Under the dim sky.
Beside the eerie ancient mansion, faint rustling sounds echoed. The group lit lanterns and began digging beneath a pitch-black, grotesque old tree in the soil below. Judging by appearances, they had been at it for some time.
A pit gradually appeared before their eyes.
The soil within the pit was also blackened, exuding an odor of decay, as if mixed with blood to form a rotting, corrupted substance.
This soil seemed somewhat familiar to Yang Jian—like the Grave Soil from Fushou Garden in Dahai City.
It was a mixture of mud and flesh, far from ordinary soil.
The earth was loose and disorderly; using the simplest tools, the group easily excavated it. Once they had dug roughly a meter deep, the outline of a twisted corpse emerged. The decomposing body reeked, tangled with tree roots, as if the tree had thrived on the corpse's nutrients.
The corpse was eerie, and the tree grew exceptionally strange.
