The bronze alarm bells of the Hundred Blossom Sect tolled seven times in rapid row.
CLANG. CLANG. CLANG.
The heavy, clashing strikes rolled through the limestone ravines. It scattered roosts of flesh-eating bats into the midnight mist.
From the lowest agricultural terraces up to the fortified crags, torches flared to life by the hundreds.
Panic spread faster than spilled lamp oil.
At the edge of the underground orchid caverns, thirty outer students stood frozen around the stone fertilizer vats.
The air smelled intensely of scorched winter cabbage and boiled gristle.
Floating at the surface of the boiling lime slurry was the shredded purple brocade robe of Ninth Elder Hua.
