The scorching sunlight fell like arrows upon this vast desert, a volley of countless rays illuminating every stretch of the extraordinary landscape.
Across the desert stood countless sand sculptures.
These statues, forged from condensed sand, took the form of humans and beasts alike — some locked in fierce battle, others sprawled on the ground as though drawing their final breath.
The sculptures varied in size, but even the smallest towered several zhang high.
They gathered in immense numbers, forming a forest of sand sculptures — a spectacle of breathtaking grandeur.
This was the Ten Thousand Image Desert.
This desert sprawled over an enormous area, home to innumerable sand sculptures. In the Western Desert's Gu Immortal community, there was no one who had not heard of it.
Its origins stretched back to antiquity. It had formed during the ancient era and had persisted to the present day for over a million years.
The cause behind this desert's creation occupied a prominent chapter in human history.
It was the era of Berserk Demon Venerable, during the Hundred Tribe War. The armies clashed here for a hundred days and nights, fighting until rivers of blood ran and threatened to overflow into seas.
In that age, the Transformation Path was the mainstream.
The Hundred Tribe War ended in a pyrrhic victory for humanity. Countless Gu Immortals — human and otherwise — perished on this ground.
Immortal embryos took root, giving rise to blessed lands. Dao marks dissipated, transforming the environment.
Gradually, the region became the Ten Thousand Image Desert. Sand grains condensed of their own accord, growing like trees — one chi taller each year — until they had risen into towering sculptures of compacted sand.
Once a battlefield where hundreds of tribes had slaughtered each other in a frenzy that blotted out the sun, where countless lives had withered and fallen, this place had undergone a reversal of fortune. Now it was a cultivation sanctuary rich in resources.
Any sand sculpture that grew to a height of six zhang became an Immortal material, saturated with Transformation Path Dao marks.
The Immortal aperture blessed lands here had long since vanished. Over the span of more than a million years, they had either been destroyed by tribulations or plundered by Gu Immortals.
Yet this desert teemed with wild Gu Insects. Wild Immortal Gu had even been born here.
No one ventured into this place lightly.
The environment was dense with Dao marks, making it perilous for mortal Gu Masters to set foot here — for them, the landscape itself was a death trap.
Even the Gu Immortals of the Western Desert who passed nearby would typically take a detour, giving this desert a wide berth.
Their caution had everything to do with a single individual.
Ancestor Qianbian.
This Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal, who had devoted himself entirely to the Transformation Path, had occupied this desert for a full thousand years.
The might of an Eighth Transformation was not to be trifled with.
The Ten Thousand Image Desert was his territory. Any Gu Immortal who set foot here without permission had better be prepared to face the fury of an Eighth Transformation.
Deep beneath the desert — the Ten Thousand Image Palace.
In the farthest reaches of the grand hall, from a dark and lightless corner, screams of agony rang out one after another.
"ARGH!"
Ancestor Qianbian threw his head back and roared, his face twisted into a gruesome mask of torment.
Each howl sent shockwaves of sound surging outward in every direction.
But whenever these waves of sound struck the walls of the palace, a thin layer of luminous aura would materialize on the surface, swiftly absorbing and dissolving them.
Separated by nothing more than a single wall, the two worlds might as well have been entirely different. None of Ancestor Qianbian's commotion leaked beyond the palace.
Pain.
Excruciating pain.
Unbearable agony assailed his body and mind without cease.
Veins bulged across his forehead. At last, he could endure it no longer and collapsed, rolling across the floor.
If any other Gu Immortal were to witness this scene, they would be utterly stunned. What sort of torment could reduce Ancestor Qianbian, an Eighth Transformation Gu Immortal, to such a state — stripping him of every last shred of his dignity and bearing?
Clang. Clang.
Over a dozen thick iron chains bound his body and limbs, their other ends driven deep into the surrounding walls.
From the look of it, Ancestor Qianbian was being imprisoned.
"I can't take it — if this goes on, I'll lose my mind entirely, devoured by boundless agony until every shred of reason is gone. I'll become a madman. The first of the Eighth Transformation's ten thousand tribulations is already this terrifying and intractable. How am I supposed to face the next two?"
Hateful.
Deep within Ancestor Qianbian's eyes, a final sliver of clarity struggled to hold on.
Clutching that last thread of lucidity and reason, Ancestor Qianbian finally made his decision.
Immortal Killer Move — Flesh-Cutting Transformation.
He activated the killer move with fierce urgency. It was a technique he had mastered to the point of instinct, and at this critical moment, even through the heart-rending pain, the activation did not fail.
This was an Eighth Transformation Immortal killer move, its momentum overwhelming.
Ancestor Qianbian's entire Immortal body began to swell rapidly.
As if being pumped full of air, he grew larger and larger — transforming from a lean, sharp-featured middle-aged man into a bloated, spherical mass of flesh.
The enormous Ancestor Qianbian shook his heaving bulk, and a rapid succession of soft popping sounds soon followed.
Pop, pop, pop.
With each sound, a fleshy lump bulged outward from one side of his neck.
The lump swelled further, expanding as though inflated, growing without pause.
The pain intensified.
Ancestor Qianbian clenched his teeth so hard his face contorted into a grimace. His features had ballooned into a swollen mass — his eyes had been reduced to mere slits.
Pfft.
Before long, the fleshy sphere on his neck had swollen to the size of a washbasin, reached its limit, and then burst open with a sharp rupture.