Chapter 1411: Persistence Pays Off

“Sacred Realm!” Lü Wushuang cried urgently.

Sacred Venerable Wushuang truly lived up to her reputation. Even at a desperate moment, she knew exactly which words were most likely to catch someone’s attention. Even so, she still closed her eyes and waited for death, with no confidence that she could save her own life.

When nothing happened for some time, she slowly opened her eyes again. The blade had already reached the space above her neck, but it had stopped there.

One-armed Yuan Gang stood over her with his saber pointed down, staring without a word. He very much wanted to know what she had to say about the Sacred Realm.

Lü Wushuang knew she had won herself a thread of hope. She hurriedly gathered her thoughts and began with the most important point. “You can check for yourself. My cultivation has already been crippled by this grand formation. My dantian qi sea was destroyed by the heavenly lightning!”

She was telling Yuan Gang that she could no longer threaten him.

Surprise flickered through Yuan Gang’s eyes, but he remained silent. The saber still hovered over her neck.

Lü Wushuang continued, “I know the Sacred Realm extremely well, and I know the other six Sacred Venerables extremely well too. The information and help I can offer are things no one else can give you. If you have any need for that, then you should spare my life! Anything you need that I can give you, treasures included, I’ll give it all to you!”

Yuan Gang fell silent in thought. He did not care about treasures. He was considering something else. Master Dao was currently contending with the seven Sacred Venerables. Would keeping this woman alive be useful to him?

Lü Wushuang stopped talking as well. She knew there was no point saying more now. If even this failed to move him, then she was dead.

Swish! Yuan Gang withdrew his saber and drove it into the sand. Bending down, he reached beneath Lü Wushuang and pulled out the silk ribbons pinned under her body.

Her entire body was almost encased in a charred shell. Lü Wushuang trembled violently from the pain, but she could tell that her words had probably moved him. She simply did not know what he intended to do.

In truth, it was nothing complicated. Yuan Gang had no idea how to check whether her cultivation was truly crippled. He only wanted to tie her up.

Tying someone with one arm was indeed awkward. He had to use his hand, his feet, and even his teeth together.

For Lü Wushuang in her current condition, the process was little different from torture. The pain nearly made her faint. Her charred shell cracked open, and blood seeped out everywhere.

Once she was securely bound, Yuan Gang stood and threw back his head. “Hoh...!” His roar carried into the distance.

Before long, the sand nearby burst apart and a massive creature emerged: an enormous sand scorpion crawling toward them. It stopped in front of the two, breathing out a foul stench.

Yuan Gang grabbed Lü Wushuang and, with one powerful swing of his remaining arm, tossed her onto the sand scorpion’s back.

He then retrieved the Three-Roars Saber from the ground, leapt up onto the scorpion as well, set the saber down, and took the excess silk ribbon. He tied both Lü Wushuang and himself securely to the creature’s back so they would not be thrown off when it burrowed underground.

He had no choice. Unlike Lü Wushuang, he had no spiritual power with which to hold open a space beneath the desert. His injuries had not fully healed, he had only one arm, and he could not carry another person with him. The best he could do was bind them both to the rear portion of the scorpion’s back, where the pressure of the moving sand would be somewhat reduced.

After securing everything, Yuan Gang roared repeatedly. The sand scorpion immediately broke into a run instead of diving straight beneath the sand.

This world was different from the outside. There was no need to worry about anyone seeing such an enormous creature racing openly across the desert.

More importantly, Yuan Gang was worried that Lü Wushuang’s current body would not survive the tremendous underground pressure and lack of air. He therefore had the sand scorpion search from the surface for the location of the passage between the two worlds before burrowing down.

He had originally planned to recover from his injuries in the Fifth Domain before leaving, but Lü Wushuang’s condition made him unwilling to delay.

He still had no way to determine whether her cultivation was truly crippled. If this was merely a delaying tactic and her tremendous cultivation recovered once she had time to rest, he would be in serious trouble. He had to leave as quickly as possible and find Niu Youdao.

The sand scorpion moved quickly over the surface as it searched. It was not long before it locked onto the passage’s location and plunged headfirst beneath the desert.

Sand scraped over them. Lü Wushuang suffered terribly. Yuan Gang rolled over and pressed her beneath him, using his chest to shield her head and doing what he could to bear the tremendous pressure for her.

The sand scorpion soon found the hazy green passage between the two worlds and burrowed straight into it.

After crossing the passage, it immediately began climbing upward, taking the simplest and most direct route back to the other world.

Boom! The surface of the desert burst apart and the Scorpion Emperor emerged, coming to a stop aboveground.

Yuan Gang shook his head hard, scattering the sand clinging to him, and gulped down air. Only after his breathing had steadied did he raise his head and look around. Outside, it was already night. Judging from the position of the moon and stars, he estimated there were roughly four hours left before dawn.

He rolled upright into a kneeling position and checked Lü Wushuang. The charred shell that had covered her legs, where he had not been able to protect her fully during the underground passage, had been scraped away. Bloody sand clung to the exposed flesh. He brushed some of it aside and saw that the skin on both legs was gone, leaving only mangled, blood-soaked flesh.

She showed no response at all, like a corpse. Yuan Gang checked her breath and found none.

He judged that they had not spent very long underground. Given the toughness of Lü Wushuang’s body, there should still be a chance to revive her.

He quickly untied the silk ribbons binding them together, knelt beside her, and repeatedly pressed his palm against the area over her heart while giving her artificial respiration.

