Creak!
The dawn light was faintly visible, with no clouds for miles.
Underneath the pale red twilight, a black-feathered crow with red eyes spread its wings and swooped down.
Its wings cast shadows as they blocked the sunlight, sweeping over thick city walls and towers, flying through neighborhoods of grey-white buildings, and eventually landing atop a column in a vast square, preening its feathers.
In the center of the square stood a dark red nine-story tower, over a hundred meters tall, its walls engraved with fierce, demonic beast patterns, surrounded by thirty-six thick bronze chains.
By then, the sky had grown gradually brighter.
But the area around the tower was always enveloped in an unwavering layer of dark clouds.
Approaching it, one couldn't help but feel a chill, as if being stared at by countless fierce ghosts, sending shivers down one's spine.
Below the tower, in a low and flat house, an emaciated old man slowly opened his eyes.
The old man was not very tall, barely reaching one meter sixty, dressed in a wide garment similar to a Daoist robe, pitch black in color with two golden dragons embroidered on the forearms of the sleeves.
His waist was hunched, and his body was as lean as kindling.
No matter how powerful he had been in the past, time had left indelible marks on him.
However, starkly different from his frail body were the old man's eyes; not just bright, but like two small suns emitting golden rays, deeply recessed into his sockets. Fine veins of the same pale gold color spread outward, fierce and terrifying, conveying an imposing presence without anger.
In the darkness beside the old man was another person, a burly and strong middle-aged man.
This man was over two meters tall, with explosive muscles evident underneath the coarse white cloth shorts, and his bare arms were crisscrossed with scars from countless brutal battles.
"Damn bunch of bastards!"
The middle-aged man's face was filled with rage as he cursed, "These greedy wolves and leopards, truly insatiable and utterly despotic. This Demon Suppression Tower was fought for by our Demon Suppression ancestors who gave their heads and spilled their blood. How could we let them reach their hands into it!"
Among these two individuals,
the old man in black, known as the Monkey King with golden eyes, was the current Governor of the Demon Suppression Bureau, Li Daoxuan.
And the temperamentally explosive man who was cursing next to him was Li Daoxuan's senior disciple, another Deputy Governor of the Demon Suppression Bureau, named Wang Xindong.
Wang Xindong was angry
because the Demon Suppression Tower had recently been attacked. The Deputy Governor in charge, Xu Tong, had been severely injured. They had no choice but to select a new person from among the remaining elders to take over Xu Tong's duties.
Among these elders, the strongest and the one involved in the fiercest competition was Hong Wendao.
"What does the letter say?" Wang Xindong asked, even going as far as to snatch it directly from Li Daoxuan's hands.
"Go away," Li Daoxuan laughed as he pushed him aside, "You disrespectful fellow."
The two men were vastly different in size, but their strength was quite the opposite.
Li Daoxuan's chicken claw-like fingers easily pinned Wang Xindong's more than two-meter-tall body to the side, unable to move.
Pfft!
With a flick of his fingers, he broke the wax seal.
Looking at the neat exquisite handwriting on the letter, Li Daoxuan's smiling face disappeared, and his expression became much more solemn.
"What's wrong?" Wang Xindong's heart skipped a beat. "Has junior sister encountered some trouble?"
"You will see for yourself," Li Daoxuan said silently after a moment, handing the letter to Wang Xindong, who hurriedly took it, furrowing his brows and clicking his tongue in astonishment.
"Really?" Wang Xindong couldn't believe it.
"Most likely it's true," Li Daoxuan said after a pause. "The Yin Body Tai Sui did indeed escape from the Demon Suppression Tower, and the related descriptions are not bad."
"Hiss..." Wang Xindong widened his eyes and inhaled sharply.
"If the content is true, then this dead end we are facing might be resolvable!" Wang Xindong said excitedly.
"Hmm, you make sense," Li Daoxuan murmured, "but we shouldn't celebrate too soon, the truth will ultimately depend on what we see with our own eyes."
"However..."
He looked up, sunlight spilling down.
The worn face of the old man also showed a touch of a smile, "Finally, there are some variables. In the stagnant waters of Baihua County, having variables is excellent."
...
"The mountain before us is called Canglong Mountain. It is said that in ancient times, a heaven-splitting, earth-dividing divine dragon fell here, and its body transformed into this mountain.
There is a spring on the mountain called Longyan Spring; drinking from it can improve one's sight, enabling one to clearly see the patterns on the leaves even at night," Su Li said as she jumped onto a large stone by the road, pointing at the big mountain enveloped in the twilight's red glow.
Su Heng looked up.
The mountain was indeed as Su Li had described.
It resembled a gigantic Canglong dragon with wings, crouching majestically.
"After crossing Canglong Mountain and walking further, we will reach Baihua County," Xiao Qing quietly added from the side.