Chapter 46: Wild Sand Descends

Yan and He seemed lost in thought, no longer at odds with each other.

Perhaps luck had turned; after just enough time to drink a cup of tea, another strange beast took the bait.

This creature had a bloated body like a hippopotamus, but its limbs were fin-like, and both its tail and neck were long. Its head, by contrast, was oddly small.

Being a creature of low intelligence, it never let go once it bit the hook, making it even easier to reel in than the earth dragons.

The only issue was its immense size; it occupied an entire walnut shell boat and still made the vessel sway precariously.

Fortunately, the walnut boat was very close to the stone bridge. Over a hundred soldiers grabbed the tow ropes and managed to pull it onto the bridge.

What followed was a large-scale butchering scene.

Everyone found buckets from the city's residences, bled the two monsters, and transported the blood, bucket by bucket, into the temple.

Their bodies were massive, like water tanks, and the blood they yielded was copious, viscous, and overwhelmingly pungent.

He Lingchuan, smelling it from the side, secretly hoped the Grand Flask wouldn't be too picky.

In front of the main hall, the pool water grew increasingly red.

Most gratifying was that after more than thirty buckets of beast blood had been poured in, the pool's surface area began to expand!

"It's working!" Sun Fuping exclaimed, overjoyed, his fingers gripping the pool's edge turning white. "Keep going, keep going!"

Finally, after the last few buckets were poured, the blood barely covered the bottom of the pool, appearing only as a thin layer.

Zeng Feixiong and his subordinates tossed their buckets aside. "Now what?"

"Wait!" Sun Fuping stared intently at the water. "Just wait!"

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

His reminder made everyone recall: when did the omnipresent cold wind cease?

The bright moon had, at some unknown point, hidden itself behind thick clouds, and everyone felt the city's light growing dimmer.

No sooner had he spoken than a series of small bubbles appeared on the long-still water surface, creating a ripple.

"There's a hole underneath..."

Zeng Feixiong had just uttered the question when Sun Fuping shushed him, raising a hand to stop him.

The vast Square of the Mending Heaven Temple was utterly silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

This in itself was abnormal.

Another string of small bubbles rose.

Sun Fuping crouched down, about to lean in for a closer look, when the water suddenly splashed, and something shot out, nearly colliding with his face!

Others only saw a shadowy mass, but that didn't prevent them from gasping in shock.

Only Yan Songyu, He Chunhua, and a few others managed to discern, in that hasty moment, that it was a wolf-like monster. Its head, tail, and limbs resembled a dog's, but its body was covered in rough, cracked fissures, more like tree bark than animal hide. Furthermore, its deeply sunken eye sockets held no eyeballs, but instead a point of crimson ghostly fire!

This creature emerged from the water directly facing Sun Fuping, and without hesitation, it opened its wide mouth, aiming straight for his throat.

Its mouth could open 120 degrees, appearing large enough to swallow a head whole. The distance between them was so close that in what felt like the blink of an eye to He Lingchuan, Sun Fuping's head seemed forfeit.

But the Imperial Preceptor proved his worth; he remained calm in the crisis, thrusting his staff directly into the monster's face.

The beast head at the top of the staff opened its mouth and "whooshed" out a blazing red fireball.

The monster immediately let out a piercing shriek and disintegrated into ash.

Yan Songyu was startled, then exclaimed with joy, "A vengeful spirit!"

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

People had always thought vengeful spirits hid in the shadows of the Coiling Dragon Desert, manipulating minds, but the true culprits were the Three Corpse Worms. This vengeful spirit was the first true one they had encountered since entering the Coiling Dragon Desert.

The moment it appeared, Yan Songyu was overjoyed, as it meant they hadn't been searching in the wrong direction!

Ash dusted Sun Fuping's face, but he didn't stop to wipe it off, instead bending down to observe the water's surface.

He Lingchuan maliciously thought that if Sun Fuping lowered his head an inch more, the next monster to emerge would be right in his face.

At this point, the entire pool of water was bubbling and gurgling, the bubbles more numerous and dense.

It was as if firewood was stacked underneath, and the water was about to boil.

The ripples, layer upon layer, didn't dissipate upon reaching the pool's edge; instead, they intensified as they spread outwards, eventually forming waves.

The waves crashed against the pool's edge, then rebounded, further agitating the water's surface.

Everyone's expressions turned grim.

If a single string of bubbles signified the emergence of one monster, then the dense, countless bubbles here indicated...

Sun Fuping suddenly turned and bellowed at the crowd: "Take the Soul-Dampening Powder and ignite your life flames! Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick!"

This shout, amplified by true power, reverberated across the land, deafening, and left no doubt about his urgency.

Everyone immediately sprang into action.

Fortunately, the more than one hundred soldiers previously deployed for "sand sea fishing" had already taken the Soul-Dampening Powder; now, Sun Fuping, He Chunhua, and the others just needed to take theirs.

As soon as the small pills were swallowed, Sun Fuping urgently instructed, "Hold your breath and stand by the pool's edge! Don't look back! These monsters are even harder to deal with than the Three Corpse Worms!"

The last sentence made everyone's heart sink.

Sun Fuping emphasized again: "Hold your breath, hold it!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than the water's surface suddenly exploded!

The scene was like a volcanic eruption, with the pool's surface as the vent, and the gushing lava being countless, bizarrely shaped vengeful spirits!

Some resembled humans, some beasts, some plants, while others combined features of all three, making it impossible for living beings to discern their original forms.

But far too many vengeful spirits burst forth; people had no time to observe individuals, only to witness a magnificent black smoke, like volcanic ash, soaring into the sky and then spreading in all directions!

Most terrifyingly, every vengeful spirit opened its mouth and let out a long shriek, a sharp, piercing sound filled with pain and resentment.

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

Yet, the sound echoed in everyone's spiritual sea, shaking their will and causing dizziness and disorientation.

Most of the emerging vengeful spirits ascended, but a few circled twice above the main hall before flying back down!

No one dared to even breathe.

Imperial Preceptor Sun was right; these things looked far more vicious than the Three Corpse Worms.

Three wisps of life flame ignited on their bodies, and the Soul-Dampening Powder did its utmost to conceal the presence of living beings.

The specters wove through the crowd, but treated them as mere clay figures or wooden carvings, soon drifting away.

He Lingchuan looked up at the sky and saw the circling specters filling the night, rapidly altering the weather.

The wind was picking up.

Twenty breaths passed.

Forty breaths passed.

Thousands of vengeful spirits burst forth with every breath; by this point, there were tens of thousands, yet they continued to gush out relentlessly, showing no signs of slowing.

Outside Coiling Dragon City, the wind grew progressively stronger, and sand whirlwinds began to form, growing from small to colossal funnels, with one end reaching the heavens and the other touching the ground.

Aside from the swirling sand and raging wind, nothing else seemed to exist between heaven and earth.

Although the sand and wind obscured their vision, everyone rubbed their eyes, compelled to keep watching.

The Wild Sand Season was a part of growing up for most people in Blackwater City, but how many had witnessed its true cause firsthand?

As time passed, the soldiers' faces grew increasingly red from holding their breath, almost turning liver-colored.