Chapter 49: Burning Heaven, Purifying the World—The Return to Zero Is Underway

Nestled within the primordial nesting planet of the Chun-Hwa civilization, the Emergency Response Center—formerly a secondary command post—stank of a noxious brew of scorched electronics, fresh blood, and sharp disinfectants.

Once a backup node for the planetary defense command network, the cramped, poorly lit subterranean bunker now served as the meager, haphazard gathering place for the tattered remnants of Chun-Hwa authority.

Projected by holographic communicators, dozens of flickering, distorted images represented the mid-level officials and junior senior officers scattered across the homeworld, major colonies, and surviving fleet flagships. They were just barely qualified enough to participate in this so-called "Doomsday Council."

The atmosphere was as heavy and oppressive as congealed asphalt. Fear, bewilderment, rage, and a naked, desperate lust for power collided and fermented silently in the turbid air.

Hours had passed since that nightmare-inducing "Divine Punishment"—as they called it—swept through the core of their civilization.

A few hours, for a massive civilization boasting a population of three hundred billion, was as fleeting as a single breath, yet as agonizingly long as an eternity of torture.

"Enough! Shut your traps, all of you!"

A relatively stocky fleet squad leader—formerly the deputy heavy artillery officer aboard the flagship *Fang*, now one of the highest-ranking officers left in the surviving fleet, his carapace covered in ancient scars—slapped the metal table hard, producing a harsh noise that temporarily drowned out the chaotic bickering.

"This is no time to argue over who gets to be the 'Temporary Grand Chieftain'! Understand what we are facing! Understand what we are still capable of doing!"

He brought up several blurry, shaking, static-filled combat footage clips. These were the fragmentary images traded for lives by a few outer sentries and patrols during the initial assault:

Clip One: A flash of platinum lightning tore through the air. A Chun-Hwa guard clad in bulky exoskeleton armor, along with his shield generator, was instantly cleaved in two with a smooth cut so clean that his energy weapons didn't even have time to charge.

Clip Two: A humanoid creature (of the Divine River biological template) with golden hair, blue eyes, and snow-white wings sprouting from its back, wielding a slender blade flowing with blue lightning, darted through the alloy corridor at ghost-like speeds, leaving behind a trail of shattered Chun-Hwa soldier fragments.

Its speed was so fast that even the dynamic motion capture system could only render afterimages.

Clip Three: A small defensive turret tried to lock onto an angelic warrior hovering mid-air. The moment the muzzle lit up, a bolt of blue-and-white lightning spanned hundreds of meters and precisely pierced the core of the turret!

Amidst the explosive fire, the angelic warrior remained completely unscathed, turning with cold indifference toward the next target.

"Did you see that?!"

The squad leader roared, his voice trembling with a mixture of terror and rage, "Divine River humanoids with wings! Their speed is beyond our ability to lock onto!"

"Their strength is great enough to tear armor apart with bare hands! That sword... that sword can easily slice through our toughest alloys!"

"Their individual combat power is... at least dozens of times that of our 'Elite Warriors'! Dozens of times!"

Stifled gasps echoed throughout the bunker and the communication channels.

The superhuman speed, the horrifying strength, and the chilling, ant-like indifference in the eyes of enemy warriors sent a bone-chilling cold through the remaining Chun-Hwa higher-ups.

"Why... why would they do this?"

The voice of a homeworld municipal sub-minister was laced with tears, "We didn't provoke them! We didn't even know they existed!"

"This is an outright declaration of war against us!"

"A declaration of war?" The image of a colonial industrial director warped, distorting into a bitter, dry laugh. "They didn't declare war at all!"

"They broke straight into our homes and killed every leader who could speak! This... this isn't war! This is... slaughter! Extinction!"

"But... where is their fleet?"

A technical officer in charge of deep-space detection (a survivor from an early-warning outpost) spoke in a hoarse voice, "The outer sentries reported no large-scale fleet invasion!"

"Deep-space probes didn't capture any anomalous spatial jump energy signatures either!"

"They... they just seemed to appear out of thin air, slaughter everyone, and then vanished back into thin air! How is that possible?!"

This was precisely the most despair-inducing aspect.

