The Heavens: A Qing, the Yue Girl at the beginning

The thunderstorm in the sky gradually subsided, and a few rays of bleak sunlight shone through the broken clouds.

The King of Wind - or the Dragon King wearing Odin's cloak at this moment - was half-kneeling in the center of a huge glazed pit that was hundreds of meters deep, with the Eternal Spear "Kungnir" inserted diagonally into the ground, dark golden blood flowing from the tip of the spear.

His armor was torn and there was a crack in his mask, revealing half of his face that was as pale as death.

Zhao Qing stood ten steps in front of him, holding in his hands the fragments of armor peeled off from the Wind King, the shroud printed with mysterious runes, and the twisted spear that once pierced fate. According to legend, the spear shaft was made of branches of the World Tree and felt as cold as iron on a winter night.

She had wanted to capture the Dragon King alive, but the other party had obviously kept a backup plan - at the last moment, his body began to disintegrate, and key parts such as the heart, brain, and spine annihilated themselves, turning into wisps of faint blue light mist, and dissipated in the pure wind element airflow.

In the end, only a low last word was left:

"We'll meet again - on the snowy field where the bronze pillars burn, at..." It was like telling an unfinished curse.

Shi Yiguang closed the dim space passage and walked to Zhao Qing's side, panting slightly. His tone was tired but somewhat curious: "How many times did he go back this time before he finally accepted his fate?"

"About a hundred times..."

Zhao Qing smiled slightly, stroking the tough spear with many cracks on his fingertips. "This guy is quite sinister. He often suddenly activates time reversal during normal battles to adjust his position and change his moves. He is not limited to the stubborn method of automatically reversing time after being killed."

"But the time rewinding effect has resulted in more and more reinforcements behind me, which is something the Wind King had never expected - just like I had never guessed in advance that he would really have the 'Odin Mask' in his hand, a trump card that could instantly increase his combat power many times..."

"I have to say, it's really dangerous."

The majestic blind dragon, wearing neat rune armor, stood silently by the side, slowly absorbing and exhaling a large amount of earth energy.

A small half of its nearly 100-meter-long slender body is exposed above the ground, while the rest is buried in the rock. But just from that half, one can already see how huge it is.

After a lot of special training, Blind Dragon has added new equipment. With the reserves of true energy far exceeding those of his peers, his single attack has almost reached the level of half a step to the eighth realm. What he is most proficient at is the cutting of deep yellow light beams, and his output speed is quite good, so he can cooperate with Zhao Qing to a certain extent.

To put it simply, the blind dragon that had been waiting in the world of the Sense Stone for a long time, after it officially came out, the light beam it emitted only needed to lock onto the general range of the enemy, and Zhao Qing, guided by the "Hun Wo Tian Di Gong", partially achieved the mutual resonance of true essence, and could further adjust the direction and turn this power for his own use.

According to Xia Mi's personal evaluation, even though her wisdom is quite limited and she has no practical experience, objectively speaking, the Blind Dragon lacks a big move like Shiva's Karma Dance, and in terms of purely directional output, she is even slightly more powerful than before, and is fully capable of intervening in the great battle between the first generation species.

This type of giant biological unit actually plays the role of a "heavy armored assault platform" and "strategic-level long-range fire support". The application of advanced tactical ideas has enabled our side to gain greater advantages.

In the distance, Zhao Qing's original body was continuously infusing the Starfire Sword with the vitality of the Big Dipper stars. With the blind dragon nearby acting as an excellent assistant, helping to protect Shi Yi Guang's weakness, the balance of victory and defeat had already been decided.

But no matter what, the strength of the Wind King, or his strange methods, are indeed far beyond expectations, especially the moment he put on Odin's mask, his combat power skyrocketed by at least twelve times.

Zhao Qing speculated that this might be similar to the "multiple gain" in "Something for Nothing" that Lu Mingfei obtained by selling his soul, and it was some kind of forbidden transcendental fusion state.

"It seems that this battle is much more difficult than I thought."

Shi Yiguang was not surprised by this. Anyone with a little wisdom would actively use such a key skill to expand the original advantage, rather than constantly struggling when at a disadvantage and wasting it: "But the powerful enemy will eventually be defeated."

"It's mainly because Kungunir's logic virus and cause-and-effect tracking have some problems, probably because it's a mass-produced product... but genuine products may not necessarily work smoothly."

Zhao Qing weighed the broken pieces of armor in his hand and glanced at the spear:
"The existence of the cross-world channel makes it impossible to truly lock onto a target. Moreover, the damage caused by this 'Fate'-level move cannot be avoided by conventional time reversal, so the consumption is also permanent. In addition, it cannot lock onto the same target twice."

