Black Rock City's outline gradually sharpened in the dawn light. Its ocher-red walls lay along the desert's edge like a dormant giant python. The drawbridge at the gate had yet to be lowered, and several guards huddled in the checkpoint's shadows with spears in their arms, quietly grumbling about the morning chill. Only when a figure emerged from the drifting sand in the distance did they lazily straighten up.
Carrying a worn pack, Xiao Yan walked slowly toward the gate. He deliberately suppressed his Four-Star Dou Shi aura to that of an Early-Stage Dou Shi. His face showed the weariness of a long journey, while dust and dried blood stained his torn clothes—a disguise left over from his earlier "bitter battle" in the mine. The guards glanced at him a few times. Seeing no valuables on him and dismissing him as an unremarkable young cultivator, they waved him through without even the usual questioning.
Once he passed through the gate, a mixture of spices, sweat, and cheap liquor struck his nose. As a major trading outpost on the edge of the Tagor Desert, Black Rock City's streets were already crowded with caravan members in colorful clothing, mercenaries carrying curved blades, and peddlers shouldering their wares... Vendors' cries, haggling voices, and clattering hooves mingled, brimming with rough, vibrant life.
"Black Rock City is livelier than I expected," Yao Lao's voice sounded in Xiao Yan's mind. "There are dragons and fish mingling here—just the place to gather information. Find an inn first. I need to regulate my breathing and restore my soul power. Go ask about recent happenings in the desert, especially anything involving the Lizardmen tribe and the Mo Family."
Xiao Yan nodded and took a room at the reasonably clean-looking Wind and Sand Inn. After booking a superior room, he set down his pack, washed up, and changed into clean coarse-cloth clothes before leaving with a few silver coins.
Rather than heading straight to information hubs like the Mercenary Guild or the taverns, he first wandered through the market. Most of Black Rock City's wares were desert specialties: camel wool piled into little mountains, desert date wine stored in clay jars, curved blades set with cheap gemstones... Xiao Yan browsed with apparent casualness, keeping his ears pricked for nearby conversations.
"Did you hear? Something happened deep in Tagor. That Lizardmen tribe vanished overnight. Not a single survivor!" Two men carrying water passed by, one lowering his voice as he spoke.
"I heard ages ago! It wasn't just the Lizardmen. The people the Mo Family sent into the desert haven't returned either. They say the family's practically turned their home territory upside down looking for them!" the other replied with a hint of gloating. "If you ask me, they probably angered some old monster in the desert, and heaven struck them down!"
Xiao Yan's thoughts stirred, but his expression remained unchanged. Pretending to take an interest in the Desert Lizard skins at a nearby stall, he kept listening.
"Heaven's punishment? I heard someone was fighting over a heavenly flame!" an old woman carrying an herb basket interjected. "A few nights ago, I was gathering herbs outside the city and saw green light shoot into the sky from deep in the desert with my own eyes. It was so terrifying I dropped my basket!"
"A heavenly flame? Aren't your eyes playing tricks on you, granny? How could the likes of us ever witness such a divine treasure?" the man scoffed.
"Believe what you like!" The old woman snorted and said no more.
Xiao Yan quietly left the stall, already weighing things in his mind. News of the Lizardmen tribe's destruction and the disappearance of the Mo Family pursuers had spread, but everyone assumed it was a natural disaster or an omen of a heavenly flame emerging. No one suspected him, a "piece of trash at Dou Qi Third Stage." As for that green light, it was probably the aura he had failed to conceal completely while subduing the Green Lotus Earth Core Flame. Fortunately, people had taken it for a natural phenomenon accompanying a heavenly flame's appearance.
He changed course and headed toward the Mercenary Guild. Black Rock City's guild was far grander than Wutan City's, with two stone camels standing at its entrance. Mercenaries of every description crowded the hall, mission scrolls densely covered the walls, and the air smelled of sweat and tobacco.
As soon as Xiao Yan entered the hall, a voluptuous waitress in revealing clothes approached with a practiced smile. "Young sir, are you here to take a mission or post one?"
"Just looking," Xiao Yan replied flatly, sweeping his gaze over the mission wall.
