Backtracking

Around them, the wind blew gently and the skies were clear.

"Is this another timeline?"

He looked around him and saw that Jiese and Tantai Guihu were nowhere to be seen.

Just a short while ago, the curse had altered its nature when it was clear that the ghost swarm was no match for Fang Yuan.

"Specifically, the curse has placed us in different timelines so that it can deal with us separately…"

The village of a year ago, or even the village the day before would be an entirely different one from the village of the present. Any alliance, however strong, would be rendered useless if the curse were to isolate its members.

Fang Yuan suspected that Chen He, who had disappeared right at the start, had been thrown into one of these alternate timelines. Given his abilities, he was probably dead by now.

Except that with regards to this curse, death was not the way out. In fact, death would be the beginning of a nightmare!