Chapter 524: The Demon, Driftling
A faint streak of pale white light began to emerge on the horizon, illuminating the vast, desolate landscape of the Danxia desert. A lizard perched atop a small mound, welcoming the morning dew. Horses chewed on the distinctive, coarse grass of the northwest.
The lone roadside inn, standing in solitude, exuded an air of the wandering life of the jianghu. Beside it, a large group of people lay scattered haphazardly, still asleep.
The morning dew had already soaked through their clothes.
The conversation between the two children had nearly come to an end, yet many of the adults had found it amusing.
Elixirs infused with five-colored auspicious clouds, pigments sent by the sun, a great tear in the sky like a hole in a cotton blanket, and the five-colored divine stones used to mend the heavens...
Soon, light began to spread from the east.
At first, a single red beam pierced through a narrow gap in the clouds, slanting up from the horizon into the sky. As the morning sun slowly revealed itself, the clouds at the edge of the sky were gradually dyed crimson. As the sun rose higher and higher, the lower end of the red light lifted, while the higher end dipped, casting its glow upon the land.
The Danxia cliffs, dark in the night, were now tinged with red.
At some unknown moment, the voices of the two children had faded away.
A sigh was heard.
For many here, a new day did not signify a fresh beginning but rather the start of yet another cycle—an endless, hopeless repetition of hardship.