“It’s going to rain,” Cen Xiao said, staring at the still fairly clear sky and looking unwell. “I really hate rain.” 

He was a fire type special ability user. Encountering rain or snow made him feel unwell. After becoming a Protector, he had voluntarily requested an area in the north, going as far as possible from the rainy southern areas. 

Precisely because of this characteristic, he was unusually sensitive towards the climate. He could predict rain and snow more accurately than the weather forecast. He could feel half an hour to an hour ahead of time when there would be a rainstorm. Everyone jokingly called Cen Xiao “Little Rain Radar.” 

“There are still two streets we haven’t patrolled. Put your backs into it, everyone, let’s hurry up and get off work. Ow, I can feel my bones itching.” Cen Xiao uncomfortably kneaded his shoulders. 

Seeing that his friend was really uncomfortable, You Zhengping urged his teammates to hurry. The whole force quickly passed by the sales area of the Xuyang District’s newly constructed complex on their police issue electric scooters. Around thirty minutes after they had left, Huan Zixu, having just walked out of the sales area after having paid a hundred thousand yuan advance, had been conducting an intense discussion about misappropriating public money with Lian Yufan. 

Meanwhile, the squad that had sped up had already reached a place ten kilometers from the new complex. This was a familiar location—Xuyang District Central Park. 

The central park had been blown to bits by Destroyer 192 two months earlier. Even hundreds of years old trees had fallen. The losses had been great. 

Fortunately, Yu Hua had restored the life force of the old trees, and Lian Yufan had repaired some historically significant buildings, reducing the losses to a minimum. The park had taken advantage of the opportunity to renovate. After two months of construction on overdrive, the central park had taken on a whole new look. 

You Zhengping arrived at the park’s gates and scanned an announcement posted in front of them. Surprised, he said, “Renovations have been completed, the park is opening tomorrow?” 

“Really?” Hearing that the park renovations had been completed, the ill-feeling Cen Xiao came over. This was a place where they had struggled. It was a good thing that the park could be opened. 

From outside, the major changes to the central park’s appearance were visible. The old-fashioned gates had been renovated and become a great deal more lavish. The manmade lake where they had rescued Junjun had been widened, and many amusement activities had been added on the water. 

Cen Xiao bumped You Zhengping with his shoulder and, with an evil smile, said, “We’re off tomorrow. Why not come with the first wave to play in the park? Bring Yu Hua. You can go together to look at the tree where you pledged your love. Maybe he even has those thousands of characters of self-criticism memorized. Oh, and remember to return my money.” 

You Zhengping imagined the black-cloaked man coming in the night to restore the old tree to life and felt both sweetness and awkwardness. He rolled his eyes at Cen Xiao. “You can still joke? Looks like you aren’t feeling that bad, huh? 

“Ow, ow! It’s getting bad again!” Cen Xiao exaggeratedly rubbed his shoulders. “It’s like my bones have been frozen. Is it raining or sleeting!” 

“Stop pretending, the hottest days of the year have just passed, and it’s thirty-two degrees today. It’ll drop to twenty-eight at most if it rains. What sleet are you talking about?” You Zhengping gave Cen Xiao a kick. 

“No… Captain You, Captain Cen!” underling Shi Yongfu said, staring at the sky. “It’s not a joke, it’s really sleeting!” 

The seven members of You Zhengping’s squad raised their heads and saw countless ice crystals coming down over the park’s thousands of square meters. 

“How can it be snowing?” One of the squad members jokingly caught an ice crystal with his hand. “It’s August. Does the snow have a grievance?” 

The moment the ice crystal touched the squad member’s hand, a horrifying feeling came from his heart. You Zhengping cried out, “Drops the scooters and hide, take shelter at once, don’t touch the ice crystals!” 

As he cried out, he kicked away his motor scooter. After a single moment’s hesitation, You Zhengping had found that his hand was frozen to the scooter by the ice crystals. He didn’t try to touch the ice crystals. Instead, he kicked the scooter without hesitation. The part stuck to his hand tore off a piece of flesh. 

Meanwhile, the squad member who had touched the ice crystal had half his arm frozen, and his legs were frozen to the motor scooter. He could no longer drop the scooter and escape.

You Zhengping wanted to go to his rescue, but when he had only gone one step, he found that the ground had frozen, and the soles of his shoes were frozen to it. He couldn’t walk. 

“Fire!” You Zhengping immediately called to Cen Xiao. 

Cen Xiao, as a fire ability user, had suffered the least damage. He hadn’t frozen to his scooter, and the ground beneath his feet was normal.

He was like a heat source. The area a meter around him was untouched by the ice crystals. The others, meanwhile, were being frozen in more and more places. 

Cen Xiao quickly raised his flames, wanting to thaw out his teammates. Just then, an ice coffin fell out of the sky and trapped Cen Xiao inside it. 

