The sky changed first.
Not with thunder, nor with the coming of a storm, just a quiet dimming, as though the sun itself had taken a step back in fear.
Lacey noticed it before anyone else.
She stood barefoot in the yard, a small wooden hoop clutched in her hands, its rim worn smooth from play.
The laughter of her neighbors drifted through the air, mingling with the rustle of leaves and the low hum of insects.
Her parents were just beyond the fence, tending to the garden. Her mother hummed softly as her father argued playfully with a stubborn patch of soil.
It was all normal. Until the shadows came.
They stretched across the ground unnaturally fast, long, sharp, and wrong. Lacey looked up.
Dozens of white-clad figures descended from the sky without wings and without sound.
Their robes flowed as if untouched by wind, their presence pressing down on the world like an unseen weight. Light bent around them, refusing to touch them fully.
The neighborhood fell silent in the shortest of instants.
The immortals landed without a single misstep. No dust rose, nor did any grass bend. It was as though reality itself made way for them.
One stepped forward, his voice carrying without effort, reaching every ear.
"We have been ordered by the Heavenly Sage to locate Jin Huang. Any other information is privileged."
There was no anger or urgency in his tone. Just finality.
Confusion rippled through the small neighborhood.
"Jin… who?" someone asked weakly.
Not a single one of the immortals answered. Instead, they immortals moved.
With terrifying efficiency, they spread through the neighborhood. Strange formation arrays were erected in moments.
Rings of faintly glowing symbols hovered in the air, humming with an energy that made the skin prickle.
"Step through," one of them would say as they stood before one of the many Dispelling Arrays.
The orders were met with confusion at first, questions second.
Forced compliance came third; such was the immortals response.
One by one, people were forced forward, the arrays flaring as each person passed through. Its divine light swept over them like an unseen gaze, probing, searching, stripping away anything hidden.
A man hesitated.
Just like that, he was struck down and thrown aside like an inconvenience. The message was clear.
Obey.
Lacey's small fingers tightened around her toy hoop.
"Lacey," her mother called, voice trembling now. "Come here."
But it was too late. An immortal had already noticed her.
"You."
The word was quiet.
She didn't understand why, but her feet moved anyway, as though her body was acting out of pure survival instinct.
"No- wait!"
Her father rushed in, placing himself between Lacey and the array.
"She's just a child," he said, voice shaking but firm. "Let me at least accompany her-"
The immortal looked at him, and for a brief moment, there was something like irritation.
Then... he moved.
It was too fast for Lacey to follow. One moment her father was standing, the next he was on the ground, unmoving.
There was no dramatic clash. No spectacle. Just a single, casual motion.
As though the immortal had simply swatted away a pest.
"Papa?" Lacey's voice was small.
He did not answer.
Her mother screamed, but even that was cut short. Muffled by an unseen force, Lacey's mother was restrained where she stood.
"Proceed," the immortal said, already looking past them.
Lacey was led forward, the array looming before her with its light flickering like a living thing. She hesitated, her small body trembling.
"Why…" she whispered, though she didn't know to whom.
No one listened.
She stepped through, and the light washed over her. For a moment, it felt cold. Relief came over her when she realized there was no pain, but pain came anyway when she recalled the image of her father.
Passing through, she felt as if something vast had looked at her and found nothing worth remembering.
The glow faded.
"Nothing of note," one of the immortals stated.
"Continue."
Just like that, she was dismissed.
Lacey turned, her eyes searching. Her father still lay where he had fallen, her mother still struggled against invisible restraints, tears streaming down her face, her voice broken into silent cries.
Soon, she too was led through the array, after which she ran to Lacey's side and held her close.
She looked through tear-filled eyes at her husband, fearing for the worst. Even so, she kept holding her daughter, ensuring she did not look.
"Is Papa okay?" Lacey asked.
Her mother could not respond- not with words, at least. Only tears. Tears and bitter sobbing.
Around them, the process continued unhindered.
Step. Scan. Discard.
Again.
Again.
Again.
The immortals did not linger, they did not comfort, and they did not explain.
When they were done, they simply left, rising back into the sky as effortlessly as they had come.
And when the light of the sun finally returned...
Nothing felt the same.
Far beyond that small, broken world, the same shadows fell upon countless others.
Cities. Villages. Kingdoms.
These were mostly planets that had been untouched by any sort of cosmic conflict for a very, very long time.
All of them were now trembling under the same cold decree.
"We have been ordered by the Heavenly Sage to locate Jin Huang."
As for their unspoken order, it ensured that nothing got in the way of their objective.
Comply... or die.
In their wake, the army of immortals left only silence and grief.
Across the vast expanse of the Earthly Realm, the search continued. Relentless and unquestioned.
None could hope to oppose a decree by the Heavenly Sage.
The heavens themselves had decided that nothing below was worth sparing.
Heaven needed Jin Huang to be found. The Supreme Immortal Body could not continue existing.
Above, the Spheres of Heaven were unperturbed. Of them, the lowest and closest to the Earthly Realm was the Starry Heaven, which Yun Cang was responsible for.
Here, the grunts carried out their grunt work, reporting to Yun Cang as they moved to and fro.
Yun Cang himself had confined himself to his office in the Academy ever since his sparring match with Long Feng.
He sent out his orders and received his reports without ever leaving.
In the other Spheres, those with real power and authority did nothing. Yet.
They enjoyed the peace of the Heavenly Realm, indulged in the divine bounty, and studied the Dao together.
When the time came, and things truly started happening, they would make their moves as needed.
As for the highest sphere of heaven, the Jade Sphere, there was nothing.
The Jade College's first-year prodigies had left on a field trip, and that was the only bit of information anyone had gotten pertaining to that sphere.
However, it was understood that if it came down to it, even the Jade Emperor would make his move.