Chapter 72: The Truth of the Army of Sand

Before the mist left behind by the dissipation of the Sand Skeleton King could fully disperse, golden droplets of liquid suddenly oozed from the rock walls of the underground river.

The moment Lu Chen’s fingertips brushed against the damp, cold stone, the entire rock wall behaved like a spilled palette of paint. Sand grains peeled away in a soft rustle, revealing murals hidden beneath. They were not carved; instead, they were pieced together from countless tiny skeletal fragments, casting a warm, gentle glow beneath the golden radiance of the Three-Precepts Totem.

"This is..." Alicia’s bone flute almost slipped from her grip. The very first mural shattered her perception: beneath the bone armor of the Mongol cavalry were not ferocious, twisted faces, but groups of skin-and-bone herdsmen. Their cattle and sheep lay dead on cracked, barren earth, and smoke rising from distant fires resembled dying sighs.

"It wasn't for conquest." Su Qing pressed her tablet against the rock wall for a scan, and the skeletons on the screen suddenly came to life, forming a flowing sequence of images. "The hometowns of these Mongol cavalrymen suffered a seven-year mega-drought. The grasslands turned into deserts, and they were driven by desperation to migrate westward."

The second mural was even more startling.

The skeletons of the colonial merchant caravan lowered their muskets to reveal the cargo crates on their backs—they were not filled with plundered treasures, but with vaccines and seeds intended for African tribes. The leader of the merchants knelt facing the desert, a small inscription carved onto the crucifix on his chest: "Without trade, our people will die of smallpox."

"Williams lied to us." Chen Yu’s heavy machine gun dropped to the ground with a loud clatter. He pointed at the modern plunderers depicted in the third mural, where skeletons clutching missile launchers were handing out compressed biscuits to oasis children. "These bastards... they're mercenaries from an oil company. After their base was destroyed by a sandstorm, it was the people of Tribe X who gave them their last sip of water."

Lu Chen pressed his palm flat against the rock wall, letting the golden light of the Three-Precepts Totem flow along the skeletal patterns. He could feel the throbbing pulses of those departed souls—not filled with hatred, but burdened by a heavy, helpless resignation. The saddles of the Mongol cavalry concealed safe-return amulets for their wives and children; the diaries of the colonial merchants were filled with longing for their distant homes; the dog tags of the modern mercenaries had the word "Home" engraved upon them.

"The bone core didn't record the truth; it recorded distorted memories." Alicia’s silver bird necklace suddenly grew hot. The merchant leader in the mural turned his head, his brow and eyes bearing a seventy-percent resemblance to her own mother's. "Williams intentionally stripped away their helplessness, leaving behind only fragments of hatred so that we would believe the Sand Legion deserved annihilation from the very beginning."

The water current in the underground river suddenly accelerated, scouring the pebbles beneath the rock wall. Those merchant skeletons that had originally formed the torso of the Sand Skeleton King now automatically scattered, guided by an invisible hand to piece together a massive map on the ground. On the map of the ancient Silk Road, dozens of red dots were marked, with numbers inscribed beside each one.

"It’s a death toll." Su Qing’s voice trembled slightly as she squatted down to touch the outermost dot. "This dot marked '37' corresponds to the missing merchant caravan case during the Daoguang era. County chronicles record that they were buried here by a sandstorm while trying to protect a water source."

Lu Chen suddenly recalled the jade pendant on the chest of the Sand Skeleton King, which shared the exact same origin as the keepsake left by his father. He channeled the golden light of the Three-Precepts Totem toward the central dot on the map, where the largest number—"108"—was carved. This was the exact total number of the merchants who had made up the Sand Skeleton King.

The moment the golden light touched the dot, the murals on the rock wall flashed violently.

The skeletal armor of the Mongol cavalry began to strip away, revealing festering wounds beneath—scars left by the plague. The cargo crates of the colonial merchants sprang open, spilling not vaccines, but Bibles meant for the desert tribes, with their flyleaves crammed with desperate pleas for help. The missile launchers of the modern mercenaries suddenly warped and deformed, transforming into drilling rigs boring water wells for the parched oasis.

