Chapter 19 The Sandstorm's Rage

In a brief three seconds, dozens of full, crescent-shaped beams of light scattered erratically, bombarding the scorpion swarm like a rain of flowers.

Under the dual assault of Poker and Lanjiao, the scorpion swarm suffered heavy casualties, the vast majority already deprived of their fighting ability.

Feng Bujue secretly breathed a sigh of relief at the effectiveness of the attack. To be honest, he was worried that the monsters might be strong enough to withstand AoE damage. But judging from the actual situation... Normal difficulty was just that, normal difficulty. Even with a powerful "Main Universe Boss" as a backer, the monsters in this script weren't that strong.

"Is that all there is..." While landing, Jue-Ge didn't forget to squeeze in a [Baseball Fist] and say, "I thought they'd be tougher..."

"Yeah... much weaker than expected..." Xiao Ling echoed from behind, "There wasn't even any need to cover..."

"Arrogant humans..." Seeing that the scorpions he released posed no real threat, Dian Henghuang felt a tinge of humiliation turning to anger. His childish voice (due to being parasitized in the script Boss' body, he could only use this voice for now) quickly rang out again, "You think you're something just because you got rid of a few bugs... The real terror has only just begun!"

Before his voice faded, a sand dune in front of the players exploded with a bang.

They had expected some kind of giant beast to burst out from the sand, but... what appeared was a tiny black shadow.

As it drew closer, the players could see clearly—it was a human figure.

This "person" was only about five feet tall, and from the outside, he looked like a regular, even "feeble" zombie... His face was devoid of color, his skin was ulcerated, and he moved slowly... One felt that all it would take was a blunt weapon to the head... and he'd be dealt with.

However, Feng Bujue could see... this monster was no ordinary foe.

"Oh... this one is pretty tough..." The moment it appeared, Jue-Ge observed it through the data perspective, and immediately thought, "Judging by its stats, it's about as strong as 'Daddy' was..."

"What's this? Is this a joke..." Buu, on the other hand, was completely oblivious; in his eyes, the monster in front was pathetically weak.

"Even I could easily take care of a monster like that," Oub echoed confidently.

"Hmph... you're all too naive." Feng Bujue snorted coldly, and turned his head to say to the two, "Don't be fooled by appearances, have you forgotten Frieza by the Daming Lake?"

"Rather than Daming Lake, you mean Namek..." Xiao Tan couldn't help but retort, "Seriously, is there really any comparison..."

"Uh—" Just as they were talking, the monster let out a low moan and... charged.

"Anyway... I'll handle this guy." Xiao Tan said, and launched the [Draw a Cross and Curse You] at the monster, and rushed forward with his military dagger.

"Careful! This guy's attack power..." By the time Feng Bujue gave the warning, Xiao Tan had already charged in.

In the next second, the monster raised its forearm and swung down at Xiao Tan.

Wang Tanzhi's movement skills were superb, and he naturally wouldn't be hit by such an attack easily; with only a slight adjustment, he dodged the attack without disrupting his own stance, and struck the monster's neck.

The [Charged Bayonet] was fully charged at this time, dealing 200% attack power with a single slash, plus a 10% damage bonus from the curse skill, making its power almost equivalent to an active skill.

Xiao Tan had thought... this one exchange would kill the target, but the development of events... was far beyond his expectations.

First of all, his military dagger did strike the monster's neck, but the monster... only suffered a slight scratch.

Yes, a seemingly weak zombie, struck in the neck by a fine-quality, rechargeable weapon... only got a scratch.

Secondly, the monster's swing, although it missed Xiao Tan, slammed solidly into the sand.

And the result of this slap was... a huge pit with a radius of more than ten meters was blasted out of the sand; a shockwave like a missile explosion... kicked up layers of sand, forcing all the players back a few steps. And the worst hit was naturally Xiao Tan... because he was close, he was shaken to the core by the invisible shockwave, seeing stars, and sent flying...

"I'll be back!" Xiao Tan, flying into the sky, inexplicably uttered this line.

But he didn't turn into a star and disappear into the sky, because...

