"Dammit! Mount Fuji! Mount Fuji has collapsed!"

High in the sky, inside their military aircraft, Japanese soldiers screamed in panic as they witnessed the collapse of Mount Fuji. To every Japanese person, Mount Fuji was a sacred place, a symbol of glory! And now, it was suddenly collapsing and sinking? Forget the soldiers; not even the Japanese authorities or its citizens could accept this reality!

"Dammit! No! No, no, no!"

Staring at the clear, dynamic satellite imagery, the pilots in the formation of armed fighter jets roared hysterically.

"The Butcher! That Butcher! He’s in the mountain! It was him! He must have bombed it! It must have been him!"

The next moment, upon seeing Qin Fan looking up at the planes with a mocking sneer, one soldier couldn’t hold back a shriek.

"The order from above is to engage and destroy him on-site! Fire! Fire! Blow him up! Blow him up!"

By the end, the entire communication channel was flooded with those three words: "Blow him up!"

The devils had gone insane. The fate of Mount Fuji had driven them completely mad. They didn’t even bother to report the situation to their superiors. Instead, they aimed all their various artillery at Qin Fan’s location and commenced a full-scale bombardment.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A barrage of artillery fire filled the sky, sending rock debris flying and brightly illuminating half the sky.

Unfortunately, not only did the ordnance fail to touch a single hair on Qin Fan, but it also accelerated the collapse and sinking of Mount Fuji.

Still poised effortlessly amidst the landslide, Qin Fan shook his head and sneered at the artillery fire. He then grabbed a handful of stones. Like a celestial maiden scattering flowers, he hurled them toward the planes in the sky.

For a Golden Core Stage Cultivator, taking down fighter jets with stones was child’s play.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

The stones thrown by Qin Fan exploded into countless smaller pebbles in mid-air. In the blink of an eye, they reached the roaring military aircraft.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Crisp, metallic impacts echoed through the sky.

The next moment...

BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

An entire squadron of fighter jets detonated in mid-air. The cause of this brilliant, fiery spectacle was nothing more than a handful of stones.

This was the most direct and honest portrayal of a simple truth: why Cultivators considered everything on Earth to be trash. If a Cultivator wished it—if a Cultivator who had entered the Golden Core Stage wished it—they could slaughter an entire army in the blink of an eye.

After tossing the stones, Qin Fan didn’t even glance at the situation in the sky. To him, the outcome was a foregone conclusion. Launching himself upward, he leaped from the center of the landslide to the surface and did not linger. Harnessing the speed of a Golden Core expert, he vanished as elegantly as a shooting star.

「At a port in Japan.」

Hua Xiaotian watched the surrounding commotion with a grave expression. He knew that with events having developed this far, the Japanese authorities must have put the entire country on lockdown. This port was the only place not yet covered by an armed cordon.

Although he knew ordinary weaponry posed no threat to Qin Fan, old adages gave him pause. One warned to prepare for the unexpected, and another cautioned that delays only breed more trouble. With the Jingguo Society burned to the ground and Orochi slain, all he wanted was to return to his country immediately—to the absolute safety of his homeland. He didn’t want to stay in Japan for another second.

Amidst his grave thoughts, a sudden gust of wind swept by. The next thing he knew, he felt his body lighten. By the time he collected himself, he was no longer on the dock but skimming across the surface of the sea.

"Don’t be nervous. It’s me!" Qin Fan said with a light laugh, sensing Hua Xiaotian’s aura sharpen defensively.

He didn’t stop moving, however. Still striding over the waves, he was pulling Hua Xiaotian along at an incredible speed.

"Master Qin!"

Qin Fan’s approach had been so silent and traceless that Hua Xiaotian couldn’t sense his presence at all. In that split second, just as he was about to strike at the perceived enemy, he heard Qin Fan’s voice. Hua Xiaotian immediately froze and exclaimed in excitement. Then, looking down, he realized he was being whisked across the water’s surface. "Master Qin," he called out, "are we returning by running across the water?"

"Is there a problem with that?" Qin Fan chuckled.

"Isn’t this... a bit too far?" Hua Xiaotian was bewildered. As a master of the Gang Realm, running on water wasn’t difficult for him, but the distance he could sustain was definitely limited. To travel all the way from Japan to Huaxia by running across the waves... not even an expert at the peak of the God Realm possessed that kind of power.

"Too far? It’ll just take a moment. If we leave now, we might even make it back in time for a hot breakfast!" Qin Fan said with a sly, mischievous smile.

With that, his speed surged once more.

Upon the surface of the sea, two figures sped through the darkness just before dawn.

On their journey, Hua Xiaotian’s state of mind progressed from initial shock to disbelief, then to utter amazement, and finally, to sheer numbness as he experienced the astonishing speed with which Qin Fan pulled him along. At this rate, by the time they reached Huaxia, the breakfast stalls would have just opened for business.

Beneath his numbness, my curiosity about Qin Fan’s heaven-defying nature only grew. The mystery surrounding him seemed more and more like a fantastic tale. Is this man even human? And if someone is backing him, what kind of divine being would that person have to be? By now, I no longer care about the "Son of the Heavenly Dao" that Demi Immortal Qilian mentioned. With an outrageous prodigy like Qin Fan around, any Son of the Heavenly Dao would be reduced to a mere foil to his brilliance.

Lost in these swirling thoughts, Hua Xiaotian asked no more questions for the rest of the journey. They continued their silent, rapid transit.

As a faint white light appeared on the horizon, the sight of a Five-star Red Flag fluttering in the wind entered their vision.

"Master Qin, we’re back!" After surviving the slaughter in Japan, Hua Xiaotian was overcome with emotion at the sight of the flag.

Letting out a casual yawn while still gliding over the waves, Qin Fan said, "I see it."

As soon as he finished speaking, their inhuman speed carried them from the sea’s surface onto solid ground. But the moment they set foot on the soil of Huaxia, several bright spotlights fixed on them.

From a nearby watchtower, a wary shout blared through a loudspeaker, "Halt! Who goes there?"

At the call, SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! several soldiers rushed out with their guns, surrounding the two men.

At this, Hua Xiaotian gave a wry, helpless smile. He glanced worriedly at Qin Fan and said, "Master Qin, let me handle this!"

He was genuinely afraid that Qin Fan, if displeased, would once again turn into a murderous demon.

"Sure!" Qin Fan replied, seeing the worry on Hua Xiaotian’s face. He simply shook his head and smiled.

Receiving Qin Fan’s agreeable answer, Hua Xiaotian couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. He stepped forward and announced, "My name is Hua Xiaotian. You can report that to your superiors. Anyone with the rank of Major or above should know who I am."

PS: The Japan arc comes to an end. The excitement continues after returning home