Chapter 45

The gray-black Gobi was covered in scattered rocks. Here and there, weeds or shrubs grew among them, all stunted and low, like people hunched over and crawling on the ground, crushed beneath the weight of life.

Looking into the distance, near the northwestern horizon, the towering Desolate Mountains were no more than a long, dark shadow between earth and sky. In every other direction, all one could see was blue sky and black earth. The farther away they were, the less blue the sky and the less black the ground became, until at last both were gray, blending into a hazy expanse where it was impossible to tell sky from earth.

This was the Great Gobi, one of the Main Plane's three great deserts.

On this continent, known as the Main Plane, there were deserts both large and small. Three of them were especially vast, lying in the northwest, northeast, and southeast of the continent.

The northwestern desert was called the Great Gobi. It was known for its countless rocks, and apart from the central desert, most of it had little sand at all, consisting instead of gray-black, stony wasteland. It was plagued by violent winds and sandstorms. When a sandstorm known as a "Black Storm" arose, even legendary powerhouses had to flee. The desert completely divided the Desolate Mountains to the west from the Wilderness Empire to the east. Only the most reckless merchants dared attempt to cross it, relying on weather-predicting spells in pursuit of immense profits—though most of them vanished without a trace after setting out.

The northeastern desert was called the Dead Meteor Desert. Long and narrow, it stretched along the coast, with the Dragon Mountains to the north and its southern reaches extending into the Blue Moon Kingdom. It neatly separated the Holy Angel Kingdom from the sea. According to legend, this desert had not existed in ancient times. The armies of the Holy Angel Kingdom and the sea folk had fought a fierce battle along this narrow stretch of coast, and the gods of both sides had joined the fray. After a cataclysmic clash, hundreds of miles of coastline had turned into a gray-yellow desert. Even today, people often found enormous skeletons and broken weapons in its sands, and all manner of terrifying monsters roamed there. That was how it had earned its name, the "Dead Meteor" Desert.

The desert in the southeast was called the Golden Desert, and it was the least threatening of the three. It had neither terrifying sandstorms nor fearsome monsters, just a brilliant blue sky and golden sands. Its grains were so fine that they glittered like gold beneath the sun. Standing at the desert's edge to watch the sun rise or set over the horizon, where sky met sand, was a sight famed throughout the world. Yet the desert was utterly barren, with almost no sources of water. Even with spells to pinpoint one's location and prevent getting lost, the heat and thirst alone could prove fatal.

To reach the Arcane Tower Federation, Sui Xiong first had to cross the Desolate Mountains, then travel through a stretch of the Great Gobi, follow the Gray Stone Mountains south, cross the Ancient Wood Wild Swamp, climb over the Cloud-Breaking Mountains, and then pass through the Primeval Forest.

The route was perilous at every turn. Anyone ordinary enough to attempt it had to be out of their mind, and even veteran adventurers paled at the thought. Under normal circumstances, the safest way to travel from the Arcane Tower Federation to the Four Northwest Towns was to sail out to sea, follow the coastline, then travel overland from the north of the Gold Coin Federation, crossing the gap south of the Desolate Mountains to reach Rye Town.

But that route meant taking a massive detour, and sea travel came with plenty of risks of its own. Sui Xiong wasn't afraid of the dangers at sea, but he wasn't afraid of those on land either. Besides, he was flying, not walking, so rough terrain would barely affect him. After some consideration, he chose to take the straight route.

After all... the shortest distance between two points was a straight line.

Taking the straight route was a privilege reserved for the powerful.

Sui Xiong's avatar floated about a hundred meters in the air, flying south, slightly eastward, at an unhurried pace. Every so often, he stopped to use a spell to determine his current coordinates, then continued on.

He was headed for a small city in the central-western part of the Arcane Tower Federation called Golden Tower. It was named after a golden magic tower that stood in the city center. The Arcane Tower Federation was, at its core, a federation of towns built around magic towers. The residents were all mages' servants and apprentices, and anyone who held public office was either a spellcaster or a spellcaster's relative. That was how the country had earned its name, the Mage Nation.

But that was how things had been when the federation was first founded. After centuries of upheaval, the Mage Nation was no longer so pure, and had gained a great many bureaucrats and nobles.

Take the relatives of high-ranking mages, for example. Surely they deserved positions and power. And the apprentices of legendary mages' apprentices had to be given somewhere to settle. The previous generation had worked hard, so naturally the next generation should inherit its power and status...

Satan had once been a gifted young man from Golden Tower City, with a bright future ahead of him. But after he clashed with a boy who had little talent for magic but whose grandfather was a high-ranking mage, his prospects dimmed. After spending some time running into obstacles at every turn, he finally gave up on the dream of building a life in his hometown and left to become an adventurer.

