Chapter 325 - 249: The Guiding Azure Star

Chapter 325: Chapter 249: The Guiding Azure Star

The butt of the spear suddenly shot out a jet of blue light, like a flashlight flicking on for an instant. But the thrust was too fierce, too sudden. Lin Fan had only braced for a direct downward force and never expected the immense torque that came with it.

The spear wrenched violently to the side. The immense thrust instantly spun out of control, sending the tip gouging diagonally downward!

GRIIIND—

"Holy shit!"

The spear tip plowed through the hard concrete pavement, instantly carving a deep, one-meter-long gash!

This violent impact sent countless fragments of concrete and stone flying like a shotgun blast, peppering the group standing in front of the car nearby!

Fortunately, Su Qing’s reflexes were sharp. She raised her shield, protecting both Ye Qingzhou and herself.

However, Ye Qingniao, standing on the other side and completely unprepared, wasn’t so lucky.

"Ptooey! Ptooey!"

Having just cleaned up, she was now covered from head to toe in grayish-white cement dust. Several red welts dotted her face where the gravel had hit her, and she was glaring daggers at Lin Fan.

"Uh... my bad. My hand slipped. Grip was a little off, heh heh..."

Faced with Ye Qingniao’s murderous glare, Lin Fan could only scratch his head awkwardly and let out a sheepish laugh.

’Damn, just four points of energy packs that much punch...’

As he marveled internally at the weapon’s power, he stole a glance at Su Qing, who was calmly lowering her shield beside him.

Seeing Su Qing’s calm, "I knew this would happen" expression, it suddenly dawned on Lin Fan.

So that’s why she’d insisted on coming along fully armed with a spear and shield. It wasn’t to fend off some potential zombie ambush, but to protect against him, the "human-shaped walking demolition machine"!

After all, he remembered the first time he was testing out that "Impact Greatsword." He’d nearly demolished a building with a single swing and scared the daylights out of both of them...

"Ahem, an accident. Purely an accident."

Lin Fan gave a dry cough and composed himself. He carried the spear another ten-odd meters away, pressed its tip against an intact section of the road, spread his feet one in front of the other, settled into a firm stance, and gripped the shaft tightly with both hands.

"Here I go again!"

’Six points...’

ROAR—

It was no longer a soft pop, but a roar like a jet engine firing up!

An incredibly blinding, almost solid column of azure light instantly erupted from the spear’s tail, shooting straight into the night sky!

Within the extremely hot, high-pressure, supersonic plasma exhaust, three brilliant and clearly visible Mach diamonds, like the pupils of Death himself, appeared abruptly in the center of the column of light, possessing a chilling beauty.

A terrifying reactive force erupted instantly!

This time, Lin Fan didn’t even need to push down. The spear was like an awakened subterranean beast, letting out a furious roar as its unstoppable kinetic energy punched clean through the road beneath him!

CRACK—CRUNCH!

The ground trembled violently.

Large chunks of asphalt and concrete were sent flying as dust and smoke billowed into the air.

It was over in an instant.

When the terrifying blue flame died out, Lin Fan felt his arms go numb.

As the dust settled, the 2.2-meter-long black spear was revealed, with a full quarter of its length buried deep in the solid concrete roadbed.

Radial cracks spiderwebbed out from the spear shaft, as if a meteorite had struck the spot.

Lin Fan released his trembling hands, staring at the weapon pinned to the ground like a lamppost. He felt the aftershocks through the soles of his feet, and a fanatical gleam flashed in his eyes.

"This thrust... Now that’s what I’m talking about!"

"That’s the operating state I was looking for!" Ye Qingzhou exclaimed, running over through the dust. She looked at the spear buried in the roadbed, then carefully inspected the still-steaming nozzle at its tail. "Roughly what percentage of your total energy was that?" she asked, her voice tinged with excitement. "Can you quantify it?"

"About..." Lin Fan calculated silently, then held up a single finger. "One percent."

...

"All units, attention. Prepare for ignition," Ye Qingniao shouted from a distance.

"I..."

Lin Fan stood in a new clearing, spear in hand, but this time, the tip was pointing up.

He shifted his weight, recalling the sheer force of the thrust, and suddenly felt a little nervous.

"Just imagine you’re holding a giant firecracker. Feel the power in your body, be natural..." Ye Qingniao taunted from afar, clearly still holding a grudge.

"One more word out of you and I’ll tie you to this damn pole!" Lin Fan shot back, wishing he could actually strap her to the spear shaft. "Who the hell knows what the ’natural’ way to hold a giant firecracker even is?!"

"First test. Keep the axis as vertical as possible. Whether you do a long burn or a short burst is up to you—go with what feels right. Just remember, the tail always points in the opposite direction of where you want to go."

Ye Qingzhou, also standing far away, thought for a moment before shouting to Lin Fan, "...It’s only a few dozen meters. With your constitution, a fall won’t kill you."

’What’s gotten into Ye Qingzhou?’ he wondered. ’Ever since she heard that ’one percent’ remark, her words have had a bit of an edge to them.’

"Go get ’em, little bro!" Su Qing chimed in with a mischievous grin. "If you fall, just try not to land in our direction..."

’Now Su Qing is picking up their bad habits!’

