In days past, Paris was a blaze of light, bustling with crowds, yet now the city observed nighttime light rationing. Save for the Champs-Élysées and three or five other famed traditional avenues, the streetlights across the rest of Paris were extinguished. In the roadside residential blocks, often only two or three dim, yellow lights flickered, intermittently sparking due to unstable voltage—resembling ghostly flames.

The preparatory defense systems surrounding Paris had been activated, thus draining the city's primary energy supply.

On the dim streets, only endless columns of soldiers marched by, clad in the black uniforms of the Earth Federation Army, the white uniforms of the Supremacy Empire forces, and the pale silver uniforms of the Pantheon Alliance Army. Occasionally, a muffled crack of a sniper rifle would echo from the distance.

Each gunshot sent a ripple of tension through the soldiers on the street; the three factions stood bristling, smelling distinctly of imminent conflict.

Now and then, beams from massive high-powered searchlights on the rooftops would sweep down. Upon spotting Gu Xiechen’s enormous convoy of war vehicles, the beams would immediately sweep back toward the sky.

The bearded Colonel muttered into his communicator a few times. When the convoy passed a few dozen intersections, about five thousand Federation infantrymen converged from all directions. The soldiers climbed onto the war vehicles, three to five men per vehicle. The vehicles sped up, heading toward the Federation Headquarters building in the city center.

The sudden movements of the Federation Army immediately alarmed the high command of the Supremacy Empire and the Pantheon Alliance, causing massive troop concentrations toward the area. The lights in the roadside residential buildings suddenly winked out. Occasionally, a few loud dog barks drifted from a distant block, but the barking quickly devolved into low whines, and then the dead silence of the night resumed.

The plaza before the Federation Headquarters building was packed with soldiers in white and silver-white uniforms. They had set up barricades across the square, behind which anti-armor weaponry was densely arrayed. A Lieutenant General in white and another in silver stood tense behind the barricades, their faces grim as they watched the approaching large column of war vehicles.

Dozens of high-powered loudspeakers rose from the electronic warfare vehicles behind the barricades, and a piercing voice suddenly blared: "Troops ahead, withdraw immediately, or all consequences arising from this action will be borne by your side! Repeat, withdraw immediately, or we will fire without further warning."

"Wind, Rain, Thunder, Lightning!" Gu Xiechen merely scoffed.

Four distinct currents of fresh air emerged from an armored vehicle behind the convoy and instantly vanished into the thin clouds hovering over Paris. In the blink of an eye, dense rain clouds churned in from all directions. Before the cloud banks even met, dozens of thick bolts of lightning ripped across the sky, sweeping overhead with rolling thunder. The colossal sound of the thunder seemed to explode right next to everyone's ears, causing the soldiers blocking the way ahead to flinch. Their hands suddenly loosened, and their weapons clattered to the ground.

Three consecutive lightning bolts screamed down, striking the loudspeakers atop the three electronic warfare vehicles precisely. With three massive explosions, the vehicle doors burst open, and a dozen soldiers, blackened and smoking, tumbled out. A spray of electrical sparks erupted from the vehicles, with fine arcs reaching several meters away. Dozens of soldiers standing close to the vehicles were struck by the arcs, convulsing before collapsing.

The lightning threw the opposing soldiers into disarray. Before the two Lieutenant Generals could issue commands to restore order, a fierce gust swept across the ground. The two Generals cried out as they were lifted tens of meters into the air by the gale, fluttering weightlessly like scarecrows, and flung toward the tallest flagpole in front of the Federation Headquarters.

Two mournful screams followed. One Lieutenant General had his thigh impaled by the flagpole, and the other had his shoulder pierced. Both convulsed, suspended from the nearly hundred-meter-tall pole, their cries carried far away by the wind. The dark, churning clouds, the flashing lightning, the towering flagpole, and the two tiny figures struggling and bleeding upon it—all formed a harrowing impressionistic tableau. Add in the screams of the two Generals, and it took on a flavor of hell.

Both sets of soldiers were dumbfounded, staring blankly at their commanding officers hanging from the flagpole, uncertain how to proceed.

Just then, a downpour descended as if a celestial hand had overturned a basketful of gravel, accompanied by the faint sound of tearing air. The Rain Master had deliberately laced this deluge with chilling hailstones mixed among the fist-sized raindrops. The rain struck with such force that it "clang-clang-clang"-ed against the armor of the war vehicles, knocking down a large swath of the soldiers in the plaza. Nearly half the soldiers suffered at least severe concussions; the others fared slightly better, but still sustained broken collarbones or arm bones.

The torrential rain caught the soldiers of the Papal State and the Pantheon Alliance in the plaza completely off guard; everyone else remained unharmed. However, the wind whipped the rain and mist into layers upon layers, completely obstructing vision, reducing visibility to virtually zero. Even with night-vision goggles, an ordinary person wouldn't have been able to see a thing in such a storm of wind and rain.

