Snow flurries lingered, stopping and starting.
Jiang Jingnian rode a chestnut horse along the imperial highway at an unhurried pace.
He wore a moon-white robe beneath a windproof brown cloak, with a longsword hanging at his waist. He looked like an ordinary swordsman setting out on a long journey.
The horse's hooves struck the muddy road with dull thuds.
After leaving Cloudpool Cliff, Jiang Jingnian had traveled steadily toward Lin'an.
The scenery along the way was considerably more desolate than he had expected.
Most roadside villages stood deserted, their fields abandoned. Occasionally, he saw rotting corpses lying in roadside ditches, giving off waves of foul stench.
In the larger cities, regional domain-level factions could still suppress the demonic calamity.
But in the more remote county seats and small towns...
Things were harder.
Upon reaching the edge of a forest, Jiang Jingnian reined in his horse.
He narrowed his eyes slightly, sweeping his gaze across the dark woods ahead.
The woods were unnaturally quiet, without even a single birdcall. Only the wind rustling through the leaves broke the silence.
A faint bloody odor hung in the air, so subtle that anyone without keen senses would have failed to notice it.
Jiang Jingnian dismounted and patted the horse's neck, signaling for it to stay put.
Then he walked into the woods alone.
He had barely taken a dozen steps when rustling came from within the trees.
More than a dozen figures suddenly sprang out from behind trees and bushes, surrounding him.
Their leader was a bald, burly man carrying a bloodstained demon-headed saber. He looked Jiang Jingnian up and down. "Well, well! Another youngster coming to his death."
"Boy, you're dressed up pretty nicely. You must have plenty of valuables on you, eh? Hand them over quietly. If we're in a good