Bidding farewell to the ravaged village, the group once again set out for Heaven Dou City.
Yet the atmosphere along the way was utterly different from before.
On their previous journeys, even when everyone was tired, they would tease one another, laugh, horse around, and chat. The group had always brimmed with life and energy.
But after that bloody struggle between life and death, after witnessing the inhuman slaughter committed by Evil Soul Masters and the village's hellish devastation, a heavy pall weighed on every heart.
They traveled onward without a word.
The boys and girls of the Sun Never Sets Team walked with their heads lowered, unusually quiet, an unshakable gloom and gravity hanging over their faces.
The bloody scenes of killing enemies with their own hands, the shriveled corpses strewn across the village entrance, and the villagers weeping in despair replayed in their minds again and again, battering their still-immature spirits.
Though the battle was over and every villain had been slain, the cold cruelty born of humanity's darkness still shrouded their hearts, refusing to fade.
Their pace was steady but subdued. The wind howling across the wilderness only made the whole group seem quieter.
Mo Yuan saw it all. He knew that these children had truly confronted the world's darkest evil and stained their hands with blood for the first time; their minds were bound to suffer a tremendous shock. Bottling everything up would only hinder their cultivation. If fear and confusion took root in their hearts, they would become inner demons on the path ahead.
He slowed his steps to walk alongside them and broke the silence, speaking in a low voice to answer their doubts, offer guidance, and untangle the gloom in their hearts.
"I know you feel weighed down and unsettled right now, perhaps