The atmosphere in the war room of the Frost Iron Sect was heavy. The very air seemed thick with the realization that Central Command had just inadvertently corralled the sheep for the slaughter.

  Torben was still staring at the map, his knuckles white as he gripped the armrests of his bone throne. The red markers of the Silent Zones were glaring accusations.

  Li Yu’s slate-grey Command Token vibrated again. It wasn’t an alert this time. It was a strategic update.

  Notice to all units:

  Directive Update. Previous Merge Order Rescinded.

  New Directive: Disperse immediately. Maintain maximum distance between squads. Do not congregate in groups larger than standard patrol size.

  "They realized it," Li Yu said with a quiet voice to himself. If they thought of it, so could Central Command. "Whatever this is, it can target density. It wasn’t just smaller groups."

  "A little late for the Thunder Echo," Bjorn muttered to the group.

  "Better late than never," Torben said to the group. His voice lacked its usual thunder and vigor. He looked tired. "If we scatter, we make it harder for it to attack efficiently . We force it to hunt for scraps instead of feasts."

  "It is a grim strategy," Krell countered. "It admits that we cannot stop it. We can only slow it down. There’s still no answers."

  For the next hour, the sect was a hive of controlled chaos. The massive formations of disciples that had gathered here were broken down. The refugees who had flocked to the fortress were told to move to smaller outposts.

  It was a terrifying order to have to give. Telling people to leave the safety of the walls and go out towards the unknown. However, the news of the Thunder Echo had stripped the walls of their comfort anyways.

  Then, the Command Token buzzed again. This time, it wasn't a text update. It was a live audio feed being broadcast to all commanders.

  The voice that crackled through the stone was hoarse, broken and filled with a cold and terrifying fury.

  "This is Sect Master Magnar. Some of you may better know me as the Thunder King."

  Torben shot up from his chair. "Magnar? He's alive?"

  Li Yu leaned in closer to the token to listen.

  "I am... reporting from the ruins of my home," the Thunder King’s voice rasped. "The earlier reports of total leadership loss were... incorrect."

  The story unfolded through the transmission. It painted a picture of calculated malice or perhaps dumb luck. Or bad luck. It depends on how people view it.

  Two days prior, a high-priority rift alert had drawn Sect Master Magnar and his three Soul Formation elders away from the sect. Their cultivation strengths are 7th, 4th, 2nd and 2nd of Soul Formation respectively. They left one Soul Formation elder back at the sect. It appeared to be a standard suppression mission with enemies that were slightly stronger. However, upon entering the rift zone, they triggered a trap.

  It wasn't a simple ambush. It was some sort of spatial-locking artifact of unknown origin. A cage that didn't attack them but simply sealed them in a pocket dimension. They had spent forty-eight hours breaking out. They had poured every ounce of their cultivation into shattering the barrier.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  When they finally broke free and rushed back to the sect, they found the scene that was all too well known now. Their entire sect was utterly destroyed. Not in structure but in personnel.

  "They are all gone," Magnar said over the transmission. His voice cracking slightly as he did before hardening into steel. "But we found one. Elder Sigurd."

  Li Yu looked at Torben. "A survivor?"

  "Elder Sigurd was in the Hall of Records," Magnar continued. "He is at the First Stage of Soul Formation. He was found unconscious and his spirit sea nearly drained. But he survived and is alive."

  The transmission shifted. A weaker and more trembling voice spoke.

  "I... I was reading," Elder Sigurd whispered. "There was no sound. No warning. The light just... went out. Not the lamps. The world. It felt like a heavy blanket was thrown over my soul. I felt a pressure... a suction. I tried to flare my Qi and soul defenses to push it back but I blacked out instantly. When I woke up... everyone else was cold."

  The transmission ended with the Thunder King’s final vow.

  "I will find out what or who did this. And I will turn heaven and earth to ash to kill it. It will die or I will die. There is no world in which the two of us can exist together."

  The connection cut after that.

  Silence returned to the Frost Iron war room but the quality of it had changed. It wasn't just fear and paranoia anymore. It was calculation.

  "First Stage Soul Formation," Li Yu murmured. "That is the line. Or at least around there. It really does seem to be related to the soul as well." This gave Li Yu a great amount of confidence. He was confident in his abilities before. That was why he spent so much time and fearlessly tried to find the source of the danger.

  However, now that he knew it was related to the soul. Something that a 1st stage Soul Formation expert could survive. Even if the thing could have killed Sigurd while he was blacked out, it didn’t matter to Li Yu. When it came to matters of the soul, Li Yu had the confidence of the heavens. He was too much of a freak when it came to the soul.

  "He blacked out," Torben analyzed out loud. His strategist mind taking over his usual brute demeanor. "But his soul was dense enough to resist the full extraction. The thing... it couldn't pull him out instantly. Or it tried and failed. Then it moved on to easier prey or escaped before it could be discovered."

  "So the kills confirmed so far is that anyone under Soul Formation is vulnerable." Krell summarized. "If you are Soul Formation or below, you can become food. If you are Soul Formation, you get knocked out and take a nap. That means even stronger Soul Formation experts might be okay overall to its attack."

  "That is... good news," Bjorn said hesitantly. "And terrible news."

  It was good because it meant the entity wasn't omnipotent. It had a power ceiling. It wasn't a god that had just appeared; it was just a very strong predator or predators.

  It was terrible because on the entire Northern Front, the number of Soul Formation cultivators wasn’t large. Even on this continent full of fighting and fighters. The number was greatly higher than other continents throughout history but the number of deaths was also much higher as well.

  "This scares people," Torben said as he went to sit back down. "It means 99 percent of the population has zero defense against this threat. If it finds you, you die. Period."

  Torben looked at the map again. "And that is exactly why the panic will most likely stop."

  Li Yu looked at him. "What?"

  "If you hide, you die," Torben said. "If you fight, you die. If you run, you die. When death is a certainty regardless of your action, fear loses its utility. You don’t know my people like I do."

  Torben’s prediction came true.

  The initial reaction to the Thunder Echo survival report was a wave of fresh terror. The realization that even the strongest defenses were useless against this soul-harvesting plague made many despair.

  But then, the news from the sect master himself came through. New information was given to everyone and they figured out that you needed to be at a certain level to withstand the attack. This brought about a mixed wave of reactions. Then, once emotions settled pragmatic thinking began.

  As that was happening a new directives came down from Central Command. It was simple, proceed as normal.

  There were no special evacuation protocols. No complex defensive arrays to construct. The order was brutally simple and what the cultivators of the north had already thought of themselves.

  Continue to do your job. If you encounter the entity and it attacks you, you will not survive. Therefore, do not worry about encountering the entity.

  It was a logic that only the Frostbound Dominion could accept. In the Frost Iron Sect courtyard, Li Yu watched the transformation himself.