Chapter 910: Pursued and Arrived

Twelve skeletal camels trod across the sand, their bells made of skulls. The black‑robed leader lifted his hood, revealing a face covered in scales—it was the demon‑race overseer captured in the daylight workshop's portrait!

"This shipment must bypass Heaven Sword Gorge." He tossed a storage sack to the camel convoy's leader, "Send it along the line of the Yin Corpse Path."

The leader's spirit sense swept over the sack, exclaiming, "Three refined‑void war puppets?! Have you gone mad? This is…?"

"Silence!" The demon‑race overseer suddenly whipped a bone lash, hurling the leader ten plus zhang away: "Remember, it must arrive before the Zi hour on July 15."

In the shadows, Lin Qingli's pupils contracted.

Flying Dragon Abyss is a forbidden zone of the West Sand River Basin, and the source of the earlier Black Sand Storm! She turned to remind Ji Shan, but saw the Daoist's eyes flushed with blood and a strange grin at the corner of his mouth.

"Finally hooked…" Yan Buji's murmur was as light as a sigh.

After the camel convoy vanished, Lin Qingli could no longer hold back and asked, "Senior, you knew the Flying Dragon Abyss had a problem all along?"

"Just guessed; the recent Black Sand Storm in the West Sand River Basin is completely different from before," Yan Buji shook his head.

Some matters Yan Buji had also heard about, but combining them with what they now faced, he roughly pieced together some clues.

"Now you understand why the spirit devices are tainted with demonic qi?" Yan Buji said, "The Buddhist sect has long been covertly allied with the demon race; the Zhong Tian Zhi Yu battlefield is merely…"

"A gu‑breeding ground," Lin Qingli blurted, startled by her own inference: "They're using war to destroy Zhong Tian Zhi Yu!"

Yan Buji showed a look of approval: "For example, something that could make the Buddhist sect heavily support the Five Domains, and the like."

At the fifth watch, the last ember of the campfire went out.

Lin Qingli watched Yan Buji as he divined, seven blood‑stained copper coins spread before him.

When the east turned a fish‑belly white, the coins suddenly stood upright, forming an arrow pointing southwest.

"Your companions are in Sandthorn Town, three hundred li away." He folded the coins: "Three are gravely injured; five bear soul‑devouring gu."

"Senior, how…"

"The hexagram shows you carry the Immortal Alliance's Demon‑Extermination Order." Yan Buji smiled without smiling, "Inviting me to the Central Continent as a guest?"

Lin Qingli's face turned deathly pale.

The Demon‑Extermination Order is the Immortal Alliance's highest secret command, known only to the heads of each sect; this Daoist Ji somehow calculated it out of thin air!

Yan Buji didn't deduce it from nothing; he derived it through the principles of Daoic operation.

Moreover, he now masters various divination arts; as long as something isn't too ethereal, he can always draw some conclusion.

"No need to be nervous." Yan Buji rose and brushed dust from his Daoist robe: "I happen to be heading to the Central Continent to visit a friend."

He suddenly leaned close to the female cultivator's ear: "Also, see if the 'evidence' you brought back can blow that stagnant pool to pieces."

As dawn pierced the clouds, Lin Qingli stared at Yan Buji's back and suddenly recalled Senior Wei's final hexagram words:

"Blood Sea asks the Dao, the demon ferries all living beings."

At this moment she realized that this "demon" was not the one they thought.

"Come to think of it, I haven't asked you—what sect and school are you from?"

"Daoist, I am a junior female cultivator of the Lily Immortal Palace of Zhong Tian Zhi Yu."

"Oh."

Lily Immortal Palace?

The all‑female sect?

Never expected Lin Qingli to be from the Lily Immortal Palace; that means even a reclusive sect like Lily Immortal Palace must join the Zhong Tian Zhi Yu human‑demon war, and the spread of the flames may be faster than he imagined!

After a while,

The crimson‑gold sand sea boiled under the scorching sun, the distant horizon warped and steamed, stretching the pursuers' silhouettes into ghostly phantoms.

