Edited from beginning to end by Aelryinth
Translated from beginning to end by Mianbao
Mercury’s spatial barrier underwent some changes. Afterwards, a gap suddenly opened in space.
The demon clones had actually forced open a crack in Mercury’s plane of existence with the help of an array!
Dark-attributed energies gushed out from the dark world on the other side of the crack into Mercury, tearing the gap even wider. Even so, the supreme demon’s clones didn’t show any signs of happiness.
Indeed, as the crack was torn open, the energies of Mercury’s dimension gathered from the surroundings, trying to mend the opening.
The demon clones had already done all they could. They could only stare at the other end of the crack in space, hoping the demons on the other side could react fast enough to help widen and stabilize the gap. It was the only way to keep the dimensional crack open for a longer period of time.
As for wanting to keep this dimensional crack permanent… that was an impossible feat! After all, this was only an insignificant crack in the dimension on the grand scale of things. It was extremely unstable to begin with, not to mention the spatial forces on Mercury were trying to mend the opening. Closing the gap and returning things to the way things were was only a matter of time.
Seeing the forces of Mercury was about to repair the crack, the demon clones showed extreme disappointment. At that moment, however, from inside the insignificant gap, a miniscule amount, yet extremely high level of dark energy, seeped through from the other side.
That negligible tiny hint of black energy actually held that closing crack open, and the natural forces of Mercury were unable to fully repair the crack.
\”We did it!\” The clones couldn’t resist heaving long sighs of relief when they saw that wisp of black energy appear. They knew inside that their efforts and the risks they took weren’t in vain. Everything would proceed as they had planned!
The dark energy slowly increased, and gradually widened the originally closing gap in the plane.
Although the widening of the gap was very slow, at a speed unnoticeable to the naked eye, its momentum couldn’t be stopped!
—
After an indeterminate amount of time, as the darkness of the night gradually faded, and hints of light started appearing in the eastern horizon, the negligible crack had expanded to a shocking degree. It grew to about half a meter wide, and more than ten meters long.
Such a huge gap in the dimension hung in the air like a harrowing wound. Even so, those witnessing this wound in the plane of existence all had extremely excited smiles on their faces.
The sky grew increasingly brighter. At the moment when the red sun rose from the towering mountain ridges in the east, a strange limb emitting a savage aura and terrifying energy crawled out from the other end of the dimensional crack.
It was very difficult to describe the strangeness of the limb with words. Ordinary people would have their minds sucked away when they first laid eyes on it, losing themselves in it and finally meeting their ends silently.
Seeing this limb appear, the final bit of worry on the anxiously waiting clones’ faces finally disappeared. They opened their mouths and let out carefree, yet suppressed laughter in extreme excitement, like the howlings of demons, spreading to the mountain forest around them.
The mountain forest bathing in the first lights of the day, which should have been filled with lively cries, suddenly fell dead silent. All the creatures held their voices back unanimously, stopping all movements, not daring to make any noise.
——
The social unrest caused by the demon spies didn’t worsen. All the major regions on Mercury, with the exception of Hua Xia, gradually got the situation under control after the initial chaos. First they got rid of those people with ulterior motives making use of the chaos to cause further trouble, then gathered all their forces to crack down on the demon spies’ forces.
—
Half a year went by silently just like that. All of Mercury returned to the peaceful state it was in before. At the very least, it was peaceful on the surface…
As for the undercurrents flowing in the dark, that didn’t concern the civilians. Even most of the expert civilian beastmasters who didn’t have certain status or strength had no idea of the situation. A fundamental change was starting to engulf the whole world.
No one knew what had happened at that certain location in the Heizhou region. After that incident, nothing unusual had happened, either. Even the ordinary animals and exotic beasts living in that area didn’t experience any changes.
However, the change had already happened. It was just that no one knew about it even now…
——
Time flew. Three years went by before anyone realized it.
During these three years, Zhang Che had grown dramatically stronger.
All his pets and subdued beasts and grown to the limits of their potential. He had two super divine-quality pets, namely the Umbra Wind God Leopard and the Darkfiend Abyssal Dragon.
The strength of those two pets were at the absolute peak among exotic beasts. Relying on only the two of them, Zhang Che could explore as he wished in the beast worlds, and did not have to worry about any danger.
Zhang Che had a few other divine-quality pets and subdued beasts, too. There were a total of five of them, increasing his overall strength considerably.
As for his subdued beasts and pets below divine-quality, they were no longer important. To the current Zhang Che, they were no longer of any help.
Of course, Zhang Che was someone who cherished the old times. Even though the potential of those pets and subdued beasts didn’t allow them to grow to a decent level, he kept them at his side. Oftentimes, he’d Summon all of them out when there weren’t any fierce fights going on.
