Chapter 696 - 697: Greedy Purple Sable

"Ah!"

A Martial Emperor from the Helian family at the Peak of Tier Eight Second Layer, flying the lowest, had no time to react before a giant sand hand snatched him from the air. Amid his wretched screams, he was crushed into a bloody mist.

Everyone’s heart clenched violently.

A great Martial Emperor at the Peak of Tier Eight Second Layer couldn’t even withstand a single grasp from that sand hand. With this level of power, even the Tier Eight Third Layer Martial Emperors leading the teams might not escape unscathed if they were caught.

"What in the world is going on? Why did such a terrifying Sand Giant suddenly appear?"

"Nothing like this ever happened during our previous explorations."

"Damn it, damn it all."

The members of the major powers had livid faces as they roared in anger.

In their previous explorations, the largest Sand Giants they encountered were barely ten meters tall. A Tier Eight Second Layer Martial Emperor could handle them; they were essentially prey.

But the Sand Giants appearing now were completely beyond their expectations.

"No!"

Another horrified scream rang out. This time it was an elder from the Langxie Sect, who also failed to escape the sand hand’s attack and was instantly enveloped by the massive palm.

BANG! BANG!

The sand hand clearly vibrated twice. The Langxie Sect elder was obviously attacking frantically from within, trying to break out.

Seeing this, Sect Master Yu Xiuneng of the Langxie Sect wanted to rush forward and help. Before he could even make a move, however, there was a sickening squelch. The hand clamped shut and went still. Then, trickles of blood seeped out from the bottom.

"You bastard!"

Yu Xiuneng’s face was twisted in a furious snarl. A mirror suddenly appeared in his hand. With a hum, the mirror shot out a beam of white light that blasted the giant sand hand.

POW!

Half of the sand hand was instantly blown away, but in the blink of an eye, it reformed and reached for Yu Xiuneng.

At the same time, another hand reached for the other experts.

"Up! Into the sky!"

Everyone shot upward into the sky, trying to escape the sand hands’ grasp. But the hands seemed to stretch infinitely, chasing right after them.

As expected, during the pursuit, the sand was dispersed, and the size of the hands and arms rapidly shrank.

Ye Xuan’s eyes lit up. ’There’s hope.’ If they kept flying upward, the sand below, no matter how vast, couldn’t be infinite.

But to his confusion, Xiao Wuji and the others showed little joy. After ascending a thousand meters, they all stopped, their faces turning pale.

Only the Martial Artists from the Lin, Xu, and Zhou families, not understanding the situation, continued to ascend rapidly.

Seeing this, Xiao Wuji’s expression hardened, and he quickly shouted, "Everyone, don’t go any higher! Stop!"

The experts from the three families froze for a moment.

Just then, an invisible black wind appeared in the sky, silently sweeping over a core elder of the Zhou family. The wind only traveled about ten meters before vanishing, but the elder caught within it was gone without a trace.

The members of the three families were scared out of their wits and hurriedly flew back down.

Ye Xuan’s heart clenched. With his sharp senses, he had seen it clearly: the moment the black wind touched the elder, his body had instantly disintegrated into countless black particles, vanishing before he could even react.

The Xu family’s ancestor, Xu Guanglin, asked in horror, "Patriarch Xiao, what in the world was that?"

Xiao Wuji said grimly, "When flying above this wasteland, you must never exceed an altitude of one thousand meters. Beyond that height, black winds can appear at any time. Once you’re caught in one, you’ll be instantly annihilated, not even a trace left behind."

What?

The hearts of the three families’ members pounded wildly. This was their first time entering this mysterious land, so they were completely ignorant of its dangers.

Ancestor Zhou Yuetian of the Zhou family, his face livid, demanded angrily, "Patriarch Xiao, why didn’t you warn us sooner?"

They had only been in the mysterious land for a few hours, yet his Zhou family had already lost several core elders. His rage was palpable.

Xiao Wuji’s gaze turned cold as he said icily, "Zhou Yuetian, you were all flying so fast, how could I have had time to warn you? Besides, if you can’t handle it, you shouldn’t have come to this mysterious land in the first place. Now you’re blaming me for your own people’s deaths? Look around. Every other power here that has entered this land before knows about the black wind. Did any of them warn you? It seems I was wrong to have said anything at all."

Zhou Yuetian and his family members looked around. The experts from the Yuchi family, Lingkong Cave, Langxie Sect, and Liuxian City all wore indifferent expressions. They clearly knew about the black wind, yet none had spoken a word. It was obvious they couldn’t care less if the members of the three new families lived or died.

"I..." Zhou Yuetian now understood Xiao Wuji’s good intentions. His face flushed beet-red, but he didn’t know what to say.

A flicker of schadenfreude flashed in Yu Chi Bugong’s eyes.

BOOM!

Just then, a dozen more elongated sand hands reached for them. Everyone scrambled to fight back. To their surprise and delight, the sand hands were much weaker this time. Under the full-force attack of several people, they could actually be shattered.

