Chapter 148: Where did this new god pop out from?

Who is being such a buzzkill? Sand bandits? The sand bandits were all wiped out; who still dares to run out without fear of death? And what the hell is this King of Sand Bandits?

The Dragon-Slaying Battle of the Flying Wing Knights had dealt a devastating blow to the sand bandits. Most of the sand bandits in the desert who could muster a team had been called over, only to be crushed in one wave and flee in all directions.

Scattered in the desert, it was very difficult to survive relying on individual strength. Therefore, in normal combat, the casualties of the sand bandits might only be a little over a thousand, but at least two or three thousand died after fleeing and scattering.

Out of five thousand sand bandits, less than twenty percent survived.

With their vitality severely damaged, it was very difficult for sand bandits to cause trouble in the region in the short term. Under such circumstances, could a King of Sand Bandits still appear?

Nai Ge Li Si and Luo Ge exchanged glances and stood up abruptly. Ang, who had been planting vegetables using the Dimensional Passage, also stood up abruptly, his head erupting with raging soul flames.

"No need, no need, don't be angry. Just let Luo Ge handle it," Nai Ge Li Si held Ang down. Did mere sand bandits require Ang to act personally? That would be too embarrassing for them, his little brothers.

Ang did not sit down but shook his head and said: "Many auras."

"Many auras? Are there many people?" When the sand bandits entered the village, Nai Ge Li Si discovered that there were only twenty-something riders. The few in the lead were well-equipped and wore light armor, while those behind were bare and plain.

Two of them were even wearing cloaks, not even revealing their eyes. It was unclear whether they were sand bandits or slaves.

"Where are there many people? Are there more outside?" Nai Ge Li Si flapped his wings and flew up, looking outside the village. In the dark night, there was nothing.

Just this many people and they dare to call themselves the King of Sand Bandits? I'm convinced.

However, looking back, he saw that Ang had already summoned the Death Scythe and was ready for battle. Seeing his rare cautious appearance, it was as if he were facing thousands of troops instead of twenty-something sand bandits.

Now Nai Ge Li Si had no choice but to be cautious. He flew to Ang's side and asked: "What did you discover?"

"Many auras," Ang repeated his previous words.

Looking at those sand bandits in a daze, where were the "many auras"?

The leading sand bandit was a "peasant" with a face full of weathering and dark skin. Most sand bandits were actually in this state, exposed to the wind and sun in the desert; no matter how tender the skin was, it would quickly become rough. Judging from this appearance, there was no doubt they were sand bandits.

Twenty-something riders were not many, but they were enough to slaughter a village of a hundred households. Duomite also felt this way.

Recently, the power dynamics in the desert had been changing very frequently. Those sand bandits who used to have a name had disappeared one after another. Legend had it that it was because they failed to slay the dragon and were slaughtered instead. Suddenly, many power vacuums had opened up in the desert.

Duomite, who used to hide and walk away from others, suddenly became bold. In the past, he had never dared to harass villages because most villages were protected by sand bandits and paid taxes to them on time.

Along the way, he indeed hadn't encountered any large groups of sand bandits, only meeting two people wearing cloaks in that sandy rock area, who asked Duomite to escort them to the nearest place with water and food, and took out two magic crystals as a reward.

Although Duomite was a sand bandit, as long as the money was right, escort work could be done. It was just that escorting was escorting; whether it was safe was another matter.

Moreover, he played a little trick. Didn't the cloaked people ask to be escorted to a place with water and food? Dragonfall Lake had water, salty water, and it also had food, although not enough to eat.

When the two cloaked people saw a lake of salty water and a pile of withered food, he wondered what their expressions would be. Would they still want to be escorted away then?

If they did, the price would be different, wouldn't it? For example, their entire fortune and their lives?

Along the way, many villages were dilapidated. Some villages were empty, and some only had starving people who were like walking corpses, looking like they weren't even worth the effort to rob. Who would have thought that just as they were about to reach Dragonfall Lake, they would see a village full of singing, dancing, and laughter.

Listening carefully, they were actually holding a wedding. Upon hearing it was a wedding, all the sand bandits couldn't help but feel a heat in their lower abdomens.

A wedding meant young women. They had been walking in the desert for nearly half a month, and the horses they rode were all male. Realizing there were young women, which sand bandit could hold back?

At the thought of tying the groom to a pillar and watching them surround the white and tender bride, they were so stimulated that they couldn't even sit on their horses.

However, to prevent retaliation from other sand bandits, Duomite simply came up with a loud name: King of Sand Bandits.

As far as he knew, there was no king of sand bandits. If this village had protection, then the person protecting them could go and settle the score with the King of Sand Bandits.