"Come back my foot!" Xiao Ling jumped into the air and grabbed Xiao Tan's waist, pulling him down, "You idiot!"

"How was I supposed to know that a zombie that looks like a weakling would be so strong..." Xiao Tan retorted aggrievedly.

"Tch... I told you... don't be fooled by appearances..." At this time, Feng Bujue, who had regained his footing, spat out the sand in his mouth and said, "This monster's basic form and speed are the same as ordinary zombies, but its attack power and defense are ridiculously high, much higher than those scorpions from before..."

"What do we do then..." Xiao Tan landed (since it was on the sand, falling from a height didn't cause any damage), and immediately continued, "Do we have to use a skill like the [Makankosappo] on this kind of monster?"

"No... I have a very simple solution..." Feng Bujue's expression changed slightly, "That is..."

…………

Five minutes later, the players successfully arrived at the "next story trigger location" mentioned by Zhuan Jiezun – in front of an oval stone building.

They... oh, right, as for that monster just now, the solution Jue-Ge came up with was—go around it and ignore it.

Facts have proved... it was very effective.

"Feng Bujue! I advise you to stop immediately, or you will regret it!" Dian Henghuang's voice came from the air again, and from his tone, it could be heard that... he was getting anxious, "I will let you die without a burial..."

"Bury your [Bleep]!" Jue-Ge interrupted the other party with another curse word, "You still dare to mention a burial place to me? Since entering the script, I've been looking for your corpse, do you even have one? If you have the ability, come donate your organs, get cremated, and scatter your ashes at sea!" He shouted up, "Try and say another word to me? Do you believe I'll eat your corpse like a midnight snack?"

For some reason, after this burst of cursing, Dian Henghuang really stopped talking...

"Uh... Jue-laoshi, eating corpses or something... you're just saying that, right?" After a long silence, Buu looked askance at Jue-Ge and asked tremulously.

"Heh..." Feng Bujue smiled without saying a word, and then walked towards the stone building in front of him.

The shape of this building was like half an American football, more than ten meters high and about five meters wide; its whole structure was made of white stone, the surface of the stone was uneven and covered with rough horizontal patterns; and on the shaded side of the building, there were three black holes lined up, each two meters high and half a meter wide...

"Yes, it's there! That's the entrance to the pirate treasure passage!" At this time, Zhuan Jiezun's voice rang out again, "The bones parasitized by Dian Henghuang are in..."

Suddenly, his words stopped abruptly, like a disconnected phone, there was no sound at all.

"Hey! Zun-ge?" Feng Bujue shouted at the sky, "What's wrong? Speak up! Where are you? Which of these three is the entrance?"

"Uh... could it be that Zun-ge is using 'wei wei cao (i.e. PHS)'?" Xiao Tan continued.

The five teammates did not respond to the old joke used by Xiao Tan...

They waited like this for two minutes, and Zhuan Jiezun's voice never sounded again. It seemed that they could only find a way to identify the entrance themselves.

"What should we do? Should we split up?" Xiao Ling put forward a constructive suggestion.

"Or... we can leave a few people outside, and let one or two people go down to scout the way first." Buu also came up with a solution.

"No need for so much trouble." Feng Bujue, however, directly rejected their suggestions with a confident tone, "Leave it to me."

"What are you going to do?" Ruo Yu looked at Jue-Ge suspiciously.

"Heh..." Feng Bujue smiled smugly, "I want to..." He squatted down and grabbed a handful of sand, "...tell a fortune."

"Well... if we split up, it's better to go in groups of two."

"We can also leave three people above, and let the other three go down from the three entrances respectively..."

After Jue-Ge said his plan, his teammates ignored him like air and continued to discuss the topic just now...

"Hey! What does that mean!" Feng Bujue shouted, "Are you ignoring me!"

"Jue-laoshi... we're talking about serious business here, let's just forget about the jokes..." Oub turned his head and replied.

"Who's joking?" Feng Bujue replied with a displeased expression, "I'm going to tell a fortune..." Saying that, he walked to the front of the three holes and stretched out his right arm flat, "Watch closely..."

Whoosh—

Feng Bujue let go of his hand, and the handful of sand in his hand floated out with the wind, towards the rightmost of the three holes.

