Hai Bodong fell silent for a moment. His gaze settled on the area marked as oasis towns, now nothing but yellow sand, and he slowly spoke.
"Well... I have heard a legend about it."
Qin Han looked up at him.
"It happened many years ago."
Hai Bodong's thick white eyebrows knitted together, as though he were recalling some ancient tale. "They say that on that night, the Tagor Desert wasn't a desert yet. Someone saw the horizon suddenly burst into flames."
"The yellow sand began blowing that very night. It filled the sky, blotted out the clouds and sun, and made everything within a thousand miles tremble.
"Some said an earth dragon had stirred. Others said heavenly punishment had descended."
Qin Han's heart gave a slight jolt.
"After that night, the oases were gone, the towns were gone, the lakes had dried up, and the mountains had collapsed."
Hai Bodong pointed at the green areas on the map. "Here, here, and here—all gone. Nothing remained but sand, stretching as far as the eye could see. From then on, the Tagor Desert became what it is today."
He shook his head. "I only found these accounts later, while poring over ancient texts. Unfortunately, it happened so long ago that everyone who witnessed it had long since died. These scraps were all that survived."
After hearing him out, Qin Han remained silent for a long while.
Yellow sand filling the sky, flames blotting out the sun, an oasis turning into a wasteland overnight...
The markings on Han Feng's map flashed through his mind, along with what he remembered about the Wind Fury Dragon Flame: fire rode the wind, and wind fed the fire.
In a single night, everything within a thousand miles had been reduced to scorched earth.
This was no earth