Is That A Wisp?

They flew over the excavated city as Krune decided to ponder over everything. He didn't like scenes of desolation, even if planned evacuation was its cause. Even then, the act of uprooting all the essence of nature in an entire region didn't feel right to him.

The earth veins, Godly Energy veins, mineral veins, everything was interconnected and nurtured one another to create the environment of the region. But now, the city that existed in the place had vanished after taking away everything of value from the place. 

Such an act ticked him off since Krune didn't like the act of plundering. Of course, he knew that it was done by the people for survival, but they went overboard by crippling the environment they had depended on for thousands of years for survival.

"At least, they didn't sacrifice the people," Cultivator said after a bit of thought as his ring spirit flew past the entire region. The density of Godly Energy in the air soon recovered to normal as they traveled farther away from the area.

After that, they spent three days flying nonstop, treading through three danger zones. Eventually, they arrived at the demon beast territory, the Fruitless Swamp. In contrast to their expectations, the demon beast territory had entirely vanished. 

The only thing that remained behind was a tiny sludge at one corner of the region that had been entirely excavated. Upon seeing the scene, Krune sighed as he muttered, "Here as well, huh. At the very least, the demon beasts here hadn't been slaughtered."

"Probably." Cultivator nodded as they flew past the region, feeling that the atmosphere in the area was somewhat gloomy. Demon beast territories ought to have been like what they were advertised, places where demon beasts roamed in their true forms and the law of the jungle was followed. 

But right now, when forced to choose between death and their lifestyles, the demon beasts chose the latter and escaped with their region, leaving behind a barren wasteland. Krune used his Divine Sense on the area, noticing how the laws were in total disarray.

Although it was in disarray, it wasn't permanent. Krune noticed how the laws in the adjacent areas converged into the barren wastelands in an effort to heal the damaged region.

They reformed the balance of laws in the area and began to pump in Godly Energy from other places. Slowly but surely, they were mending the damage. Though, Krune was unable to guess just how millennia it would take for the place to recover to its previous state.

Moreover, he was unsure if it would even recover to its previous state. After all, the laws in the area had changed a lot. 

"The next place is something I'm quite anticipating to check out," Cultivator said as his heart lightly thumped, feeling trepidation based on the desolate scenes the two had been flying across.

"What's the specialty of that place?" Krune expressed his curiosity, feeling that it would be better to talk and take his mind off the gloomy scenes. 

"It's a massive lake. Surprisingly, the lake water is always still there. On top of that, neither wind nor any demon beasts are within the water," he smiled as he replied, recalling the description he had read about.

"The demon beasts there don't live in the water?" Krune was surprised to hear that. He soon asked, "If they aren't water-based creatures, then why are they living near that lake in the first place?"

"It's because of a mysterious phenomenon that happens in the lake." Cultivator smiled as he started to explain the peculiarity of the area. "Every day, for a certain duration that is always random, bubbles appear from the lake water and transform into all shapes of demon beasts. Surprisingly, those faux demon beasts are rich in Godly Energy. If a demon beast swallows a bubble that looks similar to it, its cultivation base would experience a slight increase."

"On top of that, this increase is equivalent to a week's worth of painstaking cultivation." Cultivator sighed as he expressed his admiration. "So, a lot of demon beasts live in this area to cultivate faster. Plus, since the bubbles fly away pretty fast and only exist for less than a minute before bursting, it's always a festival in the area. Demon beasts always compete against each other for the bubbles."

"That sounds like a fun place," Krune nodded as he responded.

"Indeed," Cultivator laughed as he continued. "Moreover, the stillness of the lake is mysterious since the surface acts like gelatin, allowing us to walk over it. It's kind of like a spring and inhibits a demon beast's violence, so it adds more fun to the place."

"Man, I kind of want to participate in that, haha." Krune laughed as he was gradually looking forward to it.

"Also, this place isn't something that could be excavated. If it was possible, they wouldn't have left such a treasure as is for all these years," Cultivator said as his expression soon changed. The ring spirit traveled for another day before arriving above the demon beast territory, Windless Lake.

And, as they had expected, the Windless Lake was a mysterious location that couldn't be excavated. In other words, it was still present in the area. Though surprisingly, it was heavily damaged. 

Cultivator frowned as the air around him trembled. Krune immediately heard numerous voices of concern emit from the pouch as Cultivator took in a deep breath.

