In a high-level martial arts game, a wife is given to you at the start.

A dense array of markings and runes appeared at the center of the compass. The central pointer trembled violently for a moment, then slowly spun and settled, pointing directly into the depths of the valley. Several faint, pale green dots flickered at the edge of the compass—indicating the presence of low-energy life forms near the valley entrance, most likely ordinary poisonous insects and small beasts. However, deeper within the compass, closer to the center, brighter yellow and red dots began to appear.

One of the red spots was nearly twice the size of the others.

He put away his compass and stepped into the valley.

……

A black wind swept over us.

This was no ordinary wind. These air currents, known as "black winds," carried microscopic particles invisible to the naked eye, resembling some kind of metal powder ground to an extremely fine state. The moment they came into contact with the skin, they produced a sharp, pricking pain, followed by a persistent burning sensation. Ordinary people needed to constantly circulate their protective energy to resist it; otherwise, after several hours, their skin would be corroded and become a bloody mess.

A fleeting, dark golden light flashed across Lin Qiye's body. The black wind was deflected by an invisible force field half an inch away from him, flowing silently like water around pebbles. He didn't even flinch.

The terrain inside the valley was far more complex than what he had seen from the outside. The rocks were jagged and craggy, like a pile of stones carelessly overturned by a giant. The ground was riddled with crisscrossing ravines, some shallow and barely knee-deep, others several meters deep, their bottoms filled with a viscous black liquid that reeked of corpses. On the rock walls on either side, cracks torn open by external force were visible from time to time, and deep within these cracks, a faint, eerie green light writhed—not a living thing, but more like the cold glow of some mineral that had settled for countless years.

The deeper they went, the stronger the reaction on the detection compass became. The silver halo representing the fluctuations of primordial energy had become so dense in the center of the compass that it was almost imperceptible, while the red dots representing life forms were also increasing in number, mostly clustered in the cracks and shadows of the rocks. Several dots had turned deep red, indicating dangerous creatures.

Lin Qiye's movements unfolded amidst the rocks and ravines, each step landing precisely on the most energy-efficient footing. His figure darted and weaved among the stone pillars and towering boulders, leaving only a fleeting afterimage. He wasted no time on these strange beasts. A fully grown scorpion suddenly leaped from a crevice, its stinger less than half a foot from the back of his neck, only to have its skull shattered by a casual palm strike. The corpse bounced back into the crevice, not even having time to utter a scream. When a clump of man-eating vines disguised as withered tendrils opened its barbed "mouthparts" and coiled towards him, Lin Qiye didn't even raise his hand. He simply pushed off with his feet, slipping through the gaps between the vines—his speed was at least three times faster than the vines' retracting speed.

His target was the core area indicated by the compass. The small fry along the way weren't worth his time.

About twenty miles into the valley, the terrain suddenly changed.

The rock walls on both sides simultaneously receded to the left and right ten zhang ahead, suddenly opening up a low-lying basin about a thousand zhang in diameter. The basin's surface sunken downwards, becoming lower towards the center, forming a natural bowl-shaped structure. At the very center of the basin, the ground appeared to have been torn apart from within by some colossal object, creating a massive fissure about five zhang wide and of unknown length. The rock walls on either side of the fissure were charred black, with dark red, semi-solidified magma slowly creeping along the edges.

Thick, grayish-black mist, carrying a sulfurous and somewhat fishy smell, was billowing out of the crack in the ground. This mist was far more viscous than the black wind at the valley entrance, darker in color, and significantly warmer than the surrounding air—it was still churning the moment it emerged from the crack, and after falling to the ground, it condensed into a thin layer of blackish-gray, accumulating on the white bones at the edge of the crack.

Bones. Bones everywhere. There were slender animal skeletons, robust remains of large, strange beasts, and several skeletons clearly left by humanoid creatures. The bones varied in age—some were withered and brittle, crumbling at the slightest touch; others still bore remnants of marrow and dried black blood, appearing fresher than three days old.

The compass was now so brightly lit it was almost burning hot. The central pointer no longer rotated slowly, but pounded wildly like a crazed creature. A silver aura of primal energy almost completely covered the surface, and within that silver light, countless red dots shone like stars in the night sky—most of them were deep red, at least twenty or so. Among these deep red dots, several had expanded to nearly purplish-black, the highest level the compass could label for this type of beast.

"This is the source."

Lin Qiye stopped on a protruding rock at the edge of the basin, his robes fluttering slightly in the heat. He looked down at the hellish fissure below, his gaze piercing through the swirling, dark gray fog, locking onto the deepest part of the crevice—where there was something even a compass couldn't decipher. It wasn't a point of light, but a dark area that swallowed up all light.

The surging gray-black mist was no ordinary miasma. His divine sense penetrated the surface and detected an extremely faint yet familiar energy attribute within the mist. That distorted energy imprint, carrying a sense of deep imbalance, resonated at the same deep frequency as the pollution residue left in the mutated giant lizard's body on the wasteland and the fluorescent blue harmonics deep within the Azure Bone Mountains.

They share the same origin, but are not from the same source. If the fluorescent blue harmonics of the Canggu Mountains are a precisely calibrated signal transmitter, then the aura in the Black Wind Valley crevice is a primitive broadcasting tower that has rusted for many years and whose signal is intermittent.

Deep within this land lie secrets related to "pollution".

It seems the anomalies in Blackwind Valley are not an isolated case. From the wasteland to the Bone Mountains, and from the Bone Mountains to Blackwind Valley on the outskirts of the Holy City, this line of "pollution" is spreading. And the Holy City—this colossal city situated in the heart of this land—is it the end point of this line, or the beginning? Or both?

The instant the thought flashed through his mind, a sickening rustling sound simultaneously emanated from the surrounding pile of rocks and the shadows of the black mist. It wasn't just one or two, but a simultaneous rustling from all directions. The sound was dense and rapid, like the limbs of a large number of arthropods scraping across a hard surface, or like countless slimy tentacles dragging across stones.

Then... hiss hiss hiss hiss hiss.

A dozen or so low, hoarse, threatening growls, squeezed from the depths of the throat, exploded simultaneously in the black mist.

Deep within the thick, gray-black fog, a dozen pairs of scarlet lights appeared.

No...it's not a light spot, it's an eye.