With Lü Wushuang looking as ghastly as she did now, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation truly did require some courage.

After quite some time, Lü Wushuang slowly opened her eyes. The instant she realized he was blowing air directly into her mouth, her narrow eyes widened.

Sensing that she had begun breathing again, Yuan Gang lifted his head. Seeing that her eyes were open, he stopped.

Lü Wushuang watched his palm move away from her chest and whispered weakly, “Shameless...”

Yuan Gang explained, “Don’t worry. I had no other intention. Looking like this, you’ve nothing to worry about from me anyway. I don’t know how to use spiritual power, so this was the only way I could save you.”

He picked up the Three-Roars Saber and threw it down to the ground, then lifted Lü Wushuang and jumped down with her.

After laying her flat on the sand, Yuan Gang gave the Scorpion Emperor two more low “hoh, hoh” calls.

The Scorpion Emperor moved away, then plunged headfirst into the sand and disappeared.

Yuan Gang continued calling until another sand scorpion emerged, much smaller than the Scorpion Emperor but still large enough to carry two people.

There was no helping it. The Scorpion Emperor was far too conspicuous. Even at night, using a smaller sand scorpion as transportation was safer.

When he went to pick Lü Wushuang up again, he found that she had stopped responding. He checked her breathing and found it still present. This time, she had genuinely fainted.

Yuan Gang lifted her onto the sand scorpion’s back, looked up at the stars to determine his direction, then gave another series of “hoh, hoh” commands. The sand scorpion adjusted course and raced away.

Throughout the journey, Yuan Gang remained highly alert to everything around them.

Lü Wushuang woke once along the way, though her mind seemed hazy. She asked weakly, “Where... are we?”

Yuan Gang ignored the pointless question and continued scanning their surroundings. He did, however, say casually, “Let’s hope the road stays quiet and we don’t run into any trouble. Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to strike first and kill you.”

It was no empty threat. He could not allow a woman like this to escape. If trouble arose and he could no longer deliver her into Master Dao’s hands, then whatever the cost, he would kill her first.

...

The sun rose and set, then set and rose again.

For days, Niu Youdao remained on the mountaintop, watching the distance and waiting.

Even beneath the blazing midday sun, he did not retreat into the shade. He had not closed his eyes once for several days, maintaining constant watch over the desert before him.

The longer it went on, the deeper the anxiety in his heart became.

From another direction, Yun Ji continued riding a flying mount back and forth above the desert, looking down from high in the sky as she searched.

This was Niu Youdao’s arrangement. He continued guarding the direction leading toward Demon Ridge, while after returning from Nanzhou, Yun Ji watched the direction leading toward Nanzhou as a precaution.

This was not a baseless guess on Niu Youdao’s part. If Yuan Gang managed to escape from Lü Wushuang, there was a very real chance he would go to Nanzhou to give him an explanation. He would certainly want to find Niu Youdao and explain what had happened in person. Some things could not be made clear in a letter. That meant Yuan Gang might well head for Nanzhou.

Niu Youdao had also received word from Sha Rulai. Lü Wushuang had not been seen returning through the entrance to the Sacred Realm.

That was precisely what gave Niu Youdao a glimmer of hope, and why he remained here stubbornly waiting.

If not for the fact that certain matters could not be allowed to alarm too many people, he would gladly have mobilized a huge number of men to watch the entire perimeter of the desert.

But he remained rational. Anxious though he was, he knew such a thing was unrealistic. The perimeter of the desert was far too vast. No number of men could watch all of it, and even their own vigil might be useless. They could not be certain Lü Wushuang was still in the Boundless Desert at all. She might easily have left long ago and simply not returned to the Sacred Realm.

All he could do was act on the sliver of judgment available to him.

The most important thing now was to determine Lü Wushuang’s whereabouts. Only then could he judge whether Yuan Gang was alive or dead. He had already ordered all his eyes and ears elsewhere to stay alert. The moment any trace of Lü Wushuang appeared, they were to report it to him immediately.

Once news of Lü Wushuang arrived, he would abandon this vigil at once and consider how to use her to learn whether Yuan Gang was alive and, if so, where he was.

Fortunately, his basic judgment had not been wrong.

Yun Ji, patrolling high in the sky, noticed something unusual. A black speck seemed to be moving steadily across the desert below.

She immediately guided her flying mount lower. As the distance closed, the shape gradually became clear. It was actually a sand scorpion racing across the ground, with people riding on its back.

Her first thought was Yuan Gang. Aside from him, she had never heard of anyone capable of driving sand scorpions.

She immediately sent the flying mount into a dive. As she neared the ground, she finally saw clearly.

There was no mistake. It really was Monkey.

Persistence had paid off.

Yun Ji was overjoyed. She turned the flying mount to match the sand scorpion’s direction of travel and gradually lowered its altitude until she was flying alongside and slightly above it.

Yuan Gang looked up warily. Yun Ji was wearing a disguise, so he did not recognize her. His hand had already tightened around the hilt of the Three-Roars Saber.

The journey had been smooth all the way. He had not encountered a single person.

That was not mere luck. Boundless Pavilion had been destroyed and had yet to recover its former role as a marketplace for the cultivation world. There were fewer travelers now, so the odds of encountering anyone in the vast desert were naturally much lower.

He had not expected to be spotted now, just as he was about to leave the desert behind.

[End of Chapter 1411]