Mystery Paradise: Wishing Power Demon

Chapter 210: Chapter 209: Light that Breaks the Darkness

Chapter 210 -209: Light that Breaks the Darkness

“””

As it leapt out from the horizon, every wall and rooftop facing east in the city was illuminated brightly while long, slender shadows appeared on the sides away from the light. The brightness was such that even the sky seemed to dim, and the real sun was drowned out by this radiance, turning into a dull gray sphere.

People instinctively turned their heads to avoid the intense illumination, noticing that one side of their bodies reflected a dazzling white light, and their exposed skin even felt a twinge of burning pain.

Such a close encounter with the “sun” was not without cost.

In the outskirts where the farmlands and thatched-roof huts were closer to the Huiqiu Mine, flammable objects like haystacks, shed roofs, and drying millet were directly ignited when swept over by the intense radiation, sending up plumes of black smoke.

Fortunately, the burst of light was fleeting, and the shadows quickly vanished after a few seconds, with the sky gradually returning to its initial color, as if everything had been an illusion.

However, when people looked again towards the northeast, they realized it was no illusion—the new sun was still rising, only its glow had dimmed. It was no longer a rootless hemisphere but was now tightly connected to the ground—a thick pillar of dust had risen from the earth at some point, connecting to the base of the fireball, unclear whether it was supporting the fireball’s ascent or the fireball was lifting it upward.

What everyone saw was an exceedingly thick “mushroom.”

“Spread out, everyone spread out! Find somewhere to hide and take cover!” Xue Quan shouted at the plaza in front of the Yeni Temple, back in his own body.

His trained guards, although not fully understanding the implications of the warning, still followed suit out of trust. The nuns quickly put down their bandages and medicine pots and rushed towards the temple. By now, everyone could hear a deep rumbling sound coming from the east.

Xue Quan knew that it was the tremble of the air being continuously compressed by the shockwave, like a domino effect, layer by layer reaching the Magnificent Castle.

In the blink of an eye, the muffled sound turned into a deafening explosion! The blast, mixed with air currents, shot straight into the city, altering its path as it encountered houses and streets, and wherever these currents hit, walls of sand were thrown up. Fortunately, many of the buildings in the Magnificent Castle were reinforced concrete structures that stood firm against the shockwave, but not so lucky were items like glass windows and doors which were either shattered or blown far away, and the tents temporarily constructed for the refugees at the temple were blown down completely.

Only then did people realize that the earth-shaking roar was produced by the “sun” they had seen moments ago. That was not the birth of a new day; it was an unimaginable, violent explosion!

It seemed the intelligence was correct.

Xue Quan dusted off the ash atop his head, thinking to himself. The secret divine artifact had precisely transferred the lower half of the energy from the Tsar Bomba and released it in the opposite direction, towards the sky, thereby concentrating most of the destructive force on the mine and significantly diminishing its lateral destructive power. Although the super-high temperatures of the thermonuclear fusion reaction still generated a strong expansive shockwave, it paled in comparison to the original Tsar Bomba experienced by New Ground Island. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

If the data on the detonation timing and explosion altitude were even slightly off, the result would not have been so perfect.

“Look quick! Has the Floating Island broken apart?”

“God of the Machine bless us, why is the sky collapsing!”

“Stop shouting nonsense; that’s not the sky, it’s a rift that has collapsed!”

“””

After the shockwave passed, people peered out from their hiding spots and looked in the direction of Huiqiu Mine, and then they saw an incredibly shocking scene! The fireball had now dimmed, resembling a mass of black smoke, its top reaching higher than the clouds, unattainable even for birds. As for its body—the smoke column that rose to the sky—because it had been stretched so thin, it no longer covered the entire mine. The small mountain of stone floating in the air was now exposed to the onlookers’ eyes. It was no longer a complete cone; the explosion had blasted it into pieces, and large chunks began to fall to the ground as if they had lost support, each large piece dropping with a dull thud that resounded through the city like a mallet hitting a drum.

The crimson cracks were the same, turning from something invisible into a crescent-shaped entity, breaking and falling like the mountain, in stark contrast to the pale blue Glowing Stone Veins.

“Where’s the red light? The red light seems to have disappeared!”

“What on earth happened over there?”

“Damn, this wasn’t all done by the city guards, was it?”

Everyone was abuzz with conversation, discussing the extraordinary spectacle that occurs once in a century.

From the mine rising slowly to the appearance of red light on the ground to the collapse of the mine, in just a few short hours, they witnessed something they could brag about for the rest of their lives.

“Is it over?” someone suddenly said from behind.

Xue Quan had not yet, but Haiqi had already flown over.

“Luowei Siya!”

“Mr. Zhao didn’t lie to you, right?” the latter said with a smile as she embraced Haiqi and even reached out to stroke her head, “I am immortal now.”

