Wang Zikai approached the colossal creature. It resembled a wingless phoenix. Its sacred-white skin appeared paradoxically smooth yet metallic, dotted with red spots that resembled congealed blood, grainy like rust on copper.0

The creature's head formed a vertical oval, featureless except for a single vertical eye at its center, crackling with crimson energy strands. Its overwhelming wings stretched outward, the bones looking like an amalgamation of organic organisms and machines.0

A massive cavity gaped in its oval abdomen—a rotting marsh of flesh and blood where something insidious had gestated before breaking free. Countless tendrils formed its tail, heavily corrupted by red spots...0