"Young master, is this where the Dao Sect is?"
In a ruined city, only a handful of people remained, a few walking numbly among the broken walls and crumbling buildings that filled the eye.
Shattered wreckage lay everywhere, and the stench of blood filled the city.
Holding the little girl's hand, Su Mo slowly entered the city with Master Hui Kong.
Hearing the little girl's question, Su Mo slowly nodded. "This is a city at the foot of the Dao Sect's mountain."
"Why is it so run-down?" the little girl asked again, looking at the city before her.
"Because of desire." Su Mo did not know how to explain the details to the girl. Turning to Master Hui Kong beside him, he asked, "Master, what are your thoughts after this journey?"
Su Mo had brought the little girl and Master Hui Kong all the way from Thousand Absolutes Peak to the foot of Dao Xuan Mountain. Wherever they went, they stopped briefly to look at the Sea of Bitterness Master Hui Kong had spoken of. Though their journey had been uneventful, the closer they came to Dao Xuan Mountain, the fewer people they found in the cities.
It seemed that, to escape disaster, those near Dao Xuan Mountain had moved away with their entire households.
The land beneath Dao Xuan Mountain had now become a stretch of ruins. The world had yet to descend into complete chaos only because it was still waiting for the cultivators from outside to descend with their entire clans.
The world was brewing a stillness on the eve of great upheaval.
"Amitabha..." Master Hui Kong pressed his palms together. Looking at the city, changed beyond recognition, a trace of sorrow seemed to cross his face. "All conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows,