The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 166: Invasion

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Bing Xue left behind her family in the city as she rushed to confront this new, powerful enemy, leaving them all confused about what just had happened.

“Bing Xue’s presence is really far away…” Urbosa muttered.

“Just what happened?” Merkite wondered.

“That man… Why was he wearing clothes so similar to hers?” Mursha asked, nervous.

“We have to go help!” Fiery Hair said angrily. “That man… strong! Bing Bing may not be able to handle it on her own!”

“She wouldn’t? But isn’t she the strongest?” Urbosa asked. “It’s impossible for her to struggle…”

“No… that man is dangerous! He had power… equal to her… or… stronger!” Fiery Hair seemed very shaken. “Help her! We have to go help her now!”

“Calm down!” Mursha grabbed Fiery Hair by the shoulders; she was the only one strong enough to stop her tantrums. “Let’s trust in Bing Xue. If she were to be truly in danger, I’m sure she'd tell us through her abilities. She can even use Telepathy, remember?”

“B-But…” Fiery Hair was growing nervous, even more with the ever-growing explosions and tremors far above the skies, which only resembled small bright lights.

“Calm down, auntie, mama got this!” Hekita said. “And if it becomes too much, then we go! She’ll tell us!”

“Uh…”

Fiery Hair sighed, looking into the skies in silence.

“Honestly, I am also worried,” Bing Xue’s mother sighed. “We’ve been training and growing even stronger so far, but can we even compare to my daughter yet? Katherine is strong enough to at least figure out something; I want to trust her.”

“Yeah,” nodded Ruby. “And if she’s weak, then she can at least run away with us and come back later!” She said it with absolute certainty.

“I am surprised how you blindly trust her so much…” Juan sighed. “But I can’t do much either. At the very least, I’ll stay by your side, Ruby.”

“Well, if you-”

Crack, crack…!

“Eh?”

Their eyes glanced at yet another crack breaking open, and then another, and another…

Small cracks where only a person or two could fit through.

“Gates?!”

Katherine’s mother panicked, while Ruby and Juan also gathered together with Bing Xue’s wives, rapidly taking out their weapons.

The people around the city near the gates panicked, immediately running away. This was the natural response after seeing them; it couldn’t be helped.

“Monsters! Monsters are coming!”

“The Gates are small though…”

“But they’re all gray?”

“Call the Hunters, quickly!”

“Bing Xue was here, wasn’t she? She flew away with a guy that appeared out of the blue…!”

As the people speculated while running away, several figures started coming out from the gates; the first of them resembled…

“Hahhh… Hahh… Huh? I’m back to New York? Wasn’t I fighting Doctor Frost?”

A man wearing a skin-tight red suit over his body, with two golden wings attached to his shoulders, and a big wing-shaped logo in his chest.

“Ah, hello ladies…? Hm? Green-skinned… wolf people?”

As he was wondering what was happening, he suddenly disappeared.

FLASH!

And then appeared right in front of them!

“W-Wha! He moved so fast!” said Ruby.

“Oh, you saw me moving?! Haha! Usually nobody can even notice that,” the man said. “I think I’m lost… Did I land on another multiverse event or something? I’m honestly tired of resetting the timelines all the time…”

“What is he talking about?” asked Mursha.

“I-I have no idea, but he doesn’t seem hostile at least?” Urbosa wondered. “However, don’t lower your guard…”

“S-Sorry! Was I scary? I’m really just some man- Wait, you don’t have a version of me here?!” he wondered.

“Who?” Katherine’s mom asked.

“Who the hell are you, dude?” Ruby wondered, raising an eyebrow.

“Wingspeed! You don’t know me?! I mean… I’m usually famous…” the man said. “Like, the fastest man on Earth? Does it ring any bells?”

“Huh? Are you a Flash rip-off?” asked Ruby.

“He sounds kind of neurotic, like he drank ten coffees this morning,” said Juan.

"Look, I’ve heard that like four times already in another universe, and I don’t even know who that Flash guy is; I’m Wingspeed, okay, and—Sorry, sorry, I’m getting a bit too heated up over nonsense. I’m afraid I’m stuck in your universe for a bit… Well, I’ll-”

BOOOM!

Before Wingspeed could say anything else, an explosion of azure frost surged from one of the nearby gates, beginning to freeze the buildings. The ice rushed towards the people escaping.

“Hahahaha! I found you, Wingspeed! So this is where you ran away, you damn rat!”

