Beneath a disaster wind fiercer than anything seen before, the Thousand Islands across the Endless Sea were engulfed in turmoil.
Bad news arrived like snowflakes in a blizzard.
If it wasn't one island being picked clean, it was another city-state suffering catastrophic losses, or terrifying clashes breaking out between calamity beasts...
In the eastern reaches of the Mid-Continent, a newly hatched Extinction-rank calamity beast had crossed the ocean to make landfall. After devouring several villages down to the bone, it engaged in a hearty, uninhibited brawl with a local calamity beast. Neither side could secure victory, so both turned back to nurse their wounds and gather strength, intending to schedule a rematch another day. Yet because their presence threatened the surrounding phlogiston production regions, it suffered a devastating double blow from both the Federation and the Empire, croaking once and for all.
As a consequence, an area of a thousand li in radius was reduced to a desolate wasteland where not a single blade of grass could grow.
In the permafrost zone to the north of the Endless Sea, an awakened Kraken had consumed every single calamity beast along the entire White River Belt. Still ravenous, it was already showing signs of drifting toward human population centers...
Meanwhile, within the Federation's Huangzhou, amidst the pristine white snow and ice, lay a vast swathe of scorched black.
It was as if mountains had crumbled into skeletons and the sea had been dyed crimson with blood.
Flames and ashes billowed endlessly.
Federation bomber squadrons rotated in three shifts daily, taking off to carry out massive carpet-bombing runs, burning any area displaying signs of activation completely to the ground.
Leviathan's signs of activation had been temporarily suppressed, yet large numbers of wild beasts were beginning to converge. The Military Department had already established a defensive line across the snowfields, hunting down and driving off every living creature that approached to ensure Leviathan remained in a deathly stillness, unable to awaken.
There was still no news regarding the abnormal movements in the Kunwu region, but personnel reassignments within the Security Bureau had begun to look distinctly unusual. Rumors swirled like flowers glimpsed through dense fog—impossible to discern clearly, leaving everyone to guess.
A few days prior, inexplicable turbulence had emerged near the waters of the Empire. It was suspected that the Empire's Celestial-Humans had moved against a newly born Extinction-rank calamity beast, though no further news had surfaced yet.
Across the Endless Sea and throughout the Thousand Islands, storm winds raged everywhere. Reports of various calamity beasts flooded in from all directions, leaving everyone feeling endangered and on edge.
"Wow, the outside world really is too dangerous."
Ji Jue looked at the global headlines on his screen and couldn't help making the face of the old man squinting at his phone on the subway, his expression complicated. "Isis."
"I am here, Sir."
A soft reply echoed from within the workshop. Far away in Punabantu, the workshop spirit turned her gaze. "What are your instructions?"
"How is the situation in Punabantu?" Ji Jue asked. "The defense preparations against calamity beasts haven't slacked off, have they?"
Isis answered calmly, "Rest assured, Sir, everything is orderly. Our yields have been bountiful, and for the time being, no high-threat targets have been sighted."
"That's good."
Ji Jue let out a breath of relief, then asked, "Aside from that, has anything happened recently?"
"Nothing worthy of note," Isis said. "However, according to our statistics, under the integration of the Foundation of Chixiao, the organization and execution rates of the Lords of the Flies have shown a marked improvement. Progress across all departments has been gratifying.
"Although spiritus consumption has also risen, such minor expenditures are negligible compared to the returns and yields obtained."
The workshop spirit remarked with heartfelt emotion, "I never imagined that one day, Sir, you would actually make such a positive contribution to your own workshop. It is truly praiseworthy and worth celebrating."
"..."
Ji Jue's face twitched. He was genuinely curious as to what kind of bizarre, abstract image his own creation held of him.
"At any rate, just remember to prioritize prudence above all else. With a modest foundation like ours, if a major storm hits, it could all vanish in an instant."
Ji Jue skimmed through Punabantu's security logs. Only after confirming that there were no anomalies did he let out a sigh of relief. "Safety first, safety first."
