Seeking Truth with a Sword-Chapter 638 - 577 Telekinesis_2

The field commander inside the armored vehicle had a tense face, his eyes fixed on the small screen.

Faced with Li Ang, whose destructive power was overwhelming, the US forces had already lowered their demands. Capturing him alive would be best, but if that wasn’t achievable, recovering his intact body would be acceptable. If they couldn’t even obtain an intact body, then killing and eliminating him, and retrieving some severed limbs or body tissue containing Elemental Material, would also be acceptable. Now, they were waiting for an opportunity: for Li Ang to appear in their sights, a chance to ensure modern weapons could deliver a fatal blow.

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Amidst the blazing fire, Ryan reached down to touch his ribs. The armor there had been sliced open by a sharp blade; it was perilously close to tearing through his flesh, leaving him vulnerable to infestation by Elemental Material. He slowly exhaled a turbid breath, gazing at Li Ang before him, a thoughtful expression on his face. In just a few short minutes, the other man’s superpower had intensified. The chains had evolved more intricate mechanical structures, capable of transforming into blades or even... firearms.

Was this... evolution?

An absurd thought surfaced in Ryan’s mind. If Elemental Material could mimic any form of matter, then it could conceivably transform into firearms and ammunition, tanks and cannons, and even more complex electronic components.

Infinite potential, an infinite future.

No wonder the United States was willing to pay any price, even risk universal condemnation, to deploy troops into the heart of Tokyo to capture their target. No wonder that in the waters of the Western Pacific, multinational fleets were at daggers drawn, fighter jet squadrons faced off in the skies, and countless hypersonic missiles had locked onto aircraft carrier groups.

"God bless the United States!"

Ryan gritted his teeth, a flicker of resolve in his eyes. His hand, gripping the Scythe’s shaft, slid forward, fingers lightly brushing against the cold steel of the blade. He bent his knees, gathered his strength, and charged.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK—

The concrete beneath his feet shattered, and the surging flames even began to melt the steel frames of nearby vehicles.

At the end of the road, Li Ang wore a serious expression. He clapped his palms together forcefully, and the chains, now transformed into blades, slashed at his enemy from all directions. Ryan swung his Scythe, deflecting wave after wave of chains. However, as the distance between them closed, the chains multiplied, and gaps began to appear in his defense. Several chains pierced his shoulders, ribs, legs, and chest. The Elemental Material coating the chains formed sharp barbs, tearing through muscle and organs, inflicting unimaginable, excruciating pain. Even if the battle stopped at that very moment and he were rushed to an operating table, no doctor in the world could treat injuries of this severity.

But Ryan didn’t stop. He allowed the chains to transfix and tear through his body as he took several more steps forward, his Scythe slicing into the ground before flicking upwards. The superpower granted by the meteorite surged to its absolute limit. Ferocious flames erupted from the fissures in the earth, roaring like a fire demon, blasting both Ryan and Li Ang into the air. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Success.

A flicker of relief passed through Ryan’s eyes, his body now a mangled ruin of flesh and blood. He released his grip on the Scythe an instant before the pillar of fire would have engulfed him, only to be snatched from the air by the descending Moon Woman. Their forms simultaneously became ethereal, allowing them to pass through the rising inferno and saving Ryan from being torn to shreds by the chains.

"Fire!"

Seeing Li Ang suspended helplessly in mid-air, the field commander seized the long-awaited opportunity and roared. The waiting military forces immediately unleashed a devastating barrage. Howitzers, autocannons, mortars, anti-tank missiles... These weapons, forged for slaughter, became a torrent of metal that detonated with thunderous force. The windows of buildings lining both sides of the street shattered. Vehicles caught in the shockwaves were instantly riddled with holes.

The barrage lasted for over a minute.

Amidst the smoke and dust, Moon Woman slowly descended with Ryan, not daring to revert from their ethereal forms, fearing that Ryan would die instantly if they returned to their physical state. He, however, paid no mind to his injuries, his gaze fixed on the dense smoke in the center of the street. Soldiers manning the machine guns on the armored vehicles craned their necks. Helicopters hovered at low altitude, adjusting their observation angles. The commander subconsciously held his breath. Even ten thousand kilometers away, in the White House Situation Room in Washington, the American generals found their own breathing slowing.

