Sand That Consumes

From the other side of the hill, another male cultivator slowly made his way to the summit.

He appeared to be around forty years old, with a sallow complexion. It was the very same male cultivator who had cowered before Extreme Yin Patriarch in the great hall.

Now, he wore a strangely shaped, emerald-green bamboo hat on his head and carried a white jade bowl in his hands. Despite the scorching heat of this place, a faint chill still emanated from his body.

Clearly, both of these items were extraordinary.

As soon as he reached the summit, the man swept his gaze around with a vigilant expression, as if searching for something.

Seeing nothing but emptiness all around, his caution deepened even further.

Earlier, from a distance, he had glanced at this hill and thought he had glimpsed a human figure moving about on it.

But now that he was here, that figure had vanished without a trace. This, naturally, made the male cultivator extremely wary.

After another cold, hard look at his surroundings, he wasted no time. He plunged two fingers into the jade bowl, then abruptly pulled them out. A beam of white light shot up from the bowl, arcing through the air to circle above his head.

“Go!”

The sallow-faced man formed a single hand seal and uttered the command softly.

With a soft puff, the white light trembled and then burst apart, scattering like a celestial maiden casting flowers. It transformed into countless dots of starlight, blanketing an area of several dozen zhang.

Wherever the white light fell, a layer of frost condensed on the red ground. Yet, still, not a single anomaly appeared anywhere.

Seeing this, a flicker of doubt crossed the man’s face.

After a moment’s thought, he began to believe that he might have simply been mistaken earlier. Setting the matter aside for now, he turned his gaze toward the black desert with a grave expression.

“This place… is truly sinister,” the man muttered under his breath as he stared at the uncanny black sand. He, too, seemed hesitant.

But his hesitation lasted only a moment. With a flick of his sleeve, a streak of red light shot out and landed on the ground.

As the light faded, a small, fiery-red fox-like beast appeared in its place.

The man flicked his finger, sending a green pill flying through the air.

The little beast opened its mouth, swallowed the pill, and wore an expression of pure enjoyment.

“Go!”

The sallow-faced cultivator pointed unceremoniously toward the black desert and commanded the beast.

The little beast immediately pushed off with all four limbs, turned, and shot down the hill in a blur of red light. Its speed was astonishing.

In the span of a few breaths, the fox-like beast had already plunged several dozen zhang into the black desert. It traced a wide circle, kicking up a trail of yellow sand, all while remaining completely unharmed.

Nothing unusual happened at all. It was as if the black desert were no different from ordinary sand, aside from its color.

The sallow-faced man wore an expression of utter astonishment. This result had clearly far exceeded his expectations.

He had been fully prepared to sacrifice this “Red Fox Beast.” After all, it was merely a common first-rank spirit beast. Apart from its agility and exceptional sense of smell, it possessed no formidable abilities. He wouldn’t have felt a pang of loss even if it had perished.

He furrowed his brows, staring fixedly at the little beast as it ran back and forth across the desert for several more laps. Only then did he whistle, recalling the Red Fox Beast. It scrambled back up the hill and vanished once more into his sleeve.

Afterward, the man stood there, his expression unreadable, staring silently at the black desert.

But this time, his hesitation was brief. Soon enough, he moved his feet and descended the hill, cautiously approaching the black desert.

What he didn’t know was that, only moments after he had walked down the hill, Han Li’s figure reappeared on the summit amid a ripple in the air.

When the sallow-faced man had performed his wide-area search just now, Han Li had easily evaded his detection using the Qi Concealment Technique of his nameless art, combined with the Smoke Step. Not a single trace of his presence had been left behind.

Han Li was supremely confident that, even if this man were a mid-Core Formation cultivator, as long as he got close and unleashed all nine “Azure Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords” at once, he could absolutely kill the man in a single strike, annihilating both his body and soul.

This left Han Li hesitating for a long time. He couldn’t decide whether to kill the man immediately and seize the two obviously valuable treasures, or to let him go ahead first and act as a pathfinder.

When the man sent his beast to scout the black desert and returned with nothing, Han Li completely abandoned the idea of attacking.

The unknown was always the most dangerous. Better to let this man clear the way for him first.

