"That's right. Many powerful cultivators who come here never return, and even those who do are left insane or mentally broken. I warn them so they'll leave, but there's always a few who don't know any better," the man said.
"Since you're the guardian, I'm curious—what exactly are you protecting here in Deadwillow City? Why can't others enter?" Evan Yang asked, intrigued.
"What business is it of yours? You'd better worry about yourself, you troublesome person." The man snorted coldly upon hearing Evan Yang's question.
After speaking, the man vanished, leaving Evan Yang in the stone formation, working to unravel it. It took him about half a day, but eventually Evan emerged from the formation, muttering as he looked at the surrounding forest, "Whew, this stone formation really was something—it trapped me for so long."
After regaining his composure, Evan Yang flashed away, following the trail of his own aura. He traversed the forest—without that aura to guide him, Evan wouldn't have known where to find the man. After some time, he arrived at an even denser grove of willow trees, their branches strangely black.
Seeing the willow branches were black, so strange and eerie, Evan Yang frowned and muttered, "What's going on here?"
Curious, Evan Yang stepped inside. The moment he entered, his head and ears felt as if pierced by ten thousand swords—buzzing painfully. He quickly calmed himself, and another cultivation art within him activated automatically: the Demon-Ward Eight Arts.
With the Demon-Ward Eight Arts running, Evan Yang no longer felt that discomfort, but he was secretly alarmed—what kind of attack was that, so terrifying?
Curious, Evan Yang explored his surroundings. The area was deathly silent, and the willows gradually thinned out. There were roads, and along these roads city walls slowly appeared. Naturally, there were no willows inside the walls.
Evan Yang walked into the city walls, suspicious, and was stunned by what he saw inside—a group of people who had lost all reason, acting out scenes of cannibalism.
"Could their minds have been destroyed?" Evan Yang thought of the earlier attack—without the Demon-Ward Eight Arts protecting him, he would likely be in the same state. Disturbed by this, he slowly walked inside, circled around those people, and continued toward the person he was tracking.
The man Evan Yang was tracking was now in a deep, blood-red house, eyes tightly shut. He believed Evan could never reach this place; even if he did, the powerful mental barriers outside would turn anyone without protective treasures into an idiot.
But he never expected Evan Yang to have already escaped the stone formation—not only that, Evan was approaching him. When Evan appeared, the man happened to open his eyes, staring at the newcomer in shock: "You—"
"We meet again. Now, where do you think you can run this time?" Evan Yang smiled, though he was surprised—the man had healed most of his wounds in just half a day, a remarkable speed.
"How did you get in here?" The man was stunned by all of Evan Yang's actions, and so asked in disbelief.
"Of course I walked in. What do you think?" Evan Yang replied.
"Impossible! This is the Dead City—no living person can enter!" the man said.
"Dead City? I don't see what's so dead about it—I still managed to come in, and so did you," Evan Yang said.
"I can come in because I have a method—but you shouldn't be able to!" the man replied.
"Whatever method, I'm already inside. I was always curious why people who come here end up mentally broken or confused. Now I finally understand—there's something here that destroys people's minds, isn't there?" Evan Yang said.