In the distance, the clamor of people queuing for missions at the Adventurers Guild entrance drifted over, while in the tavern, someone was loudly boasting about killing a few Skeleton Soldiers in the Dungeon yesterday.

Nearby, insects chirped in the grass at the corner of the courtyard wall, their calls soft and intermittent.

Lin Feng closed his eyes and mentally reviewed tonight's route: 150 li north of Xinyue County, Tianji Mountain, the cave where the Nightmare Corrupt Dragon Beast resided.

Jiang Yelan stood up and poured two bowls of tea, pushing one in front of Lin Feng while holding the other herself, sipping slowly.

As she drank, her gaze rested on the rim of the bowl before she stole a glance toward Lin Feng, seeing only his profile before looking down again.

Lin Feng picked it up and took a sip; it was mint tea, cool and refreshing, the chill traveling from his throat all the way to his stomach.

At dusk, the sky gradually darkened.

Lin Feng opened his eyes and found that Jiang Yelan had stood up at some point, leaning against the courtyard wall and gazing at the western sky.

"Come out with me in a bit," Lin Feng said.

"Okay," Jiang Yelan replied without looking back.

Lin Feng stood up, walked over to her side, and glanced at her. "Aren't you going to ask where we're going?"

Jiang Yelan was silent for a moment, then shook her head. "If you want me to follow, I'll follow. It's the same regardless of where we go."

Lin Feng paused for a moment, then smiled.

The sky turned completely dark, and the magic lamps of Lucky Town lit up one by one. An orange glow drifted over from the commercial district, casting the courtyard walls in half-light and half-shadow.

Lin Feng patted the hem of his clothes. "It's about time."

Jiang Yelan stood up, hung her shadow moon blade back at her waist, and walked over to him.

The two of them walked out of the courtyard side by side.

She walked on Lin Feng's right side, exactly an arm's length away—neither too far nor too close.

...

Night completely shrouded the wilderness.

Lin Feng and Jiang Yelan set out from the north gate of Lucky Town; by the time they stepped out of the city gates, the twilight had faded entirely into darkness.

The waves of grass on the Golden Ear Plain rustled in the night wind, and the stars overhead lit up one by one, like diamonds scattered carelessly across the sky.

Maintaining a speed of twenty meters per second, the two of them sped toward the northeast.

There was no conversation, only the sound of the wind and their footsteps.

Jiang Yelan followed half a step behind him, her shadow moon blade swaying gently at her waist.

150 li north of Xinyue County: the Tiansji Mountains.

After running for about two hours, a black silhouette rose from the horizon ahead.

It wasn't a city wall or a hill; it was a mountain—a continuous, steep range «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» of peaks resembling the spine of a giant dragon.

They had reached the Tiansji Mountains.

The Tiansji Mountains were one of the famous major mountain ranges in the South Pole Region, winding from the southeast to the northeast, stretching for nearly a thousand li, and reaching a width of a hundred li at its broadest point.

The main peak pierced the clouds, its summit capped with perpetual snow, while the area below the mountainside was covered in dense, dark coniferous forests, filled with cliffs, deep valleys, and streams.

The mountain was primarily composed of granite, hard in texture, which had weathered into numerous jagged rocks and steep precipices.

Chasing the moonlight across the last stretch of hills, Lin Feng came to a halt.

Before them was a nearly vertical rock face; the stone was dark and heavy, covered in cracks and moss, its peak lost to sight.

With a kick of his feet, he vaulted into the air, with Jiang Yelan following closely behind.

The two rose to a height of about three hundred meters, the rock wall flashing past them, occasionally dotted with protruding rocks and twisted pines growing from the crevices.

The wind was strong, causing Jiang Yelan's ponytail to flutter behind her, but both of their bodies remained steady, as if pinned in mid-air.

After ascending three hundred meters, the slope of the rock wall leveled out slightly, changing from vertical to a steep incline of seventy or eighty degrees, its surface covered in gravel and low shrubs.

Lin Feng lowered his altitude and flew close to the ridge, his gaze scanning the rocks and thickets.

The cave entrance should be on the north side of this ridge—leeward, concealed, and surrounded by decaying vegetation and toxic mist.

He searched northward along the ridge for about twenty minutes before spotting several dead pine trees on the back of a precipice.

They hadn't been killed by fire; something had corroded them from the roots. The trunks were blackened, the bark peeling away to reveal the grayish-white rotting wood inside.

Several clumps of dark purple moss grew on the ground around the dead trees; unlike the Moon-Tear Moss of the Dungeon, this moss had thick, fleshy leaves and emitted a faint stench of decay.

"It's nearby," Lin Feng said in a low voice.

The two landed and began searching on foot.

The levels of the nightmare creatures in the mountains were generally not low: Level 10 Mountain Wolves, Level 15 Rock-Armor Lizards, and occasionally, Level 20 Blood-Feathered Eagles could be seen flying overhead.

Most of these creatures actively avoided Lin Feng and Jiang Yelan as they walked along the ridge, not daring to approach.

A Rock-Armor Lizard blocked the middle of the path. It was about the size of a calf, its back covered in grayish-black scales, lying on a rock. Seeing Lin Feng approach, it opened its mouth and hissed, revealing rows of fine teeth.

Jiang Yelan didn't even glance at it. Her shadow moon blade left its sheath by half an inch, its dark purple coating reflecting the moonlight.

The Rock-Armor Lizard's hissing stopped abruptly. Its body froze before it suddenly slid off the rock, scrambling into a crevice with all four claws, the tip of its tail still trembling.

After walking for another forty minutes, Lin Feng stopped before a recessed rock wall.

The cave entrance wasn't large, about two meters high and three meters wide, with jagged edges that looked as if they had been torn out from the inside of the mountain.

Not a single blade of grass grew on the ground around the entrance; grayish-white gravel and black soil were mixed together, emitting a strong odor of sulfur and rotting meat.

Lin Feng checked the time: 10:09 PM.

The Eye of Probability had already refreshed.

He stepped into the cave entrance, Jiang Yelan following behind, her shadow moon blade silently unsheathed.

After walking about a hundred steps through a narrow passage, the space suddenly opened up.

A dragon's lair!

It was a massive underground space, over two hundred meters long and nearly a hundred meters high, its ceiling covered with stalactites.

Droplets occasionally fell from the tips of the stalactites, hitting the ground and creating crisp echoes in the vast cavern.

In the very center of the cave, the Nightmare Corrupt Dragon Beast lay sprawled atop a large pile of energy crystals.

Its size was larger than Lin Feng had anticipated; excluding the tail, it was nearly ten meters long from its nose to its rump.

Its tail was nearly another two meters long, the end swelling into a bone club covered in spikes.

Its entire body was covered in grayish-black scales, their edges emitting a dark green fluorescence that pulsed in sync with the flickering light in the cave.

Its head looked like a cross between a lizard and a bat, with a short, wide snout that constantly puffed out dark green mist from its nostrils.

With every breath, the mist spread from the center of the cave to the surroundings, making the air smell even fouler.