Rumble! Crack!0

A twisting, dragon-shaped bolt of lightning descended from the heavens, tearing through half the darkened sky and crashing down upon a towering mountain.0

Its momentum was terrifying, yet the strike left behind only a shallow pit at the mountain’s peak—one of countless scars already marring its surface.0

The divine lightning would have turned any ordinary mountain to dust.0

But here, it was barely noticeable, as that mountain was no ordinary stone. It was a devilish mountain brimming with spiritual energy, its walls etched with the remnants of white bones. No one knew how many corpses it had devoured or how long it had been feasting.0

There was no other sign of life on the mountain—only a single, towering ancient tree whose canopy blotted out the sky. It appeared to draw spiritual energy from the mountain, its crown twisted with bulging knots of blood-red wood...0