When It Rains, It Pours

Beneath the white canvas tents of the plague quarantine zone, rows of cots stretched in every direction. The patients lying on them were covered in festering sores — dense clusters of pustules spreading across their arms and cheeks. Dark blotches mottled their skin, which had gone bone dry, and they cried out constantly for water. Yet no matter how much they drank, it brought no relief. If anything, it made things worse, the strange fluid seeping from their sores growing more prolific with every sip.

Moans and cries rose and fell throughout the quarantine zone — old men and women, grown adults and small children alike. The adults lay drowning in their suffering, their eyes hollow with dread at this unknown plague. They watched the Healing Element Mages moving between the cots, clinging to the faint hope of treatment — but even these skilled practitioners of medicine and alchemy were utterly powerless here. The children, still too innocent to understand, darted between the cots without a care, blissfully unaware of what was coming.

Outside the quarantine zone, a handful of the Healing Element's foremost authorities sat gathered around a table in a hastily erected tent. They were not discussing treatment options — they were counting down the hours the infected had left. Never in their careers had they felt so completely at a loss.

"Elder Lu, we have three days — three days before every last member of the first wave of infected turns into what we saw last time. The total number is—" said a middle-aged man in a white coat and cap.

Elder Lu raised a hand, cutting him off. He knew the count better than anyone. That wasn't what truly unsettled him. What felt like the end of the world was the second and third waves: the infected were multiplying exponentially, doubling and doubling again. There was no longer any reliable way to tally them. They were scattered into every corner of Hangzhou.

"Elder Lu, if we can locate the source of the plague, we can use it to develop an antidote. Everyone knows this outbreak traces back to that massive serpent that appeared in the marketplace — why aren't we moving on this immediately?" the man in the white coat pressed.

The words had barely left his mouth when Chief Adjudicator Tang Zhong stepped into the tent. Elder Lu glanced at him but said nothing — because Elder Lu, too, knew that the serpent was no Demon-Beast. It was their guardian deity.

Councillor Zhu Meng had entered alongside him, his expression darker than before. There was anger in his eyes — he had clearly just been arguing with the Chief Adjudicator.

"Tang Zhong, do you really want to watch corpses pile up across all of Hangzhou?!" Zhu Meng snapped. "Keep standing there doing nothing and your wish will come true soon enough — then you'll be the one this entire city holds responsible. I don't care about the Hidden Danger Strategy right now, and I'm not here to pull rank on you as a Councillor. I just want this plague dealt with." His tone dropped a fraction, some of the edge leaving it.

Tang Zhong looked no less burdened. He wanted this resolved just as badly — and inwardly, his resolve was beginning to waver.

Councillor Zhu Meng had just opened his mouth to speak again when a Palace Guard hurried in and murmured something into his ear.

The Councillor's expression shifted instantly. "Did they recover the Totem Pearl?" he asked, barely containing his agitation.

The Palace Guard bowed his head. "We failed in our duty, sir. We await your punishment."

Anger simmered beneath Zhu Meng's surface. He had sent out so many Trainee Tribunal Agents and they still couldn't bring in two people — useless, every last one of them.

Palace Guard Ah Li Jin lowered his head even further. Only once the Councillor's fury had ebbed a fraction did he continue: "Tang Yue and Mo Fan have been brought in. Awaiting your orders on how to proceed."

"Bring them here. Now!"

It wasn't long before Tang Yue and Mo Fan — having surrendered without a fight — were escorted to the quarantine zone. Walking through it left both of them speechless. After days on the run, neither had imagined the plague had deteriorated this far.

When they were brought before Councillor Zhu Meng, he looked them over with burning eyes, his jaw trembling. He let out a cold laugh. "Well, aren't the two of you something. If I had my way, I'd have you executed on the spot. Do I need to give you a full tour of this living hell before you understand the gravity of what you've done?!"

Mo Fan said nothing.

Tang Yue bit down hard on her lower lip. Everything had happened too fast, the situation deteriorating far more rapidly than she could have foreseen. From the moment she had taken the Skyreach Serpent away to the time she returned, a plague had already swallowed all of Hangzhou whole — everyone was living in fear. She had never seen a disease spread so viciously, turning a peaceful and thriving city into a pestilent wasteland in what felt like the blink of an eye.

She reached out and handed Councillor Zhu Meng a large vial of the Skyreach Serpent's blood. "This is the blood of a god," she said. "If the plague originated from it, this should act as a counteragent."

Zhu Meng turned and gestured to Elder Lu. He and the other leading authorities immediately took the blood back to their research room. Three days was all they had — they needed to produce an antidote.

"Guards — have these two locked up," Zhu Meng ordered.

Palace Guard Ah Li Jin escorted them away.

They had barely left when a man in a Military Commander's uniform strode over, saluted Councillor Zhu Meng, and murmured something into his ear.

The Councillor's eyes went wide. "Say that again?!"

Everyone in the tent looked up, exchanging uncertain glances. None of them knew what could have rattled Zhu Meng so badly.

"News just came in from the fortress. The situation is critical — we're requesting the Councillor convene an emergency meeting to coordinate a response," the Military Commander said.

"Understood." Zhu Meng nodded, still visibly stunned. "I'll issue the orders immediately."

Guard Captain Wu Pinjing, standing nearby, caught the shift in the Councillor's face and stepped forward. "Councillor, what's happened?"

"When it rains, it pours — it *pours!*" Zhu Meng tilted his face toward the sky with a groan. His beard, dishevelled by the wind, was the last thing on his mind.

Seeing that the audience consisted of the Chief Adjudicator and other senior officials, the Military Commander went ahead and announced the report that had just shaken all of Hangzhou:

"A massive flock of White Demon Eagles has surged out of the Xi Ling range behind the western fortress. They're starving, frenzied — nothing holds them back. No matter what magical bombardment we throw at them, they show no sign of returning to their Nest. As we speak, the entire flock is flying toward the city..."

Beside him, ice shot through Tang Zhong.

As far as he knew, a great Clan of White Demon Eagles made its home in the Xi Ling range.

Yet they had always kept to their own territory — far less aggressive than most Demon-Beasts.

He could not understand what would drive this Clan to launch an unprovoked assault on Hangzhou without any warning. Demon-Beast attacks on cities were rare under any circumstances — especially against a city as heavily fortified as Hangzhou.

"We are in serious trouble..." Zhu Meng murmured, his voice hollow, as though the ground had shifted beneath his feet.

Tang Zhong nodded, brow furrowed tight. The plague had already thrown the city into panic. A Demon-Beast siege on top of it was salt poured into an open wound.