A month later.
In the boundless desert, yellow sand filled the air beneath the scorching heat, stretching as far as the eye could see.
Only the howling winds carried the dust in flight, performing a chaotic dance that no one watched in this endless yellow world, playing a jarring, discordant melody that broke the silence.
Yet the most conspicuous sight was a lone figure standing amid it all.
The figure was a handsome young man. He gazed into the distance, a ball of ice-blue flame flickering in his right hand like a twisting, swaying chunk of ice.
Earth-tier Low-grade Dou Technique.
Burning Flame Annihilation!
The young man's gaze shifted. He clenched his hand, trapping the ice-blue flame tightly in his palm, and the flame seemed to flow into his arm.
His arm turned ice-blue, a layer of ice forming over its surface as clusters of flame rose from it.
Then he slammed his arm into the yellow sand. The terrifying cold radiating from the flames instantly surged outward across the sandy ground.
The earth split apart. Terrifying fissures extended a thousand meters from beneath his feet, spewing great quantities of the same flames that covered his arm.
In an instant, the cold erupted, turning everything within a thousand meters into a realm of ice and snow. The temperature was so terrifyingly low that even a warm breath would freeze into ice crystals.
Strangely, the fissures themselves were filled with heat powerful enough to melt black iron. Anyone unfortunate enough to fall in would likely be burned into nothingness.
Even an ordinary Dou Emperor caught in such a deadly environment would probably turn to ash at the slightest misstep.
"I've finally reached entry-level mastery. An Earth-tier Dou Technique really is something else. It took nearly half a month of practice just