Chaotic Ancient Years.
The lone smoke rose straight over the desert; the setting sun hung round over the long river!
This was an endless Gobi Desert, desolate and ancient. In the distance, a massive blood-red sun pressed down upon the wasteland, its scarlet radiance bewitchingly vivid.
The scenery here was rugged and unrestrained.
Many flames still burned across the Gobi, beacon fires lit by cultivators countless tens of thousands of years ago.
A great river also ran through the Gobi, surging without end, never drying up from antiquity to the present. On closer inspection, one would find that it was not ordinary water at all, but crimson, like a Blood River.
Legend had it that this river was a branch of the Yellow Springs. Its waters had once been yellow, but were dyed red by blood and had never returned to their original color through countless years.
Splash! Splash!
The crimson river surged onward, kicking up scarlet waves. Occasionally, skeletons surfaced from the water. These bones came in every color: jade-white bones, bones glinting with metallic luster, and bones as black as ink.
No one knew how many skeletons lay here, just as no one knew how many cultivators had died here. Even now, immortal Dao auras lingered upon many of the remains; they were clearly the relics of True Immortals.
This was the greatest battlefield between the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands and the Foreign Realm. The two worlds had clashed here for millions of years, standing opposed since the Immortal Ancient Era and fighting until the present day. Even Immortal Kings had fought bloody battles here.
It was not only the Blood River. The vast Gobi itself was also covered in skeletons. Many grains of sand had even formed from bones that had decayed into dust.
Whoosh!
A