Earlier, while riding on the deer's back, her view had been blocked by the terrain ahead. Only now, from higher ground, could she see the full picture.
A living carpet spread across the grassland ahead.
Tens of thousands of animals were running.
White horses charged at the front, silver-gray six-legged beasts weaving among them. Herds of giant cattle lumbered behind, heavy and slow but surging fiercely onward.
There were creatures she had never seen, too... a flock of blue birds with wingspans over two meters, flying low and beating their wings desperately.
A herd of unknown quadrupeds, roughly the size of cheetahs, had horny plates growing along their backs. Their running speed left the other animals far behind.
Ten thousand horses thundered across the plains. No, not horses.
Ten thousand beasts fled for their lives.
The scale was ten times greater than any wildebeest migration in a nature documentary. The ground trembled... even from over a kilometer away, Chen Siyao could still feel the hill quivering beneath her feet.
Yang Wanqing stood beside her, her lips trembling twice.
"What... what's chasing them?"
Chen Siyao was searching, too. Her gaze swept beyond the fleeing animals, farther into the distance—toward whatever they were fleeing from.
At first, she saw only blue grass.
Then the line appeared.
A black line stretched along the horizon.
Not a ridge. Not a river.
It was alive.
The black line was moving. Not quickly, but its width was staggering... it extended from left to right with no end in sight.
"What is that..."
Chen Siyao guided the Recording Crystal higher and sent it flying toward the black line.
The crystal flew five hundred meters, transmitting images back.
On Chen Siyao's phone screen, the black line became a black tide.
Rats.
Black rats three times the size of