Chapter 66: Williams's Army of Sand

The sandstorm at Black Wind Pass suddenly parted like a split curtain.

Williams charged out from the gap, riding a giant sand-crystal scorpion whose six pairs of crystalline wings unfolded behind him, casting a shadow that covered the entire altar. Dozens of dark blue bone cores were embedded in his crystal armor, each pulsing in resonance with the underground energy field—trophies he had looted from the tombs of generations of invaders.

"Look who's here," Williams's mechanical eye swept over the Tang Dynasty skeletons behind Lu Chen, letting out a sneer. "A bunch of moldy old bones, and they think they're worthy of guarding the altar?"

He suddenly raised his hand and slammed his massive crystalline pincer heavily onto the ground.

"Come forth, my warriors!"

The sand dunes surrounding the altar exploded simultaneously. Thousands of skeletons surged from beneath the sand, forming a bizarre legion spanning a millennium—in the front rank were skeletons wearing the bone armor of Mongol cavalry, their bone bows still strung with decaying tendons; in the middle were skeletons of colonial merchant fleets shouldering flintlock muskets, their brass buttons gleaming coldly in the sand-light; and most glaringly in the rear were the modern raider skeletons clutching rusted rocket launchers, their combat boots still stained with un-faded petroleum residue.

"This is..." Chen Yu's heavy machine gun almost slipped from his hands as he recognized the uniforms of several skeletons. "They're the mercenaries who plundered the sand-crystals a century ago! And the Desert Corps from World War II!"

Alicia's silver-bird totem grew violently hot. She could sense that the lingering resentment attached to these skeletons was a hundred times denser than that of ordinary wraiths. "They are all invaders polluted by the energy of the bone cores, and their souls were enslaved by Williams after death!"

Williams rode his giant sand-crystal scorpion slowly forward. Black-purple liquid dripped from the stinger on the scorpion's tail, hissing as it burned marks into the sandy ground. "Lu Chen, don't you always say the Sand Guardians represent justice?" He pointed at the colonial skeletons. "Look what is engraved on these fellows' bones!"

A streak of dark-purple energy shot from his palm, striking a skeleton wearing a tricorn hat. The skeleton's sternum suddenly split open, revealing a piece of sand-crystal embedded within, inscribed with a blurred line of Latin: *Sand-crystals belong to the Queen.*

"Three hundred years ago, they blew open your temple with gunpowder and seized the remains of the Sand Guardians as trophies." Williams pointed again at the Mongol cavalry. "These fellows were even more ruthless; they nailed the resisting Sand Guardians directly to the sand dunes to be eaten alive by vultures."

Most horrifying of all were the modern raider skeletons. Williams's energy brushed over their rocket launchers, causing the rusted outer shells to flake off and revealing that what was packed inside wasn't explosives, but congealed chunks of sand-dwellers' remains, each piece frozen in a posture of struggle.

"Twenty years ago, to secure an oil pipeline route, they buried an entire sand village inside the pipeline." Williams's voice sounded like poison-laced sand grains. "These are all the fine deeds done by your 'ancestors'."

The Tang Dynasty skeletons suddenly stirred in a commotion. Rusty swords pointed in unison at the invader skeletons, the clatter of bone armor sounding like a roar that transcended time and space. The bone bows of the Mongol cavalry skeletons were drawn to their limit, the colonial skeletons raised their flintlocks, and the rocket launchers of the modern skeletons locked onto the center of the altar.

"See that?" Williams's wild laughter shook loose falling grains of sand. "In your bones, you are all invaders! What righteous emissary are you pretending to be now?"

Lu Chen's Three-Precepts totem suddenly grew scorching hot. Looking at the sand-crystals on the chests of the colonial skeletons, he suddenly remembered the words of the Sand Speaker—the mission of the Sand Guardians is not revenge, but to break the cycle of hatred.

