Three days had passed, yet Su Mo and the others still hadn’t reached the edge of the desert. Instead, the landscape grew increasingly barren. Even the occasional desert lizards and camel thorns they’d seen earlier had completely vanished.
“Qingyi, do you think… we might be lost?” Wen Wenwen gasped for breath, too exhausted to straighten her back.
Su Mo sighed helplessly. He was certain they were heading in the right direction—in theory, there shouldn’t have been a problem. But reality had slapped him in the face.
“Be confident. Drop the ‘might be.’”
“Do you think you’re being funny?” Ye Qingyi shot him a glare.
The two had been bickering nonstop since they met, and Wen Wenwen was already used to it. In fact, she found this “Sister Qingyi” quite humorous and easy to get along with.
“Look, what’s that?” Su Mo suddenly pointed ahead, his voice sharp with surprise.
The others followed his gaze but saw nothing except endless sand and swirling winds—not even a ghost.
Ye Qingyi couldn’t hold back her irritation. “Must you always act so childish?”
Ignoring her, Su Mo retrieved the eerie green pearls they’d taken from the corpses of the living dead. The pearls were now flashing wildly, as if reacting to something ahead.
“There really is something up there. I can sense it.” He moved forward, adjusting his path as he went.
The wind and sand abruptly intensified, obscuring their vision.
Ye Qingyi unsheathed her blade, positioning herself protectively beside Su Mo. “This place is strange. Stay alert.”
Wen Wenwen, whose physique had improved after consuming the red fruit, gripped her knife tightly, standing guard with the white monkey on either side.
Guided by the glowing pearls, the trio and the monkey pushed through the sandstorm until they reached the spot Su Mo had pointed out.
Before them stood a village—over a hundred stone houses of varying sizes, eerily devoid of inhabitants.
At the village center loomed a statue more than three meters tall, depicting a winged serpent. Its presence was both mysterious and imposing.
“It’s a Tengshe,” Su Mo blurted out.
“You mean the Tengshe from ‘The Tengshe rides the mist, yet in the end becomes as dust’?” Wen Wenwen’s eyes lit up with realization.
“Exactly. The ancient beast Tengshe, a god who governs the underworld’s flames.” Su Mo glanced at the green pearls in his palm, and suddenly, it all made sense.
Ye Qingyi gave him a strange look. “Where do you even learn these obscure things? How come I’ve never heard of them?”
“Maybe I’m just more studious.” He grinned.
When Su Mo brought the pearls close to the statue, an unseen force drew out the emerald flames inside. But instead of flaring up, the flames seemed to bow in reverence, as if submitting to a sovereign.
Su Mo reached out to touch them—they weren’t hot at all, but chillingly cold.
Could these flames be the underworld’s fire?
If so, it made sense. Faced with the deity that ruled them, the flames would naturally show deference.
But then—something went wrong.
A surge of oppressive energy erupted from the statue, distorting the flames until they could no longer resist. In a flash, they shot straight into Su Mo’s forehead and vanished.
Before anyone could react, a streak of blue light shot out from the statue, following the flames into Su Mo’s brow.
For a long moment, nothing happened. Su Mo felt no discomfort—it was as if nothing had occurred at all.
To the others, the flames had simply appeared and disappeared into Su Mo in an instant. The blue light was even more baffling.
“Are you okay?” Ye Qingyi rushed to his side, her face tight with worry.
She was genuinely concerned—concerned that her body might get ruined by whatever this guy was doing.
…That was all.
“I’m fine,” Su Mo assured her. He really didn’t feel any different.
“What was that thing? Why did it follow the flames into you?”
“No idea,” Su Mo admitted, just as confused.
Wen Wenwen suddenly piped up, “Maybe it’s something super powerful, like a cheat in a novel—latent inside you until a critical moment, then BOOM! You awaken and shock the world!”
Su Mo couldn’t help but laugh. “Wow, your imagination’s something else. I’m not the protagonist—why would some ‘cheat’ choose me?” He shook his head, lamenting how deeply web novels had influenced her.
“Alright, let’s search the village. See if there’s anything useful.” Su Mo suggested they split up and regroup at the statue later.
The white monkey immediately stuck to Su Mo’s side, making it clear where its loyalty lay, so the group naturally divided into two teams.
“Whatever you find—or don’t—meet back here. If there’s danger, shout. The village is small enough to hear each other.”
“Got it.”
Su Mo’s team found nothing unusual, except for two blank copper coins the monkey picked up in a corner—their inscriptions long worn away by time.
Meanwhile, Ye Qingyi and Wen Wenwen also returned empty-handed.
Now, the only thing left unchecked was the Tengshe statue.
Su Mo gave it a respectful bow before carefully examining it. The others followed suit—even the monkey mimicked the gesture.
Sure enough, Su Mo discovered a mechanism—a bronze button hidden in the serpent’s belly.
When he pressed it, gears within the statue whirred, and the serpent’s body began sinking until only its head remained above ground.
The entire statue was cast in bronze, except for its eyes—two gemstones that gleamed with an unnatural light.
Su Mo stared into those eyes, his mind drifting…
Then, abruptly, he snapped back to reality—only to see Ye Qingyi standing before him.
Wait, no. She had returned?
Because the person in front of him was unmistakably her—her real appearance, the body he’d been using for over twenty days.
“Qingyi?” he tried to call out, but no sound came.
Just then, “Su Mo” (his body, now controlled by Ye Qingyi) stepped forward, waving a hand in front of “Ye Qingyi’s” face. “What’s wrong with you?”
“Ye Qingyi” slapped his hand away, her gaze icy and unfamiliar. Without a word, she turned and walked off, leaving the others bewildered.
“Did I… do something to upset her?” “Su Mo” scratched his head, utterly lost. He wanted to follow and ask, but the murderous glare from “Ye Qingyi” froze him in place.
“Annoy me again, and I’ll kill you.”