Chapter 261: Fury

Plans could never keep pace with change. His luck today had been rotten; one unexpected complication had followed another. He had originally thought that, with his ability to move through sand, coming to the meeting alone would leave him plenty of room to maneuver. Who could have imagined he would run into a genuine expert, someone actually capable of burrowing underground to pursue and kill him, forcing him into a desperate flight? Now he had chosen what he believed was a suitable route, only to run straight into trouble again.

He was inside an enormous underground hall, and swarms of sand scorpions had blocked his path. There were so many that they could not be counted, crawling over one another in layers, pincers waving and venomous tails swaying. The sight made his scalp crawl. Even the Moon Butterfly had been frightened into staying high, beating its wings near the ceiling. Buddha statues large and small stood or sat everywhere around him. Some were solemn, some compassionate, others fierce and terrifying.

A Buddhist hall on this scale was probably a relic from the era before the Wu Dynasty, when Buddhism had flourished.

But this Buddhist ruin now seemed to have become a sand scorpion nest. Looking at the creatures large and small, some of the smallest only the size of rabbits and darting all over the floor, Niu Youdao realized he might have accidentally barged into one of their lairs.

With their nest invaded, the sand scorpions immediately grew restless. They began climbing over one another and piling up to block a passage behind the hall, brandishing their pincers in warning. There seemed to be something important back there, something they were trying to keep an intruder from reaching.

At the same time, great numbers of sand scorpions poured from the other entrances, leaping forward to attack. Niu Youdao's first thought was to retreat the way he had come. Then he remembered the assassin who might already be pursuing him from behind. Going back now would practically be delivering himself to death.

His body spun in an instant. The sword in his hand flashed through thrust after thrust, slash after slash. Sword qi crisscrossed the hall, sending severed legs and shattered pieces of sand scorpions flying everywhere. He rushed to one side of the hall and smashed a fist into the wall.

Boom!

Stone cracked and exploded outward, only to reveal a layer of hard-packed earth behind it. There was no way to escape through that the way he could move through sand.

He flipped around and blasted aside another wave of attacking sand scorpions, broke free from the chaos, and shot upward to land on a high stone beam near the roof.

Boom!

Another heavy punch struck the ceiling. Thick stone blocks crashed down, but the structure above had apparently been reinforced with more stone laid in interlocking layers. He had no idea how many layers there were or how thick the whole thing might be.

"Damn it..." Niu Youdao muttered under his breath.

The leaping sand scorpions below could not reach that high, but others began climbing the walls and stone pillars from every direction, trying to surround him from above. The situation gave him no time to slowly break his way out.

Niu Youdao rapidly studied the terrain, then bounded along the beams and returned to a point directly above the corridor through which he had entered. He beckoned the Moon Butterfly over and quickly put it away. The hall plunged into darkness. Large numbers of sand scorpions surged toward this side, blocking the entrance as well, while more began climbing upward.

Niu Youdao shrank silently into the corner where beam met wall. Sensing the sand scorpions rapidly closing in, he prepared to use protective qi to endure their attacks for a while without fighting back. Just then—

Boom!

A thunderous blast shook the hall. A fierce blade of sword qi tore in through the entrance, sending the sand scorpions blocking it flying in all directions. The light of a Moon Butterfly appeared at the opening as well.

The tall, thin man's silhouette rushed inside. Great numbers of sand scorpions immediately leapt at him, while the Moon Butterfly settled on his shoulder. The man moved.

Sword qi churned wildly around him. Severed limbs and shattered sand scorpions burst through the air, drawing even more of the creatures into the attack.

With the tall man attracting the swarm, and with the chaos masking his movements, Niu Youdao dropped from the beam in a flash. He shot through the entrance the tall man had forcibly cleared and sped back along the route by which he had come.

If so many sand scorpions had gathered here, then there had to be some entrance by which they came and went from the desert. But who the hell knew where that entrance was?

