The Spell's Range Covers the Entire Territory of China? Hand It Over to the Nation

5: Chapter 5: The Divine Illumination of Heavenly Candle! The Unveiling of the S-Class ”Rat” Who Had Been Lying in the Shadows for Ten YearsAs Su Yun’s fingertips descended, the command representing confirmation, like a stone cast into a deep pool, sent ripple after ripple across the Sea of Consciousness vast enough to cover the entire map shaped like a rooster.

On the living room floor, a totem pole with the texture of cheap plastic, worth two yuan, materialized out of thin air.

Before Su Yun could observe it closely, this inconspicuous totem pole underwent a sudden, drastic change.

The crudely drawn eyeball-shaped runes on it seemed to come alive like wriggling tadpoles, twisting, tearing, and reassembling. The bronze-colored shell peeled away layer by layer, revealing a core as crimson as blood within, as if some ancient divine object was hatching.

A deafening roar exploded in Su Yun’s mind, and an Aura of vast antiquity forcefully intervened in reality through his palm.

The data stream on the System panel jumped rapidly. The green icon, which originally depicted a dull eye, seemed to be thrown into a steel furnace, melting and reforging quickly. Countless complex seal scripts emerged and vanished in the torrent of data, finally condensing into the phantom image of an ancient Divine Beast, entirely crimson, holding a candle in its mouth.

[Scout Ward (LV1)]

[Judging... Talent ’Territory is Domain’ intervening.]

[Judgment passed. Current coverage area: 9.6 million square kilometers.]

[Detected skill energy level too low to match current area... Extracting historical foundation... Reshaping concept...]

[Skill mutation complete.]

— —

[Heavenly Candle Divine Illumination (LV1)]

[Description: Consider it day, closing the eyes as night, blowing as winter, exhaling as summer. The God of Mount Zhong, whose name is Zhuyin.]

[Effect 1: Insight into the Nine Hells. Removes the invisibility, camouflage, and stealth status of all hostile targets within the coverage area, ignoring Rank and spatial concealment.]

[Effect 2: Red Lotus Karmic Fire. Hostile targets marked will suffer continuous true burning damage, and their movement speed will be reduced by 50%. Damage taken from the ’Longxia Faction’ will be increased by 100%.]

[Effect 3: Heavenly Might. Hostile targets within the illumination range have all attributes forcibly reduced by 20%.]

[Current cost: 10 Mana (Deducted), Maintenance cost: 0 (Compensated by ambient energy of Heaven and Earth due to the ’all under heaven is the kings land’ trait).]

Su Yun stared at the gorgeously transformed skill panel. Before he could complain about the name, which was overflowing with chuunibyou energy, the night sky outside his window underwent a dramatic change.

If the previous Purple Qi Coming From the East was like draping the sky with a layer of luxurious silk, then at this moment, that silk was violently torn apart by an invisible torch.

High above the firmament, the clouds frantically receded to both sides, revealing the dark, deep expanse of the heavens. And right in the center of that expanse, an ’eye’ so immense it could cause instant shock in those with megalophobia slowly opened.

It was not the eye of a living creature, but a cold sun, crimson and suspended high above the Nine Heavens.

It looked down upon the nine million six hundred thousand square kilometers below, its gaze indifferent and just, much like a dorm mother checking rooms who pushes open the door to the boys’ dormitory—every smelly sock, cigarette butt, and even prohibited electrical appliance hidden under the bed would be exposed.

Su Yun stood by the window, looking at the giant eye reflected in the glass, his gaze sharp: ”It’s dawn, you rats.”

...

West Suburbs of the Capital City, Research Institute 704. This was one of the units with the highest classified level in Longxia Country, and even its perimeter security measures were extremely tight.

In the guardhouse at the entrance, Old Man Wang was resting with one leg crossed over the other, humming the Peking Opera ’The Empty Fort Strategy’ while using the lid of his thermos to skim the tea dregs.

He looked to be over sixty, slightly stooped, his face crisscrossed with wrinkles—an utterly ordinary old gatekeeper. Having guarded this gate for ten years, everyone knew Old Man Wang was a kind-hearted person who often helped the younger staff receive packages and left the door open for researchers working overtime; he was extremely well-liked.

