Episode 49: The Second Ring

The sandstorm at Black Wind Pass was laden with ice shards, lashing against the face like cuts from shattered glass.

When Lu Chen followed the Sand Speaker into the fissure of the wind-eroded cliff, a thin layer of frost already covered his leather boots. Old Dao's bone blade vibrated violently in his hand, the Sand-Guarding Priest totem on its body glowing with a reddish light, as if echoing something—ever since the anti-entropy array was activated at Crescent Spring last time, this blade had grown exceptionally sensitive, always turning scorching hot when close to Old Dao's relics.

"Right here." Ice beads hung from the Sand Speaker's white beard. He tapped the cliff face with a withered finger, producing a hollow echo from the rock. "Old Dao's grandfather is buried here. Back in the days of the Sand-Guarders' internal strife, he died a wrongful death."

Lu Chen raised the bone blade, golden light slashing along the edge and onto the rock face. Amidst flying stone chips, a pitch-black cave entrance was revealed, emitting an odor mixed with sandalwood and rust—the exact same scent as the one inside the Hall of Memory.

"Watch out for traps." The Sand Speaker bent down and squeezed into the cave opening, the hem of his black robe sweeping across the shifting sands on the ground, which parted automatically to reveal blue-stone slabs beneath. "The Old Dao family tombs never play by the rules; his grandfather was especially fond of setting traps."

The cave was deeper than expected. Grooves were chiseled into the stone walls on both sides, filled with animal-bone oil lamps. The Sand Speaker lit them with a tinderbox. In the dim, yellowish light, Lu Chen could clearly make out the murals on the wall—all depicting scenes of Sand-Guarders fighting sand-ghoul beasts. The deepest mural portrayed a priest wearing a ring, using golden light to purify a black-and-purple劫火 (tribulation fire).

"That is the Purification Ring," the Sand Speaker pointed to the priest's left hand, "the gentlest yet most ruthless of the three rings. It can wash away the curse seals of the bone core, at the cost of..."

He stopped abruptly, pressing his white-knuckled fingers against the stone slab ahead. Lu Chen leaned closer and saw a miniature anti-entropy array carved into the slab, with a ring-shaped groove at its center and a line of small characters inscribed beside it: "Guided by blood, do not touch unless you are a successor."

"You must use your blood." The Sand Speaker took half a step back. "The Suppression Ring has acknowledged you; in all probability, the Purification Ring will too."

Without hesitation, Lu Chen slashed his palm open with the bone blade. The moment his fresh blood dripped into the groove, the entire cave began to vibrate. The bone-oil lamps on the stone walls swayed violently, and the image of the priest in the mural sprang to life, raising his glowing left hand and pointing it directly at them.

"Hum—"

The stone slab slowly slid aside, revealing a stone sarcophagus underneath. The coffin lid was carved from a single piece of obsidian, embedded with a yellowish-brown ring. Its style resembled the Suppression Ring, except the surface was not engraved with the anti-entropy totem, but with countless tiny golden lines resembling flowing sand particles.

"The Purification Ring..." Lu Chen's breath caught.

The instant he reached out to take it, the stone sarcophagus suddenly exploded!

It wasn't a mechanism, but something rushing out from within—a desiccated corpse wrapped in black robes, wielding half a bone spear, with deep eye sockets flickering with a ghostly blue light. A broken anti-entropy token was stabbed into its chest, clearly a tomb-guarding puppet.

"Damn it! There really is a surprise!" Lu Chen raised his blade to parry. The moment the bone spear collided with the bone blade, the black robes on the corpse split open, revealing white bones beneath, each wrapped in black curse seals identical to those in the bone core sample.

"It's a Sand-Guarder controlled by a hatred curse seal!" The Sand Speaker's voice tightened. "Old Dao's grandfather was killed by this exact thing back then!"

The corpse's bone spear suddenly lengthened, its tip oozing a black-and-purple liquid—concentrated tribulation fire. Lu Chen's Suppression Ring flared scorching hot. He sidestepped the attack, and the golden light of the bone blade burrowed into the gaps of the corpse's bones. Those black curse seals writhed frantically like scalded insects.

"Now is the chance!" the Sand Speaker suddenly shouted. "Use the Suppression Ring to touch its anti-entropy token!"

Seizing the gap when the corpse thrust its spear, Lu Chen pressed his left hand against the token on its chest. The yellowish-brown ring burst with golden light, resonating with the patterns on the token. The corpse let out a piercing shriek, the ghostly blue in its eye sockets rapidly fading to reveal a normal grayish-white.

It stiffly lowered the bone spear, bowed slightly toward Lu Chen as if paying respects, and then its entire body dissolved into golden sand, falling back into the stone sarcophagus.

