Sinner

"Piao, keep close to him. Don't fall behind."

Su Xue decisively reined in her offensive edge and shifted entirely to support.

Countless orchid petals danced around her, eventually transforming into streaks of light that coiled around Tuoba Feng and Piao, coating them in a faint radiance.

With Su Xue's full support, Tuoba Feng was like a tiger with wings.

"Get back! All of you, get back!"

He roared, his long blade sweeping out a fan-shaped vacuum around him.

He was desperate to clear a path, wanting to reach that place in his heart as quickly as possible.

Tuoba Feng took the initiative to charge at the very front, using his blade to ward off all impacts for Su Xue and Piao.

Seeing this, Piao simply gave up on her own laborious hunting.

She followed directly behind Tuoba Feng, specifically picking off the monsters he had left half-dead and defenseless.

These were much easier to gnaw on.

The sandstorm grew increasingly violent; visibility was now less than a hundred meters.

As the three delved deeper, the black-spot monsters were no longer just mindless charging beasts; they began to use tactics and even understood how to set ambushes.

"Tuoba!"

Su Xue suddenly let out a sharp cry.

Directly in front of Tuoba Feng, the yellow sand suddenly collapsed as a massive maw abruptly thrust out from beneath the ground.

It was a creature formed from the fusion of several black-spot monsters, resembling a giant worm as it attempted to swallow Tuoba Feng in one gulp.

However, Tuoba Feng was completely oblivious.

The voice in his heart had reached a peak of urgency.

"Daddy... so many monsters... Xiaoyun hurts..."

"Argh!!!"

Tuoba Feng let out a heart-wrenching roar.

He gripped the hilt with both hands and leaped high into the air, charging straight toward the massive maw.

The soul power within him burned wildly, and the long blade in his hand erupted with a dazzling pitch-black light.

"Open... up!!!"

The long blade slashed down.

Boom—

It was as if heaven and earth had frozen in that instant.

A pitch-black blade beam pierced through heaven and earth, as if forcibly tearing a gap in this murky world of yellow sand.

The terrifying black-spot worm, still frozen in its biting posture, was reduced to ashes within the blade's light.

The blade qi continued unabated, plowing a thousand-meter-long trench into the ground ahead, turning countless black-spot monsters into dust.

The path ahead was instantly cleared.

Tuoba Feng landed and staggered for a moment, then without pause, he gripped his blade and sprinted down the cleared path.

"That strike just now..."

Piao blinked, and a half-eaten claw fell from her mouth.

Su Xue's pupils also constricted slightly, her heart filled with doubt.

The power of that strike was too great. Abnormally great.

Though Tuoba Feng was strong, he was only at the seventh stage and hadn't even formed a first symbiosis contract.

Su Xue herself was at this same stage and understood very well where its upper limit lay.

If it were the Lord who had unleashed this strike, she would believe it. But for Tuoba Feng, in a state of mental instability—was it possible?

Piao might have a simple mind, but as a unique creature, she possessed a beast-like sensitivity to power and danger.

"Something's wrong," Piao said, picking the claw back up.

No matter what, she couldn't waste food.

But she no longer had the heart to eat.

"Just now, Tuoba Feng had the scent of food on him, very similar to the black-spot monsters."

It wasn't death qi, nor did it seem like spiritual qi, let alone divinity.

Su Xue immediately became alert.

When was Tuoba Feng first lucid? When they first arrived in the Western Region.

And when did the madness start? After he engaged with the black-spot monsters.

Those eroded by the black spots would have madness enter their minds, alternating between clarity and insanity; this indeed matched Tuoba Feng's abnormality.

But how could that earth-shaking strike be explained?

The Lord had sent them to investigate the abnormality of the divine remains; yet now, before they could find anything else, the greatest mystery seemed to lie within this sole human guide.

"Be careful."

Su Xue quietly condensed two dark orchid petals and hid them in her sleeves.

If Tuoba Feng truly lost control or was possessed by something, she had to react immediately.

It wasn't that she didn't trust him.

Since the Lord had allowed him to return to the Western Region, his stance should be fine.

But in the vicinity of this eerie god's tomb, it was never wrong to be extra cautious.

She was the one with the highest cultivation, she was the Heavenly Doctor, and she had to protect Piao.

The three of them moved swiftly.

Soon, the terrain ahead began to change.

Aminst the yellow sand, one could vaguely see mounds rising from the ground. It was a graveyard.

Graves of all sizes were densely packed together; some had broken stone steles, while others were merely small mounds of earth. Without exception, all emitted a thick aura of death.

This was the burial ground for generations of Grave-keepers.

Upon reaching this place, Tuoba Feng suddenly stopped.

The call in his heart had turned into a shrill scream.

'Why aren't you here yet?'

'The god's tomb is pitch black, and there are monsters everywhere.'

'Xiaoyun is scared. She is terrified!'

'She's been waiting for you!'

'Faster! Faster! Faster!'

Yes, his speed was still too slow.

Alone, even if he worked himself to death, he couldn't carve a way through this endless tide of monsters.

Xiaoyun needed him now!

Thump!

Tuoba Feng untied the heavy stone coffin from his back and slammed it into the sand.

Then, facing the graveyard, he dropped to both knees.

The yellow sand swirled, and the wind wailed.

"The sinner Tuoba Feng—"

Tuoba Feng's voice was hoarse, carrying far through the storm.

"Returns to the ancestral graves today to kowtow and beseech the heroic spirits of my ancestors for aid!"

He raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, speaking each word with a weight that seemed to draw blood.

"A thousand years in the Western Region, and a great calamity is nigh."

"Now that the divine remains have mutated, the black spots have spiraled out of control, and the yellow sands weep blood, the Western Region has become a living hell!"

"The Tuoba clan has guarded this place for generations, yet now I am the only one left alive!"

"This sinner is powerless; I cannot protect the Western Region, nor can I protect our ancestral land."

"If the god's tomb is destroyed and the divine remains are lost, we will have no face to meet our ancestors after death!"

"Today, I wish to re-enter the god's tomb and suppress the divine remains."

"This sinner takes the liberty of imploring the ancestors—"

Tuoba Feng kowtowed heavily, his forehead slamming into the sand until blood seeped out.

"Help me once more!!"

The yellow sand instantly surged violently, and the graves began to shake.

A sinister wind suddenly whipped through the graveyard, accompanied by rounds of ghostly wailing.

Mound after mound split open, and pale arms reached out from within.

The arms were withered and decayed, some reduced to bare bone and others with scraps of flesh still clinging to them, but all were wrapped in thick black qi.

They clawed through the burial soil, struggling to crawl out.

Blurred ghostly silhouettes floated up from the graves.

They were men and women, old and young, wearing ancient Western Region attire. Their faces were indistinct, but their gazes were exceptionally calm.

"Living as convicts locked within the cold pass, dying as withered bones to suppress the yellow sands."

"A house of heroic spirits with nowhere to go, opening a path of life for our descendants."

Ten thousand ghosts wailed in unison, then turned into streaks of light, all diving into the stone coffin behind Tuoba Feng.