The enemy was like an invisible phantom, precisely eradicating their "brain" and "nervous system" without showing even a shred of their main force.

Their powerful fleets and massive armies felt like punching cotton—there was nowhere to apply force, leaving only boundless terror to spread.

"Martial law! The entire civilization must go under total martial law!"

The homeworld security sub-minister waved his short arms, his voice piercing, "All cities to maximum alert! Ground troops onto the streets! Orbital defense cannons at full power! All starships forbidden from leaving port! Prevent them from infiltrating again!"

"Martial law? Defense?"

The fleet squad leader let out a despairing roar, "Defend against whom? Defend against monsters who can appear anywhere at will and wipe out our commanders?"

"Defend against enemies whose shadows we can't even see?! Our defense systems are mere decorations in front of them!"

"Our fleet... our fleet right now doesn't even have a unified command! Fighting individually! A plate of loose sand!"

"Then what do you suggest?! Wait to die?!" screamed the colonial industrial director.

"Resources! We must concentrate our resources! Initiate the 'Seed Project'!"

The technical officer shouted, "Put our scientists, gene banks, and technical blueprints onto the fastest ships and scatter them! Run as far as you can! The civilization cannot go extinct!"

"Run? Run where?! Do you know what's out there? For all we know, the outside is crawling with those winged demons!"

"Stop arguing! The most urgent priority is to elect a supreme leader! Maintain a unified command! Otherwise, we won't even have a chance at a final resistance!" patted an administrative sub-minister from another colony.

"I propose that squad leader 'Bonebreaker' temporarily take over supreme military command!"

"Bullshit! What does a mere squad leader know about the big picture? The homeworld resource allocation sub-minister should be in charge! He understands internal affairs!"

"Military matters are paramount right now! Without an army, what are we going to resist with?!"

"An army? Our army doesn't even know where the enemy is right now!"

Arguments, accusations, and despairing roars once again flooded the communication channels and the cramped bunker.

The chaos brought by a power vacuum and every individual's greedy desire for survival were infinitely magnified under the giant shadow of death.

Everyone wanted to grasp this straw, even if that straw would be ignited by sky-burning fire in the next second.

The position of temporary supreme leader had become a lifebuoy fought over frantically on the deck of a sinking ship—and the ship was irreversibly sinking.

Time ticked away second by second amidst this endless bickering and panic.

The ten-hour evacuation window for the Tianyi infiltration forces was about to close.

Inside the Tianyi Supreme Command Headquarters.

On the star map, streams of blue light representing the infiltration cluster's evacuation paths were like homing streams, rapidly retreating away from the red circle at the core of Chun-Hwa territory, converging toward preset assembly points scattered across safe zones.

Every single beam of light represented an angelic warrior who had completed a bloody decapitation mission.

"Reporting to the King! Final confirmation from the infiltration cluster: All 'Decapitation', 'Chain-Breaking', and 'Wedge' combat units have completely evacuated to the safe zone!"

"No units lost in communication! No units stranded in the target area!"

A barely perceptible trace of satisfaction laced Chief of Staff Lucifer's icy voice. The first-phase operation could be described as perfection itself.

Xuan Feng's gaze shifted away from the confirmation signal of completed evacuation and fell back onto the sector covered in desperate red.

Fragmented information pieces of the chaotic, meaningless internal arguments within the Chun-Hwa civilization were clearly captured through communication nodes controlled by the lurking "Silent" squads and presented on the command post's monitoring channels.

Those despairing roars, struggles for power, and ugly struggles in the face of an apocalyptic disaster... in his ears, were nothing more than the meaningless dying wails of prey.

"No other reason. To destroy you... has nothing to do with you!"

Xuan Feng's black pupils held not a single ripple, only a frozen, sweeping indifference.

Ten hours of waiting was not out of mercy, but to ensure that his sharp blade would not be damaged in the ensuing inferno.

Now, the blade had been withdrawn.

It was time to ignite the karmic fire that would incinerate everything.

Xuan Feng slowly raised his right hand, his index finger gently pointing into the void. The movement was both elegant and lethal.

"Time's up."

His voice rang out calmly, sounding like the promulgation of a universal law:

"Execute Phase Two: Sky-Burning."

