No strange things are allowed to evolve!

Jiang Shu scratched his head:

"The absence of these small bones won't affect your movement; I've still managed to assemble the whole thing without any major problems."

It doesn't even affect your ability to receive the true power of all things in the sand. You rely on your bone marrow, right? I know that perfectly well, so a little less won't matter.

The only thing to be careful about is that you can't use your full strength, since it's still incomplete, and going too extreme can easily lead to qi deviation...

"So you want me to use all my strength and decide the outcome in one move?" Sand God realized belatedly, gritting his teeth.

"Yes, sir." Jiang Shu nodded honestly.

Chapter 177 Boundless Sand and Its Twelve Disciples

Boundless sand, swallowing the sands of the world.

Its limit is to devour the entire world.

It's even possible that this isn't its limit, but merely the limit of this world. If this world were larger, it might be able to devour it whole.

Unfortunately, Jiang Shu probably won't see its true limits.

Because Sha Shen died before completing his mission.

His excessive exertion caused his outward strength to crumble due to his inner weakness, ultimately backfiring on him.

"Why?!"

Devastated by his failed attempt, the Sand God knelt on the ground in grief and rage, furiously pounding the earth before him.

"Why didn't I notice it sooner...why didn't I realize it at all?!"

"If you're asking why the missing bone wasn't noticed, unfortunately, no one could have discovered that."

Jiang Shu sighed and explained:

"Bone itself does not contain nerves. Whether it is bone marrow or bone tissue, it is just like a fingernail. You will not feel anything if it is damaged. Only the periosteum that surrounds the bone has a rich distribution of nerves."

The pain you feel when you have a fracture is not actually the bone itself sending pain signals, but rather a reaction produced by the periosteum.

So generally speaking, what you think you're feeling as bone is actually just the periosteum. Just like when you close your eyes, you can only feel your fingernails by touching them, and what you're actually feeling isn't the nail itself, but the skin you're touching.

"Who asked you?!"

"Oh, I thought you didn't understand the principle, so I explained it to you." Jiang Shu shrugged: "You were just marveling at it."

Sand God suppressed his anger and remained silent for a long time before gritting his teeth and asking, "Then what about my periosteum?!"

“It’s still there,” Jiang Shu comforted him. “This thing is still attached to your flesh and blood; it’s not damaged.”

"Then why can't I sense it?!"

“Because…” Jiang Shu said apologetically, “I was actually thinking that it was good enough, so when I discovered a bunch of extra parts and realized I had assembled it wrong, I was too lazy to start over, so I just removed all the excess periosteum…”

"Bastard! Bastard! Bastard! Is this how you treat poor souls who don't even have a complete corpse?! Don't you have a shred of compassion and responsibility?!"

It was clear that the Sand God was in a hurry; he had already started spouting nonsense and attacking Jiang Shu's morality.

But this kind of attack didn't hurt Jiang Shu at all; anyone who didn't know better would think she was just being coquettish.

"Who would have thought you were still alive?" Jiang Shu blinked innocently. "Besides, I don't want your bones. I have no use for them. I was planning to throw them in with your cremation. How can this not be considered leaving you a complete body?"

Jiang Shu kept mocking him without stopping.

Sand God also realized that it was no use saying anything now.

He had calculated that his own bones could withstand the equivalent of the power of the boundless sand, but due to Jiang Shu's shoddy workmanship, his precise calculations were flawed.

It's like an elevator that's designed to carry 1,000 kilograms, but can only actually carry 990 kilograms.

The error is actually very small and most of the time it seems insignificant, but at critical moments, let alone an error of ten kilograms, even an error of just one gram can become the last straw that breaks the camel's back.

A single hair can have far-reaching consequences, ultimately leading to complete collapse and parts flying everywhere.

That's the situation for Sand God at this moment.

Within his body, the boundless sand, having lost the support of his bones, began to run rampant, constantly injuring him. His recovery speed was no match for the destructive speed of the boundless sand.

His once plump skin began to sag, and after it sags to the extreme, it begins to swell again, making him look like a pool of boiling water, bubbling and gurgling.

With difficulty, he slowly raised one hand, as if trying to grasp something.

"I'm not reconciled..."

Bang.

After a crisp, loud bang, only bits of flesh and blood remained on the ground.

From his shattered bones, countless wisps of silk crawled out, coalesced, and a black crystal, still pulsating, emerged.

It trembled, then suddenly transformed into a streak of light, about to disappear into the distance.

But Jiang Shu reacted quickly and grabbed him.

But the moment Jiang Shu caught it, his perspective suddenly shifted...

His consciousness became hazy; he could feel nothing and remember nothing.

Inky darkness crept in, followed by profound fear.

Sudden.

[The Heart of the Great Wilderness has already blocked one instance of mental assimilation.]

Jiang Shu's consciousness was immediately withdrawn, and she regained her clarity.

Then he saw the Sand God.

To be precise, it was the sand god from the time when humans were still alive.

He was trapped inside a large cocoon, and there were twelve other similar large cocoons around him, each containing trapped, unconscious humans.

The Sand Demon was also among them.

Right in the center of the group of twelve people, a giant egg was emitting a faint light.

The light seemed to breathe, flickering like a pulse.

You can vaguely see something growing wildly inside the eggshell.

"Become my servant..."

Jiang Shu didn't hear any sound, but that clear and undeniable consciousness invaded his mind like a virus.

Immediately afterwards, the Sand God awoke.

“You twelve lives, by becoming my servants, can join the glorious evolution.”

