The air was heavy. Standing before these stone statues, a person looked no bigger than a bug.
"They... used to be alive." Ji Chen sensed the lingering aura deep within the statues, the kind left by beings utterly suppressed and killed.
"This is where the immortals live?" Zhou Xuan asked.
A Gu shuddered and nodded. "This is the place recorded in the high priest's notes. They said the immortals lived beneath the feet of giant gods."
The three stepped into the edge of the stone forest.
A vast shadow lay beneath a petrified giant that held a massive axe, poised to cleave the heavens.
Several squat stone huts had been built against the rocks.
Figures moved about, clad in ragged hides, thin as skeletons.
As Zhou Xuan stepped into the shadow.
An old man emerged from behind a thick, petrified toe ahead.
He was as old as old could be. His face was scored with ravines, his skin clung to his bones, and he leaned on a deathly white bone staff.
He did not look at Ji Chen or the terrified A Gu.
Those cloudy, hollow eyes fixed on Zhou Xuan.
No cultivation fluctuations emanated from the old man, but his aura carried exactly the same rotten, stagnant quality as the Temporal Dust Domain.
"Outsiders."
The old man spoke. His voice was hoarse and dry, scraping against their ears.
"On you..."
He slammed his bone staff against the ground.
"I smell grave robbers."
The temperature around them dropped.
The gaunt figures nearby all stopped and turned their heads in unison. Pairs of lifeless eyes stared straight at them.
Zhou Xuan did not draw his blade.
He stood where he was, the power of nothingness quietly gathering at his fingertips as his gaze chilled.
"Whose grave?" Zhou Xuan asked.
The moment