Shen Luo and Fu Donglai continued out of the city for seven or eight li before a dense forest appeared ahead. Beyond the forest lay rising, undulating mountains.
"Brother Shen, what was going on in the city just now?" Fu Donglai asked doubtfully.
"That tiny city was clearly..." Shen Luo trailed off abruptly.
Fu Donglai waited for quite some time, but Shen Luo never continued. When he turned around, he found Shen Luo studying the map he had bought from that child.
"You aren't really going to follow that map, are you?" Fu Donglai asked in surprise.
Hearing this, Shen Luo raised his head and gazed beyond the forest. In the far distance, towering mountain silhouettes rose up, shrouded beneath layers of clouds and appearing both hazy and mysterious.
"Though this map is crudely drawn, the general directions marked on it are correct. We can give it a try," Shen Luo said with a smile.
"Fine... do as you wish. What do you think about what I asked earlier?" Fu Donglai scratched the back of his head helplessly.
"Brother Fu, you must have noticed it too. A great many cultivators have gathered in that tiny city. That is clearly abnormal," Shen Luo said.
"Indeed. Quite a few people were secretly watching us earlier. Their cultivation did not seem particularly high, but we cannot rule out the possibility of more powerful experts whom we failed to detect," Fu Donglai said.
"Exactly. But they also seemed to be secretly sizing one another up. They do not appear to belong entirely to the same group, which makes this rather strange," Shen Luo said with a nod.
"That is not necessarily a bad thing. At least it means they are not here for us. If they are not targeting us... could they be targeting