Chapter 695 - 696: King of Gravel

A gentle breeze swept by. THUD. The tremor grew heavier, like a giant hammer pounding on everyone’s hearts.

"Who is it that has disturbed the slumber of the great King of Sand and slaughtered his people?"

A low, rumbling roar echoed across the wasteland. The sands of the entire plain began to shift and surge once more. Endless grains of sand converged beneath everyone’s feet, forming a hazy, giant face. Its features were distinct, and it let out a furious, deafening roar.

Looking down from the sky, the cultivators could see that this face was immense, spanning several dozen miles in diameter and emanating a magnificent, boundless power.

"Hurry, go!"

Everyone’s expression changed drastically. They shot into the air at top speed, dozens of streaks of light converging as they fled toward the depths of the mysterious land.

"Detestable ants, you have repeatedly disturbed the great King of Sand’s slumber, and now you think you can just leave?"

The cultivators were fast, but no matter how fast they were, they were still above the wasteland. With a BOOM, endless sand rapidly gathered, and a giant hundreds of meters tall appeared before them. It opened its massive palm and swiped viciously toward Ye Xuan and the others.

’Such a massive giant!’

Everyone stared in horror. The Sand Giants they had encountered before were only about ten meters tall, but this one was dozens of times larger. As its palm spread open, the entire sky darkened. Before it, Ye Xuan and the others were as insignificant as flies darting about chaotically.

"Everyone, scatter!"

At this point, no one could spare a thought for others. They all fled in every direction.

Among them, Long Yuan and the other Tier Eight Third Layer Martial Emperors were the fastest, dodging out of the way instantly, while the remaining Tier Eight Second Layer Martial Emperors were still scrambling to escape.

Among everyone present, Ye Xuan had the lowest cultivation level. To hide his true strength, he naturally couldn’t display extraordinary speed. He spread his powerful Soul Sense, and the Sand Giant’s movements appeared clearly in his mind. With a flicker of his body, he shot straight through the gap between the Sand Giant’s fingers.

"Ah!"

A tragic scream rang out. Elder Lin Qiuran of the Lin family, already injured, was unable to dodge in time. He was caught in the giant sand hand and, with a SPLAT, was crushed into a bloody mist.

"Lin Qiuran!"

The one leading the Lin family this time was their strongest ancestor, Lin Guangyuan. He roared in grief and rage as a battle saber suddenly appeared in his hand. Streaks of black light surged on the blade as he brought it down with a CRACK onto the Sand Giant’s wrist.

BANG! A gash several meters long instantly appeared on the Sand Giant’s wrist, but it healed in the blink of an eye. The attacked Sand Giant threw a punch straight at Lin Guangyuan.

KABOOM!

In his haste, Lin Guangyuan only had time to raise his saber horizontally across his chest. He was sent flying, spitting out a mouthful of blood with a PFFT.

"What?"

Everyone was dumbfounded.

As the ancestor of the Lin family, Lin Guangyuan’s cultivation was as high as Tier Eight Third Layer. When they had encountered the smaller Sand Giants earlier, he had even surrounded and killed one on the spot, obtaining a sand crystal.

But now, under the assault of this Sand Giant, he was sent flying and coughing up blood from a single punch. Just how terrifying was this Sand Giant’s power?

While everyone was still in a daze, the Sand Giant attacked again. With a RUMBLE, it smashed a fist into a Tier Eight Second Layer Martial Emperor from Lingkong Cave. The Martial Emperor’s protective Profound essence shattered instantly. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, and before he could react, he was crushed into a bloody mist by the Sand Giant.

In the blink of an eye, two powerful experts had fallen. The Sand Giant’s unstoppable might made everyone’s face turn ashen with horror.

"Qiu Yuan, stay close to your father," the Cave Master of Lingkong Cave said grimly.

"Master Xuan Ye, don’t stray too far from us."

Over with the Xiao family, both Xiao Wuji and Xiao Canglan also wore grave expressions.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The Sand Giant was attacking relentlessly. The cultivators retreated as they fled, and before long, many of the Tier Eight Second Layer Martial Emperors were injured.

"Everyone, stop holding back! Aim for the Sand Giant’s head and attack together!"

Long Yuan was anxious, knowing that simply fleeing was not a solution. He let out an angry roar, and the black cone appeared in his hand once more. Spinning at high speed, it sent ripples through the void and shot out with a SWOOSH.

They didn’t need his reminder; the others were already gathering their power. Everyone knew the Sand Giant’s weakness was the core in its head. Only by taking the core sand crystal would the entire Sand Giant instantly collapse.

At almost the same instant, everyone launched their attacks.

The combined strike of dozens of Tier Eight Martial Emperors transformed into a rainbow of light that shot toward the heavens, slamming into the Sand Giant’s head like a meteorite falling from the sky.

BOOM!

A massive explosion erupted, sending countless fragments of sand and rock flying everywhere. A huge chunk was blown out of the side of the Sand Giant’s head, but because its head was simply too large, the attack didn’t completely shatter it.

"Quick, find it! Where is the Sand Giant’s core?"

Long Yuan and the others said urgently. But just as the words left his mouth, an elder from the Xu family exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "I found it!"

