Deep in the Southern Continent, the jungle was quiet again.
The blood from the last ambush had already soaked into the soil, and the breeze that moved through the trees carried the faint scent of spirit beast blood and charred energy residue. But no one was running anymore. No more shouting. Just stillness.
That stillness was exactly what the humans and Monster Race needed.
Inside a wide cave hidden under a root-covered hill, two commanders from the Monster Race stood over a crude map drawn across the dirt floor.
They weren't fancy or overly armored. One was dressed in thick vine-wrapped robes and had green scales down his arms.
The other wore a carved wooden mask shaped like a beast's skull. They had been alive for hundreds of years and knew this forest like their own heartbeat.
And standing with them was a single figure—cloaked in black, trimmed with silver, silent and still.
A Shadow leader from the Xu family.
He didn't interrupt.
