In Southern Yue, at Three Fork Mountain Valley, dozens of Fire Worship Cult True Persons stood guard. Before them was a chaotic rift.
Within the rift, violent winds and torrential rains raged alongside heavenly thunder and earthly fire. No one could make out what was inside, but even the aftershocks spraying from the opening left no blade of grass alive within a hundred paces of the valley clearing.
One of the Fire Worship Cult True Persons turned his head and saw something rustling in the bushes. A sika deer sprang out and fled blindly into the valley clearing. Behind it came a tiger with glaring eyes and a white forehead.
The tiger was nearly ten feet long, and thunderous sounds rolled with every breath. It was probably the king of all beasts on Three Fork Mountain; even an ordinary Herald might not be able to take it down. The tiger glanced at the rift in the clearing, its tail suddenly going rigid. With a meow, it turned and ran. The sika deer stopped and looked back, apparently still unable to react. At that moment, an intensely brilliant light erupted from within the rift, illuminating the entire valley.
When the light faded, the sika deer had already become a pillar of salt. A gust of wind scattered it.
The Fire Worship Cult True Persons felt their scalps prickle. If they had been in the sika deer's place, they could not have guaranteed that they would survive either. Yet this was merely the aftershock spilling from the rift. It was impossible to imagine what world-shattering disaster the world inside the rift was enduring!
After an unknown length of time, the commotion inside the rift gradually subsided. Suddenly, the surroundings warped and twisted. A graceful figure stepped out of the void, and the