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A light drizzle continued to fall from the night sky, and the highway was deserted. After driving for a while, guided by Shawn Young's Clairvoyant Light Technique, the trio arrived outside a small valley. Gazing into the misty darkness, they saw vast rice fields stretching before the valley, with faint outlines of villages in the distance. Inside the valley, dense forests covered the rolling hills, the trees shrouded in moisture and mist, making everything appear hazy and white. For a moment, they couldn't make out what was happening within the valley.
With no road ahead, Helen had no choice but to park the Ferrari outside the valley. After getting out, Shawn immediately said to Helen and Minnie Wang, "They're trapped in this valley. The enemy might have set up an ambush nearby! I'll go in alone. Helen, please look after Minnie!"
"No, I want to go in with you!" Minnie Wang immediately shook her head.
"Uh—let's go in together. If anything happens, at least we can watch out for each other!" Helen chimed in.
"Helen's right. If something really goes wrong, at least I can call the police!" Minnie Wang said, waving her phone.
"Uh—alright! But you two have to stay behind me and be extra careful!" Shawn Young reluctantly agreed.
"Relax! I can take care of myself. Besides, I've got a weapon—" Helen raised her carbine, confident in her own abilities.
The three of them walked into the valley on foot, stepping on the damp grass for about ten minutes. Up ahead, a steep slope appeared, shrouded in shadows and with something fluttering on top. Shawn Young found it odd, so he turned to the two women behind him and said, "That slope looks strange. I'll go up and check it out! Helen, you and Minnie wait down here for my signal. If anything happens, we can cover each other!"
"Oh—okay, be careful!" Helen agreed, knowing it was best to split up at this moment.
Shawn Young climbed up the steep slope, and after about ten minutes, he reached the top. Looking around, he found the summit was nothing like the lush forest below: only a few scattered trees, some bushes, and wide stretches of grass. Fierce winds howled across the peak, blowing away the rain, leaving only damp mist swirling around. The whole mountaintop was shrouded in thick, white fog. Through the haze, Shawn could vaguely see a dark building on the summit, surrounded by several strange, fluttering flags.
"Huh—could they be trapped up there?" Shawn Young grew suspicious and quickly gathered his energy to use the Clairvoyant Light Technique again. But something weird happened—the images that appeared were all gray and blurry, nothing like the sharp, clear vision he had at the foot of the slope. He couldn't see where Feiyun Shangguan and the others were at all!
"Weird! There's something supernatural about this place!" Shawn Young was secretly alarmed. Only two things could interfere with the Clairvoyant Light Technique: either the magnetic field here was extremely chaotic, or someone had set up a powerful mystical barrier. The latter was far more dangerous than the former!
Taking a deep breath to steady his nerves, Shawn Young cautiously approached the strange building in the distance. As soon as he stepped across a bush and set foot on the ground, he felt something was off. The soil beneath the grass was damp and loose at first, but when he pressed down harder, it made a crisp 'crack'—like stepping on a crunchy, overbaked pancake. Very odd.
Shawn Young's heart skipped a beat—something was seriously wrong. He quickly scanned his surroundings and noticed the mountaintop had changed. Strange, sinister white mist drifted everywhere, layering the peak. In the distance, several ridges overlapped, each stretching out in random directions.
Shawn Young gazed at those ridges, feeling a sudden, inexplicable irritation mixed with bone-chilling cold. Oddly, the chill didn't come from the weather—it seemed to seep out from deep inside his body. Suddenly, a spark of realization flashed through his mind. He remembered what kind of place this was!
"Ah! Wrathland! This... this place is actually the legendary Wrathland!" Shawn Young cried out in shock.
Wrathland is one of the Ten Cursed Lands. According to traditional Chinese geomancy, all mountains and rivers hide dragon veins where dragon gods reside, protecting the land. But in Wrathland, the dragon god is weak and its energy is thin, making the area extremely dangerous. Deadly forces lurk here—if ordinary people stay too long, their life force will be drained, their vitality weakened. Just two days here can disrupt blood and nerves, leading to madness or, in severe cases, death or becoming a soulless husk!
Wrathland has unique terrain. Most fertile ground feels loose, but here the surface is hard—like an eggshell—with dryness and sand below, and hidden underground currents. Dragon energy disperses quickly, making it hard for the dragon god's protective force to gather, so souls are easily scattered. In feng shui, Wrathland is considered extremely ominous!
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To make sure this really was the legendary Wrathland, Shawn Young tried channeling his energy to activate his Second Sight. As expected, his Second Sight churned and became unstable, completely out of control. The moment he used it, he felt dizzy and restless—a clear sign his energy was being scattered.
'Damn! This really is Wrathland! It's insanely dangerous here! If someone set up a formation, it'd be even deadlier!!' Shawn Young thought, his heart pounding, but he still wanted to investigate further.
Suddenly, Shawn Young saw a black shadow flash right before his eyes, vanishing into the mist at incredible speed.
"Who! Who's there? Come out now—" Shawn Young shouted. His voice echoed around the mountaintop, then faded. Suddenly, a strange, violent wind swept the peak, scattering the mist. In the sky appeared a blood-red crescent moon. Under its eerie glow, everything on the mountaintop looked ordinary—mountains were still mountains, trees were still trees—but now everything was tinged with a sinister, dark red, creating an indescribable pressure.
Shawn Young tensed up, feeling a huge danger closing in. Suddenly, thunder cracked overhead and lightning shot up from beneath his feet. He instinctively leapt aside—BOOM! The blue lightning blasted into the air, leaving a smoking pit over a meter wide right where he'd been standing!