Chapter 1612: Chapter 1608: Surprise Attack (Major Outbreak)

As soon as Shen Luo and Nie Cai Zhu entered the third layer of space, they were greeted by an intense heat wave. When they turned around, the light door behind them had already disappeared.

Shen Luo looked into the distance, only to see the blazing sun hanging in the sky, releasing its scorching power freely. All he could see was an endless yellow and hazy sand sea with no signs of oases or living creatures.

“It looks like this place is utterly barren. There’s no trace of the heavenly and earthly spiritual Qi in the surrounding void, and Divine Sense is greatly restricted. The range I can explore is not even a hundred feet,” Nie Cai Zhu commented as she glanced around.

“I’m slightly stronger, but my Divine Sense can only explore an area of around three hundred feet. Moreover, for some reason, the consumption of divine sense power seems to be much larger than usual here,” Shen Luo nodded and added.

“Three hundred feet of distance isn’t very useful; let’s conserve our strength for now,” Nie Cai Zhu suggested.

Shen Luo felt the same and immediately withdrew his divine sense power.

At that moment, he suddenly furrowed his brows and took a few steps forward, swinging his sleeve fiercely towards the ground.

“Whooosh”

A gust of wind surged out from his sleeve, swiftly creating a medium-sized tornado on the ground that picked up a large amount of yellow sand and tossed it into the distance.

Where the tornado passed, a shallow pit appeared on the ground, revealing part of a black Stone Stele base.

Shen Luo bent down for a closer look and noticed that the break was smooth and sharp, and the color still maintained the original texture of the stone material, showing no traces of erosion by the wind and sand or dirt stains.

“The break is so fresh, it seems it was cut by someone not long ago,” Nie Cai Zhu also came forward and frowned as she spoke.

“It must have been the work of someone ahead of us, who took away the whole stele. Now we have no idea which direction to go next nor any clue about what is forbidden here. This is truly infuriating,” Shen Luo harshly criticized.

Upon hearing this, Nie Cai Zhu’s face showed a hint of hesitation as she spoke, “If I exert all my strength, perhaps by using a time retracing divine power, I can restore the Stone Stele in the River of Time and see its original appearance. That way, we could know the content originally recorded on the stele.”

Shen Luo was pleased when he heard this, but his smile quickly faded as he shook his head:

“No.”

“It’s alright. It’s just a trial. If I use up all my mana, you can just let me rest in the Carefree Mirror Space. It won’t be a problem,” Nie Cai Zhu said with a smile.

“No. This time retracing divine power not only consumes a huge amount of mana, but it also uses up bloodline power. Once you use it, the burden on you will be too great, and it’s not even guaranteed to succeed. It’s not worth it,” Shen Luo firmly shook his head.

Nie Cai Zhu did not say anything more, but she felt a warmth in her heart.

“Then which way should we go?” she asked, looking up at Shen Luo.

Shen Luo picked up a handful of yellow sand from the ground and gently loosened his fingers, letting the sand slowly fall from his palm to the ground without any significant fluttering.

“There’s no flow of heaven and earth aura in this place, and even the wind is almost unfelt. Logically, if someone had moved around here before, there should have been footprints left,” Shen Luo hesitated.

“Could it be that they left by flying?” Nie Cai Zhu wondered.

“Unlikely. In such secret realms, there are usually prohibitions on flying in the void. No one dares to try that normally,” Shen Luo shook his head.

While the two were speaking, Nie Caizhu’s expression suddenly changed, pointing to the distance, she said: “Quick, look over there!”

Following her direction, Shen Luo saw the sand on the ground in front of him surging like waves, swelling into several giant bulges and rolling towards them in a line.

He stepped in front of Nie Caizhu and swept his hand down mightily, a powerful surge of Qi burst from his palm into the ground, causing the ground to shake violently.

In an instant, a wave of sand exploded up to a height of dozens of feet, as four enormous, grey-brown figures leaped out from underground.

Shen Luo glanced over and saw they were shaped like lizards but many times larger, covered with grey-brown scale armor, and their backs had raised spines, clearly the unique Sand Lizards of this region.

Most peculiarly, the eyes of these Sand Lizards were all white, with no different colored pupils inside.

After the four Sand Lizards burst from the ground, the two in the middle opened their mouths, spewing two clumps of yellow dense light towards Shen Luo and Nie Caizhu.

Before the yellow light even came close, Shen Luo detected a pungent sulfur smell, promptly clapping his hands in the Void.

A giant handprint of Green Light condensed and flew out, colliding with the two clumps of yellow light, immediately causing a loud boom. A vast flame exploded instantly, with sparks flying in all directions.

At the same time, the howling sounds of wind rose from both sides as the other two Sand Lizards swung their giant tails simultaneously, sweeping towards Shen Luo and Nie Caizhu.

Nie Caizhu subconsciously wanted to spring up into the air to evade but was held down by Shen Luo grabbing her shoulder.

With a wave of his hand, two Pure Yang Flying Swords burst out from either side, transforming into two Flame Giant Swords, meeting the Sand Lizards’ giant tails and instantly severing them.

“Don’t be careless…”

No sooner had Shen Luo spoken than he saw the flames in front dissipate, and the figures of the two previously seen Sand Lizards had vanished.

Without any hesitation, he immediately flipped his wrist, ready to pull out the Turn Sky Seal and hit downwards.

However, during this turning of his hand, he found his palm empty; the Storage Bracelet hadn’t opened, and he couldn’t retrieve the Turn Sky Seal.

“Unable to open the Storage Magical Tool,” Shen Luo uttered softly.

But before he could adapt, the sand sea beneath suddenly sank into a pit, following which the giant mouths of two Sand Lizards burst forth from the sand pit, with two light groups of yellow light already charging, aiming at Shen Luo and Nie Caizhu.

Upon seeing this, Shen Luo immediately slapped the Corpse Raising Bag at his waist, trying to summon the corpse refined by Ghost Teng Master for defense, but to his surprise, the Corpse Raising Bag was also enveloped in a prohibiting force, unable to be opened for the time being.

By then, the two clumps of yellow light had melted a large amount of sand and dust and struck towards the two of them.

“They are trying to force us into the high skies…”

At the critical moment, Shen Luo wrapped one arm around Nie Caizhu’s waist, their bodies shrinking upwards, instantly two Flying Swords appeared under their feet, catching them while the light from the sword bodies suddenly brightened.

Numerous golden sword lights burst from the swords, falling into the sand pit like a sudden fierce rainstorm, immediately followed by the sounds of bones breaking and tendons snapping.

By the time all sword lights had dissipated, the sand pit underground had expanded several times, filled with remnants of Sand Lizards’ limbs and claws mixed with yellow blood, a sight so nauseating that it might provoke vomiting.