Wails and cries filled the White Cloud City.
The Aspirant Cultivators Academy had suffered many losses, but the White Cloud City had lost a lot of its citizens as well.
The sands of the Yellow Sands King were even more harmful than poison to normal people.
Holes filled the houses that were hit by the sands. Unfortunately normal people died with countless tiny holes in their bodies.
Their flesh was destroyed so much that one would have difficulty identifying if the bodies belonged to a human or an animal. It was a terrible way to die.
The Demon King continued his rampage without any reservations. His attack on the human city was much worse than a natural disaster.
When the yellow sands had passed, yells of pain and wails of sadness could be heard all over the city.
At the Aspirant Cultivators Academy, Ge Hongru did not have the luxury of worrying about ordinary people anymore.
They have suffered a lot, losing more than 13,400 people, a majority of them cultivators in the Meditation Plane.
The deceased were either taken away by the yellow sand storm or devoured by the venomous sandworms.
The worst part was that the child who was brought to the academy by the Soaring Cloud Clan was also lost. Ge Hongru was saddened by the loss of the child as anger filled his heart.
He didn’t even have the time to clean himself up before leading seven other divine masters to the main hall to light the Celestial Inviting Incense.
Being called the Celestial Inviting Incense showed how unique an item it was. The incense was considered a Grade 2 Treasure.
Once lit, the smoke of the incense would enter the void. The smoke would then attract the attention of the sages of the celestial clan.
They had been keeping this incredible incense locked away ever since it was gifted to them until now.
The Celestial Inviting Incense was white and was as thick and as long as a chopstick.
After Master Ge lit the incense with his spiritual power, it rose and floated midair.
It only took a few seconds to burn through a third of the incense.
The thin smoke slowly seeped into the void, and the people in the hall could sense weak waves of energy being sent throughout the hall.
Miniature white clouds made of smoke began to form at the top of the incense.
When 12 clouds were formed, about half of the incense was burned.
“My name is Ge Hongru from the Aspirant Cultivators Academy in White Cloud City. We would like to ask for an audience with the sages of our celestial clan. Half an hour ago, White Cloud City was attacked by the Yellow Sands King, and we have lost more than 10,000 people. Miao Yun, the celestial maiden of the Soaring Cloud Clan, was taken away by the Demon King! We plead to the sages to assist us in this matter!”
Ge Hongru led the other seven divine masters to pray for the sages to help them.
The only way to defeat the Demon King was with the help of the sages.
Sending cultivators in the Foundation Plane would be a suicide mission. It would be impossible for them to succeed.
Ge Hongru understood that since he was in the Beginning Foundation Plane. However, he could not forget how weak he felt against the Yellow Sands King’s attack and the tragedy in the city.
He steeled his heart and did not let his emotions get the better of him.
The clouds above the incense started to vibrate. Two people appeared in the clouds, a woman and a man, both dressed in sage robes.
The moment they walked through the clouds, the Celestial Inviting Incense had burned all the way through.
As the clouds disappeared, a smile of relief formed on Master Ge’s face.
Ge Hongru immediately announced, “The Soaring Cloud Clan and Luo Sheng Sword School have arrived! Prepare the rooms and halls for our guests!”
The crisis of the White Cloud City could now be solved with the arrival of the two sages. They would be able to stop the Yellow Sands King from escaping.
Master Ge was completely excited as he made all the necessary preparations.
He knew that he had welcomed the two sages with everything he could offer and that he had to atone and reprimand for his mistakes by good deeds.
If he did not do that, the hard work he had been doing for the past few years to achieve his goal would become a total waste.
For a chance of redemption to show itself in front of Ge Hongru, he would be an idiot not to take it.
The White Cloud City was now covered in sand.
Under normal circumstances, a normal person would not even have the guts to enter the city as it could result in their death.
That was how the White Cloud City had remained peaceful for the past few decades.
However, no one would ever expect a Demon King to suddenly appear from the sand-covered land.
After leaving the White Cloud City, the Yellow Sands King returned to the desert.
His body began to shrink until he was almost as tall as a typical male human. However, he retained his thick and scale-covered tail, and he still had a demon’s legs. Only the upper part of his body looked like a human, while the lower part was like a monster.
He grabbed Miao Yun’s arm in his left hand.
