The first ray of sunlight had just cut across the morning horizon, and the sky was still hovering between darkness and light.
The flock of Ice Cone Birds maintained its dense patrol formation, flying through a stretch of sky that appeared perfectly normal.
Their wings glimmered with the luster of ice crystals in the morning light. With each flap, they stirred up fine flecks of frost, leaving faint white trails in the air.
The lead Ice Cone Bird was a size larger than its companions, with a wingspan of nearly forty feet. Ice-cone-shaped plumes stood erect on the back of its head as it looked down upon all moving life on the ground.
It suddenly tilted its head slightly, its eyes twitching unnaturally.
But that incredibly faint spatial fluctuation was too fast. So fast that before the nerve signal could even travel from its pupils to its brain, the void beside it abruptly tore open.
Ah Ji was the first to appear from the spatial rift.
