Volume One: The Soul-Guiding Gourd and the Soul-Burning Lamp Chapter 115: What the Hell is That?

The moon cast mottled shadows, and a chilling wind whistled through the air.

No sooner had the black, gluttonous fur-ball appeared than it opened its mouth and spat out two more artifacts of the Underworld.

*Thump!*

As soon as the two artifacts hit the ground, a bizarre phenomenon occurred. The eerily sinister Soul-Burning Lamp ignited without a flame, and the Soul-Drawing Gourd popped its lid open of its own accord. A ghostly, ghastly green fire began to burn upon the lamp.

The onlookers were left utterly bewildered.

Just then, a *whoosh* echoed through the air. A strange, violent wind whipped up, carrying sand and grit, rushing toward the group. In an instant, the heart of the desert was plunged into darkness, choked by swirling yellow sand. The biting gale seemed to possess a life of its own, sweeping across everything in its path, while the temperature plummeted to freezing.

The wall of wind and sand rose over twenty meters high—a scene reminiscent of the poetic description, "Dark clouds crush the city, the city on the verge of collapse." Truly, before the power of nature, human beings are but a single grain of sand in a vast ocean, insignificant and fleeting.

Seeing this, Gu Mo and his companions were struck dumb, their faces covered as they prepared to flee. But just as they rose, the incorrigible Xiao Yulou began his antics again. The goofy little Taoist gestured at the churning sand, looked at everyone with a dead-serious expression, and proclaimed:

"Thunder is rumbling! Rain is falling! Time to bring in the laundry!"

(Good grief, wasn't that a line from the Monk in *A Chinese Odyssey*?)

Hearing this, Gu Mo, who was half-risen, glared and spat to the side. Before he could unleash a torrent of abuse, Xiao Yulou gave a light cough and announced loudly:

"Gentlemen, there is no need for alarm. This is merely the result of the Soul-Drawing Gourd feeding on spirits!"

Half-skeptical, the group didn't know whether to stay or go, so they could only take a deep breath and endure the onslaught of the eerie gale. The vast number of green spirits rising from the mountain of corpses and sea of blood seemed to be guided by some invisible force, being forcibly sucked into the Soul-Drawing Gourd.

A long time later, the wind died down and the sand settled.

*Thump!*

The lid of the Soul-Drawing Gourd snapped shut on its own, and the green ghost-fire on the lamp extinguished. It was as if nothing had ever happened.

Looking at the group huddled in the shadow of the dune, they were all stunned, wide-eyed, covered in dust, and in a state of utter disarray. Gu Mo, completely at a loss, stood frozen with a furrowed brow.

Beside him, Yu Kongcheng wiped the sand from his face and blurted out in shock, "What the hell! Is this the legendary Soul-Drawing Gourd?"

The exclamation snapped the others out of their daze. Li Hetang offered a bitter smile, "You'll have to ask our Mr. Gu about that!"

After a long while, a shell-shocked Gu Mo looked blankly at Xiao Yulou, who was sitting cross-legged, and asked, "Brother Xiao, what just happened?"

"Wuliang Tianzun!"

No sooner had he spoken than the ethereal-looking Xiao Yulou flicked his Taoist sleeves, shook his head, and began to explain in a leisurely tone: "In my humble opinion, the Soul-Drawing Gourd has just consumed a great number of souls."

As he spoke, he tilted his chin toward the mountain of corpses not far away. The group was left speechless, completely floored.

A frowning Li Hetang cursed, "What? It takes such a massive spectacle just to feed on a few spirits?"

The group turned their gazes toward Gu Mo. As the current master of the gourd, Gu Mo felt a chill run down his spine and shrugged helplessly. "Why are you all looking at me? I’ve only had this broken gourd for a few days. Even a mobile phone takes a month to figure out, right?"

Just then, Yu Kongcheng twitched his nose, as if he had caught a whiff of something deadly. The strange, lethal youth’s expression shifted to one of panic, his teeth chattering as he shouted to the group:

"Something’s wrong! There’s a monster in the heart of the desert!"

Everyone shuddered. Anything that could strike fear into this killer must be truly terrifying.

*BOOM!*

A massive, thunderous sound erupted nearby. The dilapidated submarine in the distance emitted a sound like a ten-thousand-ton ship colliding with an iceberg.

*CRACK!*

With another deafening sound, the gargantuan submarine snapped in two.

*ROAR!*

With a sky-shattering bellow, a giant, thirty-meter-long cylindrical shape burst from the desert floor. The shattered submarine was tossed aside like a piece of cotton, flying twenty meters away with a heavy thud. A wave of sand ten meters high erupted as the debris hit the dunes.

The group was dumbfounded. "What the hell is that thing?"

