Five minutes earlier, the sound of an explosion engulfed all of Seven Cities.
The lighthouse's flashing light abruptly died.
Boom!
Darkness erupted like a volcanic blast from a fishing boat drifting with the waves.
Amid piercing screams, everyone aboard rapidly withered, one after another, as though some invisible monster had devoured all their life and blood... Among the countless skeletal remains sat a small white porcelain box.
An urn.
The instant its keeper opened it in accordance with Ling Liu's instructions, everyone aboard paid for his action with their lives. Yet the venomous hatred and malice pouring from the urn remained inexhaustible, gushing endlessly into the sky. Like writhing snakes, they coiled around the lighthouse, seeped inside, spread, and took root, impossible to dispel.
Who knew how many Artisans' ashes had been smelted in the Deepdark Cauldron, how much bone-deep hatred and spite had undergone a metamorphosis in its poisonous flames? The final result was this deadly poison directed at all creations.
Seemingly endless, it swarmed around the lighthouse. Before the defense modules could react, it had already flooded the interior, rapidly mutating and solidifying, dividing and spreading like parasites until the Seven Cities defense system spun out of control and ground to a halt.
Vast banks of white fog had already risen from the sea. Like a tide, they blotted out the sky and sun, submerging all of Luo Island in gloom. A shrill alarm sounded, echoing without end.
Within the surging fog, a doorway slowly opened. From the other side, a crowd that had waited for who knew how long poured out. Most swiftly scattered toward every corner of Luo Island, pulling triggers and hurling explosives at will, unleashing a tidal wave of chaos and destruction.
And amid the spreading flames and thick smoke, a force assembled from