The three explored the ruined world for roughly an hour.
As far as they could see, there was nothing but ruins.
"What the hell..."
Black Mountain's initial excitement gradually gave way to silence.
Red Wind likewise could not hide the disappointment in his eyes. How could the legendary Ancestral Court, the sacred ground of the Demon Race at its height, look like this?
It was even messier than Black Mountain's lair on the Mountain of Ten Thousand Silences.
Si Chen said nothing. That sense of wrongness had returned. What exactly was wrong?
"Brother..."
Black Mountain scratched his head. "Should we fly farther out and take a look?"
Si Chen was about to nod when Red Bean suddenly stirred on his shoulder.
The little creature had been perched there quietly all this time, but now, as though sensing something, it flapped its wings and took flight, heading straight southeast.
"Red Bean?" Si Chen called.
Red Bean turned back and chirped twice, then kept flying. Its meaning was clear: follow me.
The human and the two demons exchanged glances and followed.
Red Bean did not fly particularly fast, but it had a clear destination. It skimmed over stretch after stretch of ruins before finally descending toward an inconspicuous mountain hollow.
The hollow was well hidden, surrounded on three sides by collapsed rock faces, with rubble piled mountain-high.
But Red Bean hovered right there, pointing a little claw at a rock.
On closer inspection, there was indeed a gap behind the rock, concealed beneath more rubble and withered vines. Without Red Bean leading the way, they might have flown overhead a hundred times without discovering it.
"Something in there?"
Black Mountain walked forward doubtfully and swept his bear paws a few times, clearing away the rubble and vines blocking the entrance.
Sure enough,