Baxi Prefecture.
Blood ran shin-deep along the long streets.
Severed limbs and mangled corpses lay everywhere.
What had once been a thriving city now had its gates shattered.
The heavy iron-bound wooden gates had broken into several pieces, slumped in the mud.
Half of a tattered Red Cloud Black Flag was planted crookedly amid the ruins.
A young Captain with one arm severed leaned against a broken gatepost.
Behind him, several hundred townspeople huddled in the shadows.
Old men clutched their grandchildren, while women covered their children's mouths.
Their eyes were vacant, their expressions numb.
When terror reached its limit, even crying ceased.
Outside the city.
Countless indifferent eyes flickered in and out of sight within the black mist.
An old soldier leaned on a broken spear, barely able to remain standing. He looked back at the young Captain, then at the townspeople behind him.
His lips moved, as though he wanted to say something.
But with things as they were, those words...
He did not even believe them himself. How could he possibly comfort anyone else?
Overnight, demons had suddenly appeared in the heartland of Jiannan, and more than half its prefectures and counties had already fallen.
No matter how swiftly the court acted, how could it send reinforcements in a single day?
With trembling hands, he pulled a dry flatbread from his robes.
He took a bite and chewed it slowly.
Then he held the broken spear across his chest.
Boom—!!!
The entire prefectural city jolted violently.
The black mist was smashed apart by a tyrannical force.
A colossal creature stepped over the shattered city wall and entered the city.
"Kill!!!"
The young Captain roared, raising his sword as he charged forward.
The old soldier thrust his spear and charged.
The remaining dozens of Demon Suppression Guards and