Su Fan slowly rose from the cold bluestone ground, his joints giving off faint clicks.
The bamboo fragrance of the Thatched Cottage still lingered in his nose. In the ten years since he had secluded himself in this valley to cultivate, this was the first time he had stepped out of the humble yet peaceful Thatched Cottage.
His fingertips brushed over the thin frost that had formed on the doorframe, and a trace of imperceptible daze passed through his heart.
The passage of time in the outside world was ultimately worlds apart from the Dead Silence of secluded cultivation.
Yet this daze vanished in the blink of an eye, replaced by bone-chilling cold and ferocity.
Beyond the Thatched Cottage, the serene valley of verdant mountains and clear waters from his memories was long gone. The world was shrouded in Evil Spirit Qi, thick as ink, forming a surging, ceaseless Evil Spirit Domain.
Dim, blood-colored light pierced through the layers of air, dyeing the entire valley a bizarre dark red. The wind carried the shrieks and stench unique to evil creatures; the moment they drilled into his nostrils, they made his mind waver slightly.
All kinds of evil and grotesque creatures darted about and lurked among the woods, in the cracks between stones, and along the stream. Those with blue faces and fangs tore at the void.
Shade Souls with ridged bones drifted through the low air, while sticky tentacles bored out of the soil. They had nearly filled every corner of the valley, as if they meant to drag this land completely into an abyss of eternal ruin.
Had Su Fan not deployed a ninth-order Defensive Array around the valley long ago, this vast stretch of mountain forest would already have been corroded by Evil Spirit Qi until not a