The angle of the slope is quite challenging for an average person, but for those present, it’s almost effortless.
Unknowingly, the time has already crept to 10:30 PM.
Yin Chong gave Chong Shi a look.
Chong Shi glanced in the direction of Jiang Lingxi, meeting her eyes, which showed no hint of fear. Wanting to say something but refraining, he thought to himself, ’I want to see if this girl truly has such great capabilities.’ He rubbed his hands, anchored his stance, and immediately accelerated from the spot, charging towards the slope.
With every step, the sand beneath his feet sunk immediately, and the surrounding sand instantly gathered like an invisible force constantly dragging down his ankles.
However, these counterforces did not hinder the robust Chong Shi’s speed toward the slope.
In less than two minutes, he had already charged up the slope with momentum and stood on the edge of the Echoing Sand Eye.
He even leisurely strolled around the edge before looking down and shouting, "It looks no different from before, no abnormalities at all." Saying that, he waved his hand in front of him to feel around, "There’s no wind up here either."
Upon hearing this, many questioning glances from the Changcang Sect’s team turned towards Jiang Lingxi.
Changning stepped forward, preparing to shield her.
Only to see Jiang Lingxi also step forward without stopping, walking to the base of the slope and adjusting her backpack in preparation to ascend.
"Sister Xi, let me go up first."
Jiang Lingxi adjusted her backpack and glanced back at her, "You go last."
In their team, Changning was the only one who was a proper Mage. Xu Zhao’s team didn’t need mentioning; they were all regular people, albeit with much higher combat power than the average person. She and Huzi knew some Mage techniques but couldn’t use them. Yun Yi was even less relevant in that regard.
She led at the front, and Changning covered the rear, something she had decided before coming here.
Changning still wanted to say something, but Jiang Lingxi already moved.
Similarly accelerating from a standstill, she controlled her movements to skillfully navigate around the sinking and dragging sand, her actions agile and nimble.
Chong Shi observed from above and saw more clearly. When he ascended, he relied more on sheer limb strength, but Jiang Lingxi, although not as strong in the limbs, knew how to leverage her strength more efficiently. Her pace seemed to have its own method.
Yet before he could figure it out, she was already up.
The words he planned to say, ’Need a hand?’ got swallowed back down.
Jiang Lingxi didn’t even glance at him.
This Chong Shi was full of arrogance, and no matter how competent individuals like him were, she would never send them to the battlefield in her previous life.
"An incompetent general exhausts the army; an arrogant one endangers the entire force."
After surveying the surroundings, she signaled to the people below, "You can all come up now."
Xu Zhao replied and first sent up his team members, planning to come along with Yun Yi.
Huzi and Changning understood each other well and stayed behind.
Seeing Jiang Lingxi’s people climbing the Echoing Sand Eye successively, Yin Chong also didn’t intend to delay, ordering his men to climb from the other side.
For a moment, the slope was filled with people swiftly climbing up.
Yun Yi originally thought his skills were adequate and, having climbed once already, presumed he could do so more quickly.
But in reality, he was heavily struck down!
If Xu Zhao hadn’t given him a hand a few times, he would have been the first to start and the last to finish climbing.
When it came to Lian Lian and Li Yan, the two were hauled up by rope tied to them by those who had already climbed up.
After the last person ascended, Yin Chong looked down at his wristwatch.
Glancing up, he noticed Jiang Lingxi was gazing at the sky.
He instinctively looked up as well.
At once, his eyebrows couldn’t help but twitch.
The desert’s weather had been excellent for days, with the bright and conspicuous moon hanging high at night.
But at the moment, the moon’s edges, usually clear, seemed to have become slightly blurred.
Moreover, as time passed, this blurring seemed to be intensifying.
Minute by minute, second by second passed, and suddenly, from the edge of the Echoing Sand Eye came a shout, "Wind! It seems there’s wind; I just felt it!"
"Really, or just imagination? My hair hasn’t moved at all."
Without waiting for others to verify, someone else with a small wind indicator attached to their backpack saw it move slightly.
It made a crisp ringing sound.
Those standing around instantly stepped back a little, fearing they’d interfere with the gadget’s motion.
After the wind indicator finished a rotation, everyone truly felt the wind.
Though gentle, it was unmistakably rising.
Yin Chong glanced at his watch again.
Precisely at the hour of the Rat.
Looking at Jiang Lingxi again, his glance was layered with complexity.
Even Chong Shi had become silent.
Who could have imagined the wind would actually come, and perfectly in sync with Jiang Lingxi’s prediction?
At this point, Jiang Lingxi was finally certain: whoever designed this entrance, if not a Mage, must have been akin to a State Preceptor, and they must have hailed from the Central Plains. This content belongs to novel·fire.net
Only such individuals could so adeptly manipulate the twelve earthly branches and twenty-four solar terms.
The Mages next to her, having long abandoned their ancestors’ traditions, were indeed useless!
Grumbling aside, the task at hand was urgent.
As the sand resonated with the wind, turning the Echoing Sand Eye into a true one, the anomaly occurred almost simultaneously.
At the very center, presumably the location of the pupil, appeared a small wind whirl.
Initially inconspicuous, it soon grew significantly larger, stirring up the sand below to swirl along.
The person standing right above the whirl sensed something amiss and looked down, seeing their feet buried in sand, then in a blink, the knees, thighs...
By the time others noticed the anomaly and looked towards him, only his head was visible.
Before being completely engulfed by the sand, he mustered all his strength to shout, "Quicksand!"
Instantly, everyone’s attention shifted towards him.
Only then did they realize that the quicksand had quietly formed long ago.
The edge’s sand had just begun to stir, and the center had already started devouring people!
Jiang Lingxi called out sternly, "Huzi."
Huzi, mentioned by name, stepped forward without the slightest hesitation, walking towards the center.
Within seconds, devoured.
Only then did Yun Yi witness in person someone being swallowed by quicksand, unable to hold in a gasp.
Changning looked down at the arm Yun Yi unconsciously gripped, showed disdain for a second, then said, "You’re coming with me later."
If their landing spots upon entering were random, it would save her the effort of specifically finding someone.
Yun Yi quickly nodded.
The scene unfolding seemed like making dumplings.
Following the frequency of two people from the Changcang Sect entering for every one from Jiang Lingxi’s side, except Changning taking Yun Yi with her when she went down and Luan Hua grabbing the rope still tied around Lian Lian and Li Yan on his way down, the rest adhered strictly to this pattern.
Ensuring no one dared play tricks.
Soon, only Jiang Lingxi and Yin Chong remained standing at the ’eye socket’ area.
The current wind could already blow clothes into fluttering motions, and the fully-formed quicksand could swallow one person in two to three seconds.
Faster than the speed of climbing the slope earlier.
Jiang Lingxi glanced at Yin Chong, who deliberately asked her, and with a quick adjustment of her backpack, she leaped forward.
Her figure was instantly consumed by the quicksand.
Observing this, Yin Chong squinted slightly, took another glance at the moon at the edge that was gradually becoming clear again, and jumped.