In the combat command center of Hall of Halls.
After the Shadow Domain was lifted, the intelligence department relayed satellite imagery to the room, and everyone present fell into silence after viewing it.
On that battlefield, nothing remained but scattered metal wreckage and the corpses of Ascendants, a clear testament to the outcome of a brutal battle.
After Guan Tong arrived, he single-handedly eliminated Suroma's entire elite legion of over ten thousand, a feat that surpassed everyone's expectations.
In the eyes of Heisen and the others, this absolutely exceeded the scope of what an Ascendant could achieve.
"He's definitely an Awakened One... he's definitely an Awakened One..." Heisen muttered.
He refused to believe that an Ascendant at the "Perfect" tier could accomplish something like this, whether in terms of abilities or Mind Power, neither could support such a feat.
He believed that only by reaching that mysterious "Awakened" tier, and only through the special power "Authority" that only that tier could command, could such an absurdly overwhelming result be achieved.
"Your Majesty..."
Several department heads looked at Bruce, unsure of what to do now.
Destroying Bandzhen and nearly wiping out the people of Sakura Prayer were secondary objectives, hardly even worth calling missions.
The true core combat mission was only one: eliminate "Shadow" Guan Tong.
Now that combat mission had completely failed.
The losses of mech personnel were already significant enough, but the biggest investment had been those two coordinate-stabilizing anchors.
Failing to eliminate Guan Tong meant those two precious anchors were wasted, a loss that was almost unacceptable for Suroma.
After all, Suroma only had four anchors in total.
"Actually... there were some gains." Dr. Haisen studied Bruce's expression, trying to salvage the situation. "At the very least, we eliminated Uenoshi, one of Guan Tong's right hands. Without her, Guan Tong will lose a major pillar of support."
Bruce showed no sign of comfort at these words, only speaking slowly: "Tell the troops stationed at the teleportation gate to return."
The others noticed that Bruce, usually so unflappable, could hardly conceal the disappointment in his tone this time.
He had invested so much effort and painstakingly built the teleportation gate in Sakura Prayer in secret, yet the operation had ended in failure, utterly unacceptable.
The Minister of War didn't dare say anything more at this moment, directly following Bruce's orders to contact the stationed troops by the rainforest teleportation gate.
When the communication channel opened, only the crackling static of electrical interference could be heard.
"Hello? Hello! Answer immediately if you can hear me!"
The Minister of War shouted four or five times in a row without receiving any reply.
A thought struck him, and a chill ran down his spine.
"Your Majesty..."
Bruce stood up and walked away without a word, leaving the others exchanging helpless glances.
They all knew that the troops stationed at the teleportation gate had surely met the same fate.
Guided by the spider-type drones, the force led by Dragon Soul quickly located the massive teleportation gate and encircled it in a ring formation.
The gate, over a hundred meters tall, was built within a cluster of a dozen giant trees, with the stabilizing anchor engravings at its peak, surrounded by roughly three hundred Suroma stationed troops.
These stationed personnel were primarily ordinary soldiers and modified Ascendants, and they had been anxious ever since losing contact with the front-line forces.
That was why they failed to notice Dragon Soul's troops entering the alert perimeter in time.
By the time they heard shouts of "Drop your weapons!" coming from all directions, it was already too late to prepare any defense.
Beixing's armed soldiers surrounded Suroma's stationed personnel, with all sorts of firearms aimed and safeties off. If any of Suroma's armed personnel made the slightest move, they would open fire immediately.
Dragon Soul shouted from a short distance away: "Drop your weapons immediately! I repeat, drop your weapons immediately!"
The Suroma soldiers hesitated, none of them having the courage to resist.
"All we can do is surrender..."
"Let's surrender. Beixing's military won't kill us."
"What's there to fight for? The enemy has already..."
The few hundred stationed Suroma soldiers, now trapped in a tight encirclement, had even less will to fight. They dropped their weapons and raised their hands high in surrender.
