Chapter 41: The Legacy of the Sand-Guarding Priest

Sand particles churned like boiling water, swirling frantically around the altar at Black Wind Pass. Lu Chen’s totem blade was wedged into the sand-crystal skull of a Hyber; he yanked it free, drawing a string of ghostly blue blood beads. He had barely caught his breath when his peripheral vision caught three sand-crystal spears thrusting toward his back—Alicia, busy calibrating the amplifier for the Entropy-Reversal Array, had no idea she was being ambushed.

"Look out!" Lu Chen lunged, shoving her aside. The spears grazed his back, the sand-crystal tips carving three deep furrows into his combat suit, leaving a searing, fiery pain.

"Tha—" Alicia’s gratitude cut off into a strangled cry.

As Lu Chen turned, his heart felt gripped by an icy hand. Old Dao had shielded him just in time; three sand-crystal spears had pierced through his chest from the front, the tips protruding from his back, trailing dark red blood and bone shards that drummed against the sandy ground.

"Uncle Old Dao!" Chen Yu’s roar was gut-wrenching. He blasted the ambushing sand-crystal warriors with his rocket launcher, but he could not save the old man who had already fallen.

Old Dao’s body swayed, and his bone blade clattered to the ground. He looked down at the spears embedded in his chest. The sand-crystal was spreading along the wounds, turning his skin a sickly, bruised gray, like a lake surface freezing over with frost.

"You... you fool..." Old Dao’s voice was thick with blood foam. He looked up, his clouded eyes fixed on Lu Chen, and suddenly bared his teeth in a savage grin. "I told you... I’d be the one to take the hits for you..."

Lu Chen scrambled over, pressing his hands against the wounds, trembling as blood surged between his fingers. "Don't speak! Wang Lu! Bring the antibodies, now!"

"It's useless..." Old Dao gripped his wrist with startling strength. The sand-crystal had already crept up his neck, yet it could not mask the urgency in his gaze. "Listen... the important thing..."

His hand fumbled tremblingly toward his finger, pulling off a dull yellow ring. The ring was archaic, its surface etched with a simplified Entropy-Reversal totem, the edges worn smooth and shiny from years of wear.

"This is... the Suppression Ring..." Old Dao pressed the ring into Lu Chen’s palm, closing his fingers tightly over it. "The sacred token... of the Sand-Guardian Priest... wear it to... be immune to illusions..."

The ring seared Lu Chen’s finger, feeling like a white-hot branding iron. He felt a surge of warm energy radiate from his palm, flowing through his limbs; the pain in his back from the spear graze vanished instantly.

"And..." Old Dao’s voice grew faint. The sand-crystal had covered most of his face, leaving only one eye still moving. "The Sand-Scorpion totem... is choosing a new host... Williams... he is almost..."

"Almost what? Speak clearly!" Lu Chen shook him hard, but he saw the light in the old man’s eyes fading rapidly.

Old Dao’s lips moved, as if wanting to say more, but only a wet, rattling sound emerged from his throat. He took one last look at the bone blade on the ground, then suddenly summoned his remaining strength to push Lu Chen away, lunging forward to drive the spears deeper into his chest.

"Go!" That was the last word he left in this world.

Lu Chen watched helplessly as Old Dao’s body began to disintegrate.

The skin covered by sand-crystal shattered like broken glass, peeling away in flakes to reveal flowing sand beneath. His bones made a faint clicking sound, turning into golden dust that merged with the dunes. Even the three sand-crystal spears shattered into powder the moment they touched his blood.

The entire process was suffocatingly fast.

A few seconds later, only a hollow suit of leather armor and a bone blade remained on the sand.

"No—!" Lu Chen’s roar sent the sand grains dancing. He grabbed the dull yellow ring and slammed it onto his finger. The ring seemed alive; it shrank to the perfect fit, and the Entropy-Reversal totem flared with golden light, resonating with the totem on his own arm.

Just then, the bone blade on the ground began to vibrate.

Sand particles, as if drawn by an invisible force, leaped toward the blade, flowing and coalescing on its surface. The blade, which previously only bore the two characters for "Suppressing Evil," now displayed the full totem of the Sand-Guardian Priest—at the center of the Entropy-Reversal vortex was a silver bird with wings spread, identical to the pattern on Lu Chen’s jade pendant.

Even more eerily, faint blood streaks seeped through the patterns of the blade, as if Old Dao’s blood were continuing to nourish the weapon that had accompanied him through half his life.

"This is... a legacy..." Alicia’s voice trembled as she pointed at the blade. "Uncle Old Dao... infused his own power into the blade for you..."

Lu Chen picked up the bone blade. The moment he held it, countless images flooded his mind like a tidal wave.

He saw Old Dao grazing livestock in the oasis as a young man, his clumsiness when he first picked up a bone blade, the silhouette of him burying his nephew at Black Wind Pass, and the tenderness with which he secretly carved the character "Guard" onto the inner side of the blade—memories belonging to Old Dao, now passed on to him in their entirety through the steel.

"Screw you, Williams!" Chen Yu’s roar snapped Lu Chen out of his trance.

In the distance, the energy zone erupted with blinding, ghostly blue light. Williams’s figure flickered within the glow. His mechanical arm was fully crystallized, fused with the energy field of the bone core. His black robes had been shredded by swelling muscles, revealing a chest covered in sand-crystals; in the center of his heart beat a basketball-sized blue crystal—the evolved bone core.

"The Entropy-Reversal Array?" Williams’s voice echoed through the energy field, grating like metal on metal. "You think this piece of junk can stop me?"

He raised his crystallized left hand, fingers splayed. The sand around the altar surged into the air, forming countless sand-hands that grabbed the ankles of the X-tribe warriors, dragging them toward the energy zone. Those caught instantly fell into hallucinations, smiling with hollow eyes as they let the sand-hands drag them toward death.

