The Village

Alex stood next to the bubbling volcano, atop the mountain and looked at the village ahead of him through Whisker's eyes. He had already stopped using his spiritual sense to not alert any Saint-ranked cultivator that might be in there.

The village had about 100 different stone houses each with 2 to 3 rooms at most. It was night, so the village itself was silent for the most part.

There were no walls surrounding the village or roads leading anywhere. Even if they were, the roads had already been buried under the snow.

The houses were scattered under the volcanic mountain, on the other side from where Alex had just come.

Alex saw lantern artifacts all over the village glowing in the night, but that didn't say if there were cultivators here. For all he knew, these people could be normal mortals that just acquired lanterns that worked with spirit stones with maybe a person or two to activate it.