Chapter 303 - Spirit Core
The Jackal Demons’ blood seeped into the sand, turning it black.
After such a gruesome slaughter, the Desert Demon finally noticed them. Amid the strewn corpses, a massive figure of sand began to take shape. It towered ten meters tall, bore a human-like body, had the head of a jackal, and gripped a long lance. Its gaze swept across the battlefield and took in the scattered Jackal Demons’ corpses. Rage ignited within it, and without warning, it lunged at Han Wu, snapping its jaw to bite him.
Han Wu used Examine on the Desert Demon and froze in surprise. The demon was not a true being but a cloud of sand manipulated into shape. Frowning, he sliced it clean in half. The body disintegrated into grains and scattered across the desert, yet in moments, the sand converged once more. The undying Desert Demon struck again.
Han Wu cursed under his breath. This was no ordinary enemy. The Desert Demon had no true form and could not die. Its power emanated from the surrounding sand. To defeat it, he would need an ocean’s worth of water to flood the desert. Sadly, he couldn’t do it with his current power.
Han Wu launched a wind blade and sliced the Desert Demon in half again. The sand scattered, but this time it reformed into 100 identical clones. They attacked in unison but only managed to scratch Han Wu’s skin open.
Nevertheless, the sheer number of attackers made it impossible to endure a constant assault. He took to the air, but the Desert Demon refused to let him escape. It controlled the sand and formed a 1,000-meter-tall humanoid jackal that charged after him.
At the same time, a massive sandstorm erupted across the desert. The storm lashed Han Wu with relentless force, blinding him and striking him with gusts of sand. Helpless in midair, he had no choice but to land and brace for the massive Desert Demon’s attack.
Only then did Han Wu realize he had walked into a trap. If he could not find an escape, he would die. The key lay in locating the Desert Demon’s true body; only by destroying it could the clones and sandstorm be neutralized.
He continued to endure the sandstorm and used Detection. Everything within a hundred-kilometer radius unfolded before him, yet the Desert Demon remained elusive.
Han Wu started panicking. He knew the sandstorm and the massive sand clone were controlled by the Desert Demon, which meant it had to be close. But where? He could not locate it at all.
His thoughts raced until Xun offered a suggestion. “Master, have you noticed the sandstorm is blowing from a single direction? Maybe the Desert Demon is in the opposite direction.”
Han Wu nodded and pressed forward against the wind, aiming for the opposite end. Along the way, he had to constantly turn to cut down the massive sand clone before it could strike.
At last, Han Wu traced the storm to its source. He scanned every grain of sand with Detection, yet the Desert Demon’s presence still eluded him.
Doubt crept in. “Did it run away?”
Xun shared his unease. “Such misfortune. Why can’t we find it?”
Neither could hope to escape the desert if they failed to find the Desert Demon. If the sand clones pursued them endlessly, their death would be inevitable.
Then Xun’s Demon Sniffer picked up a peculiar scent. It reeked of rot and carried a mummified undertone—the unmistakable odor of a malevolent demon.
Xun relayed the discovery. Han Wu wasted no time and dug where Xun indicated. His Dragon Claws tore through the sand with the force of an excavator. He unearthed massive amounts of sand, revealing a hidden underground tunnel.
Han Wu scoffed. “So this is where you’ve been hiding. No wonder you were so hard to find.”
He leaped into the tunnel, and finally, Detection worked as intended. He discovered that the tunnel led to a sprawling labyrinth. The Desert Demon lay hidden deep within its innermost chambers.
“You can’t escape!” Han Wu howled as he navigated the labyrinth with ease, guided by Detection and Xun’s Demon Sniffer.
Not long after, they discovered the Desert Demon’s true form. Han Wu blinked in surprise. It looked nothing like the sand clones he had faced above ground. It stood just 1.5 meters tall, skinny and unassuming. Without the immense well of power radiating from it, he would never have believed this was the Desert Demon.
Panic flared in the Desert Demon’s eyes as it realized it had been found. It quickly regained its composure and manipulated the sand within the labyrinth to strike at him.
Han Wu had grown tired of the sand. He understood exactly what the Desert Demon intended and unleashed a blast with the Bull King Horns’ Horn Cannon.
The Bull King Horns had been enhanced only to Stage 7, yet the influence of his Crystal Marrow elevated their strength to rival Stage 9 Purple body parts. The blast sent the Desert Demon flying.
It scrambled to retaliate with more sand, but Han Wu moved faster. With a flash of Tiger Step, he lunged forward like a striking arrow, slicing clean through the Desert Demon’s neck with his Soul Shavers.
The mighty Desert Demon, ruler of the sprawling desert and slayer of countless demons, fell today.
Han Wu claimed 10 million Demonic Origin and collected the enhanceable body parts the Desert Demon had left behind. He examined them and realized some were compatible with him.
[Spirit Core (Red, Stage 9; Traits: Control, Malleable, Spirit Sand)]
The Red body part showed an 80% compatibility with him, meaning he could unleash its full power once grafted. He proceeded and embedded the Spirit Core in the center of his Epistian Brain.
The Epistian Brain’s energy-charging ability amplified the Spirit Core’s output, granting Han Wu control over hundreds of humanoid Jackal Demon sand clones within a 100-kilometer radius.
With this newfound power, he launched relentless assaults against every demon he encountered, annihilating them through his immortal sand clone squad. Summoning and controlling them required only a fraction of his mental strength.
Disguised as the Desert Demon, he methodically wiped out every demon in the desert, including four wandering Demon Lords.
Each kill yielded vast amounts of Demonic Origin. By the time he checked his interface again, he had amassed nearly 20 million Demonic Origin. Without hesitation, he invested it to enhance his Dark Locust Stomach from Stage 7 at 90% to Stage 9.