Erasure
At dawn the next day, the morning sunlight filtered through the thin clouds and spilled across the valley, which had been reduced almost entirely to ruins. An eerie quiet hung over it.
Suddenly, a figure shot up from underground. He warily scanned his surroundings, and only after confirming there were no unusual auras did he finally relax.
Just as he let out a sigh of relief, a lazy voice came from behind him. "I told you there wouldn't be anyone here, but you insisted on coming up to check for yourself before you'd feel at ease."
As the words faded, Ling Xiaoxiao yawned and walked up step by step, with Jin Shanshan trailing after her.
"When you're away from home, it's always better to be careful." Bi Fan smiled.
Ling Xiaoxiao couldn't be bothered to entertain his explanation. She snorted. "If not for that watcher, there might really have been people from the Devil Race lying in wait here, waiting for us to come out. But since there wasn't one, there wouldn't be."
"Why?" Jin Shanshan asked curiously. "By rights, the more they realized this place was unusual, the more likely they'd be to send people here!"
Bi Fan smiled and explained, "Even people at the Spirit God Realm couldn't see through this place. There'd be little point in sending a bunch of Spirit Lord Realm cultivators to investigate, so no one came."
"I see." He nodded, suddenly enlightened.
Looking at the two of them, Bi Fan couldn't help but laugh wryly. He'd originally planned to go out and investigate on his own, but Jin Shanshan had clamored to come along, so he'd had no choice but to bring him. What he hadn't expected was that Ling Xiaoxiao would come too.
The three of them reached the center of