And then a man emerged from the gate, stepping over the tower of ice he created; he looked old, with blue skin, a bald head, and armor made of pure ice.

He wore large glasses made of ice too, and he looked kind of funny.

“Doctor Frost! You’re here too?!”

“Where else would I have gone to you, crimson escapist!”

“Why do you even talk like that? You’re so weird, dude, go home!”

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

Wingspeed moved at lightning speed—no, even faster than that—appearing and disappearing as he saved dozens of people that were seconds from being frozen.

“Bah! I hate that zoomer speech of yours! All youngsters nowadays are cultureless buffoons!”

Doctor Frost spread out his arms as his Aura rapidly grew stronger, overflowing with ice everywhere.

“Ooh?! My powers?! Have they become stronger? What’s this—System?! Eh! Hahahaha! GOOD!”

FLUOOOSH!

With a single thought, Doctor Frost unleashed a huge snowstorm, covering the buildings with snow and frost everywhere! Wingspeed moved quickly, saving more people.

“Dammit! At this point he’ll freeze half the city! Just how did he get so strong?!”

“Now nothing can stop me! I am invincible in this world, Wingspeed! Prepare yourself! I’ll freeze you to death! AHAHAHA- Eh?”

However, Doctor Frost’s big white eyes opened wide the moment he saw Mursha appear right by his left side.

“Stop it already!”

CRAAASH!

She swung her giant axe, cleaving through his ice walls and burning them all, sending Doctor Frost flying into the skies!

“Uuuuaaaaggghh!”

Doctor Frost screamed incredibly loudly as he was set ablaze; his frost covering his body was trying to constantly turn off the flames, yet they wouldn’t stop!

RUMBLE!

And then, above him, Urbosa and Merkite emerged, swinging their spears down.

“A-Ah! Wait a second! Time out! Time out—ACK!”

CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

Thunder and windstorm spear attacks pierced through all of his ice walls and armor, shattering them all into pieces and sending Doctor Frost down, with several holes covering his body.

“G-Guuggh?! I-I’m dying…?!”

“Doctor Frost!”

Wingspeed panicked as he saw him on the verge of death, rushing towards the skies with a big jump and catching him midair.

BAAAM!

Before reaching the ground, leaving a small crater beneath him.

“W-What are you doing?! You almost killed him!”

He glared at Mursha, Merkite, and Urbosa as they descended, although they were the most confused here. Why was this guy trying to save a psychopath aiming to freeze people to death?

“So what? He was trying to kill people in front of us!” said Urbosa.

“What’s wrong with that? We’re protecting them,” said Merkite.

“You’re weird! Why are you protecting him? Are you accomplices?” Mursha wondered.

“Woah, woah! Come on, calm down, ladies!” Wingspeed started sweating a bit as he was pointed with all sorts of weapons. “I am a superhero. Heroes don’t kill, as simple as that. Even if they’re villains. It’s just the code; we don’t kill, alright? If I do, then I’ll become the same as them. I’m trying to save them as well.”

“W-Wingspeed…” Doctor Frost vomited blood, glaring at the hero he despised saving his life. “Y-You damn… brat.”

“Nonsense! He has to be slain! Perhaps how many people he has killed already!” said Mursha. “What sort of hero are you that you cower in fear when it’s time to slay your foe? You’re not a true warrior!”

“Jesus, calm down; okay, I’m leaving!” Wingspeed sighed. “I have to bring him to the hospital, bye!”

FLASH!

Wingspeed was much faster than them; even if they tried, he was already gone within a split second.

“He left,” said Urbosa.

“He’s serious? What kind of “superhero” are these? I don’t get it,” sighed Merkite.

“Hmph… Well, if he said he'd take care of him, let’s hope he doesn’t let him do the same thing again!” Mursha said. “This isn’t my world, but it’ll be the world of my child. So I have to protect it. If that man begins trying to freeze people again, we’re going to slay him. Simple as!”

The gray portals began to close right after that event, and although they were only able to interact with two of them, several more mysterious figures had stepped out from another timeline, already scurrying away across New York and perhaps the rest of the world.

“Heheheh… What a wonderful world this is!”

A man wearing a jester mask and wearing a purple-colored suit giggled; behind him, there were several other weird-looking people.

The happiest thing in his life had been landing on another world, one of boundless opportunities unlike his own.

