Location: The Bridge of the Void-Ark 'Beast-Tamer'
Time: T-Minus 0 Minutes to Ground Invasion
Silence reigned on the bridge of the golden pagoda.
The crew of the Myriad Beasts Mountain—cultivators who had conquered a dozen star systems—stared at the holographic screen in disbelief. The main cannon, a weapon capable of boiling oceans, had been nullified by a single man with a rusty key.
Elder Kong sat on his Command Throne made of dragon bone. His knuckles gripped the armrests so tightly that the ancient bone splintered.
"He ate it," Kong whispered, his voice dangerously low. "A mortal ate a Star-Beam."
"Grand Elder," a tactical officer stuttered, bowing low. "Energy capacitors are drained. Main cannon recharge time: 4 hours. The shield of the Black Tortoise prevents our lasers from penetrating. The White Tiger is decimating our aerial swarm. We... we are stalled."
Kong stood up. His aura, a suffocating pressure of Mid-Stage Dao Severing, flooded the bridge.
"Stalled? No."
He walked to the viewport, looking down at the tiny, cloud-covered continent below.
"He defends the sky because he is strong," Kong analyzed, his eyes narrowing. "But a King is nothing without his Kingdom. He is protecting that city. That statue. That... faith."
Kong smiled, a cruel twisting of his white beard.
"If we cannot kill the head, we burn the body. Initiate Protocol: Beast-Fall."
He turned to his subordinates.
"Launch the Hunter Pods. Deploy the Inner Disciples. I want them to land inside the city walls. Slaughter the civilians. Burn the temples. Make him watch his precious empire scream."
"But Elder," the officer hesitated. "The treaties protect mortals..."
Kong backhanded the officer. The man's head exploded in a mist of blood.
"There are no treaties with glitches," Kong roared. "LAUNCH!"
The Meteor Shower
Location: The Imperial Capital – Main Plaza
The citizens of the Capital were already on their knees. They had seen the sky turn to fire, and they had seen the "Lord of the Abyss" stop it. They were chanting, praying, crying.
Lin Chen, the High Priest of the Eternal Night, stood at the base of the massive obsidian statue of Aris. He held Solstice in one hand and a prayer bead in the other.
"Hold fast!" Lin Chen shouted, his voice amplified by magic. "The Lord protects!"
Then, the radar on the city walls screamed.
[Warning: High-Velocity Projectiles Detected.]
[Count: 500.]
[Trajectory: Vertical Drop.]
Lin Chen looked up.
They weren't missiles. They were Organic Drop Pods. massive, fleshy eggs encased in meteoric rock, burning through the atmosphere with green fire.
"Shields up!" Lin Chen commanded.
The city's defensive formation—a golden dome powered by the Imperial Palace—flickered to life.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
The meteors hit the shield. The first ten shattered. The next twenty cracked the dome.
The fiftieth meteor punched through.
It crashed into the Noble District, obliterating a block of mansions in a mushroom cloud of dust and green fire.
Then another punched through. And another.
Five hundred meteors rained down on the capital, bypassing the walls entirely.
The Hatching
Location: The Noble District Ruins
The dust settled around one of the craters.
A Black Jade Guard squad approached cautiously, spears leveled.
"Is it a bomb?" the squad leader whispered.
The "Meteor" hissed. The rock shell split open like a blooming flower.
Inside was not a machine, but a Beast.
It was a Thunder-Rhino, covered in plates of enchanted steel armor. Riding atop it was a cultivator in the azure robes of the Myriad Beasts Mountain. He looked young, arrogant, and bored.
[Enemy Unit: Inner Disciple (Beast-Tamer)]
[Level: 45 (Core Formation Peak)]
[Mount: Armored Thunder-Rhino (Level 48)]
The disciple looked at the trembling guards. He didn't see threats; he saw points.
"Only Level 30?" The disciple scoffed. "This sector really is a trash heap. Rhino, clear the path."
The Rhino snorted. A bolt of lightning arched from its horn.
ZAP.
The entire squad of ten guards was vaporized instantly. Their armor didn't even slow the attack down.
"Too easy," the disciple laughed. He tapped his communication talisman. "Squad 7 landed. beginning the purge. Target: Civilians."
The Massacre
All across the city, the pods opened.
Raptor-Riders took to the rooftops, their mounts leaping from building to building, snatching archers and tearing them apart.
Venom-Spider Tamers landed in the market district. Their massive arachnids spun webs across the streets, trapping fleeing families before liquefying them with acid.
Bear-Warriors smashed through the gates of the barracks, shrugging off ballista bolts like rain.
It wasn't a battle. It was a slaughter.
The gap between the "Lower Realm" and the "Middle Realm" was laid bare. A single Inner Disciple from the Mountain was equal to a General of the Qin Empire.
The High Priest's Defense
Location: The Main Plaza
"They are inside the walls!" a messenger screamed, falling at Lin Chen's feet, bleeding from a claw wound. "The Western Gate has fallen! The Market is gone!"
Lin Chen grit his teeth. His Shadow-Knight eyes flared violet.