"Their obsession wasn't conquest; it was survival." Lu Chen’s Adam's apple bobbed as the Three-Precepts Totem resonated with an unprecedented intensity. "The Mongols wanted to find new grasslands, the merchants wanted to trade for life-saving medicine, the mercenaries wanted to dig water wells to stay alive... All of these desires were corrupted into greed by the bone core's energy."

Most shocking of all were the small characters in the corner of the mural, written in ancient Sanskrit, which were instantly deciphered by Su Qing's AI: "The wrath of the sand arises not from greed, but from the severance of the path of life."

"The severance of the path of life..." Alicia’s gaze landed on the mural of the modern mercenaries. Behind those skeletons, the youthful figure of Williams could be faintly discerned, holding up a fragment of the bone core and chanting incantations toward the caravan's well. "It was him! Williams deliberately cut off the oasis's water source, forcing them into a position where they had to plunder!"

Huge waves suddenly churned across the surface of the underground river.

The scattered merchant skeletons suddenly soared into mid-air, forming a golden bridge that led to a concealed door deep within the rock wall. Above the concealed door, ancient characters of the Sand Guardians were inscribed, which Lu Chen's Three-Precepts Totem automatically translated: "By the wish of all living beings, open the gate of redemption."

"There's something inside!" Chen Yu picked up a fragment of stone and hurled it toward the concealed door. The stone passed through the portal without dropping to the ground, clearly indicating an energy barrier. "Williams definitely knows about this place!"

The totem in the center of Lu Chen’s palm suddenly grew burning hot. As he gazed at the skeletons forming the bridge, he finally understood the true intention of the Sand Skeleton King—not to guard a treasure, but to wait for someone capable of seeing through the facade of hatred and dissolving that obsession with understanding.

"I'll go take a look." He stepped onto the golden bridge, the skeletons beneath his feet emitting faint, crisp cracks like countless people whispering in low tones. "Hold the entrance; I'll be right back."

Alicia suddenly seized his wrist, the blue light of her silver bird necklace intertwining with his golden glow: "I'm going with you. The Requiem can pacify the lingering consciousness, just in case there's..."

"Inside is the truth." Lu Chen interrupted her, his gaze sweeping over the figure of Williams in the mural. "The origin of the bone core, the true relationship between the Sand Guardians and the Sand Scorpions—it's likely all in there."

The moment they stepped through the concealed door, instead of the anticipated energy shockwave, a warm current brushed against their faces, carrying the faint, clean fragrance of poplars. The stone chamber before them was entirely different from the dampness of the underground river; fine golden sand drifted in the dry air, slowly revolving in the dim light of the dome.

Atop a stone platform in the center of the chamber sat a half-meter-wide crystal ball, sealing within it a wisp of pale golden mist. It was an energy entity condensed from the obsessive thoughts of countless souls, currently floating quietly like a dormant heart.

"This is..." Alicia’s bone flute resonated abruptly. The mist inside the crystal ball transformed into the phantom image of a merchant caravan distributing food to the Sand Guardians. "It's a memory of peace!"

The mist within the crystal ball shifted continuously, enacting the history altered by the bone core: Mongol cavalry fighting alongside Sand Guardians against a sandstorm, colonial merchants trading Western medicine for desert herbs, modern mercenaries helping Tribe X build anti-sand walls... All those acts of goodwill previously obscured by hatred were now re-manifesting within the golden light.

"This is what Williams fears the most." Lu Chen’s fingertips brushed against the crystal ball, causing the golden light of the Three-Precepts Totem to resonate with the mist. "If the world learns the truth about the Sand Legion, his theory of hatred will collapse, and the energy of the bone core will weaken accordingly."

The crystal ball suddenly trembled violently, and the figure of Williams's mother emerged within the mist. Dressed in the ceremonial robes of a Sand Guardian priestess, she was handing half of a silver bird jade pendant to a youthful Williams, tears welling in her eyes: "Remember, the Sand Scorpions and the Sand Guardians share the exact same origin; they merely chose different paths."

