Six streaks of light tore through the sky, leaving brilliant rainbows across the dusky wasteland.
The anti-gravity engines beneath the hover chariots emitted a low hum, kicking up shattered bones and dust from the ground along their path.
"Woohoo! This is so fast! This is awesome!"
Xia Dou's crisp cheers rang out, brimming with undisguised excitement.
Piloting the bright red Light and Shadow Speeder, she looked like a child who had just received a beloved toy, executing thrilling barrel rolls and dives in the air.
She treated this journey to an unknown destination as nothing more than a thrilling game.
Shanda and Sui Xing drove the other two chariots, silently guarding her flanks. They were long accustomed to the little girl's antics.
Just then, a massive swarm of dark shadows suddenly burst from the collapsed city ruins ahead.
It was a flock of flying Pola Beasts with hideous wings. Attracted by these powerful energy sources, they lunged forward fearlessly.
"Pola Beasts! Enemy attack!"
Marc's voice was cold and steady. Almost simultaneously, he and Ran Bing, who was beside him, activated the weapon systems of their Light and Shadow Speeders.
Two precise energy beams sliced through the night sky, arriving in an instant.
The leading flying Pola Beasts didn't even have time to shriek before they were blasted into exploding clouds of flesh and bone in midair.
They displayed the combat instincts etched into their very bones as former elite Hunters.
Things were completely different on Xia Dou's side.
"Fire! Fire, fire! Eat this!"
She frantically slapped the buttons on the console. Her yellow Light and Shadow Speeder wobbled up and down as its energy cannons fired wildly.
Most of the beams shot off into the empty distance, but she was having the time of her life.
Her crisp laughter and the chaotic cannon fire added a touch of comedy to the skirmish.
Aboard the Emperor Speeder, Ian ignored the small fry.
He could clearly feel the curiosity and intrigue radiating from Bai Yuekui behind him regarding this super vehicle.
Bai Yuekui's gaze shifted back and forth between the rapidly receding scenery and the complex structure of the chariot beneath her.
"Want to give it a try?"
Before she could respond, he acted.
Ian wrapped his arm around her waist, applied a little force, and nimbly spun his body.
In an instant, the two swapped positions on the high-speed chariot.
Bai Yuekui was stunned to find herself pressed into the driver's seat, her hands instinctively gripping the cold control sticks.
Meanwhile, Ian's warm chest was pressed tightly against her back, his chin practically resting on her shoulder.
The posture was incredibly intimate and carried a strong sense of aggression.
"That golden button packs quite a punch. You can try it," Ian whispered in her ear, sounding like a devil's temptation.
A trace of awkwardness flashed across Bai Yuekui's cold face, but it was quickly overshadowed by her curiosity about this unknown power.
Her eyes fell on the center of the console.
There sat a faintly glowing golden button, completely different from the rest.
It seemed to be engraved with some ancient, domineering rune, exuding an aura of destruction.
As if possessed, she reached out and pressed it.
The next second, a highly compressed, fist-sized golden energy sphere quietly materialized in front of the Emperor Speeder.
Without a single sound, it shot forward at a speed beyond the limits of visual perception.
In the blink of an eye, the energy sphere crossed dozens of kilometers and precisely struck a towering mountain range on the horizon.
The next instant, a blinding light erupted, as if a miniature sun had risen on the horizon.
A second later, under everyone's horrified gazes...
That massive mountain range, which had stood upon the wasteland for countless millennia...
From its snow-capped peaks to its deeply buried foothills, along with the clouds swirling around it...
Was instantly and completely disintegrated and vaporized.
The entire colossal mountain range turned into a sky full of crystalline dust, sparkling under the setting sun as if it had never existed.
A dead silence fell between heaven and earth.
Over the comms channel, even the usually boisterous Xia Dou shut her mouth, staring blankly at the now-empty terrain.
The sky looked so unfamiliar and vast without the massive mountain range.
Marc and Ran Bing hovered their chariots in midair, unable to hide the shock on their faces.
Bai Yuekui's hands froze on the control sticks, her fingertips turning cold. Her mind went completely blank.
She knew Ian was strong, but the sheer might of this chariot's mounted cannon—capable of erasing a majestic mountain range with a single shot...
Had completely surpassed her understanding of technological power.
...
Meanwhile.
Far away in Dragon Bone Village, inside the underground command center.
Ear-piercing alarms shattered everyone's eardrums without warning.
Red warning lights flashed frantically, casting a blood-red glow over everyone's faces.
A monitor in charge of geological and energy readings pointed at the main screen, where an energy curve had instantly spiked to the top and gone off the charts.
"Alert! Alert! Unidentified ultra-high energy reaction detected! The target... the target is Dragon Bone Mountain to the east!"
"The energy reaction has vanished! Dragon Bone Mountain has disappeared from the satellite map!"
The entire command center instantly fell into a deathly silence.
Everyone thought they had misheard, or that the poor monitor had gone mad.
A mountain range disappeared? What a ridiculous joke.
"Switch to high-precision satellite imagery!" a commander roared his orders.
When the main screen switched from geological data to a real-time satellite overhead view...
Everyone gasped.
That towering snow-capped mountain they were so familiar with, which stretched across the land like a giant dragon's spine... was gone.
In its place was an unimaginably massive, mirror-smooth vitrified basin.
Just as the crowd was reeling from this scene of divine punishment...
Another team member in charge of airspace monitoring abruptly stood up, knocking his chair to the ground.
He pointed at the radar screen, his voice trembling uncontrollably.
"Detected... detected six ultra-high-speed targets approaching rapidly! Speed is incalculable!"
"Wait... one of the targets' life beacons belongs to the Boss! It's the Boss's signal!"
"But..."
He stared fixedly at the magnified tactical image on the screen, his pupils shrinking.
"But who is the man tightly holding the Boss's waist behind her!?"
As the six streaks of light tearing through the sky approached the airspace of Dragon Bone Village, they simultaneously slowed down.
The roar of the hover engines faded into a low hum. Like docile behemoths, they slowly descended into the clearing at the center of the village.
Dust flew into the air as gale-force winds kicked up gravel, which pelted the surrounding houses made from abandoned shipping containers with a crackling clatter.