Dengxianxiang
A colossal warship’s shadow fell across the skies of Beijing.
Hanul stood at the prow and looked down.
A megacity packed with tens of millions. Satellite cities ringed it on every side.
He flicked his fingers once.
Violet mana unfurled like fog and blanketed the continent’s sky.
Mass Migration
Wide-area mental interference swept through Beijing and every neighboring city.
There was no chaos. No screams. No blaring horns.
Tens of millions froze at the same instant. Then, as if entranced, they began to move in perfect unison—like a vast colony of ants on the march.
“······.”
People abandoned their cars and walked. Crowds poured up from subway stations onto the streets. The footsteps of tens of millions locked into a single pulse that shook the ground. Emotion and will had been stripped away; only the instinct to leave remained. Humanity drained out through every artery of the city.
“Half a day, maybe.”
Clearing a throng this size in a mere half-day. Even that felt too slow for Hanul. Still, there was nothing to be done about it. Starting the festival preparations early wouldn’t hurt.
He raised his hand again. Time to reverse-engineer the ritual he had witnessed in Kaesong.
Ritual Memorize—Reverse Calculation. Reconstruction.
At Hanul’s declaration, subspace tore open. The byproducts of the Corrupted Thousand-Armed Guanyin he had salvaged from the Yellow Sea poured into the sky above Beijing—golden armor fragments and the wreckage of colossal arms. Drawn by his mana, they arranged themselves into a vast circle in midair.
The dimensional-barrier collapse ritual from Kaesong. Using it as a foundation, Hanul unfolded his own twisted descent ceremony.
Black Magic Modification: Revive — Demon Thousand-Armed Guanyin
Abyssal mana flooded the byproducts. Crimson demonic muscle layered itself over the blackened golden scrap. Torn gauntlets twisted grotesquely, knitting into a single enormous form.
KRAAAAAAH—!
The sky itself screamed. A former field-boss monster, reborn through black magic, descended. A degraded copy of the original, yet its presence remained crushing.
A blood-black demonic statue bristling with thousands of arms. Instead of weapons, each hand bore a demonic eyeball that flickered with malevolent light. Behind it blazed a halo of pure black mana. The killing intent of the Demon Thousand-Armed Guanyin pressed down on all of Beijing.
“W-what the hell is that?!”
“Hhk!”
Chinese Hunters who had risen to face the Leviathan—those with flight skills or flight gear—froze solid before that overwhelming force.
“W-what is this···!”
“The Corrupted Thousand-Armed Guanyin? We were told a Korean SSS-class already took it down!”
Screams of shock and terror. Hanul settled lightly atop the Demon Guanyin’s head. The twisted demonic statue trembled beneath its master’s feet.
“I always return what’s given.”
Beijing and its surrounding civilians had not yet fully evacuated. For now, Hanul forced the Demon Thousand-Armed Guanyin into dormancy.
While I still have time, I should go clean up the real trash.
Beijing. A secret conference room inside Zhongnanhai.
Chinese President Zhao Jinping sat at the head of the table, eyes fixed on a massive screen. Beside him, Li Wei—Director of the National Awakener Management Bureau and head of the Hunter Association equivalent known as the Heavenly Palace—waited in tense silence. Documents detailing sanctions against Korea and plans for a show of force littered the table.
“The little country is getting rather bold.”
“We need to teach them a proper lesson. Only then will they understand who owns this land. Our fishing fleets and escort ships in the Yellow Sea are already diligently collecting Korea’s spoils.”
Arrogant laughter. To them, Korea was nothing more than a disposable appendage—something to be crushed and plundered at will.
The door slammed open. The intelligence director burst in.
“Mr. President! Emergency report! An unidentified life-form has appeared over the Yellow Sea coast!”
“What? A monster?”
Li Wei’s brow furrowed.
“Unknown! An unidentified flying object has breached Tianjin and is racing north toward Beijing at high speed!”
“Air support?”
“Nothing’s getting through! Every unit that approaches either crashes or disintegrates!”
A flustered aide glanced at Zhao Jinping and spoke carefully.
“Mr. President, should we evacuate the surrounding populace? The combat fallout will be severe.”
“No. Tell them to stay exactly where they are.”
Zhao Jinping’s voice was ice.
“Excuse me? Do you realize how many people live in Beijing and the satellite cities? Tens of millions could be hurt!”
“Do you know the opportunity cost of moving that many people? The national economy stops. And what about our prestige?”
Li Wei shook his head and barked the same order.
“If casualties start, just broadcast that they should flee to shelters! We know the shelters can’t hold everyone. But it’s still better than paralyzing the entire state system.”
To them, the people were replaceable consumables—livestock.
Another report came in.
“Director! People are suddenly pouring out of the cities!”
“What? I told you not to evacuate them—put them in the shelters!”
“That’s just it··· orders aren’t working! As if possessed, tens of millions are flooding out of the cities like an outgoing tide!”
The conference room erupted. An unprecedented loss of control. Zhao Jinping was about to order a city lockdown when the ground heaved.
KRRRRRUMBLE—!
“A-a Gate has opened! Directly over Beijing!”
“The form··· it’s nearly identical to the Corrupted Thousand-Armed Guanyin that appeared in Korea!”
Zhao Jinping’s face went ashen at the satellite feed. Mana readings were lower than the original, but the appearance was far more grotesque—demonic muscle fused with rotting flesh. The Demon Thousand-Armed Guanyin had torn open Beijing’s heart and descended.
“Mr. President, we must evacuate! To the underground bunker!”
