Episode 9: The Sand-Blooded Madman

The desert night was as black as spilled ink.

Lu Chen’s boots pressed against the sand, making almost no sound. The warriors of the Entropy Resistance Group followed behind him like a string of moving shadows, their silenced rifles gleaming with a cold light. The S-Tribe’s transit station stood just a hundred meters ahead. A few tents were pitched crookedly beneath a sand dune, with only a single searchlight lazily sweeping the area. A guard leaned against a tent pole, his head nodding as he drifted in and out of sleep.

"Two sentries at three o'clock," Lu Chen signaled with a gesture, his voice barely a whisper through the throat microphone. "Old Blade, take the left flank. Su Qing, provide long-range cover. Everyone else, follow me—strike fast and decisive!"

Su Qing had already set up her modified sniper rifle. Through the scope, she could clearly see the sand-scorpion pendants hanging from the sentries' necks. She steadied her breathing and rested her finger on the trigger. "Scope calibrated. Ready to take them out."

Old Blade licked his dry lips. He spun a bone knife in his sleeve, the "Suppressor" totem on the hilt flashing a red light in the moonlight. "Don't worry. I’ll make sure they don't even have time to grunt."

Lu Chen took one last look at his watch. The hands pointed to 3:00 AM—the quietest hour in the desert, and the time when men were most prone to drowsiness. He gave the signal to charge, his body launching forward like an arrow released from a bow.

*Bang! Bang!*

Two dull gunshots rang out almost simultaneously. Su Qing’s bullets hit the two sentries precisely in the shoulders—not fatal, but enough to incapacitate them. The sentries collapsed with muffled groans, and before they could call for help, Old Blade pounced like a civet cat, his bone knife pressed against their throats.

"Not a sound," Old Blade rasped, his voice like sandpaper on wood. "Stay still if you want to live."

Lu Chen led his men straight for the central tent. According to scout intelligence, the blue-light sarcophagus was hidden there. The tent entrance was secured with chains and a rusty padlock. It didn't look heavily guarded, but the lack of security felt suspiciously deliberate.

"Something's wrong." Lu Chen stopped abruptly. His nose caught a faint, fishy stench—similar to that of a sand-ghoul beast, but subtler and tinged with the smell of metal. "Watch out for traps."

No sooner had he spoken than a soft *click* came from inside the tent, as if someone had just opened their eyes.

"Who's there?" a raspy voice asked, thick with sleep-induced confusion.

Lu Chen locked eyes with his team and abandoned all pretense of stealth, kicking the tent flap open. As the canvas tore, he saw three S-Tribe warriors starting to rise from the ground. Their eyes glowed with a terrifying intensity in the darkness—not the normal reflection of pupils, but points of ghostly blue light, like sand crystals.

"Fire!" Lu Chen roared.

Gunfire erupted inside the tent. Bullets struck the three warriors, blooming into sprays of blood. But the next second, everyone gasped in horror.

From those very wounds, fine particles of sand began to surge! The golden sand squirmed as if alive, burrowing into the wounds. Within seconds, the gruesome bullet holes were filled and healed, leaving not even a scar. Even more terrifying, their skin was changing at a visible rate; their originally dark complexion turned into something resembling frosted glass, and countless tiny sand crystals emerged on the surface, gleaming coldly in the muzzle flashes.

"The Sand Scorpion... consumes all!"

The warrior in the middle roared, his voice sounding like grinding sandpaper. His arm swelled in size, and his crystal-encrusted fist smashed toward the nearest X-Tribe warrior. The warrior raised his rifle to block, and with a crisp *snap*, the alloy barrel was crushed and bent!

"It's the Sand-Blood Serum!" Su Qing’s voice came through the headset, laced with panic. "Williams injected them with an enhanced version! They've turned into monsters!"

Lu Chen swung the totem blade at his waist. The blade was carved with the X-Tribe’s protective incantations and forged from his grandfather’s leg bone. As the blade collided with the sand-crystal fist, there was no violent vibration; instead, it erupted with a blinding blue light!

*Sizzle—*

The blue light surged like an electric current. The warrior let out a shrill scream as cracks appeared on his crystal-covered arm, and sand rained down. He retreated in terror, staring at his arm as if he had seen something impossible.

"This blade... it counters them!" Lu Chen’s eyes lit up. Seizing the moment of the warrior's retreat, he slammed the hilt of his blade into the man's chin. The warrior collapsed, temporarily incapacitated.

But the other two sand-blood warriors were already charging. Their speed was astonishing; with a single push from their crystalized feet, they could leap three or four meters. They roared crazily, "The Sand Scorpion consumes all," with saliva mixed with sand dripping from their lips, looking like maddened demons.

"Hold them off!" Lu Chen shouted, sprinting to the back of the tent. There, indeed, sat a coffin. It was about two meters long, pitch black, and wrapped in heavy iron chains engraved with scorpion totems. Most eerily, the air around the coffin seemed to warp, and a faint blue light could be seen leaking from the gaps—it was exactly as the scouts had described!

He grabbed the chains and yanked hard, dragging the coffin across the sand with a harsh, grating sound. The battle continued behind him; though the X-Tribe warriors were at a disadvantage, they managed to hold the sand-blood warriors back through sheer teamwork. Old Blade’s bone knife also flashed with red light, clearly possessing some ability to suppress the sand crystals as well.

"Retreat!" Lu Chen dragged the chains as he rushed out. The coffin wasn't too heavy—in fact, it was much lighter than expected.

"Wait!" Su Qing suddenly shouted. "The energy reading from the sarcophagus is wrong! It’s too weak; it doesn't feel like it contains a bone core!"

Lu Chen’s heart skipped a beat. He had been too focused on the fight to notice—although the coffin glowed, its energy fluctuations were eerily calm, lacking the violent, oppressive aura of a bone core. He stopped and used his totem blade to pry open a gap in the lid.

There was no blinding blue light, nor was there the horrific sight of piled-up skulls.

Inside the coffin was a viscous, silver-glowing liquid, like molten mercury or cooling lava. The surface was still and ripple-free, yet it exuded an indescribable sense of malice, as if countless eyes were hidden within it, peering out through the gap.

This was not a bone core!

Lu Chen’s heart sank, and a wave of intense unease washed over him. If this wasn't the bone core, why would the S-Tribe hide it so securely and station sand-blood warriors to guard it?

And where was the real bone core?

*Boom!*

A violent explosion rocked the air behind him. The tent canvas was shredded to pieces, and the roars of the sand-blood warriors grew even more feral. Lu Chen looked back to see a massive hole blown into the chest of one sand-blood warrior, sand and gore spraying together. But instead of dying, the warrior seemed like a provoked beast; his crystal-covered body swelled, and he charged at Lu Chen with renewed fury!

Worse yet, the frantic sound of hooves and engines echoed in the distance. The S-Tribe’s reinforcements had arrived.

Lu Chen looked at the silver liquid in the coffin, then back at the charging sand-blood warrior and the approaching reinforcements. He gritted his teeth—whatever this was, if the S-Tribe valued it this much, it couldn't be simple!

He yanked the chains, dragging the coffin toward the other side of the tent. "With me!"

The silver liquid rippled gently in the coffin. As he ran, a blurred human face slowly emerged on the surface of the liquid, as if it were smiling in silence.

Lu Chen did not notice that the blue light from his totem blade was seeping through the chains into the coffin, resonating faintly with the silver liquid. At that same moment, the pale golden sand-mark on his right index finger began to glow, as if responding to a call.