Northern Yong Lands, Azure-Silt Desert.
This place lay at the border of Yong-Dai, a land of deserts and grasslands. Once a Spirit Land belonging to the Green-Waste Dao, it had now changed masters. From afar, rolling clouds of windblown sand rose into the sky, blotting out the sun.
An emerald Mysterious Palace stood here. The fertile soil to its south had become a barren wasteland. Not a trace of green remained in the desert; all that met the eye was a dull, deathly yellow.
Night was falling, the sun sinking westward. Countless monsters lurked in the shadows, stirring restlessly.
The Immortal Dao cultivators and mortals who had once lived here had all become bleached skeletons, half buried in the yellow sand. Facing the hazy sunset, they waved their bony arms in unison, like swaying water plants.
The great void split open, and pure white water transformation demonic light poured onto the ground. Countless Buddhist mouths gleaming with golden light emerged from the desert, greedily devouring the unctuous water transformation.
Zhi Xi stepped down, reined in her divine ability, and carefully avoided the Buddhist mouths on the ground.
Countless golden eyeballs appeared above the emerald Temporary Palace. Their pupils stretched into long slits as they gazed down, densely packed across the void, illuminating heaven and earth.
Even as a six desires demon manifestation, she felt a chill of dread rise within her.
"Cattle eat as though flooding; sheep eat as though burning."
The malignant aspect of nurturing earth was barren soil and desert. Apart from the two woods of Jia Essence, other forms of wood virtue could scarcely grow here. They either withered or rotted.
The surrounding manifestations gradually subsided, leaving only the rolling wind and sand. Zhi Xi gathered her wandering thoughts and headed straight into the emerald Mysterious Palace.