The wind and sand had been so fierce that the corpse had been completely buried, no wonder no one had noticed it earlier.
After the group had left, that corpse suddenly stood straight up. Then, it began to stagger after Meng Hai’s caravan. Under the blazing sun, a living corpse was walking! The sight was unspeakably eerie.
It chased the caravan, its body radiating suffocating deathly qi, as if it intended to dig out the hearts, livers, lungs, spleens, and kidneys of Meng Hai and the others. Its expression was twisted with hatred and malice.
Suddenly, a handsome young man appeared, moving so swiftly that afterimages seemed to linger in the air.
Bang! A scorching, forceful palm strike landed. The walking corpse was sent flying, and the pure yang inner force instantly ignited it.
In no time, it was reduced to ash, as though it had never existed. The young man’s expression did not change, as if he had merely swatted a fly.
“Makes sense... In TV dramas, the ghosts and monsters always show up right after the main group leaves. Guess it’s true in real life too.”
With a flicker of movement, the young man vanished into the distance. Meng Hai, riding his camel, was deep in thought. Suddenly, he looked to his side.
“Eh!? Where’s Daoist Master Li?” Panic flickered in his eyes.
A weathered, battle-hardened middle-aged man, and yet he cared so much about another man’s whereabouts.
Li Yanchu rode up from the rear of the caravan. “Mr. Meng, I’m here.”
Meng Hai asked, “Daoist Master Li, where did you just go?”
Li Yanchu replied evenly, “I was thinking something over and unknowingly fell behind the group.”
Meng Hai nodded. “Daoist Master Li, you have to be careful. It’s easy to get lost in the desert, and if you run into something terrifying out there, it could be dangerous.”
Li Yanchu smiled. “Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Meng.”
Then Meng Hai suddenly asked, “Daoist Master Li, what about the deathly qi on me and the others?”
Li Yanchu used his Qi Sight to take a look, and there was no change at all. So the problem didn’t come from the evil corpse?
“Mr. Meng, in situations like yours, it usually means you’ve run into something unclean. Some filth has its eye on you. Find that unclean thing and destroy it, and the problem will be solved.”
Meng Hai thought aloud, “If I just turn back with my goods, will that work?”
Li Yanchu shook his head. “Whether it’s some unclean spirit or an evil practitioner, the issue is that they’ve marked you. It has nothing to do with which road you take.”
Meng Hai nodded. He’d heard plenty of terrifying tales from beyond the Pass, like the one about a group who accidentally entered an ancient city. Even after escaping back to Tianhai Pass, one by one, they all died unnatural deaths.
Just now, he’d let his composure slip a little.
The group continued toward Mount Hengduan. To avoid unnecessary panic and unrest, Meng Hai didn’t tell the others about Li Yanchu’s reading.
For one, he believed it completely. But others might not, and if any of these rough men offended Li Yanchu and drove him away, they’d lose their only Daoist. Then it really would be the end.
The wind and sand were fierce, lashing at their faces like knives.
Liu Fang was miserable. Compared to Li Yanchu, he had only been beyond the Pass a few more times, and he was far too young to endure this kind of weather.
Li Yanchu, with his formidable physique, didn’t feel the slightest discomfort from wind and sand of this level. Still, he quietly activated the Wind Tamer. This mythical magic artifact showed its full power here in the bitter, harsh lands beyond the Pass.
In an instant, the wind and sand vanished completely and abruptly.
“Eh!?” Liu Fang exclaimed in surprise. “This damned weather changes so fast! The sandstorm’s gone in the blink of an eye?!”
Liu Lin was also a bit astonished. Today’s wind had been strange, and there was no gradual weakening at all. It had simply disappeared.
“Maybe a god took pity on us and didn’t want us to suffer the sandstorm,” Liu Lin muttered in awe.
Liu Fang grew excited. “That god’s amazing! If only I could become a god myself!”
Liu Lin shot him an exasperated glare.
“Mr. Meng, there’s a dead camel up ahead!” a rough voice rang out.
Meng Hai’s brows furrowed. Squeezing his legs, he urged his camel forward. Amid the yellow sands, a dozen or so dead camels were half-exposed; the rest clearly buried under the dunes until now.
Three or four were already fully uncovered.
“Did these camels just happen to die here by accident? That’s... too much of a coincidence, isn’t it?”
Meng Hai frowned, his eyes narrowing in thought.
Compared to the corpses of the Que Mu caravan earlier, the sudden appearance of these camels’ bodies felt far stranger, and to a seasoned old hand like Meng Hai, it even seemed... deliberate.
Just then, a burly, broad-shouldered guard stepped up and kicked at one of the dead camels.
Bang! The camel’s corpse suddenly exploded, and blood and flesh flew in every direction.
The guard was right at the center of it. At such force, which was no less than an explosive, a person caught in it would be torn to pieces.
But, the guard, with a sharp waist-knife at his side, was not blown apart, because there was a strong, slender hand resting on his shoulder. He turned his head, and he saw that the hand belonged to a handsome young man.
“D–Daoist Master Li!”
Gasps and cries of shock erupted from the others.
A dead camel suddenly exploding was horrifying enough. It was utterly terrifying! Tʜe sourcᴇ of thɪs content ɪs 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⟡𝕗𝗂𝗋𝖾⟡𝕟𝕖𝕥
That young Daoist had simply reached out with one hand and pulled the man to his side, and the man dodged the explosion in that hair’s-breadth moment of danger.
Who exactly is this Daoist Master Li?
The thought flashed through everyone’s mind.
But before they could think further...
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
One after another, the massive camel corpses exploded, shaking the earth itself. Blood and flesh sprayed in all directions, and the sheer force of it was horrifying.
The corpses exploded, and those who had been standing close to the bodies turned pale. Before they could react, the camel corpses before them suddenly detonated.
And then, it was as if an unseen giant hand reached from behind, yanking them away in the blink of an eye.
When their vision cleared and they looked up, they saw a young man standing in front of them. The rotting chunks of flesh and gore were all stopped by an invisible barrier, rippling outward from the young man as the center.
Not a single one of them was harmed. The survivors, having just escaped death, felt their hearts still racing.
Suddenly, from the spots where the camel corpses had been, a dense mass of poisonous insects began to crawl out. A black, seething swarm rushed out like a tide.
Meng Hai’s face turned ashen. “Run!”
When he was young, he had once seen ants, normally drowned by a puddle of urine, strip a living man to bare bone in an instant. The scene was beyond terrifying. And now, these venomous insects, surging like a black tide, were just as horrifying.
The others bolted, wishing their parents had given them a few extra pairs of legs. It was a nightmare made real.
Only one young man remained utterly still; the very same man who had single-handedly shielded them from the camel explosions.
“Daoist Master Li!” Meng Hai cried out in alarm.
These poisonous insects were not something that could be dealt with just by having high martial skill; no matter how good your skill was, you still had to avoid them head-on.
A crisp, dragon-like cry rang out. Li Yanchu reversed his grip and drew the Jiaoslayer, plunging it straight into the ground.
A surge of domineering, scorching heat erupted like a tide toward the swarm of poisonous insects, shaking the earth.