Volume 4: Super-Tier Awakening & The Ancient Capital Calamity
Chapter 335
Executing the Traitor, Stabilizing the Ancient Capital's Internal Affairs
The emerald light emitting from the Rotten Demon Poison Grenade in Peng Li’s grip was grotesque and chilling. Corrosive poisonous vapors began eating away at the surrounding air, emitting piercing sizzling sounds alongside billowing clouds of white smoke. Within the solemn conference room of the Ancient Capital Military Region headquarters, the temperature seemed to plunge to freezing point. Countless high-ranking officials and generals turned pale, instinctively stepping backward while shouting warnings.
Peng Li laughed maniacally, the corners of his mouth twitching crazily to reveal the utter viciousness of a cornered beast:
— Since you refuse to leave me a way out, let’s all die together! This Ancient Capital will sooner or later become a ruin of the undead anyway—bury me with it!
He intended to crush the internal detonator to trigger the high-level magic atomic poison grenade, a weapon specifically designed to shatter array formations and barriers. Once this thing detonated inside the central conference room, the entire defense coordination system of the Ancient Capital would be completely paralyzed, creating an absolute opportunity for the Black Vatican outside to smash the grand barrier.
Yet, before a Space-element Super-tier mage like Lin Feng, any resistance or death throes from the enemy were as sluggish and laughable as a slow-motion film.
— Space Slash: Void Finger Interception!
Lin Feng didn’t even bother to lift his foot; his eyes, as deep as the boundless universe, merely flashed with an invisible ripple. A silver-white streak of light, as thin as a spider’s silk and so sharp it sliced through physical truths, flashed across the static space.
“Pfft!”
A crisp, razor-sharp sound echoed neatly. Peng Li’s right hand, which was gripping the grenade, instantly severed at the wrist, fresh blood gushing wildly onto the expensive rosewood conference table. The glowing green grenade tumbled down onto the polished granite floor.
But it had no chance to detonate.
The exact moment the grenade left his hand, a palm-sized pitch-black spatial vortex abruptly opened right beneath it, swallowing the entire grenade into the endless chaotic void outside reality.
“Boom...”
A muffled, suffocating explosion echoed from the distant depths of the nether void, tens of thousands of miles away from the ground. Aside from causing the space within the room to shudder slightly, it failed to inflict even the slightest scratch on anyone present.
— Arghhh... My hand... My hand!
Only then did Peng Li feel the piercing, bone-deep agony. He collapsed onto the floor, clutching his bleeding, severed stump and wailing like a butchered pig. His face was twisted and pale from blood loss and sheer terror. He raised his head, staring at Lin Feng with the eyes of a monster crawling out from hell.
Lin Feng slowly stood up, walking with heavy strides toward Peng Li. The sound of leather boots striking the stone floor echoed rhythmically, every single beat stepping straight onto the taut, wire-thin nerves of everyone present.
He looked down, his gaze as sharp as a saber fixed straight onto the writhing traitor, and coldly spat out each word:
— Selling out your country for glory, colluding with the Black Vatican, plotting rebellion while the Ancient Capital is in mortal peril. Just how many lives do you think you’re worth?
Peng Li trembled, tears and snot streaming down his face as he tried to retreat, but crushed under the weight of Lin Feng’s Super-tier pressure, he couldn’t twitch even a millimeter:
— Lin... Councilor Lin... Spare my life... I was only forced... The Blue-Eyed Candelabra coerced my family... Please, spare me—!
— Forced?
Lin Feng chuckled faintly, not giving him a chance to utter a second sentence. He raised his right foot and stomped down viciously onto Peng Li’s chest.
“Crack! Crack!”
The sound of shattering ribcages rang out crisply. Peng Li coughed up a massive mouthful of blood mixed with pulverized internal organs, his eyes rolling back until only the whites showed as he passed out cold on the spot from the extreme agony.
