March 5th.
Chen Fan had defeated the Russian Infantry Division 116 and killed the General of the North Division at Khabarovsk.
The five days that followed, Chen Fan made his way to Moscow and destroyed seventeen KGB branches on his way. Then, he killed the Bloodwolf King Oleg and finally brought Russia to her knees.
March 10th…
Chen Fan returned Jiang Nan Province, annihilated the Song Family and killed sixteen other family lords. During the same night, he turned the Jiang Bei region into a bloodbath and killed five hundred men and women, including Lin Tashan and the entire Hong Sect’s Dark Moon unit.
The next day, Chen Fan arrived at the An family’s residence and killed Fu Zhengtin, and pinned the An family and the Fu family under his thumb.
In less than six days, Chen Fan had traveled over ten thousand miles: from Siberia to Moscow, from Moscow to Jin City and then from Jin City to Don He Province. Wherever he went, he left a trail of destruction and blood.
It would be impossible to cover up this news, and therefore, they quickly reached beyond China.
Inside a secret base at Kunlun.
“He defeated an entire nation. If not because Red Sparrow saw it with her own eyes, I would never have believed it.”
Director Xiao put down a stack of papers and exclaimed under his breath.
Although they had the information for days, every time he read it, he was overtaken by surprise. Chen Fan’s work in Russia was a textbook example of what an Immortal State warrior should be like. Although there were many other reasons that made Russia capitulate so easily, fear towards Chen Fan’s power was the main contributor.
“He even defeated Oleg! Chen Beixuan’s ability has grown by leaps and bounds over just one year.”
White Tiger heaved a sigh and shook his head.
“A year ago, when he fought with the Fourteenth Brigade, I put him somewhere around the early stage of Immortal State. However, based on the new accounts reported in by Red Sparrow—particularly his ability to use the Golden flying sword— I think he has become much stronger than most Immortal State warriors.”
“I thought the Art of Flying sword had long since disappeared. The only other individual who I know that could command a flying sword was the one from the Lin Family. How did Chen Beixuan learn to do that so quickly?” Someone put in.
“I have evidence that proves that he had stumbled upon a Sword Secret from the Exalted Cultivator in Hong Kong. I wager that was where he got the secret art of the Flying Sword.” Red Sparrow said coldly.
“As his power grew, so did his arrogance. He has made such a big mass for the director as soon as he came back. If not because of the Director personally vouching for him, the leaders of the nation would have already been rallying against him.”
“He is the living legend, so we also have to take that into account. It has been our fault for not protecting his family properly. He killed so many people as a reminder for us to never fail him again.”
Director Xiao shook his head and said.
“Humph! So are we going to let him do whatever he wants in China? One day he will learn that there will always be someone better than him. If things really get out of control, our Old man would have to—”
Red Sparrow ranted
“That’s enough, Comrade Yu Nan. General Ye is our nation’s guardian and we can not risk his life. Plus, Comrade Chen Beixuan has done our nation a great service, please watch the way you talk about him.”
Director Xiao cut Red Sparrow off and chided her.
Red Sparrow let out a cold snort and grew silent.
She knew the pressure on General Ye and how important he was to China. Thanks to him, China had enjoyed peace and prosperity for six decades.
Even if Director Xiao was right that they couldn’t risk General Ye’s life, there were also many other powerful forces that could threaten Chen Fan, such as the Lin family of Southeastern China, Hong Sect, Dragon Hall, and the Square Tower, just to name a few.
“Ever since Chen Beixuan’s return, we had been getting more and more reports of Immortal state warriors getting restless. My Ancestral Patriarch told me that there has been a few meetings among the Curmudgeons in China.”
Black Tortoise finally broke his silence and spoke for the first time during the meeting.
Each of the four captains of the Special Case Department had their own unique characteristics: White Tiger was brusque and conspicuous, Red Sparrow had a no-nonsense and cutthroat attitude and Azure dragon always carried a grandiose and stately air. But Black Tortoise had always kept his feelings to himself and other than being the oldest one of the four, not a lot was known about him.
“Hehe, do they think China is still like what it had been sixty years ago?”
Director Xiao let out a cold smile and said: “Sixty years go, General Ye was the only person who stood in their way. But now, China is strong enough to ward off those unsavory characters by herself.”
Director Xiao said with a great measure of pride and confidence.
Only a nation that had had millions of capable soldiers, nuclear weapons at her disposal and was an economic powerhouse could have made such a bold claim.
As the news of Chen Fan’s victory quickly spread across the world, many old powers caught the whiff of fresh air and started to awaken from their slumber.
Chen Fan was the only Overlord who dared to expose his power to the public in the last sixty years.
