Chapter 148: Breaking Through

The sandstorm gradually subsided.

Amidst the silence, the crowd wore cautious expressions, looking with unease at the figure standing at the entrance of the Loulan ruins.

After a moment, they realized it was actually two people!

"What on earth are you trying to do?" Wang Danfeng looked at Ning Xiu, suppressing the rising anger in her heart as she spoke.

Ning Xiu did not answer.

"The idiot who died at your hands didn't lie to you. By now, this place should have been surrounded layer upon layer by the people of the Moon Wheel Temple. In front of a behemoth like the Moon Wheel Temple, what could you possibly hope to achieve?"

The anger in Wang Danfeng's heart gradually dissipated. She looked at Ning Xiu and said with a faint, mocking sneer, "If you expect to rely solely on yourself to slaughter this entire group of scumbags, I would truly admire your courage."

It was only then that the dust filling the sky finally settled completely to the ground.

As if everything—dust to dust, earth to earth.

Ning Xiu reached out to brush some sand and dust off his shoulders and said, "Even if I had such courage, I wouldn't be foolish to that extent. The ones coming here today are not only from the Moon Wheel Temple."

Hearing Ning Xiu's words, Wang Danfeng seemed to realize something, and her expression shifted slightly.

The shadows of the night enveloped Ning Xiu's face, obscuring the emotions on it and concealing the thoughts within his eyes.

...

This sudden turn of events before the Loulan entrance caught both the Moon Wheel Temple and the Loulan survivors completely off guard.

However, when Aunt Jiu caught sight of Wang Danfeng, the heart that had been hanging in her throat finally dropped.

Yet, as she looked at Ning Xiu, her expression instantly turned extremely grim. She had practically watched Wang Danfeng grow up; not the slightest emotional fluctuation of Wang Danfeng could escape her eyes. Naturally, she could tell that Wang Danfeng was currently being held hostage by Ning Xiu.

Meanwhile, from the perspective of the Moon Wheel Temple, since the men they had dispatched had not emerged by now, they were undoubtedly dead deep beneath the earth. Although that man in black had not yet undergone the divine baptism and was not yet a true divine emissary, that did not mean his strength was lacking—everything had been arranged for the sake of this mission. To ensure the mission's smooth completion, the temple had even bestowed upon him two divine artifacts in one go. In their view, apart from those Loulan remnants, no one else could have killed him.

As for the Loulan faction's view of Ning Xiu, one could tell from the look on Aunt Jiu's face right now that she wished she could tear Ning Xiu limb from limb and devour him alive!

In other words, at this very moment, both the Moon Wheel Temple and the Loulan survivors believed that Ning Xiu belonged to the opposing side.

Watching the two forces in the surrounding night continuously close in on him,

Ning Xiu stood calmly in the blowing sand, gazing at the multiplying crowd around him, and suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, "My lord, the mission has been successfully completed!"

This single sentence finally acted as the fuse that ignited the battle between the two sides.

While shouting aloud, Ning Xiu seized Wang Danfeng and dashed straight toward the center of the crowd.

"Kill these Loulan remnants!"

"Everyone, go save Danfeng!"

Amidst a deafening roar of battle cries,

the Moon Wheel Temple and the Loulan survivors descended into a frantic and bloody mutual slaughter.

The men of the Moon Wheel Temple wore moon-white robes and white caps adorned with moon-wheel emblems, wielding mostly curved scimitars.

The Loulan faction, on the other hand, appeared far more chaotic, with people wearing all manner of different attire.

Knowing full well that this was a trap, Aunt Jiu and her followers naturally wouldn't blindly jump into it like fools.

This daring woman had resolved to turn the tables, using the opportunity to deal a crippling blow to the Moon Wheel Temple.

Along the way, they had rallied a large number of Loulan survivors.

To them, this was a counteroffensive.

This was the horn blowing for their charge to reclaim the nation.

The fierce counterattack from the Loulan side was something the divine emissaries of the Moon Wheel Temple had clearly never anticipated.

In this operation, they had committed a grave mistake.

That was to naturally place themselves in the position of the hunter, unaware that even hunters could sometimes be bitten to death by their prey.

...

On the battlefield,

Ning Xiu dragged Wang Danfeng as he charged outward.

"Kill!"

A guard of the Moon Wheel Temple raised his curved scimitar high, let out a fierce roar, and slashed toward Ning Xiu.

The light of a sword flashed in Ning Xiu's hand, and the Evergreen Sword instantly swept across the man's throat, leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

"Gurgle, gurgle..."

Fresh blood spurted profusely from the wound. The guard stared fixedly at Ning Xiu, his eyes wide with disbelief, before crashing heavily to the ground.

A Loulan survivor nearby witnessed this scene and froze on the spot, his mind completely blank at that moment.

Wasn't this fellow supposed to be one of them?

Why was he killing his own people?!

Ning Xiu glanced at him, clutching Wang Danfeng with one hand while holding his sword in the other, unleashing the Wind God's Kick with his feet.

Moving like a ghost, he transformed into a blur of afterimages as he broke through to the outside of the crowd, leaving behind a trail of vibrant red blood splatters in his wake.

...

The sounds of battle gradually died down.

Ning Xiu glanced back over his shoulder and, taking Wang Danfeng with him, vanished entirely into the embrace of the night.

Several days later.

In the Dead Desert, across an unremarkable expanse of land.

As the sunlight streamed down, a man lay lazily upon the back of a camel.

Behind the camel trailed a long rope, the other end of which was bound to a woman's wrist.

In the Great Dead Desert, slave trading was a common occurrence.

The people living in the desert had witnessed far more brutal sights; such a scene before them was already a commonplace matter. Even upon seeing it, not a flicker of surprise crossed their faces.

This man and woman were none other than Ning Xiu and Wang Danfeng, who had emerged from the Loulan ruins.

At this moment, several major acupoints on Wang Danfeng's body had been sealed by Ning Xiu, leaving her little better off than an ordinary person.

Originally, Ning Xiu had not intended to resort to this, but this woman was simply too disobedient—not only had she attempted to escape, but she had even naively tried to assassinate him.

If he didn't teach her a lesson, she would never truly comprehend reality.

Although the camel's pace was not fast, its greatest virtue was endurance.

At first, Wang Danfeng followed closely behind without much issue. But as time wore on, she experienced moments of mental exhaustion where she nearly stumbled and fell.

Eventually, her physical strength waned steadily, while the camel maintained its steady pace as before.

She could no longer keep up, feeling the reins tighten abruptly in her hand before she staggered and crashed hard to the ground.

From then on, she stumbled and ran alternately, taking a fall every few dozen paces.

By the end, her temples, limbs, and entire body ached from head to toe; there was scarcely an inch of her that was pain-free.

Having lived a pampered life since childhood, Wang Danfeng had never suffered such humiliation. Griitting her teeth in fury, she raised her head to glare viciously at Ning Xiu and hissed, "If you have the guts, just drag me to death!"

"Dragging you to death is out of the question; at worst, you'll just get a few bumps and bruises, ruining that pretty face of yours. A hostage should have the self-awareness of a hostage—did you really expect me to wait on you like a princess? Alright, if nothing else is the matter, I'm going to sleep." Ning Xiu glanced back at Wang Danfeng, let out a yawn, and spoke.

Ning Xiu's words drove Wang Danfeng mad with rage once more. She angrily clamped her mouth shut, feeling that if she uttered even one more word to him, she would literally explode from anger.