Zhou Yan gripped his saber and slipped into Black Pine Forest.
The light in the forest was even dimmer. Layers of canopy pressed over one another, sealing the sky completely.
The stench of raw meat grew heavier and heavier, mixed with the reek of rot and urine, so oppressive it was hard to breathe.
After walking for roughly half an incense stick's time, he slowed and gently used the tip of his saber to part the pine branches before him.
The cave the villagers had spoken of lay ahead.
When he looked up, Zhou Yan's hand holding the saber trembled slightly.
Though he had already witnessed so many horrific sights along the way, the scene before him still filled him with rage.
A crooked old tree stood at the cave entrance, several dried corpses hanging from its branches. They had shriveled into tiny human shapes, swaying gently in the wind. Some were missing arms, some were missing legs, and judging by its size, the corpse at the very edge had been a young child.
Beneath the tree stood a bluestone platform, its surface sunken with a groove filled with black blood.
The grass beside the platform had been soaked black with blood, and half a human arm still hung from a nearby bush.
A heap of pale bones was piled before the cave entrance, scattered all over the ground. Several skulls lay in the grass, their eye sockets crawling with ants and maggots.
Farther away, more than twenty people were penned inside a circle of wooden fencing.
Men and women, old and young—they were all gaunt beyond recognition, curled up on the ground like livestock in a pen.
One woman held a child in her arms. The child's eyes were open, but it did not move. It had clearly been