ca from the tumultuous world behind the gate, followed by a slender figure struggling frantically, screaming as it was ejected backwards.
"Help …"
The slender figure tumbled chaotically through the air. "Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"
The figure rapidly enlarged in Garuda's stunned eyes, finally crashing onto its mutilated face. Amidst the chaos, the person instinctively flailed a hand. With a wild swipe, Garuda's head tumbled from its neck, shattering to pieces in a sudden flash of ferocious, cold light. It died on the spot.
Until the mont of its death, it could not understand why its call had summoned not the divine rescue of the Sacred Spirit, but rather a harbinger of death.
In the chaos of the collision, the figure who had dropped from the heavens crashed onto the altar with a bang, raising a cloud of dust and coughing violently.
Amid the wreckage, the teenage girl clambered up awkwardly, looking around, bewildered.
"Where is this?"
She looked around in astonishnt at the familiar faces.
"Where am I? Where have I run off to this ti?"
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