Decaying World

War had arrived.

Just four days after Lin Hui tested Xia Si, the pantheon of gods and Black Cloud finally clashed.

Above the Jade Sea, to the east, south, and west of Black Cloud, all shipping routes had been severed, grinding maritime trade to a standstill.Waves surged as the Mist thickened overhead, darkening into black clouds. Thunder rolled through them, heavy with menace. Lightning split the sky in jagged bursts, each flash freezing the world in a moment of stark white clarity—revealing the millions of Black Army soldiers massed in neat formations across three fronts, encircling Black Cloud on all sides.

There were no warships, no armadas. Instead, the entire Black Army was deployed across three massive, rhombus-shaped black stone platforms resting directly on the sea.

Millions of soldiers stood shoulder-to-shoulder, a colossal swarm of black insects blanketing the city's three exposed flanks.

Silence reigned over the ranks as every soldier drew the power within their body into circulation—whether Internal Force, True Force, Void Force, or mind-spirit power.

This collective energy surged upward, coalescing above the storm clouds into three towering, layered black-purple arrays. At the heart of each array floated a mountain peak, its summit blazing with a blinding white-gold light.

Lin Hui stood atop the third mountain peak, which belonged to Gongsun Xinlian. Positioned at the edge of that white-gold radiance alongside the other Vice City Lords, he gazed down at the churning sea. Four Vice City Lords had mobilized for this battle, himself included—all top-tier Blood Ancestors, their power falling just short of a Mistborn's.

Two others shared the peak with him. One was a stout man named Li Hanzhang, dressed like a wealthy merchant, his trim black mustache framing the easy, open smile of a man accustomed to prosperity. The other was a tall woman named Hong Lingxiao. A veil concealed her face, leaving only sharp black eyes visible above it. She wore a long black gauze dress that bared no skin, and everything about her was cold.

"Truth be told, this is my first time facing the Mist Gods of the pantheon of gods," Li Hanzhang said with a smile. "Do either of you have any advice? As colleagues, we ought to support one another."

"It is my first time as well," Lin Hui said, shaking his head. "I am equally unfamiliar with the logistics."

"This is my third time," Hong Lingxiao said calmly. "I will brief you on the process."

"We are all ears," Li Hanzhang said.

"Many thanks," Lin Hui added. Both men cupped their fists in salute.

Hong Lingxiao nodded and cut straight to the point. "Battling the pantheon of gods differs vastly from conventional warfare. The conflict is split into two phases: offense and defense. In a conventional war, superior numbers carry the day. Here, numbers mean nothing. Before the might of Mistborn and Mist Gods, mortals are insects. The outcome of this war rests entirely on the clash of our highest-tier combatants."

Both men nodded. It was an undeniable truth—a single Mistborn could level an entire city. Against such power, numerical superiority was meaningless.

Seeing their agreement, Hong Lingxiao continued. "Victory, then, hinges on concentrating everything behind our strongest fighters. Once our top-tier combatants win, the war is won. The millions of Black Army soldiers deployed below are living batteries, channeling their energy into the arrays and Relics, which in turn pour that accumulated power into our three City Lords. Fueled by this amplification, the City Lords will strike down the Mist Gods. That is the offense."

"So the Black Army won't engage in close-quarters combat?" Lin Hui asked.

"Correct. However, if our side falters, every soldier sustaining the array will suffer catastrophic backlash. The resulting injuries and fatalities make this no safer than a conventional frontline," she explained.

"Just how strong is the amplification from so many people?" Li Hanzhang asked.

"I cannot say for certain," Hong Lingxiao replied, shaking her head. "But the boost must be monumental—otherwise the City Lords would not have gone to such lengths to construct these grand formations."

"And the defense?" Lin Hui prompted.

"The defense is our responsibility. Since the arrays and Relics grant the City Lords such a massive advantage, the enemy will inevitably attempt to flank and destroy the formations if they find themselves stalemated or losing. When that happens, it falls to us to intercept them."

