The blazing sun hung overhead, baking the sand until stepping on it felt like treading on a red-hot iron plate. Barefoot, Xiao Yan tore strips from the hem of his coarse cloth robe and wrapped them around his feet to shield them from the searing heat. His lips had grown even more cracked, with a layer of white skin peeling at the corners of his mouth. Every step brought a stabbing pain in his throat.
"Following the green lotus aura, it should be somewhere around here..." He gazed at the rolling dunes ahead and murmured, his voice so hoarse it was barely audible. His Emperor Realm Soul had already spread outward, but he sensed a faint screening force in this area, as though something were deliberately concealing the activity underground.
Yao Lao's voice carried a trace of gravity. "The energy field around here is strange, as if someone has tampered with it. Be careful. Don't let your guard down."
Xiao Yan nodded and deliberately slowed his steps, pretending to be exhausted as he leaned against a sun-scorched rock to rest. From the corners of his eyes, however, he surveyed his surroundings. Something seemed to be wriggling through the shadows of the dunes, moving so quickly that it left only a shallow trail in the sand before vanishing.
"Yao Lao, look over there!" He suddenly pointed toward a dune on his left, his tone tinged with panic. "Is something moving?"
Yao Lao extended his soul power in that direction, but caught only a faint fluctuation of earth-attribute energy. "An underground creature. It isn't strong, but it's very good at hiding."
Xiao Yan's heart tightened. This fluctuation was extremely similar to the aura left on the Sand Thieves, and shared the same origin as the trace of a spiritual imprint he had caught during the Blood Curse's backlash. Without betraying anything, he moved to the other side of the rock, letting its shadow conceal him. At the same time, he condensed his Emperor Realm Soul into a beam, pierced the faint screening force, and probed deep underground.
This time, he saw clearly.
Dozens of yards beneath the surface lay a network of intersecting caves. Countless creatures with human bodies, lizard heads, and blue-gray scales moved through them. They carried crude bone spears and swept their wary gazes toward the surface, clearly keeping this area under surveillance. In the deepest part of the caves, an eerie green flame burned on an altar piled from yellow sand and stone. Dark energy of the same origin as the Blood Curse coiled within it.
A tribe of Lizardmen. Xiao Yan understood. They really are guarding something.
The Lizardmen varied in strength. Most were at the Dou Shi realm, while a few leaders had reached Dou Ling. One elder sitting beside the altar even had an aura that faintly brushed the threshold of Dou Wang, clearly marking him as the tribe's chief. What concerned Xiao Yan more were the intricate runes engraved around the altar. They continuously drew fire-attribute energy from underground, seemingly conducting some sort of ritual.
"They're extracting geothermal energy," Yao Lao said in surprise. "These Lizardmen are no ordinary creatures. They actually know how to set up an Energy-Gathering Array."
Xiao Yan said nothing. His gaze settled on a dark red crystal at the center of the altar. About the size of a human head, it was cloudy throughout, yet emitted fluctuations similar to those of the green lotus core flame. It was clearly some medium for storing flame energy. Around the crystal, dozens of dying magical beasts had been bound in place. The runic array steadily drained their life energy and poured it into the crystal.
"Using living creatures' blood essence to power an array and extract the energy of heavenly flames..." Xiao Yan's gaze chilled slightly. These Lizardmen's methods were even more sinister than the Human-Faced Demon Spider's Blood Curse.
Just then, the ground shook violently. The dune to his left heaved up as though lifted by an invisible hand, and dozens of Lizardmen carrying bone spears leaped from beneath the sand. Their blue-gray scales gleamed coldly in the sunlight, their scarlet tongues flicking in and out as they fixed their attention on Xiao Yan behind the rock.
"Found you, human brat!" the leading Lizardman rasped, his voice like scraping sandpaper. "You trespassed on sacred ground. Prepare to become an offering for the altar!"
Xiao Yan took a step back in feigned terror and fumbled for the dagger at his waist, his body trembling slightly from "overwhelming fright." "Y-you... what are you? I was just passing through, looking for some water..."
"Water?" The Lizardmen let out shrill, bizarre laughter. "Here, only blood can quench your thirst!"
