Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8

Chapter 140: Chapter 112: A Distant, Bright Sun

After all, the Corporate Army had supplies, and Night City didn’t. Time was not on Night City’s side. The longer this dragged on, the greater the chance Night City would be bogged down in the quagmire of war.

Now that the Corporate Army was impatiently launching a total assault, Night City naturally had no reason to back down.

Near the third defensive line, the two warring sides gave it their all. The smell of gunpowder in the air was so thick it felt like being inside a powder keg about to explode.

“BOOM!”

Due to power shortages, Night City’s anti-air defense system had long been riddled with gaps.

The violent explosion was the spark that ignited the entire battlefield.

A long-range hypersonic missile launched by the Corporate Army struck Night City’s wall, blasting a massive gap dozens of meters wide into the structure built from special polymer composites.

In the sky, one ship after another screamed past.

Dropping a deluge of bombs.

The bombardment blanketed all of Night City in smoke and fire.

Fortunately, most of the populace had already been evacuated to underground facilities.

Most of the damage was limited to empty houses and military-industrial or power facilities.

The anti-air systems shot down dozens of ships, but at this point, with both sides in a blood-crazed frenzy, the loss of a few dozen ships was hardly worth mentioning.

Below the third defensive line, a tide of war robots led the charge. Following the robots were Cyber Warriors equipped with cybernetics. Behind the Cyber Warriors, bringing up the rear, were squads of Transcendents tasked with guarding against surprise attacks from the Anti-Terrorism Mobile Team.

You could say the Corporate Army had thrown everything it had into this attack. From a distance, the dark, swarming mass of troops looked like a tidal wave, sweeping toward Night City.

Gazing down at the vast sea of people below,

Regina’s brow furrowed. She wondered aloud, “Has the Corporate Army gone completely insane, or is this just an act? To actually mobilize their entire force for a direct assault on Night City?”

She wasn’t the only one who found it strange and couldn’t make sense of it.

A few military officers, amidst their tension and excitement, were equally baffled. “Who the hell knows what’s going on? Maybe the nine major corporations are fighting amongst themselves?”

In any case, it was a good thing that the Corporate Army was attacking now.

At least Night City still had the strength to fight and hadn’t been pushed to the brink of desperation.

Hearing this, Regina’s frown deepened.

A siege without a direct assault was a guaranteed win, yet the Corporate Army was launching a final offensive before Night City had even exhausted its food reserves…

’Something like this doesn’t just happen for no reason.’

’Something must have happened in the outside world, something we don’t know about.’

’And it had to be something huge.’

’Otherwise, it wouldn’t be enough to make the Corporate Army, which held every advantage, act like rabid dogs and risk everything in a desperate gamble.’

“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”

Several violent explosions snapped Regina out of her thoughts. She glanced at the battlefield below and ordered, “No matter what, we must hold the third defensive line! We can’t let the Corporate Army break through!”

Her voice was firm.

But with the Corporate Army throwing its entire force at them, there was no telling how long this crumbling defensive line could hold.

Just then, a figure suddenly appeared in the sky. Like a meteor falling from the heavens, it landed right in the middle of the battlefield.

The figure’s arrival was so sudden, and the impact of its landing so immense, that it looked as if a massive artillery shell had struck the ground. The entire battlefield paused for a moment.

It was perfectly normal for things to fall onto a battlefield.

Thus, both sides paused only briefly. But when they saw no explosion at the point of impact, they methodically resumed their advance.

But just then…

“THUMP. THUMP. THUMP…”

A hair-raising heartbeat, like the slow, solid beat of a drum, pounded in the chest of every single person on the battlefield.

As the smoke at the center of the battlefield slowly dissipated, the powerful and vigorous heartbeat grew steadily more soul-shaking.

At that moment, the Transcendents at the rear of the battlefield felt their faces pale as cold sweat streamed down their bodies. It was like a mouse meeting a cat, or a herbivore facing a dinosaur…

Amidst the sound of that beating heart, they felt like they couldn’t breathe, as if they might suffocate at any moment.

They couldn’t imagine what kind of monster could unleash such a terrifying aura.

Or rather… could a living being truly possess such terrifying power?

It was just a heartbeat.

Yet it was enough to stir the fear hidden deep in the marrow and genes of the tens, even hundreds of thousands of soldiers present.

It was just a heartbeat.

Yet it was enough to make the thousands of Transcendents present feel as if they were on pins and needles, unable to muster even a shred of will to fight it.

Such hair-raising power didn’t seem like something a living being could control. Only the legendary Gods who dwelt in the Celestial Kingdom could possess it!

…

Everyone involuntarily held their breath, their eyes wide as they stared at the center of the battlefield—the source of the heartbeat.

—There they saw a young man, nearly two meters tall, slowly striding out of the dust and smoke. His entire being radiated an aura of such violence that a single glance was enough to make one’s scalp tingle.

The young man was holding dozens of heads.

As if tossing out trash, he threw them toward the Corporate Army’s soldiers.

When they saw the faces on the heads, the entire Corporate Army erupted in an uproar.

Because they were all familiar with the owners of those heads. Each one was the helmsman of a top-tier mega-corporation. In other words, the owners of those heads were the bosses of their bosses.