"Simultaneously initiate Phase Three: World-Cleansing."

The order was given!

On the outer fringes of Chun-Hwa territory, 0.5 light-years away, inside the command center of the *Star-Shatter*, the flagship of the Nork Legion's main strike group.

Nork sat regally upon the massive captain's throne, his Su-silver armor casting a cold, eerie hue in the bridge's chilling blue light.

Beneath his short black hair, his eyes burned with the fanaticism of destruction.

On the tactical star map before him, all preset annihilation targets within Chun-Hwa territory were densely marked: planets, space stations, fleet anchorages, industrial centers... like fish on a cutting board.

"The King's command has arrived!"

Nork's voice rolled like thunder, echoing through the flagship's communication channel, "Targets locked! All ships! Antimatter main cannons—maximum power! Salvo!"

"Target: Chun-Hwa Nesting Planet! Coordinates: Alpha-Zero-One!"

"Target: Fang Fleet Homeworld Port! Coordinates: Bravo-Tango-Seven!"

"Target: Spine Industrial Star Ring! Coordinates: Charlie-Sierra-Four!"

"Obliterate them!!!"

A string of icy target codes rolled off his tongue, every coordinate representing an existence about to be erased, culminating in his excited roar.

"Understood, Legion Commander!" roared the weapons officer with bloodthirsty excitement.

At the bow of the massive star-crushing flagship, the antimatter main gun muzzle, resembling the maw of a deep abyss, suddenly lit up with a heart-palpitating, deep blue light!

Terrifying energy gathered and compressed frantically within the barrels, distorting space itself! The hull emitted a low, groaning, overloaded hum!

"Charged to maximum! Fire!"
Hum—Boom!!!

A massive, deep-blue beam of pure destructive energy, indescribable in words, ripped through the icy void of the universe!

It did not travel in a straight line; rather, assisted by the shipborne hyperspace engines, it crossed a distance of 0.5 light-years instantaneously!

Its speed surpassed light speed countless times over!

Almost at the same moment!

Aboard the *Arbiter*, flagship of the Dema Legion's main strike group, Dema's steady and ruthless orders rang out simultaneously:

"Gamma-ray burst cluster emitter! Target: Bone-Hammer fleet assembly sector! Coordinates: Delta-Echo-Nine! Saturated coverage!
Fire!"

"Gravity singularity projector! Target: K-9 jump point defense platform remnants! Coordinates: Foxtrot-India-Two!
Project!"

"Planetary-grade disintegration ray array! Target: Secondary colonial star cluster! Coordinates: Golf-Lima-Five through Golf-Lima-Niner!
Full-power purge!"

Across the massive hull of the *Arbiter*, several huge launch arrays lit up simultaneously!

Deadly gamma rays were bundled into a destructive torrent like an invisible tide of death, shooting toward the preset coordinates!

Gravity singularity generators emitted a low roar, hurling out artificially created embryonic micro-black holes!

Dense disintegration rays rained down upon the colonial planets like a torrential downpour!

And this was merely the beginning!

Within the blockade cluster, every single vessel equipped with capital-ship-grade long-range strike weapons opened fire in unison the moment the order was received!

Deep-blue antimatter beams!
Pale torrents of gamma rays!
Space-distorting gravity singularities!
Scorching rains of disintegration rays!
And hyper-velocity missiles packed with planetary-grade thermonuclear warheads, dense as locusts!

Countless rays symbolizing absolute destruction erupted abruptly from the dark void!

Like judgment spears cast by the gods of the universe!

Ignoring the speed of light, propelled by hyperspace engines, they moved at speeds defying the laws of physics, striking their locked targets precisely and ruthlessly!

Chun-Hwa Nesting Planet, "Emergency Response Center."

The argument was still ongoing. An administrative sub-minister from a colony was spitting saliva everywhere as he expounded on his "advantages" in serving as temporary leader.

Suddenly!

A blinding, extreme deep-blue light engulfed all observation windows of the subterranean bunker without any warning!

The light was so intense and pure that it felt as though the entire universe had been swallowed by this blue radiance in that instant. Followed by a dead silence.

And then—
Rumble-rumble-rumble—!!!!

