A Difficult Choice

At this moment, the beast tide also noticed the dust storm closing in from behind and grew doubly agitated. There was nowhere to hide on this open plain; only the rock maze or the mountains could offer shelter from the tempest. Yet both happened to lie behind the Thunder-Wielding beasts! The environment of the Fu Realm was exceedingly harsh, and such a dust storm showed no mercy to any living creature. If they wanted to survive, they had to reach shelter as quickly as possible! Pressed by the endless wall of sand behind them, the beast tide charged straight at the Thunder-Wielding beasts' lair. At this point, they didn't need any encouragement from those monsters. No matter how formidable the Thunder-Wielding beast clan was, they could not hold out against a boundless sea of adversaries and were beaten back step by step. Yet their lair lay right behind them; there was nowhere left to retreat. The Thunder-Wielding Behemoth Lord let out a long cry and nearly reared up on its hind legs. Its two pillar-like front legs slammed heavily onto the ground. Another wave of lightning burst forth in all directions, but this time it did not spread outward, covering only the entire lair. The dazzling blue dome of light was exceptionally striking in the dim world. The other Thunder-Wielding beasts turned and ducked inside the barrier, facing outward with their tails inward, forming a defensive ring with their massive bodies. One look at this formation told He Lingchuan that they were guarding something. However, the barrier's area was limited after all. Of the two hundred Thunder-Wielding beasts, only a hundred-odd could fit inside, while the rest were forced to remain outside. Left with no choice, they turned to face the surging beast tide and unleashed their final roars. They, too, were part of their clan's line of defense. Carried to the high ground, those roars sounded extraordinarily tragic and heroic. But the hunters no longer had any leisure to watch the spectacle; one after another, they sprinted toward the rocky hill behind them. Though the battle ahead was spectacular, their own lives were paramount. Ground down by wind and sand over the years, the mountain was riddled with honeycomb-like cavities of all sizes. Though devoid of deep caverns, it was already the best shelter available to them. All they had to do was rush to the leeward side of the mountain and find suitable holes. Yet several squads wore heavy expressions, full of worry. The cleansing beads they had gathered were insufficient; some feared they would not survive this dust storm. Just then, a hunter stepped forward dangling a small pouch. "I've got fifty cleansing beads here. Trading for floatstone at three to one—any takers?" No matter how scarce a resource was, there were always some who were rolling in it. Others shouted angrily, "Three to one? Your heart is truly pitch-black!" Cleansing beads were scattered all across the Fu Realm, things that could normally be picked up anywhere. How dare this punk demand floatstone for three of them? How could he even have the gall to ask? "Three to one, three to one! First come, first served," the hunter ignored their anger. "Who wants them? The price goes up for the next batch!" Before he even finished speaking, He Lingchuan pulled out a small pouch. "I'll take them all!" Though the Chiyan people felt the price was exorbitant, He Lingchuan held a special status and they truly lacked cleansing beads. Thus, they pooled their resources, cobbling together the required floatstones in just a few breaths. These floatstones varied in depth of color, with a calculated total value around one hundred and fifty grades. He Lingchuan couldn't be bothered with the life or death of others; ensuring his own squad's survival naturally came first. Besides, with the two mighty forces clashing below, there would be plenty of floatstone to scavenge after the dust storm passed. Using it now to buy life-saving items was as good a deal as could be. To gain, one had to give; only by letting go could one receive. Unfortunately, most people could not wrap their heads around that so quickly. One hundred and fifty grades of floatstone would make a person an instant fortune if sold to the official Lingxu authorities under normal circumstances. In the blink of an eye, the transaction was complete. Grinning ear to ear, the hunter produced another pouch and called out, "Thirty cleansing beads, two to one for floatstone! Who wants them?" Now it was two to one. He Lingchuan shook his head and said to his teammates, "Let's go find a good spot to hole up." The leeward crevices varied in depth; going early meant getting first pick. The prime spots had nearly all been taken, and latecomers were arriving in an endless stream. The Chiyan team didn't have the luxury of being picky and darted into a nearby grotto—one zhang deep and two zhang wide, like a gaping maw. The depth wasn't quite ideal, but no one complained. The moment they crawled inside, they began setting up an array. With the Grass Sea event having been held for centuries, participants had long since bought contingency plan after contingency plan with lessons paid in blood. The best way to deal with the dust storm right now was a wind-stabilizing array. The Chiyan squad had brought a set of nine bronze talismans. Placed in the cave according to their directional alignments and activated, they would greatly reduce the onslaught of the gale upon the cavern. Of course, this consumed profound crystals. The fiercer the gale, the more the array consumed. Speaking of profound crystals, He Lingchuan remembered the greenhouse given to him by the Ke family, where one reaped whatever one sowed. It was a pity this treasure could not be put into a storage ring during cultivation; otherwise, bringing it into the Fu Realm to sprout cleansing beads would have been fantastic. While helping set up the array, He Lingchuan also kept an eye on the high ground. Most teams had already found places to shelter from the wind, and some agile Donao beasts also scrambled up, cramming into the caves alongside the hunters. As for the hunter selling cleansing beads, his second pouch had sold out as well. Had He Lingchuan been in his shoes, he would have quit while he was ahead. Unfortunately, the man pulled out yet another pouch of cleansing beads in the next breath—ten this time—demanding a one-to-one exchange for floatstone. The remaining squads had run out of patience. Seeing that Captain Zhou and the others had already found