High Martial: I Use Everything as Swords

...

Dragon’s Fang Port Command Center.

Sirens blared incessantly, and the flashing red emergency lights cast a deathly pallor on everyone’s faces.

"Energy readings are off the charts! That thing is accelerating!"

"We’ve lost contact with the outer Defense Towers! The operators... The operators have gone mad! They’re attacking each other!"

"Requesting backup! Requesting backup from East Sea City!"

The communications officer’s roars were so loud he nearly shredded his throat.

The commander seated in the main chair was named Liu Zhen. He was a burly, middle-aged man with a Cultivation at the Enlightenment Realm Peak.

At that moment, on his square-jawed face, his masseter muscles bulged and veins throbbed on his temples.

’Backup?’

Even if the reinforcements from East Sea City could fly, it would still take them half an hour.

But at the gray cloud’s current speed, Dragon’s Fang Port would become a dead land in ten minutes.

’Can’t just sit here and wait to die.’

Liu Zhen shot to his feet, ripped open the buttons at his collar, and snatched the Alloy Battle Saber from his desk.

"I’ve killed Sea Beasts and cut down pirates in my time, but I’ve never seen any damn ’Spiritual Body’!"

He scanned his surroundings, his gaze as sharp as a blade.

"All Martial Artists at the Enlightenment Realm and above, with me! Bring all the heavy firepower!

Even if we have to bite, we’re going to tear a chunk of flesh off that monster!"

"Sir!"

This desperate situation, paradoxically, ignited the ferocious nature of this group of daredevils.

In less than three minutes, twelve modified heavy hovercrafts charged out of the port.

Each vessel was mounted with a six-barreled Spiritual Energy Machine Cannon, and two fully armed Enlightenment Realm Martial Artists stood at the bow.

This was all that Dragon’s Fang Port had left.

Old Zhang hid behind the breakwater, watching the line of hovercrafts shoot toward the gray fog like arrows loosed from a bow. The knuckles of the hand gripping his wrench turned white.

’Don’t go... It’s a suicide mission...’

He was a simple man and didn’t understand things like higher or lower dimensions, but he possessed an animal-like Intuition.

Whatever was hiding in that gray cloud was not something a few rickety boats could handle.

The hovercrafts were incredibly fast, covering five nautical miles in the blink of an eye.

Liu Zhen stood on the lead vessel, his True Qi flaring to block out the brain-piercing screech.

"Fire!"

He gave the order.

DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA!

The Machine Cannons on all twelve hovercrafts simultaneously spat tongues of fire.

A dense barrage of Spiritual Energy Bullets formed a web of fire in the air and slammed violently into the gray fog.

BOOM! RUMBLE!

The explosions merged into a continuous roar, sending waterspouts dozens of meters high into the air.

"Did we hit it?" his adjutant shouted excitedly, wiping seawater from his face.

But Liu Zhen didn’t smile.

His pupils contracted sharply.

As the smoke and dust cleared, the gray fog remained completely unscathed.

In fact, the Spiritual Energy Bullets that had flown into it were like clay oxen entering the sea—they vanished without even a ripple.

And in the center of the gray fog, a massive, translucent silhouette slowly emerged.

It was a creature that defied description.

It resembled a giant, floating jellyfish, its lower body trailing countless tentacles. At the end of each tentacle hung a small, glowing orb.

The small orbs flickered, looking just like... eyes.

BZZZZ—

The sound changed again.

This time, it wasn’t in their ears, but exploded directly in their cerebral cortexes.

Liu Zhen felt as if someone had clubbed him hard on the head. The world before him instantly dissolved into a bizarre phantasmagoria.

He saw his long-dead wife waving at him.

He saw his young son smiling at him, holding a pinwheel.

"Daddy, come on, the water is so cool..."

"No! It’s fake!"

Liu Zhen bit down hard on the tip of his tongue. The sharp pain brought him a moment of clarity.

But his adjutant, the brother who had faced life and death with him for ten years, now wore a bizarrely blissful smile.