"Do you not know that in this vast desert, the bride's first night is to be offered to the King of Sand Bandits?!" Duomite repeated his previous sentence, only this time his tone was a roar, and his subordinates cooperated by drawing their knives and swords, creating an atmosphere of killing.

But strangely, the villagers looked at each other, their faces showing very strange expressions, and finally, they cast their gazes toward Ang and the others. In front of a lord who possessed a giant dragon, twenty-something sand bandits were not enough to look at.

Following the villagers' line of sight, Duomite and the others looked over. The first thing they saw was the Little Angel in a white dress, pink and tender, and their eyes glowed instantly.

Some people, when their emotions are high, easily ignore other things, such as Ang carrying a large scythe, the Little Xiao Jiangshi wearing soul armor, Luo Ge emitting black energy, and the three little young dragons—two yellow and one silver.

It wasn't until one of the two cloaked people behind spoke: "Ignorant fools."

The two cloaked people walked forward. With every step they took, some beetles fell from under their cloaks. After landing, they burrowed into the ground with a *patter*. As they walked, beetles fell the whole way, as if black water were flowing, making Duomite and the other sand bandits' scalps tingle.

What kind of things was he escorting? Why were there so many bugs on them?

The sand bandit closest to them was grabbed by one of the cloaked people, revealing a dry, thin hand wrapped in black cloth. From the gap between the hand and the cloak, a wave of mosquito-like insects flew out, buzzing and pouncing toward the sand bandit.

Goosebumps rose all over the sand bandit's body, and he screamed loudly. But as soon as his mouth opened, these insects surged into his mouth, *gurgling* like drowning, and he fell to the ground rolling.

This turn of events stunned everyone. How could Duomite have imagined that the people he had escorted would suddenly attack them?

If it were swords and shadows, the sand bandits might have drawn their swords, but the insects and beetles were too bizarre. For a moment, everyone subconsciously screamed and retreated.

But it was useless. From under the cloaks, waves of flying insects flew out like black smoke, pouncing toward those sand bandits, landing on them, burrowing into their clothes, biting open their skin, or burrowing in through their mouths, noses, and ears.

After a few breaths, only sand bandits rolling on the ground were left, and even the horses they rode did not escape.

"So the 'many auras' you mentioned were the auras of these things," Nai Ge Li Si realized.

Duomite was the only surviving sand bandit. At this moment, he had ten thousand curse words he wanted to say, but in the end, they all turned into one sentence: "Spare... spare my life..."

The cloaked person leaned over and whispered: "You are so stupid and blind. Even if I spare you, you will still die next time. Don't you see a pile of powerhouses opposite, and several young dragons? Even that little girl who makes your eyes glow is surging with the power of holy light."

While speaking, the cloaked person twisted Duomite's face to look at Ang and the others. With the cloaked person's reminder, Duomite finally saw the others. Not blinded by emotion, he naturally knew what these people meant.

Just those three young dragons were not something he could provoke. With three young dragons, there must be at least one adult dragon, right?

"Rather than dying stupidly, it is better to transform into *Ni* and become nourishment for Lord He Mo Er," the cloaked person said. After he finished, Duomite only felt a pain in his chest; the cloaked person's dry, thin hand had already pierced his chest.

Duomite's wound was wriggling, as if something was burrowing in. The cloaked person withdrew his hand, and Duomite lost his support and collapsed powerlessly to the ground.

At this point, the cloaked person finally turned around and bowed with his hand on his chest: "Powerful existences, we have no intention of offending. These sand bandits are not with us, and their actions have nothing to do with us. We are believers of Lord He Mo Er, and we came here only to find a place with lush water and grass."

"He Mo Er? Never heard of him. Where did he pop out from? A new god? His methods are very bizarre," Nai Ge Li Si muttered in a low voice. As a God of Common Knowledge, he had basically heard of any god who had a name, but he had never heard of this He Mo Er.

But this was not strange. There were thousands of faiths in the world, and even the most overbearing light could not cover every dark corner. He was probably some minor god.

"Oh, oh, believers of He Mo Er, hello, hello. I just seemed to hear you say something about '*Ni*' to him? What is *Ni*?" Nai Ge Li Si asked.

The two cloaked people exchanged glances. Although they covered even their eyes under their cloaks, it was as if they could see the other's meaning.

"*Ni* is Lord He Mo Er's definition of the most lush material in the world. Above *Ni*, all things can grow, dead wood can sprout, dead bones can be resurrected, white-haired old people can regain their youth, and disabled patients can regrow limbs. All things in the world will have no more defects or pain. As long as you find the place with the most lush water and grass, you have found *Ni*. It is Lord He Mo Er's gift to the world!"

After a pause, the cloaked person said: "Want to know more? Join our Chaos Temple and pray to learn more." As he spoke, the cloaked people both held out a small booklet.