An indescribable, terrifying roar, like billions of thunders exploding simultaneously at the planet's core!

The entire subterranean bunker shook wildly like a small boat in a tempest!

Alloy walls emitted a harsh groaning and tearing sound!

The lighting system went out instantly, leaving only emergency red lights flashing frantically, casting twisted, terrified, despairing flesh-colored faces to look like demons from hell!

"Wh-what happened?!" roared the fleet squad leader amidst the violent tremors.

"Report! Report!!"

The communication channel carried the final, most piercing shriek from the ground observation station, filled with extreme terror and disbelief, "The... the sky has split open! A... a blue light... shot down from space... directly... directly struck the 'Giant Skull Plateau'! The plateau... the plateau is gone!!"

"Report! Orbital defense platform 'Earth-Spike'... energy readings off the charts... the platform... the platform has disintegrated!!"

"Report! Mother port... direction of the mother port... massive energy readings... it's... it's the fleet anchorage!!"

"Report! Colonial planet 'Green-Pus'... communication lost! Probes captured... the surface of the planet... covered in white light... like... like it's been ignited!!"

In the holographic communicators, the images of officials from the homeworld ground observation station, orbital defense platforms, mother port command, and several major colonies...

Blinking against the flickering backdrop of deep blue or stark white light, they extinguished and vanished one after another, like lightbulbs cut off from their power supply.

The surviving Chun-Hwa higher-ups inside the bunker stared through the monitoring screens—unshielded as the violent shaking continued—at a scene that froze their very souls:

A high-altitude aerial view: The signature "Giant Skull Plateau" of the Chun-Hwa Nesting Planet, that massive rock layer revered as the birthplace of their civilization, was precisely struck by a deep-blue beam plunging from the heavens!

Rock, soil, architecture, and biology at the point of impact were instantly decomposed and vaporized!

A bottomless molten crater thousands of kilometers wide formed within seconds!

The shockwave spread outward at the speed of light like a ring of destruction!

Mountain ranges were flattened!
Cities were erased like sandcastles!
Blue light-flames churned at the bottom of the crater, looking like the gates of hell blown wide open!

Another orbital view: The once-massive "Fang" fleet mother port space station cluster was being scoured by countless torrents of stark-white gamma rays!

Sturdy alloy armor melted and vaporized like butter!

Anchored warships turned into brilliant fireballs amidst silent explosions!

The structures of the space stations twisted, snapped, and disintegrated in the ray streams, like scrap iron thrown into a foundry!

And yet another view: The surface of a secondary colonial planet (Green-Pus Star) was covered by countless scorching disintegration rays falling from the sky!

Wherever the rays passed, forests turned to ash!
Cities erupted into towering infernos!
Rivers were evaporated!
The earth was torn asunder!
The entire planetary surface looked as if it had been doused in boiling strong acid, rapidly "dissolving"! Thick, toxic smoke blotted out the sun!

"No... no!!" screamed the homeworld security sub-minister in a non-human shriek as he watched his home city swallowed by the blue beam on the screen.

"It's over... everything's over... we're dead... the civilization is finished..."

The fleet squad leader slumped back into his chair, all color draining from his eyes.

The industrial director's image flickered frantically; trying to say something, he could only produce dry, rattling wheezes.

The technical officer stared at the signal representing Green-Pus star going dark, burying his face in his hands with a despairing howl.

The survivors, who had just been bickering over power moments ago, were now left with nothing but boundless fear and absolute despair.

They finally understood who the enemy was, and they finally understood the enemy's intent—not conquest, not plunder, but the purest, most thorough, unsparing—extinction!

The enemy was going to wipe out their entire species!

The enemy couldn't even be bothered to show their faces before them!

From light-years away, the enemy had cast down this sky-burning, world-destroying divine punishment!

They couldn't even see the shadow of the enemy, left only to watch their home, their compatriots, and the foundation of their entire civilization dissolve rapidly like snow under the sun before a terrifying power beyond comprehension.

"Run... run away!"

Someone shrieked hysterically across the communication channel, sparking a final bout of madness, "Get out of here! Leave this hell! Run as far as you can! The seed! Preserve the seed!"