"Mother..." Tears suddenly spilled from Alicia's eyes. That half of the jade pendant formed a complete circle when matched with her mother's piece. "So... Williams's mother was also a Sand Guardian!"

The scene abruptly shifted. Williams's mother was bound to an sacrificial altar while surrounding elders of the S Tribe raised torches. A young Williams was pinned to the ground, forced to watch helplessly as his mother was reduced to ashes in the fire. Yet, tucked away in the corner of the crystal ball was a detail easily overlooked—an elder stealthily stuffing a piece of damp cloth into Williams's hand, soaked in the silver bird totem to resist the burning scorch of the flames.

"They weren't trying to burn her to death!" Lu Chen’s pupils constricted. "They were using the purification ritual of the Sand Guardians to help her break free from the control of the bone core! Only..."

Only the ritual had been accidentally interrupted, turning into a tragedy. Williams had witnessed only the fire and the grinning faces of the elders, completely blind to the silently passed goodwill. That had become a permanent thorn buried deep within his heart.

The mist inside the crystal ball abruptly shifted to a deep black-purple, and the figure of Williams laughed maniacally within it: "Do you really think knowing the truth can change anything? These memories were long ago sealed away by me inside this crystal ball, and the hateful energy of the bone core will forever overwrite them!"

A violent explosion echoed from outside the stone chamber, and Chen Yu’s roar penetrated the walls: "Lu Chen! Get out here! The Sand Legion is alive again! This time their target is the crystal ball!"

The black-purple mist inside the crystal ball surged frantically, swallowing up the golden memories of peace. The rock walls of the stone chamber began to flake away, exposing the dense swarms of Sand Skeleton Legion members outside. Their eye sockets burned with eerie blue flames, clearly controlled remotely by Williams to destroy the evidence.

"He's afraid we'll use these memories to purify the bone core!" Alicia raised her bone flute, the melody of the Requiem echoing through the chamber, though it could only temporarily beat back the skeletal vanguard. "There are too many! We can't hold them off!"

Lu Chen slammed his palm against the crystal ball, causing the Three-Precepts Totem to erupt with unprecedented golden light: "Then let these memories return to the earth!"

With a sudden surge of strength, he shattered the crystal ball in a burst of brilliant light. Countless strands of golden mist seeped through the cracks in the stone, landing upon the skeletons of the Sand Legion outside. Those eye sockets burning with ghostly blue fire suddenly flushed with golden radiance; the bone armor of the Mongol cavalry began to shed, revealing the cloth garments of herdsmen underneath; the muskets of the colonial merchants transformed into seeds, taking root and sprouting in their skeletal hands; the missile launchers of the modern mercenaries turned into pump handles for water wells, which, when turned, genuinely oozed clear water.

"They're... purifying?" Chen Yu’s heavy machine gun hovered silently in mid-air as he watched the skeletons of the Sand Legion lower their weapons one after another, bowing toward the direction where the crystal ball had burst.

Most magical of all was the transformation of those skeletons.

The skeletal remains of the Mongol cavalry turned into phantoms of galloping horses, racing toward the eastern grasslands; the skulls of the colonial merchants cradled fresh green sprouts, vanishing behind the western dunes; the remains of the modern mercenaries formed a sturdy anti-sand wall, standing firm at the edge of the oasis.

They did not dissipate; rather, bearing their restored memories, they returned to the places where their obsessions had first begun.

Standing at the doorway of the stone chamber, watching the final skeleton dissolve into golden sand, Lu Chen finally understood what the Sand Speaker had meant by "reverse entropy is not opposition."

True purification was not about destroying hatred, but about acknowledging that those invaders had once been ordinary people struggling to survive, allowing distorted memories to return to their truest essence.

The surface of the underground river glowed with golden light. The merchant skeletons that had previously comprised the Sand Skeleton King re-condensed, transforming into a flowing river of gold that wound its way through the concealed door toward the distance—they were off to awaken more restless spirits polluted by the bone core, carrying the truth to every corner of the vast desert.

"Is it over?" Alicia’s bone flute was still vibrating faintly, the blue light of her silver bird necklace reflecting against her profile.

