The setting sun was as red as blood, using up the last shred of its strength to scatter its afterglow and dye the evening sky in the west a magnificent yet eerie crimson.
The rosy light pierced through the clouds, casting mottled, variegated shadows across heaven and earth. It was dreamlike and illusory, yet carried the bleak desolation of a road at its end.
Su Fan stood atop Ghost Crow and looked up. The Market Town hidden within the valley was shrouded in that rosy light.
It should have been the liveliest time of day, filled with the bustle of human activity, yet it was permeated by an indescribable Dead Silence.
He looked around, his gaze sweeping over the withered yellow grass and trees at the valley's edge and the sparse banners around the Market Town. Then he drew a deep breath.
The evening wind carried the valley's distinctive dampness and slipped into his nostrils.
"Let's go over..."
With that, he raised his hand and patted Ghost Crow's sleek, glossy back, signaling it to find a secure place to land.
Ghost Crow was intelligent. It answered with a shrill cry, circled twice with flapping wings, and then landed steadily in a relatively flat hollow outside the Market Town.
Its sharp claws crushed the thin frost on the ground with faint cracking sounds that were especially clear in the stillness.
Su Fan and Qin Yu landed side by side and slowly walked toward the Market Town deep in the valley.
The Market Town was not large. Built against the mountain, it had only one main street paved with bluestone running from south to north.
Most of the shops on both sides of the street were low stone-and-wood structures. The lanterns hanging beneath the eaves had yet to be lit, while the