The rain came down heavier than anyone expected. It wasn't the gentle rainfall Bo City usually had during this season—it was a relentless downpour that soaked rooftops, flooded the streets within minutes, and turned the air cold and metallic. The sky above rumbled with thin flickers of lightning, the mass of clouds thick enough to swallow the moon entirely.
Xu Mang felt the shift instantly. The natural energy in the air wasn't normal. It was being pulled, twisted, influenced by something underground—something that echoed dangerously close to the events he and Lu Jun remembered from the old timeline.
He stepped out under the training field canopy, his hair sticking slightly from the humidity in the air. Lu Jun joined him, eyes narrowing as he studied the storm.
"This rain," Lu Jun said quietly, "isn't weather. It's elemental distortion."
Xu Mang nodded. "The Holy Spring…"
"It's leaking," Lu Jun finished.
Before either of them could process that, the academy's alarms blared through the corridors, echoing across the buildings. Students rushed to the walkways, staring up at the rumbling clouds with fear. Teachers hurriedly moved them indoors, forming quick barriers to protect the younger students.
Zhan Kong arrived seconds later. He didn't walk or run—he moved like a gust of wind, arriving at the training field almost instantaneously. Hunters followed behind him, boots splashing in forming puddles.
"You two," he said, pointing at Xu Mang and Lu Jun. "With me."
They didn't argue. They followed him through the city streets, the rain hitting so hard it felt like thin needles on their skin. Lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating Zhan Kong's silhouette as he moved ahead of them.
They reached the construction site near the city's foundation, where a crowd of hunters waited with tense expressions. The sound of dripping water and distant roars reverberated through an enormous hole in the ground. It wasn't man-made. The tunnels stretched deeply, far beyond what should have been possible for ordinary demon beasts.
Xu Mang crouched beside the opening, touching the mud. It was warm. Too warm for rain-drenched earth.
"This isn't natural," Xu Mang said. "Beast tunnels don't expand this precisely."
A hunter captain wiped water from his eyes. "We saw movement down there. Some kind of coordinated digging."
Lu Jun scanned the edges where claw marks scored the stone. "The depth is too structured. It's engineered. Not random digging."
Zhan Kong stepped forward, rain rolling off his coat. "It isn't just beasts. Something else is controlling them."
Xu Mang looked up at him. "Black Vatican."
Zhan Kong didn't confirm it aloud, but his expression told the truth. There were very few organizations in the world capable of pushing entire beast packs like chess pieces. Only one group crossed morality so completely they'd willingly destroy a city just to get at the Holy Spring beneath it.
"We're destroying the tunnels," Zhan Kong said. "Hunters will cover the upper levels. I'll take the deeper section. The rest of you collapse every branching passage."
Mo Fan's voice called out from behind them. He had arrived late, panting slightly from sprinting through the rain.
"Captain, let me help," he said.
Zhan Kong didn't look back. "You already know the answer, Mo Fan. Don't die."
He stepped off the edge and descended into the darkness.
Within seconds, beasts erupted upward, their glowing eyes flickering like sickly lanterns. They crawled across the walls, snarling. Servant-level, dozens of them. A few Warrior-level shapes moved behind them, pacing the shadowed tunnels.
Mo Fan ignited his flames immediately, a swirling sphere of fire exploding across the wet tunnel walls. The heat forced back the rain, steam rising in clouds. Xu Mang and Lu Jun moved beside him, water barriers flaring to protect the hunters, lightning bolts cracking against the mud as Xu Mang aimed with lethal precision.
Warrior-level beasts burst out in pairs. Mo Fan ducked beneath a claw strike, flames erupting through the creature's chest. Lu Jun's metal spell sliced cleanly into another beast's flank. Xu Mang's lightning paralyzed another in mid-roar.
The frontline held.
Hunters were shocked by how quickly the three of them dismantled the wave. They moved without hesitation, without conflict, as if they had trained together for years. Xu Mang didn't even need to summon Wolfie—the battlefield wasn't desperate enough yet.
But the tremors through the ground told them the real threat was still beneath.
The tunnel shook violently. A massive shockwave thundered upward as Zhan Kong reappeared at the entrance. Behind him, dirt and stone collapsed, sealing the underground network.
The oppressive beast aura vanished instantly.
"Tunnel destroyed," Zhan Kong said, brushing dust off his sleeve. His voice was even, steady, but his eyes… his eyes were darker than before, full of something like anger. "This wasn't a natural beast expansion."
Xu Mang answered quietly. "Black Vatican."
Zhan Kong nodded once, rain dripping off his hair. "And they're not operating alone. Someone familiar with Bo City is assisting them."
Before anyone could ask questions, the rain intensified yet again. The droplets grew heavier, colder—like the sky itself was being pulled by a force deep underground.
A hunter sprinted toward them. "Captain! Northern watchtower spotted mass movement. The marshlands near the Holy Spring entrance—something's gathering there. A lot of… something."
Mo Fan clenched his jaw. "Already?"
Xu Mang realized what this meant. "This isn't a random beast wave. They're targeting the Holy Spring directly."
Lu Jun's voice was steady, but his expression tightened. "If the Holy Spring is fully tampered with, the invasion won't be a horde. It will be a catastrophe."
Lightning exploded somewhere over the city. The sky flashed white, then fell into darkness again.
Zhan Kong stared into the rain, his expression like a man reading a countdown. "The Holy Spring was sealed by an ancient protection formation. Something tore through it. The demonic energy stored below is leaking into the rain. That's why the beasts are gathering."
Xu Mang felt a ripple of cold down his spine. "The timeline… is shifting again."
Lu Jun took a breath. "This is the beginning."
Just then, a presence appeared on the rooftops. A cloaked figure, shrouded by the rain, watched silently from afar. For a moment, no one moved. The rain almost stopped around the figure—distorting, like the air itself avoided touching them.
Zhan Kong turned instantly. The figure vanished into the storm before even a flash of lightning could illuminate their face.
Mo Fan's expression darkened. "That wasn't a normal spy."
Xu Mang nodded grimly. "Black Vatican messenger. The kind that appears right before a major strike."
Zhan Kong spoke again, his voice lower than before. "Tonight was not the invasion. Tonight was the warning."
The rain hammered the metal rooftops, roaring like an ocean above the city. The streets began to flood. People were ushered indoors by guards. The entire city seemed to hold its breath.
"Gather your strength," Zhan Kong said. "Prepare your spells. What comes next will not be a test. It will be war."
Xu Mang and Lu Jun exchanged a look.
Mo Fan stared at the storm with fire simmering behind his eyes.
And far beneath the city, deep within the corrupted veins of the Sacred Underground Holy Spring, something dark pulsed… responding to the Black Vatican's call.