"They want a massacre?" Lin Chen growled. "I'll give them one."
He slammed the butt of his staff (The Staff of the Corpse King) into the ground.
"ARISE!"
The ground of the plaza cracked.
Aris had connected the capital to the Underworld Gate days ago. Now, Lin Chen called upon the debt.
Skeleton Warriors clawed their way out of the pavement. These weren't the weak skeletons of the Frost-Blood Kingdom; these were Abyssal Skeletons, reinforced with the dense Qi of the World Tree.
"Defend the civilians!" Lin Chen ordered. "Kill the invaders!"
He launched himself into the air.
A Raptor-Rider dived at him, screeching.
Lin Chen didn't dodge. He swung Solstice.
SLASH.
The Hero's sword, coated in void energy, cleaved through the raptor and the rider in a single stroke. Blood rained down on the statue of Aris.
"I am the Blade of the Abyss!" Lin Chen roared, landing on a rooftop. "Come and die!"
The RTS Player
Location: High Altitude – On the Back of the Azure Dragon
Aris watched the city burn from ten miles up.
The System Map was a sea of red dots (enemies) overwhelming the blue dots (allies).
[Casualty Report]
[Civilian Deaths: 2,400.]
[Military Deaths: 800.]
[Enemy Casualties: 12.]
"They are trading efficiently," Aris noted cold-bloodedly. "Their units are superior."
"MASTER," the Azure Dragon rumbled. "SHALL I DESCEND? I CAN WASH THE CITY WITH LIGHTNING."
"No," Aris said. "If you move, the Pagoda-Ship will fire the secondary lasers. You are the only thing keeping the skies clear."
Aris looked at the map. He couldn't go down there himself. If he left the Dragon, the Enemy Elders would gang up on the beast. He was pinned.
"I need to micro-manage," Aris decided.
He opened his Dungeon Manager Interface.
"System. Spend 50,000 AP."
[Purchase Confirmed.]
[Item: Global Buff - 'The Frenzy of the Night'.]
Aris raised his hand toward the capital below.
"Activate."
The Buff
On the ground, every Black Jade Guard and every Abyssal Skeleton suddenly stopped.
Their eyes turned a glowing, burning red.
[Buff Applied: Frenzy of the Night.]
[Effect: Pain Receptors Disabled.]
[Effect: Strength +50%.]
[Effect: Speed +50%.]
[Side Effect: Users will die of exhaustion after 1 hour.]
Aris sacrificed their longevity for immediate power. It was a ruthless move.
In the market district, a Venom-Spider stabbed a Qin soldier through the chest. Normally, the soldier would die screaming.
Instead, the soldier laughed.
He grabbed the spider's leg, pulling himself deeper onto the spike to get closer.
"For the Lord!" the soldier screamed, pulling the pin on a Fire-Core Grenade strapped to his chest.
BOOM.
The Spider and its rider were blown to pieces.
All over the city, the tide began to turn. The Qin soldiers stopped fighting like men and started fighting like rabid animals. They swarmed the massive beasts, stabbing, biting, and detonating themselves.
The Elite Arrives
Location: The Temple Steps
Lin Chen was holding the line. He had killed ten disciples already, his black armor slick with blood.
But then, the crowd parted.
A massive beast stepped into the plaza.
It was a Golden-Maned Lion, larger than an elephant. Its paws burned with holy fire. Riding it was not a disciple, but an Elite.
[Target Identified: Head Disciple Jiao]
[Level: 55 (Nascent Soul - Early Stage)]
[Ranking: Top 3 of the Inner Sect.]
Jiao looked at Lin Chen. He saw the corrupted hero, the black sword, the piles of dead disciples.
"So," Jiao said, sliding off his lion. He drew a spear made of pure crystal. "You are the 'High Priest'. The traitor to humanity."
"I serve the inevitable," Lin Chen spat, taking a combat stance.
"You serve a bug," Jiao corrected.
Jiao moved.
He was fast. Much faster than Lin Chen. The crystal spear blurred, striking three times in a single heartbeat.
CLANG. CLANG. CRACK.
Lin Chen parried two, but the third strike smashed into his ribs, cracking his Shadow-Armor. Lin Chen was sent skidding backward, slamming into the base of Aris's statue.
"Is that all?" Jiao sneered, walking forward. "A corrupted hero is weaker than a pure one. You lost the Light, and you gained... nothing."
Lin Chen coughed up black blood. He looked up at the statue of his Master.
"I gained... purpose," Lin Chen whispered.
He stood up. The Staff of the Corpse King in his left hand began to glow. Solstice in his right hand began to burn.
[Skill Activation: Solar-Void Fusion.]
Lin Chen didn't just use Shadow Qi. He remembered Aris's lesson. A virus needs a carrier.
He ignited his old Solar Core, burning his own life force to fuel it, and mixed it with the Abyssal Code.
A flame appeared on his sword. It wasn't gold. It wasn't violet.
It was White-Hot Grey. The color of ash.
"Round two," Lin Chen said.