But no one knew that this ’Old Man Wang’ was actually named ’Viper’. An S-Rank infiltrator from an enemy nation, he possessed the extremely rare spatial talent [Void Walker], specializing in concealment, assassination, and infiltration. He had been embedded like a rusty nail in the heart of Longxia Country for a full decade, sending out countless pieces of intelligence without ever being exposed.

That auspicious phenomenon of Purple Qi Coming From the East just now made him uneasy. This feeling of the entire world recovering HP and Mana was too bizarre, giving him the anxiety of standing naked under a spotlight. As a top assassin, his sense of danger was keener than that of a wild beast.

”Something’s wrong... This is very wrong.” Viper put down his thermos. That heart-pounding feeling hadn’t weakened as the purple Qi dissipated; instead, it grew stronger, as if his heart were being squeezed in a hand, tighter and tighter.

This place is not safe; better to avoid the immediate danger!

The thought had just arisen, and before he could even move, his scalp tingled as if his vital energy had been locked onto by some indescribable, terrifying entity.

He subconsciously looked up, his gaze piercing through the guardhouse window, and saw the ’giant eye’ that had just opened in the night sky.

Before he could react, a crimson pillar of light suddenly descended from the sky.

There was no sound, no delay. It was as if Heaven were casually pointing a red laser pen at a spot on a map.

Boom!

The roof of the guardhouse was instantly pierced by the red light. The light pillar ignored physical barriers and enveloped Viper entirely.

”Aaaah—!!!”

Viper let out a piercing shriek. This red light had no heat, yet he felt his Soul being fried in a vat of boiling oil.

This was the true damage of the [Red Lotus Karmic Fire]. Any target judged as ’harboring malice and attempting to conceal themselves’ would have their vital Origin burned away every second under the [Heavenly Candle Divine Illumination].

”Damn it! What is this thing?!”

Viper abandoned all pretense of disguise, and the Aura of an S-Rank powerhouse instantly erupted. His originally hunched body straightened violently, surrounded by black mist, and he activated his signature skill, [Void Walk]. As long as he could slip into the interstice of the Void, even a nuclear explosion couldn’t harm him in the slightest!

”Open for me!”

Viper’s figure flickered, and his entire body instantly became transparent as he attempted to slip into a spatial rift and escape. However, the next second, a scene that filled him with terror occurred. That descending red light seemed to grow eyes and followed him right into the Void interstice! No matter how he leaped or folded space, the light pillar clung to him like flypaper, completely enveloping him. Moreover, because of his resistance, the color of the red light deepened, and the burning sensation intensified.

”No! This is impossible! What level of detection technique is this? A causality weapon?!”

Viper despaired. He dashed left and right in the Void, like a fly trapped in a glass jar, with the red light being the bottle itself, sticking to him like a shadow. Even worse, as he struggled, the red light’s color grew deeper, and the burning sensation became more intense.

At the same time, the piercing alarm of the research institute echoed through the night sky.

”Intruder! Intruder!”

”Detecting ultra-high energy reaction!”

”Over there! The guardhouse! There’s a bright red light marking that spot!”

Dozens of heavily armed internal security troops surged out like a tide. They had initially been startled by the sudden red light from the sky, but they quickly realized that the red light seemed to cause no physical damage; instead, it acted like a searchlight pointing at... Old Man Wang in the guardhouse?

The usually kind and amiable Old Man Wang was currently twisting and screaming wildly in mid-air like a giant black bat, topped by a world-piercing red pillar of light that shone like a massive thousand-watt bulb in the dark night.

Although the internal security captain was bewildered, the chilling Aura and S-Rank pressure emanating from Old Man Wang could not be faked.

”Holy Hell! Old Man Wang is a spy?!” The captain decisively roared, ”Forget where that red light came from! Brothers, shoot him until he’s dead!”

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Dense alchemic bullets poured down like a torrential storm. Slowed by the red light, continuously burned, weakened in attributes, and stripped of his invisibility, Viper was now a living target.

