The straight-line distance was a hundred li.
But there were no roads in the core of the Magical Beast Mountain Range. He had to skirt the territories of high-level magical beasts, climb steep ridges, and pass through forests so dense that even birds could not fly through them. With all those detours, the journey was at least three times as long.
Loa walked for half a month.
The late-January weather was bitterly cold, and the mountain wind cut like a knife, stinging his face. Dressed in dark gray combat clothes, he carried his pack and held Hidden Abyss as he walked east, step by step.
The closer he came to his destination, the more desolate his surroundings became.
At first, he could still see some cold-resistant shrubs. Later, even the shrubs disappeared, leaving only bare rock. Then the rocks began to change color too-from gray-black to scorched black, and from scorched black to a lifeless, lusterless dark gray.
No grass.
No trees.
Not a single living thing.
Even the wind stopped here.
Loa stopped and looked up.
Three li ahead, a lone mountain stood at the edge of his vision.
It was not tall, perhaps three or four hundred meters. But its shape was strange-it should have been a whole mountain, but it had split down the middle. An enormous fissure ran straight from summit to foot, dividing the entire mountain into left and right halves.
The fissure was wide enough that he could see the sky on the other side.
Sunlight shone through it, casting a straight band of light across the ground.
Loa took a deep breath.
Annihilation Canyon.
This was the place.
He tightened his grip on Hidden Abyss and walked forward.
As he approached, he could see it more clearly.
The mountain consisted entirely of exposed