Little Stone's voice echoed through the wind and snow, but Zhou Xuan had already left the City Rampart.
An invisible force parted the blizzard, opening a path straight toward North City.
The Seventh Monitoring Point in North City lay in ruins.
A deafening crash rang out.
The protective formation patterns that held back the blizzard shattered across the ground.
A monster three stories tall squeezed into the narrow street.
Its original form was unrecognizable; its body had been stitched together from the mutilated corpses of dozens of mortals.
Severed limbs flailed outside the chunks of flesh, and gray-black slime dripped from the seams, corroding deep pits into the blue paving bricks.
More than a dozen twisted human faces were embedded in the monster's chest.
Those faces opened their mouths wide and screamed.
The surrounding mortals scrambled on hands and knees into the depths of the alleys, their cries merging into a chorus.
Gray streams emanating from the people flowed ceaselessly into the giant flesh husk's chest.
The husk was actively feeding.
As it devoured more of those gray streams, the gray-black resentful qi around the monster grew denser, and its body continued to swell.
On a ruined rooftop nearby, Yang Mie's eyes were bloodshot, his teeth grinding audibly.
The three Hidden Sentry brothers beside Yang Mie were already dead, their remains half dissolved by the monster.
"You beast!"
Yang Mie roared, drew his long saber with a backhanded motion, and prepared to leap forward as true qi surged through his body.
A hand appeared out of nowhere and clamped down on Yang Mie's shoulder.
Its strength was immense, forcing Yang Mie back down despite the full power he had gathered for his leap.
"Don't move."
Zhou Xuan's voice sounded through the blizzard, flat and heavy with pressure.
Yang Mie turned,