At the bottom groove of the sarcophagus, the Purification Ring lay quietly, completely undamaged by the explosion.

Lu Chen picked up the ring and slid it onto the ring finger of his right hand.

The moment the two rings met, an astonishing scene unfolded.

The shifting sands in the cave suddenly surged into the air, gathering into a rotating column of sand. The top of the sand column burst open, transforming into a three-dimensional projection—it was none other than the priest from the mural, standing atop a burning altar with the Purification Ring on his left hand and the Suppression Ring on his right, palms pressed together.

The sky in the projection was an eerie black-and-purple, and the bone core leaped frantically at the center of the altar, black hatred curse seals twisting around it like vines and emitting a piercing screech. The priest suddenly thrust out his palms, golden and yellow radiances intertwining into an anti-entropy array that firmly trapped the bone core.

"With the blood of the Sand-Guarders, purify the resentment of the bone core..." The priest's voice echoed through the cave, carrying a power that pierced through time and space.

The golden radiance burrowed into the bone core along the curse seals, causing those black patterns to recede at a speed visible to the naked eye. The bone core's screech turned into a pained whimper, and the ghostly blue glow gradually turned pure, resembling a flawless sapphire.

Yet the priest's body was also undergoing a transformation.

His skin began to turn to sand, spreading upward from the tips of his toes. The stronger the golden light, the faster the sandification. When the final curse seal was purified, half of the priest's body had already turned to sand. Gazing at the purified bone core, he suddenly revealed an expression of relief, dissolving into a sky full of golden sand that melted into the anti-entropy array.

The projection abruptly dissipated here, and the sand grains fell back into Lu Chen's palm, condensing into two tiny golden grains that burrowed separately into the two rings.

"This is the price." The Sand Speaker's voice carried a heavy weight. "The Purification Ring can wash away the curse seals, but it consumes the user's vitality, perishing together with the bone core."

Lu Chen lowered his head to look at the rings on his hands. They were growing slightly warm, the golden patterns creeping up the back of his hands through his knuckles like two gentle little snakes. He could feel a warm current of energy flowing through his body, resonating with the power of the bone blade, and the wounds previously scorched by the tribulation fire even began to itch, as if healing.

"Now that the two rings are united, they can temporarily purify the consciousness of the sand crystal warriors." The Sand Speaker pointed outside the cave. "Among the sand crystal puppets at Black Wind Pass, quite a few are innocent people controlled by curse seals. You'll understand once you try."

When Lu Chen walked out of the cave, he happened to run into a small patrol squad of sand crystal warriors. Their skin possessed a bluish-gray hue, and the ghostly blue in their eye sockets was much more intense than ordinary puppets, clearly deeply eroded by the hatred curse seals.

"Just in time." Lu Chen clenched both fists, the two rings glowing simultaneously.

Golden and yellow bi-colored light spread along the bone blade, slashing toward the foremost sand crystal warrior. The warrior's bone spear had barely risen halfway when his movements suddenly froze. The bluish-gray skin faded at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the ghostly blue in his eye sockets gradually transformed into a normal brown. He stared blankly at his own hands, as if just waking from a nightmare.

"I... why am I here?" The warrior's voice trembled as he recognized the anti-entropy token on Lu Chen's chest. "You are a Sand-Guarder? Didn't I die in the Valley of Broken Souls?"

The sand crystal warriors behind him let out angry roars, lunging toward this "traitor." Lu Chen's bone blade swung out once more; wherever the golden light swept, two more warriors regained their sanity, looking around in terror at their companions.

"It really works!" Lu Chen's eyes lit up. This meant they no longer had to slaughter the innocent, and could even win over allies!

Yet he quickly noticed something was wrong.

The golden patterns on the back of his hands were deepening, embedding into his skin like red-hot iron wires. Every time he purified a sand crystal warrior, a piercing pain surged from the rings, as if countless fine grains of sand were gnawing at his bones.

"Don't use it too much!" The Sand Speaker's voice carried a warning as he rushed over and grabbed Lu Chen's wrist. "Look at your hands!"

Lu Chen lowered his head and watched in horror as the skin on the back of his hands was turning to sand, spreading outward from the edges of the rings. The golden patterns pulsed like blood vessels; with every pulse, the area of sandification expanded a fraction.

"The backlash has begun." The Sand Speaker pulled a small cloth pouch containing dark green powder from beneath his black robe, sprinkling it over the back of Lu Chen's hand. Only then did the rate of sandification slow down. "This is the Sand-Guarders' Calming Powder; it can temporarily suppress it, but it treats the symptoms, not the root cause. Every time you use the Purification Ring, a bit of your life will be sucked away, until..."

He left the sentence unfinished, but the meaning was obvious—turning into the golden sand just like the priest in the mural.