This was the first time Krune had seen Cultivator beget genuinely angry at something. Of course, he could relate with him as he was also getting angry upon looking at the landscape.

More than three immortals had unleashed their Land Incarnations and messed up the laws in the area, causing irreparable damage to the Windless Lake. Right now, it was just a swampy mush that emitted pungent bubbles that burst within a couple of seconds.

Not only that but the concentration of Godly Energy in it was pitiful, far inferior even when compared to the other places. Moreover, faint poison circulated within the bubbles, turning them dangerous to be swallowed by cultivators. 

Cultivator jumped from the ring spirit and landed on the ground with a thud. He arrived before the swampy mush as he dipped his hand into it, seeing the poison in it creep up his arm. He emitted a faint green light before dispelling the poison, noticing the fairly concentrated Godly Energy that remained behind.

After a sigh of relief, he commented, "Phew. They actually didn't cripple this place. They only ensured to keep this place damaged for a set duration."

He then sensed the area using his Divine Sense as he went around, inspecting the region for a couple of hours before relaying his conjecture, "Based on my guess, this place would start recovering after a century and would return to its pristine condition within two to three centuries. In other words, it's not permanently damaged."

"Good play, Zamuria." Cultivator laughed as he said, "You just saved yourself from getting destroyed by me."

Unwilling to damage the place any further, Cultivator controlled himself as he took in deep breaths. After some time passed, he jumped and landed on the ring spirit, making it fly once again. 

"Sorry about that," Cultivator said after some time had passed, expressing his apology. "I appraised the place, only to make you see this."

"It's fine. I thought something like this might happen," Krune sighed with a hint of melancholy as he replied. "This is a valuable resource point, after all. Enemy troops would be able to rest and recover their Godly Energy using this place. So, it's no wonder the Zamuria Empire did this."

"I can understand their situation," Cultivator said as he patted his pouch, causing the voices from within to die down. "Though, that doesn't mean I can relate to their actions."

"Let's…just focus on reaching Huken City, then," Krune said as he looked over, noticing even the terrain below had been considerably damaged. Anything of value was already taken. In the end, there was nothing they could do at the moment. At the very least, the area would recover by itself after.

The leftovers were things whose value wasn't worth spending their time upon. Thus, the army hadn't bothered to disturb them. Then again, everything was relative. So, even the rock with the least value was still valuable to weak soldiers in the army, so they looted it in turn.

As it wasn't of much value, the higher-ups let it slide, allowing the soldiers to pocket them. This way, the soldiers were happy, and the higher-ups let it slide since it increased their army morale. The end result of that was what lay before Krune.

After a couple of days, they came across a mountain, and situated atop it was a small city. Surprisingly, it was still there as the terrain was steep and treacherous. 

There only existed one way to enter and leave the city.

As the ring spirit flew over, they noticed people in the city were in a rush. Most of the shops were being closed as the shopkeepers stuffed all their goods in their respective storage rings. When they were a certain height away, Cultivator retracted the ring spirit, causing the two of them to fall towards the ground.

Thanks to their constitutions, they landed safely. Unsurprisingly, the loud thud caused by their fall startled the merchants, who looked their way immediately.

Banking on their imposing entry, Cultivator looked at a nearby merchant and asked, "Why are you guys leaving all of a sudden?"

"Sir…are you…"

Krune understood the issue at hand and eased the merchant's worries, "We're part of this continent."

"Thank heavens." The merchant heaved a sigh of relief as he pointed at a massive crater in the center of their city, soon explaining, "Recently, too many cultivators have been coming to the Four Sector's Border Region because of the Sub-Realm. We judged it was still a good time to maintain our business. After all, we still had some more time to flee before the massive war erupts."

"But..." His tone turned sad as he continued, "Some foreign cultivators appeared here, killed our entire band of guards, and even looted all our precious goods. When they left, another batch came and stole many other goods."

"And finally..." He shivered in fear as he stammered, "The third group looted us of all our God Stones. If we stay any longer, even going into debt wouldn't allow us to make a living anymore."

After saying his piece, the merchant began to bawl like a baby. Hearing his cries, the other merchants also shed tears of injustice. But no matter what, they set their feelings aside and packed their belongings, forced to vacate the city they had built from scratch.