“Zhi are you okay? How about we take a break.”

“No it’s fine Patriarch, this weather isn’t affecting me at all.”

“Right…”

Zhang Zhi’s face was covered in sweat and his usual palace face had turned red from the prolonged sun coverage. They had been wandering through a sandy desert for about a week. There was nothing besides dunes of sand and blistering sun above them. For some reason the sun refused to go down, leaving them at its mercy.

Even when flying through the air at a reasonable pace, they weren’t really getting anywhere. Attempting to get a better view was also not possible as a strange wind kept pushing them down whenever they tried to fly up higher than a kilometer. It was at a level that Zhang Dong couldn’t handle and the higher they attempted to go, the worse it became. It reminded Zhang Dong of the wall between the Emerald Phoenix Empire and the Azure Empire. His body was the strongest here and would still be shredded to pieces if he decided to ignore the warning signs.

It was a good idea to have the core formation experts leave the current expedition team. Some of them would have probably not survived for the weak or some of the nascent soul masters would have had to drain their spirit energy reserves to keep them shielded from the elements here. Zhang Zhi, who was no slouch, was starting to feel the strain as his body was mostly filled out with water Qi which had a hard time in this type of environment.

‘He should be fine for another few days, it would be better if we found some type of shelter before we get there, luckily I have that.’

“Husband, we have been going around for so long are you sure that we aren’t going around in circles?”

Zhang Liena had mostly remained quiet for the weekly trip but now even she was not sure about their location. There weren’t any landmarks to orient themselves on and with a lack of a day and night cycle, there were no stars to orient themselves on. Zhang Dong had assured everyone that he had a way of keeping track of everything but it wasn’t something that he could explain.

“We have not been going along in circles at least, that I can guarantee you. This place is just excessively large.”

Thanks to Bob and his map he was able to keep track of their point of origin. They went in one direction and kept to it but perhaps there was nothing there to wait for them. It could be that this place was just an empty space without anything waiting for them. Perhaps finding the exit was the true test as they had also not encountered any type of living beings.

“If you say so.”

“Are you tired already? It’s just a little desert, the heat isn’t even that bad.”

Huo Qiang was the only person that was enjoying himself. His cultivation was composed of fire Qi and he could even absorb all of this heat to keep himself going. Liena wasn’t fairing badly either as her body-refining skill kept her from being affected by the heat as much. Zhang Dong on the other hand had multiple Dao knowledge and could mostly shrug everything off that was put against him. Even with the three of them passed out he could probably still pull them through this weird area.

“Wait, something is there … ”

“Where?”

“In that direction, did you see the sand move?”

“Now that you say it…”

Finally, after a few more hours of flying in the same direction, something was different. A large space in the distance was shifting around in a strange manner. All the nascent soul masters here also started noticing it after he pointed it out. At first glance, it looked just like regular desert sand but when they looked closely they could see a subtle shift in the environment, there was something below it.

“Well, just to be on the safer side…”

All of them stopped while Zhang Dong pointed out with his finger. Above the spot in the ground, a sphere of electrical energy started forming and expanding at a rapid pace. The thunderous sound was quite loud but it didn’t seem that it was bothering whatever was hiding down there.

“Fine, have it your way then…”

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A giant bolt of lightning descended from the charging sphere and collided with the ground under it. Soon after a rain of lightning bolts ensued and hit with the sandy dunes below. The tremendous heat and energy that was generated quickly started turning everything into crystals. The longer the technique lasted the more of the ground became affected by this crystallization and finally, the creature that was lurking below had enough.

“So it is one of those… Look out for the mouth, it will devour you whole if it has a chance.”

The sand that was turning to glass shifted as a massive worm erupted from under it. The size was tremendous with the thing being at least five hundred meters long and many meters wide. Without a problem, it would be capable of gulping all of them at once. Its whole body was covered by strange slabs of rocks that imitated dragon scales and even while under the effect of his lightning shower, it was able to just take minor damage.

“Finally some action, let me have this one Senior Brother.”

