Blue Alert!
*After all, the Earth Sacred Spring deserved much of the credit for his reaching Intermediate-Level Mage. Even guarding it long-term — separated from it by a sealed, warded door — provided some degree of ongoing nourishment. Otherwise, why would a full-fledged Intermediate-Level Mage ever be willing to spend his days underground?*
"Guard Captain Liang, we've located the tunnel the Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat dug. The passage looks very deep — we don't dare venture too far in for now." The speaker was a female guard whose entire bearing was sharp and capable, her uniform sitting trim on her figure.
Her eyes carried a natural warrior's edge, and combined with that form-fitting milky-white uniform, she cut a distinctly alluring figure.
"Deputy Guard Captain Lin Yuxin, you're overthinking it," said Wang Tonglian, the newly arrived guard. "Giant-Eyed Ape-Rats are common enough in the city. It's just a coincidence that they burrowed here through the underground drainage network."
Lin Yuxin's brow furrowed. She clearly had no patience for Wang Tonglian's breezy dismissiveness.
"The Magic Association already sent investigators. Nothing unusual. You can relax," Guard Captain Liang said with a smile.
Lin Yuxin gave a single nod but showed no sign of lowering her guard.
"I'll take a look outside." Without another word, she turned and left, four guards falling into step behind her.
The men watched her retreating figure and shook their heads.
"Ever since Lin Yuxin's sister went missing, you almost never see her smile anymore," Liang Bin sighed. "They never found her remains. A perfectly healthy middle school student — just gone."
"Word is it was a Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat?"
"Maybe. Who knows."
After leaving the underground hall, Deputy Guard Captain Lin Yuxin stepped into the open air — but her thoughts remained heavy.
A year ago, after her sister disappeared, she had thrown herself into hunting Giant-Eyed Ape-Rats, going so far as to enter the tunnels they had carved through Bo City's underground world again and again.
Even though the Magic Association had already dispatched its own investigators, Lin Yuxin couldn't let it rest.
Without a body, she refused to accept that her beloved little sister had simply vanished from the world.
Just yesterday, deep inside one of the Ape-Rat tunnels, she had found something deeply unusual.
A pool of water.
Water in underground passages was nothing remarkable. Any ordinary person would have walked past it without a second thought — but to a Water Element mage, that was no ordinary puddle. To be precise, it bore an uncanny resemblance to Earth Sacred Spring water.
*Why would Earth Sacred Spring water be sitting in an underground tunnel?*
It was almost incomprehensible. The spring was so carefully protected that a single drop was considered precious beyond measure — yet here was water like it, pooled across the mud like sewage, left for rats and cockroaches to lap up freely.
Troubled, Lin Yuxin had collected a sample and brought it to a Magic Association alchemist who specialized in material research. He had promised results by today.
She found a quiet corner, checked the time, and dialed his number.
"Any results? Did you identify what it is?" she asked.
"It's not Earth Sacred Spring water," the alchemist replied, his voice measured and calm.
"I thought as much." *So I was overreacting.* Lin Yuxin gave a small nod.
"However," he continued, "apart from some differences in effect, it is nearly identical to Earth Sacred Spring water in every other respect."
"What does that mean? Is there a second Earth Sacred Spring somewhere in the world?"
"The Earth Sacred Spring is a natural spiritual wellspring — exceptionally pure, capable of providing extraordinary nourishment to practitioners and Demon-Beasts alike. What you found was born under similar special conditions. The difference is that it appears to have been influenced by dark plants in its surrounding environment. The water you collected does have the short-term effect of rapidly boosting a creature's power — but it functions more like a stimulant. It achieves that boost by consuming the creature's own internal nutrients and energy at a furious rate, driving them into a frenzy and stripping away all reason."
Lin Yuxin stood very still. She had never heard of anything like this.
*Could this be what drove the Giant-Eyed Ape-Rats — normally such cowardly, skulking creatures — to come out and attack people?*
"There's one more thing... and I hope I'm wrong." The alchemist's tone shifted, suddenly grave.
"What is it?"
"This tainted water — as long as it isn't consumed directly — can pass convincingly as Earth Sacred Spring water. You wouldn't be able to detect the difference within a single day."
A chill swept through Lin Yuxin without warning.
*Pass as the real thing?*
This tainted water had inexplicably appeared in the tunnels dug by the Ape-Rats. And just a year ago, a Giant-Eyed Ape-Rat had nearly burrowed through to the Earth Sacred Spring's very location. Was that a coincidence?
"It's probably a coincidence," Lin Yuxin said, though her smile came out rigid — she didn't believe it herself.
"Let's hope so. It looks like heavy rain is coming — let me pick you up from the Silver Trade Building. You probably don't have an umbrella."
"I'm a Water Element mage. Why would I need an umbrella?"
"...Fair enough. Dinner tonight?"
"I have to guard the Earth Sacred Spring."
"...Alright."
Lin Yuxin hung up, brow knitted tight, her mind churning with doubts she couldn't dismiss.
At the Xuefeng Mountain Waystation, a white-and-gray pickup truck lurched and bounced its way up the mountain path into the small settlement.
The moment it rolled through the gate, a torrential downpour hit — fast and sudden, all at once — until the entire mountainside was swallowed in a curtain of rain. An orange haze materialized among the distant peaks.
"Barely made it. One more minute and the whole cargo would've been ruined." Mo Jiaxing jumped down from the truck, still shaken, watching the deluge outside with lingering relief.
"Why does the rain have a color? That's strange," one of the old hunters sheltering inside muttered.
"Looks like piss-yellow to me — ha!" A Hunter-mage nearby laughed.
Mo Jiaxing made his way past them, nodding and exchanging greetings with a few familiar faces. Their talk of the rain's strange color made him glance up at the sky — now fully veiled behind that murky curtain.
They weren't wrong. The rain really was murky.
The waystation itself was unremarkable. Guarding the northern checkpoint was Wan Duanfeng, a direct subordinate of Zhankong.
Wan Duanfeng held the rank of Thousand-Man Regiment Commander and was an Intermediate-Level Earth Element Mage. When it came to defense, no one in Bo City came close to him.
He stood in the downpour wearing a full-body leather rain cape, radiating a quiet gravity and authority that even the rain couldn't wash away.
His gaze swept the rain-soaked mountain forest in the distance. Then — from behind one of the distant peaks — a brilliant sphere of light punched through the orange-tinged downpour and sent a faint glow flickering through the murky half-lit sky.
"Light Radiance?" Wan Duanfeng's eyes snapped wide. His expression darkened in an instant.
Light Radiance was a Basic-Level skill for Light Mages. Among Military Mages, Light Element practitioners served a vital function — Light Radiance could relay information and mark positions across vast distances.
In this, it resembled a primitive signal flare. Demon-Beasts had no perception of it whatsoever, but if they looked at it directly, it could sear their eyes. In an era where any other technological communication device was essentially broadcasting a GPS signal to every Demon-Beast in the vicinity, Light Radiance had become a uniquely effective method for transmitting signals and repelling Demon-Beasts alike.
"Commander — that... that's an alert signal. Why is Squad Three telling us to sound the alert? Are there Demon-Beasts on the move?" said a Military Mage standing nearby.
The words had barely left his mouth when a second shaft of Light Radiance cut through the distant rain — this one even brighter than the first.
In that moment, every Military Mage stationed along the checkpoint line went perfectly still.
Two flashes.
Blue Alert?