The canyon was a gaping wound on the mountainside, its sheer cliffs looking as if they’d been split open by a giant axe, jutting straight up toward the roiling, dark clouds in the sky.

The rain suddenly intensified.

The downpour smashed against the rock walls, kicking up a hazy mist.

On the towering cliffs on both sides, a few black dots struggled through the storm and thick fog—they were a handful of lone birds, flying against the wind.

Far below the birds, a few ancient, gnarled pines clung miraculously to the near-vertical canyon walls.

"There are actually birds here?"

Zhou Mo, who was with the convoy, was a little surprised. They hadn’t seen birds in a long time—or rather, they hadn’t seen any living creatures other than Ghost Objects. Seeing these birds gave them a sense of comfort, a feeling that they weren’t entirely alone in this desolate Wilderness.

"Before we entered the mountains, I saw a lot of trees. Maybe there are some wild boars or something we can hunt for game."

"We could even save the bones to make soup come winter."

"Sounds great."

"..."

Chen Fan didn’t join the conversation. His brow furrowed slightly as he stared, puzzled, at the watery mist rising where the downpour struck the ground.

The Wilderness had a unique way of draining water.

Normally.

A sustained downpour of this magnitude should have caused a flood long ago.

But in the Wilderness, the ground was covered in countless tiny cracks. All the rainwater vanished into them, draining away completely.

It was different here.

After entering the canyon, the cracks were gone. The ground beneath the convoy’s wheels was extremely solid and didn’t look like it could drain water at all. Yet when the rain hit the ground, it simply turned into a mist and vanished.

It was just... gone.

He’d been watching for a while, and there was almost no standing water.

This was a bit unnatural.

Normally, the rainwater should have collected and flowed down the canyon to the sea.

...

After passing through the kilometer-long canyon, they finally reached the village hidden within the mountain.

The area was vast, far wider than the canyon itself.

At this point, the arrival of the eternal night was only moments away.

A golden light had already begun to emerge, enveloping the entire village like an eggshell. Its range was far greater than that of his Level 4 Ghost Fire camp, completely protecting the village of abandoned houses before them.

"..."

Chen Fan stood before the village, looking up at the surrounding cliffs.

They were incredibly steep.

A few ancient pines and other plants grew sparsely on the cliffs. It was like standing at the bottom of a dry well. ’But... he couldn’t shake the feeling that this place resembled something.’

Just then—

Zhou Mo’s voice reached his ears.

"Chief, look."

Zhou Mo had taken a hammer from a crate on one of the vehicles. He walked over to a mound of earth in front of the village, leaped into the air, and brought the hammer down hard. When he lifted the hammer, a large crater was left in the mound.

"Doesn’t this crater look just like the place we’re in?"

"It does."

Chen Fan nodded lightly. He finally realized what this place resembled. It was as if someone had taken a giant hammer and smashed it down from the mountain’s peak, creating a crater.

"Hey, now that you mention it, it really does."

Wang Mazi came closer and squatted down by the mound, looking surprised. "Look, isn’t the crater from the hammer just like where we are now? And the long mark from the handle, that’s the canyon! It makes sense, the canyon is perfectly straight, without a single curve."

"I have to say, a Level 2 Cultivator really packs a punch."

"That one swing of yours cracked the ground all around it."

"That was a powerful swing."

His voice trailed off.

He suddenly thought of something and froze. He subconsciously looked up at the others and found them all silent. No one said a word. Clearly, they had all realized the same thing.

The Wilderness was covered in cracks.

Where the cracks came from was a mystery.

The Wilderness had a rainy season every year and occasional rain at other times; it wasn’t perpetually arid, so drought couldn’t be the cause. And the moment they had stepped into the canyon, the cracks had disappeared.

"Impossible."

After a long silence.

Zhou Mo took a deep breath to suppress the rising panic in his heart, then shook his head firmly. "I’m a Level 2 Cultivator. I know better than anyone how much physical strength a Cultivator gains with each level."

"If someone really could smash a crater into this mountain with a hammer and cause the entire Wilderness to crack..."

"...then they’d have to be at least a Level 100 Cultivator."

"I don’t know where the path of a Cultivator ends, but I’m certain there’s no such thing as Level 100. Even with an infinite supply of Ghost Stones, a human lifespan isn’t long enough to cultivate to Level 100."

"Alright."

Chen Fan spoke up, breaking the tense atmosphere. He stood in the rain and said softly, "If that’s really the case, it’s not so bad, is it? At the very least, it proves the world outside is even more spectacular."

"Wang Mazi, isn’t your dream to see the outside world? This should be right up your alley."

"Besides..."

"This is all just speculation. If this place really is a deep pit smashed out by some powerful expert with a hammer, then the ground here should be incredibly compacted. After all, the original mountain would have been compressed deep into the earth. It wouldn’t crack from a single blow of your hammer."

"That’s true." Zhou Mo scratched the back of his head with a smile, and the atmosphere gradually relaxed.

Big Fish, who was standing behind Zhou Mo, hesitated for a moment before speaking in a faint, soft voice, "That mound of earth... is my father’s grave. I mixed tree sap into the soil when I built it so the downpour wouldn’t wash it away. The ground around the grave is made of the same kind of soil."

"The ground here is very hard. If you’d hit any other spot, you wouldn’t have been able to make a crack."

"Before I left, I gathered fragments of everyone’s clothing and built a grave for them here."

"..."

"..."

The group froze. Zhou Mo was the first to react. He immediately dropped to his knees and knocked his head three times on the ground before the desecrated grave, muttering, "Please don’t be offended, please don’t be offended." Then he frantically began pushing the surrounding soil back into the crater.

"Big Fish... I..."

"It’s okay."

Big Fish shook his head, not seeming to mind. "My father will see that I have a new family that treats me very well. I’m sure he’ll be happy for me. He won’t care about this."

"Alright."

Chen Fan was the first to start walking deeper into the village. "It’s getting dark. Everyone, get a move on. Let’s build a simple camp to get through the night."

Lame Monkey hurriedly picked up a crate from the convoy and followed.

Meanwhile, Wang Mazi, who was at the back of the group, clapped the still-frozen Zhou Mo on the shoulder with a dramatic look on his face, grinning as he teased him.

"I’m no saint. I’ve done plenty of bad things in my time."

"But even at my worst, I’ve never desecrated someone’s ancestral grave right in front of them."

"Nice."

"That was a powerful swing."

Zhou Mo didn’t know how to respond. He looked at Big Fish’s back, who was already starting to work, his face a picture of misery. He was mortified. ’It didn’t even have a tombstone,’ he thought. ’How was I supposed to know it was a grave?’

...

The eternal night fell.

Darkness enveloped the world. The light radiating from the Natural Ghost Fire Zone enveloped the entire village.

The area it covered was quite large.

In the center of the village, a few walls had been erected to form a makeshift fort.

In the silent village, the only sound was the pitter-patter of rain on the ground.

The rain had lessened.

Its sound was no longer urgent and violent, but had become exceedingly peaceful.