In a remote quadrant of the scorching dunes.
Sword-light flashed like falling moonlight.
Xu Lingxi's figure flashed forward in a radiant streak of silver and violet.
Her slender wrist flicked once.
The head of a burly candidate flew off before he could even finish screaming.
Blood arced in a crescent through the dry air.
His pill bottle clutched in his dead fingers were already in her grasp before the body hit sand.
High above, her pet baby dragon Xiao Bai circled with delighted yips. The little creature opened its jaws and spat bursts of deep-purple dragonfire. Each fireball exploded with concussive force as they blasted two more candidates backward like broken kites.
"Aarrghhh!"
"UGH—!"
They crashed into dunes in smoking heaps.
Not far away.
Two surviving candidates huddled behind a boulder with pale and sweating faces.
"Run… we have to run right now!"
"H-, Huh…?"