A person dressed in white clothes floated down from the sky and stood on top of the ice coffin. Their hair was white, their eyebrows were white, their skin was white, and so were their lips. They seemed to be made entirely out of snow. Only their ice blue eyes still had a trace of living energy.¹

In the ice coffin, Cen Xiao tried countless times to ignite his flames, but the temperature was too low. It was 150 degrees below zero in the ice coffin. Even flames froze in an instant. Anyone else would have been frozen solid inside the ice coffin by now. Only Cen Xiao could still show signs of life. 

Seeing different degrees of frostbite appearing on his other squad members, You Zhengping unhesitatingly opened his second space and hid them inside it, preventing them from getting any more frostbite. 

“Hm?” The person who looked like an ice sculpture spoke in a voice whose gender couldn’t be distinguished. They looked at You Zhengping. “You’re a spatial ability user. That’s a rare power.” 

“You’re a Destroyer,” You Zhengping said decisively. 

“So you call us Destroyers,” the snow person said calmly. “And what do you call yourselves?” 

“Protectors.” You Zhengping felt colder and colder. His life signs were falling. Even movement was becoming difficult. 

The park next to them had turned into a world of white. The old trees were covered in icicles, their leaves sealed inside. 

The snow person took out a crystal sphere. The numbers 5-1 were carved on the bottom of the crystal. They looked at the twinkling power points in the crystal, doubt flashing through their ice blue eyes. “Strange. You’re the strongest person in this area. Your power is as different as night and day from the others. How can you only be a Protector, not the mission target? I came right for you because I thought I could win the prize right away. Too bad, I guessed wrong.”  

This Destroyer looked able and practiced, entirely different from the ones You Zhengping had seen before. There were no surplus items on them, only a full outfit of white clothes and pure ice powers. Their attack method seemed to be singular, but it was extremely terrible. 

The surroundings cleared. There were no more sounds of birds or beasts. Between heaven and earth, everything was white. The air was full of cold. And this low temperature passed through You Zhengping’s space, transferring to his squad members, who were gradually recovering inside. 

“Who are you? A holder of natural law power?” You Zhengping felt a chill at heart. If that were the case, then he wouldn’t be able to go home and eat Yu Hua’s dinner. 

“I’m the head of the Clearing League, an idiot who has passed 273 levels.” The snow person laughed in self-mockery, an expression appearing on their ice-sculpture-like face for the first time. 

So this was the head of the league, the one who had organized the Clearing League to deal with Yu Hua, who had forced Zhen Li and Yuan Luori to come test the waters, who had made the league’s Destroyers deliver themselves one after another, and… You Zhengping shook his half-frozen head and found that the head of the league hadn’t done anything apart from that. They were only an organizer. Even without them, the Destroyers would still have come to their world in waves, lured by the bait of clearing. 

And they called themselves an idiot. Was that because they knew something about the System? It was too cold. You Zhengping’s train of thought was gradually freezing. 

“I’m not the most powerful person in this operation, but I do in fact hold a bit of natural law power. Only a tiny bit, not enough to establish a natural law space, but I can control some of the rules within a certain area.” The head of the league came up to You Zhengping and smiled bitterly. “I’m going to die for that bit of power.” 

“The most powerful person in this operation… There are more of you?” You Zhengping was feeling waves of sleepiness. 

“That’s right,” said the head of the league. “This is the last time. After this, no one else from the Clearing League will come to trouble you.” 

Why… What are they saying? I can’t quite hear… You Zhengping’s sight was blurring. He thought that the head of the league’s figure was increasingly illusory. 

The head of the league saw that You Zhengping would soon be asleep and quietly said, “The System forced me to consume the shards of a world’s natural law power. With my current power level, I can’t contain that power. Soon, because my body can’t endure the sudden rise in power, I’ll explode and die. I’ll probably become a piece of ice that will never melt, probably about the size of this park. The temperature of the area will drop to minus twenty degrees. For hundreds of years, this area won’t have summer.” 

No… If that happened, the Xuyang District’s people would die out, over three million permanent residents. He couldn’t sleep, he absolutely couldn’t sleep… You Zhengping forced his eyelids open and looked at the ice coffin trapping Cen Xiao. Inside the ice coffin, a tiny flame was just going out. 

“I’ll tell you a secret. Everyone in the Clearing League is scared to die. If they weren’t scared to die, they wouldn’t have desperately passed so many levels.” The head of the league approached You Zhengping and raised an ice cold arm, putting it around You Zhengping’s waist. The moment they touched him, You Zhengping turned into an ice sculpture. 

After You Zhengping was sealed in ice, a space of about 64 cubic meters appeared because it had been frozen. The head of the league raised their hand towards the space and gripped it. The space broke into pieces of ice. Countless weapons fell out of the space onto the frozen ground and were frozen as well. 

