Late July, in the three hundredth year of Incense Accumulation.
Before all the preparations were complete, Shu Changsheng, Chi Yingting, and Luo Dao had already set out for the East Sea alongside Luo Jingwei and the others.
The journey spanned a million li, with countless dangers and hardships along the way. Reaching their destination would take at least several months to half a year.
But the Heavenly Court's summons was urgent. They could hardly sail leisurely over aboard a treasure ship.
Fortunately, the Incense Accumulation Sect already possessed several Mystic Traversal Talismans. Combined with the Translocation Array routes provided by the merchant association, these brought them to their destination, a place called Lijian Mountain, in just over half a month.
Before them stood a sizable city.
This land had clearly been reshaped through divine abilities and spells. Its stone walls rose more than ten zhang high, their iron-blue blocks still retaining traces of earthly baleful energy.
Formation Dao cultivators dressed like construction workers were inscribing Dao patterns and restrictions into the walls, then pouring on a special soil rich in earth essence that looked anything but ordinary.
Then they exerted themselves in unison, solidifying it with a divine ability that turned mud into stone.
Elsewhere, holes of every size riddled the walls. Large quantities of skeletal remains were being cleared from collapsed sections and breaches-all grotesquely misshapen demonic corpses.
People were carrying those corpses to a vast cremation ground in the distance. Black smoke could be seen billowing from afar.
The acrid smell of scorched bones drifted over, mingled with blood, rotting corpses, and a strange, indescribable odor. The entire sky was gray, as though shrouded in a haze that would never disperse.
Everyone else hurried about as well, seemingly busy with their own tasks.
Several brocade-clad Core Formation cultivators