Evil in Progress

P.S.: Fourth update. Though this was a make-up update... I'm still shamelessly asking for next month's votes... Thanks...

When the light before their eyes faded, a scene of tremendous visual impact came into view.

The first thing they saw was a long street. On either side of the roughly forty-meter-wide road stood neat rows of small, exquisite houses. These houses had all been woven from leaves and vines. Though made from the same materials, each house had its own distinct character. Strange flowers of every color bloomed outside each dwelling, adorning them with a fresh, beautiful charm brimming with the breath of nature. Even more astonishingly, the entire street had been built atop the branch of a tree.

Looking farther out, they could see that the seemingly haphazardly spreading branches were all covered in houses, densely packed but not at all cluttered. Some of the houses even hung directly from the branches, connected to one another by bridges woven from vines. The dwellings looked like fruits growing from the tree. In the distance, near what was likely the central trunk, streams of light moved vertically up and down in parallel. Yin Kuang could easily guess that they were something like elevators. In other words, there was another level above his head—perhaps even two.

Although they were inside the tree's canopy, the place was not dim in the slightest. It seemed to have some unique system for transmitting light, making everything brilliantly illuminated. Pillars of sunlight crisscrossed through the air, and the beauty formed by the interplay of light and shadow was simply beyond description.

What also caught Yin Kuang's attention was the sheer variety of species. Since Riel Sea had been open to outsiders for the past three days, creatures of every race could be seen here. Yet even