The Mad Sand Descends

Nian and He looked thoughtful, no longer at each other's throats.

Perhaps their luck had turned; only a cup of tea's time later, another exotic beast took the bait.

This creature had a bloated body like a hippopotamus, but its four limbs were fin-like, and both its tail and neck were long. In contrast, 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 an Earth Dragon.

The only trouble was its massive size; it occupied the entire Walnut Boat and made the hull sway precariously.

Fortunately, the Walnut Boat was close to the stone bridge, and over a hundred soldiers grabbed the tow ropes, hauling it onto the bridge by sheer force.

Then came the large-scale slaughter.

The group found buckets in the city's residential houses, bled the two monsters, and transported the blood into the temple bucket by bucket.

The beasts were enormous, like water vats; the blood they shed was thick and copious, reeking to the heavens.

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

In front of the main hall, the pool water grew redder and redder.

The most heartening news was that 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.

Zeng Feixiong and his men tossed aside their buckets. "And then?"

"Wait!" Sun Fuping stared at the water surface, unblinking. "Just wait!"

He Chunhua suddenly remarked, "The wind in the city stopped a long time ago."

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

The bright moon hid behind thick clouds, and everyone felt the light in the city growing increasingly dim.

No sooner had the words fallen than a string of small bubbles emerged from the long-calm water, sending out ripples.

"There are holes underneath..."

Zeng Feixiong had barely asked the question 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 bubbles rose.

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

The 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 the sudden movement: this was actually a wolf-like monster. Its head, tail, and limbs were canine, but its body was covered in rough, chapped fissures—not like animal hide, but more like tree bark. Furthermore, there were no eyeballs in its deep-set sockets; instead, they were replaced by points of scarlet ghost fire!

The creature had emerged directly toward Sun Fuping, so it unceremoniously opened its maw, aiming straight for his throat.

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

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

The beast-head on the staff's tip opened its mouth, spitting out a ball of brilliant red fire with a "whoosh."

The monster let out a shrill, miserable shriek and vanished into ashes.

Nian Songyu was startled, then joyfully exclaimed, "A vengeful spirit!"

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

People always assumed vengeful spirits hid in the shadows of the Coiling Dragon Desert to bewitch minds, but the true culprit was the Three-Corpse Insect. This vengeful spirit was the first real entity they had encountered since stepping into the Coiling Dragon Desert.

Its appearance actually delighted Nian Songyu; it meant they hadn't been looking in the wrong direction!

Ash dusted Sun Fuping's face, but he had no time to wipe it away, instead bowing 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.

By now, the entire pool was bubbling and gurgling, the bubbles becoming more numerous and dense.

It was as if a fire had been lit underneath; the water was on the verge of boiling.

The ripples didn't dissipate when they hit the edge of the pool; instead, they intensified as they spread outward, eventually forming waves.

The waves crashed against the pool's edge and surged back, further agitating the surface.

The expressions of the group turned grim.

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

Sun Fuping suddenly turned and roared at the group, "Take the Soul-Suppressing Powder and ignite your Life Fire! Quickly, quickly, quickly!"

His roar was infused with true energy, shaking the surroundings and deafening the ears, revealing his utter anxiety.

Everyone immediately sprang into action.

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

As soon as the small pill was swallowed, Sun Fuping urgently instructed, "Hold your breath and stand by the edge of the pool, do not look back! These monsters are even harder to deal with than the Three-Corpse Insects!"

This final sentence made everyone's heart skip a beat.

Sun Fuping emphasized once more, "Hold your breath, hold it!"

The words had barely left his lips when the surface of the water suddenly exploded!

The scene was like a volcanic eruption, with the pool surface as the vent, and the spewing magma consisting of countless, bizarrely shaped vengeful spirits!

Some resembled humans, some beasts, some plants, while others possessed a combination of all three, making it impossible for the living to discern what they were originally meant to be.

Yet, there were so many spirits surging out that people had no time to observe individuals; they could only watch as the spectacular black smoke rose like volcanic ash into the sky, then spread out in all directions!

The most terrifying part was that every single spirit opened its mouth to shriek, a sound so shrill and piercing, filled with agony and resentment.

Without needing a reminder, everyone instinctively covered their ears and clamped their mouths shut.

But the sound echoed within everyone's sea of consciousness, shaking their spirits and leaving them dizzy and disoriented.

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

The group didn't even dare to draw a full breath.

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

Three wisps of Life Fire ignited on their bodies, and the Soul-Suppressing Powder did its utmost to conceal the scent of the living.

The ghosts wove through the crowd, but treating them as mere clay statues or wooden carvings, they drifted away after a short while.

He Lingchuan looked up at the sky and discovered that the circling ghosts had filled the night, causing the weather to change rapidly.

The wind had picked up.

Twenty breaths passed.

Forty breaths passed.

Thousands of vengeful spirits were surging out with every breath; by now, there were tens of thousands, yet they continued to erupt from the well, showing no signs of slowing down.

The wind outside Coiling Dragon City grew increasingly fierce, and sand tornadoes began to form, growing from small to large until they became massive funnels, one end reaching the sky and the other touching the earth.

Beyond the raging sand and the gale, it was as if nothing else existed between heaven and earth.

Although the sand and wind blinded them, everyone rubbed their eyes, determined to see it through to the end.

The Furious Sand Season accompanied most of the people of Blackwater City as they grew up, but how many could witness its true cause with their own eyes?

As time dragged on, the soldiers' faces grew redder and redder, nearly swelling to the color of a pig's liver.