Chapter 1194: The Fierce Nature of the Tiger Soul
“Lei Ge.”
“Lei Ge…”
In a sunken sandpit directly above the Longmen Inn, a thin man surrounded by four men in black robes listlessly scanned the area filled with workers digging hard. Suddenly, he ran to the edge of a large pit over twenty meters in diameter.
“Stop coming over!”
“The sand we just dug out—now you’re stepping on it again!”
Below the pit, members of the Jinxiu Mountains Group saw the young man approaching and hurriedly shouted at him to stop. If he came any closer, the sand would collapse again, ruining an hour of hard work.
“Stop digging! Lei Ge… Lei Ge!”
“You don’t even work, and now you’re causing trouble…”
Among the diggers, Lei Zhan stopped what he was doing, looked up with his face tanned from the sun, and stared at Xiao Bei, who looked extremely anxious. “You idiot! Keep talking and you’ll let the sand fall through! Stop coming over! Send a message instead…”
While stopping Xiao Bei, Lei Zhan glanced around at the surrounding sand pits, satisfied. After half a day of effort by his brothers, they had finally cleared the area from the second-floor roof to the first floor. It was just a matter of time before this seemingly large hall was cleaned up. Although progress was slow, they believed they would soon find clues about where those experts from Tiandao had disappeared.
The Desert Palace!
That was their motivation for coming to the desert. The exciting adventures and the sense of achievement between life and death turned Lei Zhan, Xiao Bei, and the others into passionate youths. No matter what dangers lay hidden in the Desert Palace, they entered it without hesitation.
And it turned out that the Desert Palace held endless appeal for them. After the Longmen Inn was buried by the black storm, many players tried to find the palace hidden beneath the desert using the most primitive methods.
With this in mind, Lei Zhan leaped out of the pit!
“Lei Ge! Water!”
Xiao Bei, a guy who preferred to work alone, had been hanging around Lei Zhan since the Song Clan incident and now acted like his little follower. Seeing Lei Zhan approaching, he quickly took out a water bottle from his Qiankun Bag and handed it to him.
“You kid…”
Lei Zhan glared at him irritably. “Why aren’t you staying up there? Did you discover some secret information again?”
“Hehe…”
Xiao Bei quickly apologized with a smile. “Lei Ge, I think this time it’s definitely secret information.”
Because he was strongly opposed to tasks like Lei Zhan and others digging sand to clean up Longmen Inn, Xiao Bei was singled out by Lei Zhan to symbolically take charge of surveillance and gathering information—though in this vast desert, what information could there be to gather, let alone provide surveillance?
But during this time, Xiao Bei acted as if his instructions were serious, running from one place to another, acting recklessly like a newborn calf, and trying to hitchhike information from those with better sources.
Originally, various factions from all over were very wary, not giving anyone a chance to get close—either showing hostility from afar or directly drawing swords to attack players who intruded into their territory…
But strangely enough…
This foolish boy, running from east to west and making several big circles, passing by many aggressive and notorious gangs or foreign forces, wasn’t warned or targeted by anyone. Not to mention being attacked, he didn’t even receive any clearly hostile looks.
Of course, Xiao Bei didn’t understand. He kept running in circles, getting closer and even shamelessly leaning against people’s doorsteps.
Lei Zhan and his group were terrified! Yet they couldn’t warn this guy!
According to their experience, Xiao Bei should have been cut into pieces and thrown away…
But strangely, no matter how outrageous he became, no one used swords to chase him away! Everyone turned their backs on him and ignored him!
After much thought, the group attributed it to Jinxiu Heshan’s current high reputation and deterrence…
First, Jinxiu Heshan had driven away the Wild Wolves, destroyed Yipin Tang, and pacified the Central Plains; second, the Emperor was now leading troops into the Western Regions’ countries, humiliating the Wild Wolves organization. Ordinary people would be wise enough not to provoke Jinxiu Heshan at such a time.
But they didn’t know!
In fact, Xiao Bei was quite famous in the Western Regions too.
During the Song Family battle, Corpse Controller Xiao Bei sat beside Happy, treated the same as Silver Fox, and many martial artists remembered his name and appearance.
Not to mention players from the Central Plains, even many foreign factions knew of this fearless fool.
No sensible person would risk provoking Jinxiu Heshan over such a trivial matter!
As for those who didn’t know Xiao Bei’s identity, anyone with a bit of cunning would understand what to do seeing others being so patient.
Seeing Xiao Bei get away with it, Lei Zhan and his group were glad to turn a blind eye and let him go ahead.
But Lei Zhan certainly wouldn’t let this kid come back to cause trouble for everyone.
“Go on, what news have you picked up?”
Lei Zhan did this only because Xiao Bei was young, to prevent him from feeling isolated by the team. As for Xiao Bei being able to obtain information this way, he absolutely didn’t believe it.
