Meanwhile, in the outside world.

Great Xia Nation, Donghai City.

It was currently midday, the sun was bright, and a gentle breeze was blowing.

The wide streets were bustling with noise and excitement, and the air still retained a lingering festive atmosphere from the army's triumphant return.

At a tea stall by the street, several old neighbors were drinking big bowls of tea and chatting enthusiastically.

"Oh my, you guys didn't see it. This morning, when the Evernight Guild's army entered the city, that display—tsk tsk tsk—everyone was radiating Killing Intent. They truly are the pride of our Donghai City!" an elderly man wearing a felt hat slapped his thigh and sighed in admiration.

"Ain't that the truth! I heard that over in Sakura Country, they beat those little Japanese so bad they wet their pants!" another fellow chimed in, his face full of pride.

Just as everyone was chatting heatedly.

High above the originally clear blue sky, it suddenly darkened without any warning.

It wasn't the kind of gloominess caused by a few clouds blocking the sun, but a pitch-black darkness as if night had descended!

"Eh? What's going on? How come the sky has gone dark?" The elderly man in the felt hat froze for a moment, raised his head while holding his tea bowl, and looked up at the sky in confusion.

With this look, his entire body froze.

In just a few short seconds, boundless, dense dark clouds poured in from who knows where above Donghai City. Those dark clouds were as black as ink, wildly churning, gathering, and spinning at an unnaturally rapid speed at the zenith, forming a gigantic black vortex that covered the entire city!

Rumble——

An extremely muffled thunderclap sounded in the center of the thick clouds.

That thunderous sound wasn't piercing, but it carried a terrifying coercion that made the souls of all living beings tremble. It was as if an incomparably massive, invisible hand was tightly gripping the hearts of the tens of millions of people throughout Donghai City!

Clatter.

The tea bowl in the felt hat elder's hand fell to the ground, shattering into pieces. His legs went soft, and he uncontrollably collapsed to his knees on the ground, gasping heavily for breath.

Not only him, but the street vendors, the patrolling city defense soldiers, and even the Classer with high Levels all raised their heads with pale faces, staring in terror at the strange phenomenon in the sky.

"Thunder... purple thunder!" someone pointed at the sky, screaming in a shrill voice.

One could see that deep within the churning black vortex, purple-black bolts of lightning as thick as water vats were wildly slithering and intertwining.

The air became extremely oppressive, making even breathing difficult. The surrounding temperature plummeted, and a chilling aura of stern Killing Intent enveloped the world.

The city defense army sensed that the situation had changed.

"Quick! Sound the highest-level air defense alarm! Activate the city-protecting grand array!"

The commander of the city defense forces stood on the city wall and roared into the communicator, his face pale.

"Hum—!"

The alarm sound resounded throughout the city, and pillars of light rose from the four directions of Donghai City, intertwining into an energy dome above the city.

Meanwhile.

Zhou Huai, who was currently in the base of the Evernight Guild, opened his eyes.

He had originally been resting his eyes and sorting through the information sent back by his Avatar.

But at this moment, he vaguely felt something was wrong.

Zhou Huai walked up to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked out.

He saw the black vortex in the distant horizon and the purple lightning churning within it.

He frowned, his expression solemn.

"This thunder isn't right..."

Zhou Huai muttered to himself.

"This is definitely not an ordinary natural phenomenon."

"Just what is going on??"

Zhou Huai was pondering.

"Bang!"

The mahogany door of the office was pushed open, and a subordinate from the Evernight Guild tumbled and crawled in, dropping to one knee in front of Zhou Huai, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

"L-Lord... My Lord! Something has happened!"

The subordinate gasped heavily for breath, his voice panic-stricken.

Zhou Huai shouted in a deep voice: "What are you panicking about? The sky hasn't fallen yet! Speak, what on earth is going on?"

The subordinate swallowed a mouthful of saliva and reported hurriedly: "It's Guild Leader Moli! She just used an emergency transmission to have this subordinate come and report to you!"

"Inside the ruins... A special situation has occurred inside the Abyss of Mist ruins! They were attacked, and the defense line has been breached!"

Hearing this, Zhou Huai's heart tightened.

The Abyss of Mist?

He turned his head to look at the purple thunderclouds outside the window.

Could it be... that the special weather outside was related to the ruins?

"Understood."

Zhou Huai forced himself to calm down. Now was not the time to investigate the cause. The ones Qin Ming and Moli took were all core elites of the Evernight Guild; if they were all wiped out inside, it would be a heavy loss for him.

