Deep beneath the shelter, the once-orderly office area had become a complete wreck. Harsh lights flickered across shattered glass and overturned desks and chairs, as if they, too, were wailing over the sudden disaster.

An indescribable fear and despair filled the air. It was as though even time had stopped amid the calamity.

Lujin Lushi stood inside the shelter, their gazes crossing with eight dark silhouettes beneath the dim lights.

Lujin Lushi took up a combat stance. The black and white wings behind them drew slightly together. The moment those eight figures made a move, they would launch an attack.

The eight silhouettes didn’t seem interested in fighting Lujin Lushi. They retreated instead.

Lu Jin wanted to keep them there, but Lu Shi felt that something was wrong. She only let Lu Jin fire two shots.

The underground shelter was a scene of utter devastation. Nearly half of the clerks had been crushed into flesh and blood. The rest, Qianchun included, had all passed out.

“Are you all right?” ×2

Lujin Lushi helped Blade to her feet. Blade clutched her head, her face twisted with pain. She waved at them, signaling for them to handle the other matters first and leave her alone.

After scanning the Twelfth District branch and confirming that every enemy had left, Lujin Lushi dispelled their black and white wings.

They got to work. Using Mana, they gathered the remains of the crushed clerks together, doing their best to grant them a final measure of dignity.

Qianchun slowly opened her eyes.

The scene before her left her so shocked that she could barely breathe. Even after Lu Jin and Lu Shi had worked to clean up the area, the underground shelter remained a complete mess.

Cracks marred the walls. Desks and chairs lay overturned. Shattered glass and scattered documents were everywhere. Every detail reminded her of what had happened here.

She struggled to sit up. Her entire body ached, and her head felt slightly dizzy.

She looked around, trying to find Blade. The last thing she remembered was one of the dark figures lifting Blade into the air.

Could something have happened to her?

Although Qianchun and Blade always seemed to be at odds, the two were actually quite close. After all, a battle of wits required an opponent of equal skill.

At last, she found Blade lying in a corner with her eyes tightly shut. Only then did Qianchun let out a sigh of relief.

She found Lu Jin and Lu Shi and asked what had happened after she lost consciousness.

After Lujin Lushi gave her a brief explanation, Qianchun immediately sensed something strange.

Those figures had easily crushed Qianchun while she was transformed. Didn’t that mean their strength was at least Cantata Two—or even higher?

There was no reason for them to avoid Lujin Lushi.

Why had they left?

Could it be that they had already achieved their objective?

“Where’s Thunder Slash?!”

Qianchun had only just asked when Zhao Qingsnow hurried back. She had received a message from Thunder Slash and rushed from the border toward the Twelfth District branch without stopping.

But even so, she was still too late.

“Something happened to Thunder Slash… And there’s an Abyssal fluctuation above us. It appears to be the Abyss of Humanity.”

“Another Abyss of Humanity?! And something happened to Thunder Slash?!”

Qianchun ignored the pain in her body and sprang up from the ground.

Every Abyss of Humanity was dangerous beyond measure. What was more, the location of this Abyss sounded strangely familiar…

Wasn’t it the very place where Zhao Qingsnow and the other two were?!

Thunder Slash was currently the only Cantata Three in the entire Twelfth District.

“This is going to be troublesome…”

An Abyss capable of trapping a Cantata Two would require at least a Cantata Three to deal with it.

But now, even if Thunder Slash was still alive, she likely no longer had the strength to fight.

That meant they could only allow the Abyss of Humanity to keep expanding until it swallowed the entire Twelfth District.

“Is there still any way to contact the three people inside the Abyss?”

Qianchun’s gaze swept over everyone present, but no one answered.

That made sense. None of the people still conscious knew how.

“Lujin Lushi, go investigate the situation first. Zhao Qingsnow and I will stay here and hold the fort.”

No one knew what state Blade was in. Under the circumstances, Qianchun had gained a certain degree of authority to command.

Lujin Lushi followed her orders and headed toward the vicinity of the Abyss of Humanity to investigate.

Qianchun then told Zhao Qingsnow to keep an eye on Blade. She was to report every movement Blade made.

Qianchun herself went to the office nearby. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

“The Abyss opened, Thunder Slash was defeated, and the base was invaded. No matter how you look at it, they have the overwhelming advantage. Could they not be working together?”

“That doesn’t make sense. Everything I’ve learned points toward the same faction and the same enemy. They must be Its siblings. But… why?”

Qianchun thought of the Key that Illusory Glass had taken away earlier.

Perhaps their objective was still the Key. They had searched the entire Twelfth District, failed to find it, and then left.

But Qianchun still couldn’t understand why they hadn’t simply killed them all.

Leaving behind the spark of resistance wasn’t something a villain would do.

Unless they had another plan.

But what method could they use to obtain the Key?

The Key wasn’t in their hands at all. Illusory Glass had taken it away.

Qianchun felt as though she were missing some crucial clue. She clearly sensed that she was only one step away from the truth.

Her head hurt.

“Hey, Eye Orb. You can take that thing out now.”

