The desert was an endless canvas of ochre and burnt umber, stretching beneath a relentless sun. The heat during the day was oppressive, shimmering off the rocks, distorting the air. Yet, Xiaochen felt only a distant echo of it, a background sensation that held no true power over him. His skin, once merely pale, now possessed an almost chalky translucence, the black veins beneath it starker, more prominent. His white-streaked hair, once a mere anomaly, seemed to grow subtly longer, flowing like spun moonlight against his dark cloak.
"Your body adapts, little spark," Ye Cangtian observed one sweltering afternoon, as Xiaochen scaled a ridge of crumbling sandstone with effortless grace. "The Void Qi rejects the limitations of the flesh. It rebuilds, reshapes. You are becoming... less. And mor