"They are them, and we are us." Lu Chen's bone blade pointed at Williams, its golden radiance cleaving apart the oncoming sand grains. "You gather these skeletons simply to prove that violence is a legacy? Too bad you forgot that guardianship is one too."

He suddenly raised his hand, and the Three-Precepts totem burst with golden light. "Form ranks!"

The Tang Dynasty skeletons instantly shifted formations, the front row raising shields to form a tortoise-shell defensive array while the archers in the rear unleashed a volley. Rusty arrows cut through the dust and wind, precisely piercing the flintlock barrels of the colonial skeletons. Before the Mongol cavalry could charge, they were impaled through their bone armor by Tang Dynasty spearmen erupting from the ground.

"Well done!" Chen Yu's heavy machine gun roared to life, a stream of armor-piercing rounds slamming into the rocket launchers of the modern raider skeletons and triggering a chain reaction of secondary explosions. The shockwave of the blast blew dozens of skeletons into the air, but it also caused the altar's energy field to flicker violently—the resentment of those skeletons was polluting the energy flow.

Seizing the opportunity, Williams spurred his giant sand-crystal scorpion into a sudden acceleration, its tail stinger lunging directly for Lu Chen's heart. "Die!"

Alicia's silver-bird totem abruptly flared with blue light, transforming into a barrier that blocked the stinger. But her sand-crystal erosion worsened as a result; her left arm turned completely grayish-blue, the veins beneath her skin writhing like dark worms. "Lu Chen! Attack their bone cores! The energy sources of those invader skeletons are in their chests!"

Lu Chen understood instantly. The golden light of the Three-Precepts totem spread along the Tang Dynasty skeletons. Those ancient wraiths collectively wheeled around, their rusty swords pointing straight at the sternums of the invader skeletons—precisely where Williams had embedded his controlling bone cores.

*Clang, clang, clang!*

The shower of Tang Dynasty blades collided with the Mongol bone armor, and the resulting sparks ignited the decaying garments on the colonial skeletons. A skeleton carrying a British flag was cleaved in half by a Tang Dynasty general's skeleton, and the controlling bone core within its ribcage rolled onto the ground, instantly purified into powder by the golden light.

"No!" Williams's mechanical pincer swept horizontally, crushing a score of Tang Dynasty skeletons. "Kill them! Grind their bones into sand!"

The modern raider skeletons abruptly squatted down in unison, the exhaust flames of their rocket launchers igniting the surrounding sand. Dozens of rusted missiles trailing black smoke surged toward the altar. The shield wall formed by the Tang Dynasty skeletons tottered amidst the explosions, and many ancient archer skeletons were blown away by the shockwave, crashing to the ground to turn into fine powder.

"Wang Lu! Runeshell!" Lu Chen roared, hacking apart a missile that had exploded at close range. The shockwave made his chest ache, dimming the golden light of the Three-Precepts totem significantly.

Wang Lu's medical squad hastily wheeled out a heavy sand-crystal cannon—a trophy they had looted from the S-tribe armory, now retrofitted with anti-entropy runes. Gritting her teeth, she spun the muzzle and loaded a runeshell condensed with the resentment of the Tang Dynasty soldiers. "Taste this!"

The runeshell soared toward the cluster of modern skeletons trailing a golden tail-flame, transforming upon detonation into countless tiny anti-entropy arrays that enveloped those skeletons like a giant net. The controlling bone cores exploded one after another within the arrays, and the raider skeletons, losing their energy support, collapsed into piles of loose bones.

"How many more surprises do you have?" Williams's sand-crystal wings beat suddenly, shooting out six dark-purple sand blades simultaneously that shattered the sand-crystal cannon into pieces. "You think you win just by destroying modern weapons?"

He raised his hand abruptly, and the skeletons of the sand legion began to reorganize. The bone armor of the Mongol cavalry merged with the colonial flintlocks, transforming into squads of musketeer cavalry mounted on bone horses; the rocket launchers of the modern skeletons were detached and mounted onto the frames of Mongol catapults, forming bizarre hybrid weaponry.