shelter and wouldn't intervene in their dealings, they simply attacked to seize them. Two squads totaling twelve people fought tooth and nail. Seeing this, a third squad exchanged glances and jumped into the fray as well. At the brink of life and death, no one held back. In just a few dozen breaths, three were dead and seven wounded. The seller was the prime target; at least three or four people attacked him at once, and he breathed his last in under ten breaths. Two of his teammates were killed as well, while the rest yielded under the onslaught, handing over everything on the corpses. This included cleansing beads, floatstones, and all survival provisions. He Lingchuan watched from inside his cave without a word, his expression obscured in the murky light. The other competing teams reacted in identical fashion. Too many monks and too little porridge—it inevitably came down to this. Someone had to become the sacrifice so that the others could live. The brawl lasted only a very short time because the dust storm was already right before their eyes. All the living scrambled to crowd into caves against the clock, leaving behind only three corpses outside. And then, the dust storm struck. He Lingchuan had experienced dust storms in his original world, but compared to the one in the Fu Realm, those were like small pups beside a giant elephant. Frenzied sand blotted out heaven and earth. Foreground, middle ground, distant views—all vanished completely. Before He Lingchuan's eyes swirled only grit; in his ears roared only surging winds and thunder. *Heaven and earth, dark and yellow*—did the ancient words mean something like this? He even spotted purplish-red lightning orbs bending into arbitrary shapes amid the storm. Inside the cavern, all nine bronze wind-stabilizing talismans emanated a faint white glow. The barrier split inside and outside into two different worlds. Although the Chiyan people sheltering in the cave had their hair and beards ruffled by drafts, it was night and day compared to what was outside. He Lingchuan watched with his own eyes as the three corpses on the ground were scoured and ground down by waves of wind and grit: first their clothes tore to shreds, then their skin, their muscle... In barely fifteen minutes, the wind-blades and grinding sand had reduced the corpses to bare white bones. When the wind blew, the bones scattered, carried off to who knew where. He Lingchuan silently swore in his heart: *Holy crap, this dust storm is insane! Its fury is almost on par with the Meridian Divine Wind of Wind Demon Mountain!* A teammate stood up. "I'll keep watch. You guys regulate your breathing!" None of them wasted words on pleasantries; checking their cleansing beads, they entered meditation to adjust their breathing. Nothing else could be done during the tempest anyway. Seizing the time to meditate served first to relieve fatigue from the long march and restore stamina. After all, tracking the beast tide under more than triple gravity was an intensely taxing physical ordeal. Once this storm passed and they went down to clean up the battlefield, there would likely be fierce battles ahead. Second, deep meditation slowed one's breathing, conserving cleansing beads. Where eight beads were normally needed every shichen, now perhaps six or even five would suffice. Every bead saved was life itself. The squad took turns, switching shifts every fifteen minutes. Even though astral winds wreaked havoc and stepping outside the cave meant certain death, who knew if someone might slip across to rob them? The sentinel still had to do his duty. The Chiyan squad now had three hundred and fifty-two cleansing beads, which at full count could last them five shichen. At the very least, it would carry them past the end of the dust storm. ... Outside the cave was only vast, endless yellow sand, and time passed agonizingly slowly. He Lingchuan finally experienced just how inhospitable the Fu Realm was to visitors from the mortal realm. Here, even meditation had to be interrupted every fifteen minutes. He couldn't bring himself to squander profound crystals, consuming only small pills refined from Emperor's Flowing Dew. One shichen passed. Two shichen passed. The howling sand showed no sign of letting up. Everyone's heart sank: *Damn it.* How could the weather of the Fu Realm ever be easy to predict? By the time the wind began to visibly weaken, this dust storm had lasted a full three and a half shichen! Outside the cave, the wind speed dropped and visibility climbed. Wrapping headscarves around their faces to cover their noses and mouths, they charged out before the sand and wind had fully settled. Time was life; who among those brave enough to enter the Fu Realm could afford to be squeamish? As He Lingchuan ran past several caverns, he caught sight of bloodstains and dead bodies within— Some squads had not stockpiled enough cleansing beads to begin with, and the dust storm had lasted unexpectedly long. In such caverns, internal culling had been inevitable. Each person needed thirty to forty cleansing beads. But if one died and their beads were split among their teammates, everyone else's chances of survival increased. It was perhaps a difficult multiple-choice question, but losing one was better than losing the whole nest, wasn't it? The Chiyan people looked on with lingering dread, but secretly felt deeply grateful to He Lingchuan. Thanks to his decisive action in snapping up those cleansing beads earlier, none of them had been forced to make such a choice. Compared to their lives, what was a bit of floatstone? There would be plenty down below! Astral winds still lashed their faces, but with nowhere near their former fury. Circulating their protective true qi, the hunters could manage. Beholding the scene across the wilderness, someone couldn't help letting out a long whistle: "Sweet mother of mercy!" Having endured three and a half grueling shichen, the survivors rightly deserved a reward. Yet no one expected the reward to be this bountiful! The tempest had mostly passed, and before the rock maze, corpses carpeted the wilderness! The corpses of Donao beasts were piled high like mountains, layer upon layer, almost filling the entire rock maze. Most were blanketed in sand and grit, revealing only faint contours—resembling donkey roll pastries dusted with soybean flour. Even though the hunters of Lingxu City were worldly and experienced, at this moment they were still left dumbstruck by the magnificent spectacle of piled corpses before them.