Western Great Jin, a barren Gobi Desert.
The blazing sun scorched the boundless yellow-brown sands. The heat warped the air, and everything in sight shimmered, parched and seared. The spiritual energy here was thin and impure, utterly unlike the gloomy region where the Heavenly Demon Sect stood, yet the land possessed a desolate, savage vitality of its own. Low, thorn-covered shrubs stubbornly thrust their heads out of gaps in the sand and stone. A few sandy-yellow lizards dragged their long tails swiftly across the burning sands, leaving rows of faint tracks.
A blurred streak of azure light swept soundlessly over this barren land at a speed the naked eye could scarcely catch. It did not disturb so much as a grain of sand as it passed, as though it were merely a mirage in the heat-warped air.
Inside that streak of light lay an entirely different scene.
Han Li and Zi Ling occupied a cramped space enveloped by a pale gray membrane of light. This membrane was not formed from spiritual power. Rather, Han Li had drawn upon a trace of the true demon qi within him and combined it with his exceedingly rudimentary understanding of the Space Laws after advancing to Deity Transformation, barely managing to simulate a "Pseudo-Space Partition." It could neither truly contain Mount Sumeru within a mustard seed nor completely block outside probing, but it could suppress the light of his flight and conceal his aura to the greatest extent possible, while providing a small, relatively stable space sheltered from the harsh environment outside.
Zi Ling sat cross-legged opposite Han Li, her eyes tightly closed and a faint layer of purple spiritual light enveloping her. Her complexion had regained much of its color since her time in the Heavenly Demon Sect's main hall, but the deeply