So their exchange of glances just now was to decide to proselytize to Nai Ge Li Si and the others?

Ang's eyes glowed as he listened. *Ni*—why did it sound like a combination of Holy Essence Liquid, Life Essence, and Dragon Soil Bird Droppings? Everything grows when planted? Was there such a powerful fertilizer?

A feeling of absurdity rose in Nai Ge Li Si's heart. A few minutes ago, it was a plot of a bully appearing to forcibly snatch the bride's first night. Before they could even act, the bully was killed by the two cloaked people they brought. Before they could talk for a few sentences, the cloaked people were actually proselytizing to them. It was truly laughable.

Better to avoid trouble than to invite it. Although he didn't know what the background of this He Mo Er and the Chaos Temple was, and the methods used by the cloaked people were very bizarre, they couldn't just kill the other party because of this, right?

Nai Ge Li Si shook his head: "Don't want to. If there is no..." He still wanted to say something, but Ang beside him suddenly slammed the handle of his scythe onto the ground.

With a *crack*, something in the sand was poked and exploded. The scythe was lifted, and a burst beetle was stuck to the handle.

It was none other than the beetles that had fallen from the two cloaked people as they walked all the way here. They had quietly crawled to the feet of Ang and the others without anyone knowing.

Nai Ge Li Si looked at the beetle on the scythe handle in a daze, and then at the two cloaked people. The two cloaked people were obviously a bit surprised—surprised at how Ang discovered the beetles underground.

But since they had been discovered, they couldn't be bothered to pretend anymore and roared loudly: "Then go to die..."

When they shouted the word "die," the corpses of the sand bandits on the ground suddenly exploded, and countless flying insects swarmed out from the corpses, their numbers dozens of times greater than those that had burrowed into the corpses.

Looking at the corpses of those sand bandits again, they had already been gnawed until only a layer of skin and a skeleton remained.

So these insects had used the sand bandits' corpses as petri dishes, reproducing at an unimaginable speed.

At the same time, a large number of beetles crawled out from the sand, and together with the insects, crawled toward everyone present like a tide, including John and the other sand people.

However, just as the word "die" was shouted, before the cloaked people could be excited by this scene, a cold light slashed across their necks, and two heads fell off.

"What kind of trash are you, daring to shout 'die, die, die' at my lord." Luo Ge's figure appeared behind them, and with a backhand, he slashed them in half from the waist.

The remaining middle half of their bodies fell to the ground, but they did not die. Instead, they waved their hands, trying to grab their other halves in a panic.

Luo Ge slashed four more times, cutting off all their hands. Now there were no parts that could move: "I suspected you were liches long ago."

From the two cloaked people who had been cut into several pieces, a large number of beetles and insects crawled and flew out, swarming toward all directions.

Facing these overwhelming insects and beetles, Ang found that the Death Scythe in his hand was not very useful, so he immediately put it away and released magic.

Rows of explosive fireballs shot toward the bugs.

The Little Angel curiously grabbed a beetle in her hand. It was a strange bug with a pitch-black shell, six legs, and a beak like pincers. With one bite, it actually bit off a piece of flesh from the Little Angel's palm.

"Ow!" The Little Angel crushed the beetle in her palm on the spot, lifted her skirt, and stepped quickly with her two little white legs. Every step she took, there was a *crack* sound. Even if they were hidden in the sand, it was useless.

The Little Xiao Jiangshi also squatted down, patting his palms, *pat, pat, pat*, like playing whack-a-mole, and the beetles in the sand were all exploded one by one.

Luo Ge brandished his dual blades and rushed through the pile of insects that looked like black smoke.

Nai Aili and Bai Hou stretched their necks and sprayed their dragon breath, which looked like small flames.

Everyone had all sorts of tricks, but facing this swarming scene, they felt powerless and simply couldn't eliminate all the insects and beetles quickly.

A large number of insects and beetles approached the villagers, scaring them into screaming desperately.

Nai Ge Li Si was anxious: "We cannot let the bugs kill the villagers, otherwise their numbers will explode again."

He was anxious in his heart, but Nai Ge Li Si had already realized that it was difficult to save the situation. The destructive power of these beetles and insects was not great; they couldn't even bite through his scales and posed no threat to them, but it was different for those villagers.

Even if they covered their mouths and noses, they could still bite through the skin, burrow in, gnaw on flesh, and reproduce crazily.

Under such a massive number, even the most efficient Ang could not eliminate them quickly. Once they rushed into the crowd of villagers, it would be another wave of explosion.

The villagers were doomed. Poor John, poor bride.

Just when even Nai Ge Li Si was discouraged, Ang suddenly stomped his foot hard, and within the entire village area, the life process of all living things was instantly accelerated. ===== CHAPTER 149 =====