The sight before them utterly shattered the last shred of hope everyone had been clinging to.
Yangyang Village, where they had expected to rest and replenish their supplies, had been reduced to a silent expanse of blackened earth and grotesque caves.
After a brief dead silence, panic and suspicion spread through the group like a plague.
"Where's the village?! Old Zhou, what kind of hellhole did you bring us to?!"
"Did you take the wrong road? Or have you been playing us from the start?!"
"It's clearly marked here on the map! How can there be nothing?!"
Several hot-tempered adventurers who had never thought much of Old Zhou immediately turned their hostility toward the short guide.
The exhaustion of their long journey, the torment of the Gray Garlic, the fright of traveling through the night among the undead, and the disappointment of their failed destination had pushed their emotions to the brink.
Old Zhou's face flushed red. Anxious and furious, he pointed at the surrounding terrain and the worn but accurate map in his hand, defending himself in a hoarse voice.
"It's here! The third slope west of Xianchi, five li north of Kuquan Eye! Look at the map yourselves! I, Old Zhou, have guided people through this land for decades and never made a mistake! I even brought hunters here last month—the village was still here! Something must have... something must have happened in the past couple of days!"
He Yu looked at the endlessly arguing crowd, then at the barren scorched ground before her. Her eyes reddened further as she helplessly looked toward Mo Fan and Fu Ye.
Mo Fan frowned, carefully comparing the map with the surroundings and checking the landmarks Old Zhou had indicated before speaking in a low voice.
"Judging from the terrain and the