Primordial Main World.
The former farmland and pastures were overgrown with weeds and thorny shrubs. Two girls in old coarse-cloth clothes hurried along the road, their sleeves, waists, and trouser legs bound tight in Martial Artist attire convenient for fighting. Feng Ying gripped a straight blade, its scabbard mottled with rust, while the other girl carried a bow, crossbow, and long spear on her back. Since leaving the fishing village, they had been heading toward Sky Pillar Peak.
The wasteland was littered with ruined walls and traces of war. White bones lay everywhere along the weed-choked roads, wild grass sprouting through the hollow sockets of skulls and swaying in the wind. Rotten iron helmets were half-buried in the earth, while broken weapons and arrows, some old and some new, lay scattered everywhere. Rat holes could be seen all around.
The girl named Yu followed the scent of moisture through the ruins. Old walls occasionally appeared amid the waist-high wormwood grass on either side.
The yellow earth on the walls had long since been washed clean by the rain, leaving only the stones used to build them.
Yu waved away tiny flies trying to burrow into her eyes, then lifted her spear and pushed aside the grass, revealing a well mouth hidden beneath. She sighed helplessly. The old well that had once supplied the town with drinking water was filled with debris. There was practically no water to drink.
She turned back and shook her head at Feng Ying.
"We can't drink it."
"Let's look again after we cross the ridge. Maybe we'll find somewhere to rest."
"Mm. Or we can go to a bandit den and get some food."
Yu shook the grass blades from her spear shaft, slung it over her shoulder, and continued onward. Something crunched beneath her