bookandnovel Chapter 121 Deep in the Red Sands
Chapter 121 Deep in the Red Sands
Chapter 121 Deep in the Red Sands (3K)
Xu Hao sat down against the wall, closed his eyes, and sank into his sea of consciousness.
Six nails suppress the dragon.
The secondary nail in Shuozhou is still flashing.
It wasn't a flickering that was collapsing; it was a flickering that was being repeatedly tested.
It's like someone touching a locked door, probing the lock cylinder's structure again and again.
It hasn't been pulled out yet.
But we're looking for a solution.
The location of the light spot is roughly in the western part of the central part of the Red Sand Domain, about 800 li away from here.
Depending on the distance traveled, it takes two and a half to three days.
The compass needle also vibrated in the same direction, and the signal from the incomplete third part of the Martial Ancestor's Divine Skill highly overlapped with that of the Dragon-Suppressing Nail.
The two items were buried together.
The situation is the same as that of the Yanzhou Rift Valley.
Xu Hao leaned against the adobe wall, looked up at the yellowed roof, and let out a long breath.
Looking back on these past few days, it's been really weird.
After leaving the city of despair, he raced all the way, retrieving the legacy, patching the nails, losing an arm, and burning over a hundred military souls.
Just as they were catching their breath in the dragon's lair, they were forced to come to this Red Sand Domain, where the yellow sand stretches as far as the eye can see, to be sealed and reinforced.
The back-to-back, grueling work never ends.
Ultimately, Xu Hao was not, at heart, a compassionate and chivalrous hero.
He couldn't care less about the lives of ordinary people. If the Great Heng Dynasty were to perish tomorrow, he wouldn't even lift an eyelid.
But there's no escaping this.
If the Chongyuan Dragon Lord were to fully awaken, I, who was reinforcing its seal, would definitely be the first to be affected.
In order to survive a few more days in this chaotic world, I have to do this job even if I have to hold my nose.
If anyone dared to pry open this door that locks the god of death and cut off his path to survival, he would first slice off the other person's head with his knife.
But here's the problem.
Who is this person, who is eight hundred miles away, repeatedly touching the keyhole?
It will take at least seven days for Bone Maiden to reach the Crimson Sand Domain.
Her barbarian hunting party couldn't possibly outrun her.
Moreover, the barbarians' entry into the Red Sand Domain was too conspicuous, and the oasis city-states had no goodwill towards the Northern Frontier Wolf Court.
The second group.
Several possibilities flashed through Xu Hao's mind.
The Wusheng Sect.
Bone Mother's act of removing nails in Ningzhou is connected to the Wusheng Sect.
If she revealed the location of Shuozhou, this thorn in the side, to the Wusheng Sect, allowing them to take the first step—
Or, something even more complicated.
Someone is searching for the Dragon-Suppressing Nail independently, separate from the Bone Mother.
He wasn't helping Bone Mother with chores; he was another hunter.
We ate.
.
The meal consisted of coarse baked flatbread with dried camel meat, which was tough to chew but filling.
Xu Hao removed the arm guard from his right arm and poured the liniment onto the injured area. The stinging sensation of the liniment seeping into his flesh made him gasp, but he could feel the inflammation at the junction of the broken bones subsiding.
The "Suppressing Prisons and Ten Thousand Bones Technique" is continuously transforming his foundation.
The benefits of increased bone density are already evident; the recovery speed of a broken bone is more than twice as fast as normal.
At this rate, my right arm should regain 70% of its strength in three days.
into the night.
Night and day in the Red Sand Domain are two different worlds.
It's so hot during the day it can scald you to death, and so cold at night it can freeze rocks.
Xu Hao didn't sleep.
He sat cross-legged on the bed and circulated the Myriad Transformations Heavenly Vault Scripture to restore his vital energy.
At the same time, the breathing frequency of the "Suppressing Prison Bones Technique" vibrates the bones, accelerating the recovery of the right arm.
midnight.
Very light footsteps came from outside the window.
They were not townspeople on night patrol.
The pace was too fast, the landing points too precise, and the intervals between each step were perfectly consistent.
A trained person.
Xu Hao didn't move.
