The sun hung high, and the yellow sand filled the sky.
The speed of the flying boat was incredibly fast. In the blink of an eye, another day passed until noon. Xu Mu's adventuring party had officially entered the outer regions of Alfheim.
"In about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, we will reach the first safe haven. Before that, I need you to form your own teams, preferably five people per team." A man sat cross-legged at the very tip of the flying boat's deck.
His brows were like swords, and his robes fluttered in the wind. The rumbling airflow surged from both sides, as if it were not the flying boat leading them forward, but he himself cleaving through the air.
"My brother and I prefer not to cooperate with others. Can't we act on our own?" a middle-aged man, carrying a large iron bow on his back, shouted arrogantly. Standing beside him was his identical twin.
"If you die, it will have a significant impact on my reputation, so no," the man replied.
"You mean, if we don't team up, we'll die at the hands of the monsters in the outer desert?" the twin brother said disdainfully, "Although my brother and I are not top-tier in strength, in this outer region, the two of us as Lords combined should be able to walk sideways."
As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere in the space suddenly became stagnant. Many people, with the intention of watching a good show, turned their gaze to the man.
"You misunderstand," the man sitting at the tip said calmly, "The one who will kill you is not a demon, but me."
"This is my territory. If I say you must team up, then you must team up. Those who refuse to team up will either jump off on their own within five seconds, or be killed by me now."
The man slowly stood up. The high-speed moving flying boat and the violent wind could not shake his thin body in the slightest. Instead, due to the wind direction, his extremely powerful aura pressed down on everyone.
"This..." The two brothers, having heard these words, originally intended to roll up their sleeves and "reason" with him. However, upon sensing that powerful aura, their bodies stiffened abruptly, and then they meekly hid back into the crowd, not speaking further.
"Who is he?" On the other side, Xu Mu frowned, sensing the pressure, and asked Nash beside him.
"Zuo Qi, he is the leader of our adventuring party. He has entered Alfheim no less than a hundred times and has rarely encountered any danger. His strength is immense, and he is known by the people here as the Invincible Lord." Nash glanced at the man and then answered softly, his eyes full of respect.
"Invincible Lord, no wonder," Xu Mu murmured, nodding. He remembered what the woman in the black robe had said: on this ship, the only ones she noticed besides him were Nan Feng and Zuo Qi, and the latter was even bestowed the title of Invincible. It was no wonder his aura was so powerful.
"This pressure is indeed the strongest I've ever felt at the Lord stage," Xu Mu praised. He could sense that this person's strength was far greater than that of Nan Feng and Chang Sun Wuji.
He was unclear about Ji Chang's abilities, as he had never seen him fight. Of course, comparisons at this level did not include the gray-white eyes.
After a moment of silence, Zuo Qi spoke again:
"Everyone, do not underestimate Alfheim. This is a forbidden land, and there are only eight such places in the world!"
"Even the outermost regions of this vast desert hold unknown dangers: quicksand, storms, and residual formations... Compared to these, fierce great demons are only of secondary concern."
"Forming teams of five is the best plan I've devised after venturing into forbidden lands over a hundred times. Those who don't want to team up can disembark now."
Zuo Qi's voice was steady as he surveyed the crowd. After a brief silence, people began to seek out their teammates.
"The four of us still need one more person." At this moment, the woman in the black robe walked over with Nan Feng.
"With him, we'll be complete," Xu Mu nodded, then looked at Zuo Qi at the tip of the boat. He wanted to pull this Invincible Lord into their team. A man who had entered and exited Alfheim a hundred times must know something others didn't.
"I agree," Nash said meekly from behind Xu Mu, raising his hand. He also very much wanted Zuo Qi to join their team, because in a sense, it might protect his safety.
"But there seem to be quite a few people looking for him to form a team," the woman in the black robe said flatly. Indeed, Zuo Qi was already surrounded by countless people, their requests to team up with him like mountains and seas.
Unwilling to trouble herself, she casually pulled a cultivator from the crowd. Staring at him with eyes that lacked irises, she smiled and asked, "Are you willing to join our team?"
"Do... do I have a choice?" The man's face turned pale with fear, his soul nearly escaping his body as he looked at the dark mass before him. He was about to refuse when he seemed to sense a faint killing intent emanating from the woman.
Thus, he quickly and solemnly agreed, "It is my honor to team up with all of you. I, Qin Shi, have lived in Tucheng for many years and am quite familiar with this area. Please guide me!"
"Five people, complete," the woman said with a smile, having received the desired answer. She turned back.
Seeing this, Xu Mu nodded with a smile. With Qiongqi by his side, he wasn't looking for combat power and didn't care who he teamed up with. Experience was the most important thing.
Nash, on the other hand, trembled and dared not speak. Nan Feng, however, kept a close eye on Xu Mu.
"This kid... why does he look so familiar?" Nan Feng asked, holding the Ganjiang sword in his hand. "Senior, don't you think he resembles Xu Mu?"
"Impossible, he died long ago." The spirit of the Ganjiang sword replied calmly. That sword had pierced through his chest, and he was absolutely certain he had killed Xu Mu. Even if he hadn't died from that blow, he should have perished in the spatial turbulence. How could he be here?
"This kid... he also uses a weapon." Nan Feng looked at the saber sheathed at Xu Mu's waist, his eyes narrowing. He would never forget the sword that had floated over his head, nor the subsequent rumors that Xu Mu, having hunted since childhood, was a master with a saber.
His build, his voice, his weapon – all were similar. Only his aura was different, but aura could be disguised or replaced, like that mask... Could this all be a coincidence?
Nan Feng couldn't figure it out, so he finally asked, "My name is Nan Feng. May I know your name, young brother?"
