Old trees and cold crows, mist shrouded all around. The sky seemed to hang upside down, a pitch-black weight pressing over Lishou Mountain. High above, the full moon cast its radiance everywhere, yet within the vast expanse of Lishou Mountain, the moonlight was still dim and the starlight faint.
With such an environment, compounded by peril lurking at every step, Gan Mingfeng's group moved exceedingly slowly. Calling their progress arduous would not have been much of an exaggeration.
Moreover, after every stretch of the journey, they had to stop and let Gan Mingfeng compare the route and retrace his memories, lest they take a wrong turn and become lost in the mountain forests.
Only after ensuring there were no oversights did they continue onward.
Yet this journey, which should have been difficult and dangerous, felt unexpectedly easy to Xu Tingyun, Min Tao, Wu Chen, and Peng Haibing.
Yes—easy. There was no pressure whatsoever, no danger at all.
The venomous insects, the ferocious beasts, the poisonous miasma, even the assaults of Yin Qi and Killing Intent—not a single one appeared.
Instead, it was as safe as walking down a county town's main road, an eerie incongruity amid such an environment.
Yes, they admitted that following Gan Mingfeng along the route he had once taken out of the mountains would surely allow them to avoid many dangerous areas when entering again. It might even make the journey into the mountains easier. They had expected that much beforehand, or they would not have sought out Gan Mingfeng.
But surely they could not encounter no trouble at all?
Yet reality was precisely so. They kept a cautious watch in every direction, protecting Gan Mingfeng and that thickheaded youth called Little Meng in the middle, ready to strike at any moment, but they never found