The Marrow-Drying Wastes was a bleached, white expanse that looked less like sand and more like pulverized bone.

  The wind here didn't hiss; it moaned. A low, hollow sound that vibrated in the chest.

  Li Yu adjusted his straw hat, pulling the brim lower to shield his eyes from the glare. "They weren't kidding about the name."

  He held up his hand. The moisture on his skin didn't just evaporate; it seemed to be sucked violently into the air. The atmosphere was actively thirsty.

  'It is too dry,' Tekton complained from his wrist. 'I feel like a dried shrimp. Can we go back to the pickle juice? I preferred it there.'

  ‘We'll be fine,’ Li Yu said soothingly while patting the rust-colored bracelet. Tekton wouldn’t be affected by such things but one thing that Li Yu had learned on this trip was that Tekton liked to complain as though he was a mortal.

  Li Yu didn't need to cast a spell to adjust to his new environment however. His Myriad Leviathan Body, having adapted to the heat of the Silt-Sea, now shifted gears again. His skin tightened, his pores sealing completely and his internal organs slowed their metabolic water consumption to near zero. He was becoming a closed system, retaining nearly every drop of fluid.

  'It feels... dead here,' Bai Ruo’s voice projected, sounding small and nervous. 'The spatial stability here is weak. Like old parchment that might crumble if you poke it too hard.'

  'It is boring,' Si Luo countered, her voice lazy and unimpressed. 'Just white sand and dead rocks. Where is the scenery? Where is the liveliness? I expected more from a place with such a threatening name.'

  "The liveliness," Li Yu said while tapping his staff on the ground, "is usually hiding."

  As they walked deeper into the Wastes, the monotony began to set in. Mile after mile of white dunes and jagged rock formations that looked like ribs jutting from the earth.

  After three hours of walking in silence, the spider ornament on Li Yu’s chest wiggled.

  'I cannot take this anymore,' Si Luo complained. 'Sitting on your chest is usually quite... pleasant... given the warmth, but the walking is putting me to sleep. I am a Matriarch, not a baby in a sling.'

  Li Yu looked down at his chest. "You want to walk?"

  'I want to run,' Si Luo said mentally. 'I need to stretch my legs. I am going to roam. Survey the surroundings. Hunt for something interesting. Perhaps there are nice things buried around here.'

  "Don't go too far," Li Yu warned. "And don't eat anything strange."

  'I make no promises.'

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  With a puff of purple smoke Si Luo vanished. A moment later, a small black shadow darted away across the dunes. She moved with incredible speed, vanishing into the shimmering heat haze.

  Li Yu continued walking with Bai Ruo, who preferred to stay around his neck rather than have to walk. He walked for another hour.

  Suddenly, the sand ten feet to his left exploded.

  It wasn't a beast of flesh and blood. It was a Calcified Sand-Stalker. It looked like a praying mantis made entirely of jagged and white limestone. It blended perfectly with the dunes. Its eyes were empty sockets filled with blue soul-fire and its scythe-like arms were serrated bone.

  It didn't roar. It clicked—a dry, rattling sound like dice in a cup—and lunged. Li Yu didn't move his feet. He simply rotated his wrist.

  Thwack.

  Star-Crusher appeared in his hands and blurred. The heavy black staff met the limestone scythe in mid-air. There was a sound like a hammer hitting a ceramic pot. The Sand-Stalker’s arm shattered into powder.

  The beast recoiled and was confused. Something impossible just happened to it. It was used to slicing through soft meat, not hitting a weapon that heavy.

  "Go away," Li Yu said calmly. "You won’t find a meal here. You'll crack your teeth."

  He tapped the ground again with Star-Crusher. It sent a pulse of force through the sand. The shockwave knocked the Stalker off its feet, flipping it onto its back where it flailed around.

  Li Yu walked past it without looking back. He had no intention of killing it himself. He was the one trespassing on its lands and it didn’t seem right to kill it right away. However, if it tried to get him again, he would put it to rest.

  'Your rod is very hard,' Si Luo’s voice suddenly projected into his mind from miles away. She must have been watching through her spiritual sense. 'It smashed that rock effortlessly. Your stamina isn’t bad either. Able to walk all this way and still fight. Very impressive, Li Yu.'

  "It is made from Khaos’s molted shell. Of course it would be hard, probably harder than most metals if not all of them." Li Yu replied earnestly, missing the innuendo completely. "And stamina is important for long travel. I make sure to breathe rhythmically to conserve oxygen. I also train a lot and my body physique is strong."

  'Rhythmic breathing,' Si Luo laughed. 'You are adorable. I think I found something.'

  "You found something?" Li Yu stopped. "Danger?"

  'No. Treasure. Or at least, something that smells expensive. It’s deep. Come to where I am.'

  A mental map appeared in Li Yu’s mind. He adjusted his course, picking up the pace. He found Si Luo sitting atop a rocky outcrop about two miles east. She was looking out over a flat expanse of bedrock that had been scoured clean by the wind.

  "Down there," Si Luo pointed with a finger. "I was chasing a sand-lizard and then I felt it. It’s heavy. Dense. Like liquid gold."

  Li Yu looked at the solid rock. "Bai Ruo?"

  Bai Ruo appeared in her human form. She knelt, placing her ear to the ground. She tapped the rock with a knuckle and used her senses. She was well versed in detecting and clear debris.

  "Pretty tough," she muttered. "Followed by compressed sandstone. And then... oh. Oh my."

  She looked up at the two in surprise. "There is a geode down there. And inside... there’s a dense energy."

  "Can you dig it?" Li Yu asked. He couldn’t sense anything himself but trusted the senses of his two companions. It was impressive they were able to detect something like this. He made a mental note to train his spiritual senses more.

  "I don't dig," Bai Ruo sniffed while standing up and transforming.

  Her human form vanished, replaced by the glowing, segmented Phase-Tunnel Worm. She grew to the size of a large python.

  "I eat," she corrected. She dove at the rock.

  CRUNCH.