The vast Gobi Desert was utterly barren. The ground had been compressed into a single slab of rock by intense high-pressure shockwaves, leaving this region a sterile wasteland where almost nothing had grown for centuries.
Yet no amount of desolation could dampen religious fervor. Devout believers would not halt their "pilgrimages" because of physical hardship.
Though the entire Gobi was scorching, dry, and filled with blowing dust and sand, fanatical nobles were still willing to spend their fortunes organizing caravans to transport supplies. They led every member of their families to wait through the night upon the desolate, cracked earth for the festival to begin.
By the time darkness shrouded the ground still radiating residual heat, no fewer than several million followers of the Red Sands Cult already stood solemnly within this "Sacred Canyon," a place cloaked in severity and terror.
Naturally, these believers did not know that the god they worshipped, "Smile," was watching the ceremony through the eyes of a devout noble. At that very moment, all of them gazed fervently toward the center of the Gobi.
Because there, the Redstone Plane's only master-level divine professional—the Red Sands Cult's only Priestess—was about to make her appearance.
Religions throughout the Multiverse were majestic and strictly hierarchical. In most religious rites, High Priests or popes served as the spokespeople of the gods. They ordinarily spread faith and renown on behalf of gods who found it inconvenient to act, and when grand sacrificial ceremonies were held, their appearances were inevitably sacred and the focus of all attention.
Thus, beneath the gazes of the crowd, a suddenly appearing scarlet storm swiftly blotted out the sky. A blood-red tide, like flowing blood, rapidly swept across the ground beneath everyone's feet. Torrential rain carrying the stench of blood poured down in crimson streaks, and