The approaching reinforcements scattered like headless flies. Those enhanced raindrops seemed to have eyes, specifically targeting them, beating them until they bled and passed out. Before long, the only forces still moving within Paris were the Earth Federation soldiers in black uniforms. As for the Supremacy and Pantheon Alliance troops—even their armored vehicles had transparent holes punched through their plating—how could the soldiers inside fare any better?

With a few cold laughs, Gu Xiechen took Fu Yaming’s hand and stepped out of the armored vehicle.

A sudden gust of wind blew, and the rain clouds overhead parted as if a skylight had opened, precisely within a circle several meters around Gu Xiechen. Not a single drop touched him. Holding Fu Yaming’s hand, he walked up the steps under the horrified gaze of the dozens of sentries from the three factions standing before the Federation Headquarters.

Two Federation soldiers hurried over to help Gu Xiechen push open the main doors of the building. These were originally automatic sensing doors, but someone had inexplicably replaced them with two half-meter-thick blast doors controlled by an ancient hydraulic drive system. Now, entering or exiting the Federation Headquarters required manual operation.

A Major in a silver uniform hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth and stepping forward to block the blast door, which had only been opened a crack. He nervously shouted at Gu Xiechen, "Excuse me, sir, this is the Earth Federation Headquarters. Non-Federation officials are not permitted entry."

The bearded Colonel led a group of burly Hadwo mercenaries forward. He slapped the Major across the face with a fierce blow, sending the unlucky officer spinning three times on the spot, spitting out three teeth. The bearded Colonel laughed wildly, "Kid, open your eyes and see clearly! I am a Federation General! Damn it, you know this is the Federation Headquarters? Aren't you with the Pantheon Alliance? Why are you still standing guard here?"

Gu Xiechen snorted coldly. His tailcoat instantly reverted to the true form of the Taiyin Robe. Waving his Five Waters Dragon Beard Fan, he sneered, "Beat them up and throw them out!"

The mercenaries behind the bearded Colonel heard Gu Xiechen’s command, and their eyes immediately lit up. The group grinned broadly and rushed forward, thoroughly beating the soldiers of the Papal State and the Pantheon Alliance. The Federation soldiers guarding the door exchanged glances. The leading Major suddenly cursed loudly, rolled up his sleeves, unhooked his baton, and charged forward, swinging the baton down toward the heads of the two leading Majors from the opposing side.

A chaotic brawl erupted at the doorway. Gu Xiechen kicked the blast door open and strode inside.

The atmosphere inside the building was extremely strange. At nearly every office door stood three to five officials wearing different colored uniforms. The sentries guarding the important entrances and exits were also dressed in the three distinct uniforms, and the firearms they held were almost unconsciously aimed toward the others.

Observing the scene inside the building, Gu Xiechen suddenly laughed strangely, "Uncle Beard, you are a Federation General; you must uphold the dignity and decorum of the Federation. Who are these people? What right do they have to stand here? Get people in here and throw them all out!"

A woman, perhaps in her forties, wearing a pristine white suit, radiating an aura of shrewd competence, rushed forward upon hearing Gu Xiechen’s words, as if he had desecrated her ancestors' graves. She pointed at Gu Xiechen and barked, "Who are you, and what right do you have to say such things?"

Gu Xiechen tilted his head slightly and replied with feigned distress, "I never hit women!"

The bearded Colonel frowned and muttered quietly, "I’m not going to bother with this group of old harridans either!"

Without a word, Fu Yaming drew her sidearm and fired. With a sharp "Dang," she shattered the woman's finger, which was nearly poking Gu Xiechen's nose, then fired two more shots—"Dang, dang"—into the woman's knees. Jin flashed instantly behind the woman, kicking the back of her knee so hard that the woman crumpled to the floor with a thud. Her shattered knees slammed heavily onto the marble, and the woman, so arrogant just moments before, immediately burst into tears and snot. Clutching her broken finger, she let out a piercing shriek, her sagging eye bags trembling violently.

"People are born with distinctions in status, high and low. You must understand your place," Fu Yaming sternly lectured the middle-aged woman. "Those without discipline should not develop in officialdom. Temperament like yours is better suited to being a jailor in a low-level criminal prison than an official in a nation's highest seat of power."

Flicking up the middle-aged woman’s chin with light fingers, Fu Yaming stated coldly, "I am an outsider, so it is inappropriate for me to punish you too severely. If you were a citizen of Yafike, offending a superior by disrespecting rank as you did, I would certainly punish you harshly. Today, you are lucky!"

With a graceful flick and shake of her wrist, Fu Yaming sent the woman flying several meters away with an open-handed slap. She deliberately pulled out a handkerchief to slowly wipe her palm, then walked calmly over to an automatic cleaning robot a few meters away, dropping the handkerchief into the refuse disposal chute on its belly.

