Apocalyptic Forecast - Chapter 23
Chapter 23: The White Emperor
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation
Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At that moment, the raging winds intensified.
The levitating hand in the sky slowly shifted its body, pointing itself at the shining lights of New Ocean City in the distance before once again curling its fingers into a fist.
It appeared to be grasping an invisible object.
And pulled as hard as it could!
A sharp sound pierced through the air, like the overlapping noise of numerous shards of glass being scratched. It gradually amplified and reverberated, driving everyone insane.
The skies and the ground began to vibrate.
As if the wedge that separated the heavens and the earth was being moved.
Right at that moment, a white shadow emerged beneath a streetlight on the outskirts of New Ocean.
“Finally, I made it!”
A white dove retracted its wings and perched itself on the girl’s slender arm.
As if she had just finished a marathon, she was already sweating profusely. Her skin-tight sports shirt and running pants were completely soaked through; the moisture causing it to wrap around her attractive figure.
It was a shame that no one had the privilege of witnessing it.
She was panting. As she watched the palm levitate in the air, dozens of kilometers away, she shook her head helplessly.
Under the illumination of the streetlight, her shadow seemed to have come to life. She slowly raised both her arms, as if she were pulling out an invisible weapon, two of them, in fact.
And slashed forward.
There, the silence came.
There was a moment when the roars in the distance, the chirping of insects, the falling debris, the howling wind, the surging river, the rising flames, and the sturdy ground seemed to have been frozen in time.
As if an invisible force held them in place.
In the next moment, a subtle and nearly imperceptible slash mark extended from the bottom of her feet and continued extending forward, spanning 23 kilometers and 411 meters.
It was accurate, right down to the millimeter; precisely stopping at the location of the palm.
The palm was split into two clean halves, with each side separated from the other as it slowly fell apart. Then, it broke into smaller halves, becoming four pieces.
Before the four pieces had time to scatter, it broke into eight pieces.
One, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, one hundred and twenty-eight, two hundred and fifty-six…The power of this ruthless yet precise assault was baffling, far beyond the realm of human understanding.
Until finally, the shattered elementium burst out from within the being.
Transforming into an all-consuming flame.
With one fell swoop from this godly sword, the fighting had been put to an end.
It was the end.
“I hope there won’t be too many victims.”
She sighed sadly and heard the phone in her pocket ring.
“Hello? I’ll be right there! I was lost just now; I was genuinely lost…There’s definitely something wrong with your GPS! Right away, five minutes… I’ll be there in five minutes… Oh, I’m on the way…”
The dove and the girl vanished.
.
.
“Great Heaven and Earth – Divine Freedom…”
When the Windstorm Creature’s palm was split in half, Red Glove’s face turned ashen. He hissed through his teeth:
“- ‘The White Emperor’!”
Snap!
The sound of breaking could be heard coming from his face.
Cracks appeared on his face, and in an instant, it was like he had been brutally slashed with numerous knives. Half of his body had turned into a mess of flesh and blood. The invisible knives continued to tear at his body until the pendant on his neck emitted a wailing sound – the blank-faced puppet had shattered into dust.
The Blank-faced Puppet had taken his place and endured the last few hits of the White Emperor’s sword.
But even those few hits were enough to put him in crippling pain.
Even on the soul-manifested object in his hand – the Sneering Fish Tank, a deep crack had formed. Within the tank, of the two fish, one of them had already turned over, dead.
The other was swaying dizzily, barely alive. He could see in its eyes that it did not have much longer to live.
“Damn it, those monsters…”
Red Glove suddenly keeled over and vomited blood. He could hear heavy footsteps coming in the distance – the troops had started moving – A flash of silver glinted before his eyes, he retrieved the detonator from his arms, and pressed the button.
The timers of the plastic explosives that were laid out around the church lit up, with this, all the remaining traces would be obliterated after fifteen seconds.
It did not matter if he failed, as long as the Cauldron of Reincarnation was still there…
He turned around and extended his hand towards the sermon platform, but his hand and his sinister smile froze – the platform was empty!
It was gone!
The Cauldron of Reincarnation was gone!
He had no idea how the box disappeared without a trace!
He tore the sermon platform open furiously, but he could not find anything. He let out a deep roar. At the sound of the approaching footsteps, he frantically dismantled the platform, but still, he did not find any traces of it.
When the remnants of the church’s door burst open, and the suppression troops entered, all they saw was a man knelt on the platform, his eyes red like a rabid dog’s.
He spat, and gestured his middle finger at them disdainfully, “Eat sh*t, you walking corpses from the Astronomical Association!”
He threw out a poker card.
The poker card folded itself mid-air, pulling his body together with it. Then, he was folded in half, along with the card, then folded in half again. In a matter of seconds, he had shrunk to the size of a small dot and was sucked into a void, disappearing without a trace.
In the next moment, the flames of destruction had engulfed everything.
.
.
So, excessive blood loss did not hurt.
He no longer felt any pain.
He was just sleepy, and his body had no energy left. Lying lazily, as if nothing mattered anymore… he wanted to sleep, to rest. He just wanted this f*cking life to end.
He closed his eyes, he felt at ease and accepting toward the experience that came after this long and torturous journey – a long, undisturbed slumber.
Death was coming.