"Understood."
Isis nodded placidly and gave her assurance once more. "No matter how many times you ask, please be at ease, Sir."
She said, "There are no calamity beasts in Punabantu."
At this very moment, within the steel city billowing with thick smoke, the clamor continued unabated. Countless worker cats bustled back and forth carrying building materials, and the fiery, bustling expansion and manufacturing forged ahead.
Yet across the surrounding waters beyond the range of the surveillance cameras, the sea was utterly empty.
No calamity beasts. No storms.
Nothing at all.
Upon the grayish-black surface of the sea, only pale blossoms bloomed silently within the ocean waters, concealing the mountain-like piles of corpses beneath the waves.
They seemed endless, sprawling outward until every living creature within a radius of thousands of li covered by these blooming flowers was thoroughly exterminated.
At the far fringes of this perimeter, even the wails of colossal sea beasts had grown feeble.
A once-haughty, titanic manta ray shuddered, struggling in vain against the tangles of silver light. Yet across its massive frame, patches of blooming flowers steadily crept forward until it was swallowed whole.
Just like that, it sank into the depths.
Throughout its drawn-out descent, its massive body withered bit by bit. Its life and lingering spirits were drained entirely until its final ashes dissolved away into the sea water, never to be seen again.
Amidst the scattering ashes, specks of starlight emerged.
Those tiny seeds absorbed the final dregs of life from the bone ash, sprouting from the deep sea and growing until they reached the surface. There, they blossomed into tender buds, bobbing amidst the waves and drifting with the tides toward distant horizons...
Sprawling like this, spreading like this.
Like thousands upon thousands of slowly reaching palms, gathering every living creature into their grasp, weeding out every root of trouble before any disaster could even occur.
And then, reaching out ever farther...
*Security log updated.*
*Calm winds and quiet waves, as always.*
*Punabantu remains safe today.*
*Nothing of note occurred.*
***
Compared to Punabantu, which spared Ji Jue any worry under Isis's governance, the present Seven Cities could be described as an absolute mess.
It was enough to make one wonder whether these people had lost their minds.
It was plainly the season when disaster winds raged and calamity beasts ran rampant, yet everywhere one looked, a picture of boundless vigor and feverish competition unfolded. Following an agonizingly long and suffocating depression, a distorted prosperity had arrived.
Before the disasters brought by the calamity beasts had even ended, the economy driven by them had taken flight...
In fact, one could say it was entirely thanks to Charybdis passing by a few days ago that the Seven Cities had transitioned in an instant from an unexpectedly dire predicament to an unexpected festive windfall.
It had all begun with the remains left behind after Charybdis finished devouring that unknown calamity beast!
Within the radius of the warped gravity, gigantic chunks of the carcass still floated upon the sea.
Yamen, being the closest and quickest to react, decisively dispatched a fleet and hauled back a massive piece of the wreckage. Upon inspection, they discovered that the flesh on the carcass still retained active living traits—it was a variety never before seen.
As soon as the news broke, before the fleet had even returned to port, a mysterious buyer reportedly threw down cash to secure the fragment on the spot.
As for who this buyer was, it was truly hard to guess... wouldn't you say so, Feddy? Empy? Or did the Ring of Taiyi have a hand in it too?
Once the leak spread, the other city-states scrambled to dispatch their own fleets, while well-informed fishermen had put out to sea even earlier.
In less than two days, the giant beast's carcass was carved up completely. Word had it that on the bounty boards of the Wild Gathering, the heart was bid up to an astronomical sum, earning Dancheng an absolute fortune.
With the onset of the disaster wind's peak season, demand for the tissues and organs of other calamity beasts surged across the board.
Presently, the seas were full of calamity beasts slaughtering and preying upon one another. With just a stroke of luck, a single voyage could easily net riches that would have been unimaginable in ordinary times.