He watched the bullets fly towards him in despair, with only one absurd thought in his mind: Which deity did I manage to provoke? Does catching a spy really require deploying a space-based weapon like this?!

...

At the same time, in the CBD of the Capital City, a high-level reception was underway at a multinational corporation, filled with elegant women and clinking glasses.

Mr. Smith, the Executive Vice President of the corporation, a dashing blond Aryan, was raising a glass of champagne, delivering a toast in fluent Chinese: “We must believe that the market potential of Longxia Country is enormous; the future belongs to us…”

Before his words even faded, a thick, two-meter-diameter red beam crashed down, smashing straight through the ceiling of the five-star hotel and precisely engulfing Mr. Smith in the center of the stage.

The entire venue fell silent. Everyone stared dumbfounded at the Vice President who had just been chatting and laughing.

At this moment, Smith was emitting black smoke, his usually handsome face twisted and ferocious under the illumination of the red light. Scaly textures faintly appeared beneath his skin—this was the characteristic of his Beast Transformation-type ability user status, forcibly manifested under the suppression of the Heavenly Candle Divine Illumination.

“Fxxk! Turn it off! Turn off this damn light!”

The champagne glass in Smith’s hand was crushed to powder. He roared in agony, trying to rush out of the light beam’s range. But when he ran left, the red light shifted left; when he tried to duck under a table, the red light pierced the table and shone directly on his backside.

The guests below scrambled backward, clearing a large empty space. The scene was so comical, like a stage spotlight malfunctioning and stubbornly fixated on the male lead. But everyone knew this wasn’t a special effect because Mr. Smith’s suit was actually catching fire.

Just then, the main doors of the banquet hall burst open. A group of National Security personnel dressed in black trench coats rushed in. The leader spotted the blinding red column on the stage at a glance.

“Well, well, we were planning on locking this place down, but it seems we don’t need to now,” the leader chuckled. He waved his hand, “See that thing glowing red? That’s a Level One wanted fugitive, codenamed ‘Chameleon.’ Brothers, alive if possible!”

...In this moment, the entire Longxia Country was in chaos, yet simultaneously abuzz with excitement.

On a fishing boat in the East Sea, a ’fisherman’ pretending to haul in his net was suddenly enveloped by a red light. Terrified, he jumped straight into the sea, but the red light penetrated thirty meters to the seabed, illuminating him like a glowing deep-sea anglerfish, and he was scooped up by an arriving Coast Guard vessel in a single net.

In the border jungle, a team of mercenaries attempting to cross covertly discovered in horror that no matter how much anti-infrared paint they smeared on themselves, several red swords hung above their heads. It was like playing a game with a map hack enabled; before they even saw an enemy, snipers in the distance picked them off one by one.

Even in a basement in a remote mountainous area, a cult leader was conducting a summoning ritual. As soon as he finished chanting the incantation, a red light smashed his altar to pieces and ’sacrificed’ him along with it.

Inside the hall of the Heavenly Eye Monitoring Center. The monitors, who had been in a state of excitement due to the Purple Qi Coming From the East, were now completely numb. On the massive screen, the previously clean map was suddenly dotted with hundreds of red dots. Every single red dot represented a beam of Heavenly Candle Divine Illumination, signifying a deeply hidden and extremely dangerous ’malignancy.’

“This is a great cleanup,” the Director said, his throat dry as he looked at the screen.

He had spent his entire life in intelligence work, always meticulously peeling back layers to catch spies. He had never seen a scene like this. This wasn’t catching spies; this was leveling a vegetable patch with a combined harvester!

“Director, news from all over…” Old Zhang held a thick stack of reports, his hands trembling, “Confirmed capture of 3 S-Rank targets, 12 A-Rank targets. B-Rank and below… we haven’t finished tallying, there are too many! Clues that were impossible to find normally are all running naked under the red light tonight!”

“This is a miracle,” the Director wiped a tear from his eye.

Regardless of which great power was responsible, this operation had cleared at least eighty percent of the internal security hazards in Longxia Country! How many years of effort would this save? How much incalculable loss would be averted?