It was also a wake-up call to the public, a reminder of the power that could defeat an entire army. It was a power that most people had long forgotten.
“This is what it means to be an Immortal State, this is what it means to be a Living Legend.”
Many people screamed in their minds.
Someone even claimed that Chen Beixuan was the most powerful Overlord in the world. Let it be Adam, Azure dragon, Ye Nantian, Russia, their power was a far cry from that of Chen Beixuan.
March 12, 2010, London.
Raphael was sitting in an old apartment with a cup of coffee in his hand while he went through the new posts on the CIA’s forum.
He was a hacker employed by the Crimson Wings. Although the captain of Crimson Wings, Karl was killed a year ago at the Warg Valley, the band quickly elected another leader to keep the ball rolling.
“Humph… there are more new Overlords emerging over the last year than there had been over the decade.” Raphael scrolled down the pages on the CIA’s forum and exclaimed to himself.
“The Dark Roll had not changed at all over the last ten years but now there seemed to be a new Overlord making it to the Dark Roll every month. It had been like this for a few months. Something must have emboldened them to surface into the public’s view.”
“The same goes for our new captain. He had been a quiet if not unnoticeable fighter in the team, but he turned out to be as strong as our former captain. Did Chen Beixuan usher in all these changes to the world?”
The thought of Chen Beixuan filled Raphael with a feeling that verged on religious zeal.
It was as if the name itself was enchanted by magic.
“Our new captain and all these new overlords simply can’t compare with Chen Beixuan.”
Raphael let out a cold smile.
Suddenly, he noticed a new post with the subject: “Check out the Dark Roll, It’s been updated.”
“What? It is too early for that.” Raphael was taken aback and quickly clicked on the page that contained the Dark Roll.
“Did the CIA update the ranking because Chen Beixuan was back? They had removed him earlier last year, are they going to add him back?”
“If he was added back to the Dark Roll, there would be no doubt that he would be at the very top. The new guy Odin and Adam would not have stood a chance.”
Raphael thought to himself as he kept on scrolling.
“Number sixteen, Erika from Japan… hum… she improved her ranking compared to a year ago.”
“Number ten, Ye Nantian of Dragon’s Fang… Ye Nantian had been in seclusion cultivation, no wonder his ranking remained the same.”
“Number three, Azure dragon from China… Wow, he went up fast!”
“Number two, Adam… Now that’s strange. If Adam ranked second, what about Odin?”
“Number one… Odin?”
Raphael was so stunned by the results that he nearly fell off of his chair. “What the hell? Where is Chen Beixuan? He had killed that many Overlords and brought Russia to heels, yet he was not even on the list? What kind of shitty list is this?”
Raphael narrowed his eyes and reexamined the Dark Roll from the bottom to top once again and still didn’t find Chen Fan’s name.
“Did the CIA try to cover up something?”
Raphael thought to himself indignantly.
He returned to the forum and noticed that it was already sizzling with discontent with the new ranking. Everyone thought the new ranking was unfair since Chen Beixuan wasn’t even listed on the Dark Roll.
“Even if the twenty of them join forces they wouldn’t last more than a minute in a fight against Chen Beixuan.”
Someone put in scornfully.
“What you gonna do about it? It’s the government, they are slow, lazy and never do their job right. Too many coffee breaks if you ask me.”
Many people vented their indignation and ranted about the CIA.
Raphael nodded and felt the same as everyone else.
In the end, the users on the forum had come to a decision of writing a petition to the CIA. Suddenly someone posted a reply: Look at the top!”
“That’s the Dark Roll, we have gone over it many times,” Raphael replied with a cold smile.
However, more and more people replied.
“Oh my god! What am I looking at?”
“On the homepage, quick. At the very top.”
“My God! We have witnessed history! The last time it came up was when my Grandpa was still a teenage boy.”
Raphael’s interest was piqued as more and more people shared their surprise and shock. He quickly navigated to the home page and scrolled all the way to the top. However, he didn’t notice anything new.
“What is there to see? Just the same old stuff.”
Even as Raphael was going to complain about the hype-for-nothing, he realized that he hadn’t scrolled all the way to the top.
“Guuu!”
He pushed the mouse wheel to the very top and saw two bold letters in golden color
“GOD-LIKE”
Before the heading was a Chinese name written in formal Chinese calligraphy. Raphael had dabbled in Chinese before so he recognized the three characters.
“Chen Beixuan!”
“Is… is this the Divine Roll?”
Startled by his realization, Raphael suddenly jerked his hand and threw the mouse to the ground. He was rendered speechless.
On the morning of March 12, 2010, the CIA had reopened the Divine Roll, with only one person on the list: Chen Fan.
The development had stirred up the forum users, but as its weight set in, the forum became deadly silent.