I chose the safe house, and the Human Alliance regretted it.

Night falls in the heart of the Kashgar Mountains.

The golden-eyed beast that had been lying prone on the ground suddenly stood up.

It lowered its head, its golden pupils reflecting the various ethnic groups, and it didn't even know why it was lying down.

Why am I lying down?

It stood there stunned for a long time.

It's like something has ripped a piece out of my mind; it's empty, and I can't remember anything.

It was as if someone had whispered something in its ear, as if a being that it feared had once stood here.

But who was that person? It couldn't remember.

A moment later—

"roar--"

The golden-eyed beast roared to the sky.

An instinct that has been suppressed for too long and is finally being released.

Low-frequency sound waves spread outward from the heart of the Kashgar Mountains, penetrating the mountains, the red fog, and thousands of miles of rivers and mountains.

In the Kashgar Mountains, the red fog exploded.

The beast tide swept across the Dragon Kingdom like a flood bursting its banks.

.........

In Jiangnan City, there is a two-story villa.

The lights were dim and the curtains were drawn.

The air was filled with an indescribable, sweet scent.

Fatty Li sat on the sofa, leaning slightly forward, cultivating at a leisurely pace.

Suddenly, he stopped moving.

On the large bed three meters away, Zi Bai, her face flushed and her long hair disheveled, asked in a sweet voice, "Fatty, why did you stop?"

Fatty Li did not answer.

His brows furrowed, as if something was stuck in his throat, something he couldn't swallow or spit out.

"I suddenly feel... something's not right," he murmured, his voice filled with a bewilderment he had never felt before.

"Something's not right?" Zi Bai propped herself up, the blush on her face gradually fading.

She blinked, and the confusion in her pupils gradually gave way to clarity.

Then, her expression changed.

"Something's definitely not right." Zi Bai frowned, her voice suddenly turning cold. "What am I doing?"

On the sofa, Fatty Li's pupils suddenly contracted.

Before he could think any further, his supernatural power suddenly erupted, and he began to cultivate again, focusing on Zi Bai.

"Ugh~" Zi Bai let out a groan, and the eyes that had just regained a sliver of clarity sank back down.

Her body went limp on the bed, her cheeks flushed again, and she murmured incoherently.

Just then, a beast's roar echoed outside Jiangnan City.

The sound was distant, yet it hung like a blunt knife above everyone's head.

Fatty Li's heart tightened, and he gripped the sofa armrest tightly.

However, he dared not stop, nor could he stop.

Once it stopped, Zi Bai became fully awake.

By then, no one in the entire Jiangnan city will be able to stop her.

The fat man was puzzled as to how he had managed to defeat Zi Bai.

But now... he can only keep going.

On the city defenses of Jiangnan, Zhao Lie and a group of superhumans had already arrived.

Zhao Lie glanced around and saw the figure standing at the very front—Li An.

Zhao Lie immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

It's unclear when exactly, but this little girl became the last pillar of strength for Jiangnan City.

However, looking at the thick darkness outside the city, he couldn't help but ask, "Why did the beast tide suddenly attack Jiangnan City?"

Ahead, Li An turned slightly to the side, revealing her cool and aloof face.

"Why didn't the beast tide attack Jiangnan City before?" she asked rhetorically.

Zhao Lie was taken aback.

Yes, why?

Previously, the beast tide bypassed Jiangnan City, ignoring it as if there was something here that prevented them from approaching.

But what is that?

Why can't he remember?

He opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

Seeing his bewildered expression, Li An turned back around.

She was certain that something was missing from this world.

She forgot something too.

But she didn't know what it was.

It's like waking up to find someone who should be there is missing, but you can't remember that person's name, appearance, or voice.

But there was a voice in her heart.

Guarding the city of Jiangnan, waiting for someone to return.

She doesn't know who she's waiting for, but she will wait.

"They're here!"

Zhao Lie suddenly reminded him in a deep voice.

Everyone looked in that direction at the same time.

On the horizon, a dark, heavy cloud was rapidly expanding, like a moving continent, rolling towards Jiangnan City.

"Fire!"