’Vertical, vertical.’ Their teasing made Lin Fan even more nervous. He slid his hands up and down the shaft, searching for a more comfortable grip that would let him exert force better. He silently equipped the Strength Crystal to increase his grip.

"Three! Two! One!"

Lin Fan shouted, gripping the spear tightly. He steeled himself and poured in his energy—eight points, even more than before.

"Ignition!"

BOOM—!

This was no tentative burst. A shockwave erupted like a crack of thunder!

A column of azure light, thicker and more ferocious than before, instantly erupted from the spear’s tail and slammed into the concrete ground!

The immense thrust traveled unimpeded up the spear shaft into Lin Fan’s locked arms, pulling his entire body with it. In that instant, Lin Fan felt like he really was clutching a giant firecracker as he was uncontrollably launched off the ground!

The scenery in his vision dropped away at an incredible speed.

Su Qing, Ye Qingzhou, the SUV, the patch of illuminated ground... everything shrank to tiny specks within a second.

The howl of the wind in his ears became a sharp shriek, and the g-force from the rapid ascent sent his heart leaping into his throat.

Ten meters... twenty meters... forty meters...

As his upward momentum finally slowed under the pull of gravity and he reached his apex, the world seemed to stand still.

Lin Fan hovered nearly fifty meters in the air.

Below him lay the pitch-black, dead-silent ruins of the city, with only a few scattered fires flickering in the distance. In the moonlight, he could faintly make out the boundary river winding through the city like a dragon, its surface shimmering. Above him, the vast, cold, and profound starry sky felt close enough to touch.

In that moment, looking down upon the wasteland, an indescribable sense of power and liberation surged through him.

He tightened his grip on the spear, angled its tail diagonally downward toward Su Qing and the others, injected a burst of energy, and detonated it!

BOOM!

Another brilliant blue light exploded in the sky!

A huge lateral thrust instantly slammed into him, taking his body, which had just started to fall under gravity’s pull, and shooting it forward like a cannonball!

Propelled by this ferocious power, Lin Fan became a blue meteor streaking across the night sky. With a piercing shriek, he shot straight toward the far bank of the boundary river!

The dark surface of the river below reflected the streaking blue light, as if a dragon of light were swimming in its depths.

This was the gateway to a new world. Or rather, this was the first time Lin Fan had used his own power to break the gravitational shackles that bind every human being.

For the first time, he understood how Chu Zhaozhao must have felt that morning, having to walk while balancing three iron spoons.

So he didn’t stop.

After a slight adjustment, Lin Fan’s figure shot skyward again with another explosive roar.

BOOM—!

The pitch-black night sky became a giant canvas, and the spear in Lin Fan’s hand, constantly spitting azure flames, was the most ferocious of paintbrushes.

With each short, powerful ignition, a low peal of thunder echoed through the silent night—the growl of air being instantly heated and expanded. Immediately after, a dazzling streak of light would erupt in mid-air, dotted with a few brilliant azure sparks.

For Su Qing and the others looking up from the bridge, it was a visual feast they would remember for the rest of their lives.

His figure carved a series of jagged lines through the air, defying the laws of physics.

At times, he dove like a falcon, plunging toward the river with a piercing whistle, only to tap his spear and detonate a burst of blue light just before hitting the water, sending him skimming along the surface in a sharp arc before soaring back to the clouds. At other times, he would halt abruptly high in the sky, using counter-thrust to execute impossible right-angle turns, like a playful meteor leaping between the stars.

The darkness was torn asunder again and again.

The flares of blue light exploding in the air weren’t blinding; instead, they possessed a pure, chilling quality. The afterimages they left on the retina linked together, as if plotting coordinates of hope across the night sky of this wasteland shrouded in death and despair.

"It’s beautiful..."

Ye Qingniao tilted her head back, watching the figure soaring freely through the sky. The flickering blue light reflected in her eyes as she murmured,

"Is this... freedom?"

Ye Qingzhou was no longer taking notes. She closed her notebook, her gaze following the streak of light.

Although she was the designer, and her mind was filled with cold data like thrust-to-weight ratios, vector control, and gravitational coefficients, watching that man actually use a crude spear to lift himself into the sky and dance there, she had to admit...

This was a perfect fusion of violent aesthetics and an engineering marvel.

As for Su Qing, she leaned quietly against the front of the SUV, her hands propped behind her, gazing up at the expanse of illuminated night sky.

Above the endless, dark ruins, in a bewildering world where the path forward was unknown, that shining, circling figure in the sky was like a morning star that would never fall.

Every peal of "thunder," every burst of "starlight," was like a declaration of humanity’s indomitable will to this dead world.

The column of light circled and shone in the sky.

In a daze, Su Qing felt this was more than just a weapons test.

It was as if he were guiding them, helping them see the way forward on this path fraught with thorns and darkness.

BOOM—!

The final explosive roar echoed directly above the end of the bridge.

Lin Fan carved a wide circle in the air, then angled the spear’s tail downward, steadily using one last burst of counter-thrust to cancel his momentum.

Thump.

Like a weightless feather, yet like a steady boulder, he landed softly back in the center of their view.

His T-shirt was giving off faint wisps of white smoke from the high-speed friction, and the spear in his hand still radiated residual heat, but his eyes shone brighter than any star in the heavens.