It was a dead zone, like a void.
"Rest while you can, Ling'er," Ji'an murmured, her eyes scanning the shadows flitting between the rotting houses. "We are not staying here a second longer than we have to. As soon as the sun rises, we are leaving this place, even if I have to carry you all the way to the exit portal."
Because Lin Ji'an knew one universal truth about cultivation worlds: Villages that beasts refused to enter were never safe.
They were just hiding something far, far worse.
***
The decision to stay in the deserted, fog-choked village was not made lightly.
If Lin Ji'an had her way, she would have strapped Princess Zhao Ling'er to her back, thrown Tang Bo over her shoulder like a sack of rice, and sprinted until her legs gave out just to escape the oppressive, dead energy of the place.
But reality in the cultivation world was rarely so accommodating.
As the adrenaline of the Mountain-Crag Turtle chase faded, the physical toll on the squad became glaringly obvious.
