"Protector Jiang is back too!"
Atop Jade Emperor Peak.
Tang Ji, who was sitting cross-legged, suddenly spoke.
Wang Ba immediately rose to his feet beside him.
Tang Ji had already swiftly concealed his presence and flown toward the Song Kingdom.
Wang Ba hesitated, glanced at the Nascent Soul Cultivators on Jade Emperor Peak, and felt a little reassured. He carefully set down a third-tier Jade Pendant, then followed.
Before long, he flew past towns, villages... a river, and a mountain range that gleamed azure beneath the sun.
Beyond them lay the territory of a small sect.
The small sect below seemed to notice Wang Ba, and the presences of its cultivators all shrank back in terror.
Its handful of Gold Core cultivators also restrained their presences, brimming with wariness.
Wang Ba swept his gaze over the scene below, a thoughtful look in his eyes.
"The Mountain-Sea Sect..."
He shook his head slightly.
What had once been a towering behemoth now seemed to him no more than a small sect that failed to arouse the slightest interest.
He was not even interested in lingering.
Instead of slowing, he flew faster.
After flying for a while, he soon saw another broad river.
Wang Ba realized that this was the border between the Chen Kingdom and the Song Kingdom.
Without stopping, he swept swiftly over the river.
Yet the moment he crossed the border between the two kingdoms, barren hills filled his vision.
Weeds ran rampant, and scars marred the land everywhere.
As far as he could see, apart from herds of wild beasts, there was not a trace of a living person.
It was as though this were a world abandoned by humanity.
By comparison, the Chen Kingdom, separated from it by only a river, seemed full of human life.
*Had the