As the smoke gradually dispersed, what appeared on the road was not an unscathed Li Ang, nor was it a mangled collection of severed limbs...

"What is that?!" a soldier cried out in shock. The same question echoed across the communication channels, spreading like wildfire and inciting unease.

It was a wall of silvery-white steel. It stretched across nearly half the street, was thicker than a man’s arm, and slanted upwards towards the sky. Numerous steel supports extended from its rear, anchoring it to the surrounding buildings and the ground. The silver wall was pockmarked with craters, signs of shells that had either ricocheted off its angled surface or detonated directly against it. The undamaged sections, however, were as smooth as a mirror, showing no signs of seams or joints. Rain lashed against it, water streaming smoothly down its slope. The entire structure silently reflected the inferno of the burning street.

Li Ang floated behind the wall, gripping a rod of Elemental Material that connected to the silver wall. In the instant he was sent flying by Ryan’s desperate attack, just as he was about to be engulfed by enemy fire, Li Ang had chosen to expend all the metal he had absorbed thus far to construct this seemingly impenetrable barrier. A simple metal wall wouldn’t have been enough to stop such a dense torrent of projectiles, so he had interwoven it with filaments of Elemental Material to reinforce its structure.

The encroachment of Mo Si upon his brain had reached approximately twenty percent. Fragmented memories surged relentlessly, creating a disorienting sensation, making his brain throb as if it were a second heart. He had, after all, managed to withstand it.

Li Ang released his grasp on the rod. The Elemental Material within the wall flowed out like a ferrofluid, returning to his control at his feet. He had already reforged the silver-white wall before him into a high-strength alloy. Reabsorbing and utilizing it via Elemental Material would take more time—time the assembled military forces would clearly not grant.

But it no longer mattered.

Li Ang looked at his palm thoughtfully. As the encroachment of Mo Si deepened, he too was growing stronger.

HUM!

The Elemental Material in his palm trembled and slowly rose, coalescing into a perfect sphere before flattening and elongating into a slender needle. Li Ang closed his eyes. With a light tap of his fingers, the levitating needle shot skyward, instantly transfixing an armed helicopter passing overhead by piercing its propeller blades.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The damaged blades struck each other and shattered. Amidst the pilot’s desperate cries, the entire helicopter tilted, flipped, and crashed into a high-rise building, exploding on impact. Li Ang shifted his finger to the left. The needle instantly changed direction, streaking across a kilometer to impale a second armed helicopter. Then came the third, and the fourth. One by one, the helicopters plummeted. Li Ang opened his eyes. The long needle spiraled back, coming to a quiet hover above his palm.

"..."

Ryan watched this unfold, his facial muscles twitching uncontrollably. "What... is this ability?" he asked, his voice strained.

Li Ang tilted his head slightly, a hint of his own bewilderment in his voice. "Controlling matter with thought, changing reality with will," he said. "I call it... Mind."

As he spoke, more Elemental Material transformed into needles, gently rising to hover in the torrential downpour.

At the far end of the street, the terrified field commander once again screamed, "Open fire!"

In the next instant, countless long needles shot forth, tearing through human flesh and boring into armored vehicles. Li Ang ignored the ethereal forms of Ryan and Moon Woman, stepping towards the military formation. The soldiers futilely raised their weapons, firing into a night sky filled with whistling sounds, yet they could neither see nor hit a single Mind Needle. Their body armor was useless; the vaunted armor of their modern war machines was effortlessly pierced. Soldiers fell in droves. The combat vehicles were disabled before they could even fire, their critical components destroyed, bringing them and their crews to a standstill.

Li Ang strode through the wreckage and pools of blood. The field commander, all his men dead, scrambled out of his armored vehicle. He brandished a pistol, his expression crazed as he screamed, "You monster!"

Li Ang paused, regarding him with a hint of pity. "You are the ones who made me a monster," he stated calmly.

BANG!

The commander pulled the trigger. The bullet froze in mid-air—a long needle had transfixed the handgun, immobilizing it. Then, the needle shot back along the bullet’s intended path, reversing its original trajectory to pierce the commander’s skull.