"Chen Pi, maybe think this over?"
The two of them tried to reason with him.
This was Blue Star — the Spirit Suppression Bureau would launch an investigation.
"There is no retreat!!"[1]
Chen Shu shook his head with ironclad resolve. The potion in his hand was only the mini version — its power was definitely weaker than last time.
Besides, the thing expired in three days. If he didn't blow it up now, it'd go to waste!
And the bonus reward was a real, permanent Explosion Potion.
It was basically a nuclear weapon — he might not use it, but he couldn't NOT have it.
With that settled, the Mutant Thunderbird beneath their feet erupted. Its eyes blazed with light, a pair of luminous phantom wings sprouted alongside its real ones, and its tail began spewing exhaust...
The Thunderbird shifted into maximum speed in an instant.
Chen Shu's gaze fell on the Fire Snake swarm below, a predatory edge in his eyes.
"Get some distance first!"
He thought for a moment and held off on throwing the potion — if the blast radius was too large, it could easily catch all three of them.
The Thunderbird beat its wings and climbed to over a hundred meters.
Hssss—
Right then, the Fire Snake Lord below spat another terrifying fireball upward.
The Thunderbird was too fast and dodged it effortlessly.
The Fire Snake Lord reared up and roared at the sky, eyes burning with murderous rage — but there was nothing it could do.
Black Iron rank or not, it couldn't touch the trio at that altitude.
"That's what you get for being cocky!"
Chen Shu picked his moment and hurled the mini potion downward.
At that exact instant, the Fire Snake Lord had its jaws wide open — and swallowed the Mini Explosion Potion whole.
"RUN!"
The next second, Chen Shu didn't even need to give the order.
The Thunderbird's rear end clenched, and it shot forward like an arrow loosed from its string, transforming into a streak of blue light.
All three of them gripped the Thunderbird's feathers for dear life — while simultaneously pulling out their phones... to take photos.
The Fire Snake Lord's body was naturally furnace-hot. The Explosion Potion ignited almost instantly.
"Art is an explosion!"[2]
In that split second, the Fire Snake Lord — mid-roar, head thrown back to the sky — went rigid. Its eyes bulged, blood streaming from them in rivulets, the sight absolutely horrifying.
The surrounding Fire Snakes swarmed closer, unable to comprehend what had come over their Lord.
The next instant—
The Fire Snake Lord's body cracked apart, inch by inch, like shattering porcelain. Catastrophic heat erupted outward, consuming its body whole.
Every Fire Snake turned to look. And in their stunned, bewildered gazes—
Their Lord had just... exploded.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Even with the Lord's body, it couldn't withstand the Explosion Potion. Had it not swallowed the thing, it probably could have survived.
But unfortunately, it had gulped down a miniature nuclear bomb. And that was a death sentence.
The blast's shockwave rippled outward. The remaining Fire Snakes were caught in it too.
The searing white light touched their bodies and they vaporized into blood mist on contact — erased without a trace.
Chen Shu looked back. Where Taiping Mountain had stood, a small, blazing sun seemed to hover.
Thunderous rumbling echoed across the landscape. Taiping Mountain had begun to collapse...
Even citizens in the city proper could see the terrifying spectacle.
"I thought it was cloudy today? How's the sun out?"
"Never trust the weather forecast."
At that moment, Shen Wushuang was having lunch. He glanced out the window and spotted the small sun.
His expression froze solid. That achingly familiar sight — the memory of Frost Canyon came flooding back in an instant.
"WHAT THE FUCK?! That's—?!"
He shot to his feet, eyes brimming with alarm and disbelief.
"Motherfucker! He actually set it off on Blue Star?! That goddamn Chen Pi!"
Shen Wushuang bolted outside, jumped in his car, and tore toward the blast site.
Meanwhile, Nanjiang City's Spirit Suppression Bureau scrambled to assemble, dispatching personnel to Taiping Mountain.
...
The New Year's first boom had thrown all of Nanjiang into a panic...
As for the culprit himself — Chen Shu couldn't have cared less. A brand-new Explosion Potion now sat in his System Space.
Listening to the thunderous rumbling still echoing in the distance, Chen Shu flashed a grin.
"Happy holidays!"
"Happy my ass!"
Xu Xingxing and Xie Sunan snapped back in unison. They glanced behind them — the little sun had already faded.
But Taiping Mountain had faded with it...
"Let's get out of here! The mountain's gone — the Bureau's definitely going to investigate!"
The Mutant Thunderbird flew at blistering speed, swiftly fleeing the scene of the crime.
Roughly half an hour later—
A man in a black cloak with a golden armband on his shoulder descended on a massive, entirely golden bird.
A Dragon Guard — dispatched for emergency response.
"According to navigation, the blast epicenter is Taiping Mountain."
"Where the fuck is the mountain?"
The man wore a specialized instrument on his wrist, continuously tracking coordinates.
According to the device's geographic data, Taiping Mountain should have been right in front of him.
Instead, he was staring at a flat, empty clearing. Worse still, there were no blast traces whatsoever — not even residual heat from the explosion that had lit up the sky moments ago.
It was as if someone had simply erased Taiping Mountain from existence.
"The Fire Snake swarm's appearance was already suspicious, and now there's a mysterious explosion. How the hell am I supposed to investigate this?"
The man rubbed his head, feeling a migraine coming on.
He'd originally planned to handle the Fire Snake swarm personally, but something had come up and delayed him.
Now — forget the Fire Snakes. The entire mountain was gone.
Before long, another squad arrived.
They were Spirit Suppression Bureau officers from Nanjiang City. The moment they spotted the Dragon Guard hovering overhead, they straightened with visible respect.
The Bureau was a branch of the Spirit Suppression Army. Facing a Dragon Guard of equal rank to their superiors, they didn't dare show an ounce of disrespect.
"Sir!"
The Bureau Director stepped forward, looking up at the Dragon Guard in the sky.
"Taiping Mountain is gone. Get forensic specialists in here to assess the scene!"
The Dragon Guard leaped down from dozens of meters in the air.
"This doesn't match the signature of any contract spirit skill, nor any known technological weapon. It looks like something entirely new."
As a Silver-rank powerhouse, even he was thoroughly baffled.
"Sir — two months ago, Frost Canyon also experienced an explosion. The traces appear similar to this one."
"Oh?"
While they were talking, more people kept arriving.
When Blue Star faced a crisis, every Beast Tamer had a duty to protect the civilian population.
Shen Wushuang arrived riding his S-rank Ice Phoenix, expression carved from stone, having mentally cursed Chen Shu at least a thousand times over.
He'd barely gotten a single day of vacation before that little bastard stirred up another catastrophe.
Eight civilian Black Iron-rank Beast Tamers converged on the site as well.
The sight of the Dragon Guard commanded immediate respect from all of them.
"Hm? Shen Wushuang?"
One of the Bureau officers recognized him.
As a formidable independent Beast Tamer, Shen Wushuang had a certain degree of renown.
The officer spoke up. "I recall you led a student team into Frost Canyon two months ago. The explosion there — it was the same thing, wasn't it?"
Shen Wushuang replied, "Should be... probably... maybe the same thing..."
"Do you have any leads you can share? If an explosion like this happened inside a city, the consequences would be catastrophic!"
The Dragon Guard turned an expressionless gaze toward him.
The crushing pressure of a Silver-rank made Shen Wushuang's chest tighten.
He declared with absolute conviction: "Completely in the dark."