Chapter 2: Sand Worms (Part 2)

Only after all of them entered the fifth continent did they finally breathe a sigh of relief. When they entered the torn spatial passage earlier, they sensed the danger within—it was instability; if it collapsed, they might not be able to get out. To their surprise, the deeper they went, the more terrifying the spatial barriers became, even Li Ran and Qi Wu Zhen found it hard to control.

The place they emerged in was still high in the sky, with a vast expanse of yellow below—a continuous desert. The sand dunes resembled frozen waves, rolling across the land. Guo Shier muttered, “A desert… it’s actually a desert…”

No one expected the upper continent to be entirely water, while this one was a desolate desert. Upon closer inspection, there were patches of green in the desert. With their experience, they immediately recognized them as oases. The old man stuck his head out and looked down. After a while, he said gravely, “This place… is an ideal spot to breed Earth Fiends. Let’s look around; there might be surprises.”

The west side was unclear, as large amounts of dust seemed to be rising there—perhaps a sandstorm or something else. Guo Shier said, “Let’s land on an oasis first to see if we can find locals to learn more about the situation.”

Ge Ha said, “There might not be any locals here.”

Li Ran said, “It’s worth going down and checking. Let’s go!” He descended first, in free fall, without using any flight spells. He plummeted rapidly, occasionally letting out a strange cry—one of excitement.

Guo Shier folded away his altar and also fell freely. In an instant, a sense of weightlessness overwhelmed him, which was extremely thrilling. He shouted, “Wow, this is fun!”

A few dozen seconds later, Guo Shier had to activate his flight spell because he felt it wasn’t falling but rather the ground rushing toward him—the danger shook his soul. Based on his current understanding, even in free fall without defense, he wouldn’t die, but he would definitely get injured, which wasn’t what he wanted.

After activating his flight spell, his rapidly falling body’s speed dropped sharply, and he gently landed on the edge of the oasis. One after another, the others landed as well. Only Li Ran was the most reckless; without any defense, he crashed straight onto the ground, creating a large hole in the shape of a human. After a while, he flew out of it and said with a smile, “Fun.”

Qi Wu Zhen said indifferently, “Childish!”

Li Ran was speechless again, dismissed by this woman once more. He flew close to the ground toward the oasis.

This oasis is extremely small, only about 500 meters in diameter, with a modest pond in the center surrounded by sparse shrubs and weeds. A very large, twisted tree has its canopy completely covering the small pond. It is likely that without this tree, the pond would dry up quickly.

Guo Shier landed on the trunk of the twisted tree and said, “Above is water, and below is desert. Without thorough searching, it’s unlikely we’ll find anything. Should we search here or go down to the next layer?”

Everyone was a bit hesitant. After all, reaching the fifth layer without gaining anything seemed wrong.

Li Ran said, “Then let’s stay here for a while until we’ve searched enough… before going to the next layer. What do you all think?”

Guo Shier marked the coordinates of the oasis and said, “I’ll explore the area with dust. Hehe, I won’t be joining you.” With that, he summoned an altar and flew off into the distance. From high above, he saw something resembling a sandstorm. If his level hadn’t been high, he definitely wouldn’t have gone there, but now, with the power of the nine-layer altar, he dared to venture anywhere.

Li Ran smiled and said, “Then let’s each go our own way…” Then he disappeared from that spot.

Everyone also dispersed, searching for their own opportunities. They all knew that this layer of the continent must hold valuable things, but it would take a lot of time to explore. In the upper water world, since Qi Wu Zhen hated that environment plus the violent storms, no one wanted to stay. Here, though it was desolate, it was still worth exploring.

Guo Shier sat on the altar, with the handsome old man emerging halfway out. The altar moved at incredible speed, and soon they saw the rising dust. The handsome old man asked, “Do you plan to go in?”

Guo Shier replied, “Mm, I feel like there’s something there. Let’s go in and take a look. I hope to find Earth Fiends. Deserts… are often the best places to breed them.”

The handsome old man laughed and said, “I knew you were thinking about Earth Fiends… Unfortunately, I’d rather search the upper layer, where there’s a high possibility of Water Fiends.”

Guo Shier shrugged and said, “There will be a chance to go there. Once we reach the ninth layer, we can set coordinates and use a large cross-dimensional talisman… to travel back and forth. Then we can search carefully and should be able to find them.” He spoke with full confidence. He knew he wouldn’t stay in this world for long and wanted to find what he needed most before leaving.

The handsome old man nodded. He also knew that once they left this small world of talismans, they might face unknown dangers in the future, so it was better for Guo Shier to become stronger.

A beam of talismanic light streaked across the air from the altar, instantly plunging them into the sandstorm.

Defense mechanisms activated as a thin layer of talismanic light enveloped the altar. When sand hit the light barrier, it sparked bursts of light, instantly darkening the surroundings. Guo Shier said with a wry smile, “I can’t see anything… just yellow everywhere…”

The handsome old man pointed ahead and said, “Just move forward. Whatever’s there, let’s rush over and take a look first.”