"So beautiful..."

The adjutant muttered to himself, dropped his gun, spread his arms, and leaped stiffly into the sea.

SPLASH.

The water sprayed up.

It wasn’t just the adjutant.

On the eleven boats behind them, half of the Martial Artists were doing the exact same thing.

Jumping into the sea, or pressing the muzzles of their guns to their own temples.

"AAAAAAAHHH!!"

Liu Zhen let out a despairing roar and raised his Battle Saber, trying to cleave the illusion before him.

But to his horror, he found that his body would no longer obey him.

The glowing tentacles had, at some unknown moment, pierced the distance of Space and rested gently on his shoulders.

There was no pain.

Only an indescribable warmth and... hunger.

The hunger of a predator.

’It’s over.’

The final thought flashed through Liu Zhen’s mind.

...

「On the shore.」

Old Zhang’s wrench fell to the ground, slamming onto the top of his foot, but he felt no pain.

He saw it all.

The hovercrafts were like toys, frozen on the surface of the sea.

The heroes who had charged out were now jumping into the sea one after another like dumplings into a pot, and even in the water, their faces wore the same horrifying smiles.

The giant "jellyfish" was slowly savoring its appetizer.

And the deadly gray fog had already swept over the breakwater.

"Run! Run for your lives!"

The crowd on the docks completely exploded into chaos.

Those who had been waiting in line, fighting for a spot, were now all running back as if they’d gone mad.

But where could they run?

Behind them was the sea; before them, the gray fog.

Dragon’s Fang Port had become an isolated island.

"Don’t push! Don’t push!"

The fat merchant was shoved to the ground, and countless feet trampled over him.

He screamed, reaching out to grab something, but his hand only closed on a fistful of mud.

The guards abandoned all discipline, dropping their guns and scrambling for cover.

"It’s useless..."

Old Zhang leaned against a shipping container, watching the encroaching gray fog.

He saw a foreman, usually a ferocious-looking brute, now kneeling on the ground, kowtowing while clawing his own eyes out, screaming, "I see it! The truth! I see it!"

The Spiritual Contamination had arrived.

Old Zhang fumbled in his pocket, pulled out a crumpled cigarette, and lit it with trembling hands.

It was the last cigarette he’d saved for himself.

’I knew it. In this world, whether you’re rich or poor, you end up dead all the same.’

He took a drag. The harsh smoke choked his lungs, clearing his head just a little.

He pulled a "glory grenade" from his belt.

It was the "last resort" that every old-timer who worked in the Fog Area kept for themselves.

Compared to becoming a mindlessly grinning puppet or a desiccated corpse with its brain sucked dry, blowing yourself to bits was clearly the more dignified option.

"Come on, you son of a bitch."

Old Zhang watched the tentacles draw ever closer, his finger hooked around the pin.

Within the gray fog, the massive shadow had already enveloped the entire port.

The humming sound had become a deafening roar, making blood pour from his seven orifices.

Despair, like a black tide, submerged everything.

No one could save them.

The reinforcements from East Sea City wouldn’t make it in time.

And even if they did, what good would they be against a monster that ignored physical attacks?

’This is fate.’

Old Zhang closed his eyes, ready to pull the pin.

Just then, a shriek—extremely sharp, piercing, and loud enough to overwhelm the creature’s bizarre humming—suddenly tore through the sky.

It was the mournful cry of air being violently torn asunder.

Old Zhang subconsciously opened his one good eye.

He saw a streak of light.

A black streak of light with a dark red trail, moving at a speed that completely defied logic, instantly ripped through the thick layer of gray cloud.

BOOM!

The massive sonic boom arrived two seconds later, threatening to shatter his eardrums.

The streak of light didn’t slow down. Instead, with a reckless, unstoppable momentum, it shot straight toward the giant "jellyfish."

"Is that..."

Old Zhang’s mouth fell open, oblivious to the fact that his cigarette had dropped onto his pants and burned a hole in them.

"...one of ours? A plane?"