Chapter 43: The Descent of the Wild Sand

Nian and He were lost in thought, no longer at each other's throats. Perhaps their luck had turned; after only the time it takes to brew a pot of tea, another strange beast took the bait.

This thing had a bloated body like a hippopotamus, but its four limbs were fin-like, and its tail and neck were both very long. By comparison, its head was freakishly small.

Such a low-intelligence creature would never let go once it bit the hook, making it even easier to reel in than a earth dragon.

The only trouble was that its body was too large; it occupied an entire walnut-shaped boat and made the hull sway unsteadily.

Fortunately, the walnut boat was very close to the stone bridge, and over a hundred soldiers grabbed the tow ropes and managed to pull it onto the bridge.

Then came the large-scale slaughter.

Everyone fetched buckets from the houses in the city, drained the blood from the two monsters, and carried it into the temple, bucket by bucket.

Their bodies were massive, like water vats, and the blood they released was thick and viscous, with a stench that soared to the heavens.

He Lingchuan stood to the side, smelling it and secretly hoping the Great Square Pot wouldn't be too picky.

And in front of the main hall, the pool water was becoming redder and redder.

Most gratifyingly, after pouring in over thirty buckets of beast blood, the surface area of the pool began to expand!

"It's working!" Sun Fuping was overjoyed, his fingers turning white as he gripped the edge of the pool. "Keep going, keep going!"

Finally, after the last few buckets were poured in, the blood barely covered the bottom of the pool, appearing as only a thin layer.

Ceng Feixiong and his men tossed aside their buckets: "And then?"

"Wait!" Sun Fuping stared at the water surface without blinking. "Just wait!"

He Chunhua suddenly said: "The wind in the city stopped a long time ago."

Reminded by him, everyone recalled: when exactly had the omnipresent cold wind ceased?

The bright moon had hidden itself behind thick clouds at some point, and everyone felt the light in the city growing dimmer.

No sooner had he finished speaking than the long-calm water surface bubbled, sending out a few ripples.

"There are holes underneath..."

Ceng Feixiong had just asked this when Sun Fuping hissed, raising a hand to stop him.

The vast plaza of the Mitian Temple was deathly quiet; one could hear a pin drop.

This in itself was abnormal.

Another string of small bubbles rose.

Sun Fuping lowered his body, just about to lean in for a closer look, when the water surface splashed and something lunged out, nearly colliding face-to-face with him!

Others could only see a pitch-black shadow, but that didn't stop them from gasping in alarm.

Only Nian Songyu, He Chunhua, and a few others could see clearly in their haste: this was actually a wolf-like monster, with the head, tail, and limbs of a canine, but its body was covered in rough, cracked fissures—not like animal hide, but more like tree bark. Furthermore, there were no eyeballs in its deeply sunken sockets; instead, they were replaced by points of scarlet ghost fire!

This thing had emerged directly toward Sun Fuping, so it unceremoniously opened its maw to strike at his throat.

This mouth could open to a hundred and twenty degrees, looking as if it could swallow a head whole. The distance between them was so close that, in the blink of an eye for He Lingchuan, Sun Fuping was about to lose his life.

But the Imperial Preceptor was worthy of his title; unflustered in the face of danger, he shoved his staff into the monster's face.

The beast-head on the staff opened its mouth and spat out a ball of crimson fire with a "whoosh."

The monster immediately let out a shrill scream and vanished into ashes.

Nian Songyu was startled, then delighted: "A vengeful spirit!"

This monster had no physical form; it was a vengeful spirit.

People always thought vengeful spirits hid in the shadows of the Panlong Desert to bewitch minds, but the real culprits were the Three-Corpse Insects. This vengeful spirit was the first "main culprit" they had encountered since stepping into the Panlong Desert.

Once it appeared, Nian Songyu was actually overjoyed, as this meant they hadn't searched in the wrong direction! Ash had dusted Sun Fuping's face, but he had no time to wipe it off before lowering his head to observe the water.

He Lingchuan thought maliciously that if he had lowered his head another inch, the next monster to emerge could have ridden his face.

At this moment, the entire pool was bubbling, the bubbles becoming more numerous and dense.

It was as if firewood were burning underneath, and the water was about to boil.

Those layers of ripples didn't dissipate when they reached the edge of the pool; instead, they intensified as they spread outward, eventually kicking up waves.

The spray hit the edge of the pool and returned to further agitate the water.

Everyone's expression turned grim.

If one string of bubbles represented the birth of one monster, then these dense clusters of bubbles meant...

Sun Fuping suddenly turned and roared at the crowd: "Take the Soul-Blocking Powder, light your life-fires! Quickly, quickly, quickly!"

This shout was imbued with true qi, shaking the surroundings and deafening the ears, clearly revealing his anxiety.

Everyone immediately took action.

Fortunately, the hundred-plus soldiers who had been fishing in the sand sea had already taken the Soul-Blocking Powder; now, Sun Fuping, He Chunhua, and the others just needed to follow suit.

As soon as the little pill was swallowed, Sun Fuping urgently instructed: "Hold your breath and stand by the pool, don't look back! These monsters are harder to deal with than Three-Corpse Insects!"

This last sentence made everyone's heart tremble.

Sun Fuping emphasized again: "Hold your breath, hold it!"

No sooner had he spoken than the water surface suddenly exploded!

The scene was like a volcanic eruption; the vent was the pool surface, and the magma spewing out was countless, bizarrely shaped vengeful spirits!

Some looked like people, some like beasts, some like plants, and some possessed the characteristics of all three, making it impossible for the living to tell what they were supposed to look like.

But there were too many vengeful spirits rushing out; people had no time to observe individuals, only seeing spectacular black smoke rising like volcanic ash into the sky, then spreading in all directions!

Most terrifyingly, every vengeful spirit opened its mouth to wail; the sound was shrill and piercing, filled with pain and resentment.

Without needing a reminder, everyone spontaneously covered their ears and kept their mouths tightly shut.

But the sound echoed in everyone's spiritual sense, shaking their hearts and dazzling their minds.

Most of the vengeful spirits that rushed out headed for the heights, but a few circled the main hall twice before flying back!

Everyone didn't dare to even breathe.

Imperial Preceptor Sun was right; these things looked much more vicious than the Three-Corpse Insects.

Three wisps of life-fire ignited on their bodies, and the Soul-Blocking Powder did its best to hide the aura of the living.

The spirits wove through the crowd, but treated them as mud or wooden statues, drifting away after a short while.

He Lingchuan looked up at the sky and found that the circling spirits filled the night sky, causing the weather to change rapidly.

The wind had started.

Twenty breaths passed.

Forty breaths passed.

Thousands of vengeful spirits rushed out with every breath; by now, there were tens of thousands, yet the spirits were still gushing out, showing no sign of slowing down.

The wind force outside Panlong City grew stronger, and sand tornadoes began to form, growing from small to large, finally becoming massive funnels, one end reaching the sky and the other touching the ground.

Apart from the wild sand and the strong wind, there seemed to be nothing else in the world.

Although the wind and sand blinded them, everyone had to rub their eyes and watch it through to the end.

The sandstorm season accompanied most people of Heishuicheng as they grew up, but how many could witness its true cause with their own eyes? As time passed, the soldiers' faces turned redder and redder, almost swelling to the color of a pig's liver.

(End of chapter)