After witnessing so much death, so many different deaths, Huai Shi realized that he had finally welcomed his end.
It was not scary, nor was it painful. He did not have any unwillingness either.
He was just sleepy and confused.
Whilst still in a trance, he felt someone trying to move his body. They pushed him forward little by little using a cane. It was like a snail trying to move a rock.
He was flipped over and was now lying on a tattered carpet. Someone was pulling him, dragging him somewhere.
He could smell something burning, could hear sounds of shattering and hoarse wailing. It was like the world had been destroyed and was now in an apocalyptic state.
Something wet dripped onto Huai Shi’s face.
He could smell blood.
He opened his eyes painstakingly and saw Liu Dongli beside him, he could not tell if he was dead or alive. Up ahead, he saw an old man pulling the carpet, limping forward unsteadily.
The figure with a crippled leg lunged forward with all his might and knocked a door open. He turned around.
Half of his face seemed to have shattered, while the other half remained visibly unchanged but was as pale as a corpse. The wounded side of his body was constantly violently convulsing.
It seemed like half of him was already dead, while the other half was still fighting to live, but there seemed to be no changes occurring.
When he saw Huai Shi’s dazed eyes, he avoided his gaze, he rolled up the carpet with great difficulty, wrapping him and Liu Dongli together, and rolled them forward strenuously.
“I’m sorry…I have to save her… Huai Shi, only I can save her… I’m sorry…”
He murmured hoarsely, appearing to apologize, but was not expecting a reply. He continued muttering to himself, “Sorry… sorry…”
A phone was ringing. The banged-up cellphone was playing a song about love, something about a hubby, but no one was picking up.
“I’m sorry…”
Blood fell upon Huai Shi’s face, it carried the warmth of tears.
He was pushed up and pushed into the darkness behind the door. He rolled down a long flight of stairs and fell into a cellar full of debris and pickle jars.
While he violently tumbled down the stairs and into a dark cellar, Huai Shi caught one last glimpse of Old Yang’s face.
He was propped against the door frame as he looked at the boy, the corner of his mouth twitched upward into an awkward grin. He looked like he was smiling. He was still clutching onto his vibrating phone in one hand as he waved at him with the other.
As if he was saying a final goodbye.
Huai Shi opened his mouth. He wanted to call out to him, but he could not make a sound.
The door was closed.
In the darkness, the sounds of explosions came from the distance, A terrifying flame and high temperatures engulfed the entire church, reducing it to ash.
Huai Shi closed his eyes.
Death embraced him.
.
.
“Someone, help me, pass a message… to everyone…”
The man was tied down to a chair. He was twitching erratically, and the goldfish in his eyes swam around lifelessly.
“He said… he said… he said…”
A crazed look suddenly formed on his face, and he pulled a sinister smile.
“Green Day will eventually shine upon the world.”
Bang!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
His head exploded as the sound of gunshots rang out. Though, the gunshots did not stop. After they emptied a magazine, they replaced it with a new one and continued pulling the trigger.
Until the thing on the chair had become a pile of rotten flesh.
An injured goldfish jumped out from his obliterated skull and was turned into mush by the bullets, quickly becoming dehydrated and turning into powder.
“Did you catch him?”
Ai Qing tossed the gun aside emotionlessly and looked up at the middle-aged man who could no longer hide his discontent. “No need to say a word. He got away, didn’t he? We’ve persevered for so long, but we only managed to get there in time to wash the floors?”
“He has a border relic that allows him to perform short-distance teleportation. Though we had already locked down New Ocean’s surroundings…”
“Any survivors?”
Ai Qing had no interest in listening to him any longer.
“…We’re looking.”
“Then keep looking.”
Ai Qing withdrew her gaze, “Even if you have dug three feet into the ground, don’t stop until you find a body.”
No one objected.
When midnight rolled around, news came from the ruins of the collapsed church that was being excavated: “Liu Dongli and Huai Shi have been found!”
Outside the ruins, Ai Qing was still sitting in a wheelchair with a calm expression. “What’s the situation?”
“Liu Dongli is still alive, he’s severely injured, as for Huai Shi…”
The person reporting the situation paused for a moment, his expression darkened.
“They’re trying to rescue him.”
.
The makeshift rescue room had already become a mess. Ai Qing waited outside the door quietly, listening to the noisiness and the chaos that came from the inside.
“Is he still breathing?”
“No, his pulse is almost gone, inject it quickly…”
“No, his heartbeat is irregular, it’s almost gone…Where is the defibrillator? Hand me the defibrillator!”
“One, two, three!”
Bang!
“One, two, three!”
Bang!
…
After a long time, the room became quiet. The doctor walked out and took off his mask, his face ridden with sorrow. “I’m sorry, we were too late…”
Ai Qing nodded but said nothing and let the medical staff walk past her.
Soon after, Ai Qing finally saw Huai Shi.
The boy lay on the operating table like he was asleep. The bullet hole in his chest was pale, there was no more blood left.
His empty eyes staring soullessly at the lamp above him.
His heartbeat stopped as he took his last breath of life.
Ai Qing was silent. She lowered her eyes as she gripped the armrests, her knuckles turning white. After a long time, she said calmly, “Then… then let’s go on with the process.”
She turned the wheelchair around, wanting to leave when suddenly, she froze in her tracks.
She seemed to have heard something.