"...it feels unwell. This gate... something is wrong here." Really it's impressive how ominous those gates manage to be when the view is obscured by fog. "Do you think whoever has been leaving the dead animals is inside?"

"Where else? And it is odd..."

"There's not much else around here... I think this is the only city in the region. Otherwise it's just - tiny villages."

"An adventure, then!" She walks up to the gates, step cheerful.

The junior disciples flock after her, less cheerfully. The heavy gate doors creak open as slowly and menacingly as one could imagine, and then they are able to wander into some even denser fog and dust clouds. Some of them cough.

"We should all stay close together. If someone gets lost, we might not be able to see them."

"I agree - this fog's thick enough we might want to make sure no one gets stolen, either, or silently gets attacked... Frequent sound offs, or keep in contact with each other."

"Okay, good idea."

Nobody gets stolen, for the moment. They make it to a row of dusty houses, all technically intact but in unsettling states of disrepair. They can make out the shape of what seems to be an abandoned wagon. Ahead of them the path disappears quietly into the mist. The resentful energy in the air grows stronger, prickling at their skins.

"Jingyi? Are you still there?"

"Yeah..." Then, muttering: "Is the whole city deserted?"

"It does look like it. We could start knocking on doors and check?" Sizhui does not actually want to do that very much, but he doesn't know what else they can really do here. "At the very least, whoever killed the animals might be hiding in one of the houses..."

She looks around, analyzing the area. "I don't think it's fully empty." She crouches down. "It's more mud than dust, with all this fog - but see these little scrapes here? People have been about, recently and over a long time - but this dragged bit here... There might be walking dead in the area. No recent signs of animals, wild or domestic... Nor of carts. If there are living people, what are they eating? They don't trade with the farms nearby, and the road hasn't been maintained, besides. But! People did not flee this city; the farmers would have remarked on that. There are no signs of violence. If this is a city of the dead, where are the signs of the dying?"

"A mystery on top of an adventure, I think."

Sizhui would appreciate the mystery a lot more if he could see any better. It feels like danger could be lurking just feet away, or clues that they might miss...

"Maybe the animal-killer took the bodies away after he, or it, killed them? Or maybe it hid them somewhere. Where do you think we should look?"

Honestly they should probably try to leave but that's not the fun answer.

"There's places people tend to congregate when they're afraid - temples, administrative offices..."

"...If everyone here's dead, should we leave and - make sure somebody knows? The resentful energy of an entire city would be..."

"We should leave and get Hanguang Jun first," he agrees. "Jin Ling said he saw him in town close by; we should be able to find him. Do you agree, Lady Liu?"

"That wouldn't hurt - backup's good, and warning people outside of here is good, too."

They count off once again, and then the entire group turns around to head back. They walk ahead into the mist.

Somehow the fog seems to get thicker and thicker the more they walk, until they can barely make out the shapes of houses any longer. They certainly can't make out the gate, where it should be before them. The juniors huddle together and continue on. 

"I could swear that we've been walking back longer than we spent going ahead."

"I think we have been, too... Stay wary." She keeps her hand on the hilt of her sword - not drawing it yet, but ready to. It can't cut her allies, so it won't be too dangerous to use even in circumstances like this, everyone clustered together and blinded...

"...We shouldn't have left Fairy behind..." Jin Ling murmurs.

They stay wary. After five more minutes, they have definitely been walking longer in this direction. 

Nothing attacks them, but when they pause to confer about the bizarre walking distance things that are happening they can all hear a quiet tapping from somewhere nearby.

"Does everyone else hear that?"

"Yeah..." 

"...Yup!"

"Hello?" she calls, towards the sound. 

She receives no answer, but the tapping sound moves haltingly closer. Some of the disciples make unhappy noises about this.

Whatever that is - it doesn't feel resentful, at least not towards them...

"A sign someone else is here, at least..." she murmurs.

"I think, perhaps one of us should try flying? Whatever enchantment is warping our path, or our perceptions... it is possible that it won't affect us if we get higher."