Night in a deserted village, ancient houses in ruins, walls collapsed.
Ahead of them, only Commandant Wu Jingtian's official robes remained. The grayish-yellow mist had eaten away his entire body.
To the right, Ye Han lay unconscious on the ground, a small bald patch on top of his head.
Han Anbo and Yu Ping sat together, while Deng He and Zeng Youqian of the Demon-Hunting Office sat together. All four wore numb expressions, staring blankly at Li Qingxian with bewildered eyes.
Li Qingxian grinned and asked, "Still alive?"
The four felt as though a lifetime had passed. They knew only that they had endured a harrowing nightmare, yet could not remember exactly what had happened.
Countless images fluttered through their minds, impossible to grasp.
Han Anbo suddenly pointed ahead and cried out in alarm, "Look!"
Li Qingxian turned to look behind him to one side, and his entire body went cold.
A dozen or so paces away, burial mounds rose and fell in an unbroken stretch.
Withered poles stood upright, tattered funeral banners fluttering.
There were no gravestones, only graves.
A breeze blew, gently stirring the wild grass on the mounds.
The White Building, the Black House, the Fifth Lady Temple, and the ginkgo tree had vanished.
Only the great pagoda tree at the village entrance remained standing.
They were out in the wilderness, yet not a single insect chirped or bird called.
Li Qingxian silently recalled what had happened.
Heaven's Mandate Mountain.
An old man with white hair and beard watched the slowly dissipating sun hanging over the thunder sea. After a brief divination, he thought, *The thunder sea hung upside down, the setting sun rose in reverse, disrupting Fate Observation and Qi Gazing. I have never seen such a phenomenon in my life. Only Ye Han could have