CHAPTER 594: CHAPTER 508: THE DIVINE COUNTRY OF THE WORLD TREE

In the northern part of the Death Desert, Sandstorm City.

This was the economic center of the entire Death Desert, and one of the few cities built upon an oasis in the entire desert.

Of course, given the level of civilization and social order of the Half-Beasts, they preferred to settle along oases in a tribal form, which even included the Half-Beast Royal Court.

The reason for the existence of outlier settlements like Sandstorm City was entirely due to its unique geographical location.

Sandstorm City... was a city built upon a passage leading to the Underworld, beneath which lay the territory of the Dark City State Alliance of the Underworld.

This was the most convenient route to enter the Underworld from the Death Desert.

And the history of this city was said to trace back to the Silver Era dominated by the elves...

At that time, the Death Desert was a beautiful forest, and Sandstorm City was a city established by elves, even after thousands of years, one could still vaguely see elven-style monoliths and reliefs in the city.

However, with the changes in the Death Desert, the forest turned into a desert, and the elves abandoned it. Later, it was inherited by the Dwarves, who used it to mine nearby Obsidian and Mithril deposits.

Two thousand years ago, the mineral deposits were exhausted, and the Dwarves left. Some retreated into the Underworld to become Dark Dwarves, and some ventured to the east of the continent in search of new homes. The current masters then became the Half-Beasts.

Even today.

As a transportation hub between the Death Desert and the Underworld, and a major connection passage of the surface and underground in the southwestern part of the continent, Sandstorm City had always been the most prosperous place in the entire Death Desert.

Although it was dominated by Half-Beasts, the city also gathered a large number of Underworld residents, fugitives from the Human World, adventurers, mercenaries, and so on...

As long as they abided by the rules set by the Half-Beasts and paid a certain amount of gold pounds, outsiders could stay here.

If you had wealth, you could get whatever you wanted from the black market merchants gathered here, Underworld residents, and mercenary leaders.

This was heaven for the strong, hell for the weak.

So, Sandstorm City had another name—"the City of Chaos."

The masters of Sandstorm City were the third-ranking largest tribe among the Half-Beasts—the Sandstorm Tribe.

This was a large tribe with a population of one hundred thousand, also one of the four Half-Beast tribes in the entire Death Desert with a population of the ten-thousand level.

The Sandstorm Tribe was powerful, with as many as two Half-Beast powerhouses at the Golden Rank, and also possessed a Bimong Giant Beast that had reached the Golden Rank.

In history, the Sandstorm Tribe had been the master of the Half-Beast Royal Court multiple times, giving rise to more than one Half-Beast King.

Only such a powerful tribe could tightly hold such an important city.

In the northern part of Sandstorm City, in the abandoned Dwarf mines connecting the Underworld.

Raggedly dressed residents were scurrying about here.

Most of them were Half-Beasts, but there were also some Underworld residents and even humans.

They were the bottom tier of the city, also known as mine scavengers.

Although the mines of Sandstorm City had long since been exhausted, there were still often lucky ones who found sporadic pieces of Obsidian or even Mithril here, thus getting rich overnight.

Qiduo was one such scavenger Half-Beast.

He had lived here for more than ten years, was extremely familiar with the caves, and supported his entire family by picking up Obsidian fragments.

Today, as always, he plunged into the depths of the mines, following his intuition to search for possible traces of mineral deposits.

"Yesterday, there seemed to be another tremor... Since half a year ago, the Death Desert had had more frequent tremors, and after each tremor, pieces of mineral deposits could be found in the mines. This time... I must seize the opportunity to delve into the deepest part of the mines!"

Qiduo murmured to himself.

He carried his prepared tools and expertly dove into the mines, following his memory and intuition, heading straight for the mine he thought most likely to have mineral fragments surfacing from the tremors.

However, when he arrived at his planned destination, he was slightly taken aback.

"What is this?"

He looked at the mine with a mixture of curiosity and fear.

The original mine was enveloped in a hazy golden aura, the aura continuously flowed, illuminating the dark mine to an unprecedented brightness.

At the center of the aura, appeared an illusory milky-white mirror, with ripples like water waves spreading on it.

The mirror was an upright oval shape, flickering with a strange brilliance, and at the edges of the mirror, black rifts could be seen. The rifts shifted continuously, faintly exuding a thrilling aura of destruction...

However, more than the aura of destruction from those rifts, Qiduo was more greatly attracted to the mirror.

At the moment he saw the mirror, he felt an indescribable force surge at him, a force unseen and intangible, yet it brought a feeling of immense tranquility and comfort.

*Qiduo subconsciously took a deep breath*; faintly, he seemed to catch a scent of a floral aroma, leaving him feeling refreshed.

"What is this thing?"

He curiously repeated.

The common sense of the Half-Beasts told him this was definitely some mysterious power he could not comprehend.

Yet, an intuition, as if from deep within his biological instincts, told him that what he saw could not harm him...

Driven by some inexplicable impulse, he reached out his hand, gently touching the mirror-like portal.