The waitress did not press him and stepped aside with a smile. Xiao Yan approached the wall, pretending to browse the missions while actually observing the surrounding mercenaries. He noticed three men sitting at a table in the corner, all wearing wolf-head badges at their waists. They belonged to the Wolf Head Mercenary Group he had encountered in the Magical Beast Mountain Range.
A heavily bearded man was talking animatedly, spittle flying. "...That brat really stepped in dog shit and struck gold! The Mo Family chased him for three days and nights, only to get wiped out by a pack of first-rank magical beasts. Not even their bodies were left! I say it served them right. Who told the Mo Family to keep trying to swallow up little mercenary groups like ours?"
A thin-faced man chimed in. "Exactly! But that brat was damned strange too. They say he was only at Dou Qi Third Stage, yet he escaped from a Dou Ling expert and even picked up some tattered map along the way..."
"A tattered map? What map?" the bearded man asked curiously.
"No idea. I heard it was made from some kind of beast hide, with chicken-scratch markings all over it. The Mo Family seemed pretty interested in it." The thin-faced man smacked his lips. "A shame, though. That brat ended up running with the wolf pups and got swept into a sandstorm. He's probably dead too."
Xiao Yan lifted the cheap ale he had just bought and took a small sip, hiding the cold sneer at his lips. Apparently, the Wolf Head Mercenary Group still did not know he had borrowed another's blade to silence that Otherworlder. As for the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame Fragment Map, they clearly had not recognized its value, treating it as an ordinary piece of beast hide.
Just then, a commotion erupted at the guild entrance. A group of men in fitted black clothing entered, surrounding a sinister-looking middle-aged man. An ink-black token bearing the character "Mo" hung from their leader's waist—they were from the Mo Family!
The noise in the hall instantly subsided. The mercenaries lowered their heads, clearly wary of the Mo Family.
The middle-aged man swept a hawklike gaze across the hall and asked coldly, "Who has seen this person?" At his gesture, someone behind him unfurled a portrait. The person depicted was none other than Xiao Yan!
Xiao Yan's heart tightened. He had not expected the Mo Family to act so quickly, already producing his portrait and pursuing him to Black Rock City. Without betraying anything, he turned his back to the entrance and pretended to study the mission scrolls.
"Isn't that the brat the Mo Family was hunting a while ago?" someone murmured.
"I heard he killed the grandson of the Third Elder of the Mo Family. As if they'd ever let him go!"
Hearing their whispers, the middle-aged man's eyes grew colder. "One hundred gold coins for information! One thousand gold coins and a dose of Qi Gathering Powder for anyone who captures him!"
Gasps immediately rippled through the hall at the lavish reward. A hundred gold coins was already a fortune to an ordinary mercenary, let alone a thousand gold coins plus Qi Gathering Powder! Greed gleamed in many eyes as they stared at the portrait, trying to remember whether they had seen Xiao Yan.
The three Wolf Head Mercenary Group members in the corner saw the portrait too. The bearded man slapped his thigh. "Isn't that the brat who got swept away by the sandstorm? He's still alive?"
A calculating glint flashed in the thin-faced man's eyes. "A thousand gold coins and Qi Gathering Powder... If we find him, we'll be rich!"
"But didn't the sandstorm sweep him away? Where would we look?" the short man asked.
"Idiot! We searched after the sandstorm and never found his body. Maybe he escaped ages ago. He might even be right here in Black Rock City!" The thin-faced man gave a sinister smile. "Let's go look now. Maybe we'll stumble into some luck!"
The three stood to leave, never noticing the icy curve forming at the lips of Xiao Yan, whose back was turned toward them.
Xiao Yan did not act immediately. Only after the Mo Family's people left the guild did he slowly turn and follow outside. He did not want to strike inside the guild; there were too many eyes, and he could easily expose himself.
Sure enough, the three Wolf Head Mercenary Group members had not gone far. They headed straight for the city gate, apparently intending to search for "clues" along the desert's edge. Xiao Yan followed at a measured distance like an ordinary passerby. Only when they reached the far side of a secluded dune outside the city did he quicken his pace.
"Big brother, do you really think that brat could've made it out of the sandstorm alive?" the short man asked doubtfully.
"Hard to say, but we have to try. What if we find him?" the bearded man replied.
"Even if we don't, we can fake some clues and swindle a bit of spending money out of the Mo Family..." Before the thin-faced man finished speaking, he suddenly felt a chill at the back of his neck, followed by a scorching aura rushing toward him.