The leader swept his bone spear, and dozens of Lizardmen immediately advanced in a semicircle to surround him. Dark green venom coated their spears, giving off a pungent, fishy stench. They moved with extraordinary agility, making almost no sound as they ran across the sand. They were clearly seasoned hunters who had spent years in the desert.
Xiao Yan knew he could not keep up the act any longer. He abruptly held his dagger across his chest and adopted a defensive stance, raising the Dou Qi within him to the peak of the third stage—the limit of what he could currently display.
"Stay back! Or I won't hold back!" he shouted with a fierce exterior masking apparent cowardice, while his eyes rapidly swept his surroundings for a chance to break free.
The Lizardmen did not take him seriously at all. At their leader's command, several bone spears whistled through the air toward Xiao Yan. His foot slipped, and he rolled behind the rock in a seemingly clumsy scramble. The spears struck the stone with dull thuds, spraying sparks.
"You dodged once, but you won't dodge twice!" The leading Lizardman sneered and charged forward with his spear. Moving at tremendous speed, he reached the rock in an instant and thrust toward Xiao Yan's hiding place with a fierce gust of wind.
Xiao Yan's pupils contracted. He abruptly rolled out from the other side of the rock, his dagger slashing precisely at the Lizardman's wrist. The strike came from a treacherous angle, yet left only a shallow white mark on his opponent's scales.
"Useless!" The Lizardman grinned savagely and lashed out with his other hand, driving the full strength of a late-stage Dou Zhe toward Xiao Yan's chest.
Perfect, Xiao Yan thought. His body appeared to take the blow, but he used its force to send himself flying backward. At the same time, he flicked a thread of soul power, already gathered at his fingertip, toward his opponent's brow. Though exceedingly faint, it was enough to make the Lizardman's movements stall for an instant.
He hit the sand with a thump and spat out a mouthful of "fresh blood," his face turning deathly pale.
"Pathetic." The leading Lizardman snorted disdainfully. He was about to step forward and finish Xiao Yan with his spear when a sudden stabbing pain struck his brow, slowing his movements by half a beat.
In that half beat, Xiao Yan had already scrambled out of the encirclement and was running toward the distant dunes. He deliberately kept his speed at the level expected of someone with third-stage Dou Qi, appearing desperate while still barely managing to put some distance between them.
"Trying to run?" The Lizardman recovered and roared, leading his tribesmen in pursuit.
A chase unfolded across the sand. Xiao Yan stumbled along ahead while the Lizardmen pursued relentlessly, their bone spears occasionally grazing past him and spraying yellow sand. Several times he was "nearly" caught, yet always found an opening to dodge at the final moment, seemingly surrounded by danger on every side.
"These Lizardmen are so fast!" he shouted "anxiously" as he ran. "Yao Lao, what do I do? At this rate, they'll catch me sooner or later!"
Yao Lao said gravely, "Run toward that stone forest on the left! The terrain is complicated. It might trap them!"
Xiao Yan changed direction as instructed, charging toward a stone forest that rose abruptly in the distance. Its black rocks had strange shapes: some thrust into the heavens like sharp swords, while others crouched on the ground like ferocious beasts. It was indeed a good place for hide-and-seek.
Once inside the stone forest, Xiao Yan darted between the rocks, repeatedly using the complex terrain to evade his pursuers. Although the Lizardmen excelled at moving underground, the stone forest left them somewhat hamstrung, slowing them considerably.
Just as Xiao Yan rounded a massive rock and prepared to catch his breath, the sand beneath his feet suddenly collapsed. Caught off guard, he plunged straight down.
"Ah!" His startled cry echoed through the stone forest.
The collapsed sand pit was not deep, only about ten feet, with hard rock at the bottom. Xiao Yan landed on the ground, feeling as though his bones were about to fall apart. He had just started to get up when he discovered that the surrounding rock walls were riddled with small holes. Dozens of bone spears extended from them, keeping him firmly in their sights.
The leading Lizardman's cold laughter drifted down from above the pit. "Human brat, let's see where you run now!"
Xiao Yan looked up to see dozens of Lizardmen gathered around the rim, looking down at him with eyes full of mockery and cruelty. Behind the crowd, an elderly Lizardman wearing bone armor and holding a snake-headed staff slowly stepped forward. A shrewd gleam shone in his cloudy eyes. He was the tribal chief whose aura approached Dou Wang.
"Chief!" The surrounding Lizardmen bowed in greeting.