He used his fingers to swipe through a system window as his stats increased while the corpse of several civilians he caught and killed on the spree of a couple seconds granted him EXP.

“Hmm! I feel stronger… This is insane! Hahahaha! You can get stronger by killing people?! No way! It’s free, real state, my boys and girls! Time to even the field!”

The man then gasped, noticing something even grander.

“And what is… THAT?!”

He pointed at the huge tower surging from within the horizon.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited before… For the first time, I kind of want to take a break from harassing Nightman.”

As new threats arose within the already chaotic Earth, a clash between two Supreme beings above the skies continued, reaching its climax.

BAAAM!

Bing Xue clashed against the mysterious man from the gray gate, someone who claimed to have come from a future where she died and condemned Earth entirely.

Not only did he possess many of her abilities and techniques, but he claimed to be even superior to her at using them.

And right now, both have unleashed their “truest” forms, becoming embodiments of pure Light, Divine and Cosmic Photonic Energy.

Their blows shook the space around them, generating cracks through space itself.

CLASH!

Their beams exploded, unleashing enormous shockwaves of light everywhere.

BOOM!

And their techniques, big and wide and of many shapes, cut through one another’s bodies.

CRASH!

Yet their bodies continuously regenerated, made of light; it was incredibly hard for them to sustain large amounts of damage.

“{Starlight Mantis Space-Cutting Scythes}!”

The young man screamed as his Aura shaped into two massive mantis scythes, rushing towards Bing Xue and cutting through her body as they sliced through space!

SLAASH! SLAASH! SLAASH!

“Nnngggh…!”

Bing Xue saw her body being cut apart as her "blood,” liquified primordial energies, splattered into space, only for it to quickly return, her entire body reassembling itself in seconds.

“{Primordial Rainbow Spiritual Formation}: {Bringer of Nirvana}”

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

Suddenly, several golden lotuses made of her own Ki appeared around the gigantic silver-colored man, connecting with golden threads and conjuring a gigantic formation.

“Uugh?!”

The man saw the formation impose upon his body a tremendous amount of pressure and explosive power as a massive rainbow-colored lotus blossomed within his body.

“W-What sort of…?!”

“It seems you don’t know this one!”

BOOOMMM!!!

The rainbow lotus exploded, feeding on his own energy and power to unleash a massive explosion. This was one of these techniques Bing Xue only used against truly mighty foes.

“U-Uagh…! Hahhh…!”

However, he remained alive; his chest had been blown up, revealing a massive hole where liquified primordial energies leaked from, bleeding constantly over the moon below them.

“Ugh…! No! I am stronger…! I AM STRONGER THAN YOU!”

RUMBLE!

His body immediately regenerated, even faster than Bing Xue could regenerate her own, and quickly transformed into an even more monstrous werewolf—no, it was more like a chimera with multiple different animal parts.

“RAAAHHHH!!!”

He roared like a furious monster, opening his countless jaws and firing dozens of silver-colored Photonic Energy blasts against Bing Xue at once.

“Are you planning on blowing up the moon?!”

Bing Xue tapped into her powers even more deeply, combining her Skills, Divinities, and more, and awakening her gigantic Divinity Tree.

“For this I must go beyond!”

Her Faith began to be rapidly spent, and as she quickly started to develop something within her Divinity Tree, a powerful ability was being formed.

“If your own Power is based on hundreds of Divinities piled up together, then I shall use that same power against you!”

FLAAASH!

Bing Xue released this new power at once, as the space around her twisted and transformed, merging around with her Aura and quickly turning into a massive golden and white metallic shield with a Yin and Yang mark on its center.

“{Primordial Heavenly Yin Yang Aegis}!”

Concentrating the power of these opposite elements and then disrupting them together into one, she put the power of Chaos Disrupting Arts into a defensive form.

This explosive power became a protective force!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The dozens of beams reached her shield, as her shield continued to expand with each blow it took, growing larger and larger and larger!

Until…!

“Release!”

She released all the accumulated power into a powerful black and white beam, which twisted its trajectory and sent the man flying farther away from the moon and the Earth!

TRUUUM!

“Nnngghh…! Nngaaarrghh!”

BOOOMMM!

As their battle reached its climax, someone was watching them.

Someone who, just like that young man, had just arrived here, confused.

With a long red and blue cape and a handsome face with short black hair, his azure eyes glanced into the distance.

“If I allow this pointless fight to continue, they’ll end up destroying the moon or worse, the planet!”

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