Unfathomable Senior

Chapter 702

“Zhi are you okay? How about we take a break.”

“No it’s fine Patriarch, this weather isn’t affecting me at all.”

“Right...”

Zhang Zhi’s face was covered in sweat and his usual palace face had turned red from the prolonged sun coverage. They had been wandering through a sandy desert for about a week. There was nothing besides dunes of sand and blistering sun above them. For some reason the sun refused to go down, leaving them at its mercy.

Even when flying through the air at a reasonable pace, they weren’t really getting anywhere. Attempting to get a better view was also not possible as a strange wind kept pushing them down whenever they tried to fly up higher than a kilometer. It was at a level that Zhang Dong couldn’t handle and the higher they attempted to go, the worse it became. It reminded Zhang Dong of the wall between the Emerald Phoenix Empire and the Azure Empire. His body was the strongest here and would still be shredded to pieces if he decided to ignore the warning signs.

It was a good idea to have the core formation experts leave the current expedition team. Some of them would have probably not survived for the weak or some of the nascent soul masters would have had to drain their spirit energy reserves to keep them shielded from the elements here. Zhang Zhi, who was no slouch, was starting to feel the strain as his body was mostly filled out with water Qi which had a hard time in this type of environment.

‘He should be fine for another few days, it would be better if we found some type of shelter before we get there, luckily I have that.’

“Husband, we have been going around for so long are you sure that we aren’t going around in circles?”

Zhang Liena had mostly remained quiet for the weekly trip but now even she was not sure about their location. There weren’t any landmarks to orient themselves on and with a lack of a day and night cycle, there were no stars to orient themselves on. Zhang Dong had assured everyone that he had a way of keeping track of everything but it wasn’t something that he could explain.

“We have not been going along in circles at least, that I can guarantee you. This place is just excessively large.”

Thanks to Bob and his map he was able to keep track of their point of origin. They went in one direction and kept to it but perhaps there was nothing there to wait for them. It could be that this place was just an empty space without anything waiting for them. Perhaps finding the exit was the true test as they had also not encountered any type of living beings.

“If you say so.”

“Are you tired already? It’s just a little desert, the heat isn’t even that bad.”

Huo Qiang was the only person that was enjoying himself. His cultivation was composed of fire Qi and he could even absorb all of this heat to keep himself going. Liena wasn’t fairing badly either as her body-refining skill kept her from being affected by the heat as much. Zhang Dong on the other hand had multiple Dao knowledge and could mostly shrug everything off that was put against him. Even with the three of them passed out he could probably still pull them through this weird area.

“Wait, something is there ... ”

“Where?”

“In that direction, did you see the sand move?”

“Now that you say it...”

“Husband, that’s not all, look!”

Zhang Dong looked at the spot that Liena was pointing at with her fan and noticed that one of the worms that had been cut up, started to reform itself. The one that exploded from being melted by Huo Qiang’s technique was quickly regenerating itself while squiggling around and so were all of them.

“These beasts have powerful regenerative capabilities... there might be a core inside of their bodies!”

They started by fighting four sandworms but they quickly turned to twenty. Luckily the monsters couldn’t fly and only extended their bodies to a certain degree. By dodging all the pounces the group continued blasting and slicing away. However, soon they realized that something was wrong as no beast cores were present inside the destroyed bodies. Even fully burning them didn’t resolve the issue as the monsters continued to come back.

‘Something isn’t right, I should check in with Bob.’

By activating his system window he was given a view over the battlefield from a different point. There he could see some oddities about the monsters they were fighting. One of them was that these worms didn’t seem to have an end. Their bodies never fully left the sandy desert below as if they were connected to something below.

“I see...”

“Did you find something?”

“Yes, give me a moment, I’ll force it out. Just keep them from attacking me.”

“No problem!”

Huo Qiang smacked his fists together while increasing the heat. Zhang Dong floated closer to the central point where the monsters were coming out. A purple haze surrounded his body and was then transferred down to the ground. Soon the sand particles started rising up as he reversed gravity and made everything lighter.

The monstrous worms didn’t like that they were being dragged out of their sandy environment and tossed themselves at the man responsible. Before they could reach him they were blasted away by the three other people that were with him. Even as they continued they were unable to do anything about being pulled into the air.

“That is...”

Zhang Liena covered her mouth while looking at what Zhang Dong pulled out from the earth. Their true enemy wasn’t the worms but the thing that they were all connected to. It was a giant-looking leech monster with around a hundred sandworms sticking out of its upper side and connected to its obsidian-looking body. It was truly tremendous and not something that he could keep in the air for too long.

“I’ll keep it in place, you have to destroy the real body before it goes underground!”

“Hah, so it was this ugly thing!”

“I will fulfill my duty, Patriarch.”

“Such a disgusting thing...”

The three nascent soul masters didn’t need to be asked twice before they utilized their most powerful techniques. Red, Blue, and green energy flew through the air and ground the monster into a paste. The monster’s whales shook the space around this desert area but it was still unable to free itself. The gigantic body was nothing but a training dummy for these three nascent soul masters and soon the sand below was drenched in the creature's black blood...