Chapter 115: Surrounded

Chapter 115: Surrounded An hour later, the Golden Sand Society group set off again, following a specific route deeper into the desert. Along the way, they mostly ran into small wild beasts or insects. These were easily dealt with and posed no real danger. Purple Vortex followed them from a distance. To avoid being spotted, it stayed far enough away that even with the Alchemical Telescope, they looked like tiny black dots. Meanwhile, Carlos flew high in the sky as a backup plan. ... After traveling like this for two days, the previously sparse white poplar trees suddenly became dense and towering. "Stay sharp!" Seeing this unusual change, Delya instinctively felt something might go wrong. With a wave of his hand, one of the Concealers in the group nodded and carefully moved forward along the shadows of the white poplar trees to scout ahead. The moment he stepped into the dense tree area, a sand lizard hiding behind a white poplar suddenly attacked. It bit down on the Concealer’s head in one gulp. "Ah!" "Crunch!" The sand lizard’s bite force was incredible. It clamped down hard and easily crushed the Concealer’s skull, then swallowed it whole. Disgusting brain matter dripped down, making everyone’s skin crawl! "You beast!" Seeing his subordinate die horribly, Kitz flew into a rage. "Bone Spear!" Several sharp bone spears shot out. "Whoosh!" they went, piercing through. The sand lizard was pinned to the white poplar tree, letting out strange roars toward the sky. "Roar!" Its body twisted, struggling in agony. The next second, another bone spear struck. "Bang!" The sand lizard’s head was pierced through. It twitched a few times and went still. "Sigh, bury the body properly." Delya let out a light sigh. This Concealer had died such a frustrating death. The Concealer had planned to use the shadows to hide his body, but no one expected a sneaky sand lizard to be lurking behind the white poplar tree. Instead of hiding successfully, he ended up losing his life to the sand lizard. Leaving one person to bury their companion’s body, the rest continued forward. Along the way, they began facing constant attacks from large fierce beasts. After losing three more people, they finally reached their destination: An area of broken ruins deep in the White Poplar Desert. Their tense nerves relaxed slightly as they couldn’t help but let out excited voices: "This is it! The treasure is here!" ... High in the sky, Carlos used his backup Alchemical Telescope to look down, barely able to make out some details of these architectural ruins. "This is the style of the Age of Swords!" Carlos could tell at a glance that these buildings were remnants from the Age of Swords. He quickly focused his attention to look more carefully... Suddenly, on some fallen stone walls, he discovered a blurry family crest. Though blurry, there was still a general outline. This was enough to compare with the various family crests in his memory. After comparing for a while, Carlos’s face lit up with joy: "It’s actually the crest of the Silver Thornblade family, one of the twelve families from the Age of Swords!" His heart immediately surged with excitement. Then he remembered something else. In later times, after the Golden Sand Society was destroyed, a Silver Thornblade clan sword had flowed out from their treasury. "Could it be that the Golden Sand Society discovered a Silver Thornblade clan sword here?" Carlos perked up. He wanted to watch carefully to see how these people found the Silver Thornblade clan sword. Even if there was only one, it was enough for Carlos to take seriously. ... "Are you sure this is the place, Delya?" Tammy flicked her nails, asking with some doubt. These ancient buildings had been eroded by wind until their original appearance was barely visible—broken ruins everywhere. It looked like it had been through some disaster. No matter how you looked at it, it didn’t seem like a place that would have treasure. "This is the address the president gave us." Delya was also visiting here for the first time, so he wasn’t entirely certain either. Kitz walked up to a collapsed stone wall, bent down to observe, his voice somewhat fervent: "No mistake, this is definitely the place. Look at these marks—this is architecture from at least two eras ago. And look at this... this crest matches almost exactly what the president described. Also..." "What do we do next?" Tammy was extremely impatient and directly cut off Kitz’s long-winded explanation. After so many days, all she wanted now was to finish the mission quickly and get out of this crappy place. Kitz was immediately cut off. He walked around among these architectural ruins, occasionally crouching down to listen, finally stopping at a certain spot. "Next... we need to dig down at this location... The treasure’s entrance is most likely below." "Dig! What are you all standing around for!" Hearing Kitz’s words, Tammy immediately urged the subordinates to get moving. "Right away! Right away!" The subordinates didn’t dare slack off. They quickly took out digging tools and started swinging pickaxes and hammers, beginning the excavation work... High in the sky, Carlos watched quietly without any intention of stepping in. "I’ll wait until they dig out that Silver Thornblade clan sword, then make my move." "Huh? What’s that?" Suddenly, a group of sand lizards entered Carlos’s field of vision. They were quietly surrounding the Golden Sand Society group from all directions. Because the encirclement was quite large, the Golden Sand Society members hadn’t noticed anything unusual and were still digging... Rustle! A barely perceptible rustling sound quietly started. The three mid-tier Psionics in the Golden Sand Society suddenly raised their heads. They all sensed danger at the same time—something was approaching in large numbers from all around. Subtle rustling sounds came from all directions, growing louder and louder. One sand lizard after another flicked their tongues as they emerged from all sides! "Oh no! It’s a sand lizard pack!" "Quick! Form defensive positions!" Everyone’s faces went white. Before their eyes, sand lizards were everywhere! Packed tight, with new sand lizards constantly emerging. Even more terrifying, among the sand lizard pack were quite a few elite sand lizards twice the normal size. "Roar!" Before the Golden Sand Society members could prepare properly, the sand lizards opened their bloody maws and pounced. Foul-smelling saliva containing terrible toxins splattered everywhere. The black-robed figures closest to the sand lizard pack were instantly overwhelmed. They let out terrible screams as the sand lizards literally tore them apart. After a few moments, only a pool of blood remained, recording the horror that had just occurred. The bloody smell spread, immediately sending the sand lizard pack into a vicious frenzy as they bit toward everyone. "Defend! Defend!" "Watch out for bites!" "Quick! Kill them!" "..." Psionic energy erupted and various spirit techniques activated. For a moment, the Golden Sand Society members held the sand lizard pack at bay. Especially the three mid-tier Psionics—each of their attacks could take out several sand lizards. Both sides reached a stalemate, with sand lizard corpses piling up. The Golden Sand Society members looked grim as death. Though more and more sand lizard corpses lay at their feet, the number of sand lizards attacking them hadn’t decreased at all. Even more troublesome, the difficult elite sand lizards around them were watching like vultures ready to strike. They seemed to be deliberately using ordinary sand lizards to wear down the Golden Sand Society members’ psionic energy and stamina.