628 Within The Storm
"Don't worry," I said as I pressed on another secret compartment on the cube. This instantly disengaged the walls and the ceiling from the cube. And immediately reduced our wind friction by a huge margin. Increasing our overall speed several folds as we flew forward like a flying bullet.
The sandstorm was coming at incredible speed, however, we weren't going to be caught in it anytime soon, and so our trip continued on forward.
The soldiers were all surprised at the speed that the hoverboard was expressing, however, they don't even realize or know that this hoverboard is extremely damaged and is far beyond help.
It had helped me cross galactic distances, and now, its current speed isn't even a fraction of its former glory. Not to mention I haven't had the time to fix many of my puppets and weapons.
Speaking of puppets, I have a promise to keep. And in the far distance, the mountains that we came from were visible.
I took a turn toward the mountains, and one of the soldiers spoke, "That's the wrong way to the city," he mentioned.
"I left Y there, I'm not going back without getting him home," I said.
"The puppet? It's not worth our lives," the soldier said.
"If you don't like it, you're free to jump off and go to the city on foot," I replied to him, the first time they probably ever had seen me agitated.
The soldiers didn't talk, and it was visible from their expressions that they didn't even dare disagree or voice their concerns. They may be right; a mere puppet isn't worth any man's life. However, without Y, I wouldn't have been here. He saved me from many an ordeal, and it was thanks to his sacrifice that we got away from the h.o.a.rd of walkers.
"Old Fu, would you please take the reins?" I asked.
"There doesn't seem to be any reins on this flying treasure," he said. But he understood what I meant and took my spot, he had seen me guide and navigate the hoverboard throughout our adventures and he knows how to drive it so I didn't need to worry.
Soon, we went above the two mountains, and I could see two entry holes to the Dark Garden from up here. Every mountain seemed to be a tunnel that led to the Dark Garden.
"I'll meet you up back at the city," I said.
Old Fu nodded and I jumped down.
Arriving back to the cave entrance that led to the underground underneath the mountain took me less than a minute. And I had to rush inside to grab Y.
I slapped several talismans around my body to suppress and prevent the water of the Sea of Demons from affecting me, and the moment I went through the quicksand tunnel, I arrived in a fully submerged area underwater. The talismans did a great job at pus.h.i.+ng away the water from my body, but they were rapidly burning my Qi to suppress the condensed seawater from affecting me.
I pushed myself forward through the tunnels, bypa.s.sing the drowning and stuck walkers as fast as I could until I arrived at the kneeling form of Y, completely having shut down upon itself.
Using a holding bag to take Y inside was not possible, the whole area was heavily affected by this Qi-sealing sea water. So, there was only one way to do this.
I popped a couple of pills inside my mouth and galvanized my Qi. I boosted my body's growth and began gigantifying myself. My body easily pushed against the base of the mountain, and with a single hand I grabbed around Y and propped my head out of the side of the mountain, another step forward and I fully emerged, breaking the entire mountain in the process.
The funny thing was, that immense and great pieces of the mountain fell inside the hole, and were instantly spat back due to the powerful wind pressure. No wonder that even when it would rain against the hole of these mountains, no water would fall into them, and even if the tide itself was high enough to reach above the mountain, it would only be pushed back out.
That was the reason why the Dark Garden was never submerged in seawater.
I walked out of the mountain only to realize that I took a bit longer than I should have, and the sandstorm was already on my a.s.s.
I jumped forward away from the sand storm and began sprinting.
I couldn't reduce my size to take flight since I won't be able to carry Y's heavy frame so I had to stay in my giant form as I was running forward.
And while doing so, I managed to have a closer look at the sandstorm, and finally got to understand that it was not a natural phenomenon.
As I was moving forward, I saw them, tens of thousands of beasts were running forward like an endless horde stampeding their way forward. Running as if h.e.l.l itself was behind them, and sure enough there it was.
Beasts that looked like sharks were diving into the sand rus.h.i.+ng forward, and next to them six-legged horses, none attacked the other, and even when hunter was next to the prey, they all ran forward.
Flying beasts were flying up ahead of the storm, but they too barely were able to escape what was behind them. And since I was on the ground running, I managed to feel it.
The ground was shaking and shuddering, as if something was running on it, never mind the small vibrations of the beasts running forward, this vibration was more expressive, you could feel it in your bones.
And for a fraction of a second, the wind that was pus.h.i.+ng this ma.s.sive sand storm split up, revealing eight sets of blood-colored eyes and a fully armored up golden-scaled exoskeleton that s.h.i.+ned brightly against the dim rays of the sun.
The creature moved with wicked grace, as two of its ma.s.sive pincers were culling lives left and right, and for those that chose flight, a single swipe of a vicious angular and curved tail took care of them, skewering many of these beasts in the process and instantly moving the skewered prey into the creature's mouth.
The beast was basically a scorpion, only this thing was gigantic, and gave off the same pressure as the Primordial Serpent G.o.d and the Three-Eyed Raven gave off.
A Primordial Hunter and this was its hunting frenzy.
The beast didn't spare anything as it was moving, culling lives and eating them as it was moving forward without ever giving anything the chance to escape its hunt. Covered by the ma.s.sive screen of sand, it was a predator that couldn't be detected until one was close enough to it.
I didn't have the will or power to even think of facing off against something like that, nor was I stupid enough to risk my life for it.
For something like this to exist for so long, there gotta be a reason why the city remains unperturbed. So, this was another reason for me to not let out and further increase my speed toward the city.
I hurried up as fast as I could, sprinting forward, and stomping on any unfortunate creature that was hiding inside the sand from the incoming sandstorm.
The city was visible in the distance, and from where I was, I could see the city gates closing up.
My ma.s.sive size was unnatural and from the look of the guards that were readying their ballistae, they weren't going to let me through with this size.
However, as I was moving, I saw a commotion happening above the city walls, the ballistae were disabled immediately and disarmed.
Old Fu was already at the top of the gate and I could hear him shout from all the way there, "Hurry! They're about to set the city walls aflame!" he said.
I immediately understood what he meant, "Catch!" I said as I heaved then threw Y forward with immense strength. I then instantly removed my gigantic form and blasted forward, burning Qi like no tomorrow to reach the city.
Old Fu jumped up and roused his Qi, with two of his hands, s.p.a.ce itself seemed to distort as Y's frame slowed down rapidly then he grabbed it and went down back to the city gate.
A soldier in the far distance raised his torch up and soon the whole wall began heating up.
The incoming h.o.a.rd wasn't that far away from me, and I didn't have much time. So I further burnt more of My Qi, closing the remaining distance in the blink of an eye, and thankfully I made it as the moment I reached beyond the walls, the entire thing turned into a ma.s.sive pyre.
The bleached bones that made the entire walls of the city rose in burning flames that felt hotter than the heart of a burning star.
The effect and heat around the city was a pretty obvious threat to the incoming storm, and the creature within it.
Scorpions, no matter how big or small, would never dare throw themselves into flames. So the entire sandstorm or the bulk of it seemed to pivot away from the city as the scorpion was more interested in hunting prey that wouldn't cause it to roast itself over.
"That was a close call," said Old Fu.
"I guess it was," I replied as I was heaving to regain my Qi.
"Anyway, good that you're back, the general seemed to be interested in what we went through and asked you to meet him in his palace," old Fu said.
"I'll do that after I catch my breath," I replied as I slumped back on the ground.