After that difficult ordeal, Liu Yianfei and Sword Master Zheng Renyi lay completely drained on beach chairs, every last drop of physical strength and qi spent. Mei Ying sat nearby keeping watch over them.

  The others had gathered around the wild boar's carcass, the massive body over ten meters long cleaved in half by a single sword stroke and split open across the sand. Blood, flesh, and organs were scattered in every direction.

  Huang Zihuan couldn't manage this alone. He needed to call in Tang clan members from the nearest location to cross the water and help.

  "My lady, what should we do with the carcass?"

  The elderly butler surveyed the wreckage and found that besides the hide, already too thick for Sage-level swords to cut, the internal organs were equally impenetrable. External and internal, every part of it was the same.

  These organs were beyond the reach of ordinary tools. Even peak Martial Master power would make no difference. Even dead, the creature was still causing trouble.

  "...These materials are valuable. Better find a way to preserve them."

  Bai Fanxian examined the remains herself, running her fingers along the hide and flesh. The quality was remarkable — high enough to be processed, even refined into grade five or six pills. Things that simply could not be found anywhere in this era.

  At his lady's command, Huang Zihuan nodded and got to work. After about fifteen minutes, a large boat carrying nearly a hundred passengers docked at the pier — Tang clan members the old man had contacted. They took in the debris and damage from the battle with gaping mouths. Beyond the mansion, the sandy beach and outer forest had been torn up in strips.

  "What in the world is this?"

  The most striking sight was the wild boar itself, the largest wild boar any of them had ever seen. The fact that it had been cut clean in two with a single blow made several of them swallow hard. Whoever wielded that sword had to be terrifyingly skilled.

  "Can you help figure out what we can do with it?"

  Butler Huang turned and gave his instructions. The people who had come were all trusted by the Tang clan, and more than half were cultivators, stronger than ordinary people.

  They helped push the boar's carcass into position on the beach. Some tried to butcher it into parts first, but the meat cleaver shattered into pieces when they brought it down.

  Unease began to spread through the group. It was becoming clear that this would not be a simple job.

  "Butler Huang, where did this thing come from?"

  A broad-shouldered middle-aged man with a cigarette between his lips called over. He had worked with the Tang clan for years and was on close terms with Huang Zihuan. He had already tried slashing the hide with his own Martial Master-grade sword and come away with nothing but a small notch. The workers were beginning to look troubled.

  If they knew the truth, that when alive its hide was reinforced by magic power thick enough to turn away even Sage-level attacks, they might not have been so willing to try.

  "Master, how did this thing slip past your Heaven Sense?"

  Little Red had lost interest in the scene below and flown back up to join Bai Fanxian on the balcony. She perched on the railing and tilted her head. This was what puzzled her most — neither her own senses nor her wild instincts had picked up any trace of the boar when they first arrived.

  "...I did check when we got here. Thoroughly." Bai Fanxian shook her head. By the time she realized something was there, it had already appeared close to the mansion.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  It seemed to have warped in from somewhere else.

  "Wait..."

  The thought made her pause. She glanced at Little Red, who was tilting her small head in confusion, and something else clicked into place.

  This little creature was also from another dimension. Between the Dragon Queen's world and this one, there was still a gate connecting both sides, but it couldn't be opened from this side anymore.

  More importantly, those gates didn't send you to any fixed destination. The exit was random. Those who passed through had no way of knowing where they would end up. When they accidentally fell through, it was almost time to return before they found each other.

  "What do you think?"

  Bai Fanxian laid out her thoughts. The Dragon Queen listened, and her small face grew serious. She turned to look at the boar, a creature she had never once seen in her own world, and slowly concluded that there was a very real chance this thing had come from somewhere else entirely, just as she had.

  "That's my best guess too."

  The Dragon Queen agreed. A power level like this, far beyond anything this world's cultivators could match. There was no way it had been hiding here undetected for long. Someone would have found it by now. And most importantly, neither she nor Master had sensed it at all until the moment it appeared.

  A dimensional breakthrough would explain everything.

  "My lady! I found something strange."

  Huang Zihuan's shout carried up from below. Bai Fanxian leapt down, the Dragon Queen fluttering after her.

  "...What did you find?"

  "Perhaps my lady should see for herself." The butler looked uncertain how to describe it. He led her to where the workers had gathered and cleared a path.

  "...What's this?"