The sand crystal warriors who had just regained their sanity suddenly let out miserable screams. Their skin began to turn to sand once more, and the ghostly blue in their eye sockets grew deeper than before, clearly re-controlled by the distant bone core's energy. Lu Chen attempted to use the rings again, but the Sand Speaker held him back forcefully.

"It's useless!" The Sand Speaker's voice tightened. "Without a third ring to stabilize the energy, the purification can only last for three minutes! Williams is definitely controlling them remotely!"

Deafening, wild laughter drifted over from the distant sandstorm, and Williams's voice rode the wind, brimming with the smugness of assured victory: "Lu Chen! Do you like the gift I gave you? How does the taste of the Purification Ring feel? Enjoy the process of turning into sand!"

A sudden, stabbing pain wracked Lu Chen's hands as the sandification spread to his wrists. Watching the warriors revert into puppets and charge at him with raised bone spears, he finally understood the Sand Speaker's words—the Purification Ring was not redemption, but a crueler torture, letting you glimpse hope only to smash it with your own hands.

"We must find the third ring." Lu Chen gritted his teeth, severing the charging bone spears with his bone blade. "Otherwise, the Purification Ring is nothing more than trash!"

The Sand Speaker's white beard suddenly quivered. He looked up toward the depths of the cave, where the animal-bone oil lamps were flickering without wind, their light all pointing toward the location of the stone sarcophagus: "Perhaps... it has been there all along."

The two rushed back into the cave. The Sand Speaker pointed to the groove at the bottom of the stone sarcophagus, where the sand was automatically gathering to form the vague shape of a ring. The patterns engraved upon it were neither anti-entropy totems nor golden sand grains, but... a silver bird totem!

"It's the Requiem Ring!" The Sand Speaker's voice carried excitement. "The most mysterious of the three rings, rumored to be hidden within the host of the silver bird bloodline!"

Lu Chen's heart skipped a beat.

The silver bird bloodline... Alicia!

At that moment, the entire cave violently shook. The animal-bone oil lamps on the stone walls all extinguished, and countless rustling "clacking" sounds echoed in the darkness, as if numerous desiccated corpses were awakening.

Something suddenly grabbed the Sand Speaker's black robe. Struggling to look back, his eye sockets reflected a pair of ghostly blue eyes—it was the companion of that earlier corpse, and this time not just one, but over a dozen, all holding bone spears with eye sockets burning with even denser ghostly blue.

"It seems someone doesn't want us to take the clues to the Requiem Ring." A bitter smile accompanied the Sand Speaker's words as he gave Lu Chen a shove. "Go! I'll hold the rear! Remember, the Requiem Ring is inside Alicia. Find it, and only with the three rings united can you..."

His words were cut off by the muffled thud of a bone spear piercing flesh.

Lu Chen watched helplessly as the Sand Speaker's body dissolved into golden sand, merging into the flowing sands of the cave and leaving behind only a yellowish-brown ring that rolled to his feet—the Sand Speaker's own ring, engraved with a simplified Sand-Soul Spokesperson totem.

"Go!" The Sand Speaker's final voice echoed in the cave, carrying an unquestionable force.

Lu Chen snatched up the ring and turned to bolt out of the cave. The corpse roared in pursuit behind him, its bone spear grazing his back and gouging a deep hole into the rock wall.

He cast a glance backward. The cave was collapsing, and countless golden grains of sand poured from the rock crevices like a golden river, completely swallowing those corpses.

The sandification on his wrists continued, the glow of the two rings flickering erratically as if urging and warning him simultaneously.

Clenching his fists, the golden light of Lu Chen's bone blade slashed through the oncoming sandstorm. He knew he had to find Alicia as quickly as possible, not only for the third ring, but also to... complete the unfinished mission of Old Dao and the Sand Speaker before he himself turned to sand.

Yet he failed to notice that the Sand Speaker's ring in his palm was growing slightly warm, and the Sand-Soul Spokesperson totem upon it was slowly connecting with the golden patterns spreading across the back of his hand to form a complete design—a completely unprecedented totem, half anti-entropy array and half scorpion, like a contradictory integration.

Deep within the sandstorm, Williams stood at the center of the energy field, the fragment of the Requiem Bone Flute on his mechanical arm glowing. Watching the direction of Black Wind Pass, a bizarre smile curved the corners of his mouth:

"Finally about to gather them all... My good niece, are you ready to be the final sacrifice?"

Upon his chest, the fragment of the Purification Ring stolen from Old Dao's grandfather's tomb was throbbing, creating an eerie resonance with Lu Chen's ring far away.

An ultimate game centered around the three rings had only just begun. Little did Lu Chen know, the path he was accelerating toward might not lead to redemption, but to an end far more terrifying than sandification.