"Okay, I'm done calculating." Jue-Ge was telling the truth, just when he was scattering the sand, he had activated [Prophet] and asked in his heart, "Which is the real entrance."

"What's wrong? Why are you all looking at me?" Seeing that his teammates had no reaction, Feng Bujue continued, "Is there a problem?"

"Yes, there is." Xiao Ling replied, "First of all... it's ridiculous to decide the next course of action by 'telling a fortune'." She counted on her fingers and said, "Secondly... if you can really figure something out, then that's fine, but what was that just now... It's not convincing at all, okay?"

Xiao Tan also chimed in from the side (Shanghai dialect, meaning similar to "shill" in Northern dialect): "Yeah... Jue-Ge, even if you put on a show or read a character or something... didn't you use this trick to scam a lot of people when you were in high school..."

"This is a skill! A skill!" Feng Bujue roared, "Stop talking nonsense! Follow me down!" He was too lazy to explain, turned around and drilled into the entrance, acting like "come if you want."

Looking at the hole that Jue-Ge had entered, the five people looked at each other. After a moment, Ruo Yu was the first to say, "I believe him." After saying that, she also jumped into the grotto.

Seeing her cousin go down, Xiao Ling helplessly said, "Alright... let's go, maybe the captain is really a genius."

So, Xiao Ling, Xiao Tan, Buu and Oub also followed in one after another...

…………

At the same time, Chaotic Scorched Earth, Magic City.

"Lord, Oink has delivered the ***-762." Priest Taliom knelt on one knee, prostrating himself before the Demon King's throne and said.

"Where did he go?" The leader of the demons propped his cheek with one hand, and the lazy posture also revealed unparalleled majesty and pressure, "Why are you reporting to me?"

"Hehe... that pig-head... seems to be afraid of seeing the Demon Chief again. After delivering the thing, he left me a message and ran away." Taliom replied with a smile.

"Hmph... a baffling piece of trash." The leader of the demons closed several eyes on his face at the same time, and sighed, "Could it be that in his eyes... this king is a murderous madman?" He tilted his head slightly, "He doesn't even have the courage to come here and receive his reward?"

"Not at all..." Taliom continued in his usual, cold tone, "Our king's demonic energy is at its peak. A person like Oink, who is entangled in baleful aura, will instinctively feel a bit of fear once he gets close... there is nothing he can do about it."

"Demonic energy at its peak... is it..." The leader of the demons put down his hand, straightened his upper body, and his eyes changed slightly, "Hmph... Taliom... before seeing the power of 'that guy', your flattery just sounded 'boring', but now..." A trace of murderous intent flashed in his eyes, "...your words sound more like 'irony'..."

"This humble one dares not!" Taliom quickly exclaimed, changing from kneeling on one knee to prostrating on all fours, not daring to raise his head again.

The slight murderous intent just now had already made Taliom's whole body tremble like chaff. Because he understood... these days, the Demon Chief was in a bad mood (I know what you're thinking, so I want to interject, the reason for the bad mood is not his period). And when the Demon Chief was in a bad mood, he liked to kill people at will... even Priest Taliom, the curse priest above all demons under one demon, could be killed for a slip of the tongue...

"You don't have to be afraid, I won't kill you." After a brief silence, the leader of the demons spoke again, "I won't kill anyone indiscriminately anymore..."

Hearing this, Taliom slowly raised his head and said, "Lord... what are you..."

"I... am no longer the me of the past, Taliom." The leader of the demons continued, "Perhaps... Dian Henghuang's departure from the 'Gate of Emptiness'... is a choice of fate." He paused, his eyes becoming distant and melancholy, "I once said that if I could meet a 'demon' stronger than me, I would submit to him... Heh..."

The Demon Chief actually smiled, and it was a wry smile.

This may be the first time since his birth... that he showed such a smile.

"...Now, I have seen such an existence." He continued, "Even if we put Dian Henghuang into the ***-762, what about reshaping the seal of the Gate of Emptiness?" He shook his head and said, "My 'mind' has changed, because I know... inside that door, there is an existence stronger than me..."