The protective energy here isn't working well, so the Listening Breath Talisman, which I haven't used in a long time, has come in handy.
A figure moved close to the outer wall of the inn.
Peak of the Bone Forging Realm.
They weren't there because of him.
The direction is the western end of the town—the location of the spring.
Xu Hao hesitated for a moment, then walked to the window and looked outside.
Not far away was a figure in a yellow robe, and the thing hanging at his waist caught his eye.
A domino.
It was about the size of a thumb, and flashed a pale white light in the moonlight.
It is made of the same material and has a similar pattern to the bone totem dominoes used by barbarian hunters.
He pushed open the window and climbed out.
The night wind whipped up sand that stung my face.
The town of Jingquan was deathly silent under the moonlight, with only the faint sound of water coming from the direction of the spring.
Xu Hao moved close to the shadow of the adobe wall, his swift steps barely making a sound on the sand.
The western end of the town.
spring.
The emerald green spring water shimmered with silver light under the moonlight.
The canopies of the poplar trees by the spring cast large shadows.
Three people were crouching in the shadows.
The figure in the yellow robe was one of them.
The other two were larger, also wrapped in ochre robes, but the arms exposed beneath the robes had distinct blue tattoos that were not barbarian wolf patterns, but rather spiral patterns, like whirlpools or coiled snakes.
The three of them were doing something around the spring.
The leader, a man in a yellow robe, squatted by the spring, his hands resting on the top of a half-exposed stone tablet on the water's surface.
The stone tablet was small, only three feet tall, and its surface was covered with moss and scale, making it impossible to see what was carved on it.
But the moment the man in the yellow robe pressed down, a very faint buzzing sound came from the bottom of the stone tablet.
Xu Hao was very familiar with the frequency of the buzzing sound.
When the Dragon-Suppressing Nail was tested, the secondary nails on the six-nail diagram flashed at the exact same frequency.
Is the stone tablet part of the Dragon-Suppressing Nail Seal Structure?
Xu Hao gripped the hilt of the Devouring Sea Blade.
That's enough.
The three of them froze simultaneously.
The first to react was the man in the yellow robe who was leading the group.
He released his hands from the stone tablet, his body sprang backward, and landed on a poplar tree branch three zhang away.
The other two big guys reacted much more roughly.
They pounced from the left and right, their khaki robes exploding in mid-air to reveal bronze-colored skin and swirling tattoos covering their arms.
It's not the Bone Forging Realm.
Both of them were at the Yi Jin Jing level.
The first guy who lunged at you threw a punch.
The fist was wrapped in a dry and scorching energy, not the orthodox Daheng martial arts style, but more like some kind of rough desert technique.
The skin on the fist is rough like sandpaper, with a natural abrasive effect.
Xu Hao dodged to the side, his Devouring Sea Blade still sheathed; he wanted the prisoners alive.
He gripped the other's wrist with his left hand and channeled his inner energy into the device.
Extreme cold and yin energy collided with dry and scorching energy.
hiss.
Two completely opposite energies exploded into a cloud of white mist at the point of contact.
The big man's wrist instantly froze into a layer of white frost, and his bones creaked from the strain.
He grunted and punched Xu Hao in the ribs with his right fist.
Xu Hao released his grip and took a step back.
The second, larger man crept in from the flank, his feet silently treading on the sand—a movement so subtle it left no trace.
A curved sword was drawn from under the robe; the blade was narrow and long, and gleamed with a dark red luster.
Forged from pure gold.
The curved blade slashed diagonally at a tricky angle, aiming for the broken bone in his right arm.
The injury is visible.
Xu Hao used his right arm guard to block the impact.
Sparks flew as the dark gold arm guards clashed with the crimson gold scimitar.
A sharp pain shot through the broken bone, but the arm guard held it in.
He flipped his left wrist.
He drew the Devouring Sea Blade, and a line of dark blue, extremely cold energy condensed and swept across the wielder's forearm.
The scimitar slipped from his hand.
A line of ice appeared on my forearm.
It wasn't deep, but the subcutaneous tissue was instantly frostbitten, and the fingers lost sensation.
"The Realm of Opening the Mind!"
The man in the yellow robe on the tree branch let out a short, startled cry.
