NOVGO.NET Chapter 234: Courting Death
Chapter 234: Courting Death
The Void Sandworms surged toward the squad like a living tidal wave. In an instant, screams filled the air as the team was torn apart.
Void Sandworms didn’t have complex abilities, but what made them terrifying was their pack behavior. While the team had previously worked together to take down a Void Hunter, that had already pushed them to their limits.
Now facing over a dozen elite-level Void creatures, they were completely outmatched.
“Form up—battle formation!” Zhao Tong bellowed. He knew they had no chance in a head-on clash, but fleeing would only result in faster death.
Here in the Void, Void Sandworms were lightning-fast. Their only hope lay in forming a defensive stance and praying that another squad of human professionals—or even better, a military patrol—might detect them.
But that hope was painfully thin.
They were far from the Void Edge, deep into dangerous territory. The odds of rescue were virtually nonexistent.
Screams echoed around them. In just a few short minutes, more than half the team had been wiped out. Blood soaked the battlefield, and the stench of death filled the air.
Worse still, that scent attracted other Void creatures.
Despair gripped every survivor. Just moments ago, they had been laughing, dreaming of returning to the human world. Now, they faced annihilation.
Zhou Ruo was already paralyzed with fear.
This was the first time she truly saw the cruelty of the Void. Until now, she had thought it was all exaggerated—she’d treated Void monsters as little more than walking loot. Even elite creatures had seemed like easy prey.
She’d even begun fantasizing about someday slaying a Void General, becoming famous across the world.
But now, with the sudden appearance of these Void Sandworms, all her illusions were shattered. Reality had come crashing down, brutal and merciless.
“Watch out!” As Zhou Ruo froze, a massive sandworm burst from behind a dead star and lunged toward her.
Without hesitation, Wang Hao threw himself at her, shoving her out of the way.
The next instant, the sandworm swallowed him whole, its jagged teeth tearing through his body in silence. There wasn’t even time for him to scream—he was dead in a blink.
Zhou Ruo collapsed to her knees, stunned. She stared at the mangled remains of her boyfriend, her mind unable to process it.
Just moments ago, they’d been talking about the future. Now… now they were separated by death.
She broke. Screaming, weeping, soul-shattered, she clung to the bloodied ground, as if trying to bring Wang Hao back by sheer will alone.
Then—suddenly—a soft chuckle rang out through the chaos.
“A dozen Void Sandworms… not bad.”
Zhou Ruo looked up, dazed, and saw a figure stepping calmly out from the shadows of the Void.
A youth, devastatingly handsome, with an aura so refined it made the carnage seem like theater.
His expression didn’t waver—his eyes didn’t even linger on the corpses. Instead, they seemed almost… intrigued by the sandworms.
The stranger’s presence instantly drew the attention of the Void creatures. The sandworms hissed, their eyeless heads snapping toward him in unison as they charged.
But the young man—Qin Xian—remained motionless.
A moment later, terrifying divine radiance burst from his body. Countless blades of sacred light surged into the sky like a holy storm.
To Zhou Ruo and Zhao Tong, the terrifying Void Sandworms were slaughtered like vegetables at market, effortlessly sliced apart.
Seconds later, they were gone.
Qin Xian lowered his hand.
He had been traveling alone, cutting through the Void and hunting elite-class monsters as he moved toward his rendezvous point with the First Sovereign Court.
In just a few days, he had already slain over a hundred elite Void beasts and gained 1,500 attribute points through God-Slayer Growth.
And now, this sudden appearance of sandworms was an unexpected bonus.
Of the squad that had once numbered over ten, only Zhao Tong and Zhou Ruo survived.
Even for someone as experienced as Zhao Tong, the whiplash between death and salvation made his head spin.
He stumbled forward, bowing deeply toward Qin Xian, “Thank you, my lord, for saving our lives.”
Looking at the young man who had appeared alone in the Void and slain monsters that took squads to kill, Zhao Tong had only one conclusion—a supreme prodigy. Only someone of that level would dare venture solo into the heart of the abyss.
Zhou Ruo stared blankly at the scene. But there was no joy in her heart. No sense of survival. Only one thing echoed in her soul: ten seconds.
If he had arrived just ten seconds earlier, none of this would’ve happened. Wang Hao would still be alive.
Just ten seconds.
In normal life, ten seconds meant nothing—a breath, a blink. But right now, it was the cruel, unbridgeable gap between life and death.
Grief, guilt, and sorrow twisted within her until it birthed something else:
Hatred.
Why?
Why didn’t he arrive ten seconds earlier?
Zhou Ruo’s tear-streaked face twisted as she screamed at Qin Xian:
“Why didn’t you come earlier!? If you had been just a little faster, no one would’ve died! Wang Hao would still be alive!” Her voice cracked into madness as she shrieked again,
“With your strength, it would’ve been so easy! You must’ve sensed the battle from far away—so why!? Why didn’t you come sooner!?”
Zhao Tong’s expression darkened, “What are you saying, Zhou Ruo!? If not for this man, we’d both be dead!”
But Qin Xian stood still, expression blank.
He gazed down at Zhou Ruo, then at the ruined corpse beside her. He understood—he knew exactly why she was unraveling.
But even knowing, he felt no desire to speak.
Not even a word.
His eyes narrowed and in the next moment, holy light flared again.
The Holy Sword appeared, and with a sweep of divine energy, both Zhao Tong and Zhou Ruo were killed—cleaved into oblivion.
Yes, he had killed the Void Sandworms.
But that didn’t mean… he came here to save them.