The Commander-Class Wing-Azure Wolf

The creature simply crouched atop the highest point in Bo City. The Silver Trade Building's dome was visible from anywhere in the city — which meant every corner of Bo City bore witness to this immense, savage colossus.

The sight stole the breath from Mo Fan's lungs, and for a long, long moment he could not come back to himself.

It was staggering. All of it, every last bit, was beyond anything he could take in.

Gloom Wolf Beasts, One-Eyed Demon Wolves, Blood-Marked Giant Demon Rats — every creature Mo Fan had ever faced looked like a petty foot soldier next to the thing roosting atop the Silver Trade Building's spire. In that single moment, everything he thought he understood about Demon-Beasts collapsed.

It stood on human ground as though it had claimed its own territory. Humans — they were nothing but livestock it kept penned inside the city.

What had happened here?

Was this still the Bo City he knew?

Weren't Demon-Beasts supposed to have been driven back to the deep mountains and dense forests? Or had human textbooks been lying to themselves all along — was it possible the true rulers of this world had never been human at all, but these creatures currently drowning Bo City in blood?

It was a nightmare. It was hell. But it was real — he could feel every inch of himself trembling with terror.

"What is that thing?" It took Mo Fan a very long time to find his voice.

Not long ago, he had been fifteen floors beneath that terrifying creature. If the hidden passage hadn't carried him away from the Silver Trade Building in time — would he even still be alive?

"Wing-Azure Wolf," Lin Yuxin said, her voice as wooden as his. "A Commander-class Demon-Beast. One roar is all it takes to marshal hundreds, even thousands, of Demon-Beasts. The only person in all of Bo City who could survive a direct hit from that creature is Zhankong — the military commander."

"Com— Commander-class?" Mo Fan's jaw dropped.

During his time with the hunting squad, Mo Fan had picked up a great deal that school textbooks would never cover — including the fact that Demon-Beasts were ranked into tiers, just as Mages were.

Gloom Wolf Beasts. Giant-Eyed Ape-Rats. One-Eyed Demon Wolves. Every single Demon-Beast he had ever encountered belonged to the very bottom rung: Servant-class.

And even Servant-class creatures were unstoppable butchers to anyone without magic.

"The Blood-Marked Giant Demon Rat you saw in the underground hall was Battle-General class. The Wing-Azure Wolf ranks one tier above that — a true Demon-Beast Commander, and one of the primary architects of this Scarlet Alert. Beyond the Blood-Marked Giant Demon Rat, there are over a hundred Battle-General-class Three-Eyed Demon Wolves operating outside the Safe Zone, leading countless One-Eyed Demon Wolves in open combat against the military. The defensive lines the military can hold are limited — roughly a thousand Demon-Beasts have already poured into Bo City. Deng Kai of the Hunters' Alliance has mobilized every Hunter-mage to contain and eliminate the ones inside the city." Lin Yuxin's voice was cold as iron.

"But why — why are so many Demon-Beasts suddenly attacking Bo City?" Mo Fan still couldn't make himself accept it.

"The Black Church," Lin Yuxin said. "It was the Black Church."

The Black Church?

This wasn't the first time Mo Fan had heard that name.

"They manufactured something called a Frenzy Spring — a concoction so close to Earth Sacred Spring water it's nearly indistinguishable. The difference is that instead of nurturing, it inflames the primal savagery of Demon-Beasts, driving them into a killing frenzy that borders on mindless. We still don't know exactly how the Black Church lured the Wolf tribes to Bo City, but they dispersed the Frenzy Spring through the clouds. When the rain came, the compound became the most terrifying catalyst imaginable — sending the entire Wolf-kind into a frenzied assault on the city."

When Lin Yuxin had first discovered the substance, none of this had been clear to her. The truth only landed when the catastrophe was already falling — and by then, she was drenched in a cold sweat.

To her, this was an annihilation that had been planned for a long time. Someone had deliberately weaponized a Demon-Beast horde to drown Bo City completely in blood.

Only the Black Church would commit an atrocity this monstrous.

"So what happens now?" Mo Fan forced his voice to stay level.

"The Black Church's goal is to destroy Bo City utterly — to turn it into hell on earth. The Wing-Azure Wolf is formidable, but even it cannot reduce a city to a slaughterhouse within a day or two. But if several more Commander-class creatures appear alongside it... even if reinforcements eventually arrive, the casualties will be catastrophic." Lin Yuxin's eyes were flat and cold.

Mo Fan went silent. Completely, absolutely silent.

Faced with this disaster, he had become just another refugee — someone who could do nothing.

"Mo Fan, there are two things you need to do right now. First — guard the Earth Sacred Spring. No matter what happens, do not let it fall into anyone's hands. I have a feeling the Black Church is desperate to get hold of it." Lin Yuxin's expression was as serious as he had ever seen it.

"And the second?" Mo Fan asked.

"Survive. My position makes me a marked target — Black Church operatives will assume I'm the one carrying the Earth Sacred Spring. So I'm going to draw their attention deliberately. Your job is to take the spring, find somewhere to hide, stay alive, keep the Black Church from finding you — and above all, do not let the spring fall into their hands."

Right then, Mo Fan's thoughts had dissolved into an endless torrent of unspoken profanity.

*Why does this scorching hot potato have to land in my hands?*

Lin Yuxin caught the hesitation on his face. A faint bitterness flickered across hers, but she said nothing more.

She smoothed out her milk-white uniform — already spattered with blood — and without hesitation cut away the loose strands of hair that had come free.

Cap on. That sharp, capable bearing snapped into place. Lin Yuxin was already moving, breaking into a swift stride toward the city that lay drowning in Demon-Beast carnage. As she ran, she called back to Mo Fan in a voice stripped of almost all feeling: "I'll draw every Black Church operative away from you. As long as you're not foolish enough to walk into trouble yourself and you make it to the designated quarantine safe zone, you'll be fine."

Then she was gone — swallowed by the pouring rain.

Running, she never looked back at the student she had left behind.

She knew not everyone carried the kind of conviction that would throw itself into danger without a second thought. But she believed that everyone, in the end, had something they would spend their life to protect. Her sister — the one person she had leaned on through everything — had already been taken by this conspiracy long before tonight. Now the only thing she had left to protect was the Earth Sacred Spring.

Mo Fan stood frozen in place, watching Lin Yuxin's retreating figure until it vanished, without a single word to say.

But there was no time to linger. Without warning, his gaze snapped to the back hills of Tianlan Magic High School — and he saw them. A pack of shapes was charging through the tree line.

Whatever they were, their bodies were powerfully built — they snapped through the trunks without effort.

They moved like wolves crashing into an unguarded sheep pen, hunger and greed plain in the frantic desperation of their charge.

*Demon-Beasts have broken into the school — and there are a lot of them.*