Vegetation was sparse, and wild beasts had vanished.
Countless ordinary living creatures had been caught in the cultivators' war and reduced to ash.
Here and there, animal remains could still be seen in inconspicuous corners.
The natural environment had been forcibly altered, and creatures at the bottom of the food chain had no choice but to leave their homes to survive.
The law of the jungle, where the strong devoured the weak and only the fittest survived, was laid bare in all its brutality!
On this "cleansed" stretch of land, camps made up of rows of wooden huts had taken root. There were five large camps in total, occupying the five corners of the Cleared Land.
The wooden huts stood two to three zhang apart. Those farther out were smaller and more rudimentary, while those farther in were larger and more splendid.
The great hall at the center of each camp occupied the most space, roughly ten zhang across, and was also the most imposing and magnificent.
A large banner bearing the emblem of the respective sect flew from its roof.
Walls of different colors and designs, inscribed with all manner of runes, enclosed the wooden huts. Powerful formations were also active, forming faint barriers of light around the walls.
Each had become a small fortified city!
Teams of allied cultivators, their expressions resolute and cold, repeatedly patrolled the camps. Anyone acting suspiciously might well have their blood spilled on the spot.
Although the camps did not quite have a sentry every three paces and a guard post every ten, they were not far from it. With the cultivators' divine sense, there would be no blind spots.
The five camps shared much the same overall layout, differing only in their details, and stood at least ten li apart.
The banner