If one waited until the disaster wind passed, whatever remains were left behind would be picked clean by schools of fish or other scavengers until only scrap remained. Scraping together an intact skeleton would be difficult, to say nothing of conducting research or using the materials for crafting.
The bigger the storm, the pricier the fish.
Having tasted the sweetness of profit, Yamen was the first to organize fleets and post bounties, surging forward while the winds howled and the waves crested. The other factions promptly followed suit...
Right now, what raged across the seas weren't calamity beasts at all—they were mounds of glittering silver.
Money! It was all pure money!
The revelry of the calamity beasts was not yet over, but the revelry of the Seven Cities had already begun!
For a time, in a season fraught with such peril, the waters surrounding the Seven Cities presented an astounding spectacle of a thousand sails racing and hundreds of vessels competing for the lead.
The once-silent docks buzzed with clamorous vitality once more.
Shouts echoed back and forth in extraordinary prosperity.
"Out of the way, hurry up, clear the road!"
Amidst rough, urgent bellows, a path was forcibly cleared through the dense crowd. Several blood-drenched figures clinging to their last breaths were rushed onto an ambulance; some had even lost limbs.
Yet despite such grievous injuries, the man on the stretcher grinned broadly, not caring in the least.
A fishing vessel that had just returned to port was riddled with fractures, yet upon its deck, a colossal sea serpent bound by layers of steel cables was impossible to miss. Countless onlookers cast envious gazes toward it.
Amidst the commotion, a platform cobbled together from broken crates was surrounded so tightly that water couldn't have seeped through.
"Anyone looking for work? Step up!" the second mate atop the crates shouted. "Still short four hands! Former military personnel preferred! Mechanics take priority—"
Before he could finish, hands shot into the air.
"Me! I can do it! I have a mechanic's license!"
"Take me too!"
The crew was assembled in less than half a minute. As the second mate prepared to step down, someone caught his arm, refusing to let go.
"Officer, I can do it too, sir!" An emaciated man pushed his way forward, his eyes gleaming with an abnormal fervor. "I can work as a deckhand! My hands and feet are quick! I have proof of service..."
"Get lost! We don't take junkies!"
In the chaos, the second mate shook off his hand in disgust and hurried toward a large fishing vessel preparing to cast off. Immediately after, another man climbed onto the platform and shouted, "The *White Ice* needs five hands! Usual rules: former military preferred! Any doctors out there...?"
"Me! Me! Me!"
"Take me!"
"I can do it!"
The crowd below surged once more in endless clamor.
Within every pair of eyes that had once looked haggard and dead, the light of hope burned bright.
Hauled by dock transports, the thoroughly dead giant serpent was brought directly into a newly erected factory and dismantled on the spot. Bones, viscera, eyeballs, spinal cord, and brain were swiftly preserved, packaged, and sealed amidst the shouting and bidding of buyers' agents waving fat stacks of cash, divided among the highest bidders.
Viscous blood wound across the ground. Amidst the stench of decay, handcarts wheeled mounds of scrap meat out of the workshops and dumped them into the ditches.
Flies and mosquitoes danced in wild swarms.
In the shantytowns of the seaside slums, noise filled the air.
Inside a drafty hovel, even with the door shut tight, the distant sound of weeping still filtered through. It was impossible to tell which family's widow was sobbing over the news of her husband's demise.
"Meat! So much meat!"
A child's eyes were glued to a bubbling, boiling cauldron. Waves of rich aroma and fishy grease drifted from the pot. The snot-nosed child leaned in close, eyes wide and face beaming with joy. "Wow, it's all meat!"
"Eat slowly, eat slowly."
A sallow-faced, frail old man broke into a fit of coughing, offering a helpless smile as he watched the boy wolf down the food. Yet the words that left his lips turned contradictory of their own accord.
"Eat more. Eat a little more."
He reached out, stroking the child's sparse, yellowish hair, muttering the same empty reassurance over and over again: "Once you're full, you won't be hungry anymore..."
Chapter 766