The bearded Colonel’s eyes widened. He let out a strange chuckle and vigorously poked Gu Xiechen in the back.

Gu Xiechen smiled and gave Fu Yaming a thumbs-up, but he inadvertently neglected Jin, who was standing nearby, her nose practically aimed at the ceiling. Seeing Gu Xiechen praising Fu Yaming and ignoring her, Jin's eyes turned red with anger. She stomped over to the middle-aged woman and savagely kicked her on the rear end several times. While kicking, she muttered curses under her breath, "You're lucky! If Father were here, if the brothers of the Broken Hook Brigade were here, I would loot your entire Papal State!"

The gleeful bearded Colonel gave the order. The large contingent of Federation soldiers outside rushed in like hungry wolves. Without allowing the soldiers of the Papal State and the Pantheon Alliance to resist, they grabbed them and tossed them out the door. In less than fifteen minutes, only the Federation soldiers in black uniforms remained inside the Headquarters building; all uniforms of other colors had vanished without a trace.

Gu Xiechen and the bearded Colonel clapped fists hard, looked at each other, and laughed heartily before striding into the elevator, heading straight for the Federation Grand Assembly Hall at the top of the building.

In the corridor outside the Assembly Hall, Espers from the Federation Special Security Bureau were in a tense standoff with a group of clergymen in white robes and a contingent of heavily built men in varied attire. Overall, the Special Security Bureau agents were more numerous, but the strength of the Vatican and Pantheon Alliance members held a clear advantage. Since the two opposing sides were allied, the Special Security agents had been forced back near the elevator exits; the area closest to the Hall entrance was entirely occupied by the other two factions.

Ding. The elevator doors opened, and Gu Xiechen emerged, arm-in-arm with Fu Yaming. The leading chiefs of the Special Security Bureau agents, having served under Gu Xiechen in the past, displayed undisguised ecstasy upon seeing him. Unlike Poison Wolf, Poison Wolf’s current public status remained that of an outer disciple of the Asian Dao Alliance, incomparable to Gu Xiechen's status as an inner disciple. Gu Xiechen's sudden appearance—did it signify that the Asian Dao Alliance was prepared to intervene forcefully in this disturbance?

Gu Xiechen nodded to these agent chiefs, smiling, "Brothers, you’ve worked hard. Go back and file your reports; your overtime pay will be generously approved."

A Special Security Bureau Major saluted Gu Xiechen with a grin. His gaze flickered slightly, and nearly a hundred Special Security agents snapped to attention, scattering neatly to the sides and lining up to salute Gu Xiechen. The members of the Vatican and the Pantheon Alliance remained rooted, about fifty figures staring fixedly at Gu Xiechen.

"Either clear out yourselves, or I'll break your legs and throw you down from here." Gu Xiechen took a few steps forward, stopping before a Cardinal. The Cardinal was only about 1.60 meters tall; Gu Xiechen looked down on him, intentionally or unintentionally spitting a few flecks of saliva onto his face.

The Cardinal’s face turned ashen with rage. He made a sign of the cross over his chest and sneered, "Ignorant sinner, repent before the Glory of the Lord!"

With a casual wave of his right hand, a brilliant white light shot from the Cardinal's hand, accompanied by a crisp, melodious sacred chant. The light condensed into a watery, white light sword flanked by ornate wings. The Vatican prelates surrounding him broke into proud, self-satisfied smiles, their hands tucked in their sleeves, watching the Cardinal proceed according to doctrine. This white light sword was a finishing move taught to Vatican clergy by the Six-Winged Angel Tz’ite, rumored to possess the marvelous ability to sever all physical matter and, when cultivated to the highest realm, even tear open space and time.

According to Tz’ite’s description, a powerful First Generation Angel once used this technique to carve a wormhole in the void, and several First Generation Angels working together used this move to destroy a black hole in space. To destroy space and time, to sever anything definable by language in the world—that was the terrifying power of this single move.

The light sword was named the Grace of the Light Clan. Calling it "Grace" was in fact naming a move that annihilated everything.

Gu Xiechen pulled out the Qilin Seal, not using its artifact power, but merely transforming the seal into a square block about a foot across, swinging it down violently toward the Cardinal’s face like a street thug slapping a brick. The Cardinal never expected Gu Xiechen to attack without a word. Others only saw a flash of red light from Gu Xiechen’s hand as a square slab of brick, a foot wide, slammed squarely onto the Cardinal's face, flattening his prominent nose bridge, high brow ridge, and high cheekbones into a single plane.

The Grace of the Light Clan, which the Cardinal had been preparing in his hand, instantly shattered, and a fierce surge of light energy swept outward in all directions.