Thirty paces away, the ancient path, the autumn wind, the emaciated donkey carrying coal, and the people on horseback were all within the remaining glow of the setting sun.
A huge fireball sunk in the west, disappearing into the mountains and forest, the warmth receding, the draft bringing an increasingly piercing chill to the skin.
The wooden stick at the tail end had a wild mountain chicken with a twisted broken neck attached, blood rolling down its beak, drip-dropping, drowned out by the tinkling of the donkey's bell.
"Don't go wandering off into the wilderness tonight, this is an abandoned field, overgrown with weeds and full of forks in the road, it'll be hard to see clearly in the dark and easy to get lost, and at night the poisonous insects and snakes in the grass come to life and can be deadly."
The words of the coal-carrying old man made sense, and though Mr. Mo Da and Sect Leader Yue were vigilant, they didn't notice anything unusual.
