Li could not help but fall silent. Only after a moment did she ask, "How long have you all been building this...?"
"About two months. Before that, it was Lady An who had been taking care of everyone." Shanhui replied with deep respect. "I heard she had been working nonstop for nearly a hundred thousand years. More than half the equipment brought out of the Escape Tower has now been restored to operation."
"How many people have awakened altogether now?"
"Not many, just over three hundred. Most of them are Affairs Bureau members."
"Why? Did something happen to the Heavenly Court?"
"Not that." Shanhui explained, "The resources needed to synthesize our bodies are nearly exhausted, so we need time to accumulate more. Besides, if several million people came out all at once, we couldn't support them. And many of them are civilians with no ability to protect themselves, so Lady An chose us as the first batch to be awakened."
"Protect themselves?" Li caught the troubling implication. "Have the Evil Spirits not been eradicated?"
"As long as there are living beings capable of sensing qi, Evil Spirits will inevitably exist. But that is a matter for later. At least so far, we have not found any regions overrun by Evil Spirits." Shanhui paused. "The threat comes from other things. This place is nothing like the Sanctuary. How should I put it? It's terribly strange..."
Strange? How could it be?
Wasn't this supposed to be humanity's homeland?
Wait... she had never once set foot on Earth, so why did she have such a thought?
"Roar—!"
A sudden howl interrupted Li's thoughts.
She looked up toward the source and was astonished to discover a gigantic fish flying through the sky! Its belly was immensely broad, covered in scales that gleamed with a