Dusk drew near, and the mountain ridges lay deep in shadow.
The two landed. Within Reed Mountain's bounds, the vegetation was sparse and withered, and the surroundings looked as though something had plowed through them. Pale-yellow streams carried sand and soil downstream through the uneven terrain. Desolation met their eyes wherever they looked.
Zang Yu casually tossed the bandit leader onto the ground. Jiang Yang had placed a restraint on him, and despite several attempts, Zang Yu had been unable to wake him, much less give him any chance to break free on his own. He therefore felt quite at ease.
Jiang Yang swept his sleeve, driving away the filthy water and debris nearby. After clearing a clean patch of ground, he turned and said:
"Senior Brother Zang, regulate your breathing for a while. I'll stand guard."
Zang Yu was utterly exhausted and did not stand on ceremony with Jiang Yang. He nodded.
"All right. Thank you, Brother Jiang. I'll relieve you later."
With that, he popped an elixir into his mouth, closed his eyes, and began regulating his breathing.
Jiang Yang was in much better shape than he was to begin with. He had stopped entirely for Zang Yu's sake, so he did not mind. Shaking his head, he began inspecting their surroundings.
"The vegetation is sparse, the land is barren, and the soil is washing away. This whole place shows the blight of rare earth..."
Jiang Yang looked around. Calculating on his fingers, he found the spirit vigor here quite chaotic. It was not actually a good place to recover, but fortunately, Zang Yu had taken an elixir and did not depend much on the ambient spirit vigor.
"A torrential rain fell a few days ago, too, and it doesn't seem to have been ordinary rain. A Water