“Stop being stunned!” The Director suddenly roared, his face turning red. “Call all the branches! Nobody sleeps tonight! Follow the red light! The esteemed one in the heavens has fed the meal right to our mouths; if you still can’t catch anyone, I’ll twist your heads off and use them as soccer balls!”

...This night was destined to be a nightmare for countless infiltrators in Longxia Country. This was not just a public execution; it was dimensional suppression. Any conspiracy, any disguise, any meticulously planned identity was reduced to a clumsy joke before the grand will named Heavenly Candle Divine Illumination.

No trial, no evidence required.

As long as you harbored malice, as long as you set foot on this land.

Heaven was watching you.

Old District, Communal Housing Block.

Su Yun stood by the window, watching the beams of red light shooting up into the distance, as if admiring a special fireworks display.

“The effect is even better than expected,” he glanced down at the crimson totem at his feet. The totem’s light was already dimming; its duration was about to end.

Ten minutes, for ordinary people, was just the time for two songs, but for the ’rats’ exposed under the red light, these ten minutes were Hell.

“It should be about done,” Su Yun felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him. Although the Mana Value was compensated by Heaven and Earth, controlling a conceptual skill of this magnitude was still a heavy burden for him, having just changed professions.

He rubbed his throbbing temples, about to raise his hand to cancel the skill, when the door lock suddenly clicked.

“Oh dear, Old Man, slow down, don’t crack the eggs.”

The door opened, and Mother Su walked in carrying two large bags of groceries, her face radiating a rare rosy complexion—clearly a beneficiary of the earlier Purple Qi Coming From the East.

Following behind, Father Su carried a live grass carp he had just bought. His back, usually hunched, was ramrod straight today, and he walked with vigor.

“Haha, Old Woman, stop nagging!” Father Su said loudly, “It’s so strange today; my waist doesn’t ache and my legs don’t hurt, I feel like I’m walking on air! Did you see the news? They called it an auspicious sign! Our Longxia Country is about to have great fortune!”

“Alright, alright, whatever you say is right. Hurry up and change your shoes, your son must be hungry.” Mother Su smiled while changing her shoes. If it weren’t for work, they would have returned long ago; today was the day their son became a professional.

Seeing the elderly couple, Su Yun also broke into a smile: “Dad, Mom, you’re back? What are we having for dinner?”

“Braised fish, your favorite!” Father Su cheerfully looked up, preparing to hand the fish in his hands to his son.

However, the next second, his movement stopped abruptly.

Father Su’s sharp eyes, honed from his time as a scout, instantly passed over Su Yun’s shoulder and fixed on the living room floor.

There, the totem pillar of the Heavenly Candle Divine Illumination, though dim, was still conspicuous. The crimson pillar was entwined with complex, ancient Dragon patterns, and at the top was a vertical pupil slowly closing. Even as a mere afterimage, it exuded a majesty that caused the heart to palpitate.

This thing was too conspicuous to ignore, no matter how one looked at it.

Father Su was stunned for a moment, then subconsciously turned his head to look at the television broadcasting the news.

On the screen, the anchor was reporting excitedly: “…Just now, mysterious red light beams appeared in multiple locations across our nation, precisely locking onto several foreign spies who had been dormant for years! According to preliminary analysis by experts, the energy level of this red light is extremely high, possibly originating from the same source as the previous auspicious Purple Qi…”

The scene switched to a blurry long-shot. It was an aerial view captured by a drone of the red light source. Although the giant eye was somewhat illusory, its crimson color and majesty...

Father Su looked down at the crimson totem on the floor.

Then he looked up at the giant red eye on the television.

Then he looked back at the floor.

Then he looked back at the television.

The air went silent for three seconds.

“Thud.”

The grass carp Father Su was holding, along with the plastic bag, fell onto the floor. The fish’s tail flapped twice on the tiles, making a crisp sound.

Su Yun blinked, looking at his dumbfounded father, then at the totem that hadn’t fully retracted, emmm...

Father Su tremblingly raised a finger, pointing at the totem on the ground. His lips trembled for a long time before he squeezed out a broken-voiced question from his throat:

“Son… Son? This… this auspicious sign… did you send it out from home?!”