During those three years, Zhang Che wasn’t the only one whose strength increased by leaps and bounds. Experts all across Mercury experienced a qualitative increase in strength. Although very few of them could reach the height Zhang Che was at, there were many more super experts with divine-quality subdued beasts than before.
However, none of these could make humanity feel proud. The fortieth year of the new age had silently crept up to humanity. In the near future, the fifth beast swarm would arrive. At that time, every spatial gateway in Mercury would open wide, and exotic beasts would come flooding in like the tide, engulfing all of Mercury.
As per humanity’s prior experience, every beast swarm would be stronger than the last!
Not only that, during the third and fourth beast swarm, super powerful exotic beasts of divine-quality began appearing sporadically, and had inflicted great casualties on humanity. In the end, some super experts sacrificed themselves and barely drove those exotic beasts back to the beast worlds. They weren’t even killed!
What about this time? Ten years had passed since then, and this time the super powerful exotic beasts that would come swarming out of the spatial gateways would surely be in greater numbers, and even stronger! Even though humanity had gained more super experts since the last beast swarm, no one could guarantee that they would be able to triumph against the super exotic beasts that would appear during the upcoming beast swarm.
At present, although it wasn’t time for the spatial gateways to open, every beast world across Mercury was no longer peaceful. No matter the species, all the exotic beasts had started to stir restlessly.
The beastmasters were experienced with this. When the exotic beasts in the beast worlds started acting restlessly, the beastmasters had very tacitly stopped heading into the beast worlds, except for some incredibly powerful individuals who felt that they wouldn’t be in danger.
All of Mercury started acting like a formidable foe was whelming in front of them. The various factions united with one another and started preparing their defenses for when the beast swarm struck.
It went without saying that traditional defensive fortifications weren’t effective against the attacks of the powerful beast swarm. This had been proven during the past swarms.
No matter how tough defensive fortifications were, even coupled with fierce firepower they could only resist some low-level exotic beasts. Against the powerful beasts, defensive fortifications were like paper, unable to withstand their devastating attacks.
Even low-level exotic beasts, if their numbers reached a certain level, could raze the toughest fortifications to the ground!
As such, humanity had to rely on beastmasters to resist the beast swarm.
As the strongest beastmaster of Hua Xia, in addition to his close ties with the military, naturally Zhang Che had to contribute his strength to the cause.
Currently, he was sitting in an office in the military headquarters, surrounded by important figures of the military. The whole office was glittering with stars.
The top brass had called him in to discuss his arrangements.
After all, Zhang Che wasn’t an ordinary beastmaster. During the upcoming beast swarm, naturally they couldn’t use him like any other beastmasters. That would be too much of a waste of talent…
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Afterword:
Mianbao: Here we are. At the end of the chapters. I can’t say I’m very satisfied with how the series has ended, but it has been an incredible journey working on it from the first chapter to the last. I would like to point out that some time during this journey, I realized I can’t find the raws on Qidian.
I don’t know exactly what this meant. Was it axed? Or did something else happen behind the scenes that we don’t know of? None of us can say for sure. I’m not trying to explain away the sudden ending that we see here, either. Personally I would like to think that this might not be what the author had envisioned in the beginning, and I find it a shame to not get to see that.
No matter what, thank you dear readers for following this series to its end. Hopefully we get to meet on another project in the future!
—
Aelryinth: This is the fifth novel I’ve edited from start to end on Qidian. One of the reasons I have this job is because I don’t mind reading this sort of fiction, and find it very interesting.
I realize the trope this kind of story goes with, combining physical enhancements with monster summoning… but this is still a very abrupt ending. There is no sign whatsoever of a Book Two on the horizon…
As an author myself (Power of Ten: Sama Rantha, here on WN) I believe the writer reached ‘high level play’ and found it overwhelming. The number of options available to high level characters are overwhelming, and rapidly short circuit the story with either fast resolution or obliteration. It becomes impossible to track everything a character can do, and you end up throwing what feels like the same things against them over and over again, yet numbers just make it more tedious to write.
Maybe he’ll be able to write an interesting high level Novel, but it is VERY difficult. Once you hit high level, the story starts moving VERY quickly, as all the mundane aspects of life are just not limits anymore.
In any event, Mianbo has been a consistent and skilled translator, and I hope everyone appreciates the work he has put in on this novel. He’ll be moving on to another one, so look for his work!
Of course I still edit for Versatile Mage, and write Power of Ten: Sama Rantha. If you want some later high level shenanigans with a hefty dose of gaming thrown in, give both a read!
Happy reading!
