A few minutes earlier.
At the gates of Wanghail City, Qin Lie led more than a hundred elite soldiers of the city garrison in a mad dash toward the outskirts.
Their heavy armor clanged against itself, producing deep metallic thuds.
Their combat boots pounded across the muddy wilderness, kicking up a trail of dust.
A monster tide was no small matter—especially one occurring in the Poison Mist Forest, a high-level leveling zone.
If those monsters managed to break out of the forest, the low-level class holders along the outer Golden Coast would suffer devastating casualties.
“Move! Keep up with me!”
Qin Lie roared and accelerated once more.
Just then, a sharp cry suddenly rang out from above.
Qin Lie looked up.
A gigantic beast was circling in midair. It had a lion’s body, the head of a bird of prey, and a pair of wings growing from its back.
A middle-aged man in a long robe was riding on the beast’s back.
It was Zhao Tianhe, chairman of Wanghail City’s Fudong Chamber of Commerce.
Zhao Tianhe patted the griffin beneath him and lowered its altitude before reaching a hand toward Qin Lie.
“Get on.”
Qin Lie came to a stop and shouted up at him, “Chairman Zhao, what brings you here?”
“Quite a few of our members were hunting monsters and searching for treasure near the Poison Mist Forest. They reported that an extremely unusual monster tide had appeared inside.”
“Heh. A monster tide means more treasure chests will drop after it’s cleared out, so I came to see what was going on.”
Qin Lie’s expression stiffened. He cursed inwardly.
As expected of merchants—there was no profit they wouldn’t chase.
Still, this wasn’t the first time it had happened. Whenever a monster tide appeared in the past, Zhao Tianhe would stick his nose into it as well.
Fortunately, the Fudong Chamber of Commerce was one of the most prominent commercial organizations in the country and had its own armed force of class holders. They could assist with clearing the monster tide, so Qin Lie couldn’t openly give him the cold shoulder.
Zhao Tianhe urged him, “Stop dawdling. Get up here. Do you plan to run there on your two legs?”
Qin Lie thought for a moment, then turned and ordered his adjutant, “Follow the original plan. Seal off the exits of the Poison Mist Forest and guide the class holders on the outskirts to evacuate! If anyone refuses to cooperate, physically carry them out!”
“Yes, sir!”
After giving his instructions, Qin Lie bent his legs and pushed off with all his might. He leaped high into the air and landed securely on the griffin’s broad back.
Zhao Tianhe pulled on the reins. The griffin beat its wings and soared into the sky, speeding toward the Poison Mist Forest.
The wind howled past their ears.
Looking at the scenery racing by below, Qin Lie stroked the griffin’s hard mane and said enviously, “Summoners like you really have it easy. You have mounts for traveling and underlings for fighting. Us poor warriors have to do everything ourselves.”
Zhao Tianhe turned and shot him an exasperated look.
“Cut the act!”
“Every class has its strengths and weaknesses. I envy warriors like you for being strong and physically robust, with vigorous life force and lifespans far longer than those of ordinary people.”
“You think being a summoner is easy? I have four or five money-eating beasts at home right now. Every day, I have no idea how much money goes up in smoke just buying high-level monster feed and mana crystals.”
Qin Lie flashed a grin, about to tease him a little more.
Suddenly, the griffin beneath them let out a terrified cry!
It abruptly halted in midair, its enormous wings flapping wildly. The sudden stop sent both riders pitching forward violently from the inertia.
“What’s going on?”
Zhao Tianhe tried to calm the frantic griffin.
But it was completely useless.
The next moment, an unimaginably terrifying fluctuation spread from the central region of the distant Poison Mist Forest!
Vmmm—!
The fluctuation was invisible and intangible, yet it carried suffocating pressure that swept across the entire world in an instant.
Qin Lie and Zhao Tianhe, both battle-hardened fourth-tier class holders, changed expressions at the same time.
They felt a shudder that originated from the depths of their souls.
In the lifeless Poison Mist Forest below, tens of thousands of birds were startled into flight, bursting out of the treetops like a black cloud.
Then the two men felt the surrounding air begin to grow scorching hot.
This was not the gradual rise in temperature they were accustomed to.
In the blink of an eye, the air had heated to a level that left even them feeling burned.
The griffin let out a despairing cry. It could no longer move at all and began plummeting from the sky with the two men on its back.
A gale mixed with waves of heat blasted into their faces.
Just before they smashed into the ground, Zhao Tianhe finally regained control of his contracted beast. He forced the griffin to glide through the air for a short distance before it crashed heavily into an open patch of ground.
Mud flew everywhere as the two men climbed to their feet in utter disarray.
The griffin lay on the ground, its massive body curled into a ball. It buried its head beneath its wings and trembled violently, like an ostrich that had encountered its natural predator.
