Chapter 1004: I Have Never Forgotten This Grudge! (II)

A moment later, Han Zhan's voice sounded in his mind. "I haven't found any other Sages, but..."

Luo Chen had just begun to relax when his heart tightened again. "But what?"

"Something's about to happen. Stay alert."

"Hm?" Just as Luo Chen was about to ask for more details, a deafening dragon roar echoed from the distance.

"Look!" Devil's Cloud shouted in alarm as he pointed toward the sky.

Luo Chen looked in the direction he was indicating and saw the dragon phantom within the clouds struggling frantically, as though it were trying to break free from some invisible restraint. At the same time, the white banner below began shaking uncontrollably, showing signs of failing. Yet Wu Qi and the others appeared completely unruffled. Eagle Devil and Hundred-Faced Fiend simply took out the rhombus-shaped yellow crystals from their storage pouches, crushed them, and fed them into the banner. As more crystals poured into it, the violent shaking gradually subsided, and the banner slowly stabilized once more.

The moment Devil's Cloud saw those crystals, he gave Luo Chen a meaningful glance. The Flesh Ganoderma was far more direct. "Fellow Daoist, weren't you collecting those crystals earlier? Did you notice something unusual about them back then? You even asked whether the stone monsters were sprites created by Devil Lord Heaven Refiner. Looking at it now, it seems you figured out something was off long before us."

Luo Chen narrowed his eyes. He had indeed noticed the difference between the stone monsters and the exotic beasts long ago. The exotic beasts were incomplete creatures with fragmented souls. The stone monsters were also incomplete, but they were also fundamentally different. The exotic beasts belonged to different species and subspecies, and each had its own distinct aura, whereas all stone monsters carried the same aura, as though they had all originated from a single source.

Furthermore, as Black King gathered more and more crystals, Luo Chen sensed an increasing tendency for them to merge into one. Now, watching Wu Qi and the others feed those very crystals into the banner, his suspicions were finally confirmed. In fact, they had gone a step further and directly located the true source of that aura: the dragon soul hidden within the black clouds.

Yet Luo Chen felt no satisfaction at having his judgement proven correct, nor did he have any interest in answering the Flesh Ganoderma's questions. Han Zhan's warning still lingered in his mind, and all of his attention remained fixed on the surrounding wasteland. What exactly was Han Zhan warning him about?

On the surface, everything seemed unchanged. Flying sand and tumbling stones still swept across the wasteland just as they always had. Yet beneath that familiar facade, subtle changes were quietly unfolding. The border between the wasteland and the sea of sand was already entirely buried by the flowing sands, and quicksand surged in waves toward the wasteland like a rising tide. Although the sea of sand seemed to creep forward at a sluggish pace, its actual expansion was astonishingly fast. The constantly flowing sand offered no stable point of reference, making its advance almost impossible to perceive with the naked eye. By the time those present sensed that something was wrong, the wasteland that had once stretched for tens of thousands of li had already been completely engulfed by the sands.

"Something's not right!" Wu Qi abruptly stopped chanting. Almost at the same moment, a dragon's roar came from the black clouds overhead.

"ROARRRRRRR!!!"

The roar rolled across the wasteland, causing the earth beneath everyone's feet to quake. Streams of earth-yellow light flowed from the dragon soul and poured into the ground below. Amid the shaking earth, the shattered fragments of stone monsters scattered across the battlefield began clicking and grinding together, reassembling into giant stone monsters. Yet the moment they rose, they paid no attention to Wu Qi and the others. Instead, they charged toward the advancing tides of quicksand. At the same time, the sand grains merged into sand giants that met them head-on!

There were no battle cries or roars of fury—only the relentless sound of impact as stone and sand collided again and again in a brutal clash. Under the straightforward exchanges, the stone giants were the first to crumble apart. The sand giants soon followed and collapsed as well. As their towering forms disintegrated, tiny clay figures hidden within them gradually emerged one after another. Without the protection of their giant bodies, those clay figures were incredibly fragile. Any that were caught by the stone monsters were swallowed whole, in a single bite. Only a fortunate few managed to escape and dive back into the sea of sand, gathering endless sand around themselves to form new giants once again.

Amid the battle, a golden sphere could be vaguely seen rolling along with the storm. Inside, Luo Chen and the others wore alarmed expressions. Had the Flesh Ganoderma not taken action by releasing golden sand from the yellow gourd to envelop them, they would likely have been swallowed by the encroaching sea of sand along with everything else. Even so, maintaining the golden sphere was clearly taking a toll, and the protective barrier was starting to show signs of instability.

Then the Flesh Ganoderma suddenly stiffened. Through the curtain of swirling golden sand, it had caught sight of one of the tiny clay figures just as it was crushed and devoured by a stone giant. "I know what those are! It must be Skyloam! This is bad! Now that Skyloam has awakened, the Quicksand Sea is going to be far more dangerous than before. We need to move faster."

Devil's Cloud was reeling from the shock brought by that name, but when he heard the last part, he wasted no time pulling himself together. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Having gained his companions' approval, the Flesh Ganoderma directed the golden sphere toward the outskirts. It made quite a stir, and as it sped across the wasteland, it caught the eye of the three Adepts below.

