Chapter 13: The Voidwalker's Feast
The streets of Neo-Shanghai had become a nightmare.
What used to be the luxurious Eastern District, home to the Luo Clan, was now a river of grey flesh. Five thousand corrupted beings—formerly servants, guards, and family members of the Luo—surged forward on all fours. They scrambled over cars and up skyscrapers like a tidal wave of insects, their screeches shattering glass for miles.
Leading them was Luo Zhen. Or rather, the thing that wore Luo Zhen's face.
He was now a thirty-meter-tall colossus of writhing tentacles and weeping sores. His jaw unhinged, revealing rows of shark-like teeth.
"HUNGER," the Abomination roared, a sound that caused ordinary civilians nearby to bleed from their ears. "EAT. CONSUME. EVOLVE."
The horde was seconds away from breaching the residential barrier and flooding the city center.
Until a golden star fell from the sky.
Location: Sector 8 Perimeter
Jiang Wu hovered five hundred meters in the air. His arms were crossed. His expression was not angry; it was disappointed.
"To think an ancient family would sell their souls to monsters," Jiang Wu's voice boomed, amplified by his EX-Rank aura. "Luo Zhen. You are a disgrace to the human race."
The Abomination looked up, his vertical eyes spinning. "JIANG... WU... MEAT... STRONG MEAT!"
A thousand tentacles shot upward, aiming to drag the War God out of the sky.
Jiang Wu didn't dodge. He simply unclenched his right fist.
"War God Art: Kinetic Downfall."
He punched the empty air downwards.
BOOM.
Physics broke.
A visible column of atmospheric pressure, shaped like a giant fist the size of a city block, slammed into the earth.
The sound was deafening. The shockwave flattened the first thousand monsters instantly. They didn't just die; they were pasteurized into grey mist. The pavement shattered, creating a crater twenty meters deep.
"Hold the line," a cold voice commanded from the rooftops.
Lin Xi stepped off a skyscraper. She didn't fall. She walked on stairs made of ice.
She waved her hand gracefully.
"Absolute Zero: Glacial Wall."
A massive wall of blue ice, fifty meters high and three kilometers long, erupted from the ground, sealing off the sector. The monsters trying to flank the crater froze mid-step, turning into statues.
"No one leaves this circle," Lin Xi whispered, her eyes glowing with EX-Rank authority.
Inside the barrier, the remaining four thousand monsters shrieked and turned their attention to the only other source of delicious energy: The Jiang Estate.
Location: Jiang Estate Walls
"They are coming," Jiang Chen stood on the ramparts, Nightfall resting on his shoulder.
Below him, the twelve Stone Gargoyles—the new Guardian Statues—roared to life. They were massive, made of enchanted granite, their eyes burning with purple fire.
"Target the small ones," Jiang Chen commanded. "Leave the big ugly one for me."
"Understood, Husband," Mo You materialized next to him, dual-wielding daggers made of solidified darkness. "But save the head for me. I want to see if Void monsters have brains."
"I bet they have jelly!" Feng Xi chirped, spinning her solar staff.
The horde crashed against the Estate's shield.
SCREECH!
The Grandmist Barrier held firm. When the grey monsters touched the purple light, they sizzled like bacon on a grill.
"Attack!"
Jiang Chen jumped.
He dove straight into the sea of monsters.
[Grandmist Art: Void Step - Flash.]
He was a blur. Nightfall sang a deadly song. Every swing decapitated three or four monsters.
Unlike normal beasts, these things didn't bleed red. They bled a black tar that tried to reassemble itself.
"Annoying," Jiang Chen grunted, kicking a monster away. "They regenerate!"
"Not against this!" Feng Xi yelled from above.
She unleashed a Solar Flare. The white fire washed over the black tar. The regeneration stopped instantly, the tar turning to ash.
"Light counters the Void corruption," Jiang Chen noted. "Feng Xi, keep burning the bodies! Mo You, shred them so she can burn them faster!"
"A grinder strategy? Acceptable." Mo You moved like a phantom. She didn't cut; she dissected. Her shadow daggers turned monsters into confetti in seconds.
The trio moved in perfect sync. Jiang Chen held the front, an immovable object. Mo You struck from the shadows, an unstoppable force. Feng Xi rained artillery from the sky.
In ten minutes, the pile of corpses was high enough to climb.
But then, the ground shook.
THUD. THUD.
The massive Abomination (Luo Zhen) had recovered from Jiang Wu's punch. It was missing half its tentacles, but they were growing back rapidly. It ignored the parents and charged straight for the Estate, sensing the dense Grandmist energy.
"JIANG... CHEN..." The monster gargled, its voice a twisted mockery of Luo Zhen's. "GIVE... ME... THE... SEED..."
[Boss Enemy: Void Abomination (Luo Zhen)]
[Rank: Pseudo-SS (Unstable)]
[Ability: Void Corruption. Do not let it touch you.]
"He wants the Origin," Mo You hissed, appearing beside Jiang Chen. "The Void hungers for the Grandmist."
"He can have it," Jiang Chen gripped his sword with both hands. The purple light on the blade intensified until it looked like a tear in reality.