This notion spread like a virus, instantly infecting all surviving mid-level officers who still wielded a shred of power.

Aboard flagships, in surviving bases, and on colonial planets untouched by the first wave of strikes... surviving fleet commanders and base chiefs stared at the apocalyptic scene on their screens, their meager wills to resist collapsing instantly!

The instinct for survival overrode all duty and loyalty!

"Quick! Start engines! Maximum power! Target... unknown deep space! Any direction! Get out of here!"

"Every ship that can move, follow me! Get out of this damn place!"

"Abandon non-essential personnel! Abandon cargo! Travel light! Fast, move!!"

"Warp engine pre-heating! Fast! Hurry!!"

Panic spread like a plague.

The surviving Chun-Hwa warships, untouched by the initial "Sky-Burning" strike, scattered like startled fish. They started their engines, desperately attempting to break away from the fleet formation and flee wildly into all directions of uncharted deep space!

Some collided with one another, others exploded from engine overloads, and more still flew about like headless flies, seeking only to flee the sector turning into purgatory.

However, the moment these desperate fugitives broke away from the chaotic formation and accelerated into deep space—

Tianyi blockade cluster, "Henry" Legion sector.

"Report! Large-scale unordered spatial jump signals detected!"

"Target: Fringe of Chun-Hwa territory, coordinates Sector Gamma-12!"

"Quantity... over three hundred ships! Mostly small vessels, mixed with some medium cruisers!"

"Target direction: Dispersed escape!"

The radar officer's voice carried a hint of a hunter's excitement upon spotting prey.

"Ha... couldn't hold back anymore? Bugs are just bugs." The "Henry" Legion commander curled his lips into a cruel curve.

"Warp interdictors! Cover the Gamma-12 sector with maximum power! Space distortion field generators activate! Drag them right back out of hyperspace for me!"

"All fire units! Lock onto escape targets! Free hunt!"

"Remember the King's command: Leave not a single spark!"

Hum—!

Invisible spatial ripples like a giant fishing net instantly covered the preset sector.

Those Chun-Hwa escape ships that had just initiated their warp engines and tried to slip into hyperspace slammed into an invisible, sticky wall!

Warp engines emitted an ear-piercing overload wail as hulls trembled wildly amidst violent spatial oscillations!

They were forcefully "squeezed" back out of hyperspace into the icy reality of the universe!

Greeting them were the cold, waiting muzzles of the grim reaper!

The secondary gun arrays of the *Star-Shatter*-class star-crushers lit up! Dense high-energy particle beams rained down like a storm!

The *Hunter*-class destroyer swarm lunged at high speed toward the "trapped", panicked prey like sharks smelling blood!

Rapid-fire laser cannons and electromagnetic railguns wove a lethal web of fire!

Deep-space torpedoes shot out silently like ghosts, precisely pursuing ships attempting to turn or accelerate!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

In the icy void of space, short, vivid flowers of destruction bloomed sequentially!

The shields of the Chun-Hwa escape ships shattered like paper, their armor easily torn apart, their hulls twisting, snapping, and turning into burning debris amid fierce explosions!

Desperate distress signals and curses rose and fell across public channels, only to be quickly swallowed by the roars of explosions and the shrieks of energy weapons.

The iron curtain of the blockade cluster displayed its ruthless side at this moment—entry permitted, no exit allowed!

Any attempt to flee the star system destined to become a graveyard would incur the swiftest, most thorough destruction!

Meanwhile, deep within Chun-Hwa territory, the flames of "World-Cleansing" had already ignited!

The 50,000 elite Tianyi super-warriors, having completed their evacuation and brief regrouping, returned as vengeful emissaries from hell before the flames of the "Sky-Burning" strikes had even fully subsided, slicing back into this purgatory via short-range spatial jumps!

Their objectives were precise and cruel:

Tomb-Raiding: Deeply penetrating the cores of planets heavily battered by antimatter main guns or disintegration rays, but not yet fully disintegrated (especially the Chun-Hwa nesting planet)!

Planting planetary-grade thermonuclear bombs or mantle oscillators! Accelerating their demise, inducing complete geological collapse or artificial planetary explosions!

Ensuring the planets themselves were reduced to cosmic dust!