Li Wei half-dragged Zhao Jinping toward the emergency exit. Amid the trampling chaos, the president screamed.
“Send the Hunters! Director Li, kill that thing right now!”
“Celestial-class Hunters are assembling! Mr. President!”
“Yes—Dengxianxiang! Deploy every Celestial-class asset earmarked for the Dengxianxiang Project! Show them the dignity of this nation!”
In that instant—
KWAANG—!
Steel and concrete shrieked as they were ripped apart. The nuclear-war-grade bunker walls of Zhongnanhai crumpled like paper. Zhao Jinping and Li Wei spun around in horror.
Through the dust, a man walked in. It was Hanul. Pools of blood on the floor parted left and right with each of his steps. He tapped a twisted fragment of the bunker wall and smirked.
“You pulled some cheap tricks on Korea, then all the cowards who hide came scurrying here.”
Zhao Jinping’s face turned the color of dirt. Li Wei screamed.
“Y-you’re Korea’s SSS-class··· Kang Hanul!”
The face he had seen countless times in intelligence reports.
“Don’t tell me the situation in Beijing is your doing?!”
“I came in person to cut off every rotten head of our neighboring country.”
“Th-this is a massacre! Are you insane?! If you kill our leadership, do you think the Chinese government will hold? The entire continent will fall into anarchy and hundreds of millions will bleed!”
Hanul let out a short, dry laugh.
“I heard everything when I rode the Leviathan in. You never even planned to evacuate your own people, did you?”
“Th-that’s—!”
“Whining about economic damage and national prestige.”
He took one step closer.
“Even after the Guanyin appeared, you treated them like expendables. The irony is that I—the enemy who caused this mess—was the one who evacuated them. Doesn’t that leave a bad taste?”
“S-sophistry! Do you have proof?”
“I don’t need proof. I’ve already decided to erase you. Why would I need evidence?”
The crushing pressure rolling off Hanul made Zhao Jinping’s hands shake violently.
“For your own people and for your neighbors, it’s better if you all die first and we start over. Somewhere on this vast land a few true great heroes must still remain.”
He simply hoped the next China would build a proper foundation. If it didn’t? He would erase it again.
Static crackled from Li Wei’s radio. After checking the screen, a mad confidence lit the director’s face.
“Kwahahaha! You idiot! Your tongue ran too long!”
Li Wei laughed like a lunatic and stepped in front of the president.
“While you were spouting nonsense, China’s true power arrived! Twelve monsters from Dengxianxiang—beyond Heaven Rank 3—are here!”
Before the words finished, shadows behind Hanul rippled. Without sound or presence, twelve figures rose as if seeping out of the dark.
They wore human shapes, yet their auras were already those of magical beasts—dolls forged through genetic modification and mana infusion.
“Kill him! Tear that arrogant Korean to shreds!”
“No—don’t kill him. He didn’t open a Gate alone. Dig out every last accomplice and make them die in agony.”
“Ooooh, as expected of the President! You heard him—keep him alive!”
Fire, ice, gravity, and steel blades crashed in from every direction. Hanul did not so much as blink.
“Is that all?”
Abyss Field.
The twelve onrushing attacks froze in midair. Black hands erupted from the floor and seized their ankles. Hanul swept his hand; space folded, and the twelve were crushed into a single point.
CRACK, CRUNCH!
Bones shattered. The monsters who had boasted of Heaven Rank 3 tangled together like beads under a single gesture.
“Your turn to die.”
Hanul tore the air left and right. Reality’s wall split, and an ominous crimson mist seeped through.
KRRRRRUMBLE—
CRACKLE-CRACKLE—
The gate to the Demon Realm opened. With a reek of sulfur, a vast black-winged presence appeared.
Lord of Hell, Lucifer. The leadership could not endure the terror; they foamed at the mouth and collapsed.
“You summoned me, Master.”
Hanul jerked his chin toward the ruined Hunters and officials.
“Take these ones.”
“As you command!”
Lucifer smiled cruelly and extended a hand. Black chains shot out, piercing the hearts of Zhao Jinping, Li Wei, and the Hunters.
Hanul returned to the surface. A light hop carried him instantly to the prow of the Leviathan high above.
The cold steel of the remodeled magic warship met his feet. At the center floated the Demon Thousand-Armed Guanyin, hands joined in a colossal mudra, eyes closed as if asleep.
Hanul inscribed a ritual—a timer spell set to detonate the moment the evacuation of Beijing’s tens of millions finished.
Meanwhile, Chinese Hunters swarmed from every direction. Thousands of elites launched a full assault. Mana cannons and weapons blanketed the sky, raining down on the Changlong. The Leviathan’s armor did not even scratch.
Hanul scanned them. An interesting mana signature caught his attention.
Heaven Rank 3 Hunters gathered in desperation were unfolding a bizarre secret art. He sharpened his hearing and eavesdropped.
—We must release the power of Dengxianxiang!
—There’s no other way! Open the gate to the Immortal Realm!
Dengxianxiang? They injected themselves with an unidentified drug. Dimensional interference energy—identical to the Kaesong Gate incident—exploded outward.
A Gate counter-fire?
The thought had barely formed when an alien energy registered beyond the fissure.
This is···
Transcendent dimensions comparable to the Demon Realm—Heavenly Realm, Blood Realm, Immortal Realm. And the Outer Universe.
Among them, the aura of the Immortal Realm. That power was leaking through the crack. Like a dam with a hairline fracture, water seeping through and widening the hole. The force trying to enter from the other side was forcing the dimensional rift even wider.