Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Abandoned City of Heaven (Part Three)

“Later, I don’t know exactly what happened, but the Divine Lord died. With his death, everything changed. This city was abandoned by the heavens, becoming a forsaken city filled with deathly silence. From the moment it was cast away, countless kingdoms surrounding it vanished as well. The lands that were once thriving kingdoms are now boundless deserts,” Mo Fan said.

Ji Mo opened her mouth, but found herself at a loss for words. Fortunately, Mo Fan didn’t seem to expect a response from her. After a brief pause, he continued, “As the Divine Lord lay dying, he left behind a painting, saying that the figure depicted was our destined one. When the immortal maiden in the painting appears in the forsaken city, that will be the city’s rebirth. So, please, immortal maiden, do not abandon us.” With those words, Mo Fan trembled as he knelt before Ji Mo.

“Elder Mo, please, you don’t need to kneel every time. I’m not used to this. Please, get up and tell me more about the situation in the forsaken city. Let me see if there’s anything I can do to help,” Ji Mo said hurriedly, flustered as she helped Mo Fan to his feet.

“But let me be clear from the start—I am not an immortal maiden. I’m just an ordinary cultivator. When it comes to fighting prowess, I may be inferior to anyone in your city. If I am unable to solve your problems, I hope you won’t hold it against me,” Ji Mo added quickly, seeing the excitement on Mo Fan’s face and fearing she might be wrongly blamed if she failed to help.

“Immortal maiden, the forsaken city spans eighty-eight thousand eight hundred kilometers. It is said that in the past, millions lived here. But by our generation, the city’s area has shrunk dramatically, with fewer than a million people remaining. Beyond the city, an endless desert stretches in all directions. Here, it never rains. There are no seasons—no spring, summer, autumn, or winter—nor is there day or night. Nothing grows in this place.”

“With nothing growing, naturally, there is no food to harvest. The city’s entire food supply depends on the beast tides that come once every ten years. As for water, we rely on the ancient well behind the temple, which has never run dry. You may have noticed some ancient trees in the city, but these did not grow with the passing of time. They have been here since anyone can remember.”

“The leaves on these trees have never been green. Every year, dead leaves fall, yet the trees are never entirely bare. This, in summary, is the state of our city.” Reminiscing, Mo Fan briefly outlined the forsaken city’s circumstances, pointedly ignoring Ji Mo’s earlier remarks about her limitations.

After hearing Elder Mo Fan’s account, Ji Mo felt a chill rise within her. Such a city truly deserved to be called forsaken by the heavens. Imagine it: a place with no seasons, no day or night, where nothing grows, with no trade, no purpose or ambition, and no work to be done—how was living here any different from being a walking corpse?

“Elder Mo, you mentioned a beast tide every ten years. What exactly is that? Where do these beasts come from?” Ji Mo pushed aside her strange thoughts and focused on a topic of interest. Ordinarily, a beast tide would spell disaster for a human city, yet she had detected a trace of excitement in Mo Fan’s tone.

“If not for the beast tide every ten years, the people of the forsaken city would have died out long ago. As for where the beasts come from, we do not know. After each tide ends, the beasts vanish without a trace, and since no one can leave the city, we cannot investigate further,” Mo Fan explained.

“So the meat from each beast tide sustains the entire city for ten years?” Ji Mo asked, still puzzled. How could food be preserved for a decade in such conditions?

“Yes, more or less. Though it’s never enough to fill our stomachs, it is just enough to keep us from starving. The environment here is unusual. Once we obtain beast meat, we can air-dry it slowly without it ever spoiling. After it’s dried, we store it as food for the next ten years; it’s just that the taste becomes worse over time,” Mo Fan explained, seemingly understanding Ji Mo’s doubts.

“It’s not just the beast meat—even when our people die, their bodies do not decay. Instead, they gradually become mummified, and after a hundred years, the mummies turn to dust and disperse into the air,” he added, seeing Ji Mo’s confusion.

Ji Mo shivered again, feeling the city grow ever more uncanny. Not only was there no spiritual energy at all, the air was thick and turbid. In such an environment, not only did nothing grow, but nothing rotted either. The residents were all ordinary mortals, yet each was born with an unnatural strength.

By Ji Mo’s estimation, their raw power alone would enable them to easily slay a low-level cultivator or an ordinary second-tier demon beast. What kind of place was this, truly?

Woo, woo! As Ji Mo pondered, the distant, mournful sound of horns suddenly reached her ears, growing nearer. Upon hearing the horns, Elder Mo Fan’s expression shifted slightly, caught between joy and sorrow. After a moment’s thought, he looked up at Ji Mo. “Immortal maiden, the decennial beast tide is upon us again. Would you care to join us and see for yourself?”

“The beast tide? Very well,” Ji Mo answered after a brief pause. Perhaps witnessing the beast tide would reveal some clue. Together with Elder Mo Fan, she left the temple. The residents gathered outside, usually so lifeless, now showed a rare spark of excitement upon hearing the horns. This, perhaps, was the instinctive yearning for food that even the most jaded person could not suppress.

“Everyone, to the East City!” Elder Mo Fan called out loudly as he stepped from the temple. At his words, tens of thousands surged toward the sound of the horns like a tidal wave. Only moments before, they had shuffled like snails, but now their speed rivaled a hunting leopard. In the span of a few breaths, the square before the temple was deserted.

“Let us go as well, immortal maiden,” Mo Fan said to Ji Mo.

“All right, Elder Mo, please lead the way,” she replied.

Mo Fan said no more, striding ahead. Though his body seemed frail and aged, his steps unsteady as if a breeze would topple him, now, each stride carried him a dozen meters forward. Ji Mo hurried to gather her energy and follow after him, pushing herself to keep pace and barely managing not to fall behind.