The Magic City—Shanghai, the brightest pearl of the East—on this day faced the most terrifying disaster in human history. The Miasma surged, black clouds billowed, and ever since the world’s dimensions tilted and Earth was cut off from its own reality, this place had become a living Inferno. At first, only a handful of people were corrupted or mutated, but as the Miasma thickened, even the healthy and strong—young and old, sick and frail—were gradually dragged into the abyss.
This Eastern Magic City now truly resembled the Inferno—cruel, mad, and beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.
But even in the darkest places, there’s always a light that pierces through the black clouds.
Five hours and forty-five minutes into the Black Veil lockdown, Jack Young and Jasper Xiao walked side by side into the city center.
Leading survivors out was tough, but nothing compared to how easy they made it look returning to enemy territory—back to the Magic City, light on their feet and moving like the wind.
The two stood shoulder to shoulder in the middle of a crossroads, wind whipping from all directions—the most dangerous spot in the city. Packs of mutated beasts howled through the black mist, shrieking as they launched surprise attacks. But neither man cared about the chaos. Jasper Xiao let out a low laugh: "I’ve been holding back way too long—cheers!"
No fancy moves—just pure power. Light erupted, holy radiance bursting like a geyser in every direction, turning into a sweeping area attack that scorched every mutated beast into flying sparks. As for those weird roots tunneling up from underground, Jasper stomped them flat, and the holy light raced down the roots, instantly frying the hidden monster at the source.
Boom! Heavy tremors shook the ground, thinning the black mist all around. At the far end of the long street, a bizarre train engine appeared.
"Metro Hero!"
Like an old-school locomotive blaring its horn, the engine thundered forward, picking up speed—this steel monster, weighing dozens of tons, was even wilder than a raging bull. Flames shot from its side exhausts as it barreled straight toward them, all fury and menace.
But Jack Young, standing right in the path of the collision, didn’t even spare it a glance. He raised his left hand, holding a chopstick—the one with the word "Dummy" on it.
He lifted his hand, swung his arm, and let it fly!
Zing! Like a laser slicing through air—so fast and fine, no one could catch it. But two hundred meters away, the speeding train engine suddenly shuddered, lost control, and toppled over. Its insane speed and massive weight turned it into a rampaging roller, crushing everything in its path. Explosions, tremors, noise—the spectacle was wild. But it was out of juice.
Screech—the grinding finally stopped, and the engine came to a halt right next to Jack Young. The chopstick was stuck right there, within arm’s reach. It wasn’t even in that deep—just about an inch past the alloy plate. Yet that inch was all it took to finish off what looked like an unstoppable boss.
"Whoa, whoa, that move was straight-up fantasy—how’d you do it?" Jasper Xiao’s eyes went wide. "That thing’s huge, total boss entrance, and you one-shotted it with a regular chopstick? What do you even call that move?"
"There’s a mutant hiding behind the steel plate—when that guy mutated, he fused with the train engine. That’s the real body of this ‘Metro Hero.’ So all I had to do was pierce the plate, pin him down, and freeze him solid with cold energy. That move? It’s called Falling Leaf Flying Flowers." Jack Young yanked out the chopstick. "I’ve watched everyone else show off for ages—man, I’ve been dying to do it myself!"
Princess Flower Shifter once stunned the Golden Blade King with a single petal. Princess Embroidered Jade froze Lava Lake with her cloak. Jack Young had been jealous for ages—and now he could finally pull it off too. Compared to smashing a big brute, putting a petal on the Golden Blade King’s face was actually way harder and more impressive. But once you step into the Innate realm, anything’s possible.
Thinking back, that Alien Queen he used to struggle with—maybe now she’d just be a chopstick problem too.
"Teacher Yang, what do you think?" Jasper Xiao hefted his warhammer onto his shoulder, battle-ready. "Can you see anything new?"
"I can." Jack Young nodded, his eyes gleaming. "Now I can finally see the shapes and flow of the demonic energy. Honestly, it’s pretty amazing."
The black mist swirling around was just the most basic form of Miasma. Matter has three states, and it seemed like this Miasma followed the same physics. Within the endless black fog, tiny streams of black liquid formed and flowed—like blood, coordinating the distribution of the mist everywhere.
Those black droplets hovered between form and formless, visible and invisible. Ordinary folks could only see the mist thicken or thin out. Unless a mutant beast sucked it up nearby, no one knew where the black mist went. No flow, no way to trace it back to the source.
