“Li, today we visited the city and saw the ruins of a battlefield from thousands of years ago!”
Guan Xiaoshun shared today’s itinerary with Li Muyang, his eyebrows animated with excitement.
“There is a broken bridge in the center of the city, and the ground beneath the bridge is split, revealing a gorge a kilometer long, said to have been cut by a Sword Immortal during the Ancient Times.”
“When we approached that gorge, we could faintly feel the intense Sword Qi of the Path of Immortality, peerless and awe-inspiring, deterring us from getting too close.”
“A sword fell, and the Sword Qi remains undispersed after a thousand years, truly astonishing.”
“The cultivators from the mythical age of the Ancient Times were really formidable!”
“If only we had been born in the Ancient Era.”
Guan Xiaoshun marveled, his eyes filled with longing.
In this current Dharma-Ending Age, where True Immortals have vanished and the long-lived ones have perished, the Ancient Times from thousands of years ago shine brilliantly for today’s cultivators.
It is said that in that era, True Immortals walked the earth, Demigods established kingdoms in the skies, and divine spirits herded souls in the wilderness… Various legends, bizarre and mysterious.
All cultivators of this era yearn for that mythical age where the path to longevity was not yet severed.
However, Li Muyang glanced at this excited border-city youth and shook his head.
“We small fries, if put back thousands of years ago, upon encountering those city-overthrowing Sword Immortals, would have to run even faster.”
The Mythical Age indeed glittered, but it was the gleaming era of the leading figures, the favored children of heaven.
Common folks back in that era would only suffer even more.
Inside Nanjiang City, Lady Jade Immortal perished, and three forces are in conflict.
Cultivators of the Human Race, Demon Kings, and half-demon generals…each harboring their own sinister motives.
But the majority of the mere mortals in the city, they don’t even have the standing to be involved in this deadly game; they’re just part of a cold string of death figures in the aftermath of the chaos.
Li Muyang truly didn’t want to go back to that mythical age.
Not to mention that current signs indicate that the Mythical Age was even more dangerous than imagined.
Lady Jade Immortal established a Nanjiang City to shelter living beings, and even though the demons within the city hold deep resentment, they dare not leave easily.
Leaders of the Demon Kings like Red Flame King want to leave but must steal treasures for self-protection and cannot leave the city lightly.
—In the wilderness of that era, who knows what dangers lurked.
This remark, filled with the pessimism of a disheartened adult, left Guan Xiaoshun stunned.
The youth scratched his head and said, “Li is more thorough in his thinking. If we demon cultivators went back to the Ancient Times, facing a Sword Immortal would indeed lead to quicker deaths.”
Guan Xiaoshun gave an awkward smile.
Li Muyang rolled his eyes, “Stop thinking about that nonsense. Let’s finish our meal and get to work.”
These Outer Sect Disciples, having just arrived in Demon Sword City that day, were immediately assigned a job to do.
There was simply no time to rest.
But as Outer Sect Disciples of the Refinement Demon Sect, one must obey the orders.
Even if the task assigned was absurd as having these Outer Sect Disciples search the city for a lost pet dog…
“What kind of precious dog requires so many of us to search for it overnight?”
Under the dark night sky, Guan Xiaoshun and Li Muyang walked side by side in the empty alleys of Demon Sword City, grumbling softly.
This night of searching for the dog wasn’t just these Outer Sect Disciples from the Refinement Demon Sect, but also the city’s garrison forces and cultivators from the City Lord’s mansion.
Nearly all the low-ranking cultivators that could be mobilized in the city were sent out to find the missing dog.
Unfortunately, Demon Sword City was too large, and the cultivators stationed in the city were too few; so many cultivators scattered in the vast Demon Sword City were almost like a drop in the ocean.
Li Muyang was on alert, looking around cautiously, “Be careful. Finding the dog is secondary; keeping our lives is what’s most important.”
According to a local named Liu mentioned earlier, Ancient Times’ resentful spirits wandered in Demon Sword City, often soul-snatching in the darkness.
Thus, the mortals of Demon Sword City do not venture out at night.
Those who came out to search for the dog were all cultivators.
And they paired up in twos, watching over each other, precisely to avoid falling victim to the resentful spirits.
Li Muyang wasn’t keen on finding the dog and didn’t expect a reward from the City Lord’s mansion.
But his own life, he had to be careful with.
This wasn’t a game where one could reload after dying…
Li Muyang, holding a lantern, scanned the surroundings with vigilant eyes.
The area he and Guan Xiaoshun were assigned to search had no human inhabitants.
A vast city block, eerily quiet and deserted.
In those ancient houses that had been vacant for thousands of years, everything was frozen in time at the moment the Demon Sword City was destroyed thousands of years ago.
When Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun pushed open the door, they could even see food still left on the dining table, untouched.
This meal, like other objects in the city, had been frozen in time thousands of years ago.
An invisible force preserved them, preventing any decay.
Guan Xiaoshun tried to move the chopsticks on the table but found them as if welded in place, completely immovable.
Guan Xiaoshun exclaimed,
“What a magical city, the time here is indeed fixed thousands of years in the past.”
Even the food on the table still appeared fresh, as if the homeowner had just left.
Li Muyang shook his head, “Let’s go out, this room gives me the creeps.”
He instinctively resisted entering such houses.
As someone who was afraid of ghosts, seeing such desolate, abandoned houses nearly triggered his PTSD.
In countless horror movies and novels, it’s always from such places that spirits emerge.
Fortunately, although the house was creepy, Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun left safely without encountering any danger.
No vengeful spirits jumped out from the shadows.
After they safely left the courtyard, Li Muyang breathed a sigh of relief.
“Let’s just search around casually, let’s not randomly enter houses anymore.”
The fact that there were vengeful spirits wandering in the shadows of this city was incredibly terrifying for Li Muyang.
Guan Xiaoshun also nodded with shared sentiment, “Li’s right, there’s something eerie about this city.”
The great streets and houses remained exactly as they had been thousands of years ago.
At night, the stillness was so palpable, they could nearly hear each other’s breathing.
It was like a setup for ghost stories.
Even though Guan Xiaoshun had a bit more courage, he was still feeling edgy at this moment.
The two, side by side, walked down the deserted streets, planning to sloppily finish up and then go back to report they found nothing.
But they had not gone far when suddenly, a sinister, eerie howl came from the shadows of the street ahead.
The howling was fine and fragmented, like that of a rat.
Yet, the noise was much larger than that of a rat.
Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun were instantly alarmed and immediately took a defensive stance.
But from the shadows of the street, there emerged a giant rat enveloped in black mist, its form translucent, roaring as it rushed towards Li Muyang and Guan Xiaoshun.
The giant rat had ghastly green ghost flames burning all over it.
A ferocious giant rat… burning with flames all over.
This scene looked eerily familiar.
Li Muyang’s eyes bulged in an instant.
Is this the ghost of the Red Flame King?
I’ve never faced him in the game, and now I’m encountering his ghost in reality?!
Shit!
Without another word, Li Muyang grabbed Guan Xiaoshun and turned to run.