Chapter 00043: The Arrival of the Sandstorm
# The Arrival of the Sandstorm
Chapter 43
Novel: After the Immortals Disappeared
Chapter 43: The Arrival of the Sandstorm
Nian and He were deep in thought, no longer at each other's throats.
Perhaps luck was on their side, as just a short while later, another strange beast took the bait.
This creature had a body as bulky as a hippopotamus, but its limbs were fin-like, with a long tail and neck.
In contrast, its head was oddly small.
This low-intelligence beast, once it bit the hook, refused to let go, making it even easier to catch than the earth dragon.
The only trouble was its massive size, which took up an entire walnut boat and caused it to sway dangerously.
Fortunately, the walnut boat was close to the stone bridge, and over a hundred soldiers grabbed the ropes and managed to pull it onto the bridge.
What followed was a scene of large-scale slaughter.
Buckets were fetched from the city's houses, and the two monsters were bled, with the blood being transported bucket by bucket to the temple.
Their massive bodies were like giant water jars, and the blood they released was thick and foul-smelling.
He Lingchuan stood nearby, silently hoping that the Dafang Pot wouldn't be too picky.
In front of the main hall, the pool of water grew increasingly red.
Most encouragingly, after pouring in over thirty buckets of beast blood, the pool began to expand! "It's working!" Sun Fuping exclaimed with joy, his fingers gripping the edge of the pool turning white.
"Keep going, keep going!"
Finally, after the last few buckets were poured in, the blood barely covered the bottom of the pool, appearing as a thin layer.
Zeng Feixiong and his men tossed aside the buckets.
"What now?" "Wait!" Sun Fuping stared intently at the water.
"Just wait!"
He Chunhua suddenly spoke up.
"The wind in the city stopped a while ago."
His reminder made everyone realize that the ever-present cold wind had ceased at some point.
The moon had hidden itself behind thick clouds, and the light in the city grew dimmer.
As soon as he finished speaking, a series of small bubbles appeared on the previously calm water, creating ripples.
"There's a hole underneath..."
Zeng Feixiong had just started to ask when Sun Fuping shushed him, raising a hand to stop him.
The vast square of the Miantian Temple was eerily quiet, so silent that you could hear a pin drop.
This in itself was abnormal.
Another series of bubbles rose.
Sun Fuping crouched down, about to take a closer look, when something burst out of the water with a splash, nearly colliding with his face! Others could only see a dark shadow, but that didn't stop them from gasping in shock.
Only Nian Songyu and He Chunhua, in their haste, could make out that it was a wolf-like monster, with a dog-like head, tail, and limbs, but its body was covered in rough, cracked skin resembling tree bark.
Its deeply sunken eye sockets held no eyes, only a flicker of crimson ghostly fire!
The creature emerged from the water directly towards Sun Fuping, opening its massive mouth wide, aiming straight for his throat.
Its mouth could open to a hundred and twenty degrees, seemingly capable of swallowing a head whole.
The distance was so close that in the blink of an eye, Sun Fuping's head was in danger.
But the state preceptor was no ordinary man; in the face of danger, he remained calm, thrusting his staff into the monster's face.
The beast head on the staff opened its mouth and spat out a bright red fireball.
The monster let out a piercing scream before disintegrating into ash.
Nian Songyu was startled, then exclaimed with joy, "A vengeful spirit!" This monster had no physical form; it was a vengeful spirit.
People often thought that vengeful spirits lurked in the shadows of the Panlong Desert, deceiving minds, but the real culprits were the Three Corpse Worms.
This vengeful spirit was the first true one they had encountered since entering the Panlong Desert.
Its appearance confirmed that they were on the right track!
The ash dusted Sun Fuping's face, but he had no time to wipe it off as he bent down to observe the water.
He Lingchuan thought maliciously that if he bent any lower, the next monster to emerge could ride his face.
The entire pool was now bubbling vigorously, more and more densely.
It was as if a fire had been lit beneath it, and the water was about to boil.
The ripples reached the edge of the pool without dissipating, instead growing stronger as they spread outward, eventually forming waves.
The waves hit the edge of the pool and bounced back, further agitating the water.
Everyone's expressions turned grim.
If a series of bubbles represented the emergence of one monster, then the dense bubbles here meant...
Sun Fuping suddenly turned and shouted at everyone, "Take the Soul-Soothing Powder, light the Life Fire! Hurry, hurry, hurry!" His shout, amplified by his true power, echoed across the area, conveying his urgency.
Everyone immediately sprang into action.
Fortunately, the over a hundred soldiers who had been fishing in the sand sea had already taken the Soul-Soothing Powder, so now it was just Sun Fuping, He Chunhua, and the others who needed to take it.
As soon as the small pills were swallowed, Sun Fuping urgently instructed, "Hold your breath and stand by the pool, don't look back! These monsters are harder to deal with than the Three Corpse Worms!" His last words sent a chill through everyone's hearts.
Sun Fuping emphasized again, "Hold your breath, hold it!" As soon as he finished speaking, the water surface suddenly exploded! The scene was like a volcanic eruption, with the pool as the crater, and the spewing magma was countless, bizarrely shaped vengeful spirits! Some resembled humans, some animals, some plants, and some had features of all three, making it impossible for the living to discern their original forms.
But there were so many vengeful spirits emerging that people had no time to observe individual ones, only seeing a spectacular black smoke rising into the sky like volcanic ash, spreading in all directions!
The most terrifying part was that each vengeful spirit opened its mouth and let out a piercing howl, filled with pain and resentment.
Without needing to be told, everyone instinctively covered their ears and tightly closed their mouths.
But the sound reverberated in everyone's minds, shaking their spirits and causing dizziness.
Most of the vengeful spirits flew upwards, but a few circled above the main hall before flying back down! No one dared to breathe.
State Preceptor Sun was right; these things looked far more vicious than the Three Corpse Worms.
Three flames of life burned on their bodies, and the Soul-Soothing Powder did its best to conceal their living presence.
The spirits wandered among the crowd but treated them like clay or wooden statues, soon moving on.
He Lingchuan looked up at the sky and saw the swirling spirits filling the night sky, rapidly changing the weather.
The wind began to blow.
Twenty breaths passed.
Forty breaths passed.
Thousands of vengeful spirits emerged with each breath, and in this short time, tens of thousands had appeared, yet they continued to gush out without any sign of slowing down.
Outside Panlong City, the wind grew stronger, and sand tornadoes began to form, starting small and growing into massive funnels, connecting the sky and the ground.
Apart from the sandstorm and the wind, it seemed as if nothing else existed in the world.
Though the sand and wind obscured their vision, everyone rubbed their eyes to keep watching.
The sandstorm season had accompanied most of the people of Blackwater City as they grew up, but how many had actually witnessed its true origin?
As time passed, the soldiers' faces turned redder and redder, almost to the point of turning purple. (End of Chapter)