For three days, Zu Tian and the others traveled across the shifting lands of the Scarlet Gorge, guided by the faintly glowing runes of the ancient map they had uncovered. The terrain grew stranger with each passing hour — the trees twisted in unnatural arcs, the soil pulsed with lingering ancient qi, and patches of crimson fog drifted across the path like silent warnings.
None were nearly as powerful as the Root-Forged Guardian, but the battles left their marks.
Bai Kuan's sleeve was torn and his shoulder bruised purple.
Yen Mo's sword now had three shallow chips along the edge.
Li Xueyao's breathing grew faint whenever she used too much flame qi.
Zu Tian remained steady — but even he felt the weight of the gorge pressing on them.
And all the while, the broken sword occasionally pulsed… as if sensing distant echoes.
By the fourth day, the red fog parted.
A valley opened before them — silent, unmoving, breathless.
And in the center of that valley stood a city.
A city no record had ever mentioned.
A city no explorer had ever returned to speak of.
A city lost to time.
"We… we're not mistaken, right?" Yen Mo whispered.
His voice trembled just slightly.
"No," Li Xueyao said, eyes wide. "This… this wasn't on any map. Not even in the oldest scrolls."
Even the usually loud Bai Kuan fell silent.
In front of them rose tattered stone walls, half-crumbled towers, and broken gates that leaned as if exhausted by centuries. Every structure was draped in gray dust so thick it seemed woven into the stone itself. No vines grew here. No moss. No life at all.
It was as if the city had been struck by some cataclysmic force… and then frozen in time.
The air around it was unnervingly still.
Zu Tian stepped forward, frowning.
"This place…" he said softly, "it feels wrong."
There were no signs of weathering — no erosion, no wind marks, no claw scars from beasts. Instead, it was as if everything had simply stopped on the same day, the same hour, the same instant.
"Could it be from the Era of Falling Stars?" Yen Mo guessed."That old?" Bai Kuan barked. "That era was thousands of years ago!"
"No." Li Xueyao shook her head slowly. "Look at the architecture… the formation grooves… these lines are older than that. This city wasn't destroyed —"
She paused.
"It was sealed. Completely sealed in time."
Zu Tian narrowed his eyes.
"Or erased."
A quiet shiver passed through the group.
They stepped through the fallen gate.
Each footfall sent small clouds of ancient dust swirling, revealing the ground beneath: polished black stone, cracked but still holding faint traces of glowing runes. The streets were wide, built for grand processions.
Collapsed market stalls lay turned over, as though abandoned mid-commerce.Half-burned lanterns dangled from skeletal beams.Stone statues of unknown cultivators stood broken, faces weathered away.
In the center of the city square stood the remnants of a massive tower.Lightning-shaped cracks ran down its sides — unnatural, jagged, almost alive.
"It feels like a disaster froze this whole place," Yen Mo murmured, staring at a toppled building. "Like one moment everything was normal, and the next… catastrophe."
Li Xueyao knelt beside a shattered pillar and brushed its surface.
"There are flame scorch marks… but they're not from normal fire. They're from qi fire. High level."
Zu Tian walked quietly toward a series of deeper gouges in the stone — slashes large enough to bisect a horse.
"These came from a weapon," he said. "A divine weapon level strike."
"But then why is everything still?" Bai Kuan asked. "What kind of power could freeze a whole city in the moment of its destruction?"
No one had an answer.
But as always… someone — or something — was listening.
Far above, on the ledge of a broken tower, a figure crouched silently.
A figure without skin.A skeleton wrapped in tattered dark cloth.Its hollow eye sockets glowed faintly purple.
The Soul-Snatching Beast.
It made no sound.No breath.No presence.
Even the broken sword — which awakened at the faintest ripple of ancient threat — remained calm.
Because this creature had perfected the art of stillness.
For days it had stalked Zu Tian's group.From tree to tree.From shadow to shadow.Never coming too close.Never revealing intent.
Its jawbone moved slightly.
…clack.
A soft sound that twisted through the ruins like a whisper of death.
But no one heard.
Down below, Zu Tian paused… his brows briefly tightening, as though some instinct brushed against his soul.
Then the moment passed.
Unaware of the predator watching with lifeless, hungry patience, he stepped deeper into the lost city's heart.
And the skeleton followed… silently.
Always watching.
Always waiting.
For what?
Even it did not fully know.
But the sword at Zu Tian's waist frightened it.
Terrified it.
Enraged it.
and also hope!