That had been... nearly ten years ago.

Ten years of wandering and adventuring had taken the awkwardness of youth from him and turned him into a young but seasoned adventurer. He had also reached the level of an intermediate mage.

But if he hadn't been forced to leave home back then, perhaps he would have reached his current level in only five years.

When Satan spoke of the matter, he seemed at first glance to have put the old grudges behind him, but through his soul's connection to him, Sui Xiong could clearly feel the resentment and bitterness in his heart.

After all... his only mistake back then had been helping someone he shouldn't have helped and interrupting that young master's fun.

Satan had never told him any of this. But since he had already come to believe in Sui Xiong, his heart was open to him. When those painful memories surged through his mind like a tide, Sui Xiong saw every scene as clearly as if he had been there, without even having to deliberately peer into Satan's thoughts.

So he quietly made up his mind to help his believer settle the score during this trip.

No, even if Satan weren't his believer, now that Sui Xiong knew about it, he wouldn't ignore it.

When the road was unfair, someone stepped in. When injustice was done, someone handled it. And if nobody else would, then the Great Jellyfish would.

Well, the Great Jellyfish was on the move now, wasn't he?

Perhaps he was exceptionally lucky. Sui Xiong had flown through the sky for nearly an entire day and had already reached the edge of the Great Gobi. After all, he didn't need to cross the whole desert, only pass through a stretch near its outskirts.

The sun had set beyond the horizon. Without its warmth, the ground was cooling rapidly. The Great Gobi's nights were every bit as cold as the northern ice fields.

But night had its drawbacks and its advantages. In the freezing darkness, most poisonous insects fell asleep, and the most dangerous sandstorms rarely arose. As long as one stayed alert for monsters that came out at night, traveling by night and resting by day could actually be safer.

Sui Xiong hovered quietly in the air. He didn't need to rest, but long habit had made him enjoy resting when night fell, savoring the sleep he had once needed as a human.

The moon was bright tonight. The floating jellyfish spread its body as wide as it could, soaking up the moonlight while it rested. A vast vortex of magic gathered around it, drawing in magic from hundreds of meters away. Any creature with magical vision that looked up at the sky would surely be startled by the strange sight.

For Sui Xiong, this was rest, a meal, and cultivation all at once.

As he quietly enjoyed his rest, he suddenly heard the sound of people running across the ground below. Looking toward the noise, he saw a group of panicked people fleeing from a black-clad man riding a One-Horned Swift Dragon.

Sui Xiong froze. He was about to rush down and save them, but then stopped.

He noticed that more than one of the people being chased wore a strange necklace around their necks, strung with little bones. The one surrounded by the others, apparently their leader, wore a necklace made from a string of human finger bones!

He spread out the tendrils of his soul. Through his divine sight, Sui Xiong saw the weeping souls clinging to the necklaces, wailing, unable to leave.

"Hunters... believers of the God of Hunting and Slaughter. Evildoers who hunt 'people' as their prey, many of them also work as assassins..." As a common evil faction, they were easy for Sui Xiong to recognize. The "Hunter necklaces" around their necks were unmistakable evidence; anyone with adventuring experience would know what they were.

Sui Xiong had no adventuring experience, but the records of the God of Redemption also mentioned this evil organization. They were the most vicious sect among the followers of the God of Hunting and Slaughter, subscribing to the absurd belief that "hunting their own kind pleases the gods." They delighted in killing their fellow people and performing cruel blood sacrifices. The necklaces around their necks were made from the remains of their victims and sacrifices. With the necklaces' power, they bound and tortured the dead, treating them as symbols of honor and strength. In time, they had even developed several quite powerful spells from this practice.

There was no doubt about it: even among villains, the Hunters were among the most vicious and terrifying. Since Sui Xiong had run into them today, he had no intention of letting them see the sun rise tomorrow!

Yet the black-clad man chasing them wasn't exactly a gentleman either. No tormented souls surrounded him, but under the special spell known as the "Eye of Alignment Appraisal," he glowed a vivid, searing red. Clearly, he was a brutal, belligerent killer who had taken countless lives.

As a side note, when Sui Xiong used the "Eye of Alignment Appraisal" on the Hunters, all he saw was a churning mass of murky black, so foul it was almost sickening!

Sui Xiong guessed that what he was seeing was a classic underworld scenario: the bad guys ripping each other off.

Thank you to readers "Qingmu Zzz," "Xuanbo," and "Rose of Disease" for your generous tips. Your support is what keeps me updating!