Several hours later, in the desert hundreds of kilometers south of Bai Ze's lair.
Chen Jue and Yun Xiaomei sat on Bai Ze's back, heading deeper into the desert, while Little Parrot flew alongside them overhead.
"It's getting hotter and hotter here!" Chen Jue glanced at the temperature reading on his wrist. It had already reached 73°C, more than 20°C higher than at the desert's edge.
Everywhere he looked, the scenery rippled and warped, the result of light refracting as the heated air expanded.
Apart from that, the sand beneath Bai Ze's feet gradually turned from its normal yellow to black. Even the grains were turning black, the fine yellow sand gradually giving way to coarser black grit.
"Roar!" Bai Ze let out a low growl. Stepping on the scorching grit made the creature somewhat uncomfortable.
According to the information Yun Xiaomei had translated through communicating with Bai Ze, the creature had previously been able to fly at low altitudes, supported by Five-Colored Radiance.
But now that Chen Jue had severed Bai Ze's horns, effectively damaging the creature's Supernatural Organ, Bai Ze had temporarily lost the ability to project Mind Energy. Not only was Bai Ze unable to communicate directly with the two of them as Phoenix Bird could, but even flight was impossible, leaving the creature to travel on foot for now.
Still, Bai Ze was enormous, covering dozens of meters with each stride. At a full sprint, the creature raced like the wind, moving no slower than Little Parrot flying overhead.
After several hours of travel, Bai Ze finally stopped beside a stretch of ocher hills veiled by windblown sand.
Looking at the rolling hills before him, Chen Jue felt as though he were seeing ancient stone castles weathered by the desert.
Though these stone castles were covered