The military commander's voice boomed across the communications channel.

"Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—"

The close-in weapon system fired first, and thousands of rounds per second wove a dense, impenetrable net of fire across the night sky.

"Boom—Boom—Boom—"

Self-propelled artillery, howitzers, multiple rocket launchers, and short-range missiles—all of the military's heavy firepower opened fire simultaneously.

The flashes from the cannons illuminated the entire city wall as if it were daytime.

The explosions were deafening, shaking the rubble on the city wall.

However, the beast tide's offensive only slowed down slightly before continuing its charge.

The beast tide stretched as far as the eye could see, like a vast, surging ocean.

In the underground living quarters of the Jiangnan base, hundreds of thousands of people are watching the battle situation on electronic screens.

Most of the people had just been picked up by Zhao Lie.

They believed Chen Junjie's dying words—"Go to Jiangnan City."

But at this moment, looking at the overwhelming tide of beasts outside the city, almost everyone became nervous.

"Will the prophet's words really come true?" someone asked in a low voice.

"The prophet sent us to Jiangnan City, but its defenses are too weak... Can we hold it?"

"We must believe the prophet! The prophet has never lied to us!" the girl said firmly from the crowd.

Noise, panic, chaos reigned in the underground living area.

In the corner, Isaac and the other members of the eight major divination organizations also looked terrified.

"Why...why did we come to Jiangnan City?" Isaac murmured to himself.

In another cubicle, Zhang Duan and Xie Zhu also looked uneasy.

Xie Zhu spoke in a low voice, a hint of resentment in his tone: "What was the patriarch thinking? Why did he send our branch of the family to Jiangnan City?"

"I don't know." Zhang Duan shook his head. "I just feel like... something's missing."

As for the city's defenses, the beast tide is getting closer and closer to the city walls.

A resolute glint flashed in Zhao Lie's eyes. He was about to lead his men to charge forward—

Li An moved.

She didn't speak, but simply took a small step and stepped out of the city wall.

Her petite body slowly flew into the sky, and she opened her arms as if to embrace the overwhelming tide of beasts.

Suddenly, everyone at the Jiangnan City base involuntarily shivered.

Immediately afterwards, it started snowing.

Countless white, diamond-like ice crystals condensed from the void and slowly drifted down.

Each piece exudes a bone-chilling cold, yet also contains an eerie heat.

Extreme cold and scorching heat coexist, just as life and death coexist.

"roar--"

A thunderous beast was about to charge at Li An.

Its body crackled with electric arcs, and blue lightning illuminated half the sky.

Just then, a piece of ice crystal landed on its enormous head.

Then, something strange happened.

The ice crystals ignored the lightning and scales on the Thunder Beast's body and passed through it as if they were air.

It cuts open from the top of the head, slides down from inside the skull, and flies out from the head and neck.

There was no sound, no struggle.

The Thunder Beast froze, and the crimson light in its pupils gradually faded.

An irregular hole appeared on its head.

The next second, its body fell from the sky and crashed to the ground, splattering a cloud of black blood and mud.

The ice crystals, flying everywhere, fell silently, passing silently through the bodies of the strange beasts.

An endless tide of beasts surged into the area filled with flying ice crystals, and then began to fall in large swathes.

The corpses were everywhere, like a rain of corpses.

Zhao Lie stared wide-eyed at the scene in disbelief.

All the superhumans on the city defenses stared wide-eyed, frozen in place.

After a brief silence, deafening cheers erupted in the underground base's living quarters.

"Li An!" someone called out first.

Then everyone shouted in unison—

"Li An!"

"Li An!"

"Li An!"

Hundreds of thousands of people went mad, screaming the same name, their voices converging into a torrent that dispelled the fear.

Li An's petite body hovered in mid-air, blocking the horde of beasts.

As she listened to the sounds coming from the city behind her, her gray eyes became even more confused.

"Li An?" she murmured softly, her voice drowned out by the cheers.

My name is Nian Li'an.

That word "念" (nian, meaning "to think of") is like a thorn, stuck deep in her memory, causing a dull ache.

"Where is my thought...?"