"This is the true Sand Legion!" Williams's wild laughter echoed through the sandstorm. "Synthesizing the violence of all eras—this is the true law of the desert!"

The reorganized legion launched its charge, the hooves of the bone horses hammering the sandy ground to produce a deafening roar. The shield formation of the Tang Dynasty skeletons was on the verge of collapse, and the bone armor of many ancient soldier skeletons began to weather away—their energy was running out.

Lu Chen's Three-Precepts totem suddenly throbbed with a sharp pain. Glancing down, he saw the patterns on his palm fading, a clear sign of energy exhaustion. Alicia's silver-bird totem had also dimmed. Leaning against a broken pillar, her complexion as pale as paper, she murmured, "Lu Chen... we can't hold on much longer."

Williams's giant sand-crystal scorpion had already charged to the edge of the altar, its tail stinger aiming directly at the phantom of the Tang Dynasty general. "Game over!"

At that moment, a dramatic transformation occurred.

Those scattered, purified bones of the invader skeletons suddenly began to glow. Sand grains gathered automatically, forming a new wall of bodies behind the Tang Dynasty skeletons—they were the civilian skeletons of the Sand Guardians! They bore no weapons, but simply placed their bone hands on the shoulders of those who came before them, forming a fragile yet steadfast line of defense.

"They're... the sand-dwellers murdered by the invaders!" Tears welled up in Alicia's eyes. "Their resentment is not hatred; it's guardianship!"

The civilian skeletons collectively bowed forward, striking the ground with their bone palms. The energy field beneath the altar was activated, sending a wave of golden shock outward from their center. Wherever it passed, the reorganized sand legion came to a grinding halt, and the black curses on the controlling bone cores began to recede.

"Impossible!" The red light in Williams's mechanical eye flared violently. "Humble ants dare to defy me?"

His giant sand-crystal pincer slammed down heavily toward the civilian skeletons, only to be deflected by an abruptly rising barrier of golden light. Looking at the unarmed civilian skeletons, Lu Chen finally understood the true essence of the Sand Guardians—it did not rely on weapons, but on a heart of guardianship passed down from generation to generation.

"In the name of the Three Precepts!" Lu Chen plunged his bone blade deep into the altar's core, and the golden light of the Three-Precepts totem erupted fully. "Lend me the souls of the sand-dwellers across a billion years!"

The sand dunes surrounding the altar burst open entirely, and countless civilian skeletons poured out from beneath the sand to join the defense line. Among them were the elderly, children, and even skeletons of youths who had not yet reached adulthood, yet all faced the reorganized sand legion with the exact same unyielding posture.

The bone horses of the Mongol cavalry stalled in front of the civilian skeletons, the flintlocks of the colonial skeletons fell silent one by one, and the exhaust flames of the modern missile launchers were completely extinguished—the resentment of invaders could ultimately never defeat the will to protect.

Watching his Sand Legion disintegrate in the golden light, Williams let out a despairing roar, "You think you've won just like that?"

He abruptly tore off the brightest bone core on his chest—the skull of a World War II general, its eye sockets flickering with pure black light.

"I still have my ultimate trump card!" Williams crushed the skull, and the dark-purple energy instantly swallowed his sand-crystal armor. "Taste this—nuclear-grade bone-core energy!"

A mushroom-cloud-shaped dark-purple energy surged behind him, its shockwave blowing away all the civilian skeletons and even causing the phantom of the Tang Dynasty general to begin crumbling. Lu Chen's Three-Precepts totem burned fiercely; he could sense the altar's energy field collapsing, the newly awakened sand-dwellers' skeletons turning into ashes.

"Lu Chen!" Alicia lunged forward, using her body to shield him as her silver-bird totem unleashed a final surge of blue light. "Activate the final safeguard of the anti-entropy array! My mother said that in a critical moment..."

Her voice was swallowed by the dark-purple energy.

