(｀) The Big Dome Was Up to No Good Again
The Orks' capture of the town ruins outside Dragonbone Village was more or less a foregone conclusion. No matter how unwilling White Moon Kui, Boss Bai, was to provoke the Ecological Core Zone, there was nothing she could do to change that now.
After all, she couldn't directly control the Orks, for one thing, and Dragonbone Village was far too small to hold the Orks, whose numbers were already rapidly approaching a hundred thousand, for another!
So even though she didn't want to provoke the Ecology and draw the Fierce Beasts' attention at such a critical moment, the facts were set. All she could do was grit her teeth and accept them.
Still, although she had decided to swallow this bitter pill, she had no intention of doing nothing.
So the next day, she mobilized the villagers of Dragonbone Village. She also had Ma Duo organize the large number of "adult" Orks still lingering in the village's territory, apparently intending to make the border fortress and walls sturdier and taller.
Her excuse was that they needed to prepare for the worst-case scenario: the Orks in the town ruins outside the village might lose the town in a counterattack by the Ecology, bringing the Fierce Beasts back to attack the village. It was a terrifying possibility.
As for the Lighthouse's big dome, no one knew what plans she had made, but she'd done no preparations at all over the past few days and hadn't brought it up again. She was simply moving ahead with construction of the shielding tower in an orderly fashion.
But whatever she had in mind, Annie didn't care one bit!
See?
Out on the grassland beyond the steel walls of Dragonbone Village, Ma Duo, Shattered Star, and