Dragon Soul breathed a sigh of relief. Even with superior numbers, a fight would still cause casualties.
He was about to issue routine orders to his soldiers when—
Whoosh—
A sound of something cutting through the air came from above. Dragon Soul snapped his head up and saw a black figure appear, landing on the peak of the massive teleportation gate.
The shadows swirling around that person and the black wings on their back were enough to identify them.
The only strange thing was the face. Dragon Soul recognized that it was Guan Tong, no mistake, but for some reason, the latter was wearing an eye patch, with only his right eye exposed.
Guan Tong's right eye swept across the scene in an instant, then he emotionlessly raised his hand.
Dragon Soul's heart lurched. Knowing trouble was coming, he shouted at the top of his lungs: "Stop!"
But the speed of his voice was far slower than the speed of Shadow.
In that instant, multiple sharp Shadow Pillars materialized in front of Guan Tong and rained down like a storm upon the Suroma soldiers below.
Thud thud thud thud thud thud!
Of the three hundred or so stationed personnel, over half were instantly pierced through by the Shadow Pillars and killed or wounded. The few dozen survivors, watching their comrades pinned to the ground in miserable deaths, scattered in terror and screamed.
"Help! Someone help!"
"We already surrendered!"
"Run!!!"
Dragon Soul let out a thunderous roar. His muscles bulged as he exploded forward, bounding up the teleportation gate in a few swift strides to reach the top, standing at the edge alongside Guan Tong.
"Guan Tong, stop this now!" He threw a punch, but it was caught mid-swing by a shadow hand.
Guan Tong's right eye shifted, his gaze focusing on Dragon Soul's face.
He said nothing, but his palm clenched again.
This time, an even larger-scale "rain of Shadow Pillars" descended, slaughtering the few dozen survivors from the previous wave to the last one. Not a single one was left alive.
Seeing this, Dragon Soul erupted in fury.
"I told you to stop, didn't you hear me?!"
He threw punch after punch, his voice thundering like rolling thunder, smashing through all the shadow hands and shadow walls that Guan Tong used to block him.
But when he finally closed in on Guan Tong, dozens of shadow hands extended from all directions simultaneously, pinning him firmly in place. No matter how he struggled, he couldn't advance another step.
Dragon Soul was stunned by Guan Tong's terrifying—
"Didn't you see they'd already dropped their weapons and surrendered? You're slaughtering prisoners!"
Guan Tong said coldly: "So what?"
"You!"
"Dragon Soul, have your men lower their weapons."
Dragon Soul was taken aback. He turned his head to look—
the soldiers below were all tense with anxiety.
Damn it!
Dragon Soul knew Guan Tong was like a—
this was no joke!
"Everyone, lower your guns!" Dragon Soul shouted to his—
The soldiers below the gate, though not quite understanding, obeyed the order and lowered their muzzles, though their eyes remained fixed on the scene above.
Dragon Soul turned back to Guan Tong, his expression grave: "You've gone too far! If killing prisoners is allowed, then no soldier will ever feel safe again. This is a loss for Beixing's military too!"
"Save those words for the hundreds of thousands of souls in Bandzhen." Guan Tong said.
Dragon Soul was taken aback, then furrowed his brows: "Those are two different things!"
Guan Tong said nothing more, looking down at the massive teleportation gate beneath his feet.
The anchor engravings on the gate had already cracked, which meant Suroma had destroyed the gate on their end, causing this side's gate to lose its function as well.
Guan Tong manipulated his Shadow to phase through the gate's structure, then solidified it again.
Rumble...
The massive teleportation gate collapsed and shattered. The shadow hands restraining Dragon Soul released him at that moment, and he fell along with the crumbling structure.
Guan Tong hovered in mid-air with his Shadow Wings, his gaze passing through the dense rainforest toward the direction of Bandzhen.
He knew he would never go back there again, because there was no one left for him to wait for.