The Shining Star Above The Heaven-Chapter 388: Burnt

Hearing Aldrian’s arrogant warning, all the soldiers present felt fury, yet they hesitated to attack him. If he was truly the one who killed Marquess Parus, then he had to be at least a high king-stage cultivator. For a cultivator at the king stage, numbers meant nothing, as anyone below that level was merely an ant.

The garrison commander steadied himself, his ears still ringing as if they had nearly burst, and looked at Aldrian warily. What did he mean by if they could survive this event? Then, suddenly, he felt an intense heat radiating from the sky. When he looked up to see the source, his eyes widened in shock.

The people instinctively looked up as they, too, felt the sudden wave of heat. What they saw made their hearts tremble.

A massive spatial crack had appeared, opening like a gateway to the void. From within the darkness, a giant fireball emerged, radiating immense power. It slowly pushed its way out, as if preparing to descend upon the land.

The blazing sphere was visible from every corner of the city, drawing the attention of many people, who turned in shock and fear toward it.

"To those who manage to escape alive, consider it your fate. Spread the word of what I’ve told you all. Good luck."

Aldrian’s voice echoed through the air before he and his group suddenly vanished.

Sweat rolled down the garrison commander’s forehead as his heart sank into despair. He never took his eyes off the massive fireball, sensing its overwhelming power. This thing could obliterate most of them! Gritting his teeth, he scanned his surroundings.

"Everyone, escape! Run as far as possible!" he shouted before dashing away.

Thousands of soldiers followed, sprinting for their lives. However, after covering about a kilometer, they suddenly crashed into an invisible wall—just like the one that had surrounded the mansion.

"Why is this here too?! We didn’t even sense when it was created!" one of the soldiers shouted in panic.

"Attack! Attack! Use our combined strength to break the barrier!"

The garrison commander felt the same desperation as he unleashed his elemental technique in an attempt to break the barrier. Countless elemental attacks struck the invisible wall from all directions, yet it did not budge.

From afar, bystanders watched the soldiers’ frantic efforts, their gazes shifting between the futile attacks and the massive fireball in the sky. It had fully emerged from the spatial crack and was now plummeting toward the ground. As if its purpose had been fulfilled, the spatial crack closed behind it.

Even though the bystanders were some distance away, they could still feel the searing heat and immense power radiating from the descending fireball. It was like a miniature sun falling straight toward them.

The trapped soldiers grew even more desperate, their attacks on the barrier becoming increasingly frenzied as the fireball loomed closer.

"Break! I said break!"

"Break!"

Desperate voices rang out as soldiers continued to assault the spatial barrier Aldrian had created. But as the fireball descended, their panic only intensified, and their attacks became more reckless.

"Aaargghh!" The garrison commander screamed in utter desperation as the massive fireball finally reached the ground—

Boom!

The earth trembled violently as a massive explosion erupted, followed by an inferno that spread across the entire area. Thick smoke billowed into the sky, while waves of fire surged like a tidal wave, instantly engulfing countless soldiers in its path.

There was no escape. They had no choice but to face it head-on.

The raging flames consumed everything, reducing lives to nothing more than blackened charcoal and ashes. Their suffering was brief, only a fleeting moment of pain before they were erased from existence, returning to the cycle of reincarnation.

A towering mushroom cloud rose high into the sky, visible from every corner of the city. The sight alone sent chills down the spines of the onlookers. The sheer devastation was undeniable, a single fireball had the power to wipe out an entire army!

The fiery wave finally stopped spreading as it reached the spatial barrier, revealing the full extent of its destruction. Thousands of soldiers had perished, and the surrounding landscape had been completely flattened by the scorching flames.

However, amidst the devastation, onlookers were shocked to see that there were survivors. A handful of soldiers had managed to withstand the blast but their condition was far from good.

Fewer than thirty remained, all of them gravely injured. Some had lost limbs, their flesh burned to charcoal. Others suffered severe burns covering most of their bodies. The luckiest among them had only burns on their hands and parts of their faces. Among this last group was the garrison commander.

