A bewitching red cloud soared through the high sky.
"Ahead lies the Azure Ghost Desert." Red Cloud Dancer lay upon the red cloud, eyes half-closed, the picture of leisure.
Her figure was full and shapely, every curve in its place. She wore a dancer's outfit of red gauze edged with gold thread, baring her snow-white midriff, arms, and feet.
Golden silk jade bracelets adorned her wrists and ankles.
Her fingers glittered with gemstone rings — blue, green, red — catching the light in turns.
Her eyes were deep-set, her lashes thick and long, her irises tinged with a faint green. Even half-lidded, they radiated seduction.
A translucent red veil concealed most of her face. Her high-bridged nose and crimson lips drifted into view beneath the gauze — half-hidden, half-revealed — stirring an irrepressible urge in anyone who saw her to lift the veil and look.
Red Cloud Dancer. A seductive Seventh Transformation female Gu Immortal.
She had once been a notorious demonic woman who terrorized the Western Desert, until she offended a Righteous Path Eighth Transformation powerhouse. At the critical moment, she was saved by Old Ancestor Thousand Changes.
Red Cloud Dancer then became one of Old Ancestor Thousand Changes's concubines.
Unfortunately, the type of woman Old Ancestor Thousand Changes truly favored was not hers. Despite her exquisite figure and sensual allure, she could not rival Fairy Emerald Wave's standing in his heart.
Wind howled past her ears. The red cloud was soft as cotton yet springy, and lying upon it felt like lying in a bed — supremely comfortable.
This was Red Cloud Dancer's signature technique — the Immortal Path Killer Move: Dancing Red Cloud.
Though her relationship with Fairy Emerald Wave was normally poor — the two secretly vied for favor with vicious intensity — now that Fairy Emerald Wave had fallen into peril, Red Cloud Dancer immediately broke into her fastest speed to rush to the rescue.
She was unwilling, of course. But at this moment, a strand of Old Ancestor Thousand Changes's will resided within her.
This will served both to empower Red Cloud Dancer and to keep watch over her.
As long as it persisted, Red Cloud Dancer had no choice but to give everything she had to save Fairy Emerald Wave.
The red cloud raced onward, arriving above the edge of the Azure Ghost Desert. Almost immediately, the sky began to change.
Banks of dark clouds appeared one after another.
Once fully inside the Azure Ghost Desert, the clouds merged into an unbroken canopy, growing ever thicker — truly blotting out the sky and sun.
In an ordinary desert, sunlight blazed mercilessly with nowhere to hide. But in the Azure Ghost Desert, not a single ray of sunlight touched the ground for nearly the entire year. The landscape lay perpetually dim, gray, and oppressive.
The desert was home to vast numbers of trees.
Ghost-Wailing Trees were the most numerous among them.
These Ghost-Wailing Trees grew in twisted, gnarled forms, riddled with pits and pockmarks, some even bearing natural hollows. Their deep bark furrows resembled human faces contorted in anguish.
Whenever wind swept through the Ghost-Wailing Trees, they would shudder faintly and emit piercing shrieks or eerie, dreadful howls.
Even in broad daylight, the place was cold and sinister, crawling with soul beasts. Come nightfall, the bitter winds brought legions of ghosts.
Red Cloud Dancer piloted her Dancing Red Cloud beneath the dark clouds, a weight settling over her heart.
Her posture was no longer the languid recline from before. She sat upright and cross-legged now, eyes wide and vigilant, every sense on guard.
The Azure Ghost Desert was one of the Western Desert's most notorious danger zones.
Its origin was tied to a Demon Venerable of old.
None other than the infamous Demon Venerable You Hun.
Before he had earned his title of Venerable, he had fought a titanic battle here against a supreme clan — slaughtering every last Gu Immortal of the Wood Path clan that had once ruled the Western Desert as overlord.
The scars of that battle were etched into the land itself, transforming it into the Azure Ghost Desert.
The resentment, hatred, grief, and despair of the defeated seemed to permeate every corner of this accursed place.