He didn’t believe for a second that this black desert was completely harmless.

Besides, his own White Rhinoceros Pendant and Cold Ice Pearl were already sufficient to ward off the heat. He wasn’t in urgent need of the man’s fire-repelling treasures.

The sallow-faced man, utterly oblivious to Han Li’s presence behind him, finally set foot on the black sand and entered the eerie desert.

One zhang… two zhang…

The deeper he ventured into the black desert, the more nervous his expression became. He had long since activated the bamboo hat, releasing a green protective barrier that wrapped around his entire body, leaving no gaps.

But when he had advanced several hundred zhang into the desert with not a single problem, his expression relaxed slightly. He felt a little more at ease.

Logically, if he had already penetrated this deep into the area, any real danger should have revealed itself by now.

From behind, Han Li watched the man’s shrinking figure with a hint of surprise on his face.

Could it be that he had guessed wrong? That this black desert was just frightening to look at, but actually harmless?

If he had known this would happen, he should have struck earlier, killed the man, and taken those two treasures.

A trace of regret flickered through Han Li’s mind.

But right at that moment, a sudden change occurred in the distance.

As the sallow-faced cultivator took another step, the black sand around him inexplicably floated into the air.

Suspended in midair, the grains of sand encircled the man, emitting a dark, eerie light. They were utterly silent, and unbelievably sinister.

The man was experienced. Without a second thought, he sacrificed the jade bowl into the air. A vast expanse of white light cascaded from the bowl, adding another layer of protection on top of the green barrier.

And at that moment, the black sand instantly transformed into countless winged black insects. They surged toward the horrified man in a sky-blotting swarm.

With a furious roar, the man’s white light blazed brilliantly. Innumerable palm-sized ice shields materialized around him, then began to spin at high speed, forming a white whirlwind that enveloped him entirely.

Now, he could clearly see the true form of these insects. They were jet-black flying ants. However, their numbers were absolutely staggering—at least ten thousand of them.

The sallow-faced man’s mind raced, desperately trying to recall what kind of insect beast these flying ants were, and what weaknesses they might have.

But before he could remember, the black torrent had already collided with the whirlwind formed by his ice shields.

A series of sharp crackling sounds rang out. All of the flying ants were repelled, sent flying several zhang backward.

Seeing this, the man’s heart relaxed slightly, and a hint of joy appeared on his face.

However, a moment later, his smile froze.

Because those repelled black ants flipped over in the air, flapped their wings, and flew straight back, showing not the slightest sign of injury.

This panicked him.

Without further thought, he raised his hand, and a gray flying blade shot forth. It transformed into a zhang-long streak of terrifying light and slashed viciously toward the swarm.

The moment the flying blade shot out of the whirlwind, the nearly ten thousand flying ants let out a collective buzz and swarmed it as one.

No matter how the gray light twisted and slashed, the flying ants remained completely unharmed. Instead, they crawled all over the blade in an instant, wrapping it in a tight, black cocoon.

The sallow-faced man’s face filled with horror as he tried to recall his magic treasure, but it was already too late.

The gray light within the ant swarm flickered a few times before being utterly swallowed by the black tide.

With a spray of blood from his mouth, the man’s face turned deathly pale.

The destruction of his bonded magic treasure had gravely wounded his origin energy as well.

He didn’t dare hesitate any longer. He urgently drove the white whirlwind and fled back the way he came. If he could just make it out of the black desert, he might still have a chance to escape with his life.

But at that moment, after devouring the remnants of the flying blade, the black ants didn’t pursue him. Instead, they did something utterly astonishing.

In an instant, they gathered together. A strange, black light flashed, and they transformed into a jet-black spear several zhang long.

With a piercing shriek, the spear shot through the air like a ballista bolt.

The sallow-faced man’s heart filled with panic. He frantically poured all of his spiritual power into the whirlwind, making it even fiercer.

The black spear plunged headlong into the white whirlwind.

A dull thump and a wet piercing sound rang out. The black spear flashed through the whirlwind in the blink of an eye.

The sharp spearhead and the long shaft were both stained with speckles of fresh, bright red blood.