Lin Hui finally grasped the full picture. Looking out at the three grand arrays, he understood exactly where they stood. At the summit of each floating mountain peak, one of the three City Lords drew in vast, formless torrents of energy—rivers of power crashing into the peaks and transmuting into a temporary amplification for the Mistborn. Only the three Mistborn City Lords would take the offensive; everyone else was a vanguard, tasked with ensuring the amplifying arrays held.

"They're here," Hong Lingxiao said quietly, her gaze cutting to the distance.

Far out across the Jade Sea, the Mist over the water's surface had been scoured away by the heavy storm clouds, baring the distant horizon. Upon the jade-green swells, countless gray-white monsters had massed into a towering tidal wave, surging relentlessly toward Black Cloud. Even from this height, Lin Hui could hear their cacophonous howling.

He estimated the wave at thousands of meters. The swarm came in three tiers—creatures soaring through the sky, sprinting across the surface, and driving through the depths—and it was so impossibly dense that its rearguard vanished beyond the horizon.

Be careful. This is a common tactic of the pantheon of gods: driving endless hordes of Mist Zone monsters into the city districts, the voice of the Third City Lord, Gongsun Xinlian, suddenly echoed in their ears. These beasts are inexhaustible. Even if we slaughter them all today, their numbers will eventually replenish. Our only goal is to hold the siege. Do not advance rashly, and do not push too deep.

"Understood!" the three responded in unison.

First defense layer, prepare. Second defense layer, standby, commanded Zhang Yao, Second City Lord of the Heart-Guarding Tower.

The sharp ring of millions of weapons being drawn echoed across the sea. The vast outer ring of Black Army soldiers raised their blades, a unified surge of Internal Force and mind-spirit power rising from their ranks. They were the shield wall—their sole duty to blunt the monster tide before it could strain the formations within.

Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!

Suddenly, massive volleys of fiery-red artillery shells erupted from the high walls of Black Cloud, trailing fire like a flock of burning birds. They rained down into the tidal wave and gouged massive craters through the swarm—but the gaps sealed instantly, the relentless tide swallowing its dead without breaking stride.

The first volley was followed by a second, then a third. Round after round of incendiary fire choked the sky, staining the daylight a violent, bloody red.

They're here! Xie Chang'an's voice thundered across the army. Second Brother, Third Sister!

Present! I am here!

The two City Lords replied in unison.

Let's go. It is time we meet Minglan.

At Xie Chang'an's word, the mass of white-gold light atop the first floating mountain erupted skyward. The second and third streaks followed a breath later. Among the barrage of incendiary fire, the three white-gold streaks blazed like miniature suns flanked by a meteor shower, plummeting directly into the distant monster wave.

BOOM!!!

A blinding glare washed out Lin Hui's vision—the world bleached to pure white. His senses cut out entirely. All he could perceive were three blossoming clusters of white-gold annihilation. Several seconds passed before his sight returned, a disorientation the other two Vice City Lords clearly shared.

The moment their vision cleared, all three snapped their gaze back to the battlefield. The towering monster wave had been vaporized. The three City Lords had vanished into the chaos alongside it. All that remained was the seemingly infinite rearguard, already clambering over its dead to reshape a new wave.

"Brace for impact!" Hong Lingxiao ordered.

Lin Hui and Li Hanzhang nodded, eyes locked on the surging horde.

Half a minute later, the wave slammed into the giant semi-transparent barrier enveloping Black Cloud with a thunderous boom. The membrane strained, splitting open in countless places. Rather than shatter, the array rapidly reknit itself into a reinforced mesh—blocking the bulk of the horde while allowing smaller clusters through, a deliberate release valve to keep the barrier from bursting entirely. The monsters that squeezed through would be mopped up by the Black Army and the city's officials.

"Kill!"