He extended a hand made of Profound essence, and a jet-black grain of sand radiating a dense aura was immediately clutched in his grasp.

"I found one too!"

"There’s one here too."

Two Martial Emperors from the Langxie Sect also found two such black grains of sand.

"I have one over here as well."

"There are two more over here."

To everyone’s shock, among the sand that had just been blasted apart, there were many grains radiating that same dense aura.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

Ye Xuan also struck out three times like lightning, and three such grains of sand appeared in his hand.

"How can there be so many?"

Everyone looked stunned. In just a short moment, they had found more than ten of these sand grains, yet the Sand Giant showed no signs of collapsing from their loss.

A large amount of sand quickly filled the hole in its head. It opened its massive mouth and let out a furious roar.

"Die! All of you will die!"

Its eyes, made of sand, suddenly shot out two beams of black light, and its open mouth violently spewed countless black sand grains.

PFFT! PFFT! PFFT!...

These black sand grains were extremely fast and packed a terrifying impact force. Several Martial Emperors at the front couldn’t react in time and were struck instantly. Their protective Profound barriers shattered in a moment, and with a series of CLANGS, a large number of black sand grains pelted their protective Profound armor.

SPLAT!

Two of them, who had just entered the Second Layer, couldn’t withstand it. Their bodies were instantly riddled with holes, turning them into sieves. They couldn’t be more dead.

The others, whose cultivation was slightly higher, barely managed to block the attack, but they too spat blood and were left in a sorry state, clearly having sustained severe injuries.

"Go, go, just go!"

Facing this Sand Giant, everyone was terrified. ’This Sand Giant doesn’t have a core sand crystal at all. We can’t kill it, no matter what we do. How are we supposed to fight this?’

Moreover, this Sand Giant’s power far surpassed that of the ones they had encountered before. Just the gravel it spat out could kill a Tier Eight Second Layer Martial Emperor. It was simply unstoppable.

In that instant, everyone began to flee frantically toward the end of the wasteland.

Ye Xuan, following in the crowd, secretly used his Divine Spirit Gaze to scan the Sand Giant. He immediately discovered numerous life signatures within its body.

The previous Sand Giants, which were only about ten meters tall, had just one such grain of sand in their heads, and their attack power wasn’t that frightening. But the Sand Giant now chasing them was filled with these life-infused grains of sand. At a rough glance, there were at least thousands, if not tens of thousands.

’To kill this Sand Giant, I’m afraid I’d have to remove every single black grain of sand that holds life. And that’s obviously an impossible task.’

’Is there another way to deal with this Sand Giant?’

Ye Xuan looked at the three black grains of sand in his hand.

Holding them, Ye Xuan felt that the aura within the black sand held a powerful attraction for his Life Martial Soul.

The Life Martial Soul in his mind began to sway rapidly, like a starving man seeing a table full of food.

Ye Xuan subconsciously activated his Life Martial Soul. With a gentle pull, a stream of pure life energy flowed out from the black sand in his hand and was quickly absorbed by the Life Martial Soul within his Gate of Heaven.

Nourished by this energy, the originally verdant Life Martial Soul actually grew a little larger. The black grain of sand in his hand, having lost its power, became indistinguishable from an ordinary grain of sand.

’This black sand can actually nourish my Life Martial Soul.’

This discovery left Ye Xuan dumbfounded.

SQUEAK SQUEAK!

Just then, the Little Purple Mink appeared on Ye Xuan’s shoulder out of nowhere. Its small, purple Gemstone-like eyes stared at the black sand in Ye Xuan’s hand, its face full of excitement.

CRUNCH.

It snatched one of the black sand grains that hadn’t lost its life energy, tossed it into its mouth, and started chewing. CRUNCH CRUNCH. As the sound of the black pebble being crushed echoed, a look of satisfaction appeared on the Little Purple Mink’s face. It then spat out a mouthful of sand with a PFFT.

The life energy within that sand was now completely gone.

"This..."

Ye Xuan was utterly speechless. ’This little glutton is too indiscriminate with its food! It was one thing for it to eat all the Spirit Medicine and Profound Stones in my Storage Ring, but now it’s even eating this black sand.’

SQUEAK SQUEAK!

The Little Purple Mink jumped up and down on Ye Xuan’s shoulder, pointing at the relentlessly pursuing Sand Giant behind them. Its eyes shone, as if telling Ye Xuan to go get more of the black sand.

Ye Xuan almost coughed up a mouthful of blood. ’Is the Little Purple Mink telling me to go court death?’

Ye Xuan directly ignored the Little Purple Mink’s request. Although he was hiding his strength, he didn’t think he could actually kill a Sand Giant that even numerous Tier Eight Third Layer Martial Emperors couldn’t defeat.

In the sky, dozens of streaks of light flew rapidly. Although the Sand Giant was powerful, its walking speed was extremely slow, and the cultivators gradually pulled away from it.

’Did we escape?’

Everyone looked on with lingering fear. But before the thought could even settle...

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Countless sand hands suddenly erupted from the wasteland’s surface. These hands materialized out of thin air, each hundreds of meters in size, and swiped viciously at the people in the sky. They moved so fast that no one had time to react.