Warehouse-Burning: Locating and destroying surviving large weapon ammunition depots, strategic resource reserve centers, capital ship docks, and biological gene banks left untouched by long-range strikes!

Using swords of thunder to cleave heavy protective doors, dropping high-energy bombs or directly igniting internal matter!

Completely incinerating all material foundations the enemy might use to rebuild or perpetuate their civilization!

Hunting: Wiping out any surviving strongholds or command nodes attempting to organize resistance!

Targeted elimination of any slipping Chun-Hwa individuals possessing technological or organizational capabilities!

Angel warriors acted as the coldest scavengers, ensuring that no organized spark of life remained on this land!

Amidst the smoke-filled, lava-flowing, architecture-collapsing ruins of the Chun-Hwa nesting planet, within burning space station debris, and across scorched colonial surfaces... golden-haired, blue-eyed angelic warriors with gleaming white wings, holding lightning-flowing swords of thunder like priests executing a sacred purification ritual, efficiently and indifferently carried out their "World-Cleansing" mission.

Ignoring the flowing lava and toxic smoke beneath their feet, ignoring the tiny figures wailing and fleeing amidst the ruins (which would naturally be handled by follow-up orbital bombardment from the main fleet), their targets were strictly those sturdy, deeply buried nodes representing the last thread of resilience for the civilization.

Sword light flashed! Explosions roared! The shadow of death, accompanied by white wings, descended upon every surviving corner.

————————————————

Tianyi Supreme Command Headquarters.

On the star map, the red light representing the Chun-Hwa civilization was extinguishing and dimming on a massive scale, replaced by the black of destruction and the deep blue of Tianyi control.

Destructive energy streams representing "Sky-Burning" strikes smeared the traces of death across the star map like a grim reaper's brush.

Blue light dots representing the "World-Cleansing" operation acted as efficient scavengers, precisely weeding out the final blemishes on the canvas of death.

In the monitoring channels, the chaotic communication signals of the surviving Chun-Hwa civilization sounded like dying wails, filled with despairing shrieks, meaningless curses, chaotic fleet escape commands, and explosion noises... and these sounds were rapidly fading.

Chief of Staff Lucifer stood slightly behind and to the side of Xuan Feng, reporting in real-time:

"Your Majesty! The 'Sky-Burning' strikes are ongoing!"

"Target area coverage has reached 87%!"

"The crustal structure of the Chun-Hwa nesting planet has been severely compromised, expected to completely disintegrate within 12 hours!"

"The 'World-Cleansing' cluster has returned to the target area!"

"The 'Tomb-Raiding' operation is progressing smoothly, high-energy nuclear bombs have been planted on the three primary planets! Countdown initiated!"

"‘Warehouse-Burning’ report: Confirmed destruction of 17 large warehouses and 9 docks! Gene bank locations locked, currently breaching!"

"Blockade cluster report: Successfully intercepted and destroyed 427 escaping ships! No vessels broke through the iron curtain! Blockade net is secure!"

"The Dema Legion and Nork Legion main clusters have begun advancing toward the core of Chun-Hwa territory, clearing out remaining resistance along the way!"

Xuan Feng remained seated at the head of the table, his black administrative jacket reflecting the map of destruction like an embodiment of the abyss.

His black pupils mirrored the star sector rapidly descending into dead silence, listening to the faint static noise that represented the dying wails of a civilization.

There was no expression on his face, only a frozen, sweeping tranquility.

He understood the new army he had personally forged; in his eyes, this was merely standard performance.

He had always been confident—or rather, arrogant. Innumerable angelic civil wars in the first half of his life had given him more high-level civilization warfare experience than anyone else in the universe.

Now, the purge directive was being executed methodically.

The countdown to zero ticked away.

The star sector on the screen was about to plunge into eternal silence.

*(Countless years later, when the world gossiped about Du Kao as the "cosmic war maniac," Xuan Feng would only remark that he was merely a rookie.)*

*(When it came to treating life with indifference, slaughtering the innocent, destroying civilizations, waging wars, oppressing and exploiting, massacring cities and eradicating stars, and annihilating nebulae... Xuan Feng dared to call himself the undisputed number one in cosmic history!)*