He spun around and saw only a green flame flash before his eyes. Then came an agonizing pain that tore through his heart and lungs—his neck had been cleanly sliced open. Blood gushed out, only to evaporate into white mist the instant it touched the green fire.
"Second brother!" The bearded man and the short man blanched and whipped out their curved blades, only to find no one around them. Nothing but wind and sand wailed nearby.
"Who's there? Come out!" the bearded man roared, fierce in appearance but trembling inside.
Two even faster streaks of green fire answered him.
Pfft! Pfft!
With two soft sounds, the bearded man and the short man collapsed into pools of blood before they could even glimpse their enemy's shadow. Green flames ignited on their bodies, reducing them to ashes within moments and leaving not a trace behind.
Xiao Yan emerged from behind the dune and brushed the sand from his hands. The Wolf Head Mercenary Group knew about the Otherworlder and had seen the Purifying Demonic Lotus Flame Fragment Map. Leaving them alive would always pose a risk. This had been the perfect opportunity to use the Mo Family to draw them out and eliminate them all.
After dealing with the Wolf Head Mercenary Group, Xiao Yan did not return to the city. Instead, he headed deeper into the desert. Since the Mo Family had come to Black Rock City, they certainly would not let matters rest. He could use that to lure out their remaining forces in the desert and catch them all in one net.
He deliberately left obvious traces in the desert—an old token engraved with the character "Xiao," a few drops of blood infused with a heavenly flame's aura, and even the words "Mo Family, come chase me" written with Dou Qi on a dune.
Like bait on a hook, these traces were soon discovered by the Mo Family.
That afternoon, more than a dozen Mo Family members followed the trail. Leading them was the middle-aged man Xiao Yan had seen at the Mercenary Guild, whose strength had reached the middle stage of Dou Ling.
"That brat really is in the desert!" Looking at the bloodstains on the ground, a vicious gleam flashed in the middle-aged man's eyes. "After him! This time, we'll tear him into ten thousand pieces!"
The Mo Family members pursued aggressively, never noticing the figure following like a phantom through the empty air behind them. An emperor realm soul had already locked onto every one of them.
The setting sun dyed the desert blood-red. After pursuing for an hour, the Mo Family members reached a canyon, where the tracks on the ground abruptly vanished.
"Where is he?" The middle-aged man frowned, a thread of unease rising in his heart.
Just then, the dunes on both sides of the canyon suddenly collapsed. Countless scorching grains of sand mixed with green flames poured down like waterfalls, instantly surrounding the Mo Family members.
"This is bad! An ambush!" The middle-aged man's face drained of color, and he hastily circulated his Dou Qi to defend himself.
But it was already too late. Xiao Yan appeared atop the canyon, forming seals with both hands to activate the simple Fire Formation he had laid beforehand. The power of the Green Lotus Earth Core Flame combined with the desert's geothermal heat, creating a sea of fire that could burn the heavens and annihilate the earth.
"It's you!" Seeing Xiao Yan, the middle-aged man's eyes filled with incredulous terror. He could not fathom how a piece of trash at Dou Qi Third Stage possessed such terrifying power.
Xiao Yan did not answer. He merely watched the sea of fire with indifference. Screams rose one after another through the canyon, only to be swiftly swallowed by the flames. Moments later, the fire gradually died, leaving nothing but scorched earth in the canyon. Not even a fragment of bone remained.
Standing atop the canyon, Xiao Yan gazed at the sun sinking in the distance, his eyes utterly calm. The Mo Family pursuers had been eliminated, and the Wolf Head Mercenary Group had been silenced. For now, all the hidden threats connected to him in the Tagor Desert had been dealt with.
The desert wind swept up sand and brushed across his cheeks. Xiao Yan turned and headed toward Black Rock City. He knew this was only a temporary calm; a greater storm still lay ahead. But he was not anxious, for the Green Lotus Earth Core Flame in his hands was already enough to illuminate the road before him.
Black Rock City's lights shone in the night like stars in the desert. Xiao Yan's figure blended into the darkness. No one knew that this seemingly ordinary youth had quietly reshaped the balance of power in the Tagor Desert. His next stop would be the heartland of the Jia Ma Empire, where more challenges and opportunities awaited him.
Before you continue