North American Standard Time, December 24, 2375, 11:00 PM, Manhattan Island, New York, the largest financial district in the Northern Hemisphere.

  The dark clouds seemed to press down on the rooftops of the skyscrapers, and the gloomy cold wind brought a sharp whistling sound from the gaps in the clouds, hitting the ground. The snowflakes, as big as a child's palm, heavily hit the glass walls of the buildings, making a crisp crackling sound.

  On Christmas Eve, nearly half of New York's population rushed to the city center's Times Square to celebrate the arrival of the new year, and Manhattan Island was almost devoid of human figures. All the high-rise buildings were shrouded in a thick black shadow, and the piercing cold wind whizzed through the buildings, with dark clouds seeming to press down lower and lower.

  The Goodyear Building is the tallest building in Manhattan and North America, with a height of 999 meters. The sharp and towering Goodyear Building stands on the coast of Manhattan Island like a sharp military knife. Occasionally, the spotlight of a distant ship sweeps across the Goodyear Building, and a giant ink dragon tread cloud map can be seen faintly on the building's curtain wall, which is over 100 meters high. The fierce dragon holds a blood-red dragon ball and a sharp sword in its front paws, and the light shines on the magic dragon's head, with two dragon eyes flashing brightly, inlaid with fine blue gemstones. A strong and evil aura surrounds the giant dragon body.

  Ku's Mansion, the headquarters of Ku's Group.

  The Koos Corporation, a behemoth controlling the largest share of the Earth Federation's arms market.

  Suddenly, the sky with wildly rolling dark clouds seemed to burst open, and a huge purple lightning bolt accompanied by a loud "crack" tore through the black sky. Like an angry dragon, the lightning column ripped through the dark clouds and struck the ground, barely grazing the top of the Gu family building before crashing into the dark sea surface.

  A burst of flames exploded from the Gu family building at an altitude of over 400 meters, blowing open a hole with a diameter of over 30 meters in the building's body. A black figure leapt out of the flames and dozens of other black figures stood at the edge of the hole, shouting something as they wildly fired various light and heavy weapons at the figure that had jumped out of the building.

  The cold wind swept away the snowflakes that had covered the figure flying out of the building, and the gunman on the roof quickly lost his target.

  Gu Xie dust stretched out his hands and slid through the night sky, he turned his head to glance at the gunman who was firing at him, a faint, enigmatic smile appeared on his handsome face.

  In an instant, the height of over 400 meters was reached, and Gu Xiechen's feet heavily landed on the ground. The concrete pavement cracked with a spider web-like pattern, and Gu Xiechen lightly rolled forward to dissipate the force of the fall. 'Whooshing' sounds filled the air as more than ten heavy double-handed swords tightly followed Gu Xiechen's rolling body and struck the ground, sword energy howling and tearing through the concrete pavement. More than ten cars parked nearby were cut in half by the sharp sword energy, exploding with a loud crash, metal fragments flying everywhere, and chaos erupted on the scene.

  His body's true energy erupted like a bomb, his long hair fluttering behind him. He swung his claws fiercely forward, his ten fingers shrouded in a layer of faint white aura. Two burly men wearing medieval heavy knight armor charged out of the darkness, their three-meter-long chain flails swinging wildly as they pounced on Gu Xuan Dust. The steel balls on the chain flail spun rapidly, emitting an ear-piercing whistling sound that could drive people mad.

  Gu Xiechen's double claws heavily slapped the steel ball that fell from above, and his delicate white paws brutally penetrated the heavy steel ball. Gu Xiechen took a deep breath, and a blue light flashed in his eyes. A violent aura burst out from his paws, shattering the special alloy steel chain armor inch by inch. Gu Xiechen grinned strangely as he swept past the bodies of the two big men, and the ferocious claws that had just shattered the two chain whips brutally swept across the abdomens of the two big men.

  Two blood springs spouted out more than ten meters away, Gu Xie Chen's sharp claws tore the armor of the two big men to shreds, and the internal organs of the two big men were torn apart by the violent claw force, large pieces of flesh and blood flew in the dark night wind, cooling down.

