Battle Through the Heaven: Purple Heaven

"Achoo! Achoo!"

Xiao Bai stood at the city gate, sneezing repeatedly.

He and Hai Bodong had just left Mo City, heading for Stone Desert City. "Xiao Bai, catch a chill last night?" Hai Bodong asked, eyeing him oddly. The sneezing had started that morning, relentless for nearly an hour. For cultivators, especially those with strong soul force like Xiao Bai, bodily control was second nature. This was unusual.

Xiao Bai shot him a sideways glance. Cultivators didn't catch colds like mortals. Is this old guy mocking my cultivation? As for why he was sneezing, he had no clue. So annoying—here it comes again.

"Achoo!"

"Maybe you did something heinous, and someone's cursing your name," Hai Bodong teased, recalling Miteer Clan women saying that resentful thoughts could make the target sneeze endlessly.

"Heh," Xiao Bai sneered, pivoting. "Heinous? Like you, snapping at that red-clad girl who cleaned your shop for years and visited you, lonely old man, only to get your cold shoulder?"

He knew the girl's intentions weren't pure, her demeanor brimming with spoiled arrogance, but it was perfect ammo to jab Hai Bodong. That morning, she'd come to clean as usual, only to be brusquely dismissed and told never to return.

Hai Bodong chuckled, deflecting. "Young friend, it's not about her. Her father's schemes are too blatant, and I'm a free spirit—teaching's too much hassle. She'd gain nothing from me."

Xiao Bai had only raised it to shift focus from his sneezing, so he dropped it. "Let's go," he said, striding toward the Tagore Desert.

The sun blazed overhead, the desert's sands gleaming like snow. Stepping into the Tagore Desert, Xiao Bai faced an endless sea of yellow, as if entering another world. Two figures trudged through the howling sandstorm, their deep footprints vanishing moments later under the wind's sweep.

Suddenly, a crimson flash sparked beneath the black-robed, white-haired youth's feet. A shrill hiss erupted from the sand nearby, followed by a wisp of black smoke. With a wave of Xiao Bai's sleeve, a charred, small beast appeared—a Yellow Sand Poison Scorpion, notorious for lurking beneath the sand to sting passersby with venom. Even seasoned desert travelers struggled against its stealth, making it a vexing foe for mercenary beast-hunters.

Xiao Bai glanced at the corpse, then at the rolling dunes ahead. His first time in a desert, its harshness exceeded expectations. Little Yi exuded a faint wood essence, easing his discomfort with a refreshing aura. Little Bing, however, thrived here, its earlier strike eager and unrestrained, reveling in the environment.

Hai Bodong, meanwhile, sported a faint frost sheen on his face and clothes, utterly unfazed. Xiao Bai sighed inwardly. Ice attributes, huh? Showing off with a frosty face in the desert?

"Elder Hai, how long till Stone Desert City at this pace?" Xiao Bai asked. It was their second day in the desert.

Hai Bodong gauged the sky, sand, and wind direction. "About three days."

"Three days? Why doesn't Mo City have Thick-Winged Birds to Stone Desert City?" Xiao Bai said, sipping from his water flask.

"Too few people, no profit," Hai Bodong replied, drinking too. "If I flew alone, I'd be there in an hour."

"You can fly?" Xiao Bai asked, surprised.

"Of course! I'm a Dou Huang, even if I'm stuck at Dou Ling now," Hai Bodong said, glancing at him.

"Why didn't you say so?" Xiao Bai exclaimed. He'd assumed Hai Bodong couldn't fly, hesitant to ask lest it reopen old wounds. Thinking the distance short, he'd treated the trek as a chance to savor the desert's grandeur.

"My flight… can't carry others," Hai Bodong admitted sheepishly. At Dou Ling, he could fly solo but needed frequent rests. Seeing Xiao Bai avoid mentioning flight, he'd assumed Xiao Bai wasn't Dou Wang and stayed quiet, walking alongside.

"Who needs carrying? I thought you couldn't fly! Should've said something!" Xiao Bai laughed, his Purple Cloud Wings unfurling.

"Holy—! You're a Dou Wang?" Hai Bodong gaped at the purple energy wings, stunned. He'd pegged Xiao Bai, barely twenty, as a Da Dou Shi at best, maybe Dou Ling if generous. Energy wings? That's Dou Wang or higher! What kind of monster is this? An old geezer posing as a youth?

It wasn't impossible. Xiao Bai's unnatural soul force outstripped even his five-star Dou Huang peak. Good thing he didn't go all-out yesterday, or I'd be dead before the soul seal. That crimson thunder-fire's faint menace made sense now.

"Ahem, Xiao… Xiao Bai, let's go. I'll lead," Hai Bodong said, his tone tinged with respect. Can't dwell on this. He'd nearly called him "Senior Xiao Bai."

Xiao Bai found the old man's shift bizarre—shock, then reverence, all over wings. As if I can rip space apart. Ice-blue wings sprouted behind Hai Bodong, exuding a cool aura. With a flap, he soared in a direction, Xiao Bai following with a push off the ground.

In the sky, the desert's grit no longer stung his face, a relief after shielding it with Dou Qi on the ground. The high-altitude winds were fierce but clean. Less than an hour later, a city's faint outline emerged.

Stone Desert City, arrived!