More importantly, an assassin was chasing him. He had no time to wander around searching for a way out. With the sand scorpions creating disturbances everywhere he went, avoiding detection would be difficult. If the killer kept hounding him through these passages, it would be far too dangerous. So in that brief moment of crisis, Niu Youdao calmly made his decision. Retracing his route was simpler.

With the experts from the three sects outside to obstruct the assassin, they should be able to buy him enough time to escape. What he needed was precisely the time difference created by himself leaving the hall while the assassin entered it.

The moment he charged back into the corridor, some sand scorpions that had not yet withdrawn from the entrance attacked him.

Inside the hall, the tall man was fending off sand scorpions while coldly searching for Niu Youdao's whereabouts. The instant he heard the disturbance from the corridor, he whipped his head around.

He could not see Niu Youdao, but he immediately understood what had happened. Half angry and half amused, he gave a cold laugh. The target had actually dared play such a trick right beneath his eyes.

It showed just how unhurried, calm, and steady Niu Youdao could remain when trouble struck. That courage truly was beyond ordinary men. Protective force suddenly erupted around the tall man's body and began spinning violently. He stopped entangling himself with the sand scorpions and simply forced his way through.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Every sand scorpion that charged him, or that he struck as he passed, was hurled away. The tall man was already through the entrance and racing urgently down the corridor in pursuit. Niu Youdao sprinted madly through the darkness.

His senses detected the mound of sand ahead where the corridor had collapsed. He blasted it with a palm, sending sand exploding everywhere. Even more loose sand poured in, and he took advantage of the flow to plunge directly into the mound. Almost the instant he burrowed through the opening above, a flash of light swept down the corridor behind him.

The tall man arrived with a Moon Butterfly perched on his shoulder. Amid the flying sand, he hacked out a vicious sword strike first and asked questions later, whether Niu Youdao had already escaped or not. He had no intention of walking into an ambush. The sand mound exploded again.

The tall man seized the Moon Butterfly from his shoulder, stuffed it into the small box he carried, then plunged into the sand and raced after the disturbance of Niu Youdao's escape. He had already understood Niu Youdao's intention in retracing his route. The man wanted his companions outside to intercept the pursuit and buy him time to escape. How could the tall man let him succeed? Violent protective force gathered and spun around his body as he drove himself forward at full speed.

Sensing how quickly the pursuer was gaining, Niu Youdao inwardly groaned. This time he truly had encountered an expert.

A monster!

The instant the tall man came within range, he slashed out with his sword again. There was no room left for restraint. Niu Youdao activated one of the Transmission Protective Talismans within his body and blasted out a palm of red light. The ferocious sword qi and the violent power condensed from Golden Core cultivation crashed together underground.

Boom!

The force of the collision erupted through the surrounding sand. A sweetness rose in Niu Youdao's throat. While using Qiankun Shift to dissolve and redirect the impact, he struck out another palm, releasing a second burst of power from a Transmission Protective Talisman to block the pursuer, then fled as quickly as he could. For the tall man, however, that second palm was nothing short of catastrophic.

The first violent collision had produced exactly the same result as during the earlier underground pursuit: the pocket of space he had opened around himself instantly collapsed. The sudden collapse frightened him again. Alarm flashed through his mind. Just how many Blast Talismans did this bastard have on him? How could he use them so extravagantly? Fortunately, he had already experienced this once and immediately circulated his spiritual power to resist the crushing pressure underground.

But never in his dreams had he expected another violent explosion to come roaring toward him. He had only just braced himself against the enormous pressure when the second strike arrived. His soul nearly flew out of his body. He was trapped in the sand and could not move. There was nowhere to dodge.

He had to withstand the immense pressure of the earth and somehow deal with a killing blow at the same time. With no other choice, he abandoned everything else and poured all his spiritual power into surviving the immediate attack.

Boom!