  "Here! Kill him!"

  A shrill whistle came from all directions, more than 20 burly men wearing knight armor and holding double-handed greatswords burst out from the surroundings, spewing hot air. The heavy sound of breaking through the air tore through the night wind, and the long sword cut everything in front of these men into powder. Streetlights, tree trunks, and benches for tourists to rest on were all sliced into fragments, with countless pieces flying high into the air amidst the frenzied and thunderous aura.

  "Come on!"

  With a loud scream, Gu Xiechen suddenly straightened his body, his hands raised high, and the white claws in the night sky flashed with a faint white light. A thread of fresh blood slowly slid down from the tip of his fingers, and a fierce evil aura burst into the air. More than 20 heavy zhanma swords weighing over 200 kilograms formed an impenetrable sword net that descended upon him, Gu Xiechen's body rapidly spinning around, one after another white claw marks with a chilling aura fiercely met the attack, he fearlessly used his claws to strike at these heavy zhanma swords.

  The long sword shattered, the armor shattered, and the bodies of more than 20 big men were shattered. A series of claw winds shot out several meters away, and the sharp claw energy crushed everything around into powder.

  Blood splattered on Gu Xiechen's face, his body was drenched in hot blood. Gu Xiechen let out a few 'heh heh' laughs and suddenly looked up at the sky, letting out a sharp cry: "Gu Juechen! You want me to die? It won't be that easy! I, Gu Xiechen, will return! You wait for it! You wait for me!"

  Hundreds of people holding various firearms poured out of the ancient building, the dull sound of gunfire shattered the dark night wind, and the hot power contained in the pouring bullets melted countless snowflakes into warm snow water.

  Gu Xie's hands drew a circular arc in the air, resembling the Taiji symbol, and finally his palms converged into a fist-sized sphere in front of his lower abdomen.

  Almost ten thousand bullets poured towards his head, condensing three feet in front of Gu Xiechen's body. Gu Xiechen smiled at the terrified gunmen and pushed forward with both hands.

  Almost a thousand bullets shot back at more than three times the speed of the incoming fire, hundreds of gunners danced wildly in the hail of bullets, their bodies riddled with holes, blood splattered all over the square in front of the Guosi Building.

  Gu Xie dust lifted his head, as if he saw some people standing on the top floor of the Gu family building.

  Another thunderbolt came crashing down from the sky, a terrifying aura pressed down from high above.

  Gu Xiechen turned silently and walked away, dozens of fireballs with a diameter of several meters descended from the sky, the bright red fireballs exploded violently, everything within hundreds of meters was shrouded in raging flames. Gu Xiechen's thin body was engulfed by the firelight, but he broke through the flames in an instant, carrying a smoky air into the dark night.

  The true energy inside his body, like liquid silver, flowed freely and joyfully in the meridians. The ancient evil dust had used all its strength to make a desperate escape. A hundred meters ahead was the sea surface, which was his only hope for survival.

  The fireball just now had severely injured Gu Xiechen. The three fireballs exploded within three meters of Gu Xiechen's body, each with the power comparable to a heavy aviation bomb. If not for Gu Xiechen's refined cultivation and the constant rotation of his protective aura, he would have been reduced to dust in the explosion. Although he managed to escape in time, his skin was still scorched, several of his meridians were severed, and when the true energy inside him flowed, his body convulsed in severe pain, as if dozens of small knives were wildly stabbing and slashing inside him.

  The lights inside the Ku Mansion suddenly turned on at the same time, and dozens of high-power spotlights shone down from the top of the building.

  A dozen or so figures leapt from the top floor of the Gu clan's grand estate. Among them, a handsome young man with a crimson wooden staff still in mid-air, his right palm already locked onto Gu Xuan who was fleeing for his life. A fiery red ring appeared on his palm, and within it, a faint red glow flashed, as nearly a hundred scarlet fireballs suddenly materialized beside him. With a light flick of the staff, these fireballs shot towards Gu Xuan with a dull breaking sound.

