Arjun stood frozen, him sinking into a substance that was neither sand nor soil. He scanned the horizon, but there was no horizon to be found—only an oppressive, eternal curtain of obsidian gloom. He was in an undocumented area, a blind spot on the Dream Realm maps he had memorized with such obsessive care.
'Crap,' Arjun thought, his heart hammering against his ribs. 'This is a undocumented region.'
It was a world without a sun. There was no sky, only a ceiling of heavy, stagnant darkness that seemed to press down on his shoulders. On the land, there was nothing—no trees, no water, no ruins. There was only the Ash.
Arjun knelt and ran his hand through the grey silt. It wasn't cold like the dust of the Forgotten Shore; it felt chemically burnt, as if a great primordial fire had scoured this land of its soul millions of years ago. He watched the fine particles slip through his fingers like dry silk.
"This isn't the Shore," he muttered, his voice sounding thin and hollow in the vacuum-like silence.
He was perplexed. He had read every scouting report available to the Song Clan and combined them with his own meta-knowledge of the "Webnovel" world, yet there was absolutely no mention of an Ash Desert. According to every logic he knew, he should have landed near a landmark. Instead, he was in a featureless plain of grey soot.
Suddenly, a violent sting erupted at the base of his skull. His [Danger Premonition] didn't just ping; it shrieked. A massive, tectonic threat was surging toward him from directly beneath his feet.
Without a second of hesitation, Arjun willed memory to open. In a flash of dark light, he summoned his Ascended Armor and Ascended Sword, the parting gifts from the Beastmaster. The armor, a matte-black weave of shadow-silk and enchanted alloy, snapped into place, instantly masking his heartbeat, his scent, and even the ripples of his intent. The sword, currently looking dull and rusted, hummed in his hand.
Arjun threw himself backward, clearing thirty feet in a single, desperate leap.
VRRR—
The sound was a sub-sonic vibration that rattled Arjun's marrow before it reached his ears. A split second later, the ground where he had been standing erupted. A massive, cylindrical shape burst from the silt, soaring twenty feet into the air.
Arjun's eyes widened. "Holy crap!"
******
It was a nightmare of biology. The Ashworm was a titan covered in interlocking black plates—jagged, oily, and designed to vanish into the obsidian night. It had no eyes, but its maw was a masterpiece of slaughter: thousands of needle-like teeth arranged in concentric circles were spinning at high speeds, a biological drill designed to liquify bone and stone alike.
The Ashworm slammed back into the ash, its sheer mass sending a shockwave that knocked Arjun off balance. The creature sensed the displacement of air. With a terrifyingly fluid motion, it whipped its tail—a massive, plated club of reinforced bone.
Arjun raised his sword to parry, but the force was tectonic.
CRACK.
The blow sent him flying fifty feet, skipping across the ash like a stone on water. He coughed, the metallic taste of blood filling his mouth. His ribs were cracked, and a jagged piece of his own armor—shattered by the impact—had sliced into his side.
But the sword began to change. As Arjun's blood touched the hilt, a faint, crimson glow began to throb along the fuller of the blade. This was the sword's unique trait: the more the wielder suffered, the sharper it became.
The Ashworm didn't give him time to breathe. It dove back into the sand, tunneling with frightening speed. Arjun stood still, closing his eyes. He stopped trying to see the creature and started feeling the weight of the desert. Thanks to his armor's presence-reduction, the worm was struggling to pinpoint him, circling beneath the ash like a confused shark.
Suddenly, Arjun felt the pressure drop. He didn't move away—he lunged forward.
The Ashworm surged upward, its driller-maw inches from Arjun's face. Arjun twisted mid-air, allowing the spinning teeth to graze his shoulder. The pain was white-hot, ripping through his flesh, but he didn't scream. He fed that pain into the blade.
The sword was no longer dull. It vibrated with a violent, blood-red light. The air around it warped; the "Cutting Power" was now sharp enough to sever the very atoms of the air.
As the worm arched over him, Arjun saw it: The Gaping Wound.
Underneath the worm's belly, nestled between the heavy armor plates, was a raw, pulsating gash—an old scar from some ancient battle that had never truly healed. It was the only part of the creature not protected by obsidian plates.
"My turn," Arjun hissed.
The Ashworm sensed the sudden spike in killing intent and tried to twist its body to bring its armored back toward him. But Arjun was faster. He was a ghost in the worm's sensory range. By the time it realized he was beneath it, it was already too late.
Arjun swung the Crimson Edge.
He didn't hit the plates. He aimed for the scar.
The blade, powered by Arjun's own agony, didn't just cut; it erased. It sliced through the soft tissue, the internal muscle, and the thick, prehistoric spine of the beast as if they were made of nothing but smoke.
The Ashworm let out a silent, vibrating shriek that collapsed the nearby dunes. Its massive body was cleaved nearly in half. Blue, ichorous blood sprayed across the grey ash, steam rising as it hit the cold air. The two halves of the titan fell with a deafening thud, stirring up a cloud of silt that buried Arjun to his knees.
Silence returned to the Ash Desert.
[You have killed an Awakened Beast: Ashworm.] [You have received a Memory: Ash-Whip.]
Arjun stood amidst the wreckage of the beast, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He leaned on his sword—the red glow was fading now, returning to its dull, rusted state. He was battered, bleeding, and exhausted, but he was the only thing moving in the dark.
He looked at the notification. An Awakened Beast. Even with Ascended gear, he had nearly died. This place was far more dangerous than the typical starting zones.
Then, the sting returned.
The [Danger Premonition] triggered again—sharper, louder, and more frantic. It wasn't coming from one direction. The ground beneath him began to hum with the vibrations of a dozen, no, hundreds of driller-maws.
The kill had rung the dinner bell.
Arjun looked at the vast, empty expanse of the Ash Desert. He realized then that he couldn't win a war of attrition here. He was alone, and the river of time was his only true ally.
"Not again," he muttered.
Without a hint of hesitation, he turned the Crimson Edge toward himself. He gripped the hilt, positioned the point over his chest, and stabbed the sword into his heart.
===============
This will encounter a New Undocumented Region,Initially planned and the Eternal City but,It even more dangerous area,even saints and Supremes had a tough fight.This new Zone will be connected to the Main Plot.