Over in the Jade Forest, morning was just breaking. Arthas was still enjoying Helya's pampering while waiting for Li Li to cook breakfast.
On the other side of Pandaria, however, a major event was unfolding—one of such magnitude that it would alter the current landscape of the continent and reawaken the ancient, terrifying memories of the Pandaren.
The morning mist over Pandaria had never been so thick. Amidst the ridges of the Townlong Steppes, the usual fragrance of grass and nectar was entirely consumed by a heavy stench of rust and char. A pure white, vectorized owl landed on a high branch atop the mountain, preening its feathers with total boredom as its eyes locked onto the battlefield below.
While the distant Vale of Eternal Blossoms still slumbered, this plateau bridging Kun-Lai Summit and the Dread Wastes had already devolved into a living hell. The earth shuddered—not from the thundering migration of the Mantid, but from the heavy grinding of metal against stone, accompanied by the rasping battle cries of Mogu warriors piercing the vermilion gates of the Shado-Pan Monastery.
Lei Shen had been resurrected!
This Mogu Emperor, who had once ruled Pandaria for a millennium, had broken free from the shackles of death within the Throne of Thunder atop Kun-Lai Summit. His entire form was wreathed in crackling purple lightning, and within his hollow golden eyes, there was not a trace of sanity—only an endless craving for conquest and destruction.
Following Lei Shen's original demise, his clansmen had fractured into a disorganized mess, with no one yielding to anyone else as each sought to crown himself leader. They fought each other until their brains spilled out, ultimately proving less capable than the harmonious Pandaren. As a result, they were driven into remote regions to survive, or forced to hide underground, living the ignoble lives of insects.
Now, these Mogu had been conscripted to the Townlong Steppes, massing in the sectors where the Mantid once thrived. The only entity capable of suppressing the Mogu was their Emperor! The Emperor had returned, reborn amidst lightning and the scent of total annihilation!
On the battlefield, Lei Shen hovered in midair, ancient bloodstains still congealed upon his gilded armor. Every single swing of the Lei Shen's Hammer sent a bolt of lightning crashing into the plateau's rock, blasting shards of stone and scorched earth into the sky.
Beneath him, a Mogu army massive enough to drown mountain ranges surged forward. These were the creations and old vanguard he had awakened using ancient, esoteric arts following his resurrection, every step shaking the mountains and rivers.
The Mogu army resembled a moving machine of war. The vanguard consisted of Mogu Rockbound Warriors—creations forged of stone and metal infused with Mogu sorcery. Their physical statures stood over three times taller than an adult Pandaren, their skin composed of dark gray granite with molten, molten-lava-like orange liquid coursing through the fissures.
Their arms ended in razor-sharp stone axes and iron pincers, the blades marred by jagged notches—the indelible scars of countless slaughters. As they advanced, they casually scooped up massive boulders from the roadside, hurling them violently at obstacles ahead. Whether towering ancient trees or fortified stone walls, everything shattered into dust under the impact.
A few Rockbound Warriors were ambushed along the way by Pandaren scouts. Arrows struck their rocky skin, leaving nothing but faint white scratches, which only served to infuriate the constructs. They spun around violently, their pincer-like arms instantly clamping onto the scouts' torsos. Accompanied by the crisp snap of fracturing bones, they tore the Pandaren bodies in half, thick blood dripping down the stone fissures to pool into small crimson puddles on the ground.
Closely following the Rockbound Warriors were the Mogu Lightning Mages.
The bodies of these Mogu, clad in tattered robes, had already become semi-fleshy—half flesh and blood, half stone. The horns atop their heads were broken and incomplete, and their eyes flickered with an eerie blue electricity. After being infused with lightning power by Lei Shen, their lifespans would be drastically shortened, but the trade-off was a multiplicative surge in their raw strength.
They clutched staves embedded with thunder crystals. With every incantation, dozens of thin lightning bolts crackled from the tips of their staves, striking distant targets with pinpoint precision.
A group of Pandaren hunters attempting a flank attack was struck by dense lightning before they could even draw near the army's formation. Their bodies instantly charred black, and after letting out wretched screams, they collapsed to the ground, turning into piles of smoldering ash.
Even more terrifyingly, the Lightning Mages could conjure chain lightning. A single bolt of electricity would connect several Pandaren warriors, the current surging between them, causing their bodies to convulse violently as their weapons slipped from their hands, ultimately stripping them of life in agonizing torment.
The backbone of the army consisted of the Mogu Elite Infantry. These former Mogu braves, resurrected under Lei Shen's esoteric arts, possessed death-gray skin and armor covered in rust, yet the murderous glints in their eyes remained entirely undiminished.
Gripping spears and battle blades, their footsteps fell in perfect unison as they advanced like a tidal wave. Unlike the brute force of the Rockbound Warriors, the Mogu Elite Infantry were more agile and excelled at coordinated warfare. The front rank utilized spears to form a dense phalanx, skewering the chests of charging Pandaren warriors.
