Hunter saw it and stopped breathing.
The path ahead narrowed to a bottleneck. Stone walls twenty feet high, closing in like teeth. Wide enough for maybe three people walking shoulder to shoulder. The kind of place where "retreat" became a fantasy and "tactical advantage" meant absolutely nothing.
Every horror movie he'd ever watched started with a setup like this.
Rocky defile. Natural chokepoint. Perfect ambush terrain. His Foundation Realm instincts screamed this was bad. This was a trap. This was exactly where you didn't want to be.
And his spiritual sense couldn't penetrate it properly. The corruption in the air was too thick. Like trying to see through muddy water. Any qi signatures inside would be masked. Hidden.
Perfect place for an ambush by people who wanted to stay hidden.
"We could go around," he said. Knowing the answer.
Han's jaw tightened. "Half a day. Maybe more. And the forest..."
The forest that felt like walking through an open grave. Yeah. That forest.
