Before Wang Jie left, he stood near the courtyard gate and turned slightly toward the sky.
"There is a city west of here," he said. "Falling Wind City. In the past, it was a Tier 1 city. Powerful. Full of cultivators. It stood strong because it was the only teleportation path that led directly to the Jade Immortal Sect."
Jin Hao raised his eyebrows, hearing this. "So the city is a big deal or some big shot's living in it?"
Wang Jie continued. "Even the gate guards were Golden Core realm. No low-level cultivator could even approach. It stood tall for hundreds of years."
"Alright," Jin Hao said, as he watched the comm-tab with gusto. "Guess we're about to see if it's still like that."
Wang Jie activated the teleportation array.
A flash of white light swallowed him.
When it faded, he stood inside a long stone hall.
The air felt dry. Dim light hung from dusty spirit lanterns above. Some didn't even work. There were cracks in the walls. Cobwebs in the corners.
This was Falling Wind City's eastern teleportation hall.
Wang Jie looked around, silent.
He frowned.
Jin Hao, watching from his comm-tab, blinked.
"Wait. This is it?"
He zoomed the camera, looked around again, then scoffed.
"This place looks like a broken public restroom."
Wang Jie didn't move. He took another slow look at the old stone and fading runes.
His frown deepened.
Near the hall's exit, a single guard sat on a bench with one leg resting over the other. His armor was old. His eyes lazy. A half-eaten melon stick poked out of his mouth.
He didn't even stand up.
"Hey," the guard said, not even looking straight. "What's with the look? Don't like what you see?"
Wang Jie didn't answer.
The guard narrowed his eyes.
"Tch. Who do you think you are, walking in here with your face all twisted up? You trying to insult the City Lord's name?"
He stood up slowly, trying to look important. His chest puffed out a little. His weapon — a chipped halberd — leaned on the wall behind him.
In his head, the guard thought:
'Hmph. These outsiders forget I'm backed by the City Lord himself. Foundation Establishment stage. They wouldn't dare touch me.'
Wang Jie gave him one last glance.
Then looked away and walked past him without speaking.
He thought, quietly:
'There's no need to talk to fools.'
The guard gritted his teeth.
"Yeah, run along. Go beg for a job with those robes, maybe you'll get hired as a broom boy."
Jin Hao watched the scene from the screen, raising one eyebrow.
"This guy's proud of guarding a half-dead hallway with no traffic? Brother, you're one potato stall away from being replaced by a formation."
Wang Jie reached the large stone door and pushed it open.
Sunlight streamed in.
The outer world came into view.
And both Wang Jie and Jin Hao stared in silence.
Falling Wind City was there.
But it wasn't the city Wang Jie remembered.
It looked smaller now. Dirtier. Spirit light barely flowed along the roads. The qi in the air was thin. The buildings had cracks. Some rooftops had collapsed completely.
This wasn't a Tier 1 city.
It was a ghost of one.
Jin Hao's voice dropped.
"This was supposed to be one of the strongest cities in the cultivation world?"
Wang Jie stepped out from the teleportation hall.
The sun was bright, but the air didn't feel warm.
The city stretched ahead, wide and low. Most buildings were two or three stories at most, made of dull brown stone and faded tiles.
Spirit lanterns hung over the streets, but few of them were lit. Some were cracked. Others flickered weakly like dying fireflies.
He walked into the city's main road.
The tiles were uneven. Cracks split across the path. Dust blew with every step. On both sides, stalls sat mostly empty. The few that were still open sold poor-quality talismans, dry food, and brittle cultivation manuals that looked decades out of date.
Once, this was a place filled with Golden Core cultivators. Core experts had lived here. The teleportation gate alone had been worth a fortune. But now, even street vendors had dull spiritual energy.
Wang Jie narrowed his eyes.
This decline wasn't natural.
Even if the Jade Immortal Sect fell, that alone shouldn't have crippled the city. Cities had roots. Merchants. Foundations. There should have been backup support.
Unless someone had made sure it collapsed.
He thought quietly:
"After the sect fell, others must have moved in. To divide the leftovers. It was akin to carving up the corpse."
As he walked, figures moved toward him from the sides.
Dirty faces. Thin limbs. Torn robes and hollow eyes.
Beggars.
Some were older. Some younger. Some missing limbs. A few had burns, open scars, or broken fingers. They crowded the street corner, their voices low and raspy.
"Spare a pill, young master?"
"Just one spirit stone... I haven't eaten for days..."
"Help me, please—"
Wang Jie kept walking.
He didn't slow down. He didn't speak.
His face stayed calm, his gaze forward.