"According to Hawking's temporal protection hypothesis, the laws of physics do not allow any time travel except at the submicroscopic scale. Wormholes, which are equivalent to superluminal speeds, violate the law of causality and can only allow elementary particles with no information entropy to pass through. But the world of the biogenic stone has undoubtedly completely broken this."

Shi Yiguang replied thoughtfully: "Since it transcends time and space to a certain extent, it can also tear apart a certain level of causal lock, playing the role of repeatedly refreshing the state to exempt Kungunir's characteristics... Although this kind of restraint is a coincidence, it is also inevitable."

"Yeah, it's like shooting a flying bird with a bow and arrow, but the bird flies straight into another world, and no matter how accurate the arrow is, it's useless."

Zhao Qing smiled and casually threw the spear to Shi Yiguang, "Keep it and study it later. This should be the most valuable 'relic' of the Wind King... The mask has been completely destroyed, but Kungunir was only seriously damaged. With the remaining armor and some dragon blood, and with the help of prophecy, we may be able to deduce the location where he turned into a cocoon."

"But this will take time." Shi Yiguang sighed: "The Dragon King's eggs must have been separated long ago and hidden somewhere in the world, perhaps under the glaciers of Northern Europe, perhaps in an ancient city in East Asia, or even hidden in the body of some ignorant hybrid..."

She didn't continue her words because Zhao Qing suddenly raised his head and glanced at the sky in the distance. Then a beam of silver light shot out from each of his eyes, but it was not used to attack, but to lock and bind.

Almost at the same time, three alchemical missiles took off from the city of Osaka.

This is a new type of Constantine anti-dragon surface-to-air missile, designed with reference to the original drawings of the Kassel Equipment Department, and improved by the King of Bronze and Fire himself.

Both the materials used and the killing effect have been significantly improved, comparable to a tactical nuclear bomb, and focus on single-point focused attacks.

They were originally carried by the alchemical puppets before Zhao Qing set out, and deployed secretly by airdrop, as weapons to be used to launch a preemptive attack on the tracking and surveillance personnel. However, the Wind King never paused in the "Time Zero" realm from beginning to end, and his mobility was ridiculously high, making it impossible to intervene.

In order to make up for this advantage as much as possible, the "Time Zero" spirit that was forcibly snatched from Fujiwara Nobunosuke continued to be squeezed and burned, and finally collapsed and dissipated after the war.

It is worth mentioning that although the support provided by Constantine requires resource exchange and is not completely tied to Xia Mi’s interests, it is definitely value for money.

Because after accepting an order, this simple-minded Dragon King will allow customers to explain and teach the alchemical secrets involved free of charge if they specifically ask about them - such exclusive secrets are automatically included as part of the after-sales service.

Just for the latest alchemical missile, Zhao Qing, while placing a large order and having the Bronze City furnace work overtime to produce it, obtained a uranium-235 purification and refining technology that was far ahead of the current era, a new feasible solution for compressing and reducing the critical mass of fissionable materials.

As for the various alchemical drones, arsenal-type alchemical puppets, and alchemical improved full sets of American-made fighter jets, there is no need to mention them - most of the drawings of the latter come from the friendly sharing of EVA's real-time backup of the M Army data database, and the few missing parts were supplemented by Zhao Qingyun using "artificial supercomputing".

Anyway, let’s get back to the topic.

The dragon, which was skimming the enemy camp dozens of kilometers away and belonged to an unknown camp, was hiding in the sky with its dark light on, spying and secretly collecting intelligence. It had no idea that the fire control and power of "human" missiles had suddenly risen to several levels.

It didn't have time to dodge or release high-level defensive words before the first missile hit its abdomen accurately, causing flames to shoot up into the sky.

This ancient species that had already nurtured a dragon body let out an unwilling roar as it was dying and fell into the sea. The huge waves it stirred up were as high as ten stories, but before it hit the bottom, it turned into a cloud of blue smoke, leaving only a few burning scales floating down.

Countless golden pupils then lit up in the sea.

And in the deeper darkness, eight giant figures slowly stretched their bodies...

At the moment when this interlude-like small battle ended, Zhao Qing's communicator suddenly vibrated, and Xia Mi's voice came from the other end, with a hint of laziness, as if she had just experienced an insignificant temporary incident:

"Hello? Are you guys done over there? The Dragon King will be there in twenty-five minutes."

Zhao Qing glanced at the other party's IP address, which was still in Beijing, but had already left the subway area.

"Rather than just flapping my wings and flying across the ocean, I'm going to take a smarter approach..."

Xia Mi then "argued": "First, create a small spiral earthquake in an uninhabited place in the suburbs, create an amazing internal chamber pressure, and focus it on one point. The theoretical starting speed can reach 8 kilometers per second, which is the peak speed of the seismic wave..."

