The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

The Golden Pagoda organization, in a quiet room.

The door was closed from the outside, and dim light leaked down from the top, illuminating an old man sitting cross-legged on a stone platform.

One of his sleeves was empty below the elbow, and the cut was wrapped in a dark-soaked cloth. The bleeding had stopped, but it was still slowly seeping out.

His face was very pale, like a sheet of paper soaked in water, but his brows were always furrowed, and deep in his eyes was a trace of unconcealed horror.

In the final moments before Ash City was destroyed, he received a distress signal from the other side.

He originally intended to make a move.

He could afford the price; as long as he could protect those people in Ash City, the Golden Pagoda's plans in the Northern Region wouldn't completely collapse.

But just as he was about to make his move, he sensed it.

That feeling wasn't just a normal warning of danger; it was a chill rising from the depths of his soul, as if something was watching him from a great height, and if he dared to take that step, his bones and soul would be crushed.

He made a decisive move, cutting off his own arm and retreating from the soon-to-be-formed passage.

"If it were a little slower..." The old man closed his eyes and didn't finish his sentence.

Someone like him possesses an extraordinary sensitivity to life and death.

That was absolutely certain. Something inside Ash City, or something outside Ash City, is watching all those who try to interfere there.

"These are turbulent times." He let out a long sigh.

.........

Hundreds of miles away from Ash City.

On a protruding rock stood a tall, humanoid man.

He has an extremely long and thin tail, with the end slightly curled up, like a monkey coiled around his feet.

His features were extremely similar to those of a human, except that his pupils were thin vertical lines that shimmered with a faint golden hue in the moonlight.

Opposite him, a creature resembling a bull lay on the ground, its entire body covered in short, bluish-black fur, with only one horn on its head, curved like a crescent moon, and the air around it vibrated slightly as it breathed.

"How dare these ants break through this space?" The long-tailed man looked into the distance, his voice filled with undisguised contempt.

He was referring to something in the direction of Ash City.

The bull-like creature didn't look up: "We shouldn't have made a move. This is none of our business."

"If you don't tell, and I don't tell, no one will know."

"No secret can stay hidden forever."

The long-tailed man laughed: "Are you scared?"

The bovine creature was silent for a moment, then its voice deepened: "It's because we're afraid of bringing disaster upon the tribe."

"If a race is afraid of even such ants, what kind of advanced race is that?" The long-tailed man said dismissively, toying with a pebble he had picked up from somewhere between his fingers.

He seemed to have thought of something, and suddenly turned to look into the distance.

At the far end of the sky, a thin line stretched across the mist. Countless slowly moving iron boxes hung from it.

"How about it? Want to have a contest? Look at those people in the metal box, let's just throw them around and see who kills the most?"

The bovine creature paused, then slowly raised its head to look at him: "To stop that human from interfering is already overstepping your bounds. To attack a newly arrived human would incur great karmic consequences."

"I didn't actually take action."

The long-tailed man weighed the pebble in his hand, a slight smile playing on his lips. "I just picked up a pebble from the ground and threw it near them. I didn't even aim properly; they couldn't withstand the aftershock. If they couldn't, what does it have to do with me?"

The cow-shaped creature didn't reply; it just stared into the distance.

There was a moment of silence in the air.

Just as the long-tailed man was about to throw the pebble, a very faint light fell from the night sky.

A woman appeared out of thin air above them, without any warning.

She wore an extremely plain long dress, the material of which was indistinguishable, like a cloud, or something even lighter than a cloud. Her features were cool and aloof, and her pupils were very light in color, like two drops of dew condensed in the morning mist.

She only glanced at the long-tailed man.

"Do you want to be imprisoned for hundreds of years? Are you taking action against a race that is only temporarily protected by the laws of Heaven, or are you afraid that they will grow stronger and threaten you?"

The long-tailed man clicked his tongue: "You think I'd be afraid of a bunch of ants?"

"Don't make your tribe pay for your stupidity." The woman's tone was calm. "Cracks have appeared in the seal; we're here to reinforce it. Is your part finished?"

"I finished a while ago. It's too boring here, so I'm moving around a bit."

"Go back when you're done."

The woman glanced at the bull-like creature again, her expression blank, as if she were simply confirming something. Then her form began to fade, and her voice returned from all directions: "The Dark Turmoil is coming in a month. Deal with it and leave. Don't cause trouble."

After saying those last three words, she disappeared.

They vanished without a trace, as if they had never been there.

The long-tailed man stood still, the pebble still lying in his palm.

His gaze swept over the cable that was moving slowly in the night fog in the distance again, and the smile on his lips faded considerably.

The bovine-shaped creature spoke up in a deep voice from the side: "Still want to compete?"

The long-tailed man remained silent.

A moment later, he turned his palm over, and the pebble slipped through his fingers and landed on the grass at his feet without making a sound.

"Just to give Nongyu face."

He tucked his tail away, turned, and walked into the darkness, muttering to himself, "A bunch of ants."

As the night wind swept by, the desolate mountain fell silent once more, leaving only the bull-shaped creature lying in place, gazing towards the cable for a long time before finally disappearing from sight.

......