"You head down first and stabilize the morale within the guild. Tell everyone not to leave the base a single step."

"Yes! This subordinate obeys!" The subordinate felt immensely relieved, kowtowed repeatedly, and backed out.

After the office door closed, Zhou Huai closed his eyes.

By now, most of his Avatars had been sent out to control the Ancient Remnant Clans within Great Xia Nation.

Only two remained behind on standby at the Donghai City base.

Da Yi and Gabriel!

In a secret room deep within the base, two figures with tightly closed eyes opened their eyes simultaneously.

Da Yi picked up the starry longbow beside him; behind Gabriel, six pure white wings unfolded, and holy radiance illuminated the entire underground space.

The two figures transformed into a golden and a silver stream of light respectively, breaking through the base's skylight and streaking toward the Teleportation Array of the Abyss of Mist.

...

Inside the Abyss of Mist ruins.

"Run quickly! Don't look back! Healers, don't stop casting healing spells! Warriors, raise your shields above your heads!"

Qin Ming's voice was already hoarse, his left arm hanging limply at his side, blood dripping down the blood groove of his Epic-grade dagger onto the stone slabs.

Behind him was a horrifying sight.

The main force of the Evernight Guild was fleeing.

The originally orderly formation had long since collapsed, and everyone was sprinting frantically toward the exit of the ruins.

And right behind them was a massive, rolling army of the undead!

The white sea of bones seemed to have no end in sight. Countless skeleton soldiers with eerie blue ghost fires burning in their eye sockets, death knights riding nightmare warhorses, and wraiths floating in mid-air swept forward.

"Roar——!!!"

In mid-air, two abyss skeleton dragons over fifty meters in length let out roars.

They flapped their bone wings. With every exhalation, large swaths of dark green acid poured down.

"Ahhh!"

Over a dozen heavy warriors running at the very back were hit by the acid. Their Epic-grade armor was corroded and pierced through, and within a few seconds, before they even had time to scream, they melted into pools of bloody water emitting white smoke.

"Bastards!"

Watching his brothers who had shared life and death die miserably in front of him, Qin Ming turned around, wanting to rush up and fight them to the death.

"Vice Guild Leader! Don't go! You can't hold them back!"

A Cheng grabbed Qin Ming's shoulder. His tower shield had already been half-corroded, and his face was covered in dust and bloodstains. "Let's go quickly! If we don't leave, we'll all die here!"

"Where is Moli? Where is Moli?!" Qin Ming grabbed A Cheng by the collar.

"Guild Leader Moli is up ahead maintaining the stability of the Teleportation Array! She told us to retreat first; she's going to cover the rear!" A Cheng cried out.

"Is she crazy? What kind of rear-guard action can a mage do!"

Qin Ming pushed A Cheng away and shouted through gritted teeth: "You take the people and retreat first! I'll go support her! Eternal Night's rule: never abandon any brother!"

Before his words finished falling, one of the skeleton dragons in the sky suddenly lowered its head, its eerie green gaze locking onto Qin Ming.

It sensed that this human was the leader among this group of ants.

"Uhn——!"

The bone dragon opened its bloody mouth, and a dark green Dragon Breath, several times larger than before, was gathering deep within its throat. The Law of Death caused the surrounding space to distort.

"Vice Guild Leader! Watch your head!" A Cheng roared.

Qin Ming raised his head, looking at that destructive power about to descend.

"Looks like I'm really going to kick the bucket here..."

He gripped the dagger in his hand tightly. Instead of retreating, he burned the battle qi within his body to its absolute limit, preparing to take this strike head-on.

At this critical moment!

A stream of golden light suddenly pierced through the darkness from above the dome of the ruins and plummeted down!

"Bang——!!!"

The golden stream of light slammed directly into the head of the skeleton dragon that was preparing to unleash its Dragon Breath!

Accompanied by a loud crash, that Hell-level BOSS at Level 50 was actually sent flying backwards by this impact force!

Its skeleton tumbled through the air, smashing into the undead army behind and crushing hundreds upon thousands of skeleton soldiers.

"Wh-What is going on?"

Qin Ming and A Cheng stopped in their tracks and looked ahead.

They saw that in the spot where the bone dragon had originally been hovering, a handsome man holding a longbow had appeared.

He stood suspended in mid-air, gazing down at the sea of undead below.

"H-Lord Da Yi?!"