Six Paths Reincarnation World, 43rd-Layer Plane.
This was a plane covered in yellow sand. The temperature differences here were extreme, with the average annual variation reaching eighty degrees Celsius and daily fluctuations even greater. At noon in summer, the ground temperature could exceed 120 degrees Celsius. If an egg were buried in the sand, it would soon be cooked. Walking barefoot across the sand would raise blisters on the soles within moments, and before long, the scorched aroma of roasted meat would begin to waft up. At night, the temperature dropped below minus thirty degrees Celsius. Fist-sized hailstones condensed in the air and fell like rain, forming a thin layer of frost across the sand.
The endless desert was sometimes silent, so silent it was suffocating. Occasionally, a whirlwind would sweep up a column of yellow sand and leisurely carry it into the sky, lending the place an inexplicable air of stillness. At other times, violent winds raged, hurling sand and stones everywhere. That momentum, as though it could drag everything in the world into its grasp, filled one with fear and helplessness.
As far as the eye could see, the scene resembled a primordial wasteland—desolate and utterly lifeless. There was not even a single cactus, as though it were a dead zone for all life.
Yet today, this desert plane, which had remained incomparably peaceful for countless years, was filled with earth-shaking sounds of battle.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!!"
A series of explosions drew closer from afar. The sky was dim and unpredictable, while desert tornadoes ravaging the sands were torn apart by the terrifying shockwaves of battle. The dunes surged irregularly, and rings of ripples spread across the sandy surface.
A spray of yellow sand burst outward as grotesque Abyssal Scorpions crawled from