Provoked (1/2)

Old Owl was immensely strong. He hoisted Xu Feng as if swinging a bell hammer into a bell, and Xu Feng's head slammed hard into something above him.

Xu Feng clutched his aching head. But when he looked up, there was nothing there.

It was as though he had hit an invisible wall!

Xu Feng sprawled against the wall. Below him, Old Owl asked, "What happened?"

Xu Feng said, "I think I hit something."

"Did you see what it was?"

"No."

"Then it's fine. Even if you hit something, you've already knocked it dead. Never mind it."

"..."

Old Owl asked, "What do you see?"

"Nothing. Wait! Let me look again!"

The courtyard was even more desolate than the grounds outside. The farther in he looked, the more it felt like peering into an icy cavern.

Moonlight spilled across the space enclosed by the low walls.

But where the moonlight touched the ground, it formed a thin mist that swirled in the wind. Its cold glow seemed both wind and fog. In the entire place, only half a building remained, slumped against the earth.

It stood there alone.

Like a grave mound.

It was nothing like the banquet and the men and women Fa Ming had seen. Xu Feng told Old Owl everything he saw.

Old Owl called him down, picked up the Compass, and walked around the site.

Before long, the three of them found a door in the walls enclosing the square courtyard!

"This is it," Old Owl said.

Xu Feng leaned in for a look.

It was an exceedingly strange door. Small—so small that if Old Owl had not pointed it out, Xu Feng would have mistaken it for a decoration.

It was set high up, with no steps beneath it. It clearly had not been made