The news of the western ridge ambush traveled across the mortal continent faster than a gale-force wind.
By dusk, the fragile illusion of safety that had protected mortal great realms for hundreds of years had shattered into dust. Ancient martial sects with ten-thousand-year lineages, royal dynasties possessing standing armies of two million armored spearmen, and remote beast clans dwelling in deep virgin valleys all learned the same terrifying truth. Conventional arrays, sword arts, and elemental magic were fully powerless against the falling gray blight. The void didn’t battle its foes. It simply erased them from existence.
High atop the floating mountain of Mount Cangxuan, Lin Xiao didn’t issue wild calls for heroic last stands. He demand blood oaths, scorched-earth protocols, or suicidal martyr corps from the scared sects.
Instead, he summoned the safe hall’s grand deep ring bell.
The bell had been forged by Tie Shan from meteor-iron and spirit-copper, its outer rim inscribed with Lin Xiao’s personal Primordial Chaos seals. Suspended between two towering pillars of polished black glass, it hung overlooking the southern cloud sea. Lin Xiao swelled an azure slime arm and struck the massive bronze clapper. Then, the sound that rang out across the heavens was not a shrill screech of panic. But a deep, ringing chime that rolled through the clouds like warm thunder. It shook across leylines, spatial mirrors, and comms arrays throughout both realms.
