The moment Jacob stepped through the boundary, it was as if he had passed through a hidden veil of fire; the world suddenly twisted around him.
The moment a terrifying heat enveloped his entire being. This wasn’t normal heat, but a deeper kind of heat that could be felt through one’s soul.
Furthermore, with Jacob’s current senses, he felt as if the desert was observing him. The dunes ahead, which were still a moment ago, seemed to be shifting now!
Now, the Ashen Mirage Desert appeared to stretch endlessly, neither lifeless nor alive. Black-gray sand swirled under a copper sky, broken only by jagged obsidian ridges and skeletal remains of what might’ve once been colossal beasts or constructs. Mirage-spires shimmered on the horizon, only to vanish when stared at directly.
When Jacob looked back, the land behind him vanished as if swallowed by the desert. His eyes flickered with a hint of apprehension but more curiosity.
Following the direction of the map, Jacob walked forward, bare soul projecting through the heat with every step. This was the start of his journey through the Ashen Mirage Desert!
As he walked in this endless desert with constantly shifting terrains, and soul-scorching heat, despite his skeletal frame, the deeper and longer he walked, the more he felt the terror of this strange desert.
Nonetheless, Jacob wasn’t worried because he had the infinity pendant to retreat into if needs arise. Right now, he wanted to retrieve the Yang Flame as soon as possible.
However, it was easier said than done, because as time passed, the map still showed no signs of stopping, and the attraction force remained the same.
At this moment, the Map of the Blazing Constellation floated at his side like a miniature sun, spinning, rotating, and sometimes dimming when he went off-course.
Its current constellation pulse pointed southeast—a zigzagging trail through sandstorms that moved in slow, deliberate spirals.
At this point, the Law of Fire seemed to respond to this land. It felt as though the desert was made of fire that had forgotten how to burn.
Just as Jacob was wondering how far he had traveled, the sand suddenly moaned. There was no wind, no movement. It was like a voice—wordless yet primal.
Jacob suddenly froze. He turned. The dunes behind him seemed to have stirred.
Abruptly, from the ashen sea rose a creature unlike any he had seen—a warped entity of flame and dust, ten feet tall, crawling on six elongated limbs made of half-glass, half-scaled bone. Its head was a molten mass, flickering between lizard and jackal, with no true form. It let out a soundless scream, and the space around rippled.
If there were a skilled tracker who had traveled through the Ashen Mirage Desert before, they would’ve recognized this creature. They called them Ashen Flameborns. A native paradox-lifeform, born from mirages and the fire law within the desert. It fed on both soul force and illusion.
Furthermore, their height represents their power rank. The Flameborn in front of Jacob was ten meters tall, which means it was at Legendary Lord, while a Legendary King Rank Ashen Flameborn would reach a height above 30 meters!
Nonetheless, it was the first living creature Jacob had encountered in this forsaken desert ever since he entered. His eye flickered as he sensed the presence of this creature, which contained deep fire law.
Jacob raised a hand, and the map flickered in response, receding behind him. He couldn’t let it be damaged, though it would take a legendary king to inflict damage on this map. Nonetheless, this creature has a high level of attainment in law, so it was capable of harming this map.
At this moment, the creature lunged as the surrounding space compressed with terrifying heat. Even Legendary King might not be able to escape this fiery imprisonment.
Nonetheless, Jacob suddenly vanished in a flash of flickering sparks, reappearing a dozen feet to the side. The Ashen Flameborn missed its target despite locking its surroundings.
But the Ashen Flameborn didn’t stop, and instead, it struck with a glass claw that distorted light like a kaleidoscope. Jacob sneered before he countered by slashing his finger imbued with plasma-like fire mana into its limb, only for it to explode into dust and reform behind him.
Astounding, a whip of ember-fire burst from Jacob’s free hand, sweeping around and burning a runic circle midair.
"Ignite!"
The rune suddenly detonated with a bloom of green fire! It was a unique spell created with mastery of fire law and with the help of knowledge he had gained from the Timeless City. The current Jacob was far more proficient in laws and magic than he was a hundred years ago.
The detonation didn’t burn through the creature. It rooted into its illusory structure, forcing it to stabilize its own body just to resist the chaotic bloom.
Jacob’s Eyes of Judge flickered as he instantly saw through the structure of this creature and spotted an ethereal core.
Thereby, the flaming whip in his hand morphed into a blazing flame, and Jacob dashed forward, stepped through the weakened distortion layers, and plunged his flaming blade into the heart of the creature’s ethereal core.
Jacob didn’t know how difficult it was to kill a Flameborn because of this exact core, and that way, everyone avoids it like a plague, especially Flameborn of Legendary King Rank; even Legendary Kings were terrified of them.
But at this moment, for one second, the Flameborn saw him—not as prey, but as something it feared. Then it shattered. Its body collapsed into stardust-like ash, which instantly dissolved into the desert wind. No body. No remains. No core.
Only a whisper echoed where it had died:
When the Flameborn turned into mystical ash, Jacob didn’t pause long. He turned toward the hovering map once more. It had shifted again. He increased his pace. Time felt slippery here, and he couldn’t afford delays.
However, it wasn’t his first and last encounter with Flameborn, and just a few hours after his first encounter, he was surrounded by a group of Flameborns, not only one!
This was another rare phenomenon, indicating that Jacob had penetrated very deeply into the Ashen Mirage Desert. Nonetheless, Jacob got rid of them because they were still no match for his absolute power.
Time continued to pass as Jacob moved forward; his lonely figure was the only anomaly in this terrifying desert.
However, at this point, just as he passed a broken, half-buried statue of a serpent with fractured wings, he stopped as his eyes suddenly spotted something entirely out of the ordinary.
Deeply sunken into the ashen sand was a human-sized boot, which was clearly not his.
Jacob’s eyes flickered violently, ’A footprint!?’