Lu Chen watched helplessly as Alicia's body grew translucent within the energy, her silver-bird totem plunging like a shooting star toward the slot at the center of the altar. A crack suddenly split open there, revealing an even deeper energy source beneath—a golden crystal a hundred times larger than a bone core, its surface carved with the symbiotic totem of the Sand Guardians and the sand-dwellers.

"It's... the core of the Sand Source!" The Sand Speaker's voice pierced through the energy storm. "Alicia's blood has activated it!"

The brilliance erupted from the golden crystal instantly suppressed the dark-purple mushroom cloud. Williams's sand-crystal wings shattered inch by inch in the golden light. Staring at the crystal, he let out a terrified scream, "No! That's the symbiotic crystal of the Sand Guardians and the sand-dwellers! You can't..."

Lu Chen did not hesitate.

Snatching up the silver-bird jade pendant Alicia had dropped before vanishing, he leaped into the slot and pressed the pendant firmly against the golden crystal.

The Three-Precepts totem resonated with the symbiotic crystal, shooting a pillar of light that pierced heaven and earth straight up from the altar, utterly banishing the dark-purple energy. Williams's body trembled violently within the pillar of light as his sand-crystal armor peeled away, exposing his rapidly desanding torso beneath—his bone-core energy was being sucked away by the crystal.

"I will return!" Williams's roar faded into the distance as his remaining form transformed into a streak of black light, fleeing deep into the sandstorm. "You cannot defeat the Sand Source! It is the true destroyer of worlds!"

When the pillar of light faded, only Lu Chen and the pulsing golden crystal remained on the altar. The phantoms of the Tang Dynasty skeletons and the civilian skeletons orbited the crystal before finally dissolving into specks of golden light that merged into it.

Alicia was gone. Only half of the silver-bird jade pendant remained, embedded in the surface of the crystal like a frozen teardrop.

"Alicia..." Lu Chen's fingers grazed the pendant, and he suddenly noticed a new sequence of patterns emerging on the crystal—a map pointing toward the forbidden grounds deep within the great desert.

The Sand Speaker approached on a half-section of a bone flute, a grave expression on his aged face. "The activation of the Sand Source core means the true trial is about to begin. Williams was right; this thing can be either redemption or an apocalyptic weapon."

The distant sandstorm suddenly veered, shifting toward the forbidden grounds indicated by the map. Lu Chen's Three-Precepts totem grew hot once more—not as a warning this time, but as a summons.

He looked down at the totem on his palm, then back at the silver-bird jade pendant on the crystal, and suddenly understood Alicia's final words—

The safeguard of the anti-entropy array was not destruction, but integration.

And to complete that integration, one had to go to those forbidden grounds and find the other half of the Sand Source core.

What on earth was hidden there?

Was it a power capable of resurrecting Alicia?

Or was it the ultimate death-blow left behind by Williams?

Lu Chen gripped his bone blade tightly. The golden crystal suddenly projected a beam of light, casting a blurred figure onto the sand—it was Alicia, her silver-bird totem glowing on her phantom chest as she faced the direction of the forbidden grounds, striking a posture of drawing a blade.

"Wait for me." Lu Chen's voice echoed across the empty altar.

He turned and walked toward the sandstorm, the Three-Precepts totem resonating with the golden crystal to leave a trail of gold in his wake. Chen Yu and Wang Lu followed closely with the surviving warriors, the barrels of their heavy machine guns gleaming coldly in the sand-light.

From the direction of the forbidden grounds, faint thumping heartbeats could be heard, perfectly synchronized with the frequency of the golden crystal.

Lu Chen knew that what they were about to face might not be Williams, but the Sand Source itself.

That primordial entity that had both created the Sand Guardians and nurtured the bone cores.

Was its true face an angel of redemption, or the world-destroying entity Williams spoke of?

The answer lay within the forbidden grounds at the end of the sandstorm.

And Alicia's phantom seemed to be waiting for him there, yet also warning him—

*Do not approach.*