"I don't know."
"There's no need to know."
The man spoke calmly.
"We wait to leave, and we wait to die. At least we're still alive for now, and haven't died in the past."
As he spoke.
Several more photographs on the nearby steles shifted.
Men and women, old and young.
Different faces.
What they shared was their numb, hollow expressions. They did not resemble living people, but rather Vicious Ghosts. The largest stele was a full two stories tall, and its enormous full-body portrait depicted an elegant old man.
When it saw Jiang Qiao looking over, it gave him a slight nod in greeting.
"Stay."
"There's no point going farther in."
Being watched by such eerie photographs would have made anyone else break out in goosebumps and rush to get away.
But Jiang Qiao was not afraid.
Instead, he was overjoyed.
He had never seen such a strange evil entity before. He had to learn more about it today. This clearly involved some secrets of the natives.
"How often does the master of the Living Stele Forest appear?"
"You must know that much, right?"
"Even if I'm going to stay, I need to know when I might die."
"If I can't resist, I should at least be mentally prepared."
Jiang Qiao surveyed his surroundings as he spoke.
His Dual Pupils swept across the area. Farther away, more steles were startled into motion, and the photographs on them awakened, sending their gazes toward this place.
These ghostly things... might not be living people.
But they clearly possessed independent consciousness.
Independent consciousness meant being able to recognize oneself as an individual, possessing logic and the ability to think, and communicating normally with people.
Conversely.
Beings without independent consciousness acted entirely on instinct.
They could not communicate, either.
They were like a