No Escape from the River of Death

Xinxia's Mind Element magic could only hold for two more kilometers, and they still had three or four left to cover. Did that mean they were going to be surrounded by White Sand Giants no matter what?

Lingling's brow furrowed. She hadn't anticipated the route through the Shamang River going this far off course. A thoroughly difficult problem now lay before all of them.

"We can always just make a run for it those last couple of kilometers," Zhang Xiaohou said. "Once we're on the bank, we're safe. At full speed, that distance is nothing."

Mo Fan slapped him on the forehead. "Are you blind? Didn't you see what happened back there? When those White Sand Giants show up, they form an airtight wall — solid enough to fence in an entire city."

"He's right," Zhao Manyan agreed. "Charging straight through isn't realistic. We need to think this through."

"The creatures in the Shamang River aren't infinite. When they sense something entering their territory, they converge from several kilometers around. That means if we can somehow draw their attention elsewhere, we might be able to advance a good stretch without needing Xinxia's Mind Element soothing at all."

"The question is how," Chenying said. "We can't just fling a blood-soaked scrap of offal into the distance like Lingling did before — these White Sand Giants aren't that stupid."

After some discussion, a first plan emerged.

One person — someone fast with strong evasion — would break away from the group and deliberately rouse the White Sand Demon Soldiers across several kilometers. That would buy the main group time to push forward. Once they were safely ahead, the others would find a way to retrieve the lone runner.

But it was incredibly dangerous. There was every chance that person would never make it out — cut down in the encirclement before anyone could reach them.

With no better option on the table and no way to stop moving — Xinxia's Magical Energy draining away with every step — they had covered another kilometer without even realizing it. If nothing better came to them, Zhang Xiaohou would have to be the one to take the risk.

"Sending one person to attract all the White Sand Giants is a death sentence — that person won't make it," Lingling said. "But since we're going to wake every creature within several kilometers anyway, what we should do is split them up. If all the White Sand Demon Soldiers pile onto one spot, we'd have no room to fight back at all. But if we divide them into several groups — the fast and nimble ones draw some away, the sturdy ones hold another batch and buy time, the heavy hitters carve a clear path at full speed, and Sister Xinxia's Mind Element magic pacifies another batch — it saves a huge amount of Magical Energy."

Everyone nodded.

Rather than gambling one life to pull the entire horde, it made far more sense to leverage the whole team's strength.

Splitting them into several groups would make them far more manageable — but the plan demanded flawless execution from every member. If any single person made a mistake or fell, the others would likely not survive either.

Each person's capacity to handle White Sand Giants was finite — and the numbers they might face already pushed beyond what any of them could reasonably bear.

Still, it was the most viable plan available. The more the White Sand Giants swarmed together, the greater their devastation — those massive sand blades crashing down one after another were terrifying to behold. Unless every last one of them were a defensive-type Mage, enduring that head-on was simply impossible.

"All right, I'll go play decoy," Zhang Xiaohou said, standing at the edge of the group, sweat beading on his brow. "Make sure you watch your timing. If I wake up every single White Sand Giant in the area by myself, you'll just be collecting what's left of me."

Zhao Manyan fixed him with complete seriousness. "Relax. If you end up in that situation, none of us would have the nerve to go near your body."

Zhang Xiaohou silently gave him the finger.

"Everyone else, get to your positions now," Lingling reminded them. "The White Sand Giants in this area are still in a mind-sleep state — you can move freely. Once the Mind Element magic fails, scattering will become nearly impossible."

Xinxia was already counting down for all of them. She raised her hand high as a signal — the moment it fell would be the moment her mind magic expired. When that happened, every one of them would need to be at absolute peak alertness.

The group had now split into five.

Zhang Xiaohou was the farthest out. Zhao Manyan stood roughly five hundred meters off in one direction. Mo Fan took up another direction, around seven hundred meters from Xinxia's central position. Last was Chenying, who stood in the forward direction alongside Mo Fan's Swift Star Wolf.

Xinxia and Lingling held the center of the formation. With her Mind Element magic, Xinxia could pacify a wide radius of White Sand Giants — if anyone nearby was about to be overwhelmed, falling back toward her would mean safety, though it would inevitably deepen the burden she carried.

"I really shouldn't have been in such a rush," Mo Fan muttered, standing on the white sand. "I should have at least grabbed the Armor Enchanted Gear from Huo Tuo first — dealing with these White Sand Giants would've been so much easier."

For hundreds of meters in every direction, nothing but still white sand — clean and strangely beautiful. But thinking about how many bones lay buried beneath, and how these merciless White Sand Giants could erupt from the ground at any moment, sent a chill crawling through him.

Mo Fan glanced toward the farthest position, where Zhang Xiaohou stood alone. The guy looked like a condemned man waiting on the execution ground, every inch of him wound tight with tension.

It was a plan, after all. Whether it would actually go smoothly was anyone's guess.

All eyes drifted toward Xinxia at the center. As her hand began to slowly descend, every heart in the group clenched.

Breathing slowed to almost nothing. A faint tremor ran through their legs — though that was only the wind carrying sand against them, nothing but an illusion.

The dying sun hung low on the white horizon. The last thin sliver of reassuring light was swallowed by the spreading dusk — and at that same moment, Xinxia's slender, pale right hand came down.

Like a goddess of light abandoning the earth, surrendering it to evil and slaughter...

No one knew what was coming next.