The wind howled like a blunt blade scraping against the canvas roof of the staging area camp. Albedo put away his alchemical notes and looked out past the buffer zone at the uncharted desert known as the "Sea of Golden Sands." The warped light made the dunes look like melting wax; the air was thick, barren, and deathly still—a shattered reflection of the Sumeru desert, and even more like a forgotten wreck.
"Sir, are you... are you really going out there?" The guide Old Zhang's voice was tight, his wind-weathered face baring undisguised terror.
His rough fingers instinctively stroked the worn leather water skin at his waist, his gaze locked tightly on that boundary churning with bizarre sandstorms. "That cursed place, there are things buried under the sand! Last time Old Li's prospecting team went in, five went in, and only one came back, and he was out of his mind, muttering only 'the sand is eating people' over and over... And that sandstorm, it comes out of nowhere, churning up black sand that cuts your face like a knife! At night... at night you can hear low roars, not the wind, but living things crawling beneath the sand!" He swallowed hard and emphasized, "The Core Area, that place is a mouth that eats people!"
Chapter 25