After landing on the sands, he began to dig into it.
The lady had already lost her consciousness a while ago after exhausting her spiritual power. She didn’t even realize she was going through the sands.
A shroud of yellow light surrounded the Yellow Sands King as he moved deeper into the group at an insane speed, even faster than Chen Jingzai’s earth element technique.
It only took time for an incense to completely burn through when they were clear of the sands.
The Yellow Sands King laughed when he spotted the brown cave and moved toward it.
The cave was named the Yellow Sands Cavern, but it wasn’t built by the Yellow Sands King.
The cave was formed throughout time by the natural condensation of the ley lines. It was one of the rare wild Blessed Lands.
Unlike its name, the cave wasn’t filled with yellow sands. It was a paradise on Earth.
Not only could rivers of groundwater be found, but also the massive cave was practically spring all year round. Trees grew and flowers blossomed beautifully in there.
The deeper they went, the more stalactites in weird shapes, sizes, and colors could be found.
These stalactites had different sizes of holes on them that were connected to other places as well.
“Your king is back!” the Yellow Sands King announced.
Rustling sounds could instantly be heard from the holes in the stalactites.
It didn’t take long for iguanas, lizards, and scorpions that were as big as a human’s palm to emerge from the holes.
They were so large in numbers that the cave was soon filled with them.
Flaming sands ants, desert blood mosquitos, and psychedelic sand vipers could also be found among the animals.
These were all the Demon King’s subordinates. They stopped in front of the entrance and watched as their king returned.
The Yellow Sands King was in a good mood as he walked into the cave with Miao Yun still in his hand.
“We welcome the glorious return of our king!” a hoarse voice suddenly shouted.
A snake demon with half the body of a human and a snake approached from the deeper part of the cave.
The monster was a female psychedelic sand viper. The top part of her body was that of a female human, while from the waist down was a snake.
She must have taken the form of an unlucky the female human who had become her prey. Although she had a huge rack, she wasn’t the prettiest.
Her hoarse voice did not match the softness of a female human.
“There’s nothing that your king can’t do!” The Yellow Sands King laughed.
“Of course,” She Ya said. “Our king is the strongest. But it’ll be disappointing if the human girl is the only captive.”
“Do you think I would forget to bring souvenirs back home?” The Demon King chuckled before opening his mouth wide.
Yellow sands came out of his mouth and whirled in front of him. One by one, cultivators slowly went out of the whirling sands.
The faces of the cultivators were slightly brownish, and all of them were unconscious. Among them was Chen Jingzhai.
“Our king’s Yellow Sand Great Technique sure is amazing!” She Ya exclaimed, complimenting him.
“Of course.” The Yellow Sands King grinned. “Although I was born talentless, I have the opportunity to learn the mysterious great technique. There was nothing a mere White Cloud City could do to me!”
“All hail our king!” She Ya bowed.
Drowned by the compliments, the Yellow Sands King waved his arm to signal his subordinates to carry the cultivators into the cave.
The cultivators were still unconscious and had no idea what was happening.
However, Chen Jingzhai had woken up not long after coming out of the Yellow Sands King and heard the conversation between the Demon King and the snake demon.
He had already noticed something was off when the giant sandstorm pulled him in.
Chen Jingzhai then performed the art of controlling and swallowing his breath from his mouth while keeping his eyes closed, something he learned from Hermit Guangmiao, to hold his breath.
This art had mitigated most of the side effects of the Yellow Sands King’s attack.
Since it was just a breathing technique and not a spell, even the Yellow Sands King did not notice that Chen Jingzhai was awake despite being just meters away from him.
A seven-foot-tall lizard then carried Chen Jingzhai as they traveled deeper into the cave.
The inside of the cave was a little dry, but it had good ventilation.
Like other cultivators, Chen Jingzhai was thrown to the ground after reaching their destination.
After a brief calculation, he estimated that there were a little more than 30 cultivators with him in the cave.
Almost everyone had the same size and body like him. It had seemed like the Yellow Sands King had carefully selected them among all the other cultivators from the Aspirant Cultivators Academy.
Chen Jingzhai could not help but feel a little discouraged at that.
He was at the top among his peers, and he was supposed to become a cultivator who could reach the Path of Celestials. However, he was about to become food for the demons now.
Even he could not accept such a fate.
