Only after waiting more than ten minutes did the purple-black cloud finally disperse.
A woman in a red wedding dress and red shoes, her face hidden beneath a red veil, appeared; the only skin showing was her hands, deathly pale.
With her arrival, Jiang Yan felt the surrounding temperature drop several degrees.
'What's this?' Studying the eerie woman, he checked the info directly in his mind.
Ghost Bride: A being from a special world, existing as a spirit; devours other spirits to grow!
Ghost Domain: Creates a 1-kilometre ghost zone that disorients anyone inside. (Ghost Bride can appear anywhere within it.)
Ghost Tide: Every victim killed by Ghost Bride becomes a vengeful ghost inside her domain!
This summoning only gave her two abilities; Jiang Yan's brows knitted.
'She's from the same world as Ghost Buddha and Flesh Bodhisattva, and with only two skills her power can't be high—she'll need fertilizer to grow.'
Jiang Yan waved her off. "Go help yourself to the buffet; steer clear of anyone with strong mental power."
Ghost Bride gave a slight nod and was about to vanish when Jiang Yan cut in: "Hold on!"
He stepped right up and ordered, "Lift the veil."
She raised her hands and, under the eyes of Jiang Yan and the Blood Master, drew back the red cloth—revealing a bare skull.
"Alright, you can go." Jiang Yan waved her away again.
Curiosity had made him peek; thankfully it wasn't the maggot-covered face of those horror films.
To Jiang Yan the plain skull was almost cute—surrounded by freaks, an ordinary skeleton looked refreshingly normal.
Anna Country's cities number eight, housing over sixty percent of its population.
At Jiang Yan's order, every Monster that had slipped in earlier stepped into the streets.
The carnival began.
Rrrrip! Fabric tore again and again; though few people were out at night,
someone still saw it happen.
A young couple stared in terror as a flood of Monsters appeared at the far end of the street.
"Aah!" the girl screamed, clapping a hand over her mouth.
"Run!" Her boyfriend's face changed; abandoning her, he bolted.
A frequent web-surfer, he knew how terrifying these creatures were.
A single one could kill dozens, even hundreds.
"Haha, two humans—my turn first!" A Monster with six white arms, crawling on all fours and hair hanging wild, bared bloodthirsty fangs and charged.
The girl's legs gave way; no scream came, only the warmth of her pants as her mind went blank.
She could only watch the hideous, mouth-parts-flaring thing pounce.
Splurt! Blood sprayed; her head rolled free.
"Hahaha!" The six-armed fiend, exhilarated, raced after the fleeing man.
"It's begun! The world belongs to us New Humans—Monsters are the true path of evolution!" At the street's end a Monster whose head alone spanned a metre howled and charged into a nearby complex.
"I'll take first place and win a soul crystal to evolve further!" Others burned with ambition, eyes fixed only on power.
That day, Monsters erupted across every corner of Anna Country.
Unlike the mindless ones before, these kept their minds and struck with purpose.
Anna Country Military Base.
Craters, shell-casings, and soldiers' corpses littered the ground, mingled with a few Monsters killed by Artillery.
Splurt!
In the base's centre Lei Xiangchen crushed the skull of a crippled Level Three Awakened with one hoof.
"Pathetic trash, and they call this Level Three?" Behind him Chen Yeliu's hands split into dozens of writhing tentacles.
Every tentacle pulsed with psychic force.
One mental control, one spirit control—together they wiped out the only two Level Threes the instant they met.
The other had already been swarmed by Monsters.
Lei Xiangchen smiled gently. "Pleasure-seeking Awakened should've been culled long ago instead of hogging resources."
Behind them stood a hundred Monsters; as early recruits of the Monster Association,
Lei Xiangchen held enough sway to quickly gather a squad and assault the Artillery regiment.
"Friends, think before you act. Those fools toil away inside—an hour of our work may outdo their lifetime." He gave the Monsters a mild smile.
"President Lei, let's move—we can't wait!" one Monster grinned savagely.
In their midst hundreds of captive soldiers crouched in terror.
"I'll give you a chance to live: simply shell the city ahead with your guns—simple, right?" Lei Xiangchen beamed at the crouching soldiers.
...Anna Country, capital. A sudden blaze that lit the night sky was instantly locked onto by satellites in orbit.
Town City, Xuanjian Division HQ.
Long Zhengqing was roused from sleep in the dead of night by a subordinate.
Wan Tianhong and Zhao Zhenyi, who hadn't left, were woken as well.
All three watched the satellite feed, faces grave.
Wan Tianhong rubbed his eyes, muttering, "Am I dreaming? That Dragon God Margoth looks exactly like the myths."
Long Zhengqing massaged his temples, feeling he must still be asleep.
"Could every legend be real—not just ancient nonsense?" he asked the others in disbelief.
Zhao Zhenyi watched storms and lightning engulf the capital, her face paling. "That level of destruction is brushing Level Six—if not already there."
"Zhengqing, what's your move? According to myth that dragon's no friend; sooner or later it'll reach our Nanwu Country," Wan Tianhong said, gaze heavy.
Long Zhengqing's mouth twitched. "What can I do against something that powerful? That output's nearly Level Six—maybe already there."
Level Six—the apex of the Awakened world. Xuanjian Division could ignore every other faction only because two Level Sixes sat at headquarters.
Even the combined nations' Bureau of Gods topped out at high Level Five, far behind Xuanjian Division.
"Just nuke it. I don't see any survivors," Zhao Zhenyi said coldly.
"Fire a nuke into foreign territory? Out of the question—how could Nanwu Country keep face as the world's top power?" Long Zhengqing refused outright.