Chapter 31: Heart-Confusing Worm

Three walnut boats roamed the sand sea, with a speed of about half that of a galloping horse, but they were stable, persistent, and relatively safe—

The walnut boats occasionally encountered strange creatures. Originally, the other party was eager to try, but the stench of the cured meat was too overbearing. They followed for a while and were frightened, fleeing as if they hated that they were born with two fewer legs, so how could they care about the humans on the walnut boat?

Most people here, although they grew up on the edge of the desert, had never enjoyed the sand sea from this angle, and were all staring straight.

He Lingchuan murmured: "Can it still be played like this?"

Sailing in the

The only fly in the ointment was the stench drifting from ahead, which lingered and made breathing difficult.

The helmsmen of the three walnut boats were all cautious, trying their best to avoid the tall sand dunes.

The more magnificent the sand dune, the larger its shadow.

And every person from Black Water City understood that one must never enter the shadows in the Panlong Desert. The scorching sun, hot winds, thirst, sand bandits, and attacks from exotic beasts—none of these were as terrifying as the shadows in the Panlong Desert.

However, no matter how skilled the helmsmen were, after more than an hour, buildings began to emerge bit by bit on the distant horizon.

As they got closer, they could clearly see the dilapidated high walls and city gates.

This was clearly the auxiliary city located in the southwest of Panlongcheng, which originally served as a flanking support for the main city.

Of course, it had been abandoned for a hundred years, and only the wind and sand were frequent visitors here.

Yet the city walls remained high, and the city gate was shrouded in thick shadows.

If one were to peer inside from the gate, one would find several ruined buildings that refused to be completely swallowed by the yellow sand.

They were backlit, and shadows were everywhere.

Reaching this point, there was no way to avoid it; the only path was to pass through the city gate and traverse this ruined city.

Nian Songyu stood at the front of the leading walnut boat and turned his head to blow three long whistles toward the rear.

This was the secret signal they had agreed upon at the desert post station.

It was time to initiate the next step of the strategy.

The He family father and son stood at the bow of the boat and shouted to their men: "Ignite your life-fire!"

Though called "igniting," everyone actually took a small red pill from their pockets and swallowed it.

Immediately, a sour and spicy sensation surged up from their stomachs, churning like a stormy sea.

But this burp had to be suppressed; it could not be let out.

Everyone felt their eyes heat up and their noses swell, with sour water rising in their mouths, yet their bodies felt waves of cold. Even though the sun overhead was scorching, many soldiers began to shiver.

Fortunately, these symptoms subsided after only a dozen breaths.

Everyone looked at each other and realized that a faint flame had ignited above each person's head and on both shoulders.

Most people's flames were light green in tone—some darker, some brighter, some more yellow, some more blue—but they were all small flames the size of a pinky finger, trembling and floating in the air as if they would be extinguished by a single gust of wind.

Yet the desert wind was strong enough to make their faces sting, but it could not blow out these three faint flames.

Once the three flames were lit, everyone felt the temperature around them drop by several degrees, and the heat wave hitting their faces was no longer so scorching.

This was the life-fire, also known as the life-lamp, usually hidden within the human spiritual stove—commonly known as the fire of life. If the fire exists, the person lives; if the fire goes out, the person dies.

"When a person dies, the lamp goes out"—that is where the saying comes from.

After the life-fire was ignited, the squad leaders all turned their backs to face their own men and roared: "Do not look back!"

From all three walnut boats came the uniform shouts of the soldiers: "Do not look back!"

This was repeated three times.

This was a repeated warning to others, and to themselves.

Remember, remember, remember!

He Chunhua stood to the front right of He Lingchuan, who asked him: "Dad, do you know that your life-fire color leans toward yellow?"

The Governor was about to shake his head, but suddenly remembered that this movement was extremely dangerous, so he quickly steadied his head and gave his eldest son a glare: "You brat!"

He Lingchuan grinned: "Better to practice now than to encounter danger later."

Actually, what he said made a lot of sense.

"Your life-fire is yellow tinged with red," He Chunhua smiled. "It's good to be young."

The life-fire intuitively reflects the owner's health. The stronger the body and the more vigorous the qi and blood, the deeper the color of the life-fire.

Young people, after all, have a fiery nature.

At this moment, they couldn't turn their heads left or right, otherwise, He Lingchuan would have really liked to see what color Nian Songyu's and the State Preceptor's life-fires were.

As the boat reached the city, He Chunhua took a deep breath and roared: "Don't move, nobody move!"

The same warning came from the other two boats.

The three helmsmen cast their rods one last time, guiding the earth-dragons to swim toward the city gate.

The smoke and fire of past wars, combined with the erosion of wind and sand, made the city walls, which were once perpendicular to the ground, lean further forward, making them look precarious.

Yet it had stood here for a hundred years—tenacious, silent, and unyielding.

Getting closer and closer, the massive gate opening looked like the bloodthirsty mouth of a monster opened in silence. He Lingchuan could even see the faint stains on both sides of the gate.

Perhaps those were layers upon layers of blood splattered repeatedly—first bright red, then turning black and purple, and after years of scouring by wind and sand, they had faded from their ferocious hue, leaving only a glimmer of their final moments.

All clamor and excitement must eventually return to plainness.

The group's vision darkened as the walnut boat finally sailed into the shadows beneath the city gate.

Yin energy rushed toward them.

The soldiers had already ignited their life-fires, and only then could they see wisps of light smoke emerging from the shadows, lunging toward the walnut boats.

Only up close could one see that these wisps of smoke resembled human phantoms—with torsos and limbs, but no faces.

They ignored the earth-dragons pulling the boats, but were very curious about everything on the walnut boats, including every human and every piece of wood.

In the blink of an eye, everyone was surrounded by four or five wisps of smoke. They drifted before and behind the humans, peering with ill intent. Although they had no eyes, everyone felt they were being stared at intently, and goosebumps rose on their skin.

These things were the Three-Corpse Insects!

In the legends of the Panlong Desert, they were resentful spirits hidden beneath any shadow. Even if travelers avoided the creatures in the desert, once they stepped into the shadow of a sand dune, they would be attacked by them.

In fact, humans without bright life-fires could not see these things with the naked eye, and thus had no way to defend against them.

After Panlongcheng disappeared and the humans it loved most left, the Three-Corpse Insects had to turn to invading various creatures—though not a perfect match, it would suffice. All living things in the desert were affected by them and gradually underwent strange mutations, such as the earth-dragons pulling the boats ahead.

Sun Fuping and Nian Songyu were not worried but happy. The existence of these things indirectly confirmed the existence of the Great Fang Hu; their trip had not been in vain.

In the ears of every soldier, faint, whispering voices sounded, as if someone were speaking to them.

(End of chapter)