The Mandarin spoken in Daheng has a rolled "r" sound, characteristic of the local dialect of Shuozhou.
"Stop." The man in the yellow robe landed on the tree branch, raising his hands above his head in a gesture of "no hostility" common in the Crimson Sand Region, palms facing outwards. "Brother, it's a misunderstanding."
Xu Hao held the knife horizontally in front of him without sheathing it.
"Touching the seal node is a misunderstanding?"
The man in the yellow robe loosened his turban, revealing a face with distinct features.
She was in her early thirties, with long, slender eyebrows and eyes.
Unlike the barbarians, he has a proper Daheng face, but he is tanned even darker than the locals.
"You know this is a sealing node?" The yellow-robed man's tone changed.
The polite formalities of the martial arts world have turned into scrutiny.
"you do not know?"
The two stared at each other for three breaths.
The man in the yellow robe's gaze fell on the scabbard of the Devouring Sea Blade at Xu Hao's waist, and then glanced at the patterns cast on the dark gold arm guards.
The pattern is in the style of the Zhenbei Army Forging Battalion.
"People from the Zhenbei Army?"
Xu Hao did not answer.
The man in the yellow robe hesitated for a moment, then took something out from inside his robe.
A metal plaque.
The sign has a single character cast on it.
吟。
Xu Hao's expression remained unchanged.
He pulled out his own piece from his pocket and flashed it.
Beneath the tree branches, beside the spring, in the desert night wind, the four men remained silent for five breaths.
The man in the yellow robe put the iron plaque back into his pocket and let out a long sigh of relief.
His tense shoulders relaxed. "Commander Wu, are you talking about?"
Xu Hao didn't respond to that.
The fact that the identity of the Dragon Roar Guard's undercover agent has been confirmed does not mean that the matter is clear.
He put the iron plate back in his pocket, his left hand still resting on the hilt of the Sea Devouring Blade.
His gaze shifted downwards, fixed intently on the man in the yellow robe's waist.
"The signs match. Now let's talk about something else." Xu Hao gestured with his chin. "What's with that domino hanging on your waist?"
The man in the yellow robe looked down, following Xu Hao's gaze.
A totem plaque carved from white bone hung from his belt.
The style, material, and even the patterns engraved on it are exactly the same as those found on the bodies of the barbarian hunters from the Northern Frontier Bone-Eating Tent.
The Dragon Roar Guard's mobs.
The token of the person who pulled out the nail in the dead of night.
They ran over and touched the sealed node.
This has a sinister feel to it.
Xu Hao didn't respond.
The blade of the Devouring Sea Blade extended outward by half an inch, and the chill dispelled the heat of the night wind.
The man in the yellow robe chuckled twice and reached for his waist.
They moved slowly and deliberately, afraid of causing a misunderstanding.
"You mean this?" He untied the dominoes, pinched them between two fingers, shook them, and casually tossed them onto the sand.
The dominoes fell into the sand, and when the wind blew them, they were covered with a layer of red sand.
"Barbarian junk." The man in the yellow robe rubbed his hands together, his words dripping with the slickness of a businessman. "The Crimson Sands have been rather turbulent lately, and this thing is bait. With it, we can lure out some rats hiding in the shadows, scavenging for food."
He pointed his thumb back at his chest. "Sha Fanzi. One of the Dragon Roar Guard's undercover agents in Shuozhou. He's been in the Crimson Sand Domain for twelve years, ostensibly a trader of black iron ore. A couple of days ago, I received a message from Commander Wu via carrier pigeon, saying a ruthless character was coming, and I reckon it's you."
Sha Fanzi turned around and gestured with his chin toward the two big guys behind him who were still rubbing their hands and breathing on them.
"These two are brothers I picked up in the desert. One is called Red Python, and the other is called Iron Sand. Don't let their rough appearance fool you, they're very efficient at their work."
""
The big guy, nicknamed Red Python, was rubbing his frostbitten wrist with his other good hand, grimacing.
The man called Iron Sand picked up the scimitar that had fallen to the ground. The ice on his forearm hadn't melted yet, and his entire arm was stiff and he couldn't bend it.
"Are you looking for the Dragon-Suppressing Nail?" Xu Hao asked.