Sun Moon Federation, Aolai City.
In the delivery room of Red Mountain Hospital, a clear, resounding cry broke the silence.
"He's born! It's a boy!"
Before the words had faded, the pungent smell of disinfectant spread through the long, narrow hospital corridor, weighing on people's chests.
At that moment, above Aolai City, the dark clouds that had gathered for days were torn apart without warning by Seven-Colored Rosy Light filling the sky.
Brilliant rainbow light stretched across a thousand miles, crossed the coastline, and pierced the entire territory of the Skysea Alliance. Its dazzling radiance illuminated the mountains and rivers, as though a miracle had manifested.
Ten thousand miles away, beneath Shrek City.
Within the core of the Golden Tree, which had never withered through the ages, golden leaves that had long lain dormant trembled gently, sending out a trace of vitality.
The miracle had barely appeared when a sudden upheaval struck.
Ink-black clouds surged in from every direction, roiling and closing together, swallowing the entire night sky in an instant.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Gales swept over the city and wilderness with a bone-piercing chill, and an oppressive deathly silence shrouded the entire city.
Thunder rumbled deep within the clouds, then exploded with a deafening crash.
Countless Dark-Gold Thunderbolts lurked beneath the clouds, carrying the might of destruction. They descended in dense masses, locked onto Red Mountain Hospital, and smashed toward the earth!
As the lightning struck, swaths of forest on the outskirts instantly charred and burned away into drifting ash. Towering Soul Guidance Iron Towers cracked and collapsed with the impact, their steel frames twisting and bending. The ground caved in inch by inch, fissures spreading in every direction. In an instant, the once-intact outskirts became a lifeless wasteland.
Only above Red Mountain Hospital did the wind stop and the lightning hang suspended.
When the raging dark-gold lightning struck the edge of the seven-colored flowing light above the hospital, it abruptly lost all its might, dissolving soundlessly like snow melting into water.
Heavenly punishment ran rampant, yet above this building alone, the peace amid destruction seemed utterly out of place.
When the lightning tribulation dispersed, nothing remained between heaven and earth but devastation as far as the eye could see.
"Assess the casualties! Commit everything to search and rescue! Begin rescue operations immediately!"
A general bearing three silver stars on his shoulders stood before the ruins, his face ashen, an unshakable grief and helplessness in his eyes.
At his command, squad after squad of Purple Mecha roared to life and shot through the air, swiftly charging into the shattered city.
The earth had split and the roads had broken; all transportation was paralyzed.
Standing alone at the center of the ruins, Red Mountain Hospital had become an island cut off from the world.
Half a day later.
Among the broken walls and rubble, cold winds swirled with dust.
Temporary aid stations stretched in continuous rows. The wounded groaned and wailed one after another, their cries lingering above the ruins, mournful and bone-chilling.
A simple, elegant figure stepped through the wreckage, slowly entering this gray desolation.
She wore a plain white dress and carried an otherworldly air, yet exhaustion showed unmistakably around her eyes.
Holy Spirit Douluo, Yali.
Upon hearing that a natural disaster had suddenly struck the Skysea Alliance, she had traveled a thousand miles to help, reaching Aolai City overnight.
She raised her hand, and pure white Soul Power turned into a soft drizzle that scattered in every direction.
Gentle vitality flowed into the bodies of the dying, forcibly dragging countless people back from death's door.
"Transfer all the seriously wounded to Red Mountain Hospital. Only that building is still intact and can accommodate treatment."
Yali gave her instructions softly, her voice gentle but firm.
Large numbers of stretchers and wounded were carried along the rescue passage into the sole surviving hospital building, one after another.
Yali followed them into the lobby.
The instant her feet touched the floor, she paused.
There was no outward release of Soul Power, no unusual fluctuation.
Yet an unseen pull somehow entwined itself around her mind, drawing her perception firmly toward a corner of the building.
That pull was clean and pure, unfamiliar, yet carried an inexplicable sense of closeness.
Yali lifted her gaze and followed that intangible bond upstairs.
Passing through the noisy corridor, voices and groans of pain mingling in her ears, she finally stopped before an ordinary delivery room.
The door opened gently.
Aftershocks still stirred beneath the ground, the walls trembling faintly, and the atmosphere inside the room was stretched taut.
On the bed, a young woman who had just given birth lay deathly pale and utterly weak, her eyes filled with lingering terror.
A burly man stood beside the bed, his body tense and slightly hunched as he guarded his wife and child.
The terror of the disaster had not yet passed. His broad shoulders still trembled slightly, and he was full of wariness and unease.
The woman's fingertips trembled as she patted the swaddling bundle. Her throat dry, she hummed an off-key nursery rhyme under her breath, clumsily soothing her child and her own heart, which was on the verge of collapse.
The sudden sound of the opening door pierced the tension in the room.
The man stiffened all over and instinctively held his wife and child tighter. He looked up, his gaze sharp and wary.
Yali raised a hand, signaling that the officer accompanying her need not say anything.
Her gaze passed over the anxious couple and settled on the tiny swaddling bundle.
The baby boy inside had his eyes tightly shut, neither crying nor fussing.
After enduring the lightning tribulation, with cries of grief filling the city, he remained unusually quiet, unlike an ordinary newborn.
As she approached step by step, the pull from the depths of her soul grew stronger. Threads of closeness lingered around her, stirring something faintly in her heart.
"May I hold him?"
Yali's voice was soft, carrying an innate power to soothe people's hearts, dispelling much of the room's fear.
The man froze. He glanced at the officer beside him, then at the transcendent Holy Spirit Douluo before him, and his taut muscles slowly relaxed. A little reserved, he carefully handed over the bundle.
Yali bent down to take him.
The instant her fingertips touched him, a warm, pure aura coursed through her limbs and every part of her body.
Her heart jolted. The Wishing Angel Martial Soul within her actually stirred in a rare tremor, instinctively seeking closeness with this tiny body.
She unconsciously gathered gentle Soul Power, wanting to place a layer of protection over this child who had endured the Heavenly Tribulation.
"Report!"
Hurried footsteps shattered the corridor's quiet.
A rescue worker rushed to the doorway, drenched in sweat and breathing unevenly. He reported urgently, "Your Eminence! A large number of critically wounded people in the eastern ruins are slipping away! Any later, and it'll be too late!"
The Soul Power Yali had gathered paused.
Saving lives was as urgent as fighting a fire; countless lives hung by a thread.
She lowered her eyes to the baby boy sleeping soundly in her arms, her gaze filled with reluctance. At last, she sighed softly and suppressed the stirring in her heart.
She returned the bundle to the woman's arms.
As she straightened, she leaned forward slightly.
Her soft lips gently touched the infant's smooth forehead.
A white light, so faint it was nearly invisible, slipped from her lips and vanished beneath the child's skin in an instant.
A Life Mark quietly etched itself into the depths of his Divine Soul, unnoticed by anyone.
"This child is richly blessed."
Yali spoke softly and lingered no longer.
Her plain white skirt swept around her as she turned and left, hurrying to the front lines of the relief effort.
On the hospital bed, the couple held their child tightly, their minds dazed, their lingering fear yet to fade.
No one saw the sleeping baby boy's eyelashes tremble ever so slightly within the swaddling bundle.
The hidden mark on his forehead vanished completely, falling dormant amid his long, steady breaths.