"Someone's been watching us," remarked Eagle Devil.

Hundred-Faced Fiend was equally surprised. "The Quicksand Sea is so empty that I assumed nobody would come here. I didn't expect there to be other cultivators nearby."

Wu Qi took a quick glance at the golden sphere, but he shifted his attention quickly back to the black clouds overhead. "Forget about them. We need to seize the Stone Dragon's lingering soul as quickly as possible. Otherwise, we won't be able to answer to the lineage lord."

Eagle Devil withdrew his gaze and looked toward the struggling dragon soul. "But the Stone Dragon's lingering soul is instinctively resisting our banner, and now there's a powerful enemy attacking as well..."

"That's exactly why this is an opportunity." Wu Qi's eyes gleamed. "That thing controlling the yellow sands is the Stone Dragon's natural enemy. Right now, the Stone Dragon's lingering soul is diverting part of its strength to resist it, which means its main body is weaker than ever. This is the best chance we'll get to subdue it."

He swept a cold gaze across Eagle Devil and Hundred-Faced Fiend. "Stop hesitating and put some elbow grease into it."

Seeing their reluctance, Wu Qi turned cold. "The only reason you were able to enter the Land of Fallen Devils and harvest so many precious resources is that Blood Nightmare helped you do so. If this mission fails, perhaps he won't blame you. But what happens after we leave this place? Do you think your lineage lords will simply let it slide? Without Blood Nightmare's protection, you're dead."

The words struck home. The first lineage lord and Heaven Splitter were both notoriously ruthless figures. If Blood Nightmare decided not to protect them, neither of them needed much imagination to foresee their fate.

Sensing their wavering resolve, Wu Qi pressed on. "Complete this mission, and Blood Nightmare will reward us with the devil sect's Nascent Soul formation art. And if luck is on our side and we succeed, we'll become the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth lineage lords. At that point, why should we fear the first lineage lord or Heaven Splitter?"

Not only did he urge them with words, but he also led by example. He bit the tip of his tongue and drew out a mouthful of blood essence, spitting it onto the bell in his hand. The ringing intensified, and the dragon soul high above shuddered as though struck by a heavy blow. Seeing this, Eagle Devil and Hundred-Faced Fiend finally abandoned their hesitation; each forced out some blood essence and poured it into the banner. A terrifying suction force erupted from within, causing the dragon soul in the sky to sway precariously. As the dragon soul's strength was drawn away, the stone giants began to dwindle. In their place, waves of sand surged forward with increasing ferocity.

Seeing this, a trace of ruthlessness surfaced in Wu Qi's eyes. He intended to make use of this dangerous opportunity and subdue the Stone Dragon's lingering soul before the sea of sand swallowed everything completely.

***

Whoosh!

A streak of golden light shot through the clouds. Its true form was a golden sphere sustained by the golden sand from a yellow gourd. Only after putting some distance between themselves and the battlefield did the three finally relax.

"As expected, that thing controlling the yellow sands isn't targeting us," Devil's Cloud said with a sigh of relief.

The Flesh Ganoderma wore a puzzled expression. "Strange. Skyloam has been inactive for thousands of years. Even when Sages from the devil sect came here to investigate, it always avoided them. Why would it suddenly reveal itself and cause such a huge commotion this time?"

A voice sounded beside him. "So that's Skyloam?"

The Flesh Ganoderma looked at Luo Chen and nodded slightly. "Yeah. The master of the Quicksand Sea."

A thoughtful look appeared on Luo Chen's face.

Meanwhile, Devil's Cloud asked curiously, "What is its level exactly? And how does it compare to you?"

The Flesh Ganoderma looked annoyed by the question. "We're different from cultivators and demonic beasts, so you can't measure our strength the same way. But if you want an answer... Skyloam and I are both fifth-tier, so in that respect, it's hard to say who's stronger. It basically depends on the terrain. In the Quicksand Sea, it naturally has the advantage. In my territory, the advantage would be mine. But besides that, Skyloam was created artificially, so it's imperfect. If you can free me, I have more than one way to kill it."

The confidence in its tone was unmistakable. To it, being compared to an earth-attribute sprite was practically an insult since it held a natural advantage over them.

Still, it waved the matter aside after a brief pause. "Forget about it. Once we've secured the lotus for Azure Yang, we'll head to Fallen Devil Abyss and remove the restrictions on my true body."

With that said, it poured in more mana and prepared to carry the other two out of the Quicksand Sea. Yet at that very moment, it looked toward Luo Chen in confusion. "Azure Yang, what are you doing?"

A hand was pressed against the inner wall of the golden sphere, and azure flames spread through Luo Chen's palm, melting a hole through the barrier. Before either of the others could react, he had already stepped toward the opening. "You two go ahead. I'll catch up shortly."

The moment he finished speaking, he shot through the opening and disappeared outside. Both of them were left stunned. The golden sand flowed back into place, sealing the opening before streaming once more toward the mouth of the yellow gourd.

The two watched Luo Chen's departing figure with disbelief. Like an arrow released from a bowstring, he accelerated through the storm and dived into the battlefield.

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