The world changed not in a slow gradient, but in a single, brutal step.
One moment they were trekking through the rocky, wind-scoured foothills at the edge of the Azure Snow territory.
The next, Lin Tian's boot crunched on a different kind of stone. It was porous, black, and still warm to the touch even in the early morning.
A wall of heat hit him in the face, thick with the stench of rotten eggs and scorched metal.
He stopped, and the others halted behind him.
"That's it," Lu Cang said, wiping his brow with the back of his hand. "The maps weren't exaggerating."
Before them, the land fell away into a vast, smoky basin. Jagged black rock formations rose like broken teeth.
In the distance, rivers of molten orange light crawled across the dark landscape, and the air shimmered with waves of distortion. The sky here was a permanent, bruised yellow, choked with ash and vapor.
From one extreme to another, Lin Tian thought. Ice to fire.
