In the Tagor Desert, atop a flat dune.
The firelight faded, revealing Xiao Yan.
Sweeping his gaze around, Xiao Yan beckoned with one hand, and an ocher flame tornado appeared in his palm.
This stretch of land was exceptionally flat, without even a single memorable feature-a sight found everywhere in this boundless desert. Just along the way here, with a casual sweep of his spiritual perception, Xiao Yan had noted over a dozen places with much the same terrain.
There was nothing unusual on the surface, but underground...
A wild grin spread across Xiao Yan's lips. Golden light blazed in his eyes, and a flame pattern had appeared between his brows at some point. His crimson arm, seemingly formed from condensed fire, jolted sharply. Surging Dou Qi abruptly stirred the ocher wind fury dragon flame in his left palm. With a thunderous forward thrust, he sent the heavenly flame flying from his hand, swelling wildly in the wind.
Boom-!
It was as though an erupting volcano had been dropped into the already sweltering desert. The wind fury dragon flame did not merely burn with extreme heat; it seemed to become a raging wind eye that devoured everything. Boundless suction erupted from within it, wrenching countless grains of yellow sand from the earth as though they were wailing in agony. Billowing waves of sand shot skyward, blotting out the sun.
Yet what filled it was scorching heat that seemed capable of burning everything to nothing. In an instant, the sand swept inside was refined by that extreme heat into flowing crimson lava, which spun madly with the storm. A firestorm connecting heaven and earth, molten rock flowing within it, obscured the entire sky.
Gradually, the sandstorm, still tinged with ocher at first, transformed completely into a flame tornado that seemed to