48: Proton (10)

The Great Qian Empire, Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain Range.

The night was ink-black. Two dark figures moved like ghosts, silently traversing the rugged mountain forests.

Chi Yun met up with another Silver Gate member codenamed “Yan” in a hidden canyon.

He had temporarily excused himself from the Xuanjin Guard under the pretext that he needed to enter seclusion due to a Cultivation Bottleneck.

“Yun, is everything alright on your end?” Yan’s voice was hoarse, transmitted through the cold silver mask, carrying an irrepressible frenzy.

“Everything went smoothly.” Chi Yun replied in a deliberately roughened voice.

Yan took out a palm-sized black jade vessel from his Storage Pouch, his posture devout.

“The Apothecary’s masterpiece. It will completely change this rotten world,” Yan muttered, his eyes filled with fanatical reverence for the ‘Apothecary.’ “And we are the pioneers of the new order!”

At midnight, the moon was dark and the wind was high.

The two arrived at a crucial node of an underground Spiritual Vein. Yan carefully opened the vessel, exposing a viscous substance as dark as ink to the air.

Following the predetermined procedure, he buried the vessel into the node.

The black substance seemed to come alive, silently merging into the earth and spreading quietly along the Spiritual Vein in all directions.

Task complete, the two quickly withdrew.

A month later, the silence of the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain Range was utterly shattered.

Initially, there were only sporadic, frenzied roars of Yao Beasts coming from deep within the mountains. Then, visible abnormalities began to appear.

The low-level Yao Beasts on the outskirts of the mountain range, originally targets for Cultivator training, had now become deadly fiends.

Their bodies swelled at an unnatural rate, their eyes turned blood-red, and they attacked every living creature in sight without reason.

Even some Yao Beasts that were usually docile and timid became fanged and exceptionally ferocious.

A village that relied on the mountains for sustenance became the first casualty.

An experienced old hunter had his throat ripped out at the village entrance by a Red-Eyed Rabbit, a creature he could usually kill with a casual strike.

“Help! All the monsters in the mountains have gone mad!” A blood-soaked Cultivator fled to the city gate, screaming hysterically.

“My son went into the mountains yesterday to chop wood and never came back…”

“Those beasts charged into Wang Family Village and bit everyone they saw! It’s terrifying, they aren’t afraid of death at all!”

Requests for aid, soaked in blood and tears, flew like snowflakes toward the various cities of the Great Qian Empire.

Panic spread like a plague from the villages and towns closest to the mountain range, sweeping across the entire Great Qian Empire.

Under immense pressure, the Great Qian Empire dispatched an elite squad led by a Spirit King Realm expert to investigate.

They quickly discovered that these Yao Beasts fought without fear of death, and their attacks carried a strong contamination. A Cultivator who was scratched turned red-eyed within half an hour and began attacking his comrades indiscriminately.

After the skirmish, the elite squad was almost completely wiped out; only the Spirit King Realm expert managed to escape.

Chi Yun watched all of this dispassionately from a peak on the periphery.

Three more months passed, and the aberration in the Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain Range finally escalated into a massive, sky-shrouding Beast Tide.

Millions of frenzied Yao Beasts converged into a black torrent, breaking free from the mountain range's confines and sweeping toward the heartland of the Great Qian Empire.

Cities fell one after another.

Above the Great Hall of the Great Qian Imperial Palace, the Emperor’s face was ashen. Listening to the bloody emergency reports of cities falling and people dying, the usually majestic monarch finally broke down.

He wrote a blood-colored, top-level distress signal addressed to the Xuan Yuan Dynasty.

It was at this time that the Silver Gate’s Communication Stone lit up again.

“Jun’s” voice was cold and satisfied: “Phase one, a perfect conclusion.”

She paused on the other end of the Communication Stone, her tone turning even more chilling.

“All members, go into hiding and await instructions. It is time to let the world taste the flavor of ‘Frenzy’ Phase Two.”

Chi Yun put away the Communication Stone, wearing his cold silver mask, gazing at the half of the sky stained red by the fires of war, calculating calmly in his heart.

The Silver Gate’s plan was even grander than he had imagined.

The crisis of the Great Qian Empire’s collapse, along with the painful reports from the Demon Suppression Hall regarding the Yao Beasts’ bizarre mutations, struck the Xuan Yuan Dynasty like a thunderclap, thoroughly infuriating them.

The survival of a vassal state was a small matter, but the emergence of this strange power was an open provocation to the Imperial Dynasty’s ruling order.

Ultimately, a Half-Step Heavenly Spirit Realm expert personally intervened, using thunderous methods to suppress the core Beast Tide, but the entire Great Qian Empire was left ravaged, its national strength set back a century.

Another two months passed.

Just when the Xuan Yuan Dynasty high command thought the turmoil had temporarily subsided, Jun’s Phase Two plan began.

The dark substance, frenzy source, was secretly deployed by Silver Gate members across various locations, starting to spread quietly through the many Yao Beast mountain ranges within the Xuan Yuan Dynasty’s homeland.

In just over a year, nearly ten prefectures and several vassal states in the heartland of the Xuan Yuan Dynasty simultaneously erupted in terrifying Beast Tides of varying scales.

In an instant, the entire Imperial Dynasty was shaken.

Xuan Yuan City.

A maximum-level emergency meeting was underway.

The atmosphere was heavy as iron.

The highest leaders of the Spirit Control Department, the Border Suppression Manor, and the Imperial Academy were gathered.

“The intelligence has been confirmed,” the Director of the Spirit Control Department said in a low voice. “The characteristics of the Yao Beast mutations in the outbreaks across the land are completely consistent with the situation in the Great Qian Empire. This is a deliberate catastrophe targeting our Xuan Yuan Dynasty.”

The Manor Head of the Border Suppression Manor, a burly old man, slammed his fist onto the table: “Investigate! We must find the source of this power! No matter which force is behind it, we will make them pay a blood debt!”

“There are too few clues,” the Head of the Imperial Academy shook his head. He looked like a middle-aged scholar, but his eyes were deep as the sea.

“The opposition acts extremely secretively, and their goal is unclear.”

He looked at the crowd and said deliberately, word by word: “The previous Calamity of Great Qian was likely just a prelude, an experiment.”

“If we had taken it seriously back then, we might not be so passive now.”

Everyone fell silent, a chill spreading in their hearts.

Ultimately, the meeting reached several consensus points.

First, mobilize the Xuanjin Guard, the Demon Suppression Bureau, and local armies across the Imperial Dynasty to launch a forceful encirclement and suppression of the beast outbreaks, preventing further spread.

Second, have the Fuzis of the Imperial Academy lead the students from the academy halls on training missions, sending them to assist in suppressing the outbreaks while helping the Xuanjin Guard trace clues regarding the mastermind.

At this moment, Chi Yun, having received internal directives from the Silver Gate, had grasped the full picture.

The Silver Gate’s target, from the very beginning, was the entire Xuan Yuan Dynasty.

The Great Qian Empire was merely a pawn used to make the Xuan Yuan Dynasty bleed.

He could even foresee that once the Imperial Dynasty’s main forces were dragged into the mire by these widespread beast outbreaks,

the Silver Gate would likely launch its fiercest strike in a critical area, or even directly target the Imperial Dynasty’s core.

Thinking of this, a trace of secret delight rose in Chi Yun’s heart.

The more chaotic the Xuan Yuan Dynasty became, the better.

The muddier the water was stirred, the easier it would be for him, the fish, to escape.