Chapter 677 436: Return (Part 1)

In an instant, the news landed like a boulder dropped into a calm lake, sending massive waves of shock through the public.

"What the hell is going on with this world? How can there be so many monsters?"

"I knew this world wasn't so simple! If there are monsters, does that mean there are Superhumans too? I saw it on a livestream before—some people had special Abilities. They could breathe fire and fly!"

"This is insane. I've lived most of my life, and I'm only just now finding out things like this exist."

...

The public's fear, which had slowly faded with time, surged anew. The sudden revelations about the Yin Beasts plunged them back into a state of panic.

And as for this situation...

Normally, the government would have issued a statement.

But now, there was only silence.

This was because some of the top human leaders had discovered that the Yin Beasts who once held the power of life and death over them now had their hands full.

Moreover, these Yin Beasts were being killed one after another.

...

In the conference room, the lights were dim.

Several figures sat in silence. The air was so heavy you could almost wring water from it.

"Gentlemen, your thoughts on the current situation?"

The old man at the head of the table slowly raised his eyes, his gaze sweeping over everyone present like a sharpened blade. His voice was hoarse.

Had any members of the media been present, they would have been shocked speechless.

Because every person sitting around this long table was a figure of such immense power that a single stomp of their foot could shake the foundations of the world.

"We do nothing."

A cold, hard voice from a corner of the room suddenly shattered the silence.

The speaker was a middle-aged man with sharp, chiseled features. He carried the grim air of a man from the military.

"The only thing we need to do is wait and see."

The middle-aged man pulled a photograph from an inside pocket of his suit, pushing it with a fingertip and sending it sliding across the table's surface to the center.

Everyone looked at it.

It was a photograph of a street.

A tiger-shaped Yin Beast, over three meters long, was in the process of disintegrating.

And standing before it was a lone figure.

Clearly, this was the person who had killed the tiger-shaped Yin Beast.

However, the person's back was to the camera, their features completely obscured.

But the instant they saw the photograph, their pupils contracted in shock.

They recognized him at once. It was the monster who had shrugged off a nuclear explosion.

The reason for their certainty was the object held in the figure's hand: a Black Banner.

At the sight of it, the room fell silent.

"In that case, let's do it. But if we're going to pick a side, we can't be indecisive. We should send someone to make contact with him."

The old man at the head of the table paused.

A look of grim resolve flashed in his eyes as he spoke.

Hearing this, everyone was startled.

'Make contact with that man?'

'We just tried to blow him up with a nuke, and now we're supposed to go looking for him? Isn't that a death wish?'

"Isn't that a bit unwise?" someone asked, frowning.

"How will we know if we don't try?" the old man said coldly. "Or should we let those monsters control us forever? Have you not had enough of living like this?"

Hearing this, no one else dared to object.

In the past, the Yin Beasts had used their absolute power to control humanity's leaders, thereby indirectly meddling with the course of human development and, by extension, the entire world.

But now, with the deaths of six High-Level Yin Beasts, including Chiyu Sakura, and the continuous slaughter of their kind in recent days, the Yin Beasts didn't dare show their faces.

Consequently, their grip on the human leaders had naturally weakened.

Constrained by the Yin Beast threat, these leaders had long been resentful of their existence.

They had always wanted to break free, but they never had the opportunity or the power to do so.

But now, Hu Qi's existence had shown them a glimmer of hope for resistance.

As for whether Hu Qi would retaliate against them if he won… that was a bridge they would have to cross when they came to it.

...

In a dimly lit underground space, the air was so stagnant it was nearly suffocating.

San Hui paced back and forth before a massive Black Iron door.

The scuffed footprints on the floor revealed she had been pacing there for some time.

She was more aware than anyone of the drastic changes that had shaken the outside world recently.

She knew that if that man found her, the only thing awaiting her was death.

Her only hope now was to rely on that lord.

However, this lord was notoriously temperamental. If she disturbed him, there was no guarantee she wouldn't be punished for it.

But then she thought about her current situation.

'If I just wait, I'll die for sure.'

Thinking this, she gritted her teeth and reached out, pressing her hand against the embossed patterns on the iron door.

She was about to push it open.

But in the next instant—

BOOM!

With a tremendous roar, a viscous, almost tangible Yin Energy suddenly began to seep from the crack in the door before her.

The entire space was instantly dyed ink-black.

A powerful blast of air threw her long hair back, and from deep within the room beyond, she could faintly hear the sound of scraping scales.

Her body shuddered at the sound, but a hint of joy surfaced on her face.

"Lord Yamatai is awake!"