There were no roads in the Dead Silence Sand Sea.
Beneath their feet lay black sand.
The grains were coarse and gritty. Stepping on them did not feel like stepping on sand, but on obsidian ground to powder.
With every step, the sand gave a faint cracking sound, as though they were treading on countless tiny bone shards.
The wind was hot, blowing in from the west with a dry, decaying smell—not the stench of death, but something older than death itself.
This sea of sand had been a forbidden land even before the Shadow Council occupied it. Ancient cultivators had once sealed something here. Time had worn away the traces of that seal, but its aura still seeped through every grain of black sand.
Four people, three horses—Cold Water's horse had been poisoned by the death aura at the edge of the sand sea on the third day after passing Shattered Star Pass. They had no choice but to abandon it and continue on foot.
Cold Water had never ridden a horse, nor did he wish to get too close to living creatures. He had volunteered to walk.
Tuoba Shan offered him his own horse, but he refused, saying that Ice Soul Sect disciples were not afraid of heat and would not die after walking through the sand for a few days. Tuoba Shan did not press him further and simply tossed him a waterskin.
"How much farther?" Tuoba Shan drew his fifth blade and planted it in the sand before him. The blade reflected the image of the distant tower.
Cold Water narrowed his eyes at the black line on the horizon.
"It looks close, but it'll still take another two days on foot. The concentration of death aura in the Dead Silence Sand Sea gradually deepens from