  Before her sat a brownish-red crystal roughly the size of a basketball, faintly glowing. It released a soft light along with a faint but unmistakable pressure. When Bai Fanxian reached out to touch it, she felt resistance from magic power pushing back against her hand.

  "...Could this be a magic core?"

  She murmured it to herself. Magic cores formed when a magic user gathered power at their heart until it condensed into solid form. She had seen something like it from Barbatos once before. But she had never seen one shaped into a complete, freestanding crystal.

  "I thought the same. It still seems to be releasing magic power." Huang Zihuan said. Bai Fanxian wrapped her qi around the brown crystal and lifted it free. The instant it left the boar's flesh and blood, it blazed with sudden brilliance, drawing back all the magic currents that had bled outward.

  When the process ended, it settled into an ordinary-looking crystal releasing a steady, faint pulse of energy. Even someone without cultivation could hold it safely now.

  "I'll take this back and run some tests..." Bai Fanxian stored it away in her dimension. Then she turned and studied Little Red, who was hovering nearby, with such focused attention that the small dragon began to feel oddly uncomfortable.

  "...What is it, Master?"

  "Do you think there's a crystal like this inside you too?"

  .

  .

  .

  Because of the unexpected chaos, Bai Fanxian decided to head back to her beachside house for now. The plan to spend the night on the private island, to look into the "ghost" story Zhou Jingzi had mentioned, was quietly set aside.

  It was fortunate she had been here today. If the boar had appeared when only the caretaker was on the island, it was hard to say how much damage it would have caused before anyone capable of stopping it could arrive.

  "...What is this?"

  Wu Jia, who had not been part of the trip, stared open-mouthed as the wild boar's carcass was brought into the house courtyard. He went over immediately to examine the largest specimen of this animal he had ever seen, prodding and inspecting with obvious interest. But after a while, his expression shifted into a frown.

  "...How strong was this thing when it was alive?"

  "Equivalent to a high-level Sage."

  Bai Fanxian said it simply, standing nearby. Fortunately it was nighttime, and there were few outsiders about.

  "...No wonder."

  Wu Jia murmured, running his hands along the muscles and organs. The density and resistance he felt was dozens of times beyond anything normal. At that kind of power level, it made sense.

  "Look at this." Bai Fanxian produced the magic core and held it out. Wu Jia took it and went still. His Heaven Sense immediately picked up the enormous force compressed within the crystal.

  "I found it inside the boar's body."

  "We don't know what to do with it yet. But aside from the body parts themselves, this crystal is the only thing that looks like it has real value."

  They talked through the possibilities for a few more minutes. When Wu Jia heard her theory about where the boar had come from, he found himself agreeing without much resistance. He had seen things like this himself — why would he doubt it?

  "...Lady Bai, you're really here."

  Before the conversation could go further, Marshal Zhang Xianyuan appeared at the gate. He was already permitted entry, so he passed into the Border freely.

  But he did not look well. His broad frame carried several visible wounds. The qi that had once run stable and solid through him was fractured now, and would need time to recover. Wu Jia set down the crystal and crossed the yard to check on him.

  "...What happened to you?"

  Wu Jia's voice was somewhere between a grumble and a question. Zhang Xianyuan's condition was like someone who'd gone to fight something. He laughed softly and didn't argue. He sat down and let the Divine Doctor work.

  "Had a bit of trouble..."

  "...Does it involve that man?" Bai Fanxian's eyes narrowed. If Barbatos had recovered his memories, he was the most likely candidate to leave the Marshal in this state.

  "No, no."

  Zhang Xianyuan shook his head. His eyes drifted toward the boar's carcass in the middle of the yard, and he spoke quietly.

  "Lucky you were nearby..." he said.

  He didn't seem surprised by the creature's size or the power locked in those muscles. That was because —

  "...Today, three demonic beasts with Grandmaster-level strength appeared without warning. No one knows where they came from. But everyone at the scene said the same thing — they came out of nowhere. Out of empty air."

  That explained the state he was in. And when reports reached him that a large demonic beast had appeared in a similar fashion at the eastern private island, he had come back as fast as he could, not waiting for the follow-up that the beast was already a carcass by the time he arrived.

  "More importantly, I've received reports from other countries. The same thing is happening elsewhere. There are already casualties." The old man let out a slow breath. Countries without dedicated organizations to handle matters like this had taken the hardest hits.

  "...I have no idea what is happening. But if this continues, the very balance of the world will collapse beyond all recovery."