At this moment, Yuzhou City was even more dilapidated than Bai Qingxue had expected.
Bai Qingxue slowed her pace, her gaze sweeping over the walls on both sides of the city gate.
On the stone surface were several deep claw marks, slicing diagonally down from a person's height and narrowing near the waist.
The edges of the claw marks were blackened, as if the blood that had seeped into them had dried long ago, impossible to wash away or scrape clean.
Ning Qinghan followed behind her, her bare feet stepping onto the gravel ground outside the city gate.
Her gaze traced the claw marks all the way down, her brow twitching imperceptibly, but she did not speak.
Bai Qingxue stepped through the city gate and walked into Yuzhou City.
The inside of the city was even quieter than she had imagined.
Most of the houses on both sides of the street were built of stone, low-slung with eaves hanging very low and narrow windows, looking as if they were constructed to withstand wind and waves.
At this moment, most of the doors and windows were tightly shut, bolted from the inside with wooden planks, not a single sliver of light escaping from the gaps.
Occasionally, a window or two would be half-open, with figures faintly moving behind the window paper, only to quickly draw the curtains the moment Bai Qingxue looked over.
Debris lay scattered across the streets.
Bai Qingxue did not walk fast, the sound of her boots clicking against the stone slabs echoing exceptionally clearly in the empty streets.
As she passed by a shop, there seemed to be something moving in the gap behind the door planks.
She turned her gaze and saw an eye staring at her from the narrow gap between two wooden boards.
The eye was cloudy, bloodshot, and filled with sheer terror.
The moment Bai Qingxue's gaze met it, the eye instantly retreated, followed by a brief, muffled thud behind the boards, as if something had been knocked over.
“Everyone is hiding,” Ning Qinghan's voice came from behind.
Bai Qingxue did not look back. “Yes.”
“Don't you find it strange?” Ning Qinghan walked up to stand side by side with Bai Qingxue.
“The sea beasts attacked, causing casualties among the fishermen, yet there are still living people in the city. They aren't running away; they're hiding in their homes. This indicates that the outside is even more unsafe than the inside, but there are no signs of organized defense in the city either. The city gates haven't been repaired, there are no patrols on the streets, and not even a single guard on duty can be seen.”
Bai Qingxue did not reply.
She continued forward, crossing the plaza and turning into an even narrower alley.
The houses on both sides of the alley were even smaller than those on the main street, their plaster peeling away to reveal the gravel and dirt beneath.
Some doors were boarded up with wooden planks, while others hung wide open, pitch-black inside, making it impossible to see what lay within.
A skeletal cat slunk out from one of the open doors, cast a glance at them, and turned to slip into the shadows of another alley.
At the end of the alley was a small pier.
To call it a pier was generous; it was merely a flight of stone steps extending toward the sea, its end submerged in the murky water.
A few small fishing boats were tied to wooden posts along the shore, their hulls listing and sitting deep in the water, as if they had been neglected for a long time.
There were several fresh claw marks on the deck planks, identical to the ones Bai Qingxue had seen at the city gate.
Bai Qingxue walked to the edge of the pier and looked out at the sea. The water was a murky grayish-green, with a layer of turbid foam floating near the shore. In the distance, a dark water line stretched across the horizon, looking as if something had just retreated from there.
“Do you smell that?” Ning Qinghan's voice came from behind her, carrying an unusually heavy tone.
Bai Qingxue turned around.
Ning Qinghan was crouching at the edge of the pier, using her fingertips to toy with a small, dark red object floating on the water's surface. It was translucent with curled edges, resembling a scale of some sort, yet thinner and softer. She picked it up, brought it to her nose to sniff, and her brow twitched slightly before she dipped her fingers into the seawater to wash them.
“It's the outer membrane shed by a sea beast,” Ning Qinghan stood up, crushing the object between her fingers. The powder fell into the water, dispersing into a small, turbid cloud.
“Aquatic creatures that spend too much time on land can't adapt to the dry air, so their skin sheds a layer. This piece isn't completely dry yet, so it was probably shed before dawn yesterday.”
Ning Qinghan clapped her hands to dust off the remaining powder, then tilted her head and looked at Bai Qingxue.
“Before dawn yesterday, something came ashore from here, stayed for a while, and then went back. And that thing wasn't small.”
Bai Qingxue fell silent for a moment, then turned to walk back.
“Let's go to the City Lord's manor first.”
By the time the two of them walked back through the dilapidated streets of Yuzhou City, the sky had already darkened.
Twilight crept in from the sea, shrouding the entire city in a layer of grayish-blue dusk.
The houses on both sides of the street grew even quieter, the lights in the windows becoming increasingly scarce, as if the entire city were blowing out its lamps one by one.
The City Lord's manor was located in the north of the city, a building standing a head taller than the surrounding residential houses. The lintel was carved with a Yuzhou pattern, but the paint had peeled off so severely that its outline could barely be discerned.
