Above New Delhi, the clouds were slightly yellowed.
According to normal infiltration logic, Jiang Jian Yue should have used her nearly invincible stealth ability to silently cross the border and then launch a surprise attack near the Crimson Project ruins.
But that was ASSASSIN logic.
The current Jiang Jian Yue was playing the role of a strategic-level bait.
The bigger the commotion, the better.
If she couldn’t make all the global satellites point at her, then this trip to Afghanistan would have been a wasted effort.
In the thin air 10,000 meters above the ground, Jiang Jian Yue spread her arms, letting the wild wind mess up her pale gray hair.
Under the faint light shining through the gaps in the clouds, her blood-red eyes flickered with a nearly divine indifference.
The black battle skirt on her body swayed violently with the air currents, and the white gloves stood out starkly against the jet-black background.
The shawl behind her shoulders, similar to a nun’s habit, was pulled straight during the high-speed flight, like a pair of broken wings.
The next second, a surging, spine-chilling runaway energy exploded outward from her center.
This energy had no lethality; it had only one purpose:
Like lighting ten thousand torches in the pitch-black night, clearly telling all monitoring equipment around the world—
“All eyes on me, look at me, look at me. I declare something: I am Jiang Jian Yue!”
“Alert! Ultra-high energy reaction detected over the northern suburbs of New Delhi!”
“Target is moving north at high speed, heading towards the Afghan border!”
In the command center of the New Indian Government Supernatural Intervention Department (EDD), red light instantly devoured all calm.
The middle-aged general sitting in the command seat suddenly stood up, cold sweat sliding down his temples.
The Crimson Project ruins in Afghanistan were now the top priority for the Pacific Treaty.
If that thing rampaged through their airspace and attacked the ruins, New India’s position in the treaty would suffer a devastating blow.
“At all costs, intercept her!”
Jiang Jian Yue weaved through the clouds.
She was not in a hurry to enter hypersonic speed, but maintained a speed that was enough to give the interceptors hope.
‘They’re coming already?’
The red eyes slightly shifted as Jiang Jian Yue sensed three streams of runaway energy rapidly approaching.
Behind those three streams were dozens of fighter jet formations in an encirclement posture.
Boom—!
Three streaks of light broke through the sea of clouds, forming a triangle to block Jiang Jian Yue’s path.
They were three men and women wearing ornate ethnic-style enhanced suits.
In New India’s Esper system, they were called the Trimurti.
But essentially, they were Emergent Bodies—the name varied by country, but the most common term was the one left by GPRI.
“Stop, blasphemer!”
The man in the center let out an angry shout, gripping a golden trident crackling with lightning.
That was his Manifested Heart Weapon [Indra’s Wrath], capable of releasing ultra-high voltage electricity enough to paralyze an entire city in an instant.
The woman on the left held a strangely shaped ancient zither, and with a flick of her fingers, the air trembled.
That was [Saraswati’s Voice], with the ability to generate sonic vibrations that cut physical entities.
The burly man on the right carried a heavy shield painted with sun patterns, [Surya’s Light], which could reflect all forms of energy attacks.
Quite a lineup.
Jiang Jian Yue stopped, hovering in midair, tilting her head as she looked over the three.
“Let me introduce myself, I am—”
“There’s no need to know the name of a dead person!”
The trident-wielding man obviously had no patience to listen to her lines; he suddenly threw his trident.
Golden lightning instantly tore through the sky, transforming into a giant electric dragon that roared toward Jiang Jian Yue.
At the same time, the zither’s sound erupted, and invisible sound blades densely formed a net, sealing off all of Jiang Jian Yue’s evasive space.
“Really, are actors nowadays so eager to get a lunch box?”
Jiang Jian Yue sighed faintly, her white gloves gently lifting.
At the moment the lightning dragon was about to touch her, the previously calm void suddenly collapsed.
That lightning dragon, capable of destroying a mountain peak, disappeared from the world as if instantly ground away an inch before touching Jiang Jian Yue’s palm.
“What?!”
The trident-wielding man’s pupils contracted sharply. Before he could retrieve his trident, he felt a chilling sensation that made his scalp tingle rise from behind.
Too fast.
Jiang Jian Yue’s figure disappeared from the spot; in the perception of the three, she seemed to have transcended the continuity of space.
Crack.
A crisp sound of bone fracture echoed in the clouds.
One of Jiang Jian Yue’s hands was already pressing on the trident-wielding man’s head.
Meanwhile, her other hand precisely pierced through that heavy sun shield that claimed to reflect everything.
