Chapter 280 - Catastrophe
Chapter 280: Catastrophe
Translator: Myuu Editor: Myuu
The unexpected anomaly in the sky caused not only Yan Liqiang to snap his head up but also Gu Zexuan and Zhao Huipeng who were beside him at the same time. They were all staring at the rumbling, falling fireballs in the sky with their mouths agape.
“What are those?!” Gu Zexuan asked in shock while Zhao Huipeng’s jaw dropped in surprise.
Yan Liqiang’s mind was drawing a blank at this moment because the scene that unfolded before his eyes was so shocking that it numbed his nerves. To be honest, he had only seen this in movies and animations in his previous life, and the ones that contained such a scene were all related to natural disasters and extinction without exception.
However, time didn’t allow him to be lost in his daydreams at this time because under the gazes of three pairs of eyes, a fireball was falling from the sky at a terrifying speed. It appeared in their field of vision, dyeing the waters of the Qinhuai River crimson.
Quite a number of passengers on the pleasure boats went to the forecastle to gawk at the anomaly in the sky above them.
“GET DOWN…!”
Yan Liqiang yelled. Before Gu Zexuan and Zhao Huipeng could even react, Yan Liqiang had knocked both of them down on the grass by the river.
BOOOM…!
The loud explosion shook the ground and pierced Yan Liqiang’s ears like the sound of thunder. Yan Liqiang’s chest was pressed tightly against the ground. At that exact moment, he felt the entire ground vibrating like a drum that was being beaten by a giant. The tremors traveled from his chest to his body, instantly causing the blood in his entire body to surge.
The terrifying shockwave swept through with a blast of heat. Yan Liqiang lifted himself up from the ground and saw that a row of restaurants nearby had collapsed in a flash. Countless roof tiles scattered like snowflakes in the violent wind…
Crack! The old willow tree next to them which had been hollowed out by termites was struck down by the shockwave. It crashed into the ground, just less than two meters away from them. Some willows by the riverside toppled, exposing their roots.
The waters of the Qinhuai River immediately turned violent, surging over several tens of meters high. A few dozen beautifully-decorated pleasure boats on the river swayed, crashed, and toppled over from the impact of that terrifying shockwave. The top decks of some of the two or three-tiered pleasure boats were crushed in a flash. Wooden fragments flew about and the entire boat was broke into pieces…
The sky lit up again. Several thousand meters away, a fireball directly plunged into the Qinhuai River under Yan Liqiang’s gaze…
The moment the fireball fell, all the pleasure boats within the radius of several hundred meters disappeared in the glaring light. The waters of the Qinhuai River surged several hundred meters vertically, rendering the pleasure boats on the river into leaves in turbulent water. They were thrown high up into the air before they came crashing down, smashing into pieces. The once tranquil river swelled violently, forming a huge wave that towered over several tens of meters. It rolled the pleasure boats around and loomed toward the banks. Under the force of the water, the capsized pleasure boats crashed into the willow trees along the river, breaking them with terrifying destructive power.
The three of them were still on the grass by the river. The river water came gushing toward the three of them from afar as though a floodgate had just been opened. The water level of the river rose rapidly and churned.
“Get up and run…!!” Yan Liqiang immediately leaped to his feet and yelled loudly. He grabbed Gu Zexuan and Zhao Huipeng by their hands and quickly bolted into the distance.
About two hundred meters away, there was a countryside farmland beyond the road by the levee and the collapsed houses. There was a hill on the farmland that stood several tens of meters above ground level.
At the beginning, Gu Zexuan and Zhao Huipeng didn’t even realize what was going on. They were just running along with Yan Liqiang. After running across a distance and seeing the surging waves of the Qinhuai River and the rolling pleasure boats, only then did both of them realized what was going on as they continued bolting frantically toward the hill with Yan Liqiang.
Just when the three of them made it up the hill, the tumbling waters of the Qinhuai River were hot on their heels. They engulfed the crops in the fields. The surging river carried the remnants of half a pleasure boat. It chased the three of them while pushing the soil and mud of the fields like a bulldozer, not stopping until the three of them finally made it to the top of the hill…
Yan Liqiang and the rest didn’t stop until they reached the highest point of the hill where they stopped to catch their breaths. The rolling and surging waters of the Qinhuai River only stopped rising after it covered seven or eight meters of the hill vertically. However, the river wave went beyond the area. It continued engulfing the riverbanks before it rolled into the distance.
Yan Liqiang stood on the hill and surveyed the area. Several thousand meters away, where the first fireball landed, the area was initially a bustling night market. Beside the night market was a small town. Right now, both the night market and small town had vanished. Only a paddy field in the distance was ablaze…
Further away, Jinling City was already engulfed in flames that scraped the sky.
Yan Liqiang saw a fireball land directly on Jinling City. Several hundred meters of Jinling City’s magnificent city wall disappeared into a white light…
In the sky, fireballs were still raining from the sky in succession…
At this exact moment, Yan Liqiang knew his face was definitely drained of color even without looking in the mirror. An indescribable wave of fear and terror made his body quiver involuntarily. It was only at a time like this where one would come to truly realize he was only as tiny as a dust particle in this vast universe…
“W-what are those?” Zhao Huipeng asked with his trembling voice as he stared at the scene that was unfolding before his very eyes.
“Meteors… Those are meteors…” Yan Liqiang replied blankly.
All of a sudden, heaven and earth were once again engulfed in a bright light. Under Yan Liqiang’s gaze, an even bigger fireball streaked across the blue dome of heaven, lighting up the northern skies in red. It broke through countless layers of clouds, dropping like a falling star.
Looking at the direction where the falling fireball would land, that was where the Imperial Capital of the Great Han Empire sat!
Yan Liqiang instantly held his breath!
The moment the fireball landed, the world seemed to stand still for a moment.
In the dark night, the intense light of the fireballs rose in the horizon and expanded. The clouds in the sky were instantly engulfed by the expanding light like fallen dominoes…
Shortly thereafter, the earth quaked and the mountains shook. The destructive tremor caused the city wall of Jinling City to collapse along with countless houses and buildings. The earth was filled with agonized screams.