Lin Feng bent down, casually tearing off the glittering storage ring worn on Peng Li’s remaining finger. Sweeping his spiritual sense through it once, he easily located thousands of core cryptographic runes along with the deployment map of the city-wide defensive barrier arrays that this traitor had intended to sabotage or plunder.
The entire grand hall plunged into a terrifying silence. The officials and generals of the Ancient Capital stood frozen like statues, staring blankly at the young man before them. The gaze they directed toward Lin Feng no longer held mere respect; it had transformed into ultimate adoration, worshipping him as if he were a living deity walking among mortals. Decisive in slaughter, matchless in divine power, crushing an internal conspiracy with thunderous strikes at the most critical moment—who under heaven could compare to such formidable capability and awe-inspiring majesty?
— All hail Councilman Lord!
The Commander-in-Chief of the Ancient Capital Military Region stepped forward, raising his hand in a solemn military salute, his voice choked with emotion:
— The internal traitor Peng Li has been brought to justice, and all barrier coordination passwords have been recovered. Please give the order; the military and civilians of the Ancient Capital will strictly obey your every command!
Lin Feng retracted his foot, casually tossing the storage ring to the commander-in-chief with a completely calm expression as if nothing had happened, and spoke coldly:
— Traitors are the greatest tumors of war. If they are not uprooted, the Ancient Capital will collapse from within before the enemy even strikes. Enforce iron-clad discipline immediately!
— Understood!
Within that very morning, the Ancient Capital’s military apparatus operated at a terrifying speed unprecedented in history. Under Lin Feng’s direct command, a large-scale purging campaign was launched to sweep away the Black Vatican’s intelligence network and deep-rooted moles embedded within the inner city. Dozens of suspicious individuals, bribe-taking officials, and cult lackeys were urgently arrested amidst the stunned astonishment of the populace.
At high noon that same day, the blazing sun beat down upon the ancient soil of the Ancient Capital, yet it failed to banish the bone-chilling frost of the killing intent shrouding the air.
At the summit of the Southern City Gate—where the towering ancient black stone ramparts had withstood thousands of years of wind and frost—tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians of the Ancient Capital gathered densely. Ten thousand gazes converged upon the towering execution platform.
Peng Li, once an arrogant high-ranking military official, now battered with injuries and bearing an expression ashen like dead ashes, was dragged roughly onto the platform by two heavy-armored military police mages. Both his hands had been severed, dried blood forming horrifying black streaks across the military uniform that had once been profoundly glorious.
The military judge stepped forward, holding a crimson-inked imperial decree scroll in his hand, and raised his voice in a resonant tone that echoed across all four directions:
— By order of Councilman Lin and the Ancient Capital Supreme Command! The traitor Peng Li! Occupying a position of immense responsibility within the military, yet blinded by greed, colluding with the Black Vatican, plotting mutiny, murdering comrades, and attempting to sabotage the city’s defensive grand array at humanity’s hour of life-and-death! A crime so heinous neither heaven nor earth shall forgive! Now, in accordance with wartime military law, the sentence is passed: EXECUTION BY DECAPITATION! His head shall be hung out to warn the public before all the soldiers and civilians of the Ancient Capital!
— Sob sob... No... Spare me... I don’t want to die...
Peng Li struggled hysterically, his mouth mumbling unintelligible sounds because his jaw had been smashed beforehand. He looked up at the dense sea of people below, seeing only furious, contemptuous, and ice-cold gazes. Not a single soul pitied him. In an apocalyptic era plagued by the undead, anyone who betrayed their own kind to survive was the most cursed scum imaginable.
— Execute!
The military officer swung his execution blade downward with ferocious force!
“Swoosh!”
The blade’s glare flashed in a flawless arc slicing through space. Peng Li’s head plummeted onto the floor of the execution platform with a heavy thud, fresh blood spurting like a geyser. The headless corpse collapsed, sealing the ignominious end of a traitor who had sold out his country for glory.
“Roar! Ho! Ha!”
