The brilliant lightning flashing deep in the wasteland was clearly visible from dozens of miles away.
Poison Rat, who had noticed the commotion in Fire Phoenix Valley and come hoping to pick up some easy spoils, discovered a pack of Transcendent Grade experts fighting among themselves inside and fled with his hands over his head like a scurrying rat.
Once the sea of mist dispersed, the hundred-mile area around it became a deserted wasteland of death.
But the commotion beneath the ground continued.
Boom, boom...
Boom...
The roar of force and the explosions of fire arts echoed through the underground space, sounding like a fire python rampaging beneath the earth.
As the sounds drew closer and closer to the surface, a patch of the Gobi Desert suddenly swelled upward, and then:
Boom-
Earth and stone exploded into the air along with a pillar of golden-red fire. In the night, it looked like a volcanic eruption, lava gushing forth!
A figure tumbled out of the world-consuming flames and smashed a crater into the ground. The sword in his hand had melted down to half an iron rod, and his entire body was charred black, his clothes barely distinguishable. The instant he touched the surface, he sprang up and fled unsteadily into the distance.
Hiss, hiss, hiss~
Gravel and fiery rain scattered from the sky, leaving over a hundred patches of fire, large and small, across the Gobi Desert.
After a brief silence at the blasted opening, an old man in black-and-yellow Daoist robes shot skyward from the fissure, surrounded by a scarlet glow that added a searing heat to the entire Gobi Desert.
The Fire-Command Edict, which previously could only be held in his hand, had turned golden-red and floated beside him. The Vermilion Bird relief carved on its back seemed