After Mar-Dule watched Sol put on the clothes he gave him, he turned to Yoon-Jae, who hadn't changed, and scowled.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

"Brother Yoon-Jae, it's really not that bad."

Sol walked over wanting to help Yoon-Jae put on the clothes, but Yoon-Jae shooed him away.

Then, after staring at the clothes with an unwilling expression, Yoon-Jae sighed in resignation. He quickly got out of his comfortable, silk-like yellow robes and into these plain, coarse, brown clothes.

Immediately, upon wearing them, his body began to itch all over. It started small, but soon it felt like small ants were crawling all over him and nipping his skin continuously.

Yoon-Jae was forced to scratch himself like a dog that had fleas.

"Ack, this is the worst!"

"Pfft!"

Mar-Dule suddenly covered his mouth and turned away.

Yoon-Jae froze, then, as if realizing something, his face turned red from anger.

He had thought this itching was a result of the clothes, but from Mar-Dule's reaction, he immediately realized he had done something to them.

"Bastard!"

Yoon-Jae jumped up from the ground to attack Mar-Dule, but his expression suddenly changed, and he had to sit back down to scratch himself.

Sol got a bit worried when he saw how much Yoon-Jae was desperately scratching himself as time went by. But Mar-Dule waved his hand and said.

"He's going to be fine; the powder will wear off in a few hours."

However, Yoon-Jae, upon hearing this, had his eyes go wide, and hatred poured out of them as he glared at Mar-Dule. Even though he didn't say anything, it was obvious what he intended to do after he recovered.

Mar-Dule snickered, completely unconcerned, before he turned to look at the horizon.

"We're about to reach the border."

Sol turned to look as well and saw in the distance that the forest trees had stopped at a clear line.

Silence fell over the three, with only Yoon-Jae's constant scratching could be heard.

After a few minutes, the boat reached the end of the forest and shot past it.

They entered a vast expanse with only sand visible far into the horizon. It was a sight to behold, but what their attention was focused on was the drastic temperature change.

All of a sudden, Sol felt as if his body was dumped into boiling water. Though the clothes reduced the feeling significantly.

"Do you feel it?"

Mar-Dule asked, and Sol nodded.

Meanwhile, Yoon-Jae was still scratching himself. But he, too, felt the hyperactive Fire Aether Energy all around him.

"But this isn't the end, this is just the outer region, it's like a safe zone. Further inside are two more of these Safe Zones, and between them are the Heat Zones."

"This is really just the outer region?"

Sol was surprised, but he could tell that as the boat went further into the Eternal Desert, the heat was slowly increasing.

After a long while, Mar-Dule's face turned extremely serious.

"We're approaching the first Heat Zone. Circulate your Aether Energy the best you can."

Sol began circulating his Wood Aether Energy in his body.

"Huh? What's that?"

In the distance, a silver line was visible that stretched across the entire horizon. The closer they got, the brighter this silver light became.

Sol walked to the edge of the boat and activated his Heavenly Eyes to see what this silver light was. What he saw was…

"Crystals? Mar-Dule are those Crystals?"

The entire ground looked to be made of crystals. The dazzlingly silver light was from the half-moon in the sky, reflecting on them.

Mar-Dule nodded.

"The sand in the Heat Zones became crystallized due to the heat."

Sol was fascinated by this phenomenon. As the boat reached the Heat Zone, he deactivated his Heavenly Eyes.

Just when they were on the precipice of entering the first Heat Zone, Sol asked.

"Mar-Dule, why exactly is this Eternal Desert like this?"

"Ah, well, that's because of our Dimension above. It's-"

Before Mar-Dule could fully answer Sol's question, he suddenly released a groan and took several steps back. They had entered the Heat Zone.

Mar-Dule, seeing Sol's reaction, was worried and came up to him.

"You alright? Do you need more clothes?"

"No, it's not the heat."

Sol said, holding his forehead.

'What's happening? Why is my Holy Crest suddenly acting up?'

Sol's Holy Crest sun tattoo had started emitting stabbing pains in his mind. They weren't especially painful; it was just a mild inconvenience.

At the same time, Little Abdu's eyes flew open, and he looked out from under Sol's hood at the starry night sky, a shocked look in his eyes.

"No wonder… No wonder!"

Hearing Little Abdu, Sol asked.

"Little Abdu, what's gotten into you?"

Little Abdu glanced away from the sky to look down at Sol before asking.

"Brat, that Master of yours was from the Giant Race, wasn't he?"

Before Sol could respond, Mar-Dule's eyes suddenly went wide, and he stared at Little Abdu in shock.

"You know about my Giant Race?!"

"Wait, Giant Race?"

Sol was extremely taken aback by the familiar term, and he recalled those memories of that large man floating in the sky.

However, before this conversation could go any further, a loud bang suddenly echoed out, and white fog spread to cover the entire boat. The hot temperature suddenly plummeted to freezing levels.

"Ah! What happened?!"

Mar-Dule creid in alarm, but Yoon-Jae's voice echoed out.

"Calm down, that was me."

The white mist suddenly swirled around, sending cold winds everywhere, before it then shrank into a small ball and hovered above Yoon-Jae's hand.

When Yoon-Jae was revealed, Sol and Mar-Dule saw that the white mist was slowly emanating from his body.

Crack… Crack…

Cracking sounds echoed out as the clothes Yoon-Jae was wearing shattered like glass.

Mar-Dule looked down at his frozen clothes, which were now ice fragments on the ground in shock.

"Brother Yoon-Jae, are you alright? What happened to you?"

Sol asked worriedly.

Yoon-Jae looked down at his naked figure with a frown before saying.

"This place has too much Fire Aether Energy. Even the Ice Aether Energy in my body is being evaporated."

"Wah! Isn't that bad? Here, hurry and cover up."

Sol was so worried that he was about to take off his own protective robes and give them to him, but Yoon-Jae stopped him. Then, with a bit of excitement flashing in his eyes, he explained.

"No, I'm fine. The thing being evaporated is the excess Ice Aether Energy that was freezing my meridians and acupoints, which was causing my cultivation to stall. Rather than being bad, this might be the perfect place for me to cultivate. I should have come here sooner. From now on, don't interrupt me until we reach our destination."

Yoon-Jae then crossed his legs in a meditative position and went into a deep cultivation session.

Mar-Dule almost spat blood when he saw this.

"Bastard, how are you fine? We're in the Heat Zone. You should be roasting alive without those clothes!"

"No, he has both the Fire Phoenix and Ice Phoenix. If it were anyone else, they would undoubtedly be affected by the heat, but this place is a cultivation paradise for him. But this heat... it seems to be caused by Divine Flames."

Little Abdu said this as he looked up at the sky once more.

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