He could perceive this person because just now, he saw a faint white light flickering above their head.
That was a system interface!
"System interface? There are humans here?"
Xiang Beifei was quite surprised.
Because the other moved so fast, it was just a flash and gone. Even Xiang Beifei couldn’t clearly see what the opponent’s system interface was, but being very sensitive to systems, he was sure he wasn’t mistaken.
The shadow just now was definitely a system interface!
"How could there be a system interface here?"
Since leaving Jiuzhou, he hadn’t seen many system interfaces, because Yi Tribe cultivators do not rely on systems for cultivation; they cultivate their race’s unique Dao and do not need systems to enhance.
Xiang Beifei knew the Yi Tribe’s way of cultivation also belonged to a form of the Heavenly Dao, but it was not presented as a system.
However, he hadn’t expected to see a human system interface here again!
Xiaohei also stood on Xiang Beifei’s shoulder, uncharacteristically serious as it stared into the distance, clearly having seen it too.
Xiaohei asked if they should go take a look.
Xiang Beifei pondered for a moment, then took a few steps back and leapt upwards, arriving in mid-air.
Overlooking the ruined city from the air, strangely, the whole city seemed shrouded in a misty fog from above, obscuring the details within it.
He descended back to the ground and stopped at the city gate, exchanging glances with Xiaohei.
Xiang Beifei decided to get to the bottom of this.
He cautiously walked along the smooth street into the abyss-like giant mouth of the city gate.
The wind blew gently at the city gate, making strange sounds.
Erha, recalling the Yi Tribe cultivators who had their souls suddenly extracted when they came here, shrunk its head, quickly downsizing to be as small as Youmeng, then squeezed into Xiang Beifei’s chest pocket.
Youmong, squeezed unbearably, protested with its little fists that Xiang Beifei’s pocket was its territory, telling Erha to get out.
Erha, thick-skinned, claimed that as the weather turned cold, squeezing was healthier. It wagged its tail, shrinking Youmong more to make more space in the pocket.
Being essentially a tree, Youmong couldn’t resist Erha’s powers, got miniaturized, and was squashed under Erha’s butt, looking furious, using its little fists to hammer Erha’s hooves.
"Erha, stop bullying Youmong. Why are you so timid? Haven’t you always been afraid of nothing?"
Xiang Beifei couldn’t help knocking on Erha’s head, pulling it out of the pocket, tossing it into another pocket, and restored Youmong’s size back to normal, giving Youmong its little territory in the chest pocket back.
Erha muttered that since arriving at Edge Corner Airspace, it always felt something was off, like an inexplicable crisis looming over it, feeling uncomfortable as if something invisible was always searching for it.
"Huh? What crisis did you sense? From where? This city?" Xiang Beifei stopped, asking in confusion.
Erha shook its head, unable to articulate it either, not just coming from this city but from every corner, feeling like it was being watched by an invisible eye, causing great discomfort.
"You’re protected by my aura; no one can find you." Xiang Beifei said.
Erha stroked its chin with its long tail in a pondering pose, then shrugged its shoulders, "Woof woof," expressing it still felt insecure, uneasy anyway, deciding to settle in a pocket like Youmong in the future.
Xiang Beifei’s puzzlement deepened.
This Erha typically acts as if it doesn’t have a care in the barren lands, always causing trouble with Xiaohei, even unafraid of the Yellow Springs Hell.
But how come, just upon reaching Edge Corner Airspace, it became so timid?
What is the crisis it describes?
Xiang Beifei couldn’t figure it out, but he continued into the streets of the broken city.
Upon entering the ruined city, he felt his perception seemed further suppressed, this power stronger than him, unable to be assimilated with Yin and Yang’s source energy.
He spread out his Orifice Perception, but it could only extend three to four meters, severely suppressed.
But three to four meters is better than nothing, so he began cautiously moving forward along the street, quickly moving to the corner, where the shadow with the system interface disappeared.
But Xiang Beifei didn’t see any human figure; the street ahead was empty, and the shops on both sides had their doors wide open, as if still open for business, with red lanterns hanging on either side of the entrances.
The lanterns weren’t lit, but their colors were vivid, as if they had just been repainted, and had a character written on them.
Xiang Beifei slightly turned his body, trying to see from another direction what the character on the lantern was, and soon saw the character on the lantern.
A big "Dian" character!
Xiang Beifei looked at the character on the lantern in amazement, then looked at the lanterns of other shops along the street. Almost every shop had a red lantern hanging with no exception, all with the same character!
"Dian," a character typically seen when commemorating the dead.
No one would casually write this character.
Even less so on a bright red lantern!
If it needs to be written, it would be on a white lantern.
The wind blew, causing the lanterns at the shop entrances to sway and collide with the walls, producing a clear sound that seemed particularly jarring in the empty street.
Even on the smooth street, leaves swirled up, drifting to Xiang Beifei’s feet, spinning a couple of times before drifting away.
He became increasingly cautious, silently continuing to walk along the street ahead, observing every corner around him with each step to guard against anything suddenly charging out.
But after walking about fifty meters, he still didn’t see anything unusual, only the continuous thumping and clashing of the red lanterns.
Perhaps it was Xiang Beifei’s illusion, but the atmosphere around him felt more and more oppressive, and the sky seemed to be gradually darkening, the visibility lowering, making the street seem shrouded in a thin layer of black mist, almost invisible.
However, at that moment—
The lanterns hanging at the shop entrances on both sides of the street suddenly lit up, quickly dispelling the darkness of the street.
Xiang Beifei was stunned.
He furrowed his brows deeply.
The bright red lanterns illuminated the "Dian" character, making it extraordinarily striking.
The shadows cast on Xiang Beifei, projecting a blurry silhouette that stretched long.
To be honest, even when he ran through the Yellow Springs Hell with the Eternal Night Demon King, he didn’t feel much, but suddenly coming into this dead city and witnessing these strange scenes gave him goosebumps instead.
The sudden illumination of these bright red lanterns caught him off guard; he initially thought as the sky darkened, he would have to navigate through the dark in this dead city, not expecting the city to be ’courteous’ enough to light lanterns for him, illuminating his path.
Yet at this moment, he would rather not have such lighting, preferring to nestle in darkness for convenience. These lanterns lighting up was akin to being monitored.
Erha let out a low sound, seemingly frightened by the scene, poking two holes in the pocket, too nervous to stick its head out, showing only its eyes.
Both scared and curious.
Xiang Beifei stood in place, waiting for a long time, wanting to see if something would come to find him, making things more straightforward without any hiding or showing.
But nothing charged out.
The dead city seemed truly dead, devoid of any life.
This made him hesitant.
Should he keep moving forward?
Being new here, completely unfamiliar with the Edge Corner Airspace, encountering such a strange dead city indeed left him at a loss. Even when heading to the Yellow Springs Hell, at least he was clear about his advantages and goals.
But it was different here; so far, this dead city only exerted an oppressive aura with no real crisis—if something attacked him, he would find it easier to accept.
Most importantly, where did that shadow with the interface system go?
Just as Xiang Beifei was contemplating whether to move forward—
A discordant sound erupted from the front.
Xiang Beifei looked over warily and found that it was the store on the left; the wooden door on its left side suddenly closed!