The Alchemist's Guide to Flesh and Blood Ascension

The sand in the second half was like Finn's heart, pounding violently incessantly.

Those monsters lurking beneath the sands, in the shadows, have caught the sweetest scent of "life"...

Here, even "water sources" began to appear strangely, and the damp, scarlet-glowing "red sand" as a whole presented an ominous sign.

"This frequency far exceeds the natural fluctuations of the earth's veins..." He paused for a moment, turning to look at Iseria beside him.

A few strands of the girl's off-white hair peeked out from under her hood, fluttering in the unnatural wind. She spoke softly, "The threads underneath... are all tangled up, and something that shouldn't be here has come along too."

Before the words were finished, a deafening roar, as if shaking the earth, erupted from the rear of the caravan, seemingly aimed directly at the two who were the biggest variables!

The once flat sand road suddenly sank in, and a quicksand vortex with a diameter of more than 30 meters formed without warning in an instant!

At the center of the vortex, several enormous tentacles, carrying pale, deep-crystallized sand, "gushed" out in unison, each tentacle's sucker... covered with serrated, terrifying maws.

"It's the Sand Sea Leviathan!" someone among the merchants screamed in terror. This high-level monster, which only existed in ancient records, had never revealed its true form. On the contrary, just these few tentacles protruding from the ground were enough to make a team of sixth-level mages suffer defeat and death.

The sheer oppressive aura alone was enough to cause all the horses in the caravan to collapse to the ground...

"This thing might also sense living beings through vibrations... Iseria, can we find a way to temporarily cut off its senses?" Yunefu frowned, thinking of a way to break the deadlock.

He knew that the Sand Armor couldn't wait, so the best option at the moment... if they split up their forces, something else would definitely go wrong later on.

How to use medicine to conceal the caravan's movements?

Let's not joke around... After all that deliberate provocation, this caravan probably won't even give us the most basic trust.

There are bound to be people interfering, so the only remaining option is to quickly eliminate this Sand Sea Leviathan and then reunite with the Sand Armor as soon as possible.

The canyon ahead is well-defended and difficult to attack, making it an excellent place that Leviathan cannot penetrate.

It's also an excellent spot for an ambush...

Yonivore's heart skipped a beat.

The sand armor seemed to realize something as well. It turned around and, amidst its hurried journey, took a moment to straighten its body...

boom!

The clanging sound of steel striking metal reached the ears of Yunevo and Iseria, like... the most sincere farewell ceremony.

During the month they spent together, although they didn't have much verbal communication, a tacit understanding was still formed.

Sand Armor knew of Yunevo's unique means of self-preservation...

It also knows that as the "sinner" of this land, its first priority will always be those fragile sparks.

We can't wait, even if it means certain death.

"Be careful in everything..." The repeated rusting of the sand armor drifted in the wind.

It suddenly waved its hand, bringing with it a sandstorm that forcibly "awakened" the chaotic caravan, and led them... away without looking back.

……

The "Sighing Canyon" is hundreds of meters deep, and the red sandstone walls on both sides are pitted and uneven due to centuries of wind erosion.

But once the caravan entered this area, their tense nerves did not relax in the slightest.

Sand Armor's movements were somewhat stiff as he walked ahead—the attempt to mobilize a large-scale sandstorm to guide the caravan's direction had been too far-fetched...

Although the platelets are frantically repairing the leaks, the shortage of blood cannot be resolved in the short term.

Every step it took seemed to be taken with all its might, leaving deep dents under its feet, and the friction between its armor... also carried a dull, hoarse sound.

Just as the group reached the narrowest bend in the middle of the canyon...

A piercing whistle came from the cliff above!

What followed was a barrage of enormous rolling stones that blocked the way forward and backward!

Amidst the swirling dust and smoke, a group of "bandits" clad in yellow cloaks and wearing menacing masks appeared at the edge of the cliff.

The leader was thin and bony. Although he tried to conceal his aura, his lifeless eyes, which revealed a longing for immortality, were unmistakable.

It was the old king who, knowing he was going to die either way, was driven to desperation and made such a decision!

Beside him, several priests of the ancient church held dark gold staffs, muttering...

They chanted in unison some forbidden incantation that could cause mountains to crumble and the earth to split.

"Kill that monster, kill those merchants it shelters... the right to trade belongs to Zerharan!" one of the bandits roared grandly.

"Holy Judgment!" The priests chanted incredibly fast, clearly having been prepared long before the Sand Armor entered the canyon.

The attack did not land on the armored figure...

It wasn't that they were afraid of the Sand Armor; they knew it all too well, all too well this armor of obsession, crafted by alchemists and mages…

It would never stand idly by and watch those sparks be extinguished.

The sand armor could dodge, but the traveling merchants behind it couldn't.

This is undoubtedly a calculated, overt strategy...

The armored creature moved, as if it were squeezing out all the blood from its body at that moment.

Its golden light was even more intense!

All that could be seen was the cracked ground and the steep cliffs, broken and splintered with strange rock formations...

They were all easily torn apart by this unreasonable sandstorm, then reassembled into the same scene as before, even safer.

But the Sand Armor's revenge was far from over. The sandstorm that swept through the narrow tunnel precisely bypassed the merchants and slashed at the faces of the priests, leaving behind dark, filthy wounds!

"Damn it! This is a curse... Save me, save me!" A priest frantically scratched his face until it was a bloody mess, until he was consumed by the inky black filth and died.

Fear spreads indiscriminately, regardless of friend or foe.

The holy light appeared so small and powerless amidst the overwhelming sands of curse...

Those priests, and some of the followers sent by the ancient church, were all afflicted by the curse at this moment, watching helplessly as they turned into dried corpses.

This is...

Dry sand and depleted blood.

The old king's face was pale, yet he stood as if being forcibly supported by something.

He was unharmed, and the principle of the Sand Armor was to no longer harm the people of Zelharan.

The vast majority of the church members came from that holy city of Speranza...

As the smoke and dust cleared, the sand armor still stood in the same spot, like a guiding monument, etched with the grandeur of history.

However, its right arm had already drooped limply, and the quicksand dripped from its fingertips, unable to gather again...

Keep walking...don't look back.