The rear rank brandished battle blades, harvesting the lives of wounded enemies who had fallen to the ground. They harbored absolute zero mercy; even when facing elderly Pandaren monks or young apprentices, they would swing their blades without a shred of hesitation. Blood splattered across their armor, only serving to make their offensive even more ferocious.
At the rear of the army loomed massive Mogu War Behemoths. These constructs, spliced together by the Mogu using giant beast skeletons and metal, were the size of small mountains. Their limbs were as thick as stone pillars, and their backs carried giant catapults capable of launching burning boulders thousands of meters away.
Boulders launched by the catapults crashed into the outer walls of the Shado-Pan Monastery, causing the structures to collapse instantly amidst flying debris. Pandaren monks hiding behind the walls were crushed before they could even utter a single cry, buried beneath the heaps of rubble.
The head of each War Behemoth was a massive skull, orange flames burning within the eye sockets. Whenever it opened its maw, it unleashed a scorching pillar of fire, turning whole swaths of Pandaren warriors into char, filling the air with a sickening stench of burnt flesh.
On the plaza before the Shado-Pan Monastery, the Pandaren resistance had entered its most tragic phase.
Warriors of the Shado-Pan, clad in black stealth suits like panthers of the dark night, darted through the Mogu army. The twin daggers in their hands flashed with cold light, plunging precisely into the throats and joints of the Mogu soldiers—the Mogu's weakest points.
The Shado-Pan Grandmaster, Taran Zhu—a Pandaren monk with a grim, resolute countenance—was also the most powerful monk among the known Pandaren existence.
Currently, he was locked in a bitter struggle with one of the strongest Mogu, Weaponmaster Xin. His form was highly agile as he continuously evaded Xin's axe strikes, every swing of his twin daggers leaving a shallow score across Xin's stone skin.
Before Lei Shen's resurrection, Xin had been elected as the Mogu monarch. His ascension was achieved not through interpersonal networking or smooth talking, but entirely by virtue of his formidable combat prowess. The Mogu utilized an extensive array of weaponry, common ones including sabers, spears, swords, staves, and pikes, alongside exotic weapons like meteor hammers and iron whips.
All eighteen classes of weaponry were wielded with absolute fluidity in his hands, as if they were extensions of his own limbs. Single-handedly, he had conquered numerous Mogu clans; with not a single clan proving a match for him, he was exalted as the modern emperor.
Originally, upon receiving the summons, he had treated the news of Lei Shen's resurrection with utter disdain—which naturally implied he would slide from an emperor down to a mere military general. Such a demotion in social hierarchy was entirely unacceptable to him. Driven by a desire to challenge, he arrived at the Isle of Thunder ahead of schedule, intent on challenging Lei Shen to validate his own supremacy!
No one knew the outcome of that battle, nor had anyone seen Xin's corpse. The end result was simply that Xin was infused with lightning power, causing his strength to skyrocket once more, and he became thoroughly submissive and obedient to Lei Shen. Transforming from a challenger into the number-one lackey, he had been utterly conquered by sheer power!
Xin's strength was truly staggering. He slammed his axe into the ground, and the resulting explosion of shattered stone struck Taran Zhu's left arm, blood instantly staining his sleeve crimson.
Taran Zhu let out a muffled groan but did not retreat. Instead, leveraging the cover of the flying debris, he leaped into the air and drove his twin daggers violently into Xin's eye sockets. Xin unleashed a dull roar, attempting to parry with his arm, but it was already too late. The twin daggers pierced through its sockets, orange liquid spouting forth as Xin's torso wobbled, crashing heavily to the ground, entirely devoid of life.
He had never imagined he could fail, so exquisite was his martial artistry. Furthermore, how did the opponent know his weakness lay precisely behind his eyeballs? He was completely unreconciled! He had yet to assist the great Emperor Lei Shen in conquering the entirety of Pandaria; there were far, far too many tasks left undone!
Yet reality would afford him no time. Whether Weaponmaster Xin or Shado-Pan Grandmaster Taran Zhu, both were top-tier martial masters. When masters clashed, the duel was never a drawn-out affair; the more exquisite the technique, the briefer the confrontation. The moment a sliver of a flaw was seized, the opponent's dog of a life would be terminated!
But such a victory was far too minuscule. While Xin's death would certainly dent morale, as long as Lei Shen remained alive, these fanatical Mogu soldiers would never fall back. Xin was merely a general; his death was of no ultimate consequence—as long as the Emperor lived, everything could still be overturned, and hope still remained!
More Mogu soldiers swarmed upward, and the Shado-Pan warriors gradually found themselves surrounded.
A young Shado-Pan apprentice, his dagger's edge already chipped and his body covered in wounds, clamped onto the leg of a Mogu Elite Infantryman with a death grip, refusing to let the enemy advance.
The Mogu infantryman sneered, driving his battle blade violently into the apprentice's back. The apprentice spat out a mouthful of blood but still refused to loosen his grip, until another Mogu soldier's spear pierced through his chest. Only then did he slowly collapse, his eyes staring fixedly at the monastery gates ahead, filled with absolute un-reconciliation.