A person sat on the stone steps at the entrance of the City Lord's manor. He was young, around sixteen or seventeen, wearing a worn-out coarse short tunic and barefoot. A coarse ceramic bowl sat on his knees, filled with half a bowl of clear water.
When he saw Bai Qingxue and Ning Qinghan walking over, he froze for a moment before quickly standing up. He almost lost his grip on the bowl in his hands, spilling some water onto the stone steps.
“Are you... are you Immortal Masters?”
Bai Qingxue nodded. “Is the City Lord here?”
“Yes! He's here!” The youth quickly stepped aside from the entrance and pushed open the heavy wooden door behind him. “I'll take you to him!”
With that, the youth led the two of them through a narrow corridor and into a small hall.
An oil lamp flickered in the hall, its wick trimmed very short, so that its glow only illuminated a small circle around the table.
Sitting behind the table was a man of about fifty with graying hair. He wore a washed-out blue cloth robe, his face gaunt, with deep dark circles under his eyes.
Seeing Bai Qingxue walk in, he propped himself up against the table to stand. His movements were somewhat stiff, as if he had been sitting for too long and his joints had rusted.
“I am Zhou Ji, the City Lord of Yuzhou City.” His voice was hoarse, carrying the dryness of someone who had not spoken in a long time. “Immortal Masters, you have come from afar. Please, have a seat.”
Bai Qingxue did not sit.
Standing opposite the table, her gaze swept over Zhou Ji's face as she spoke.
“Tell me about the sea beasts.”
Zhou Ji nodded, then shook his head, as if he did not know where to begin.
He remained silent for a moment, and when he finally spoke, his voice was even hoarser than before.
“This beast tide started a few days ago. The first wave came at night during high tide. They didn't enter the city, but they tore apart several boats at the pier and bit a night-watchman fisherman to death. The next day, after the tide receded, we could still see the shadows of those things swimming around in the shallow waters, waiting.”
He paused, rubbing his fingers together.
“On the third night, they came in. They rushed up from the direction of the pier, in greater numbers than on the first day. They broke through the wooden barricade at the city gate, killed two people, and dragged away three. The able-bodied men in the city organized themselves to guard the place all night, using whatever tools they could find. We barely held out until dawn before they retreated. But after that night, the people in the city scattered.”
“Scattered?” Bai Qingxue asked.
“To be precise, they fled. They took their families and ran inland. Some went into the mountains, while others headed south along the coastline. Those who didn't run are either too old to move, or have lost their families and simply don't want to leave.”
Zhou Ji's voice dropped. “Now, less than ten percent of the original population remains in the city.”
Ning Qinghan stood a step behind Bai Qingxue, her bare feet resting on the cold stone tiles of the hall.
She did not make a sound, merely listening quietly, but her gaze remained fixed on Zhou Ji's face, as if she were trying to discern something.
“Did you not seek help from nearby cultivators?” Bai Qingxue asked.
Zhou Ji let out a bitter laugh.
“Of course we tried, but for some reason, perhaps because this beast tide is no ordinary matter, the nearby Immortal Masters were unwilling to come and help.”
“Fortunately, we still have the lords of the Immortal Sects.”
The hall fell silent for a moment.
The flame of the oil lamp flickered, casting a large, swaying shadow on the wall.
“Will they come again tonight?” Bai Qingxue asked.
Zhou Ji looked up, seemingly stumped by the question. He opened his mouth, closed it again, and swallowed hard.
“Yes. They come every night. But they've been arriving earlier and earlier. At first it was midnight, then it was nightfall, and yesterday they came at dusk.”
Zhou Ji's voice grew lower and lower. “Today... it will probably be even earlier than yesterday.”
Having heard enough, Bai Qingxue asked no further questions.
She turned around and walked toward the entrance of the hall. The Frost Moon Chant at her waist swayed gently with her steps, letting out a very soft clink.
“Bai Qingxue,” Ning Qinghan's voice came from behind, carrying her usual laziness. “Where are you going?”
“To the pier to have a look.”
As Bai Qingxue stepped over the threshold, twilight spilled in from outside the corridor, resting on her shoulders. Her silver-white hair was gently lifted by the sea breeze, then fell back into place.
“Wait!” Zhou Ji's voice chased after her from the hall, hoarse and urgent. “Immortal Master! Those things... there isn't just one. Every time they come, there are more than the last. Today... today there might be even more than yesterday.”
“Alright.”
Bai Qingxue continued forward.
Twilight closed in from both sides, swallowing her frost-white figure into the deepening night air.
Ning Qinghan caught up, her bare feet stepping on the stone slabs. She fell into step beside her, walking shoulder to shoulder. The sea breeze swept in from the end of the street, blowing her bound ponytail, the tips of her hair swaying gently in the twilight.
“What do you plan to do?” Ning Qinghan asked, her tone a bit more serious now, stripped of her usual lazy indifference. “Wait for them to come ashore? Or take the initiative and go into the water?”
Bai Qingxue did not answer immediately.
The two of them walked through the deserted main street, the sea breeze whistling as it swept between the walls on either side.
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