Northern Great Xia.
A blanket of white snow covered the rolling mountains. In the snow-white forest, several Flying Birds were startled into flight, beating their wings as they soared into the sky.
All of a sudden, a patch of black began to spread across the distant sky.
In a distant town, an old man napping at home happened to glance outside. He abruptly sat up and rubbed his eyes.
"Old woman! Old woman!! Look at the sky! How come it's daytime on one side and nighttime on the other?"
"You silly old fool, dreaming in broad daylight again!" the woman cursed from the kitchen.
The old man stared blankly at the distant sky and muttered, "Damn it... I must be seeing a ghost!"
Beneath the black sky.
The Flying Birds were swallowed by the darkness. Their bodies suddenly trembled before they fell stiffly from the sky, already devoid of life, as if an invisible hand of death had silently erased their lives.
Yet a few seconds later, the dead birds began to twitch. Then, they actually stood back up, flapped their wings as they had in life, and flew into the black sky.
The darkness continued to spread.
In the wilderness, several scattered graveyards among the mountains were engulfed by darkness. Strange rustling sounds began to emerge from within the deathly still blackness.
Bang—!
A patch of earth suddenly exploded. A heavy coffin lid flew several meters away, and a skeleton that had been dead for who knew how long slowly sat up, then actually climbed out of its coffin. Eerie Black Fire ignited in its hollow eye sockets.
Bang bang bang bang—!!
A series of explosions rang out. Every corpse in the graveyard had come back to life, stiffly turning their heads before slowly walking toward the distant