"The sand hands must be weaker because they’re stretched so far! If we stay at this altitude, they can’t touch us!"

Patriarch Helian Yue exclaimed in delight.

Everyone quickly joined forces. As expected, with a Tier Eight Third Layer Martial Emperor leading and several Peak of Tier Eight Second Layer Martial Emperors assisting, they could shatter a sand hand in a single combined strike.

The method worked.

Faces filled with ecstasy, they fought back while maintaining their altitude.

"RUMBLE!"

However, their joy was short-lived. The dozen or so sand hands, as if realizing they couldn’t kill them while separated, swiftly merged into one, forming a single colossal hand a thousand meters long.

A set of blurry facial features even appeared in its palm.

"You have disturbed me, the Sand King. Now, you will all become nutrients for this sand-swept wasteland!"

With an furious roar, the mountain-sized hand swatted down at them again.

"Kill!"

Everyone attacked without holding back, unleashing their full power.

BOOM!

A sky full of attacks exploded against the sand hand, sending sand flying everywhere and even blasting a huge hole through its palm.

SQUEAK SQUEAK!

The Little Purple Mink danced on Ye Xuan’s shoulder in ecstasy, its eyes shining as it watched the sand scatter through the air. With a ZIP, it vanished from his shoulder. A streak of purple lightning flashed, and another ZIP announced its return. Now, however, it was holding a large pile of Grit Crystals in its paws. At a rough glance, there were several dozen.

CRUNCH!

CRUNCH!

The Little Purple Mink tossed the Grit Crystals into its mouth one by one as if they were candy. It then spat out mouthfuls of sand, but the rich life force that had been in the crystals was gone, completely absorbed into its body.

After it had swallowed several dozen Grit Crystals, Ye Xuan felt—though perhaps it was just his imagination—that the Little Purple Mink’s purple fur was growing even more lustrous, and it was emitting a powerful aura.

’This little guy...’

Ye Xuan was utterly speechless.

Just then, the sand hand healed again and pressed down on the crowd.

This time, a Peak of Tier Eight Second Layer Martial Emperor from the Long family failed to escape and was enveloped by the sand hand.

Shockingly, his protective armor—of some unknown grade—did not shatter under the sand hand’s grasp. It did, however, groan and twist, and the runes flaring across its surface rapidly dimmed as if about to fail at any moment.

"Patriarch, save me!"

The Peak of Tier Eight Second Layer Martial Emperor cried out in terror.

A dark look flashed across Long Yuan’s face. ’Damn it.’ He hesitated for a moment before a clay-yellow rune suddenly appeared in his hand. He flung it out, and it slapped onto the giant sand hand.

VMM!

A shocking scene unfolded. After the clay-yellow rune landed on the sand hand, it exploded into a dense cloud of yellow light that enveloped the entire hand.

KABOOM!

In the next moment, the entire sand hand spontaneously exploded. The Long family elder seized the opportunity, transforming into a streak of light to escape and return to the group.

"Hm? What kind of rune is that?"

Ye Xuan’s gaze sharpened. In the instant the rune had exploded, he had clearly felt the energy flow within the sand hand freeze for a moment, which was what had caused it to disintegrate.

’But the sand hand’s power was at least at the Tier Eight Triple Peak level. An ordinary rune could never have accomplished that.’

It wasn’t just Ye Xuan; the others were also stunned for a moment before they erupted in anger.

"Patriarch Long Yuan, if you had a rune like that, why didn’t you save my disciple from the Langxie Sect earlier?"

"That’s right! When my disciple from Lingkong Cave fell, you could have easily saved them!"

Their faces were livid, clearly furious that Long Yuan had simply stood by and done nothing before.

Long Yuan gave a bitter smile and quickly explained, "Please, everyone, calm down. This rune was left by a Long family ancestor hundreds of years ago. It can only be activated with the essence blood of a Long family member. This was the only one I had, and using it destroys it completely. Naturally, I was saving it for my own family’s disciples. If I had more, wouldn’t I have used them to help everyone?"

A glint flashed in Ye Xuan’s eyes. ’Long Yuan is obviously lying.’

Ye Xuan didn’t know about the other details, but he was certain of one thing: this rune was definitely not centuries old. As a Rune Master, Ye Xuan was highly sensitive to the aura of runes, and he could tell this one had been crafted no more than a few months ago.

However, the part about it requiring Long family essence blood was true, as he could sense a trace of the Long family’s bloodline aura within it.

As Ye Xuan was lost in thought, the Little Purple Mink on his shoulder suddenly flashed and disappeared again.

"Oh no."

Ye Xuan’s expression changed drastically. This time, the Little Purple Mink hadn’t gone to collect the scattered Grit Crystals. It had charged directly for the core of the former sand hand—the place where the aura of the Grit Crystals was the most concentrated.