The elder waved a hand, then rested his gaze on Xiao Yan. His hoarse voice carried a probing note. "Human, why did you enter our sacred ground?"
Xiao Yan leaned against the rock wall, pretending to be badly injured, and panted heavily. "I... I just got lost... I wanted some water..."
"Lost?" The elder sneered and lightly tapped his snake-headed staff against the ground. The sand at the edge of the pit suddenly parted, revealing a clear crystal. Within it appeared images of Xiao Yan fighting the Human-Faced Demon Spiders in the valley earlier. "Then what is your connection to these spiders?"
Xiao Yan was startled. He had never expected these Lizardmen to be able to monitor somewhere so far away. His face, however, remained blank with confusion. "I don't know them! They attacked me first!"
The elder said nothing and tapped his staff again. The images in the crystal shifted to the Blood Soul Lotus withering and the Human-Faced Demon Spiders detonating themselves. "And this? Was this your doing too?"
Xiao Yan's heart tightened. He knew he could no longer conceal the truth. Slowly, he straightened and wiped the "blood" from the corner of his mouth. The panic faded from his eyes, replaced by complete calm. "What if it was? What if it wasn't?"
His abrupt change in attitude stunned the surrounding Lizardmen. A flicker of surprise crossed the elder's eyes as well, only to turn into icy killing intent. "So you're no ordinary human. You can unravel the Blood Curse, and you dare trespass on the sacred ground of my Lizardman Tribe... I cannot let you live!"
Before his words had finished, the elder thrust his snake-headed staff toward Xiao Yan. The rock walls around the pit suddenly closed in, trapping him within a sealed space. At the same time, runes on the walls lit up, and eerie green flames seeped through the cracks, carrying a intensely corrosive aura. They clearly intended to refine him alive.
"Taste our tribe's Soul-Burning Flame! Even a Dou Ling expert couldn't last the time it takes an incense stick to burn inside!" The elder's voice carried a cruel smile.
Inside the sealed space, the temperature soared. Like maggots clinging to bone, the eerie green flames relentlessly ate away at Xiao Yan's clothes and skin. Yet he stood motionless, not a trace of pain on his face. Instead, he gently closed his eyes, quietly activating his Emperor Realm Soul to analyze the Soul-Burning Flame's energy composition.
Using a runic array to transform geothermal energy, then blending in dark power... rather interesting. Outwardly, however, he deliberately let out agonized groans, his body struggling "violently" as though he truly were enduring immense suffering.
Outside the pit, the elder and the Lizardmen watched the sealed rock walls indifferently, waiting for the sounds within to cease. They had no idea that the "prey" they considered already in the bag was secretly deciphering the killing move they took such pride in. He had even turned his attention toward the altar they guarded.
The eerie green flames grew fiercer, nearly filling the entire sealed space. Xiao Yan's clothes had long since turned to ash, and a layer of charred blackness had appeared on his skin. Yet the Dou Qi within him circulated quietly, stripping away and absorbing the Soul-Burning Flame's energy thread by thread.
"Just about enough..." He opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing within them.
The next instant, the sealed rock walls began shaking violently, as though something inside were about to burst through the stone. The elder's expression changed, and he shouted harshly, "Increase the energy! Don't let him escape!"
More eerie green flames poured into the sealed space, making the entire sand pit tremble faintly. But the shaking did not stop. Instead, it grew increasingly violent until, with a thunderous boom, the rock walls exploded, sending yellow sand flying through the sky.
When the dust cleared and the elder and the Lizardmen saw the scene before them, all their pupils contracted sharply.
Xiao Yan stood at the center of the pit, the charred blackness on his body already gone. Though his clothes were torn, his eyes shone brightly. His aura remained at the third stage of Dou Qi, yet carried a pressure that made their hearts quake. The eerie green flames now danced at his fingertips like obedient pets.
"This... this is impossible!" the leading Lizardman cried out involuntarily.
The elder's expression turned utterly grim, and the hand gripping his snake-headed staff trembled slightly. "Who exactly are you?"
Xiao Yan did not answer. He merely raised his head and looked past the Lizardmen at the rim of the pit toward the distant caves hidden beneath the dunes. A cold smile curved his lips.
"Whatever you're guarding, I'm taking it."
Before you continue