Ignoring the mud covering him, Zhao Tianhe soothed the griffin while turning to look for Qin Lie.
“Old Qin, are you all right—”
Before he could finish, he froze.
Qin Lie wasn’t looking at him. The commander of the city garrison, a man who had always feared neither Heaven nor Earth, was standing stock-still, staring up at the sky.
“My God…”
Zhao Tianhe followed Qin Lie’s gaze upward and was instantly struck dumb.
It was nearing evening, and the sky should have been gradually darkening.
But at that moment, the sky was blindingly bright.
Because in addition to the setting sun hanging in the west, there was another sun in the sky!
This newly appeared sun radiated light so intense that no one could look directly at it.
Qin Lie endured the searing pain in his eyes and narrowed them until he finally saw what it really was.
It wasn’t a sun.
It was a bird.
More precisely, it was a colossal firebird so enormous that it blotted out the sky, its entire body engulfed in flames as brilliant as a star!
The firebird spread its wings and, wrapped in a temperature capable of destroying Heaven and Earth and an overwhelming might, plunged straight down from the highest reaches of the sky toward the Poison Mist Forest!
…
At the same time, on the Golden Coast.
The class holders who had packed the beach and been enthusiastically grinding low-level monsters all stopped what they were doing.
They stared at the strange phenomenon in the sky in terror.
As the firebird continued its descent, the temperature around them soared at an astonishing rate.
The sand on the beach grew scorching hot. When people stepped on it, they could even smell the soles of their shoes scorching.
Some people screamed, threw down their weapons, and dove headfirst into the sea beside them.
The crowd erupted into chaos. Everyone scattered in a frantic attempt to flee.
The more experienced class holders acted without hesitation. They pulled town-return scrolls from their bags and crushed them in their hands.
Streaks of white light flashed one after another along the coastline as countless people chose to abandon the area that was about to become a living hell.
…
Inside Wanghail City.
Pedestrians on the streets stopped one after another, and countless citizens looked up at the sky.
A little girl sitting on her father’s shoulders pointed upward and asked in her childish voice, “Daddy, why is there another sun in the sky?”
Her father’s face had gone deathly pale. He couldn’t utter a word.
Boom—!
The enormous pale-blue barrier that covered the sky above Wanghail City suddenly rippled violently.
Immediately afterward, the piercing sound of an air-raid siren rang throughout the entire city!
At first, the broadcasts playing over the street speakers announced a B-level alert.
But less than five seconds later—
“Warning! The disaster level has been revised to A-level!”
“All citizens are ordered to cease all outdoor activities immediately and proceed to the nearest underground shelter according to the instructions!”
“Repeating: all citizens are to proceed to the nearest underground shelter immediately!”
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As the broadcast ended, towering pillars of light erupted from the walls surrounding Wanghail City.
Four defensive barriers of different colors rose one after another around the city, like enormous inverted bowls. They covered the entire sky, shielding the whole city beneath them.
……
At the outskirts of the Poison Mist Forest.
The griffin trembling before Zhao Tianhe finally reached its limit.
It abruptly dispersed, transforming into a streak of light that forcibly fled back into the summoning orb hanging from Zhao Tianhe’s waist.
The heat wave had already evolved into a tangible storm of fire.
The surrounding trees began to spontaneously combust.
Qin Lie took a single step forward, his tall, burly body moving directly in front of Zhao Tianhe.
He gripped his heavy battle-ax with both hands and drove his battle aura to its utmost limits, forming a thick protective barrier around himself.
Warriors were tough and resilient, while summoners were famously fragile.
At a time like this, he had to stand at the front.
Just as the two of them thought they were doomed—
A bright blue shield suddenly opened beside them without warning.
The shield instantly cut off the scorching heat from outside, heat intense enough to melt steel.
At the same time, an intricate teleportation array rapidly took shape in the muddy ground beneath their feet.
A flash of white light swept past.
An old man in a gray cloth robe stepped out of the array. His hair was streaked with white, and his expression was grave as he gazed at the fiery bird plummeting rapidly from the sky.
The moment Qin Lie and Zhao Tianhe saw the old man, overwhelming joy at having escaped certain death erupted in their eyes.
“Elder Qin!”
“Grandfather!”
“What exactly is that thing…?”
Qin Lie’s voice was dry as he asked the question.
The enormous fiery bird finally crashed down, striking the deepest reaches of the Poison Mist Forest.
At that moment, the entire world fell silent.
Endless flames exploded with apocalyptic force, swallowing everything within sight.
Amid that scene of annihilation, Qin Lie and Zhao Tianhe heard only the white-haired old man before them speak in a voice trembling with barely restrained emotion:
“That is the… Golden Crow from myth!”