The essence of energy is the kinetic power of the vibration of micro-particles. Even the power of the space was a special barrier formed of special particles. But when the temperature reached absolute zero, even the motion of the particles froze. No power could transmit in absolute zero. But it was impossible to reach absolute zero. You could only limitlessly approach it. This was a natural law of this world. 

But when the head of the league held a portion of natural law power, they could change the rules within a certain area, increase the threshold of absolute zero to -200°C. There was no need to reach true absolute zero temperature (-273.15°C); energy would freeze at -200°C, making an always moving world that had never been stationary come to a halt. 

This was natural law power. Slightly changing one rule gave you the power to destroy the world. 

But how could a human body contain natural law power? Frozen cracks appeared on the head of the league’s cheeks. They were going to die. 

The System had promised that it would preserve their soul after death and prepare another body for them. That was the only way they could survive. 

Of course, they knew that the System might be lying to them. But so what? They had no other choice. 

The head of the league put a hand on You Zhengping’s ice sculpture shoulder. A bit of pressure, and this young man would turn to ice crystals. 

—

While Cen Xiao was complaining about feeling unwell because it was about to rain, Yuan Luori was yawning in a taxi. The exhausting talent show had finally ended. After the second performance, he had been voted out by a narrow margin, according to the arrangements, leaving behind a friend who had been shipped with Yuan Luori to carry his dream going forward. 

After over forty days of closed off filming, today he had finally returned to the Xuyang District. There was no one to pick him up from the airport. There was no crowd of fans. Yuan Luori sat in the taxi all alone, worrying whether his job would compensate him for the taxi fare. 

When he thought that when he returned he would see his idol the great master clearer, and that he would have to maintain his dismissive attitude towards Yu Hua, Yuan Luori felt that he was under great stress. He wasn’t sure that he would be able to survive three days. 

As he was dizzily considering whether he should kneel on durian fruit or on the acupressure mat, the taxi driver braked suddenly. Yuan Luori, sitting in the backseat, was thrown forward by inertia. His glasses fell off. 

Fortunately, Yuan Luori had gotten clever over the last month. He had a cord tied to both arms of his glasses and hung around his neck. This way, even if they fell off, they would still be tied to him, and he wouldn’t have to search for his glasses everywhere. 

When the taxi had come to a steady stop, Yuan Luori heard the taxi driver say, “Sorry, a parrot flew in front of us. Strange, why would there be a parrot here?” 

Yuan Luori looked up. Through the car window, he saw the blurred scenery outside, and his expression changed instantly. Without taking his luggage from the trunk, he opened the car door and charged out. 

He looked in the direction of the Xuyang District, thought that he wasn’t high enough, and leapt up to the roof of the taxi, standing there to survey the scene from an elevated position. 

“Hey, young man, what do you think you’re doing?!” the taxi driver said despairingly. “Get down from there!” 

Yuan Luori ignored him. He saw that there was a tall tree by the road and nimbly leapt three meters onto the tree and climbed to the top of it. Standing on a narrow tree branch, he swayed but didn’t fall, like a graceful cat. 

The taxi driver was astonished by his actions and didn’t care about the car anymore. He decisively picked up his phone to film Yuan Luori climbing, sighing about his movements, which were as natural as moving clouds and flowing water. 

“You’ve had some training, young fellow!” The driver gave him a thumbs up. 

Rain drops fell out of the sky, dripping onto Yuan Luori’s head. He looked incredulously towards the Xuyang District and said in shock, “What is this!” 

The whole Xuyang District was densely covered in dark clouds. To the north, in the direction of the base, two surging rivers were colliding. To the east, a row of tall buildings was engulfed in a windstorm. The central park was a pure white field of ice and snow. And not far from Yuan Luori, a mountain range was protruding out of the ground. 

By coincidence, the place near Yuan Luori where the mountains stood was the amusement where Yu Hua had become the black-cloaked man and beaten him up. 

After the battle at the amusement park, the government had paid to have it sealed off. It was currently being renovated. Now it had been destroyed again. 

But even more frightening than those four places was an area near their studio, at the estate where Yuan Luori normally walked Director Ha. 

A whirlpool that could bend time and space shrouded the whole estate. Yuan Luori seemed to dimly see an incomparably huge clock. The hour hand and minute hand were stopped. 

Yuan Luori only hesitated for a second. He jumped out of the tree and got into the taxi’s driver’s seat. He called to the driver, “Lend me the car, you’ll be compensated!” 

If I haven’t died, I’ll personally compensate you in apology. Yuan Luori swallowed these words and slammed the gas pedal, heading towards the amusement park. 

This was the closest battlefield to him, and it was also the place where his identity as a Destroyer had ended. 

---

Translator's Note

¹For the sake of clarity: the pronoun used for the head of the league in the original text is 他, which can be male, but can also be gender neutral. Because of the terms the character is described in, I’ve opted to go with gender neutral pronouns in translation.