Chapter 17: Williams's Ambition

A crack in the temple’s dome leaked a sliver of moonlight, perfectly illuminating the sand scorpion totem beneath Williams’s feet.

The Blood Covenant warriors knelt on the cold stone floor, the hems of their black robes sweeping over scattered bone fragments, producing a faint rustling. From deep within the temple came a “clicking” sound, like bones striking the stone, each echo causing the candle flames on the walls to flicker, twisting the shadows into grotesque shapes.

“Raise your heads,” Williams’s voice echoed beneath the dome. The red glow from his mechanical eye swept over the crowd. “Look upon the world you are about to claim.”

He raised his mechanical arm, palm aimed at the stone altar in the temple’s center. An eerie blue light poured from his palm, projecting a holographic image in midair—a lush oasis, rivers winding like silver ribbons, fields heavy with crops. People from the X tribe, clad in coarse hemp garments, bowed their heads as they served water to warriors of the S tribe. Children wore scorpion-shaped pendants and learned to write the S tribe’s script in the sand.

“The bone core energy can transform the desert,” Williams’s voice brimmed with fanatic zeal. The oasis in the hologram suddenly expanded, swallowing surrounding sand dunes. “But this power belongs only to the strong. You—my Blood Covenant warriors—will become masters of the oasis. Every family will claim the richest land. Every man will have slaves from the X tribe!”

A low murmur stirred among the crowd. Some warriors’ eyes gleamed with greed, while others frowned—those from the X tribe in the hologram bore expressions as vacant as corpses, even the children’s smiles twisted with unnatural stiffness.

“Lord Williams,” a burly soldier with a beard could no longer hold back. He was among the few who still retained some reason. “The elders say the bone core energy is a curse. Forcibly reshaping the desert will—”

“Silence!” Williams spun around sharply, the alloy joints of his mechanical arm grinding harshly. “What do those old fools understand? All they do is cling to their ancestors’ broken rules, waiting to die! My father died because of their cowardice!”

Suddenly, he seized a syringe from the altar, filled with a dark red liquid that looked like molten blood, bubbling faintly. This was a high-concentration sand blood serum, ten times stronger than what ordinary warriors received, with terrifying side effects—none of the tribe’s test subjects survived more than three days.

“Watch closely!” Williams tore open his black robe to reveal a scarred left arm and plunged the syringe into his vein without hesitation.

The moment the dark red serum entered his bloodstream, his skin flushed as if scalded by boiling water. His veins throbbed violently, as if countless tiny snakes writhed beneath his flesh. Most astonishingly, silver-white sand crystals rapidly encased his arm, spreading from wrist to shoulder, forming a fearsome armor. Sharp crystal claws, three centimeters long, sprouted at his knuckles, glinting coldly in the candlelight.

“This is the blessing of the bone core!” Williams laughed wildly, slashing the crystal claws against a nearby stone pillar. With a sharp crack, the hard granite bore three deep gouges, stone chips flying. The crystals on his claws shone even brighter. “With this power, what are the remnants of the X tribe? Even the desert sand will obey us!”

The bearded soldier’s face turned pale. He opened his mouth to speak but was frozen by Williams’s icy gaze.

“Anyone else oppose?” Williams’s mechanical eye flared with a fierce red light, his gaze cutting through the crowd like a blade. “Step forward, and I’ll show you the true power of the sand crystal.”

Silence engulfed the temple, broken only by the crackling of candles and Williams’s heavy, ragged breathing. Alicia knelt in the back ranks, head lowered. No one saw her clenched fist—her sleeve hid a miniature communicator, heating up. When Williams displayed the hologram, she secretly recorded the crucial footage, preparing to send it to Lu Chen.

A sudden intensification of pain blossomed on the inside of her thigh. The black marking had crept to her waist, writhing like a small snake, sending waves of ticklish pleasure that nearly made her moan. She knew the bone core serum was merging with her bloodline. Williams was right—her pure royal blood resonated more strongly with the bone core, but not as a vessel; instead, to control it.

“Looks like no one else objects,” Williams sneered with satisfaction. His mechanical arm clenched gently, and a few grains of sand dripped from his palm onto the floor.

Strangely, the grains did not scatter. Instead, as if scorched by intense heat, they slowly turned to pale gray ash, leaving no trace.

“This is the fate of dissenters,” Williams’s voice chilled like ice. “From today onward, anyone who dares question the bone core project will vanish from the desert like these grains of sand.”

He turned and strode toward the temple’s depths. On the stone altar, inside a glass container, the bone core throbbed violently, its surface veins swelling like earthworms, casting shadows that mirrored Williams’s sand crystal armor.

“Tomorrow at noon is the sacrificial ceremony,” Williams’s voice emerged from the shadows, commanding without room for refusal. “Alicia, bring your blood. Don’t disappoint me.”

Alicia’s heart tightened sharply; the communicator almost slipped from her fingertips. She felt the black mark on her waist writhe faster, responding to the bone core’s call. The blue fluid within the glass container shifted suddenly, surging toward her, imprinting a blurry handprint on the glass wall—identical to the pattern on her palm.

As the crowd dispersed, Alicia deliberately lingered behind. She saw the bearded veteran hesitantly heading for the temple’s back door, clearly struggling with his thoughts. Quietly, she followed and blocked his path at a corner.

“You want to stop him, don’t you?” Alicia’s voice was low, the sharp pain at her waist causing sweat to bead on her brow.

The veteran spun around in surprise upon seeing her. “Miss Alicia, you…”

“Williams is going mad,” Alicia interrupted, pulling a small leather pouch from her sleeve. “This contains a diluted antidote that temporarily suppresses the serum’s side effects. If you want to save the warriors, find a way to mix this into their water.”

The veteran stared at the pouch, then at the faint black markings on Alicia’s waist. Suddenly, realization dawned, and his face drained of color as he staggered back. “You… you’ve been affected by the bone core too?”

Alicia said nothing, pressing the pouch into his hand before turning to leave swiftly. She felt the bone core in the glass container still “watching” her, its veins like a living serpent climbing the wall, ready to shatter the glass and coil around her throat.

Deep within the temple, Williams murmured to the bone core. Dark red liquid oozed from the gaps in his sand crystal armor, dripping onto the altar and instantly absorbed by the bone core’s veins. The bone core throbbed violently, pounding against the glass with muffled thuds, as if cheering excitedly.

In its flickering image appeared not only Williams’s armor but also a vague female silhouette, black serpentine markings coiling around her waist, stepping toward the bone core with a sinister smile curling her lips.

Tomorrow’s sacrificial ceremony was destined to be far from simple.