Meng Ying was the second to chase outside. Tian Fangfang pulled out the Fire Wolf Fang from his chest, and the room gained a bit of light.

The Fire Wolf Fang was originally a fire-type spirit treasure that Tian Fangfang wore strung on a red cord as a necklace, usually hidden inside his clothes and invisible. Now it could conveniently be used for illumination. Since everyone had lost their yuanli and couldn’t use cultivation techniques, and Zanxing’s illumination talismans were all in her Qiankun Bag, they could only rely on this to reluctantly serve as an oil lamp.

Under the Fire Wolf Fang’s illumination, the others also rushed out of the room. When going to the outer hall, Zanxing noticed that in that outer room, there were no shadows of Dou Niang and Xu Fu.

After going outside the door, Gu Baiying and Meng Ying walked back. Mu Cengxiao asked, “How was it?”

“Didn’t find anyone else,” Meng Ying shook her head. “Look at this.” She gazed toward the courtyard.

The courtyard had originally housed a flock of white geese—tall geese with fierce calls. Now, on the ground, there were still cages, earthen bowls for feeding the geese water, and scattered vegetable leaves, but those geese had vanished without a trace.

“What’s going on?” Zanxing asked Gu Baiying, “Master Uncle, when you were keeping watch, did you notice anything wrong?”

Gu Baiying was silent for a moment before saying, “No, I fell asleep.”

Zanxing was somewhat surprised.

“It’s not Master Uncle’s fault,” Mu Cengxiao followed up, “I wasn’t sleeping at first either, but partway through, I suddenly felt very sleepy. When I woke up again, the lamp in the room had already gone out. The change must have happened then.”

Tian Fangfang came out from behind, “I searched both inside and outside the house—didn’t see Little Dou or Old Xu. This…”

This made it even more abnormal.

“Hey,” Mendong tugged at Gu Baiying’s sleeve, “don’t you think it’s a bit too quiet here?”

Zanxing looked up into the distance.

The dirt road was still the same dirt road. At the doorways of houses on both sides of the road, lanterns hung, their light illuminating small patches of earth in the courtyards. The night sky was thick as ink—originally, this would have been a very peaceful scene. However, when everything around became as silent as death, this warmth and tranquility took on an eerie and terrifying quality.

No dog barking, no sounds of people snoring in their sleep, no insect chirping, no sounds of horses pacing in enclosures—even the wind had stopped. This place was like a stagnant pool, as if they had inadvertently intruded into a ghostly domain that had been abandoned for thousands of years.

Yet just a short while ago, they had participated in a grand and magnificent festival.

Those houses looked orderly and ordinary. Zanxing said, “I have a bad feeling.” After pausing, she continued, “These houses… There couldn’t be no one in any of them, could there?”

Mu Cengxiao and Meng Ying exchanged glances. “Let’s go take a look.”

The two of them searched several nearby houses and quickly returned, their expressions somewhat solemn. Meng Ying looked at Zanxing, “Junior Sister was right—the houses are all empty.”

There was no moon, and the night sky was like a huge black net tightly wrapping around the city in the desert. Those lively songs, dances, and crowds seemed like brief phantoms. After the phantoms dispersed, only a cold, silent, empty city remained.

Zanxing couldn’t help but feel her whole body go numb as she whispered, “This place… There aren’t ghosts here, are there?”

《Nine Heaven Summit》 was, after all, just an upgrade-style power fantasy novel. Although it contained exotic flowers and rare plants and frequently featured precious spirit beasts, it ultimately wasn’t a horror novel. Now that this plot development was beyond anyone’s control, even though she had read the entire text, it was difficult to glimpse the future direction.

Just as Gu Baiying was about to speak, Mimi suddenly let out a sharp cry, all her fur standing on end as she shot forward.

“Mimi!” Zanxing was startled.

This fat cat rarely displayed such agile movements. In the night, that snow-white fur seemed to glow as she rapidly ran toward a certain direction.

“Follow it!” Gu Baiying raised his spear and chased after.

Mimi ran very fast.

This cat usually would lie down on the ground and act spoiled after walking just a bit, but tonight she was exceptionally energetic, running nonstop along the dirt road. Zanxing saw those houses—some with doors tightly shut, some with doors wide open. Through the windows, she could see tables in the rooms still set with half-eaten flatbreads and meat soup. But the people were nowhere to be seen, as if in a great hurry, all living things in this city had been erased by an invisible hand, leaving only the “moment” of a certain night.

This was even more spine-chilling.

A group of people chasing a cat through an empty city—amid the eeriness, there was a somewhat comical feeling. After running for who knows how long, Mimi stopped.

The wine shop by the roadside hadn’t closed yet. A wine banner with a yellow background and red characters hung from the eaves. Empty wine jars were neatly stacked together at the shop entrance, and beautiful celadon-colored wine bowls were casually placed on tables.

Everything was lively yet absurd.

Where Mimi had stopped was a ruined city gate.

This was Wu Fan City’s city gate.

Zanxing still remembered when she first arrived at Wu Fan City—she remembered this city gate being old but still reasonably intact, with serpent totems of the Serpent Witch Clan carved on the city walls. But the current city gate was already dilapidated and decayed beyond recognition. Half the gate could no longer be seen in its original form, buried in sand. Those totems had been eroded by wind beyond recognition, just shapeless masses.

“How is this different from what we saw before?” Tian Fangfang pointed at the city gate, “Is this the same place?”

“It’s the place we came from,” Meng Ying said quietly. “Perhaps this is Wu Fan City’s true appearance.”

Mu Cengxiao walked forward two steps. “What is that?”

Extending forward from the city gate, a magnificent palace appeared. This palace looked as if it had appeared out of thin air in the desert. The palace roof was a beautiful golden arch, with columns on all four sides carved full of patterns. It looked like an altar or a temple-like structure.

“This wasn’t here when we came, was it?” Mendong wondered, “Did this grow out of nowhere overnight?”

Under the night sky, the palace in the desert was gorgeous and ethereal, with light and shadows seemingly swaying within, as if silently inviting.

“Master Uncle, should we go in?” Meng Ying asked.

“Go in,” Gu Baiying gripped his Embroidered Bone spear tightly and walked directly toward the palace.

Everyone immediately followed.

This palace was very wide and very tall. At first glance, it looked golden, with a circular palace door in the very center. The door handle was cast in the shape of coiled serpents. Gu Baiying placed his hand on the door handle, suddenly thought of something, and turned back, “You all stay farther back. When the door opens, follow behind me.”

“Master Uncle, now is not the time to show off!” Mendong urgently spoke, “You right now…” He suddenly stopped speaking, then, after a while, said, “…have caught a bit of cold, your yuanli isn’t what it usually is.”

Gu Baiying said coldly, “Stop the nonsense. I told you to stay behind, so stay behind.”