Chapter 214: 214- Mystery girl [1]

Its vast head tilted slightly, ancient eyes burning with a cold, knowing light. "Beasts may be born strong. But humans... humans never stop climbing."

For a moment, Fang Yuan was silent as he took in the truth, plain and simple.

Next, he inclined his head as the faintest trace of a smile touching his lips.

"Thank you... for answering my question, senior."

The tortoise’s massive eyes softened, lids lowering in something almost like approval. "As long as you stay away from my territories, you’re welcome."

Its voice rumbled, ancient and steady. "Go then, human. Carry your climb as far as it can take you."

Fang Yuan clasped his hands and bowed. "And may your mountain stand unshaken."

Then, with a movement that was both ponderous and graceful, the living mountain turned, its sheer bulk carving a new valley through the ancient forest as it cleared the path.

The Saberfangs, still frozen in awe and terror, instinctively fell into step behind their new, immense guardian, their forms dwarfed into insignificance.

This beast is so damn huge and cool!, Fang Yuan thought, a rare, genuine flicker of admiration in his heart as he watched them depart.

There was a raw, ancient majesty to it that human posturing could never replicate.

With a final glance, he also turned and the air before him rippled as he tore open a silent, black void in the space and without looking back, he stepped through.

The world folded and then righted itself.

The scent of pine and ancient earth was replaced by the acrid tang of dust, ash, and despair.

He stood on a low rise, looking down upon what was left of Phungrei City.

It was a portrait of ruin.

The outer walls were scarred with great, claw-marked gouges from the Saberfangs’ rampage.

Whole districts lay in rubble, not yet cleared, let alone rebuilt.

The few buildings still standing were darkened shells, their windows like the empty eye sockets of a skull.

A palpable gloom hung over the city, a miasma of defeat that seemed to stifle even the sound of the wind.

This was not a city in mourning instead it was a an image of a city that had given up.

With a thought, his divine sense swept out, like a vast, invisible net covering every street, every hovel, every half-collapsed manor.

This was the Gu territory, they ruled this city in an ironclad control. But with their patriach and even the patriach’s father, their ancestor in his captive, he expected to see chaos and ruin and their elders in havoc ruin.

He did not.

Instead, he found order. A cold, tense, and desperate order.

The Gu compound at the city’s heart was a hive of grim activity, guards posted with a rigidity that spoke of harsh discipline, not loyalty.

The city’s despair stopped at its gates, replaced by a brittle, fearful efficiency.

And then he found something interesting.

In the main courtyard of the Gu Family estate, there was a faint but unmistakable to his senses, was the peculiar energy signature of a recent teleportation.

The exact same unique resonance he had encountered in the Wu clan courtyard.

A faint, cold smile touched his lips. So, they had settled a new clan head already? And with such... external assistance. How efficient. But that changed nothing. In fact, it only sealed their fate further.

Today, the name Gu would be erased.

He descended from the rise, his footsteps silent on the broken road as he walked toward the main gates of the city.

The guards at the gate were a mirror of the city itself, their armor was dented, their postures slouched.

The arrogant swagger he remembered from his last visit was gone, extinguished.

They didn’t bother to even make their visitors troubled, their eyes glazed over with exhaustion and apathy.

They simply watched him pass, too tired to care about yet another stranger entering their dying world.

The streets were nearly deserted.

Those few citizens who dared to venture out moved with their heads down, their steps quick, as if afraid that lingering too long in the open would attract misfortune.

The air was thick with the silence of a place that has forgotten how to hope.

Crumbled masonry and splintered wood lined the avenues, monuments to a disaster that the city lacked the spirit to clear away.

Fang Yuan walked through it all, an island of calm in a sea of desolation.

His expression was placid, but his eyes were cold, taking in the evidence of his own handiwork and the pathetic response to it.

Fang Yuan decided to take his time. There was no need to rush.

With Lin Zhaoyue managing clan affairs, what trouble could possibly arise? Besides, it wasn’t every day he allowed himself the luxury of a day off.

Hands clasped behind his back, he strolled toward the slums.

The air was heavy with smoke and sour wine, the narrow alleys alive with murmurs and the shuffling of tired feet.

He deliberately suppressed his aura, masking himself as nothing more than a weary traveler. His pace was unhurried, his steps carrying no weight of power.

Even his clothing had shifted subtly, coarse and threadbare, blending seamlessly with the commonfolk.

Not a single eye lingered on him.

He walked until the path opened into a rundown square.

There, amidst broken walls and makeshift shelters, a woman stood.

Her appearance was a jarring contrast to the misery around her.

Draped in silken robes that flowed like rippling water, her attire revealed as much as it concealed, sleeves that fluttered with every motion, fabric that traced her curves before parting scandalously at the legs, and a neckline that seemed almost deliberately careless.

She looked as though she had stepped out of some gaudy painting, a courtesan’s allure painted across every line of her body.

And yet, her hands were gentle.

She knelt down with a calm patience, feeding scraps of bread to ragged children, her long sleeves brushing the dirt as though unbothered by filth.