Late autumn. An abandoned little town. Withered grass and fallen leaves lay beneath a frost that chilled the ground, the white frost around the well's mouth especially thick.
A large orange-gold shaded cat agilely climbed onto a rotten waterwheel and looked around. Bleak cold autumn, white walls, a stone bridge half collapsed. It was too quiet. There was no wind, and thick clouds blocked out the sun.
Footsteps came from around a corner in town.
Bai Yujun, dressed in a fashionable light-gray hoodie, strolled along at an unhurried pace.
Earphones filled her ears. She listened to music and hummed along as she walked.
Finding the weather too cold, she kept both hands tucked into her pockets and pulled the zipper all the way up to keep out as much cold wind as possible. With her hood up, her casual shoes snapped dry weeds and dead twigs as she followed the Stone Slab Path toward the lotus pond outside town. The lotus leaves had long since withered, broken and tilted at odd angles in a somewhat messy sight.
Bai Yujun had used several abandoned ancient Teleportation Arrays to get here, searching for an old fellow hidden in this place.
The Teleportation Array was buried underground. The buildings above it had changed who knew how many times, and now stood an abandoned Ancestral Hall. Its feng shui could only be called truly excellent; wealthy and powerful families always coveted it. Yet such a fine residence had been abandoned.
Her little nose twitched twice.
She took a deep breath, exhaling white vapor in the autumn chill.
"The spiritual energy is thin and steadily declining. It looks a little like an end-of-Dharma world."
She arrived beside the desolate, still lotus pond.
Fat Head Cat trotted a few steps forward, leaped onto a stone by