"Ye Que," Xu Mu replied with a smile, then turned to the woman in the black robe and the middle-aged man who had just joined. "The one beside me is Nash. May I ask your names?"
"My name is Si Na," the woman said faintly. The timid young man swallowed and said timidly, "My name is Qin Shi. Please take care of me, big brothers and sisters."
Xu Mu and the others clasped their hands in greeting, and then a silence fell upon the space. It was at this moment that everyone suddenly realized that the sky had turned black.
"What's happening!" Zuo Qi, standing at the very front of the deck, stared at the sky in the distance, stunned. The desert sun was now obscured by dense yellow sand and dust. And the originally clear horizon was slowly being consumed by a vast expanse of darkness, stretching from south to north without end.
"Is that a long strip of dark clouds?" someone murmured, full of curiosity.
Xu Mu's pupils contracted. He knew it wasn't dark clouds.
He had encountered a similar situation in the Dark Palace before. That time, they had encountered the entire tribe of Bronze Crimson Crows. Even that entire tribe, while covering the sky and creating a suffocating darkness, had not been as intense as this.
"It's a sandstorm," Zuo Qi said after a long gaze, his voice trembling slightly. "It's a sky-obscuring sandstorm. The sandstorm has returned!"
"What!" Everyone on the flying boat was shocked, their hearts trembling violently.
This sandstorm stretched for thousands of miles from east to west and reached up to the heavens. It was a sandstorm that truly blotted out the sun. What would be the consequences if one were unfortunate enough to be caught in it?
"All members of the adventuring party, immediately enter the interior of the flying boat and infuse your abilities into the formations on the cabin walls, quickly!" Amidst the panic, Zuo Qi instantly regained his composure. He extended his fingers, immediately turned the flying boat around, and accelerated to full speed. The sound of wind tearing through the air roared in their ears, incredibly terrifying.
"The laws of this space are too chaotic. The probability of surviving a hasty spatial leap is almost zero," Qiongqi transmitted to Xu Mu. Hearing this, Xu Mu gritted his teeth and followed the crowd into the flying boat's cabin. He quickly took out body armor and steel helmets from his spatial ring and put them on himself and Qiongqi.
Next, the Dragon Seeking Ruler also appeared in his hand. Under the infusion of Xu Mu's abilities, it spun wildly, making Xu Mu's heart race.
"Old man Dejia was right. Only by passing through the sandstorm can one find the world of elves or dwarves. This sky-obscuring sandstorm is the perfect opportunity to reach the core region!"
Xu Mu's face lit up with joy. This sandstorm might be an opportunity for him to find the elven or dwarven kingdoms.
Of course, opportunity was contingent on survival.
Outside, everyone had entered the cabin. Only Zuo Qi remained on the deck. He stood at the tip, his abilities surging like a raging river, controlling the abilities on the formations below to further accelerate the flying boat's speed by several times. The fierce winds gusted, but they could not escape the all-encompassing shadow.
He swallowed and then looked back.
The sandstorm was getting closer.
"Ten seconds to impact, prepare for the sandstorm!"
At the critical moment, Zuo Qi jumped into the cabin and halted the flying boat in place, then used all his spiritual energy and talismans to reinforce the flying boat's defenses to the extreme.
"Ten, nine, eight..."
Buzz!
Just as he was silently counting down and the surface of the flying boat was being continuously strengthened, a purple ripple suddenly emanated from the roaring sandstorm.
In an instant, everyone felt as if some kind of restriction had been placed upon them, preventing them from using their abilities. Even the talismans on the flying boat's surface became ineffective!
"What... what is that..." Everyone watched the sandstorm outside through the flying boat's windows with expressions of shock. They could vaguely see a giant shadowy figure in the sky-high dust, holding a scepter and wearing a black hat.
The purple light patterns that spread to them emanated from this figure.
"Curse power?" Xu Mu sensed the shackles imprinted within his body. At this moment, those shackles were being constantly broken by his Glazed Blood, and they lost their effect in an instant.
But regardless, whether they had abilities or not, it made no difference at this moment.
Because the sandstorm had arrived.
Rumble!
In an instant, the flying boat was torn to shreds by the sky-high dust. Countless people were swept into the air, and as countless high-speed rushing sand particles struck their faces and bodies, endless pain surged, causing them to instantly faint.
Xu Mu did not faint. Because he was wearing body armor, and he also had Qiongqi's domain and his own abilities to protect him. They tumbled wildly in the sky-high dust, feeling the pain but also a hint of confusion.
"A sandstorm of this magnitude should not have such limited lethality," Xu Mu sensed the pain on his body gradually weakening, surprised. He could clearly feel that in the unseen, there seemed to be a force protecting them.
The true power of this sandstorm should have been enough to tear those without protective abilities into shreds instantly, but after they fainted, the deadly sand particles became gentle, like a soft breeze, merely carrying them along without causing harm.
It was precisely because of this that Xu Mu and Qiongqi dared to stop using their abilities instantly and pretend to faint, drifting with the sandstorm.
Because they did not know what the translucent wizardly phantom in the sky would do if it knew they had not fainted.
Rumble!
The speed of the sandstorm's advance was too fast, so fast that it was hundreds of times faster than the flying boat, more ferocious than a surging river or a tsunami. The sky-obscuring sandstorm soon reached the edge of Alfheim.
But after leaving the forbidden land, the sandstorm did not weaken. Instead, like a whirlpool in the sea sucking in water, this sky-high sandstorm, carrying countless ruins and unconscious humans, flew back into the core of Alfheim.
Xu Mu and Qiongqi exchanged a tacit glance amidst the wind and sand, then closed their eyes again.
Everyone disappeared from the outer regions of Alfheim, leaving only the gently swirling fine sand.
...