Several hundred miles east of the Azure Cloud Sect's headquarters, on a nameless barren mountain.
This had once been a lush pine forest, but a sudden snowfall had turned a thousand-mile expanse into a frozen land. In little more than a month, all things had withered as though winter had come, every trace of life hidden away, leaving only stubborn bare branches standing firm as before.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
In the biting wind, a pack of blue-eyed gray wolves raced along together, trailing white snow dust like plumes of smoke.
On their backs rode more than a dozen lightly armored soldiers of the Warrior Administration. Before long, they entered the withered forest and reached a clearing.
A battle seemed to have taken place here. Several trees had clearly been toppled by an external force, crashing down to leave an unnatural shallow depression.
At the edge of the clearing lay a mangled, bloody figure. Beside him stood two Warrior disciplinary officers, likewise clad in the Warrior Administration's light armor and holding mechanical crossbows.
Gray wolves could faintly be seen patrolling nearby. Above the forest, swift eagles circled, their keen eyes fixed on the surrounding vegetation.
The arriving Warrior captain dismounted and walked over to the two men.
At the sight of him, the two Warriors hurried forward. "Captain, you're finally here."
The captain nodded, turning his gaze toward the corpse on the ground. "We came as soon as we received your report. Your message wasn't very clear. Go over the situation again."
One of the two Warriors nodded. "Yes, sir. We were on our assigned patrol when we suddenly noticed something unusual in the snow here. Then we found this corpse..."
While the two Warriors gave their report, the others did not remain idle. They released demon-hunting hounds, swift eagles, and