Chapter 34: The Weakness of the Sand-Bone Beast

The wind at Black Wind Pass carried sand grains that stung the face like countless tiny blades.

Lu Chen cleaved the skull of a charging Sand-Bone Beast with a single strike. Fragments of the bone core splattered onto his combat suit, hissing as they scorched the fabric. This was the thirty-seventh beast he had slain, yet more continued to surge from behind the dunes. The grey-blue bones linked together under the moonlight like a writhing, giant white-bone serpent.

"My ammo is almost gone!" Chen Yu roared, his voice cracking with panic. His rifle barrel was glowing hot, wisps of acrid smoke rising from the muzzle. "Are these damn things endless?"

No sooner had he spoken than a Sand-Bone Beast burst from the sand, its bone claws aimed straight for his heart. Chen Yu was too slow to dodge, watching in horror as the claws loomed large—at the eleventh hour, Old Knife’s bone blade slashed diagonally, severing the beast’s limb. Amidst the spray of bone shards, Old Knife’s arm was raked by a deep, bone-exposed wound.

"Watch yourself!" Old Knife cursed, veins throbbing on his forehead. "These animals have learned to ambush!"

The warriors of the X-Battalion were pushed to the edge of a cliff, a bottomless canyon behind them; there was nowhere left to retreat. The roars of the Sand-Bone Beasts were deafening. Their skeletal frames were still stained with the flesh and blood of the logistics soldiers from days prior, some claws even draped with tattered military uniforms, a sight that made one’s skin crawl.

Chen Yu’s back suddenly hit something soft. He turned to find a camel, killed by the beasts; its belly had been ripped open, entrails spilling out, the warm blood pooling into a small puddle on the sand. The beasts were focused on the living, ignoring the carcass for the moment.

"Damn it, if I’m going down, I’m taking one with me!" Red-eyed, Chen Yu grabbed a camel leg bone, ready to fight to the death.

Just then, a Sand-Bone Beast bypassed Lu Chen’s defensive line and lunged at Chen Yu. Its skeletal maw was wide open, jammed with half a human skull, the stench of decay hitting them like a physical blow. Chen Yu instinctively raised the camel leg bone to block, and the fresh blood on the bone splashed right across the beast’s face.

A bizarre phenomenon occurred.

The Sand-Bone Beast suddenly froze.

Where the camel blood touched the bones, it hissed and smoked as if doused in concentrated acid. The once-hard bone armor weathered and flaked away at a visible rate, revealing the grey-white sand beneath. It let out a shrill, mournful wail before its massive frame collapsed like a heap of scattered blocks, finally melting into a puddle of foul-smelling, sandy sludge.

"What the hell?" Chen Yu held the camel leg bone, completely dumbfounded. "What... what was that?"

Lu Chen and Old Knife witnessed the scene, both men freezing in their tracks, eyes wide as saucers.

"Do it again!" Old Knife roared, pointing his bone blade at another charging beast. "Chen Yu, splash it with the camel blood!"

Chen Yu snapped to his senses, grabbed the camel’s entrails, and hurled them at the beast like a grenade. The foul, bloody viscera splattered onto the beast's back, and once again, the weathering effect took hold! The creature twisted frantically, trying to shake off the blood, only to accelerate the disintegration of its bones. Within seconds, it too dissolved into a puddle of sand.

"It works! It really works!" Chen Yu shouted with excitement, tears welling in his eyes. "These ghosts are afraid of camel blood!"

Old Knife suddenly slapped his thigh, his bone blade vibrating in his hand: "The ancient texts! Camels are the spirit messengers of the desert, capable of channeling the energy of heaven and earth. Their blood carries pure life energy, which perfectly purifies the evil essence of these Sand-Bone Beasts! Why didn't I think of this sooner?"

Lu Chen’s eyes brightened instantly: "Chen Yu, gather all the camel carcasses! Everyone else, collect containers. We’re making camel blood firebombs!"

The soldiers were energized as if injected with adrenaline, exploding into a flurry of activity. Some dragged carcasses, others used combat knives to slice open veins, some emptied their water canteens to hold fresh blood, while others scavenged their packs for alcohol and rags to craft makeshift incendiaries.

"Faster! Faster!" Lu Chen urged, parrying a beast’s attack with his totem blade. "They seem to have noticed; their offensive is intensifying!"

Indeed, the remaining Sand-Bone Beasts acted as if crazed, charging forward regardless of casualties, their claws crunching over the sandy sludge of their fallen kin. Three warriors had already fallen at the cliff’s edge, their blood staining the sand, mixing with the camel blood to form a hauntingly dark crimson.

"First wave of firebombs incoming!" Chen Yu held up three wine bottles filled with camel blood, the rags ignited, flames licking the glass with a sharp crackle.

He threw them with all his might. The bottles traced three graceful arcs through the air, landing perfectly in the densest cluster of beasts. With several deafening booms, the camel blood catalyzed by the fire splashed outward, creating a wall of blood-red flame.