Lin Qingli's plain silk hat had long been shredded by the gale, her lips cracked and blood‑soaked, each breath feeling like hot coals rolling down her throat. She glanced back at the sky's dense streaks of light—thirty‑seven refined‑void cultivators forming a Demon‑Extermination formation, led by a purple‑robed elder wielding the "Mountain‑Stabilizing Seal," which inhaled and exhaled annihilating spirit light.

"Into the desert!" Yan Buji suddenly seized her wrist; the icy chill from his palm starkly contrasted the scorching sand sea. Lin Qingli had no time to react before she was yanked into a suddenly appearing spatial fissure.

"Senior, ahead is…" Before Lin Qingli could finish, Yan Buji had already led her inside.

When they opened their eyes again, the onslaught was no longer scorching waves but a viscous, solid‑like darkness; they were falling toward the famed Soul‑Devouring Quicksand of the Endless Desert!

"Seeking death!" a furious shout rang from behind, and three sword flashes arrived instantly.

It was the "Soul‑Cutting Three‑Talent Sword" of the three elders of Great Hero City; where the blade passed, even space froze into frost patterns. Lin Qingli instinctively invoked the Water‑Cloud Technique, but saw Yan Buji, without turning his head, flick his finger.

"Ding!"

In a crisp, shattered‑jade sound, three millennia‑forged spirit swords snapped cleanly at their roots.

Even more horrifying, the fissures spewed not spirit energy but pink‑hued desire mist!

The mist, as if alive, coiled around the pursuers; the bearded cultivator at the front let out a beast‑like roar and redirected his artifact to blast his comrades.

"Desire Dao? You are a heavenly demon…" the purple‑robed elder shouted angrily, his question drowned by the sandstorm.

Yan Buji curled a cold smile, clasped Lin Qingli's waist and plunged into the quicksand. In the instant before darkness engulfed them, Lin Qingli saw him pull out an Immortal Accumulation Artifact, releasing that terrifying sea of desire, which could corrupt another's Immortal Accumulation spirit!

Yan Buji had no need to explain anything to Lin Qingli; ever since he took charge of the Extreme Desire Path, the Swallow Desire Pot had gradually been affected by the Desire‑Way he bore, spawning many new functions.

"This is… a dead zone?!" Yan Buji also realized, glancing at the pursuers behind.

He had heard that the West Sand River Basin contains a dead zone called the Endless Desert; it seems they indeed stumbled into it by accident.

Seeing Lin Qingli unconscious, Yan Buji furrowed his brow.

"If I didn't keep you for a big purpose, I'd have killed you long ago." Yan Buji snorted coldly and kept fleeing.

When Lin Qingli regained sensation in her limbs, she found herself perched on a levitating black rock.

Below was boiling silvery‑white sand slurry; within the steaming heat floated countless cultivator skeletons, among which translucent sand spirits roamed, the legendary beings that feed on divine consciousness greedily raising their heads to howl.

"This is… the Soul‑Devouring Sand Abyss?" her voice trembled.

The Endless Desert houses one of the most terrifying death zones; even Great Vehicle cultivators cannot escape its lethal realm!

Yan Buji sat cross‑legged on a rock platform three zhang away, carving a blood‑colored sigil with a peach‑wood sword: "In half a quarter‑hour, the first pursuers will arrive here."

He lightly flicked the sword tip, a drop of pure blood fell into the slurry, instantly raising a hundred‑zhang high silver wave: "Afraid?"

Lin Qingli clenched the Retained‑Image Pearl: "Senior, who exactly are you?"

She had held this question for seven days. From witnessing this person instantly slay a Void Refining cultivator, to now escaping that terrifying pursuit, and even remaining unharmed in this desperate place, she deeply knew this person's methods — they were utterly unlike those of a Daoist cultivator!

At the moment the seal formation was completed, the entire sand abyss violently trembled.

Yan Buji rose to his feet and gave a light chuckle: "Who I am isn't important; what matters is......"

He suddenly furrowed his brow: "They're here."