Moments before the fireball struck the ground, he made a split-second decision to defend himself, abandoning any attempt to break the barrier. Summoning multiple layers of earth shields, he managed to preserve his life but the sheer force of the flames shattered his entire defenses, burning his hands in the process.

The other survivors had made the same choice, relying on their own techniques to protect themselves.

All of them were at the peak of the duke stage or stronger. As for those below that level? Most had been completely incinerated, leaving behind no remains. A few corpses remained, but they were burned beyond recognition, reduced to blackened charcoal.

The garrison commander gasped, feeling incredibly lucky to have survived the devastating strike. He looked utterly exhausted, his eyes half-closed. One side of his face was burned, and his armor was cracked in several places, having endured the immense heat of the flames.

With trembling hands, he hastily took out a healing potion and swallowed it before collapsing onto the ground.

As the potion began to take effect, he finally let out a breath of relief. Surveying his surroundings, he could only sigh at the sheer death and destruction that had befallen them. Fires still raged across the landscape, though their intensity had lessened considerably.

Aldrian and his group were nowhere to be seen—but the garrison commander no longer cared. That young man was on an entirely different level.

"What a monster! For a brief moment, I sensed that he was only at the low duke stage... yet he could unleash power like this!" he thought.

He stood up with slight difficulty, glancing to his side as he attempted to pass through the invisible barrier. When he reached out to touch it, his hand met nothing but air.

Stunned, he let out a small bitter smile, mocking himself. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com

"He played us like ants. Trapped us here, and once he was done, he simply let us go."

There was no humiliation in his voice, only despair.

As a grand duke stage cultivator, he had never felt this helpless before. The experience reminded him of his past—back when he was just a low-level cultivator, gazing at the mighty duke and grand duke stage cultivators with both admiration and fear.

He sighed once again, glancing at the nearby survivors before approaching them. His first priority was his subordinates—some of them were barely clinging to life and would not survive without his aid.

After all, that young man had said that if they survived the attack, he would let them go.

"I have to report that monster’s existence to the capital," he thought, as he handed out healing potions to his wounded men.

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Aldrian and the others were already at the mansion, meeting with the people he had saved earlier. He decided to make this place his main base of operations until his business in this empire was complete.

When the fireball from the spatial crack struck the ground, they all felt the tremor but none of them paid it any mind as they continued inspecting the mansion.

Sylphia and the other ladies were already helping many naked women, some of whom had regained consciousness. Xin Haotian moved through the mansion, checking each part of the mansion while also assisting those in need.

As for Aldrian, he stood atop the roof, gazing out at his own "creation"—the fireball that had fallen from the sky, wiping out many lives.

He had created the fireball in another location before sending it to this place through a spatial crack. He had adjusted its strength so that some soldiers could survive and spread his warning.

Not all of the soldiers had managed to return, as dozens were still on their way to the mansion. However, upon seeing the giant fireball, they fled in the opposite direction. They, too, could spread the news, which was exactly his intention. He wanted every faction within this empire to understand that this place was now off-limits.

Truthfully, he was leaning toward the rebel forces, but he had his own business and interests here. Besides catching the traitor and visiting the Rosalind family, he had another objective—to stop the civil war.

After identifying who supported the second prince, he had already decided to bring him down. There was no way he would allow those associated with the devils to take control of this empire. It would only bring trouble for him in the future when the prophesied time came.

For him, the most effective way to stop the civil war was to make himself the central focus of all factions. Once news of his takeover of this city spread, many would redirect their attention here, assuming that another faction had entered the conflict.

Although the second prince knew his purpose here was to capture the traitor, he had no idea about his other objectives in this empire. And by the time he realized it, the second prince would already be in his grasp.

After observing the city for a moment, Aldrian connected his mind to someone. He remembered that this man’s organization operated in one of the empire’s regions.

"Arson, what are you doing right now?"