The beasts caught within the wall were plunged into hell.

Upon contact with the burning blood, their bones not only weathered but ignited with a ghostly blue flame, burning them into ash from the inside out. Shrill wails echoed incessantly. The once-ferocious swarm fell into a panic, instinctively retreating from the wall of fire.

"It’s effective! So effective!" A young warrior jumped with joy, his arm bleeding from a previous scratch, yet he felt no pain. "They’re afraid! These animals are afraid of us!"

Lu Chen seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack. The soldiers divided into three teams: one for crafting, one for throwing, and one for cleaning up stragglers. The camel blood firebombs flew toward the swarm like a meteor shower, each explosion clearing a patch of ground. The blue flames burned brilliantly in the night, as if playing a symphony of vengeance.

Old Knife’s bone blade was coated in camel blood; every strike caused massive weathering, his efficiency increasing tenfold. He laughed as he slaughtered, his voice filled with long-suppressed catharsis: "Keep being arrogant! Keep eating human bones! You know how it feels now, don't you?"

Chen Yu was even more bloodthirsty. Deeming the bottles too slow, he grabbed a bucket full of camel blood and splashed it head-on at the charging beasts. As they weathered, he finished them off with his rifle, shattering their sandy cores.

The battle lasted less than half an hour before the dense swarm was largely decimated. The cliff’s edge was piled high with the blue-glowing sludge of the disintegrated beasts, the air thick with a strange mixture of blood and burnt decay.

The soldiers slumped to the ground, panting heavily, yet their faces were illuminated by the smiles of victors. It was their first effective stand against the beasts; the previous fear and frustration had been swept away, replaced by newfound confidence.

"Finally, a good night’s sleep." Chen Yu tossed his rifle aside and took a deep swig from his canteen, traces of camel blood still staining his lips.

Lu Chen, however, did not lower his guard. He crouched before a pile of sludge, pinched a bit with his fingers, and sniffed. Beyond the burnt smell, there was a faint trace of core energy, identical to the fragments he had encountered before.

"Something's wrong." Lu Chen frowned. "This sludge is seeping into the ground."

The others gathered around, seeing that the blue-glowing sludge was indeed slowly sinking into the sand like water into a sponge. Where it seeped, the sand began to glow, forming tiny, shimmering points like stars buried beneath the earth.

Old Knife’s face turned deathly pale. He scooped up a handful of glowing sand, his hands trembling uncontrollably: "It’s over... The second half of the ancient text... I forgot it..."

"What’s the second half?" Lu Chen’s heart sank.

"Camel blood can purify the form of the Sand-Bone Beasts, but it cannot destroy their energy cores." Old Knife’s voice was filled with despair. "This energy seeps into the ground, fusing with the desert sand to form new energy nodes... We are accelerating the awakening of the core!"

No sooner had he spoken than the ground began to tremble.

Where the sludge had seeped, the points of light grew brighter, connecting into a glowing web that spread like a golden spiderweb beneath the earth. From the center of this network—the direction of the Black Wind Pass altar—came a low, deep humming, as if some gargantuan entity were stirring to life.

"They weren't attacking us," Lu Chen realized. "They were letting themselves be killed! Their goal was to use their own energy to activate these nodes!"

Chen Yu’s smile froze. He looked at his hands, stained with camel blood, and felt a wave of nausea. "We... we helped the core?"

"More than just helped." Old Knife’s voice was strained. "These energy nodes will resonate with one another, forming a new field. By then, let alone starting the Anti-Entropy Array, we won't even have the right to get close to the altar!"

Lu Chen jerked his head up, staring toward the altar at Black Wind Pass. The light there was intensifying, the silhouette of the altar’s summit now faintly visible. Where the Anti-Entropy Totem should have been, a ghostly blue light—the same as the bone cores—was pulsing.

Even worse, the dunes in the distance began to stir. New Sand-Bone Beasts were gathering, more numerous than before, and their bones were flecked with a faint, golden light—the radiance of the energy nodes.

"They’ve evolved." Lu Chen’s voice was cold as ice as he gripped his totem blade. "Camel blood may... no longer work on the new ones."

The hard-won victory had instantly transformed into a massive trap. They thought they had found a weakness, never realizing it was part of the core’s own plan.

The smiles on the soldiers’ faces vanished, replaced by a profound dread. They looked at the expanding energy network beneath their feet, at the growing swarm of new beasts in the distance, and realized they weren't fighting—they were laying the foundation for the awakening of the core.

Lu Chen’s gaze rested on the center of the energy network, where the light was brightest and most ominous. He knew they had to destroy it before the network fully formed, or all would be lost.

But looking at the dark, encroaching mass of new beasts, he felt a deep sense of powerlessness for the first time.

How were they supposed to win this fight?

The light beneath the ground grew brighter, shining through the sand to cast ghostly blue spots on everyone’s faces like markings of doom. And the new swarm had already begun to move toward them, slow and inevitable.