The giant egg repeated itself.

“Twelve lives…” Sand God murmured.

The next moment, Jiang Shu felt a strong pleasure.

It felt like the exhilarating satisfaction of finally getting revenge.

"In the end, you didn't manage to escape either, did you?"

At this moment, Jiang Shu realized that he seemed to be communicating with the Sand God. He was reading the Sand God's memories. It was only because of the existence of the Great Wilderness Heart that he was able to exist independently in this memory and watch the whole process as an observer.

In fact, the Sand God, like the giant egg, did not make a sound, but Jiang Shu could sense his thoughts.

"No matter what I become, I don't want to associate with them anymore. I don't want that disgusting, hypocritical friendship anymore."

He accepted the invitation from the dome and began plotting his revenge.

"Let me become your servant, let me join the glorious evolution."

"Very good, very good." The giant egg was very satisfied.

“I am the first among us to awaken, so I am certainly the most suitable candidate for the evolution you speak of. Please let me be your first servant, receive your teachings, and then I will persuade them.”

"very good."

Jiang Shu felt that the giant egg's intelligence and mental capacity might not be very high.

It can only issue simple instructions and express simple intentions, seemingly lacking the ability to think deeply.

In Jiang Shu's eyes, who knew that the giant egg contained the power of boundless sand, this being was no different from an ignorant child who had mastered a deadly weapon.

Therefore, the result is obvious.

It was scammed.

The Sand God obtained the power of the desert from it, learned how to use it, became the world's first newborn, and then the first thing he did was betray it.

As the first servant trusted by the Giant Egg, he became the link between the Giant Egg and the other eleven people. He then secretly tampered with the distribution of the Giant Egg's desert forces to the other unconscious individuals, keeping them in a coma.

After that, he completely seized the desert power from the Boundless Sands that should have been divided equally among the twelve people, and slowly grew stronger.

Throughout the entire process, the giant egg, possessing immense power and holding the key to destroy the world, remained completely unaware.

It wasn't until the Sand God completely mastered all the giant egg's abilities and gained its complete trust that he finally obtained a small portion of the Boundless Sand, and thus acquired the power to harm the giant egg.

Immediately afterwards, he stabbed the giant egg in the back and obtained all the boundless sand.

Only then did the giant egg, riddled with cracks, realize what was happening.

"Despicable fire-stealers! I will make the power you gain from me a curse. Whoever touches my flesh and blood will become a monster, despised by their own kind, and die swiftly!"

The giant egg emitted a curse and then shattered completely.

As soon as he finished speaking, the twelve people, including Sand God, quickly turned towards the mutant.

"Damn it!"

Caught off guard and unable to find a solution, the Sand God feared becoming a monster like them and dying. He had no choice but to dig out all the source of his power—his own bones—to stop the mutation caused by the curse.

Afterward, he extracted the desert power from his bones into his body. The advantage of doing so was that it prevented the spread of the curse, but the disadvantage was that this power was dwindling with each use, and could not grow continuously, nor could it allow him to exert his full strength.

He dared not touch the bones until he found a solution, for he feared that touching them again would reconnect the curse.

So the bones remained piled up there until the Sand Demon awoke and discovered them.

So the original power of the desert was pure green. It was because the Boundless Sands were betrayed that it was patched and cursed... Jiang Shu pondered.

After doing all this, the Sand God, who had been tricked by the giant egg before his death, was furious.

He didn't want to be the only one in the world to be cursed.

So he triggered the real rumbling—desertification.

After embarking on this clandestine and brutal plan to eliminate humanity, he gradually uncovered some of the rules of the curse.

These discoveries allowed him to briefly reconnect with his own bones.

So he left the bones there as a charger, and when his strength was exhausted, he would come back to recharge briefly, and then dig the bones out again.

In this way, he was minimally affected by the curse, making him more like a human than the Sand Demon or even the Guardian.

But one day, when he returned to his old lair, he suddenly discovered that his bones had been taken away.

In fact, it wasn't that he didn't keep it safe.

To be on the safe side, he buried his bones in various corners of the hollow, some even deep underground.

When the Sand Demon said that he only found a pile of bones, it wasn't a figure of speech, but meant literally that there were bones everywhere.

Sand God never expected that his childhood friend would be so witty. After accidentally discovering one of the finger bones, he would dig three feet into the ground out of curiosity, find all of Sand God's bones, and then pack them up and take them away.

In short, after he finally found a way to resist the curse and planned to complete his ultimate goal of re-integrating his bones and returning home, he discovered that his house had been robbed and everything was gone.

He began to regret it.

He regretted sparing the other's life. Not only did he help the other escape from the state of the mutant by using the rules he had figured out, but he also left him some scraps of Boundless Sand, allowing him to survive in this completely desolate world.

Although the outcome achieved his desired result, the Sand Demon lived in guilt and torment, believing that he had caused the deaths of all his companions, including himself.

However, it seems that he felt a little too guilty.

They actually packed up all ten mutants, along with their own bones, and took them away.

Meanwhile, the Sand God, who had been wandering around outside, had run out of power. So he came up with a plan: he first tied himself up, then removed all the artificial bones made of sand from his body, disguising himself as a completely disfigured, boneless corpse.

He was certain that when the Sand Demon discovered him, he would use bones for comparison to verify his identity. At that moment, he could suddenly rise up and reclaim everything that belonged to him.

The idea was wonderful, and everything went very smoothly.

It could even be said that things went a little too smoothly.