That Manifested Heart Weapon [Surya’s Light] was as fragile as a wet piece of straw paper under Jiang Jian Yue’s fingers.
“If it’s only this level…”
Jiang Jian Yue’s red eyes narrowed slightly, and energy instantly poured through her arms into the two men’s bodies.
Bang! Bang!
Two clouds of blood mist exploded, and the two protectors of New India didn’t even have time to scream before becoming organic matter scattered in the air.
Then, with a casual wave from Jiang Jian Yue, they turned into nutrients for bacteria in the Ganges River.
Only the woman holding the zither remained.
Frozen in shock, she hovered in the air, the ancient zither in her hands emitting a broken lament.
From the start to the end of the battle, it took only three seconds.
“Get lost.”
Jiang Jian Yue didn’t plan to kill them all.
The bait needed a survivor to spread fear, so that SAAC would be more convinced that Jiang Jian Yue came with the determination to destroy everything.
With a backhand grab, she made the ownerless golden trident and the broken heavy shield float in her palm.
Jiang Jian Yue didn’t touch them hastily; she casually stuffed them into her storage space, then with a flicker of her form, turned into a black streak of light continuing north.
On the distant horizon, countless dots suddenly lit up.
That was the last line of defense of the New Indian government.
Hundreds of “Ability-Nullifying Missiles” specially developed against Espers dragged long white smoke trails, guided by AWACS, sealing off the entire airspace.
Jiang Jian Yue had seen these missiles back in the mid-stage of the Europe-Africa battlefield.
They weren’t just explosives; their warheads carried technology similar to the GPRI prison’s ability-suppression necklaces, capable of temporarily stripping Espers of their powers, achieving a defense-breaking effect.
‘Tsk, it’s endless.’
Jiang Jian Yue twisted sharply, making nearly impossible zigzag turns in the air.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Missiles continuously exploded behind her.
This saturation coverage attack still caused her a bit of trouble.
A few missiles exploded very close to her, and the suppression field stalled her energy flow for 0.1 seconds.
Immediately after, the cannon fire net from the fighter formations covered her.
Sparks splashed violently on the black battle skirt.
Jiang Jian Yue looked down; the hem of the battle skirt was torn, revealing a small patch of pale thigh.
But immediately, the damaged part writhed like a living thing, and in less than two seconds, the skirt restored itself.
‘The current New Indian government, even their conventional forces aren’t that bad?’
While accelerating, Jiang Jian Yue engaged in a frantic snake-like movement, dodging the anti-air laser beams.
‘Although they can’t hurt me, this resistance is too great.’
‘Didn’t they used to just do motorcycle pyramid stunts? Who taught them this high-tech anti-Esper tactic?’
Jiang Jian Yue pouted, a hint of displeasure flashing in her heart.
This feeling was like a max-level big shot running through a map.
Although the small monsters couldn’t hurt you, they swarmed and applied slowing debuffs, which was really annoying.
It seemed Serys had provided a lot of technical support to these allies.
Jiang Jian Yue snorted coldly, pressing her palms together.
“Since you’re so enthusiastic, I’ll leave you some souvenirs.”
Dust wildly sprayed backward from her, quickly forming a sandstorm that blotted out the sky.
These dust particles weren’t just matter; they were a medium with strong devouring properties.
The missiles that charged into the dust storm misfired, and the fighter jet engines stalled instantly after inhaling the dust.
For a moment, it was as if a rain of steel was falling from New India’s sky.
Countless expensive fighter jets, due to their engines stalling, were forced to eject or crash-land.
And in this chaos, Jiang Jian Yue had already crossed the ridge of the Himalayas.
The air ahead became colder and drier.
The wasteland of Afghanistan was already faintly visible at the edge of sight.
‘Alright, everyone at SAAC, the stage is big.’
Jiang Jian Yue looked toward the ruins shrouded in electromagnetic interference clouds in the distance.
She slowed down, deliberately letting the radar at the SAAC outpost in the distance clearly capture her coordinates.
At that moment, inside the SAAC command post.
The person in charge stared at the screen at the pale gray figure who had single-handedly shattered New India’s entire Esper early warning system, sweating profusely.
After receiving a brief message from New India’s EDD confirming the enemy’s identity as “Pale Gray Witch Jiang Jian Yue,” he finally couldn’t help but pick up the red hotline to headquarters.
“This is K-04 Outpost! The Pale Gray Witch has been spotted! She is single-handedly advancing toward the core of the ruins! Repeat, this is not a drill! This is not a drill!”
There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line, then a voice came: “Received. Support has been dispatched.”