“Be my guest…”

Liena scoffed while flying up as she ignored the massive beast for now. She appeared next to Zhang Dong and Zhang Zhi. The group of three continued to look around the area while Huo Qiang faced the beast alone. The monster was strong but only at the level of an early-stage nascent soul master.

“It might not be alone, stay focused on the sand.”

Just like he expected soon another similarly large creature burst through the ground. It wasn’t the only one as two others were right behind it. Everyone here had one sandworm for themselves and Zhang Dong decided to go for the one that was the largest. Their techniques roared as they could finally unleash all the build-up stress from wandering the empty sand prison for over a week.

First was Huo Qiang who just created a miniaturized version of the sun that ended up down the monster's toothy gullet. While some people might have thought that these creatures were heat resistant, there was a reason why they usually stayed below the sands. The temperature was reasonably low down there so blasting them with fire Qi did the job quite nicely.

Second up was the one that chased after Zhang Dong. With a few well-placed sword slices the monster turned into sashimi. The work couldn’t even roar as it got cut into pieces in a matter of seconds. Zhang Zhi copied his role model by performing his own sword dance in the air, even in his slightly diminished state a worm like this was nothing. Zhang Liena was dead last as she just kept her distance and continued to shred the monster with concentrated wind blades. This didn’t go unnoticed as Huo Qiang used this chance to gloat for being the first.

“Haha, I win, maybe you should spend more time in that cultivation room when we come back?”

“Shut it, damn brute with no brain!”

“Bwahaha.”

Just as per usual, the two started fighting but these four worms were just the tip of the iceberg as the ground burst open. It was clear that the group finally triggered some kind of event and perhaps soon this floor could be cleared.

“There are more of them coming out, get ready!”

“Husband, that’s not all, look!”

Zhang Dong looked at the spot that Liena was pointing at with her fan and noticed that one of the worms that had been cut up, started to reform itself. The one that exploded from being melted by Huo Qiang’s technique was quickly regenerating itself while squiggling around and so were all of them.

“These beasts have powerful regenerative capabilities… there might be a core inside of their bodies!”

They started by fighting four sandworms but they quickly turned to twenty. Luckily the monsters couldn’t fly and only extended their bodies to a certain degree. By dodging all the pounces the group continued blasting and slicing away. However, soon they realized that something was wrong as no beast cores were present inside the destroyed bodies. Even fully burning them didn’t resolve the issue as the monsters continued to come back.

‘Something isn’t right, I should check in with Bob.’

By activating his system window he was given a view over the battlefield from a different point. There he could see some oddities about the monsters they were fighting. One of them was that these worms didn’t seem to have an end. Their bodies never fully left the sandy desert below as if they were connected to something below.

“I see…”

“Did you find something?”

“Yes, give me a moment, I’ll force it out. Just keep them from attacking me.”

“No problem!”

Huo Qiang smacked his fists together while increasing the heat. Zhang Dong floated closer to the central point where the monsters were coming out. A purple haze surrounded his body and was then transferred down to the ground. Soon the sand particles started rising up as he reversed gravity and made everything lighter.

The monstrous worms didn’t like that they were being dragged out of their sandy environment and tossed themselves at the man responsible. Before they could reach him they were blasted away by the three other people that were with him. Even as they continued they were unable to do anything about being pulled into the air.

“That is…”

Zhang Liena covered her mouth while looking at what Zhang Dong pulled out from the earth. Their true enemy wasn’t the worms but the thing that they were all connected to. It was a giant-looking leech monster with around a hundred sandworms sticking out of its upper side and connected to its obsidian-looking body. It was truly tremendous and not something that he could keep in the air for too long.

“I’ll keep it in place, you have to destroy the real body before it goes underground!”

“Hah, so it was this ugly thing!”

“I will fulfill my duty, Patriarch.”

“Such a disgusting thing…”

The three nascent soul masters didn’t need to be asked twice before they utilized their most powerful techniques. Red, Blue, and green energy flew through the air and ground the monster into a paste. The monster’s whales shook the space around this desert area but it was still unable to free itself. The gigantic body was nothing but a training dummy for these three nascent soul masters and soon the sand below was drenched in the creature's black blood…