The transition from the temperate borders of the Jia Ma Empire to the Tager Desert was not merely a change in geography; it was a transition into a world that hated life. As Xiao Chen stepped over the last ridge of scrubland, the air hit him like a physical blow—a dry, scouring heat that felt as though it were trying to pull the very moisture from his marrow.
Most travelers used "Water-Repelling Beads" or "Cooling Silks" to survive. Xiao Chen used nothing but his own breath.
"System," he thought, his eyes narrowing as the horizon shimmered in a 50°C haze. "Analyze the ambient energy density."
[Infinite Doubling System]
Ambient Fire Qi: 400% above baseline.
Ambient Water Qi: 0.01% (Critical Scarcity).
Status: Your 4x Talent is automatically converting the excess Fire Qi into "Internal Lubrication" to prevent organ scorching.
Warning: The "Sand-Toxin" in the air is trying to petrify your meridians.
"Let it try," Chen muttered.
Every breath he took was a refined cycle. With his 4x Soul Perception, he could see the tiny, jagged crystals of sand-toxin floating in the air. Instead of letting them settle in his lungs, he used a microscopic layer of Green Wood Flame to incinerate them upon inhalation, turning the toxin into pure, raw energy. He wasn't just surviving the desert; he was consuming it.
The Mercenaries of the Scorched Rock
By the time the sun reached its zenith, Chen encountered the Iron Rock Mercenaries. They were huddled in the shadow of a massive, half-buried obsidian pillar, looking more like corpses than warriors.
Their leader, Tie Shan, was a 9-Star Dou Zhe, a man whose skin was the color of old leather. He was currently pouring the last of their muddy water over the face of a younger man who was convulsing.
"It's no use, Captain," one of the men rasped. "The 'Dry-Fire Fever' has taken him. His Qi is boiling."
"Move aside," a calm voice cut through the heat.
Tie Shan looked up, blinking through sweat and sand. He saw a youth who looked like he was taking a stroll in a garden. The boy's skin was cool, his clothes weren't even damp, and his eyes... they were a piercing, vibrant emerald that seemed to hold the life of an entire forest.
"Who...?" Tie Shan started.
Chen didn't answer. He knelt beside the dying mercenary. With his 4x Soul Perception, he saw the man's meridians. They looked like parched, cracked riverbeds. The man's Fire-attribute Qi had gone rogue, eating his own vitality.
Chen placed a single finger on the man's forehead.
[Skill: Emerald Dew Point]
A surge of Wood-attribute Qi, doubled four times over, flowed into the man. It wasn't just energy; it carried the "intent" of a spring rain. The rogue fire was instantly smothered, and the cracked meridians were flooded with life-force.
The mercenary gasped, his eyes flying open as a cool shiver ran through his body.
"You... you're an Alchemist," Tie Shan breathed, his voice filled with a sudden, desperate hope. "Only a High-Tier Alchemist could suppress the Tager's fever with a touch."
"I am a traveler looking for the 'Deep Sand' regions," Chen said, standing up. "You know these dunes better than any map. Guide me, and I will ensure none of your men die from the heat."
The Trek into the Deep Sand
For the next five days, the caravan moved toward the heart of the desert. While the mercenaries marveled at Chen's ability to create "Cooling Orbs" from thin air, Chen was focused on the internal math of his body.
Every night, under the freezing desert stars, he practiced the [Green Wood Flame Heart]. He noticed that as the 4x Multiplier reached its absolute limit, his Dantian was no longer a liquid vortex. It was starting to crystallize.
"The Dou Shi realm is the stage of 'Qi Armor,'" Chen mused, looking at his glowing green palms. "But because of the system, my armor isn't just a shell. It's becoming a second skin."
He struck a nearby sand dune with a light palm.
THOOM.
The entire dune, a hill forty feet high, didn't just collapse—it glassified. The heat of his strike was so intense and the pressure so high that the sand turned into a jagged crater of green crystal in a split second.
Tie Shan, watching from the camp, swallowed hard. "Master Chen... that wasn't a Dou Shi strike. I've seen Dou Ling (Spirit) experts who couldn't flash-melt that much sand."
"The multiplier doesn't just add strength, Tie Shan," Chen said, looking back with a witty glint in his eyes. "It changes the physics of the strike. By the time I hit the 8x mark... I won't just hit things. I'll delete them."
The Scent of the Queen
On the sixth day, the wind changed. It no longer smelled of dry sand; it smelled of Lotus Flowers and Ozone.
"We have to stop," Tie Shan said, his face pale. "The 'Forbidden Zone' is ahead. This is the territory of the Snake-People. If we go further, Queen Medusa's guards will flay us alive."
"Then this is where we part ways," Chen said. He pulled out a bag of Peak-Grade Gold Coins and a few bottles of 2nd-Rank pills. "You've been good guides. Go back to Rock City. Tell the world that the Xiao Clan's shadow is moving through the desert."
As the mercenaries retreated, Chen turned his gaze toward the horizon. Using his 4x Soul Perception, he looked "under" the sand.
There, miles beneath the surface, he saw it. A massive, pulsing heart of green energy. It was the Green Lotus Core Flame. And wrapped around it was a soul signature so powerful it felt like a cold, beautiful moon.
"Queen Medusa," Chen whispered. "I hope you're ready to negotiate. Because I'm coming for that fire, and I've brought the perfect stabilizer."
He stepped forward, his body blurring as he used the [Rippling Silk Step]. With every stride, the sand beneath his feet exploded into glass. He wasn't a traveler anymore; he was a meteor, streaking toward the heart of the subterranean inferno.
The 8x threshold was calling. And he was more than ready to answer.