Guo Shier examined the situation carefully and said, “The sandstorm seems to be swirling in one direction, like a vortex. Let’s go to the center and take a look.”

The handsome old man praised, “You’re quite perceptive. Indeed, it does look like a vortex.”

The sandstorm had little effect on Guo Shier. Aside from blocking his vision, the rest was negligible. The altar broke through the sandstorm and quickly approached the center of the vortex. The wind here was extremely strong, with a howling sound mixed with countless particles of sand, forming swirling bands of yellow dust.

The pressure around them suddenly lessened, revealing an open area of about 100 square meters, free of sand. There was a large hole in the ground, with sand swirling into it. Guo Shier was surprised to see many desert insects falling into that hole—scorpions, snakes, desert rats, and various others, countless in number, spiraling into the hole along with the vortex.

The handsome old man warned, “That’s a mouth!”

Guo Shier examined it carefully and laughed, “As expected. I don’t know what kind of mutated talisman beast this is, but it’s buried its body in the dunes. Just by looking at its mouth… this must be a high-level desert mutated talisman beast…”

The handsome old man said, “It might not necessarily be a mutated talisman beast. It could very well be a mutated insect, or an alienated insect—extremely large in size.”

Guo Shier wasn’t very interested in alienated insects. They were hard to kill, extremely large, and their souls weren’t as useful as those of equivalent-level alienated beasts. More importantly, he already had enough souls, so he wasn’t too concerned about killing insects to obtain more. After realizing that the sandstorm vortex was caused by an alienated insect feeding, he planned to leave.

Suddenly, the handsome old man said, “Be careful! Watch out!”

A massive sucking force grabbed the altar, pulling it slowly toward that huge mouth. Guo Shier laughed and said, “Heh, I won’t provoke it, but it wants to eat me. Well then… I won’t be polite.”

The Moon Blade flew out. Though it was no longer his primary sacrificial treasure, after being refined by the old man and Guo Shier, it now possessed the power of a ninth-grade sacrificial treasure. In an instant, the Moon Blade expanded to a length of a hundred meters. Guo Shier waved his hand and shouted, “Slice!” It had been some time since he last used the Moon Blade, and as he swung it down, he immediately felt the difference—a sense of controlling the world.

Boom!

The Moon Blade pierced into the hole and plunged straight down through the mouthparts of the Abnormal Symbol Worm.

Instantly, the hole closed, and the entire vortex lost its momentum. Countless sands and dust poured downward, allowing a faint glimpse of the sky after just a few breaths. Guo Shier could clearly sense the Moon Blade. He cast a spell with a flip of his hand, and the Moon Blade writhed like a dragon inside the Abnormal Symbol Worm’s belly.

Guo Shier slapped the altar, instantly soaring hundreds of meters into the air.

The sand dunes in the desert collapsed one after another, forming a wave stretching thousands of meters across the desert. Those were the traces of the Abnormal Symbol Worm struggling desperately beneath the dunes.

Guo Shier calmly directed the Moon Blade. Even though it was separated by the Abnormal Symbol Worm’s body, it still couldn’t hinder his control—this was the power of a practitioner using a ninth-tier altar.

Finally, the Abnormal Symbol Worm could no longer bear it and wildly burst out of the ground. Only then did Guo Shier realize it was a giant earthworm. From above, it looked disgusting, with countless secretions oozing from its body. Guo Shier said, “I hate these ugly long worms… I prefer pretty worms!”

The old man couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes, I’d rather like worms with more grotesque appearances than these slimy ones… Kill it!”

It was only during this attack that Guo Shier realized his strength had reached a terrifying level. With a swipe of his hand, the Moon Blade swiftly cut through the belly of the giant worm. In the blink of an eye, the worm was already on its last legs. It couldn’t use its abilities or skills at all and was almost finished.

Guo Shier tapped again, forcing the Moon Blade to cut out of the worm’s belly and fly back quickly.

The old man asked, “It’s not dead yet… Why rush to pull back the Moon Blade?”

Guo Shier smiled slightly. He retracted the Moon Blade and brought out the Soul Suppressing Cauldron, saying, “Soul Beasts need plenty of flesh to feed on. I’ve controlled them from fighting each other, and over time, they will weaken.”

With a slap on the Soul Suppressing Cauldron, about a hundred thousand Soul Beasts flew out in a burst of colored light. They circled briefly in the air before swarming toward the dying giant worm. Guo Shier was too lazy to collect materials from the worm and simply let the Soul Beasts devour it.

The kilometer-long aberrant worm was frantically devoured by 100,000 Soul Beasts. In just a moment, not even a trace of the worm’s skin remained; the desert was completely clean, with only the marks of its struggles left behind—everything else had vanished. Guo Shier didn’t hesitate to exclaim, “Damn, that’s really impressive. Next time I encounter a powerful Aberrant Talisman Beast, I’ll just use Soul Beasts… It might save a lot of effort.”
The handsome old man curled his lips and said, “That’s not worth it. You should understand that.”
Guo Shier scratched his head; he also realized that it indeed wasn’t worth it.
Just then, the ground below suddenly began to tremble violently.