"Speaking of which, when I was preparing the shockwave just now, I found a few sneaky guys following me, but I dealt with them easily." She continued, "They wasted my precious time and didn't show up at the critical moment. It's really abominable!"

"Solved?" Zhao Qing raised his eyebrows. "Who?"

"I don't know, but it's definitely not an ordinary hybrid. It's more like a rare intelligent Deadpool. It's wearing a Qing Dynasty zombie costume under a black coat. It looks like a freshly dug 'zongzi'. In order to hurry, we didn't waste time and just captured it and locked it in a rock dungeon."

Xia Mi paused, then suddenly changed her tone, saying with a hint of sarcasm, "By the way, you guys were fighting so vigorously in the east that I could see the 'Secondary Origin' from thousands of miles away."

Zhao Qing: "...'Secondary Origin'?"

"It means exactly what it says." Xia Mi laughed. "You guys created an aurora effect over the entire R-Born Islands sky. The high-energy radiation afterglow stretches for thousands of miles. Now the internet is going crazy. Some say it's an alien spaceship crashing, some say it's Godzilla landing, and some say it's a secret experiment by the U.S. military."

Zhao Qing rubbed his temple: "...So?"

"So, I suggest you clean up the mess quickly, or the headline of tomorrow's Japanese news might be 'Mysterious UFO Incident'."

Xia Mi didn't know what she was thinking of. She laughed on the phone first, and then her tone suddenly became serious, "Also, it looks like you just thwarted the evil plot of a certain Wind King?"

"More than just a defeat, he was beaten to a pulp."

Zhao Qing answered truthfully: "Because I simulated the deep trauma of the judgment in the 'Crime and Punishment' field, and the other party had to pay the price of repeated time reversal, the origin of the Wind King was almost completely destroyed, and the time for recovery may be much longer than expected."

"...No...what did you just say?"

Xia Mi was a little confused: "Time reversal is a god-level alchemy, something that Norton couldn't research, but Loki actually mastered it? As a result, he has made such progress, but he was still crushed to ashes and died without a complete body?"

"Never mind. I believe it."

Knowing that Zhao Qing had no reason to lie, she hesitated for a moment before continuing:

"I recently sorted out the information you provided and my past memories, and I am basically certain that this guy once used the identity of Li Yuanhao of Xixia as a cover... Because I also woke up once during that period and heard some rumors."

"In the third year of Qingning in Liao Dynasty (1057), the earthquake in Youzhou was caused by your awakening?"

Zhao Qing's mind moved slightly, and he immediately understood a lot of information: "It's nine years since Li Yuanhao's death (1048)... Very good, I will analyze it based on Li Yuanhao's life and the relevant records left by the mixed-blood world, as well as the Xixia ruins..."

As for the content of the analysis, there is further character modeling of the Wind King, calculation of his ability range, subsequent activity trajectories, completion of behind-the-scenes conspiracies, etc., which will not be elaborated here in detail for the time being.

"I have another question!"

Xia Mi continued to send messages: "Speaking of secondary originals/meta... out of personal interest, I think some things on the R side must be preserved."

"what?"

"The animation industry." Xia Mi said seriously, "The editorial department of Weekly Shonen Jump, several studios of Kyoto Animation... If they are accidentally injured by dragons or the military, the loss to human civilization will be huge."

"I can tolerate One Piece taking a break next week, but I can't stand Jujutsu Kaisen stopping!"

"You can fight as much as you want, but don't blow up Akihabara!"

Zhao Qing: “…”

Shi Yiguang couldn't help laughing: "Are you serious?"

"Of course!" Xia Mi said confidently, "I still have to catch up! It's Longlong's responsibility to protect the cultural treasures of mankind, understand?"

Zhao Qing rubbed his brows and said, "Okay, I'll keep an eye on it."

The phone call was then hung up. Xia Mi must have officially entered the catapult takeoff stage. The sound of the sea tide could be faintly heard in the distance.

They all knew that this battle was just the prelude to a bigger storm, and the aftermath did not subside with the death of the Wind King.

The sky outside Osaka still retains a distorted and gorgeous colorful glow, like torn silk.

However, the Super-Kamiokande detector underground in Gifu Prefecture, hundreds of kilometers away, recorded thousands of abnormal neutrino events during the fierce battle, and automatically issued a piercing alarm at the threat level of a supernova explosion.

In a cylindrical water tank with a diameter of 50 meters, tens of thousands of photomultiplier tubes light up at the same time, reflecting the blue light of neutrino collisions into a flowing galaxy.