They peered over the edge of the dune. The giant pillar, rising toward the sky, was blood-red and covered in dark spots. Its top was shaped like a spike, bearing two horrifying horns, and the patterns on the red surface were bizarre and unsettling. Droplets of thick green liquid sprayed everywhere, and a foul, pungent stench filled the desert.

*ROAR!*

With another roar, the top of the pillar tilted toward the mountain of corpses. A massive, circular maw appeared—like an abyss. Inside that abyss stood countless sharp fangs, each thicker than a utility pole. If the King of Beasts saw this, it would surely tremble like a kitten; even the anacondas of the steaming rainforest would look like mere earthworms by comparison.

The group was terrified to the point of losing their souls. If it were a nest of giant anacondas, they might have stood a chance, but this monstrosity was unknown. Was there even any point in fighting? If they didn't run, they were fools.

Suddenly, the massive blood-red pillar plunged into the mountain of corpses. Its fangs tore into the pile, swallowing half of it in a single bite. *Crunch, crunch*—the wet, sickening sound of destruction followed, and a fountain of blood sprayed into the air.

Gu Mo felt his scalp prickle; a cold, primal fear surged from his heels up his spine. "Brother... Brother Xiao, what... what is this thing?"

Xiao Yulou, paralyzed with shock, stared with eyes as large as eggs, unable to offer an answer. In the blink of an eye, the strange youth Yu Kongcheng suddenly crouched on the dune like a lone wolf and let out a howl at the blood-red moon!

*AWOOOOO!*

The piercing howl shattered the silence of the night. The giant creature, whatever it was, whipped its head around to glare at the shadow of the dune. Gu Mo, Xiao Yulou, Min Wenhua, and Li Hetang all stared in horror, cold sweat beading on their foreheads.

"We're doomed!" the four of them thought in unison. Why was this "husky" acting so reckless? Were all young people this impulsive?

Before they could stop him, Yu Kongcheng stood tall, his neck arched toward the moon. His arms hung at his sides, his veins bulging, and his fingers transformed into sharp claws. In a split second, his eyes turned a deep, blood-red, and a suffocating murderous intent filled the air.

*Rip, rip!*

The sound of fabric tearing echoed as his black clothes were shredded by thick, black fur. His bones cracked and expanded rapidly. His once-delicate face grew a layer of fine, dark hair, and a bushy wolf tail burst through his trousers.

In a single breath, the youth who had been just over 1.7 meters tall stood as a bloodthirsty wolf-man over two meters high, his muscles rippling beneath thick fur, his claws elongated and razor-sharp. He had transcended humanity; he was now a bloodthirsty wolf.

*Huff!*

As he opened his mouth, a hot, rank breath erupted, followed by a pungent, musky scent—the smell of a wild hound. Everyone was completely stunned by this terrifying transformation. (Li Hetang had seen this before; the last time Yu Kongcheng transformed, Li had ended up with seven or eight broken ribs.)

In a flash, Yu Kongcheng lunged toward the blood-red pillar like a beast... Gu Mo was stunned, his jaw practically hitting the sand. He looked at Li Hetang and asked, "Li! What is your 'husky' trying to do?"

Li Hetang sighed heavily, his expression grave. "There's no helping it; the sight of the blood triggered him."

Gu Mo cursed under his breath, "Triggered him? We should be running! What now? Are we going to get wiped out? This thing looks even stronger than Baron Nashor in the Rift!"

Li Hetang gave him a look of disdain. "Brother Gu, could you have a little bit of common sense? That thing is the Death God of the desert—the Death Worm!"

The revelation hit Gu Mo and Xiao Yulou like a lightning bolt. "What? The Death Worm? The thing that guards the Khan’s tomb? Since when are worms that big?"

Li Hetang gave a bitter smile. "Remember, this isn't the mortal world. This is the Well of Gods and Demons!"

Everything suddenly made sense. Of course! This was the Well of Gods and Demons! One could only wonder how those scoundrels from the White Lotus Sect had managed to get their hands on such a creature. Had they actually robbed the Khan’s tomb?

As the scene shifted, Yu Kongcheng had already reached the base of the giant Death Worm.

*ZAP!*

A beam of green light, as thick as a utility pole, erupted with a piercing, unbearable screech, illuminating the dark night like a laser. The group in the shadows felt their hearts constrict in terror.

*AWOOO!*

Before Yu Kongcheng could even strike, the beam tore through him, melting away half of his body. The exposed flesh glowed with an eerie, sickly green light. A vast amount of dark blood stained the yellow sand, and where the beam had swept, the sand had been fused into jagged, crystalline glass shards.

What was happening? It had even melted the sand! Was Yu Kongcheng, as powerful as he was, done for before he even started? And... his death looked far too gruesome!