Jin Hao saw the scene from the comm-tab.
His eyebrows twitched.
He didn't say anything for a moment.
Then he muttered, "We don't have beggars anymore…"
The screen flickered as he adjusted the camera view.
"In our world," he went on, "everyone has a use. Soldier. Trader. Technician. Pilot. Even a trash sweeper needs a certification. No one starves. No one sleeps outside."
He sounded more uneasy the longer he spoke.
"We've conquered the whole Milky Way. But here…"
He looked at a boy in the corner chewing on dried bark.
"...This is how it still is."
Wang Jie kept walking. But then—
Thud.
A kid bumped into him.
He wore loose brown rags and no shoes. His arms were thin. His hair was a mess. He looked about ten.
"Sorry!" the boy said quickly, then slipped away into the crowd.
Wang Jie paused.
His hand moved to his side.
The pouch was gone.
His eyes narrowed.
Jin Hao leaned closer. "Wait. Did he just—?"
Wang Jie didn't move right away. Then he smiled a little. Just slightly.
"Interesting," he thought.
He turned, picked up his pace, and followed.
Jin Hao blinked. "Wait, what? Aren't you gonna get that back?"
He zoomed in with the camera.
The boy was fast. He turned corners quickly, darting past market stalls and down a tight side alley. The path twisted, dipped into a drainage trench, and came out near an old wall covered in moss.
The city here looked worse.
The streets were narrower. Trash lined the gutters. Cracked walls leaned in on each other like they were falling asleep. No guards. No lights. No qi formations. The spirit lines under the stone had long since dried up.
Slums.
The boy ran up a broken stone path and ducked under a half-hanging curtain.
Wang Jie followed carefully, his steps silent.
He reached the doorway and stopped.
Inside, the house was only one room. One wall had collapsed, replaced with old boards and sticks. There was no furniture, only mats. A pile of dry grass in the corner. Some leftover soup in a cracked bowl.
And a girl.
No—older than that. Maybe sixteen or seventeen. Pale skin. Thin lips. Her hair was tied back, but messy. She sat on the mat and leaned against the wall, wrapped in a torn blanket. Her breathing was shallow.
The boy knelt beside her and opened the pouch.
He pulled out a small bun and a low-grade healing pill, both of which Wang Jie had kept there in case of travel.
"I got something, sis," the boy said. "Eat a little. Just a little. Then I'll go look for more."
The girl didn't speak.
She reached out slowly and touched his hand.
Then, finally, she said:
"...You didn't get caught, right?"
The boy smiled.
"No one even noticed."
Outside, Wang Jie stood silently.
He didn't step inside.
He didn't move yet.
He only listened.
And the look in his eyes changed.
His attention was locked on the girl inside.
There was something strange about her.
Not her appearance. Not the way she moved. It wasn't anything obvious.
But something inside Wang Jie told him she wasn't normal.
It wasn't a feeling he could explain. Just a deep, low certainty in his gut. Like a hunter seeing a beast hiding behind leaves. Or a cultivator stepping into a silent forest and feeling something hold its breath.
That girl wasn't just sick.
She was something more.
And that alone made Wang Jie narrow his eyes.
He stepped back from the doorway slightly. He didn't plan to leave. He wanted to watch a bit longer. Maybe speak to them after. But first, he wanted to know what kind of people they were.
Inside, the boy handed over the pill and bun with both hands. The girl took the bun and placed it on her lap, but didn't eat it yet.
"You first," she said quietly.
"I'm not hungry," the boy lied.
"You always say that."
"It's true this time."
He smiled, but his eyes were tired.
Then—
The door slammed open.
It didn't creak. It didn't knock. It hit the wall so hard a piece of wood cracked and fell.
Wang Jie's eyes snapped toward it.
A large man ducked inside.
He was bald, with black skin like oiled stone and thick arms. A jagged scar ran across his nose. His robes were too small, stretched across his wide chest. Around his belt hung a curved dagger and a pouch heavy with coins.
The boy flinched.
He scrambled backward, his body instinctively moving to shield the girl.
The man grinned, showing yellow teeth.
"Here we are," he said. "Little worm, still crawling."
The boy didn't speak.
The man stepped forward and grabbed him by the collar.
"Where are your protection fees?"
His voice was low and casual. Like he was talking about the weather.
The boy struggled, kicking weakly.
"I—I don't have it yet!"
The man snorted and shook him once.
"You had enough to buy food. You had enough to live. But not enough to pay me? Huh?"
He looked toward the girl.
His eyes lingered too long.
Wang Jie, still standing outside, moved half a step forward.
He didn't enter yet.
But his fingers curled slowly.