Dangerous Secret Realm

The sandstorm came quickly and went quickly; in just two minutes, the outside was calm again.

Of course, it was Mu Ning who told everyone this news, because in less than a minute, the Armored Vehicle was completely buried by sand, and it was pitch black outside the window. They couldn't hear or see anything, and it was impossible to judge the external environment.

Just in case, Rolf restarted the Armored Vehicle five minutes after the sandstorm passed, using the robotic arm to dig it out from under the sand. However, the wheels, hatches, cameras, and other gaps were filled with sand and needed to be cleaned.

While the sand was being cleared, everyone got out of the vehicle to get some fresh air. They noticed that the armor plating was covered in messy scratches, with almost no intact paint. They remembered that when Rolf first brought it out, the entire vehicle was spotless; who would have thought that after a sandstorm, it would have such a perfectly weathered look...

"Damn it, I just had a massage!" Rolf cursed as he tidied up. "When I get back, Old John will extort a lot of money from me, and I'll have to put up with his mockery!"

"Miss Ophelia." Jin Fei stroked the matte finish of the armor. "This is our vehicle. How did you deal with the sandstorms you encountered when you explored the central area?"

"Sandstorms of this magnitude don't happen every time," Ophelia said. "I've encountered one three times. The first time, I lost half my teammates, and the second time, I managed to weather it with Energy Shield."

"And the third time?" Jin Fei pressed.

"The third time..." Ophelia rarely turned her head slightly to look at Jin Fei: "Didn't you just see that?"

"You have Energy Shield?" Rolf, who was clearing sand, asked with displeasure, "Then why don't you take it out?"

Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent. Sure enough, after a short while, they saw a slight indentation appear in the sand to the south, and it was getting closer and closer, as if something had dug a tunnel from below and was collapsing all the way down.

"You didn't ask," Ophelia said calmly. "Besides, you said you were confident in the Armored Vehicle's protection. If it can't hold up, I'll bring out the Energy Shield."

"A cylinder approximately fifty meters long."

The trail didn't stop there, continuing northward.

Is it a monster?!

Everyone immediately became alert. Ophelia asked, "Size? Shape?"

As she spoke, she glanced at the heavily damaged Armored Vehicle: "It's sturdier than I expected; it should hold out until we reach our destination."

"There's an unusual noise coming from underground. Something quite large is burrowing in from the south!"

"Keep quiet!" Ophelia warned. "Don't move an inch!"

As they were speaking, Mu Ning's reminder came from afar again.

Seeing it walk away, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Ottos pursed his lips, stepped out of the depression in the sand, and walked towards Ophelia: "What was that thing?"

Soon, the indentation passed under everyone's feet, and even as they sank into the sand, everyone remained motionless, like stones.

"I said don't move!"

Ophelia blurted it out!

No sooner had she finished speaking than Mu Ning reminded her, "That thing has turned back!"

"What?" Everyone was stunned and turned to look to the north. Suddenly, the sand exploded open, and a huge Flesh Worm emerged from the ground, writhing and flying rapidly!

Just as Mu Ning said, this insect was forty or fifty meters long and five or six meters thick. When it opened its big mouth, it was full of fine and sharp teeth, as if a train was speeding down from the sand!

"What kind of monster is that?" Rolf was startled and immediately took out a Great Hammer from his Hundred Treasure Box.

"Those are Death Worm," Ophelia explained. "They are monsters unique to the central region of Heilubo. They have no sight and rely entirely on sensing vibrations in the sand to locate their prey. The depressions they leave behind as they burrow underground are traces of how they loosen the sand to facilitate the transmission of vibrations. Once prey steps on them, it will alert them!"

"Then if we just stand on the depression, we won't be able to move at all?" Ma Lei, the short-haired woman, frowned.

"Their perception range is at most one kilometer. Once they are far enough away, we can move around freely."

"You should have said this sooner!" Ottos sneered, flicking his wrists to unleash two curved blades, charging towards the Death Worm: "I brought this upon myself, so I'll clean it up myself. You can just watch!"

Facing the enormous monster, Ottos showed no fear. As it charged closer, he suddenly leaped high into the air, slashing down with his twin swords.

Everyone frowned slightly upon seeing this. That was a gigantic monster tens of meters long. How effective could two short swords, each a little over two feet long, possibly be if they managed to strike?

Soon, O'Toss crashed into the head of the Death Worm in mid-air. As he dodged the sharp teeth, he slashed with his twin blades, leaving two wounds on the edge of the Death Worm's mouthparts.

"That's it?" Before anyone could complain, O'Toss in the air smirked slightly, and then the two wounds began to expand wildly, as if two invisible blades were slicing downwards!

The wound expanded to over ten meters, splitting the upper half of the enormous Death Worm into three forks, from which yellowish-green fluid spilled out.

However, this monster was extremely resilient. Even after suffering such a severe blow, it did not die. It twisted its body, screaming in pain, and continued to attack with its forked head.

Seeing this, O'Toss nimbly dodged, his figure flashing as he appeared beside the worm. He swung his twin blades again, leaving two more wounds on the worm's body. The wounds then instantly widened, cutting the giant worm into three pieces... Of course, the middle piece was extremely short, resembling a sausage lying on the ground.

O'Toss's attack continued, leaving new wounds on the insect. These wounds appeared insignificant, barely breaking the skin, but once formed, they would instantly expand dozens or even hundreds of times, causing serious damage!

In an instant, under O'Toss's chaotic blades, the giant Death Worm was chopped into eight pieces, its yellowish-green fluids and internal organs spilling onto the dry, hot sand. The thick pieces of body tissue were still twitching slightly due to the remaining nerves.

Then look at O'Toss, who landed lightly on the ground, shook his hands to clean the blood off the blade, sheathed his sword, and walked back triumphantly.

"All that massive size is a paper tiger," O'Toss sneered. "This is the monster of the Central Desert? Nothing special..."

"A single Death Worm isn't much of a threat," Olivia said calmly. "The reason I'm warning everyone is because these things usually appear in swarms."

Before she could finish speaking, Mu Ning turned to look south. "They're here again, and this time... there are a lot of them!"

Everyone turned to look, and saw that a large section of sand had collapsed at the boundary between the sky and the desert...

(End of this chapter)