She had decided to claim her son back from that old man, her eyes brightly shone with a decisive light.
She was about to search for her husband when a large commotion resounded outside, she was startled by the sudden situation thus she hurriedly went to open her tent.
What she saw outside made her legs feel soft, she powerlessly fell down the sandy ground, her face full of despair.
Numerous large and long slithering creatures wreaked havoc outside her tent, they had charred brown bumpy skins, a wide-opened mouth that had seemingly unending rows of white sharp teeth, they menacingly protruded out of the humongous creature's mouth.
The creatures stirred up dust wherever they go, devouring anything on its way be they humans or small infrastructures, they were all gobbled up by the creatures like they were drinking water.
The woman splayed on the ground, staring at the havoc that the creatures had caused on their encampment.
She muttered to herself lifelessly.
"Why? Why? Why are there Death Worms here? Why here... of all places they would appear to... why must it be here..."
She looked up and saw her husband running towards her, he shouted inaudible words at her.
Then she saw with her own eyes that the sandy ground beneath her husband's feet sunk and a large mouth with innumerable terrifying teeth emerged out that devoured her husband whole.
Tears after tears gushed out of her reddened eyes, she had suffered a great blow after she saw her husband got swallowed by a creature in front of her.
She coughed out blood and laughed miserably to herself.
"Hahaha... why... why did this happened to us? I only wanted to get my son back... so why... I had not even managed to say goodbye to the both of them."
She saw the thing that devoured her husband rapidly slithering towards her position. She sorrowfully closed her eyes and apologetically thought to herself one last time.
"At least I will be reunited with him... son forgive us...for giving you away..."
A massive vicious mouth descended from above and devoured her body whole.
After a few minutes passed, one would only be able to see the ravaged state of the once-bustling and lively encampment of the merchant caravan.
It was a desolate and lifeless sight.
The Death Worms retreated to their homes with satisfied stomachs.
***
The mysterious woman finally saw the contents of the black pot and was instantly shocked at what was inside it.
A boiling milky white liquid was being cooked inside, the bubbles floated to the air, popped, and created a thick and foul-smelling black smoke.
The substance looked pure and was obviously devoid of impurities yet it managed to emit a horrible smell that would make a person puke with disgust.
The mysterious woman was taken aback by the unexpected contents and silently thought to herself in doubt.
'How is it able to... wait.'
She slightly cocked her head towards the pot and carefully smelled the foul stench that the substance was emitting.
The smell reeked of corrosion and a rotting smell that only the dead would have, she was also able to feel a faint negative feeling rise deep inside her.
She was able to quickly suppress those negative energies though she had also confirmed the reason behind the substance's oddity.
'A pure milky white liquid that could emit a horrible rotting smell, I know of this... It should be the melted remains of a pure-blooded elf.'
It should be known that the elven race had already gone extinct long ago, the reason for their extinction had something to do with their unique body constitution.
Elves were known for their lifespan of thousands of years, they have a unique otherworldly graceful charm, they are also known for their high affinity towards the mana energies.
They were a blessed race but they are known for their pacifist nature of not meddling in the affairs of the world.
Their kind nature was exploited by the myriad races, they were coveted to become the life companions of other races.
There was also a shocking and horrible precedent of using the bodies of the elves as an alchemical ingredient to concoct the said 'Beauty' and 'Youth' potions.
This was accidentally discovered by one of the races that secretly conducted the mystifying body composition of the elves.
They have found that the body of an elf contained a shocking amount of life energy that could heal and elongate the lifespan of a living being.
This shocking discovery was the prelude to the disaster that lead to the extinction of the whole elven race.
Elves were hunted and sold by the myriad races at an astronomically large amount of platinum golds, the sold elves either became a slave or used as an alchemical ingredient to concoct the highly sought mystical potions.
The myriad races weren't satisfied with just hunting the live elves they also dug out their ancestral grounds and used the dead remains as the substitute to the live ingredient.
The world descended into chaos as the result of the atrocities that the myriad races committed.
The other weak races feared for their lives and went into hiding, the stronger races fought amongst them to decide on where the elven loots would go.
This continued until the elven races finally went extinct, the Moon Goddess that the elves put their trust in did not descend to help them.
They were filled with grief and agony until their miserable and pitiable deaths.
They were grieving because of the inaction of the god they believe in.
They were also agonized by the torturous and atrocious acts of the myriad races.
The oppression that befell the Spirit Race could be called cute in comparison to the whole extinction of the Elven Race.
Each of the elves that died carried their horrifying amount of resentment, their pure bodies were tainted and all of the elves who were contaminated with resentment became a poisonous ingredient.
But this did not stop the myriad races from trying the product made out of the remains of an elf with resentment.
Some did not manage to withstand the intense negative energy, some fell into madness while others inexplicably died.
While those that managed to withstand the said resentful air were able to live their lives normally.
It is to be known that the higher the quality of ingredients used in the concoction, the higher the quality of the concocted product.
That means that the higher the bloodline of the elf, the higher the effectiveness of the produced potion.
And right now, the mysterious woman could see that the remains of the elf that the old man had used were extremely pure and without a trace of impurity aside from the air of resentment that it produced.
The woman despised the horrible act of the old man but she remained silent and carefully observed his next course of actions.
She then heard the low muttering of the old man.
"Hmm... the remains of the elf has melted perfectly it should be about time to commence the start of the Youth Potion concoction..."
The mysterious woman heard this but she wasn't too surprised about it as she had managed to more or less deduce what he was planning to do after she saw the liquid remains of an elf in the pot.
The old man went back to the table that he had placed his ingredients on and he picked the first ingredient which is the feathery wings of an unknown creature.
He carefully held the pure white wings in his hand, he softly muttered to himself.
"The wings of a sacred cherub is really pure and magnificent, how enviable that they were able to live without having to worry about their lifespan..."
He fondly stroked the surface of the cherubim wings, the tip of his finger glowed a faint red light that drew mystical symbols on its feathery surface.
He continued to write the symbols until the wings were full of red unknown writings, and after the last symbol was drawn, the wings emitted a red glow that made the pure white wings look bloody.
He finally dropped the red wings on the boiling pot of white liquid.
Although the mysterious woman had an expression of indifference, she still felt a bit of shock inside her.
'He has such amazing methods! His inscriptions are extremely neat yet innovative at the same time.'
With just these skills alone, he was indeed worthy to be called as one of the mysterious tower masters of the Endless Desert Continent.
Even in the Mysterious Central Continent, his skills would be treated as top-notch.
If only he wasn't too old and had a righteous mind she would've been tempted to recruit him.
The process of rune inscribing and ingredient mixing lasted for a whole hour before they were all used, only the last and most precious ingredient remained which was the soundly sleeping Chan.
Then as if his survival instinct kicked in, Chan woke up from his sleep and anxiously darted his small golden eyes around.