The officer on duty stared at the wildly jumping curve on the oscilloscope, and with his last hope for human civilization, he hurriedly dialed the contact number, not hesitating to go beyond the level and violate the rules.

Because according to the understanding of relevant academic circles, the only thing that can produce so many neutrinos instantly and penetrate the earth, and the flux density can allow the detector to detect this number, is a supernova or a more terrible disaster, and the distance is incredibly close on the astronomical scale.

Unfortunately, they were off by several orders of magnitude in their assessment of the location of the outbreak point and came to a completely wrong conclusion.

The reaction of the Self-Defense Forces and the U.S. military stationed in Japan was only slightly slower than that of the scientific research institutions. On the radar screen of the Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni (MCAS Iwakuni), a huge hole appeared in the ionosphere over Osaka Bay, resembling the outline of an alien spacecraft.

The commander who received the emergency intelligence had a gloomy expression on his face: "This energy reading... is at the level of a nuclear explosion."

"It can't be a nuclear test. We haven't received any notification from any country."

"Could that be... 'those things'?"

The "those things" they were referring to were the dragon-like creatures and alchemical creations that had gradually become known to high-level officials in various countries in recent times and that had signed secret agreements for targeted protection.

Although intelligence is still strictly blocked, the M Army has already marked several areas suspected of dragon activities in secret files.

Five minutes later, three E-3 early warning aircraft and a formation of F-18 "Hornets" took off and rushed towards Osaka. The Marine Corps' armored convoy drove towards the giant pit, and an Ohio-class strategic nuclear submarine carrying the "Trident" was on standby near the coast.

Although they knew that this might be a "dragon event", facing the unknown ultra-high-energy reaction, the most instinctive response of mankind is still nuclear weapons, especially since the M army had just achieved the glorious record of annihilating the "deep-sea corpse guard group" not long ago, so it was just the right time to pursue the victory.

A social media frenzy ensued, with conspiracy theories swirling and the number of posts on multiple anonymous forums skyrocketing to an unprecedented level:
"My uncle is at the Meteorological Agency. Something disappeared on the radar at Mach 20." "Did friends in Kyoto see it? Birds all over Kansai are fleeing." "Coordinates: Namba Station. The air is full of ozone." "I bet a thousand times that this is definitely a test launch of a positron cannon."...

However, these posts were quickly deleted by a mysterious force, and the publisher's account was banned in an instant. Keywords on the social platform were replaced in batches, popular posts showed "this content has been deleted", and the video loading interface only had a 404 error.

Instead, NHK News issued an emergency report: "This morning, a rare coronal hole structure was observed on the surface of the sun, causing the Earth's magnetosphere to be impacted by high-energy particle flows, and 'ball lightning groups' appeared in some areas, which may have an impact on the foundations of buildings..."

"After investigation, there are no reports of casualties. Citizens are requested to remain calm. The Self-Defense Forces have activated the disaster prevention emergency mechanism..."

Under the relevant topics, perhaps due to the dissatisfaction and revenge of the M army, the comments that frequently attacked Kobe Steel, Sumitomo Metal and other companies for counterfeiting plate products were automatically pinned to the top, suppressing the rest of the bizarre speculations firmly below, almost making "aging buildings" the source of many problems.

But no one noticed that a strange trend was quietly spreading on the streets of Tokyo.

The trendy shops in Shibuya were suddenly filled with masks with Norse mythology themes - Odin's one eye, Loki's weird smile, Freya's feathers. The workmanship was so exquisite that they didn't look like mass-produced products. It was like some kind of meme virus that swept Harajuku, Shinjuku, and Akihabara in just ten minutes.

Young people wearing them shuttled under the neon lights, as if in some kind of collective unconscious carnival, they whispered words that did not exist: "The Ragnarok is coming." "Do you hear the horn?" "Heimdall is watching us."

What's even more strange is that no one can remember when this suddenly popular accessory appeared - it's as if the entire world was forcibly inserted into a strange refresh program, causing the shelves of all anime stores to inexplicably grow and be filled with similar masks.

"Look! That mask is the same as Loki in 'Nordic Fantasy'!" The girl in the lolita skirt pointed at the billboard opposite and muttered the name of a non-existent game with her companions: "Is this... a promotion for a new CG movie?"

On the giant screen of Shinjuku ALTA, a graffiti of a completely decayed and withered world tree appeared. The one-eyed Odin was hanging upside down on a branch, and two ravens with golden pupils on his shoulders were following the pedestrians, attracting men and women to stop and stare.

"It was sold out last week! We just restocked it this morning. Would you like to try it on? It's very cool." The clerk in Harajuku said to the new customer with a smile, even though she had no memory of any record of the purchase.

……

(End of this chapter)