Taran Zhu looked upon his fallen disciples around him, his heart consumed by grief and despair, yet he knew he could not fall. Within the monastery stood the statues of the August Celestials; behind him were countless defenseless Pandaren civilians. He had to hold this ground. The Shado-Pan had been established precisely to protect the Pandaren; the moment they retreated, the Pandaren of all Pandaria would once again be enslaved by Lei Shen!
This time, in order to combat the Mogu army, even the forces from the Serpent's Spine had been redeployed. Had the Mantid not detected Arthas's arrival and initiated communication beforehand, the war invading the Vale of Eternal Blossoms would likely have continued to repeat itself.
Since the Master had issued a command, the Mantid naturally halted their offensive. The surplus Mantid soldiers would be amassed and transported through portals to southern Silithus to engage in fierce battles against the spreading Ahn'Qiraj Qiraji, consuming their active forces.
It was precisely because of the truce with the Mantid that the Pandaren were able to withdraw their army. Yet they had still retained sufficient defensive forces; now, it appeared the situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse, with a high probability of the defensive line being breached. Once this place fell, along the path to invading the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, there would be very few defensive lines left to hold!
Meanwhile, the monks of the Golden Lotus formed a defensive formation in the center of the plaza. Clad in golden monastic robes, they clutched prayer beads and staves, their mouths chanting ancient blessings.
Golden light radiated from their bodies, forming a massive aegis that withstood the onslaught of the Mogu army.
The leader of the Golden Lotus, Master Zhi—a Pandaren male with a benevolent countenance—stood in the center of the light shield. His hands continuously formed hand seals, and under the reinforcement of his power, the light shield flickered with an even more dazzling brilliance.
But the offensive of the Mogu army was simply too ferocious. The lightning from the Lightning Mages continuously bombarded the shield, and the catapults of the War Behemoths smashed boulders against it, causing the brilliance of the shield to dim gradually as fractures began to splinter across it.
"Hold the line! For Pandaria! For the August Celestials!"
Master Zhi shouted loudly, his voice carrying a trace of a tremor, yet filled with absolute power. The monks of the Golden Lotus responded in succession, infusing their own lifeforce into the shield. Some monks, due to overdrawing their lifeforce, had blood trickling from the corners of their mouths, yet they still refused to halt their chanting.
A young Golden Lotus monk, having excessively overdrawn his power, found his body growing gradually rigid. Ultimately, he collapsed to the ground, his prayer beads scattering across the floor, yet a trace of a smile still lingered at the corner of his mouth. Using his own life, he had bought a brief moment of respite for his companions.
Upon the steps of the monastery, blood had already flowed into rivers. The corpses of the Pandaren were piled together—elderly monks, young warriors, and even some underage apprentices. Mogu soldiers stepped over the Pandaren corpses, advancing upward step by step, their eyes filled with brutality as their weapons swung continuously, harvesting lives.
A Pandaren mother clutched her child tightly, curling into a corner of the steps. Mogu soldiers discovered them, raising a battle blade to cleave downward. At this critical juncture, a Shado-Pan warrior lunged forward violently, pushing the mother and child away, but his own head was cleaved by the blade. Blood splattered across the mother's face; clutching her child, she let out a heart-wrenching wail, but she could only watch helplessly as the warrior's corpse fell.
Taran Zhu's left arm injury grew increasingly severe, blood dripping continuously, and his movements gradually slowed. A Mogu Lightning Mage seized the opportunity, blasting a thick bolt of lightning toward him. Unable to dodge in time, Taran Zhu was struck in the shoulder, his body instantly paralyzed as he collapsed to the ground.
Seeing this, the Mogu Elite Infantry swarmed forward, their spears aimed squarely at his chest. At this perilous moment, a golden beam of light erupted from the monastery, striking the surrounding Mogu soldiers and blasting them away. Master Zhi rushed over, pulling Taran Zhu up, brandishing his staff as a golden light enveloped Taran Zhu's body to heal his wounds.
"Master Zhi, continuing like this is not a solution. Our numbers are dwindling, yet the Mogu army is endless."
Taran Zhu panted heavily, looking down at the multiplying Mogu soldiers below, his eyes filled with absolute anxiety.
Master Zhi nodded, his gaze thoroughly solemn.
"I know, but we cannot give up. The statues of the August Celestials within the monastery must never fall into Lei Shen's hands, otherwise Pandaria will be doomed eternally."
The moment his words fell, a massive pillar of fire erupted from below, striking the edge of the light shield. The shield shattered instantly, and several Golden Lotus monks caught in the fire pillar were turned to ash.
Seizing the opportunity, the Mogu army launched a total assault. Countless spears and battle blades thrust toward the Pandaren warriors. The wretched screams on the plaza, the clashing of weapons, and the roars of the Mogu intermingled, composing a tragic song of absolute despair.