Yet Lu Chen’s gaze was fixed on the direction where the golden river had vanished, a lingering sense of unease transmitted through the Three-Precepts Totem: "No, this is only the beginning."

He picked up a fragment of the crystal ball. A wispy thread of black-purple mist still lingered within it, stubbornly fighting against the golden light: "Williams definitely has a backup plan; he won't give up on the bone core so easily."

Before his voice could fade, the entire underground river shuddered violently.

Deafening roars echoed from the distant desert—not a sandstorm, not an explosion, but a grander sound resembling the heartbeat of the earth. Su Qing’s tablet abruptly flashed an emergency alert, the energy waveform graph on its screen flattening into a straight line—all sand crystal energy, undead energy, and even the fluctuations of the Three-Precepts Totem had vanished in a split second.

"What's happening?" Chen Yu’s voice carried panic. "Did the detectors malfunction?"

A sharp pain pierced the center of Lu Chen’s palm. The golden light of the Three-Precepts Totem extinguished entirely, revealing faint black markings beneath—curse seals sharing the exact same origin as Williams's bone core, which were now spreading frantically.

"It's not a malfunction." His voice was exceptionally heavy as he watched those black veins crawl up his wrist. "All the energy has been sucked away, by..."

He jerked his head upward, looking toward the exit of the underground river leading to the surface. The water surface there was spinning rapidly, forming a massive whirlpool whose center glowed with the same black-purple hue as the bone core.

Alicia’s silver bird necklace suddenly shattered, the fragments piecing themselves together in mid-air to form the face of Williams, who smiled with a ferocious, triumphant air:

"Thank you all for helping me purify the consciousness of the Sand Legion. Now, they can serve as the finest nutrients for the bone core."

Countless skeletal claws suddenly thrust out from the whirlpool—not the bones of the Sand Legion, but far more ancient, massive limbs, with bone ornaments worn by Sand Guardian priests still caught beneath their fingernails.

Lu Chen’s heart contracted violently.

Those were... the undead of the Sand Guardians swallowed by the bone core a millennium ago!

Williams had never intended to destroy the memories within the crystal ball; he had meant to use those purified obsessions as bait to awaken an even deeper darkness—true world-ending undead that even the Sand Skeleton King had been powerless to suppress.

The golden river struggled within the whirlpool, only to be torn apart by the skeletal claws one by one, transforming into streams of black-purple energy that surged toward the surface.

"He wants to..." Alicia’s voice carried despair. "He wants to merge the undead of the Sand Guardians with the Sand Legion to create an even more terrifying monster!"

As Lu Chen looked at the black veins continuously spreading across his wrists, he suddenly recalled the words of Williams's mother within the crystal ball—the Sand Scorpions and the Sand Guardians share the exact same origin.

If the truth of the Sand Legion was that "invaders were once victims," then what about the hidden secrets of the Sand Guardians? Would they be even more perception-shattering?

The black-purple color at the center of the whirlpool grew increasingly dense, faintly revealing a massive skull taking shape. It was neither a sand scorpion nor a human, but a monster composed of countless Sand Guardian skeletons, sporting seven pairs of eyes.

When its first eye snapped open, Lu Chen beheld the visions locked within—a millennium ago, a Sand Guardian priest had personally buried the bone core deep beneath the earth, not to seal it away, but to... incubate it.

From the very beginning, the bone core had been created by the Sand Guardians themselves.

This realization exploded like a thunderclap in his mind, and Lu Chen suddenly understood why the Three-Precepts Totem could resonate with the bone core—they had always shared the same source.

The monster in the whirlpool let out a deafening roar, its black-purple energy streams shrouding the entire underground river. The final scene Lu Chen beheld before losing consciousness was the figure of Williams materializing atop the monster's head. Upon his chest was no longer a black bone core, but a pulsing entity fused from the heart of a Sand Guardian and the tail stinger of a Sand Scorpion.

That was the ultimate form of the bone core.

The ultimate fusion of the shared bloodlines of the Sand Guardians and the Sand Scorpions.

And what they were about to face was a true cancer of the desert—one that even its creators could no longer control.