The youth glanced at the mountains beneath the red sky, his gaze distant.
"What else? Would any cultivators other than them come to save us?"
Yang Guo was somewhat surprised. Even if ordinary mortals knew about cultivators, they generally would not know much about them. Yet the youth before her seemed to know a great deal.
The youth turned his gaze back to Yang Guo. Seeing that she remained silent for so long, he seemed to realize something, and his voice rose a notch. "Don't tell me you really are a cultivator from another sect."
"I'm from the Azure Tide Sect."
Understanding dawned on the youth. "No wonder. With everyone barely able to look after their own these days, I suppose only disciples of your Azure Tide Sect still have the strength to venture outside."
Yang Guo looked around. "How long have things been like this here?"
The youth asked in surprise, "You're a disciple of the Azure Tide Sect, and you don't know that? Even if your sect is powerful, those ugly things must have attacked it too!
"As far as I remember, the Azure Tide Sect doesn't have any idiots..."
The youth scrutinized Yang Guo suspiciously, seemingly beginning to doubt her identity.
Yang Guo did not know whether to laugh or cry. "I wasn't at the sect when it was attacked..."
The youth nodded thoughtfully. "If you hadn't been able to enter the town through the formation, I'd really have to wonder whether there was a human or a ghost beneath that skin of yours."
"But if you were in some sealed-off secret realm at the time, that would explain it.
"The first blow to the Azure Mist Continent struck everywhere at once. Almost every sect suffered a large-scale attack at practically the same time. From then on,