In the Year 6300 of the Star Calendar, the Xianzhou Cangcheng unexpectedly encountered a living planet during its voyage across space, which caused the sky above the Cangcheng to die, shrouded in darkness.
Of course, it was not because of nightfall, but because the sky itself was being devoured alive by something.
A crimson planet, known as the Devourer of Worlds, Rahu, hung high above the clouds of the Xianzhoy Cangcheng, pulsing endlessly like a beating heart.
Before long, Rahu slowly split open its shell of rock, sinew, and vines, spewing forth countless monsters—it was both a ravenous beast feasting without end and a mother on the verge of giving birth.
Writhing, Rahu opened its planet-sized maw—within which lay a terrifying darkness—and forcibly filled every inch of space above the Xianzhou Cangcheng, making the jade towers that once gleamed across the sea of stars seem as insignificant as dust beneath the scarlet-glowing surface of this living planet.
In this chaos, the sense of oppression did not come from above, but from beneath one's feet, as the entire land of the Xianzhou Cangcheng groaned, twisted, and fractured in agony under Rahu's crushing gravity.
In no time, the Xianzhou Cangcheng's proud towers, pavilions, and palaces—with their intricate beams and soaring eaves—let out a grating, tooth-aching shriek as they were ground past the limits of matter itself.
Glazed tiles crashed down like torrential rain, shattering to dust, while sturdy pillars bent and burst apart in an instant, as if they were nothing more than rotted wood.
Now, the dust was no longer a drifting haze, but a thick, suffocating yellow-grey tide that devoured what little light remained.
"RUUUN—!!!"
A shrill, cracking scream resounded, but it was barely audible over the collapse of buildings and the roar of dust.
On various corners of the Xianzhou Cangcheng, the wreckage of starskiffs burned as the air filled with the iron scent of blood, choking dust from shattered buildings, and a sweet, rotting stench wafting from within Rahu.
Those lucky enough to survive the first wave of destruction scattered like ants scalded by boiling water, scrambling frantically through the ruins, each step risking a misstep onto the warm corpse of a neighbor.
"Someone! Help!"
A woman cried out hoarsely, her hair in disarray, half her face caked with blood and ash, clutching a swaddled baby tightly to her chest.
Her baby's shrill, ragged cries cut through the chaos like a dull knife scraping nerves raw as the woman rushed blindly toward the shelter of a ruined archway.
Unfortunately, in the shadows, a monster born from Rahu was already lying in wait—and in just a few seconds, devoured them both.
"No! My strale!"
Not far away, a fat merchant in fine clothes had lost his mind—his bloated body was wedged between a collapsed shelf and half a broken wall, clutching a huge bag stuffed with heavy brocade pouches, apparently his life's savings in strale, the currency of the Xianzhou Alliance.
*Clink-Clink—*
A handful of strales spilled from the torn mouth of the bag, jingling as they scattered across the bloody dirt.
Yet the merchant paid no mind to the terrifying sounds approaching from above and frantically tried to shove more strales back into his arms, his chubby fingers bleeding from the sharp edges—until a shadow loomed over him.
It was the shadow of a monster that had just crawled out from a nearby crack and landed before him. It resembled a skinned giant lizard, but with insect-like segmented limbs and a spiral-toothed maw.
*Psss—*
Drool mixed with sticky mucus dripped onto the merchant's bag, sizzling as it ate through the fabric.
At the sight of his corroding bag, the merchant finally looked up and met the monster's compound eyes—filled with nothing but pure hunger, void of all intelligence.
Meanwhile, nearby, a massive broken metal beam pinned down a young Cloud Knight, his breastplate caved in, one leg twisted grotesquely beneath him, bone jutting through his uniform.
A pool of vivid red blood spread beneath him as he gripped the broken shaft of his halberd, the jagged end pointed toward the hellish, writhing sky.
An indescribable itch and burning sensation spread from deep within his bones and organs, as if countless roots were tunneling and growing wildly through his flesh.
