Chapter Eighty: The Imminent Onslaught

Lan Yi was being received with such importance, such grandeur, and such privileges.

A few days ago, this would have instantly secured the next day's front page headline. A crowd would have gathered to scrutinize him with magnifying glasses, launching critiques from moral, legal, and status perspectives—why should such a young man deserve this much attention? Had he made some monumental contribution? Or was he simply a beneficiary of nepotism?

Some people, whose minds barely seemed to function, would connect the previous public condemnation of Lan Yi and, either implicitly or directly, declare that the world favored men, disregarding the facts, and claiming that a little grievance had been soothed so easily, as if his birth had warranted this treatment.

But now, it was already an era of chaos.

On the internet, new introductions of Fate Threads emerged constantly, along with fresh insights into the application of Innate Qi, various Daoist experimentations, the grand waves of the Artificial Divine Realm, and survival tips from other worlds. At the very least, there was also the risk of nuclear missile launches.

Armed personnel paved the way. Helicopters came to fetch him. The spectacle was overwhelming.

Lan Yi's video indeed stirred a wave across the Starhan Internet. Most voices questioned how, during this time of extreme manpower shortage and near-total halt of production, this individual could justify such a deployment of resources.

Combined with the arrival of the Battle Space, many began to suspect that the protagonist of the video, Lan Yi, had already acquired extraordinary powers—perhaps even more destructive than those of the popular internet cultivators, or that his abilities were exceedingly rare and remarkable.

Abilities such as: time-space, causality, concepts.

The internet has a memory.

Lan Yi’s brief surge in popularity quickly led to the discovery that he was the notorious domestic abuser who had recently gone viral. Further digging revealed his ex-girlfriend’s extravagant boasting and baseless entrepreneurship, as well as close ties with certain mysteriously disappeared individuals—connections related to many verdicts and detentions.

Someone was going to get into trouble!

Sharp-eyed internet spectators were already rejoicing.

Meanwhile, seasoned experts, sensing the surge in attention, began to stir things up, seizing the moment, making contrarian statements, and, convinced that Lan Yi was simply bad, launched reckless attacks.

In a word: chaos and confusion.

Yet there was another group—a cadre of spiritual energy cultivators scattered across rivers and oceans—who ignored meaningless quarrels, instead analyzing the video frame by frame, observing Ji Ning, Zhang Shouzheng, and especially Lan Yi with meticulous scrutiny to estimate their combat strength.

In the Western Hemisphere, at a military command post in the Cheyenne Mountains.

Rows of tense, busy staffers all bore the fair-haired, blue-eyed faces of the great oceanic civilization.

"That's a bracelet indicating presence in outer space."

"Laser shockwave detection failed. Infrared detection failed. Innate Qi perception failed. Spiritual energy Daoist observation failed. If he doesn't use spiritual energy, it's extremely difficult for us to gather useful information."

"We can't determine just how dangerous Lan Yi is."

"Turing data export results... If we strike, the probability of a successful decapitation is seventy-one percent; the chance of a full retreat is forty-four percent. But if combat lasts more than twenty-five minutes, Lan Yi's high-energy electric wheel will escalate to the point of destabilizing spatial Daoist techniques."

A particularly tall man, resembling a golden lion, asked in a deep voice:

"Are their sources accurate?"

"Extremely accurate. Joker and Fireworks have already confirmed coordinates. Lan Yi will definitely go there, since everyone he wanted to kill after his rebirth has been detained."

A woman wearing plain glasses, whose figure and appearance were utterly unremarkable, affirmed.

"The baseness of human nature—such a formidable figure, yet instead of protecting or pleasing him, they choose to betray." She added with emotion.

"Aladia, you're mistaken," the golden lion shook his head slowly.

A thick fear flickered in his fierce golden vertical pupils, but was quickly cut off by a ruthless resolve.

"You've never witnessed firsthand the apocalyptic war Lan Yi waged. You don't understand his terror."

"At that time, he was the incarnation of fear and doom, the embodiment of cosmic calamity."

"To kill him is not a personal vendetta, but the consensus of both great civilizations."

Aladia closed her mouth, staying silent.

She was a proud woman.

Yet, when Lan Yi destroyed the world, she never even saw his face before being wiped out along with the neighboring star—a fact she couldn’t accept, leading her to decisively join the hunt for the Old Demon Lan.

This was one of their rare opportunities.

Lan Yi would undoubtedly go to kill those vermin! And that would be his burial place!

"Contact them. Act as soon as Lan Yi arrives."

"Yes, sir."

Meanwhile—

On the roaring heavy helicopter.

Lan Yi was engrossed with a tablet, split into two sections. One side held the list of power-holders, especially those who liked to play the victim or demand special privileges—something Old Demon Lan had long wanted to do in his past life. The other side contained the blueprint for constructing the Twin World Mountain, a super project whose preparatory phase would be greatly shortened with the help of an Artificial Divine Realm.

Ji Ning watched Lan Yi’s finger scroll through an endless list of names, so densely packed they blurred together, and couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat.

How many people would die?

The trouble wasn’t how many, but that these foolish and wicked individuals—some didn’t even reside in Starhan.

If Old Demon Lan wanted you dead, he wouldn’t care where you were.

"Mr. Lan, are you satisfied with our sincerity?" Ji Ning tried to redirect Lan Yi’s attention.

The roar of the rotors drowned out her words, but for cultivators of spiritual energy, at such close range, even lip-reading was enough to understand; communication was unimpeded.

"You’ve worked hard," Lan Yi replied in a matter-of-fact tone, as a boss might casually praise a subordinate.

"And the Artificial Divine Realm?" Ji Ning rubbed her hands nervously.

"None of you managed to obtain access permissions?" Lan Yi suddenly asked with curiosity.

So many reborn individuals, yet it seemed only he had acquired the channel to the Artificial Divine Realm.

"Mr. Lan, I’m not entirely sure of the details, but not just anyone can possess your great power. Especially when your old self destroyed two great civilizations in a sweeping apocalypse, leaving thousands of Artificial Divine Realms powerless to resist."

Ji Ning withheld the full truth.

Within the River Civilization, the reborn had actually banded together since their return.

After Lan Yi revealed the conditions for rebirth, he had essentially screened out all notable strong figures by name.

Though they hadn’t formed a united front, communication was inevitable; the reborn had their own private channels. Despite varying attitudes toward Lan Yi, differing stances and philosophies, as reborn, cooperation far outweighed competition and was vastly preferable to relentless conflict.

"Artificial Divine Realm 1909—you should have prepared a file on it, right?" Lan Yi smiled mysteriously.

"Yes," Ji Ning nodded. They had long since mapped out the nature of Lan Yi’s first Artificial Divine Realm.

Roughly a world at the technological level of World War I.

Such a world was perfectly suited for Starhan’s current upgrades and transformation.

"Then you might as well tear up that file. That Artificial Divine Realm is undergoing a revival of spiritual energy; it certainly won’t lack humanity, and Daoist techniques are flourishing."

Lan Yi brought one good news and one bad.

Meanwhile, the helicopter began to slow; they had arrived at their destination.