But now, after his breakthrough, Jack Young could finally see what he’d always wanted to see.
In the void, thin streams flowed like roots or veins. The stronger the crazed thoughts in the void, the more nourishment they gave the streams. It wasn’t just one-way—there was a feedback loop. Back and forth, the poisons of greed, obsession, and rage got worse, and things just kept spiraling.
Basically, if you just let it go, everyone—except maybe the strongest—would turn into monsters sooner or later, no matter how far they ran.
These swirling black currents of Miasma acted like some kind of living thing. Not just parasitic—they manipulated, transformed, evolved. The reason Shanghai’s World Dimension went haywire was this advanced energy. Jack Young couldn’t yet see how it affected the World Dimension, but one thing was clear: the stronger the black energy, the tougher the world’s barriers got.
Jack Young studied the black streams in the void, sensing the demonic nature inside. He couldn’t help but sigh: "No idea how this stuff showed up in the world—it’s like it’s gnawing away at reality itself. No human tech, no weapon, nothing in nature can stop it."
"Which is exactly why it’s our turn! If ‘this world’ can’t handle it, then it’s up to us interdimensional folks! Chosen Ones—why do you think we were picked? Maybe this is what we’re here for!" Jasper Xiao started pulling stuff out of his inventory space: a full set of knight armor. It was a masterpiece crafted by elven smiths from the Lord of the Rings world, infused with elven magic and blessings. Every scratch was a badge of honor.
"This is my treasure—I almost never use it." Jasper Xiao lifted a cross shield on his left arm and flexed for Jack Young. "Can you spot the culprit?"
"Of course." Jack Young eyed the black streams in the void. "That spot’s basically the heart of the black energy—super obvious. Wait, something’s changing! Hold on—let’s go!"
Whoosh—Jack Young grabbed Jasper Xiao, kicked off, and shot straight toward the city center.
If Jack Young could look down from above the city, he’d see those black streams forming a massive web, radiating from a central point. The streams used to flow back and forth, like blood in a heart—a ‘healthy cycle.’ But in that instant, the city’s black mist thinned out, visibility shot up, and all the streams started draining the place dry.
Aside from a thin haze still lingering, all the black mist condensed into liquid, flowing through veins in the void toward the center.
Over five hours ago, that invisible black energy pulled the same trick—condensed a drop of black liquid that pierced the Jade Effigy’s brow. Now, it was happening again, but this time the energy was a hundred, maybe a thousand times stronger.
At the city’s edge, those black droplets were barely bigger than raindrops, but as they merged and flowed toward the center, they turned into rushing streams.
No one knew if the Miasma had its own mind, will, or intelligence, but this time it was pooling so much power, its aim was bigger—and the consequences were bound to be scarier.
Of course, when energy gathers, creatures chasing energy are sure to follow. Just like animals chasing water and grass, the strongest, sharpest, and most deeply fused with Miasma sensed something was up.
Crunch, crunch, crunch—as the black mist faded, sound traveled farther. A few blocks away, the living heard a nerve-jangling roar. The last survivors tried to run, but a sudden gale knocked them down. Looking up, they glimpsed some huge creature streaking through the sky, heading for a target.
Amid all the weird noises, the earth kept shaking. Every sound meant a new monster was on the move.
"Screee!!" With ear-splitting shrieks and a flurry of wings, a swarm of flying monsters took off, all racing toward the same spot.
"Guhuhu!" With strange, heavy breaths, huge birds swooped down, snatching up twitching mutants and crushing them. These things were mutated pigeons—once symbols of peace, now enjoying the chase before heading for whatever was drawing them in.
"This is gonna kill me!" On the 23rd floor of some building, Luo Shiren clung to the windowsill, shaking as he stared in terror at the street below. A freakishly long, segmented creature crawled past—it looked like a centipede, but it had to be a hundred meters long, popping car tires with every sharp limb.
But that centipede wasn’t the scariest thing—Luo Shiren looked around and saw monsters everywhere. Sky, ground, not a single safe spot.
"Why am I so unlucky? Why are all the monsters and demons gathering here? Somebody help!"
Boom—a giant crash, and the massive centipede dove into a nearby building. The sound of shattering glass was like a flare going off, kicking off the final wild frenzy of monsters warped by Miasma.