In the dead of night, the darkness was as thick as ink splashed across the sky, and all under heaven lay utterly silent.
There was neither a bright moon nor twinkling stars tonight. Heavy black clouds, like cotton wads soaked in ink, pressed against the horizon. The entire world was wrapped in suffocating oppression, and even breathing carried a dull, agonizing weight.
Just then, a rift suddenly tore open deep within the clouds, and a massive Demonic Bird with a wingspan of dozens of yards emerged, spreading its bone wings.
Wrapped in howling, sinister winds, it swooped down and landed steadily in a relatively flat mountain hollow.
Su Fan leaped from the broad back of the Ghost Crow. With a flash of spiritual light at his fingertips, he stored it in his Portable Secret Realm, then lifted his eyes and surveyed the surroundings.
His gaze suddenly sharpened. His Spiritual Sense spread out like a tide, taking in the mountains, rivers, grasses, trees, insect cries, and beast roars across more than a thousand li.
Only after confirming that there were no suspicious cultivators nearby did his tense shoulders relax slightly.
The next moment, he activated Mist Body, and his form transformed on the spot into a wisp of mist as thin as a cicada's wing.
The thin mist slid silently along the ground, drifting toward the direction of the Blood Robe Tower's headquarters.
Perhaps the cover of night had served him well. Su Fan encountered no obstacles along the way and smoothly reached the outskirts of the marketplace.
In a dense forest, he restored his human form, raised a hand to part the branches before him, and gazed into the distance.
Under the pitch-black night sky, a sparse scatter of lights swayed in the wind in the distance. That was the