"Ugh... Huff..."
He tried to inhale, but only ragged, bellows-like wheezing escaped his throat before an irresistible cold and stiffness swiftly overtook his body, erasing the agony.
As a Xianzhou native, the immortality granted by the blessing of Abundance he had received since birth now became the cruelest curse.
All of these gruesome scenes were witnessed by a white-haired little girl who was still just eleven.
Her classmates, friends, and elders—all dead.
Now, she was utterly exhausted, unable to run any farther, and completely hopeless as she crouched frozen, watching all these tragic scenes helplessly.
At this moment, rescue from the Xianzhou Luofu was nearly here, since they were the closest Xianzhou ship to the Xianzhou Cangcheng. Upon learning of the disaster that had befallen the Cangcheng, the Luofu had immediately assembled their Cloud Knights for rescue.
"We're almost there! Keep accelerating the warp!"
Inside a massive starskiff, a woman in heavy armor leading a fleet of Cloud Knights looked grim and tense as she shouted orders.
"Report! New intel—ninety percent of Cangcheng has been destroyed! Casualties have reached ninety-five percent!"
"It must be another ploy of an Emanator of Abundance, attacking with a living planet! Damn it!"
"No point worrying about that now! Just save whoever you can!"
Even though the reinforcements raced toward the coordinates of the disaster as fast as they could, by now only a sliver of the Xianzhou Cangcheng remained, since the rest had already been swallowed by Rahu.
Needless to say, it would all be gone soon enough.
In this disaster, the white-haired little girl was very lucky, as she happened to be hiding in the last surviving fragment of the Xianzhou Cangcheng, crouching quietly beneath it.
"Damn Abundance... Damn Abundance... Damn Abundance..."
Her eyes were empty, her face etched with despair as she muttered the word again and again under her breath, as if carving it into her mind.
"Someone... Anyone... Please..."
*Step-Step-Step—*
Just as the little girl muttered to herself with empty eyes, footsteps suddenly echoed behind her.
However, in her current state, she barely cared and didn't bother to look back.
It was only when the figure making those footsteps stepped ahead of her—its side profile catching the light—that she saw it was a young man around eighteen.
"System, I don't like this beginning..."
Lucian glanced around with a speechless expression, then looked at the white-haired, empty-eyed little girl behind him.
"Are you kidding me? Everyone's already dead, and the script protagonist's like this now. Who am I even supposed to show off to? You're terrible for starting at this time."
"Seriously, why start with so much tragedy? How can I impress her now? Her mind's already broken, and she already hates the Abundance to the core."
[DING! Detected problems with the current script. Because your appearance and past performance meet the criteria, the script will restart.]
*Buzz—*
Right after the System's message resounded in Lucian's mind, everything around him froze in place—it was as if time itself had stopped.
Moments later, the world suddenly shattered, and the scene before him changed once more.
===
"NOOO—!!!"
Yelling hysterically, the white-haired little girl, who had been crouching with empty eyes, woke from her dream, drenched in cold sweat, terror etched on her face.
From her appearance, it was clear that her dream had tormented her.
It was only natural.
Such a dream was truly hell, a mortal purgatory for an eleven-year-old girl like her.
'A nightmare...? Thank goodness...'
Realizing that hellish scene was just a nightmare, the little girl pressed her hand against her chest, breathing hard to calm herself.
As if remembering something, however, she quickly glanced out the window and saw delicate beams, gleaming jade towers, and palaces—everything was still as beautiful as she remembered.
"Jingliu!"
"Jingliu, are you home~?"
"Come out and play~!"
As the little girl, Jingliu, was still staring out the window in a daze, several voices suddenly called from the courtyard—they were children's voices, the voices of her classmates and friends.
Jingliu blinked her eyes, then quickly got up, dressed herself, and prepared to go out and play with them.
In this huge house, she was all alone, for her parents had both died as martyrs.
===
[A bonus chapter for every 500 Power Stones.]
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