When the city wall collapsed, the entire street shook.
Rumble!
Rubble rolled into the street, smashing a carriage over. The cabin split open, and the people inside scrambled out in panic.
A fire had already broken out in the distance.
Firelight reflected off the pitch-black sky as thick smoke curled upward along the rooftops.
People were everywhere in the streets.
Some clutched their children and ran toward the temple. Some knelt by the roadside and kowtowed. Others had only just rushed out of their homes when stone statues chasing from behind stomped them into the ground.
Thud, thud, thud...
Massive stone statues crawled out from underground one after another.
They were still caked with mud, and their movements were stiff, but every step they took made the ground tremble.
Half the long staircase before the temple had collapsed.
The guards charged down with their longswords raised. Their blades struck the stone statues, producing nothing but a shower of sparks.
The next moment, the statues raised their arms.
Bang!
More than a dozen guards were swept away, crashing into stone pillars and falling still.
A white-haired girl stood deep within the temple, cracked runes spread beneath her feet.
She wanted to move forward, but it felt as though something had tangled around her feet. No matter what she did, she could not move.
Something seemed to be waking in the darkness ahead.
A mass of purplish-black chakra surged from underground, rolling through the air as it slowly formed the outline of a gigantic demon.
Its body was long like a snake's, twisted together, but unlike a snake, its body was covered in warped segments of bone armor. When its head emerged from the black mist, the entire temple let out a piercing grinding sound.
The girl seemed to hear someone calling