0257 - Gate? What Gate?

But it didn't need them.

It radiated power. Brutal, honest, unrefined.

As they got closer, the wide dirt road leading up to this massive gate was jammed full of chaos. On both sides of the road, tents were crammed together.

Hundreds, no, thousands, of makeshift shelters built from whatever people could find: ripped hides, scraps of wood, patched cloth, even pieces of broken carts.

"Slums?"

Smoke rose from cookfires. Dirty kids ran barefoot through the mud. Adults sat slumped outside their tents, hollow-eyed and dead quiet.

"What the hell is this?" Lu Sheng muttered, squinting at the mess. "Lu Qing?"

Lu Qing rode up beside him, eyes narrowing. Horse Head snorted but kept walking steady.

"I... I don't know, Young Master," he said slowly. "When I last passed through this region, centuries ago, Shattered Soul Sanctuary was a fortress for the worst of the worst. It never allowed this kind of... chaos outside its gates."