After thinking for a while, Qianchun called Eye Orb.

She felt that the secret weapon they had rushed to complete several days ago could be adjusted and put through trials ahead of schedule.

She had no idea what the weapon was truly capable of.

But the Twelfth District had already run out of trump cards.

Eye Orb answered the call. At that moment, he was testing the weapon together with Fertini and the Old Woman.

As for why Fertini and the Old Woman were helping, it was because Eye Orb had recently been unable to find anyone at the Aklatia base more knowledgeable about magic.

Ten days earlier, Night Frost’s unofficial master had come to Eye Orb with the Old Woman.

That day, the old man had been full of spirit.

But Eye Orb knew that his life had reached its end.

“When I learned that you had obtained that eye capable of creating all things, I came up with a crazy idea. This is the Formation I wove during the final days of my life.”

He handed Eye Orb four sheets of paper, each the size of an A1 poster. Their surfaces were covered in densely packed Array Patterns.

This was an imperfect Formation he had conceived during the final moments of his life. He intended to watch it reach completion before he died.

“No material in human history can withstand this great Formation. We need a substance we have never discovered before to serve as its Formation plate.”

Eye Orb had only recently begun studying the divine eye. He had little confidence in his ability to create anything with it.

Then, something occurred to him.

As for a material unknown to humanity, he happened to have one.

It was Night Frost’s spatial cube—the silver cube he had obtained from Sun Xiao, lost within the Mythic Abyss, and eventually recovered.

Eye Orb suspected that it had come from some creature. He had detected the presence of genes within the cube.

This thing had come from a terrifyingly gigantic Monster, one whose body contained a space of its own.

In theory, it should be able to bear Night Frost’s master’s Formation.

So Eye Orb used the divine eye’s power to create countless blocks from the cube. He then used the eye’s abilities to forge a Spear, while the old man engraved the Formation upon it.

Everything went smoothly.

With the old man’s knowledge of Formations, the divine eye’s magical creations, and Eye Orb’s scientific technology, they completed seventy percent of the weapon in only seven days.

But when the seventh night ended, the old man passed away.

“I still didn’t get to see the end…”

Those were his final words.

After burying the old man, the Old Woman continued working on Eye Orb’s research.

Eye Orb could only engrave the Formation slowly. He didn’t even know whether the Formation was correct.

All he could do was imitate the original and complete eighty percent of the Array Patterns.

That was the final result of his sleepless efforts over the past few days.

“I understand… Has it really come to this?”

This weapon had been created as the Twelfth District’s trump card, to help it survive an extinction-level disaster.

But that day had come far too soon.

The weapon wasn’t finished. It hadn’t been tested.

And now, it had to be deployed.

Heaven had not granted their wish.

…

At that moment, Lujin Lushi were rushing toward the border.

They had returned to their black and white winged forms to save time.

They landed before the curtain of light condensed from the Abyss and tried to peer inside.

Within the Abyss, Chen Xiaoyin and the other two were covered in wounds.

Facing Blood’s assault, the three of them couldn’t find even the slightest opening to counterattack.

Even when they managed to strike back, they couldn’t break through Blood’s defenses.

Blood raised her scythe.

The Blood Sea churned like a boiling furnace. Scorching red liquid surged violently within it.

With a deafening boom, the blood-colored scythe suddenly cleaved out from the Blood Sea.

One after another, blood-colored figures struggled free from the Blood Sea.

Their faces were twisted and savage, uncannily similar to the civilians that Blood had mercilessly devoured earlier.

Those once-innocent lives seemed to have been granted new forms by the Blood Sea, becoming its puppets.

Their clothes had long since been dyed red with Blood. Even their skin had taken on a strange crimson hue.

Their eyes glimmered with cruel, frenzied light, as though they had lost every trace of reason and humanity.

They seemed to have caught the scent of living people and threw themselves at Qiu Sheng and the others.

Qiu Sheng immediately condensed a lightning sword, attempting to block the blood-colored figures.

Chen Xiaoyin and Dawnlight also called upon their dwindling Mana and clashed fiercely with the blood-colored figures.

Yet the blood-colored figures seemed endless.

They kept surging out of the Blood Sea, as though they would never stop.

Qiu Sheng and the others fought bravely, but against such a vast number of enemies, they gradually began to struggle.

“Some guests have arrived outside. Let them play with you.”

Lujin Lushi stared at the Abyssal Rift torn open before them.

A blood-colored figure walked out.

They weren’t unfamiliar with that figure.

Wasn’t it Blood—the same Blood that Night Frost had hammered into dust before?

Lujin Lushi faced her as if confronting a great enemy.

If it was really her, the two of them together might not be enough.

They could fight her.

But not by much.

Blood swung her scythe. Every sweep seemed to stir the Blood Sea.

The blade looked as though it were stained with the Blood of countless living beings, radiating a suffocating aura of death.

Lujin Lushi beat the black and white wings behind them.

The moment their feathers touched the Abyssal Aura emanating from Blood’s body, they exploded.

Blood’s close-combat ability was formidable.

Lujin Lushi therefore decided to put some distance between them.