Goblin Dependency

Grey Valley, as the name suggests, a gray valley.

The fierce wind howls between the empty valleys, fine stone dust drifting in the air.

The ground, the stone walls, and even the sky covered in dust—everywhere the eye can see is a shade of gray-black.

The undulating hills resemble frozen waves, layer upon layer surging from the edge of the horizon at the end of sight, transforming into a hard and lifeless gray, falling solidly before them, swallowing all vitality.

Xia Nan reached out his hand, gently rubbing the gray stone walls beside him, feeling the cold, rough texture on his fingertips.

He couldn't help but compare the ashen valley before him with the stones of the goblin nest and the lime on the "Dampening Coin".

It was indeed the same color.

"Are you familiar with this valley?"

He casually asked the question to Leon beside him.

"This is my first time here too." The young man looked particularly nervous, his body tense to the point of rigidity, his hands tightly gripping his worn iron sword. "Mr. Xia Nan, please be careful."

"I heard that there is a group of dangerous demons dwelling here. Ever since I can remember, I've been warned that 'Grey Valley' is a forbidden area. Even the most mischievous children in the village dare not approach."

Upon hearing this, Xia Nan nodded thoughtfully. He suddenly noticed that there seemed to be a very faint mist drifting in the air and frowned:

"Have you ever heard the village elders mention anything about this mist in the valley?"

The white mist was too faint, and Leon only noticed it after Xia Nan's reminder.

He just shook his head, indicating that he had no relevant information.

The description of the "Dampening Old Coin" on the attribute panel made Xia Nan somewhat concerned, and having stayed in Grey Valley Village for several days without any clues from what Vier mentioned could be of help, some thoughts arose in his mind.

Recalling the information about the demons living in the valley introduced by Leon, he waved to the young man beside him:

"Stay close, let's go a little further."

The two continued to delve deeper.

The environment within Grey Valley was not much different from what Xia Nan had imagined.

There was basically no vegetation to be seen, gray rocks filled every corner of sight.

Not even a single creature was spotted, only the shrill wind echoes eerily between the stone walls.

What was noteworthy was that as the two went further into the valley, the originally faint mist in the air also gradually began to thicken.

Xia Nan did not sense an unusual concentration of magic particles in it, clearly indicating that these mists were fundamentally different from those in the air of the Mist Forest.

It was a "natural phenomenon" of the valley, not a manifestation of highly concentrated magic particles.

"Is it truly natural?" He felt a faint sense of unease, but without any significant discoveries, it was difficult to draw any conclusions rashly.

Suddenly, a touch of unusual brownish-white caught his eye amid the ashen-filled view.

It was a half column pointing straight toward the gray sky, a broken stone pillar that should have supported a grand dome.

Now it stood abruptly in the depths of the valley, shrouded in thick fog, faintly visible, revealing a blurry outline.

It was the ruin of a large building.

Centering around that solitary standing stone pillar, it was a piece of the collapsed magnificence of broken building materials, bricks, planks, hanging fabrics... perhaps once vibrant with color, now stained by an indelible pale ash by the valley.

Only a few originally sturdy creations that could withstand the ravages of time retained some semblance of their original state.

A severed giant stone-sculpted hand that could envelop an ordinary person's head, with the little finger missing, and only half of the ring finger remaining, yet one could still capture the expression of despair the sculptor intended to convey through the remaining three twisted fingers reaching out powerlessly to the sky;

Not far away was a half-broken plaster human face, leaning obliquely against a broken wall, its only remaining hollow eye staring into the valley, its mouth's gentle smile, which should have been enchanting, now appearing empty and eerie under the cracks and ash covering it.

Xia Nan furrowed his brows, scanning the ruins.

"Have you heard the adults in the village mention these things?"

"No, Mr. Xia Nan, nothing at all." Leon stuck close behind, his face even paler under the shroud of mist.

After all, he was just a fifteen-year-old boy who had grown up in a remote village, and the experience in the goblin nest earlier had already been a tremendous shock for him.

Now, facing such a bizarre scene in an environment warned against by elders since childhood, Leon being able to think straight and respond to Xia Nan's questions was already his limit.

Observing his expression, Xia Nan did not press further, planning to ask the village elders about detailed information on these ruins once they returned.

His gaze paused unwittingly.

He stepped forward a couple of steps, moving a small slate on the ground aside.

He bent down.

In the next moment, he picked up a dusty, worn candlestick from the ground, covered in the same lime.

He retrieved a water pouch from his waist, rinsing it downwards with fresh water.

The candlestick was much larger in size compared to the half coin, and the drinking water Xia Nan carried with him was limited. In the end, he could only manage to wash off some of the surface stone dust, revealing partial details.

Its base was made of six twisted copper leaves, the bowl-like wax trough above had become warped from long-term exposure to high temperatures, resembling withered petals curling inward;