Xue Quan shifted his gaze to a man following behind Luowei Siya—his eyes clearly revealed a sense of bewilderment, whether looking at the crowd or at the mushroom cloud to the northeast, he seemed to be in a daze.

Although he looked quite different from the original, Xue Quan immediately guessed his identity: Leisk. In the meeting at the integrated control center, they found someone who couldn’t be saved no matter what, which was Leisk, who was in the same off-road vehicle. Leaving him behind, he would be swallowed by the red light, taking him along would vaporize him in the explosion. More crucially, Paradise had pointed out that it was not suitable for him to awaken before the plan was accomplished, otherwise it might lead to the collapse of the entire operation. In the end, Paradise decided to abandon his original body and let him live on with a body provided, just like Luowei Siya. Of course… the body he was now using was clearly chosen temporarily from the base’s reserves and looked quite out of sync with his actual self.

One could tell from his bewildered appearance that Paradise had not informed him of this in advance.

Xue Quan sighed, walked up to Leisk, and patted his shoulder, “Sorry… this is all we could do.”

“Have we… defeated the Evil God?” the man murmured.

“We should have; Magnificent Castle is safe.”

“I see…” He stood in silence for a moment before adding, “…It doesn’t matter.”

Xue Quan was slightly taken aback and looked sidelong at him. He noticed that after saying this, the man’s eyes gradually began to focus.

Leisk nodded at him, seeming to affirm his doubt or perhaps talking to himself—in any case, he repeated it again.

“Hmm… it’s all right.”

…

Inside the barracks, Shandela Allen struggled to stand up from the recliner and walked slowly towards Distant View Tower.

“My lord, that place is dangerous! The recent explosion already destabilized it, and if there’s another one…” One of her subordinates tried to stop her.

“It’s okay, you all wait down here; I’ll go up by myself,” Shandela waved her hand, signaling not to worry.

“But there’s nothing left up there, why do you still want to ascend the tower?” Someone asked.

She didn’t answer.

Treading the staircase covered in rubble, Shandela climbed step by step—since the desecration by the cultists, it had never been restored. Coupled with the unprecedented blast wave from the explosion, the interior of the tower appeared even more dilapidated, with several cracks in the stone walls as if it could collapse at any moment.

However, as she stepped onto the top floor, the Distant View Tower still stood tall.

This place once served as her office, but now it was transformed into a half-open ruin, with the roof and the eastern wall completely collapsed. The original bookshelves and long table had turned into a heap of broken timber and debris from the impact. Through the damaged walls, she could see a smoke column that shot straight up into the sky and a grey-black cloud that covered half of the heaven, appearing at first glance like a gigantic tree.

Even from within the city, one could feel such a strong impact, so it went without saying the fate of the city’s troops at the frontline.

Not every soldier would defect to the Evil God sect. Among them were also loyal warriors like Shidong and Woody. Yet now, the main force of over seven hundred had all perished in the wilderness, leaving less than twenty soldiers remaining at their station.

At this moment, she had lost everything.

This was the cost of battling the cultists.

Shandela too couldn’t help but question herself, the price they paid, was it too high… If she had foreseen the outcome, would she still have insisted on expelling the followers of the Evil God from the city?

She couldn’t find an answer in a short time.

But Shandela was certain of one thing, had she known how things would unfold, she definitely wouldn’t have delegated command to Woody as a proxy.

She should be the one to bear all this.

Suddenly, she heard a faint sound of footsteps approaching from behind.

She turned around to see that it was indeed the subordinate assigned to look after her.

Noticing he was discovered, the man seemed a bit flustered.

“Didn’t I say to wait for me downstairs?”

“But we worry…” He stopped mid-sentence, seemingly unsure whether to continue.

Shandela raised an eyebrow, “You’re not afraid I’m going to jump from the tower and commit suicide, are you?”

“Uh…” The subordinate scratched the back of his head.

“Ridiculous, what kind of person do you take me for?” Shandela said coldly. However, her angry expression didn’t last long before it turned into a touch of resignation, “Rest assured, the more critical the situation, the less one should resort to death as an escape. I came up here just to find a decent place to say goodbye to them.”

Upon hearing this, the subordinate also breathed a sigh of relief.

“If you weren’t here… we really wouldn’t know what to do.”

“That might not be the case,” Shandela shook her head, “Order at Magnificent Castle will be restored soon, perhaps more quickly than you imagine.”

“But the city has lost its lord…”

“The lord is not the issue. The Old Continent will sooner or later send a new lord. But before that happens, someone will take over all this.”

“Who?”

Shandela didn’t answer. She now understood why Ge Wei was so unusually respectful in the presence of that person; why the usually haughty Mechanical Sect was even willing to muster a team to support the city guard’s capturing operation; and why the Paradise Master answered the followers so frequently and with such ease.

Who else in this world can defeat an Evil God about to descend?

She could think of only one answer.

—Another deity.