The Black Army vanguard roared, brandishing spears, sabers, and shields as they charged to meet the beasts spilling onto the harbor grounds. Operating in three-man squads, they locked into linked array formations that bolstered their defenses, methodically hunting down each invader.

The horde was a nightmare menagerie: pure white giants crosshatched with fiery-red fissures, massive spider-like flying insects, and chimeric predators with lion heads, bull bodies, and serpentine tails. The weakest among them were at the Intrusive level, scaling rapidly up through Dangerous, High-Threat, and Destructive.

Most alarming were the Destructive level behemoths. These were entities that demanded a Luminous Extreme Palace Master to match in combat, and over a dozen of them were spearheading the first wave.

Fortunately, the Black Army vanguard was not entirely human. Holding the absolute front line were the soldiers of the Undying Race. When their bodies were torn to pieces, the flesh reconstituted itself—pulling back together with unnerving speed. Each member of the Undying Race was effectively immortal, a diminished echo of a Mistborn. Their one fatal flaw was memory. Every death cost them a piece of their past. Killed enough times, they would revert to a blank slate—every identity, every memory stripped away, their existence beginning again from nothing.

Behind them stood the humanoid race soldiers of the Black Army: burly warriors drawn from the Lion-men, Elephant-men, the Python Clan, and other demi-human tribes. These were the slave armies—entirely expendable, nothing more than a buffer of flesh between the Undying front line and the human divisions behind them.

Behind the slaves stood the human divisions. Behind them lay a massive reserve of civilian auxiliary armies, supplementary troops dispatched to plug gaps and hold the line across various battlefields. These auxiliaries had been conscripted from major civilian gangs, prominent clans, and martial sects. The disciples of the Clear Wind Temple were stationed somewhere within this very formation.

At the apex of the entire defensive structure stood Lin Hui and his three fellow Vice City Lords, backed by the Blood Ancestors of the Extreme Desire Heaven and the Taisu Primal Disk. Their mandate was to watch the battlefield's heavyweights—Destructive level beasts, Divine Descendants, and any lower-tier Mist Gods attempting to slip into the city. Given the sheer scale of the pantheon, it was entirely plausible that a god might exploit the chaos to sabotage the arrays.

Lin Hui found himself looking forward to it. He had been holding his Sacred Form of Destruction in reserve for exactly this kind of moment. The myriad species of Destructive level monsters crashing against the walls were perfect fuel for his pulsation of destruction. If he played this right, he might condense his Sacred Form of Destruction before the war ended.

With so many top-tier beasts delivered to his doorstep, squandering the chance would be a waste bordering on sacrilege. And if he managed to harvest a few Divine Descendants—or even a Mist God—all the better.

Fierce winds howled around the floating peak, the air thick with the shrapnel of a hundred thousand colliding powers.

…

But just before Black Cloud fully engaged, far to the city's rear, two figures materialized silently upon the surface of the Jade Sea: Tuyue and Xie Jun.

"It's finally begun," Tuyue muttered, gritting her teeth. "With Xie Chang'an tied down on the front lines, the window to strike is open."

Having lost her city district—and the population that had absorbed the burden of her Corruption—she had been reduced to devouring Evil Energy to sustain her lifespan, living under another's roof in Xingdao City.

Her initial curiosity and resentment toward Lin Hui had long since curdled into outright greed. Knowing that he could combat rogue Mistborn had changed everything. If she could devour him and seize the hidden secret within his body, the power she would gain was unimaginable—enough to let a mortal rival a Mistborn.

Even the Fourth Princess had been tempted by the prospect. If Tuyue delivered that secret to her, the rewards would be without limit. But more than any of that—Lin Hui was supposed to be her livestock. Hers. And that bastard Xie Chang'an had stolen him away.

She had lost her city district. Everything she had built was gone. With nothing left to lose, the plan was simple: take the boy and run. No matter how powerful Xie Chang'an was, would he truly abandon Black Cloud just to chase her across the world?