Looking at the mausoleum before him, which had clearly stood for many years, Lu Xiaotian felt a pang of melancholy. Even City Lord Ye, who had reached such a lofty realm and was among the rare few in this world, had still met the same end as all things: dust returning to dust, earth to earth. If Lu Xiaotian failed to transcend mortality and ascend to immortality, he would live only ten thousand years longer than City Lord Ye. In the end, none could escape the ravages of time.
Time was a knife, each stroke hastening one's age. Perhaps City Lord Ye had realized this long ago, and that was why he had sacrificed himself to save Ye Ziyu.
Lu Xiaotian stood silently beside the mausoleum, simply waiting for Ye Ziyu to vent her grief.
Only after a long while did Ye Ziyu finally compose herself. With a devout expression, she took out the ancient wooden box containing City Lord Ye's ashes. The instant the box appeared, Lu Xiaotian's eyes snapped open. His divine sense had detected no trace of any demon nearby—not even beneath the Moon Spring surrounding this solitary peak, which should have been within his perception.
Yet now, patches of green had appeared in the spring water around them and even on the nearby mountainside. They spread and bloomed into clusters of emerald lotus leaves.
In scarcely a moment, overlapping layers of green lotus leaves filled his view.
"Retreat!" A chill ran down Lu Xiaotian's spine. If some formation or entity could conceal itself from his senses until the moment it struck, it was undoubtedly beyond anything he could handle at his current level. He couldn't even guess what it might do next.
Ye Ziyu froze. She still hadn't noticed anything unusual, much less sensed the danger