Eastern Garden.
Shui Yi was breathing heavily, his chest heaving up and down as his ragged gasps echoed across the charred, ruined landscape.
The air around him reeked of superheated ozone, ash, and scorched earth.
His dark blue robes were torn and singing at the edges, covered in soot.
Hovering beside him in the air, its scales cracked and bleeding glowing golden fluid, was his Dragon Scaled Carp.
The ancient aquatic beast floated around him in slow, weak circles, casting a thin, flickering shield of water-element qi as if desperately trying to protect its master from further harm.
Shui Yi wiped a trail of blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes scanning the vast, smoking crater that had once been the primary agricultural compound.
He gritted his teeth in sheer, agonizing fury as he realized that most of his subordinates were dead, their physical bodies completely vaporized by that apocalyptic golden sun.
