Night had fallen across the continent, but the world wasn't resting.
Not anymore.
In a quiet forest sowhere in the northeast, two Shadow operatives crouched in the tall grass.
Their cloaks blended in perfectly with the trees, making them nearly invisible. One of them, a short woman with sharp eyes and a relaxed posture, held a thin lens up to her eye as she peered through the bushes.
"Three beasts. All mid-tier. Looks like they're sniffing around the outer area," she whispered.
Her partner, a tall man with a bow on his back, nodded. "Sa kind we've been tracking?"
"Yeah. It has the sa patterns, too. They're avoiding roads. Going for the hills instead."
They didn't move. They didn't attack.
They just watched.
After a few minutes, the beasts passed by without noticing them.
"Should we mark this as a pass-through zone?" the man asked quietly.
The woman tapped her jade slip and made a note. "Yeah. They're not settling here. But it ans they're scouting."
She paused, then looked up at the clear night sky. "This isn't random anymore. They're mapping us, just like we're mapping them."
Elsewhere, on the western hills near one of the smaller spirit mines, a different Shadow team sat inside a small, run-down shack.
On the outside, it looked abandoned. Inside, it was a full surveillance post.
One of the operatives, a man with a lazy grin and ssy hair, leaned back in his chair as he watched a projection screen glowing faintly on the table.
"Nothing yet," he said, chewing on a spirit herb leaf, which has a good calming effect and is helpful to him.
His teammate, a younger girl with her hood pulled up, and a serious look on her face was scribbling notes.
"Don't relax too much. This mine's too valuable. If they're going to strike anywhere, it'll be here."
"I know, I know," he said. "Still, kind of boring when we're just waiting."
She looked at him. "Boring is good. It ans we're not dead."
He gave her a thumbs up. "True."
Just then, the image on the screen flickered. A few faint red shapes appeared.
She leaned forward, alert. "Beasts. Small ones. About ten of them. They're staying in the tree line."
The man sat up straight. "Guess it's ti to wake up, huh?"
"No movent toward the mine yet," she said, still watching. "Might just be recon."
He reached for his token. "Marking it and reporting it to Central. Let's see what they want us to do."
Far up north near the mountain ridge, another Shadow unit climbed quietly along a steep rocky path.
Their goal was an abandoned outpost that overlooked one of the biggest spirit energy veins in the region.
The wind was sharp, and snow still lined the edges of the cliffs.
Their leader, a broad-shouldered woman nad Xu Yinlan, stopped and raised her hand.
Everyone behind her froze.
From their spot, they could see the valley below.
A dark fog was moving slowly across it—not natural mist, but sothing darker, thicker, and pulsing with spiritual pressure.
"That's not weather," she muttered.
"No," her second-in-command said. "That's beast aura."
They crouched behind so large rocks, watching carefully.
Below, shapes began to erge. Massive wolf-like creatures with glowing blue markings moved silently through the fog.
"They're nesting," Xu Yinlan whispered. "They're not just passing through. They're planning to stay."
She took out her slip and began drawing a detailed map. "We need to report this directly to the core. If this place falls, they'll have a perfect location to block our northern trade route."
"What about engagent?"
She shook her head. "Not yet. We wait for the others to be in place."
Down in the Central Continent's lower plains, a group of Shadows were already underground—literally.
They had taken up position in a network of abandoned mining tunnels beneath one of the newly discovered crystal fields.
"It's kind of creepy down here," one of the younger mbers said, brushing dust off her sleeve.
"It's perfect," her older companion replied. "No one would think to look here. And if they do, we've already got escape routes set."
They had set up a small outpost inside an old mine chamber, filled with supplies, maps, and a few low-grade formations to hide their presence.
Suddenly, a tremor shook the ground slightly.
Everyone went still.
"Was that a beast?" the young girl whispered.
The older man pressed his hand to the wall and closed his eyes. "No... sothing just landed above us."
He activated a small sound-conducting talisman, and the faint thud of footsteps echoed into the chamber.
"Three legs... no, four. Heavy. Maybe a land beast."
"Think it's a scout?"
"Let's find out."
He activated a formation that sent a silent signal to a Shadow positioned on the surface, and within a few seconds, a small paper talisman fluttered back through a crack in the ceiling.
It showed a sketch.
A massive boar, armored and covered in dark runes, was digging at the edge of the crystal field.
"Looks like it's searching for sothing," the girl said.
"Or testing the ground before the real group arrives," the man muttered. "Either way, we need to be ready."
anwhile, the ssengers had already reached the Eastern and Northern continent cells.
In a quiet village in the Eastern Continent, a Shadow pretending to be a wandering rchant received the encoded ssage inside a pouch of herbs.
He read it, burned the original, and passed on the ssage to three others disguised as farrs and traveling monks.
In the Northern cities, a Shadow cell embedded in the city guard received the word from one of the runners and began shifting patrol routes without drawing attention.
Everywhere the Shadow Army existed—hidden, spread out, and silent—gears had started turning.
From outposts and safehouses to old ruins and rchant caravans, they moved like wind.
They didn't shout. They didn't panic.
They just watched. Waited. And got ready.
And even though the world couldn't see them…
The Xu family already had eyes on every step the beast faction was taking.
Reviews
All reviews (0)