"Cover me."
"Always," Mo You and Feng Xi said in unison.
Feng Xi flew high. " Solar Art: Blinding Nova!"
A flashbang the size of a sun exploded in the monster's face. It shrieked, blinded, flailing its tentacles wildy.
Mo You sank into the ground. "Abyssal Art: Shadow Bind!"
Thick chains of darkness shot up from the earth, wrapping around the monster's legs and anchoring it to the spot.
"NOW!" Mo You shouted.
Jiang Chen launched himself.
He used the Gargoyles as stepping stones, jumping higher and higher until he was level with the monster's face.
He looked into the vertical eye of the thing that used to be a patriarch.
"You wanted power," Jiang Chen whispered. "You got cancer."
[Trinity Art: The Sovereign's Guillotine.]
Jiang Chen didn't just swing the sword. He poured the Grandmist, the Dragon's Ruin, and the Phoenix's Purification into a single strike.
The blade extended, forming a fifty-meter-long phantom sword of tricolor energy.
He slashed down.
SHING.
There was no resistance.
The Abomination was split perfectly down the middle.
For a second, the two halves stood there. Then, purple fire ignited along the cut.
"NO... THE VOID... IS... ETERNAL..." The monster wailed as it disintegrated.
The massive body turned to dust before it even hit the ground.
[Enemy Defeated.]
[Void Energy Absorbed by Grandmist Body.]
[Cultivation Progress: SS-Rank (Pseudo) -> 15%]
Jiang Chen landed softly on the ground, sheathing his sword.
The remaining small monsters, seeing their leader vaporized, stopped moving. Without the hive mind directing them, they simply collapsed, turning into puddles of inert grey sludge.
Silence returned to the sector.
Location: The Aftermath
Jiang Wu and Lin Xi descended from the sky. The ice wall melted away, and the golden aura faded.
"Not bad," Jiang Wu nodded, inspecting the crater where the boss used to be. "Your form is improving. A bit flashy with the giant sword, but effective."
"He gets the flair from you, dear," Lin Xi smiled, wiping a speck of dust from Jiang Chen's cheek. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine, Mom," Jiang Chen said. "But... this isn't over."
He walked over to the pile of ash that used to be Luo Zhen.
Lying in the center was a small, pulsing black crystal. It wasn't a Monster Core. It felt... wrong. Like a hole in the world.
[Item: Void Seed (Spent)]
[Description: A biological weapon used by the Void Legion to terraform planets.]
"Someone gave this to him," Jiang Chen said, picking it up with a handkerchief. "Luo Zhen was weak, but he didn't have the knowledge to summon the Void. Someone is pulling the strings."
Mo You stared at the crystal, her expression dark. "The Grey Walkers. They are scouts. Spies who whisper in the ears of the desperate."
"If there is one seed," Jiang Chen crushed the crystal, letting the purple energy purge it, "there are more."
"Then we hunt them down," Jiang Wu cracked his knuckles. "I don't care if they are from the Void or Hell. They attacked my city. They attacked my family."
"Agreed," Lin Xi's eyes turned cold. "I will have the Intelligence Division sweep every inch of the Undercity."
Jiang Chen looked at the ruined streets of Sector 8. This was the first wave. The tutorial was definitely over.
"Let's go home," Jiang Chen said. "I need a shower. And Feng Xi needs... whatever she eats."
"Pancakes!" Feng Xi cheered, though she looked tired. Using S-Rank magic took a toll.
As they walked back to the Estate, Jiang Chen looked back one last time.
He felt a gaze. Not from the parents, not from the wives. But from deep within the shadows of the city.
'We see you,' the gaze seemed to say.
'Come and get me,' Jiang Chen thought back.
Epilogue of the Incident
The "Luo Clan Incident" went down in history as the shortest rebellion in Neo-Shanghai. It lasted 45 minutes.
The official report stated that a "Bio-Hazard Leak" caused mass hallucinations. The public didn't need to know about space cancer.
The Jiang Clan absorbed the Luo territories. The Bai Clan, seeing the annihilation, surrendered unconditionally the next morning, offering 80% of their assets as tribute.
Jiang Chen was now the Prince of a unified city.
But in his room, he wasn't celebrating.
He was looking at his System Interface. A new tab had opened.
[Grandmist Territory: Phase 2]
[Objective: Establish a Void-Proof Citadel.]
[Required Materials: Star Metal, Dragon Bone, Phoenix Feather.]
"Dragon Bone and Phoenix Feather?" Jiang Chen looked at his wives, who were sleeping on his bed (again).
Mo You opened one eye. "Don't even think about it."
"I have loose feathers!" Feng Xi mumbled in her sleep. "You can have those..."
Jiang Chen smiled.
"Star Metal," he mused. "That means... we need to go to space."
[Next Arc Teaser: The Astral Dungeon & The Academy of Gods.]
Jiang Chen closed the window.
"First," he whispered, turning off the lights. "First, we survive the Imperial University."
Tomorrow, he had to go to school.
And honestly? That sounded more exhausting than fighting a Void Army.