“Brother Lei, this time it’s for sure—the treasures from the Desert Palace have been unearthed. The news has already spread throughout the desert, and many people, upon hearing it, are getting ready to set off and go there!”
As soon as he spoke, Xiao Bei shocked Lei Zhan.
The latter raised his eyebrows: “What did you say?”
It was then that Lei Zhan noticed that the crowd gathered around Longmen Inn had scattered like sand. Among those scattered around Longmen Inn, a quarter of them were heading eastward…
Moreover!
The troops on the east and west sides indeed, as Xiao Bei said, were in groups of three or five, looking very excited and agitated. They were no longer waiting leisurely in place but were frequently looking eastward and even moving in that direction. At that moment, tens of thousands of troops in the desert were trending eastward!
“How could this happen?”
Lei Zhan stared in shock at the scene outside, feeling a chill run down his spine.
“I heard there was quite a stir in the east just now!” Xiao Bei, fearing Lei Zhan might not be able to handle the shock of wasting half a day’s effort, carefully explained, “Thousands of Jinyiwei soldiers are fighting against a group of Heavenly Dao experts there, all for the treasures unearthed from the Desert Palace!”
“…”
Lei Zhan acted as if he hadn’t heard anything.
“Brother Lei?”
Xiao Bei called out softly again.
Only then did Lei Zhan snap out of his daze!
“Strange. I’ve also received news about the Jinyiwei, but it seems quite far away. In this vast desert, who would bring the news over… Guys, stop right now. The treasures from the Desert Palace aren’t here. Let’s pack up and get ready to leave.”
Although Lei Zhan was frustrated and annoyed, he didn’t lose his vigilance. While ordering everyone to stop, he also tried to figure out the source of the news.
“It’s said there are a few Heavenly Dao experts over there. Maybe the locals nearby knew they couldn’t handle them, so they spread the news.”
Lei Zhan frowned and pondered for a moment before nodding. Xiao Bei’s straightforward answer could explain it after all.
Of course they wouldn’t know.
This news had been deliberately spread and incited by those from the Wild Wolf Organization, quickly spreading throughout the desert!
But the people from Jinxiu Heshan were deliberately filtered out by the Wild Wolves and the Yipin Tang… If not for Xiao Bei stubbornly staying near someone else’s camp to gather information, Lei Zhan’s group would definitely have been among the last to evacuate. Even after everyone else had left, they might still have been digging in that big pit…
…
Martial artists from all over the world gathered together, staying near the Longmen Inn, enduring the scorching heat in the desert, all because they still held a glimmer of hope for the Desert Palace!
The Wild Wolves secretly leaked the news that the treasure of the Desert Palace—the ancient evil weapon, Tiger Soul—had reappeared in the world, instantly triggering a storm of chaos in the desert.
The troops on both sides of the Longmen Inn immediately became agitated!
Without hesitation, groups of people quickly shifted their strategies…
As people around the Longmen Inn set off one after another and a clear eastward procession appeared across the desert, Yan Lang, Xueyu Dao, and others stepped out of the sand dune basins where they had hidden and moved to higher ground.
Dozens of them braved the scorching sun and hot winds, yet their bodies exuded a chilling coldness.
“Hmph!”
“As expected, hearing the news that the treasures of the Desert Palace have been unearthed, these people run faster than rabbits,” Xian Er and Xiao Taohong said with expressions of pride and contempt.
Yan Lang slightly raised his chin:
“From now on, we don’t need to worry too much about hiding our whereabouts or exposing our identities… With all these groups gathered together, this situation will soon become chaotic! With them causing trouble, even if the two major forces in the Central Plains—Jinxiu Heshan and Xifeng Lou—are present, we can still take advantage of the chaos.”
“But the situation with the Jinyiwei is constantly changing, and the battles between the top martial experts are extremely dangerous and unpredictable. It might not take long before a winner is determined. Yan Lang, let’s go now, so as not to waste time or cause problems later, which would be hard to explain to the boss.”
Hearing this, Yan Lang smiled and waved his hand:
“Don’t rush. We’ll go there eventually… but now isn’t the right time.”
The people around him showed confusion and suspicion.
Yan Lang smiled and said, “The boss mentioned in the letter that the ancient first evil weapon, Tiger Soul, is not like ordinary divine weapons. Whoever obtains it must gain the approval of the White Tiger Spirit. They must slaughter and devour a certain amount of blood and souls to temporarily seal its evil nature. Otherwise… hmph.”
“Otherwise what?”
Yan Lang’s words sparked intense curiosity among everyone.
The latter didn’t leave things ambiguous; he said straight away, “Those who cannot control the fierce nature of the Tiger Soul will surely be repaid by it. In other words, those who obtain the Tiger Soul will either kill with it or be killed by it… there is no third option!”
At these words, all the experts from the Wolf Pack organization gasped in shock!