The First Signs of Crisis

The sun sank in the west, and the fiery clouds on the horizon blazed a dazzling red.

The vast land, too, was coated in a rosy glow.

At an unnamed mountain village more than 130 li southeast of Sena City, Ling Yi and his party of over ten stood outside the village, their faces grave.

Though they smelled no blood, the deathly silence put Ji Ze and the others on high alert, as if facing a formidable enemy.

After weighing his options, Ji Ze raised a hand, signaling his teammates to spread out and widen their security perimeter. Then he slowly walked into the deserted mountain village.

Starting with the first thatched cottage, they searched all the way through. Nobody, nobody, still nobody...

In front of a wooden house in the center of the village, Ji Ze listened to his teammates' reports, his expression growing uglier by the moment.

This was the third village they had encountered today. Like the first two, its inhabitants had vanished without a trace. There were no signs of a struggle, but it did not look as though they had left of their own accord, either.

Clearly, the most likely culprits were certain Fallen Soul Masters. After all, neither Soul Beasts nor roving remnants of a defeated army could have left the place so clean and tidy.

After pondering for a moment, Ji Ze cursed under his breath. Then he looked around at his teammates and said gravely, "This patrol mission is suspended for now. We're going back to report what happened here and leave it to our superiors to handle!"

He was thinking of retreating. Fallen Soul Masters, as the name suggested, were Soul Masters who had taken an evil path, beings whom orthodox Soul Masters would not tolerate.

Their defining characteristic was that