The exact moment the head fell, tens of thousands of Ancient Capital soldiers and civilians below simultaneously erupted into cheers that shook the clouds. The military morale, which had previously wavered slightly under the threat of the undead besieging the city, was now ignited like a blazing, raging inferno. Iron discipline was re-established as solid as a rock, and no one dared harbor rebellious thoughts or waver in resolve ever again.
Immediately following the execution, Lin Feng did not hesitate for even half a second. He directly ordered the full opening of all strategic magic crystal reserves and ancient subterranean mystic treasuries sealed since antiquity beneath the Ancient Capital. Millions of magic crystals, ranging from the elementary tier to the commander tier, were transported day and night up to the defensive array towers. Under the exquisite energy coordination of a Space-element Super-tier mage, the ancient, faded barrier lines were flooded with energy once more, radiating dazzling gold and sapphire light that enveloped the entire gargantuan city within an unprecedentedly thick, indestructible energy shield.
— Reporting to Councilman Lord! The city-wide defensive barrier has reached one hundred percent maximum capacity! The array towers are operating stably, and energy reserves are sufficient to sustain continuous bombardment for an entire month!
The head of the array technical division rushed up to Lin Feng, panting heavily yet with his face brimming with extreme excitement and awe as he reported.
Lin Feng stood on the high tower of the central command post, gazing out toward the distant horizon where the boundary between light and darkness intersected. The cold wind swept through his raven-hued hair, biting and freezing, yet it failed to shake even an inch of the young powerhouse’s composure.
— Very good. Preserve military strength, ready for battle. The true war has only just begun...
Lin Feng muttered under his breath, his instinctual sixth sense warning him that the forces standing behind the Black Vatican definitely did not stop at the handful of minor inside pawns just uprooted. Peng Li having his hands severed and being publicly executed was nothing short of a resounding slap across the face of the higher-ups of the Black Vatican hiding in the shadows.
And sure enough...
Less than half a cup of tea’s time after internal order was fully restored, before the brief bubble of peace could sink deep into the people’s minds...
“RREEEEEEGGGGHHH ————!”
Suddenly! Emergency magic siren alarms from the East, West, South, and North of the city blared in unison, piercing the sky, shrill enough to rupture the eardrums of anyone standing near the watchtowers!
That deafening, skull-splitting sound echoed continuously, rushing like battle drums urging death itself, signaling an unavoidable catastrophe!
— Emergency report! Emergency report!
A scout soldier rushed into the command room like a bolt of lightning, tumbling onto the floor with a face drained of color, his voice cracking from absolute terror:
— The Northern City Gate... The Southern City Gate... All four directions are under attack! The Black Vatican... They’ve gone completely mad!
Lin Feng’s face darkened; his figure flashed and vanished from the command room, reappearing formidably atop the highest Northern observation tower.
What struck his eyes was a scene that would cause even veteran generals who had survived a hundred battles to gasp with trembling cold breath.
Far out on the horizon of the Ancient Capital, where the perennial shroud of deathly miasma lingered, the earth suddenly shook violently like a magnitude-ten earthquake. Countless columns of pitch-black smoke billowed into the high heavens, blotting out the already scarce sunlight.
From the splitting ground, wave after wave of colossal undead legions numbering beyond count began surging forth like a pitch-black tidal wave. These were not merely ordinary low-tier zombies or ghouls, but six strategic undead corps equipped with ancient bone armor, wielding rusted heavy swords carrying a death aura capable of eroding all living things.
Leading these six armies were gargantuan undead behemoths standing dozens of meters tall—primordial Bone Dragons and Undead Giants radiating peak Monarch-tier pressure, roaring to shake heaven and earth, heading straight for all four sides of the Ancient Capital’s ramparts with world-destroying momentum!
With their internal right-hand man severed and publicly executed, the Black Vatican had clearly flown into a rage out of humiliation, losing their remaining patience. They no longer wished to play covert spy games; instead, they chose to unleash all six of their most colossal undead armies to launch a total, annihilation-scale all-out assault upon the Ancient Capital!
Strumming winds arose, and the war between life and death officially erupted!