  The fireball came extremely fast, Gu Xie Chen didn't even have time to dodge, the chain explosion had already enveloped him in a several hundred square meters radius.

  Everything nearby was pulverized and craters three meters deep appeared in the ground.

  Gu Xie Chen only felt a wave of intense heat enveloping his body, he madly let out a loud roar towards the sky, his heart rate accelerated from its normal speed to over 200 beats per minute, a powerful energy burst forth from his heart, white aura shot out from every pore on his body, and the shockwave produced by the explosion was shattered into powder by the white aura. Gu Xie Chen's long hair stood up straight, blood spurted out from his pores, accompanied by a series of cracking sounds, his shiny black hair exploded, and Gu Xie Chen's figure expanded in size as he swung his palm at his broken hair.

  Fingers like strong bows, long hair like powerful arrows.

  A strand of fine and long black hair emitted a 'popping' muffled sound, tearing through the air. Each strand of hair infused with violent energy seemed to be ten times thicker than usual. Tens of thousands of strands of black hair covered an area of hundreds of meters, carrying a sharp whistling sound that could hook one's soul and pursue their life. In an instant, tens of thousands of strands of black hair arrived in front of the young man holding a wooden staff.

  Thousands of fine black hairs pierced the young man's body, and with a dull thud, this handsome young man exploded into a cloud of blood in mid-air.

  The dozen or so pursuers behind let out a collective cry of surprise and forgot to chase after Gu Xuan, as everyone instinctively scattered and ran for their lives.

  Black hair shot out hundreds of meters away, and everything along the way, including flowers, grass, trees, streetlights, and benches, was crushed to powder.

  A dozen or so purple lightning bolts struck the dark sea surface, and Gu Xie Chen had already leapt high into the air towards the front of the sea. At this moment, Gu Xie Chen's face was twisted to the extreme, his entire body's skin cracked open with spider web-like patterns, his seven apertures continuously spewing out columns of blood, but those hands that could shatter gold and stone were charred and blackened, clearly he had not escaped unscathed from the explosion just now.

  On top of the ancient building, a thin figure standing in the dark shadow looked far away at Gu Xuan's body rushing towards the sea surface.

  He stretched out his hand and made a grasping motion towards Gu Xiechen. Along with a muffled incantation, a fine green electric light shot down from the dark clouds, hitting Gu Xiechen right on target. A ball of dark green flames enveloped Gu Xiechen, and his originally soaring figure suddenly plummeted downwards like a bird that had been shot.

  "Gu Zhe dust... No, Gu Dajia master, Gu Xie dust must die without a doubt, and no one else has the qualifications to compete with you for the position of the ancient family."

  The gaunt figure burst out laughing with a 'heh heh' sound that was as unpleasant to hear as the cry of an owl.

  A tall figure standing in the darkness nodded slowly, and the rooftop beneath his feet rippled like water. He merged into the waves silently.

  "Farewell, my brother! To die under the Soul-Extinguishing Dark Thunder of the Three Witch Sect's elder is a death beyond regret!"

  The heavens seemed to have gone mad, with bolt after bolt of lightning striking the surface of the sea.

  Fifty kilometers off the coast of Manhattan Island, a charred and pitch-black arm suddenly pierced through the sea surface.

  The completely black ancient evil slowly floated to the surface of the water, wisps of black smoke slowly rising from his body, a foul smell of roasted meat spreading out in all directions.

  Kuxin's stagnant heartbeat slowly recovered, and his heart rate gradually accelerated, getting faster and faster.

  His heartbeat soared to three hundred beats per minute, and waves of pure and majestic energy continued to surge out from Gu Xuan's heart. The vitality of Gu Xuan had been destroyed by that green thunderbolt, but under the nourishment of this energy, the extinguished flame of life reignited in him once again.

  The tightly closed eyes slowly opened, and two dark blue evil lights shot out a foot away.

  Kuxie dust burst into an evil laugh.

  "Let's go and take a look!"

  The charred black skin on his body suddenly burst open, revealing a new layer of white skin underneath, as Gu Xie rose into the air like a demon.