Chapter 313
June.
Even as the Federation's war against the Sea Cry pollution blazed across the world, Extreme Cold Heaven struck again from another direction entirely.
Thirteen Extreme Cold passages tore open overnight. A torrent of bizarre Extreme Cold monsters poured through, slaughtering everything in their path, and the Federation was forced to split its forces to contain the new front.
Caught in a two-front war, Mistborn across the land began choosing sides, pledging allegiance to whichever faction aligned with their interests. Everyone understood the calculation: neutrality was a slow death. Without a declared allegiance, you were an unstable variable—the kind any coalition would eliminate before looking elsewhere. Those who waited too long would be purged.
As the three sides rapidly accumulated power, cities that had once seemed formidable began to look fragile by comparison. To survive, they moved aggressively—absorbing every unaffiliated force within reach.
…
Black Cloud Inner City.
Zhang Yao stood atop the Moon Tower with a dark expression, eyes fixed on the newly erected suspended mountain drifting in the distance to the city's right.
It was the fifth such structure raised under the Three Islands Alliance's three Mistborn. Had it merely been floating nearby, it would have been tolerable. But the Three Islands Alliance—under the pretext of bolstering Black Cloud's defenses against external threats—had forcibly embedded it into Black Cloud's protective grand array.