He managed to block the strike. The impact almost stunned him senseless. Then the enormous surrounding pressure crashed back onto him, nearly squeezing him into meat paste. Only cultivation as formidable as his could have endured it.

His face twisted with pain. His entire body trembled as he exhausted his spiritual power and once again forcibly opened a pocket of space around himself. The moment it formed, sweetness surged into his throat.

"Puh!"

He spat out a mouthful of blood. Then, with everything he had, he forced his way upward. He knew he had already suffered serious injuries. If he did not get out now, he might be buried beneath this desert forever... On the surface, one battle had already ended.

The ten disciples from the three sects had killed two of the three assassins and captured the remaining one alive, though wounded. They too remembered Niu Youdao's order: they needed a live prisoner.

By the time the three cultivators who had dealt with Shopkeeper Pan's side arrived, the fighting was already over. There was no battle left for them to join. Instead, they joined the others in fending off the great numbers of sand scorpions now converging on the area. More and more sand scorpions gathered. The cultivators did not know whether they should leave. Niu Youdao had vanished, and no one knew whether he was alive or dead. If they left now and he suddenly needed their help, what then?

Unable to decide, they could only remain for the time being and keep the swarming sand scorpions at bay while they waited. Suddenly, a muffled explosion came from underground. Then another. The cultivators from the three sects looked at one another, startled and delighted at the same time.

They had no idea what was happening below, but the fact that there was still movement meant Niu Youdao was alive.

Bang!

Not far away, sand exploded upward like rain as a figure burst out of the ground and shot into the sky, his black cloak snapping wildly beneath the moon.

"Niu Youdao..." someone cried in delight.

Several sand scorpions sprang upward and attacked him as he descended. Niu Youdao's sword flashed, severing the stinging tail of one sand scorpion. He planted a foot on its body and used it as a springboard, shooting toward the people from the three sects. Almost at that exact moment, another fountain of sand erupted from the ground. The tall, thin man burst out as well.

"Stop him!" Niu Youdao shouted.

More than ten cultivators from the three sects immediately flew forward to intercept him. The tall man slapped downward in midair, flattening a cluster of sand scorpions charging below, then landed. Blood streamed from the corners of his mouth and dripped steadily to the ground. Seeing a group of Golden Core Realm cultivators rushing toward him, endless grief and fury spread across his face. He suddenly threw both arms wide. His spiritual power erupted with terrifying violence. A vast stretch of desert around him began trembling like a sieve.

"AAAH!"

The tall man flung up his arms and roared toward the sky. Blood poured from his mouth and nose.

Boom!

A huge expanse of sand exploded skyward. Sand and sand scorpions alike were torn apart by the violent power and blasted into the air, swallowing the dozen cultivators charging toward him.

Within the churning storm of sand, the tall man slashed again and again, sending fierce blades of sword qi through the chaos. The sand fell. Shredded sand scorpions rained down with it. The cultivators who had rushed to attack also dropped back to the ground one after another, stumbling as they landed. Two had already been cut cleanly in half by the savage sword qi.

The survivors who had managed to block the violent attack were pale-faced, staring at the tall man holding his sword across his body with terror in their eyes. None of them had imagined he could be so frightening. Niu Youdao, who had been preparing to flee, looked back and froze.

If this many people could not withstand even one strike from him, then what the hell was the point of running? Yet in the next instant, the tall man's body suddenly swayed. Blood trickled freely from his mouth and nose.

Whoosh!

Niu Youdao acted without hesitation. He hurled the sword in his hand. It became a streak of light.

At the same time, his fists and feet lashed out, knocking away the sand scorpions attacking him. The tall man raised his arm and swung his sword to block the incoming streak. But his arm no longer had the strength.

Clang!

His weapon was knocked aside. His weakness was obvious.

Puh!

The streak of light drove into his chest until only the hilt remained visible. A flower of blood burst from his back, along with the gleaming length of the blade.

[End of Chapter 261]