199: Chapter 198 Desert Emperor Scorpion
The seven of them formed a single-file line in the desert.
Shen Shuang led the way, with Lin Fan following closely behind, and Xu Ziyan sandwiched right in the middle of the team.
Yu Nian walked behind him, Ye Qing and Ye Wushuang flanked the left and right wings, and Xu Tao brought up the rear.
This was the Formation Shen Shuang had rearranged before they set out.
The front and rear were entrusted to the most experienced military personnel, Lin Fan was in the middle to provide support, and Xu Ziyan was placed in the safest, core position.
The desert terrain was far more complex than it appeared from a distance.
The dunes were not rolling waves, but low-lying, like the backs of giant beasts prostrate on the ground.
Under the pale golden moonlight, the grayish-white dunes took on a sickly blue-gray hue.
In some places, the surface of the sand had formed a thin crust that could support one's weight, but after a few steps, it would suddenly shatter, causing an entire leg to sink half a foot deep.
Xu Tao trod out a relatively safe path ahead, his Mountain Giant Scorpion's massive pincers plunging into the sand with every step to scout the way.
The others followed in his footprints, one after another, like a string of mountain climbers tethered together.
Lin Fan walked three paces behind Shen Shuang, his left eye constantly glowing as it scanned the spiritual energy fluctuations in the sand ahead and to the sides.
On the surface, this wasteland looked like it had nothing—no vegetation, no water, no traces of any living thing—but the things beneath the sand were so numerous they made his scalp tingle.
Spiritual energy signals, ranging from a few meters deep to hundreds of meters down, were densely distributed across his entire scanning range.
Some were as weak as a flickering candle flame, while others were powerful enough that a red warning box automatically popped up on his left eye's display.
Most of those powerful signals were in a dormant or semi-dormant state, with extremely low energy fluctuation frequencies.
The majority of the signals were concentrated in two areas—directly beneath that deep purple pillar of light they were approaching, and at dozens of points evenly distributed around the pillar.
Those points formed a regular circle, surrounding the pillar at the center like the nodes of some sort of Formation.
After the group walked cautiously for nearly an hour, that pillar of light finally grew from a thin line to the thickness of a finger.
Just then, Lin Fan suddenly stopped, his left eye flaring with heat.
Immediately after, the sand beneath their feet began to sink.
It was as if the entire sandy surface was being hoisted up by a giant hand from below, then suddenly snatched away.
Sand grains slid away in all directions from underfoot, moving as fast as if they were standing on a quicksand waterfall.
Lin Fan's left foot instantly lost its support, and his body pitched forward.
“Everyone, watch out!”
Lin Fan's shout exploded in the empty desert.
The spatial wings of Xiao Kun on his back unfurled in an instant, and he catapulted himself off the sinking sand, hovering nearly ten meters above the ground.
He looked down; the sand within a hundred-meter radius was slowly rotating, like a giant funnel taking shape.
The center of the funnel had already collapsed into a massive pit nearly ten meters in diameter, with sand on the walls pouring into the bottomless darkness like a waterfall.
Xu Ziyan was the last to react.
His spiritual energy was the lowest, and his perception of danger was a beat slower than the others.
He just wanted to jump up, but the speed of the sand's collapse was much faster than his jump.
Just as his toes left the surface, the sand beneath him had already caved into a pit.
His foot met empty air, and he fell prone onto the rotating, sliding sand.
His body slid toward the center of the funnel along with the flow of sand, moving faster and faster.
“Xu Ziyan!”
Ye Qing's voice came from the left.
The Moon-Listening Insight of the Dew-Condensed Clear Moon Fox in her right ear had already captured the movement beneath the sand before Lin Fan shouted his warning, so she had reacted immediately.
She grabbed Xu Ziyan and used Spatial Jump; the two of them instantly appeared in a safe area at the edge of the funnel.
As for Ye Wushuang, Shen Shuang, and the others, they were rich in combat experience and reacted the moment Lin Fan gave the warning, escaping the vortex in time.
However, before Lin Fan and the others could even steady themselves, the center of the sand funnel violently exploded.
The entire sandy surface seemed to be burst open by something from below.
Grayish-white sand surged outward, kicking up walls of sand several meters high like ocean waves.
Two massive dark purple pincers emerged from the sand, the dense serrated teeth on the inner edges glinting coldly in the moonlight.
Behind the pincers was a flat head, with six black eyes at the top arranged in a crescent shape, each one rotating slowly.
Then came the body... a segmented body covered in heavy carapace, with rows of blade-like appendages embedded along its sides.
It emerged from the sand with increasing speed, segment after segment surging out from the center of the funnel like an endless train driving out from underground, stretching dozens of meters long.
The stinger at the tail was pulled from the sand, the cluster of dark purple light at its tip appearing exceptionally piercing under the pale golden moonlight.
Information flashed frantically across Lin Fan's left eye display.
[Species]: Desert Emperor Scorpion
[Rank]: Rank 75
[Aptitude]: low-grade imperial spirit
[Attributes]: Earth/Poison
[Status]: Hungry, Foraging
[Evaluation]: A low-grade imperial spirit Armor Beast, renowned for its defense and lethal scorpion venom. Hunger triggers its ferocity. It can manipulate yellow sand to bury enemies and poses a lethal threat in close-quarters combat.
“Run!”
Lin Fan's shout exploded in the empty desert, his voice cracking.
Rank seventy-five, low-grade imperial spirit; even if they all fought together, they wouldn't even be enough for a single bite from the opponent.
“Run toward the light pillar!”
Shen Shuang was the first to turn, her figure carving an arc across the sand.
Lin Fan dropped from mid-air and, with a flap of his wings, followed Shen Shuang's trajectory closely.
Ye Qing dragged Xu Ziyan by his collar as they catapulted away from the edge of the quicksand.
The Spatial Jump of the Abyss Rift Jellyfish in her right leg activated repeatedly; the two of them flickered across the sand, advancing over a dozen meters with each appearance.
Xu Ziyan was dragged so fast his feet left the ground; his right foot, which had lost its shoe in the quicksand, scraped against the sand, making him grimace in pain, but he didn't make a sound, his hands death-gripping his backpack straps.
Ye Wushuang's lightning exploded across the sand. The explosive power of the Thunder-Scaled Hou Rabbit in his right leg allowed him to instantly overtake everyone, leading the way.
Yu Nian flew at a low altitude, the wings of the Mystic Light Dragonfly vibrating at high frequency.
The lightning from the Swift Thunder Eagle in his left arm transformed into a guiding line as thin as a hair, dropping from the sky to draw a straight trail of light on the sand, pointing directly toward the deep purple pillar of light.
Xu Tao ran at the very back; he slapped the ground forcefully, and layers of sand walls rose up, forming a circle in an attempt to slow down the Desert Emperor Scorpion.
The Desert Emperor Scorpion fully emerged from the funnel.
Its forty-meter-long dark purple body slowly turned on the sand, its six black eyes locking onto the direction the seven were fleeing.
With just a light flick of its tail, the sand walls blocking its path instantly shattered, failing to hold for even a second.