"Illusions! It’s the Sand-Scorpion's mental control!" Alicia’s silver bird necklace grew searing hot. She pointed at the controlled warriors. "Make them close their eyes!"

But it was too late.

Three young warriors had already been dragged to the edge of the energy zone. The ghostly blue light swept over them, instantly turning them into three sand-crystal statues, frozen in their struggle, becoming Williams’s newest "collectibles."

Lu Chen remembered Old Dao’s words and gripped the Suppression Ring.

The dull yellow ring suddenly erupted with a soft golden light, enveloping him like an invisible dome. The sand-hands attempting to approach him disintegrated upon contact with the light. The mental interference that had been buzzing in his brain felt as if a mute button had been pressed—the world suddenly fell silent.

"It works!" Lu Chen’s eyes lit up. He raised the bone blade, channeling the golden light from the ring into the blade. "Chen Yu! Pass the blade to the others!"

Chen Yu reacted instantly, grabbing a spare machete and running over. Lu Chen traced an Entropy-Reversal totem onto the blade, and the golden light bled along the edge. As soon as Chen Yu gripped the hilt, he shuddered. "Holy hell! My head was full of my brother's crying, but now it's all gone!"

"Hurry!" Lu Chen used the bone blade to bless the weapons of the other warriors. "This ring is immune to illusions! Save those who are controlled!"

With the golden light of the Suppression Ring, the X-tribe's defensive line stabilized. When the rescued warriors regained their senses and saw their companions turned into sand-crystal statues, their eyes turned bloodshot; they roared and charged at the sand-crystal warriors, their combat prowess surging.

"Interesting." Williams’s voice held a hint of mockery. His body suddenly grew taller, covered head-to-toe in sand-crystal armor, with six scorpion-like bone spurs sprouting from his back, each gleaming with poisonous, ghostly blue light. "Too bad... it’s too late."

He pointed his mechanical arm at the sky. The blue light of the energy zone suddenly turned blood-red, descending toward the altar like a massive piece of silk. Wherever it touched, the sand-crystal warriors ballooned in size, their wounds healing at a visible rate, their skin even regenerating over the corrosion left by camel blood.

"He’s absorbing the energy of the bone core!" Alicia’s detector emitted a shrill alarm, the energy index on the screen skyrocketing. "The Entropy-Reversal Array can't keep up with his absorption rate! In five minutes at most, the dome will shatter!"

Lu Chen’s bone blade vibrated violently, the Sand-Guardian Priest totem glowing with stunning intensity. He could feel Old Dao’s power flowing through the blade, resonating with his own bloodline, as if urging him on, guiding him.

"Five minutes is enough." Lu Chen’s gaze turned resolute. He raised the bone blade toward Williams. "The words Uncle Old Dao didn't finish—I’ll ask them for him: exactly what kind of hell do you want to turn the desert into?"

Williams’s sand-crystal mask cracked, revealing a mechanical eye glowing with red light. "A purgatory where only the strong survive. The weak? They should be crushed like sand."

"Then you can die." Lu Chen crossed his totem blade with the bone blade. Two streams of golden light merged into a brilliant pillar, shooting straight into the sky. "Uncle Old Dao said you were becoming a new host? I want to see if your Sand-Scorpion is tougher, or the bones of a Sand-Guardian!"

The pillar of light slammed into the blood-red energy field, producing a deafening boom. The shockwave knocked back the nearby sand-crystal warriors, and even the golden dome of the Entropy-Reversal Array swayed violently, as if on the brink of collapse.

Lu Chen’s fingers ached from the heat of the Suppression Ring, but he gripped the two blades tightly. He felt Old Dao’s will beside him; fragments of the Sand-Guardian Priest’s memories churned in his mind—the ultimate application of the Entropy-Reversal Array, the hidden power of the Suppression Ring, and... the fatal weakness of the Sand-Scorpion totem.

Williams’s roar echoed within the energy field, filled with incredulous fury and... fear.

"Impossible! How could you..."

His words were drowned out by a violent explosion.

A blinding white light filled Lu Chen’s vision, leaving him unable to see anything, yet he could clearly feel the energy of the bone blade surging. The golden light of the Suppression Ring, as if endowed with life, spiraled into the blood-red energy field along the pillar of light; wherever it passed, the ghostly blue sand-crystals withered rapidly.

This was the legacy of the Sand-Guardian Priest shining through.

It was the counterattack bought with Old Dao’s life.

But just as the golden light was about to touch Williams, a sudden, sharp pain flared in Lu Chen’s back.

He looked down to see a sand-crystal bone spur protruding from his chest, dripping with hot blood.

Behind him, Kam’s brother—the logistics soldier from the S-tribe who had been saved by the antibodies—was holding the blood-stained spur, a grotesque smile on his face, his pupils shimmering with that same ghostly blue light.

"The Sand-Scorpion... needs a new offering..." The boy’s voice sounded coarse, alien, like the guttural tones of Williams.

Lu Chen’s consciousness began to blur, and the bone blade clattered to the ground. He looked past the boy and saw more warriors controlled by the Sand-Scorpion closing in, their eyes all flickering with the same ghostly blue.

So, the "new host" Old Dao mentioned was not just Williams.

The Sand-Scorpion totem had long since burrowed into everyone’s hearts.

A second before darkness swallowed his consciousness, the last thing Lu Chen saw was Old Dao’s bone blade suddenly taking flight. The Sand-Guardian Priest totem on the blade exploded with unprecedented golden light, like a miniature sun, flying toward him.

And in the distant energy field, Williams’s sand-crystal armor was peeling away, revealing beneath it... the face of a Sand-Guardian Priest.