Chapter 46: Section 47: No Compassion


    Yellow sea of sand.


    Silent and still.


    The sun hung high in the sky, wantonly scattering boundless heat and light.


    Dunes rose and fell in succession, resembling a series of distinctive tombs.


    And on the shady side of one dune, there was a sudden rustle of sand tumbling downwards.


    The disturbance grew, and then from the unsettled yellow sand, a hand burst forth!


    ...


    This hand was covered in blood, lacerated all over, and it clutched at nothing, seeming stunned for a moment.


    Then, reacting, the hand became excited and frantically began clawing and pushing. First the palm appeared, followed by an arm emerging from the sandy gravel, swiftly enlarging the hole until a young boy’s head was revealed.


    When the dust-covered head emerged halfway from the dune, the mouth opened wide in desperation, expelling all the stifled air from his chest before greedily sucking in the searing air.


    With vigorous breaths, small amounts of sand spurted from the boy’s mouth and nostrils.


    “Cough cough cough!”


    Then, the intense breathing led to violent coughing.


    After a moment of coughing, the boy finally caught his breath and opened his eyes.


    Although he was on the dim side of the dune, the burning sunlight still made his pupils contract, and he instinctively squinted again.


    Surveying his surroundings, although the boy had anticipated it, his heart sank, “Desert, I’ve indeed ended up in a desert. But I wonder if this is the same one that Cang Xu and the others visited earlier?”


    The boy was Zhenjin.


    He had nearly died from asphyxiation. When he breathed in his first breath of air, the most dangerous moment had finally passed.


    Zhenjin caught his breath for a moment, regaining some strength, and with difficulty pulled himself out of the yellow sand.


    After successfully escaping the predicament of being buried alive, Zhenjin had no energy to stand up. He knelt directly on the ground, gasping for air, interspersed with loud coughs.


    He spat.


    The sand in his mouth colored the saliva a pale yellow.


    He dug at his ears, blew his nose, then shook his head with his hands, scattering fine sand all around.


    These actions continued for only a short while before Zhenjin felt his physical strength reach its limit. Frightened, he immediately stopped and shifted from a full kneel to a half-kneel.


    For he knew the danger of the island, that it would be utterly foolish to exhaust all his strength, and the half-kneeling posture would help him rise quickly.


    It was completely silent around him, without a whisper of wind.


    The daylight sun was brilliant and scorching, baking the yellowish-brown desert.


    And the desert looked mundane at a glance, filled with nothing but yellow, devoid of a hint of green.


    He was the only color out of place.


    This blonde young man no longer looked as handsome as usual, nor clean; he was utterly disheveled and in a sorry state.


    Zhenjin just gazed at all this before him, highly alert, but there was no movement.


    He scanned his surroundings, and his gaze finally settled on the dune behind him.


    He looked at this dune as if it were a silent tombstone.


    Zhenjin felt both a chilling fear and a sense of relief. He had been deeply buried in the sand, but fortunately not directly beneath the dune. He wasn’t buried too deep, which was what had given him a chance to escape.


    He had seized this slim opportunity and hadn’t ended up beneath this tombstone of a dune.


    Thus, the boy laughed involuntarily, “Hehehe… cough cough, hehehe.”


    Some time had passed since he had escaped danger. Once he confirmed he was safe, joy began to swell in his heart.


    This joy grew stronger, becoming so intense in the span of a few breaths that it filled the boy’s chest.


    So much so that Zhenjin’s laughter grew louder and he even began to cry.


    He once again felt the beauty of life!


    He realized the value of each breath; just moments ago in the sand, he couldn’t breathe at all. Sёar?h the ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    He felt his body tingling and aching—at least one rib was broken, which made each rise and fall of Zhenjin’s chest during breathing painful.


    But it was this pain that brought him joy!


    This was the joy of having survived a catastrophe, the joy of life, seemingly boundless and endless, like a tidal wave about to engulf him.


    In fact, Zhenjin had experienced this post-disaster survival several times already.


    The first time, strictly speaking, was the moment he woke up. The battle consciousness within Zhenjin helped him indirectly kill a Silver Magical Beast, the Evil Wolf. Everything happened so fast. Of course, reflection afterwards brought various emotions for Zhenjin, but mostly relief and fear, with less joy.


    The second time was in a cave, when Zhenjin was already afflicted with Fire Poison but nevertheless risked his life to kill a Silver Level Magic Beast, the Monkey-tailed Brown Bear. Zhenjin was on the brink of death, and Zi Di tried her best to save him. Struggling between life and death, Zhenjin fell in and out of consciousness until he pulled through. At that time, even an ordinary wildflower seemed infinitely lovely and beautiful, capable of holding his appreciation for a long, long time.


    The third time was facing the Blade Spider. Death loomed near, and Zhenjin’s attention was also captured by suddenly emerging memories. He thought he was going to die, only to experience an unexpected mutation in his body. This time, after surviving the threat, he felt more doubt and curiosity.


    The fourth time was when lamb meat caused a disruption of the magic power eroding his body, nearly killing him. Afterwards, the boy felt mostly gratitude and appreciation towards his fiancée, Zi Di.


    The fifth disaster, which is the current one, brought Zhenjin to the brink of death before he returned to the living. The joy he experienced afterward was the greatest he had ever felt.


    “What is the reason for this?” Zhenjin savored his emotions thoroughly.


    Soon, he found the reason.


    “It’s because this ordeal is the force of heaven and earth. If I were poisoned or facing a Magic Beast, I would have the ability to act. But faced with this violent sandstorm, what can I do but take the beating? To survive is truly my good fortune!”


    Given the choice, Zhenjin would prefer to face Magic Beasts over the all-encompassing violent sandstorm.


    It was this sense of powerlessness and helplessness that intensified his joy after surviving.


    “My life hung by a thread, and it’s a stroke of luck that I’m alive. But what about Zi Di and Cang Xu?” A question surfaced in his mind, causing the smile on Zhenjin’s face to gradually fade.


    Emotion comforting him: They must still be alive.


    But at the same time, reason coldly told Zhenjin: Their chances are slim, and if they have survived, it would be nothing short of a miracle.


    Inevitably, Zhenjin began to worry, once again feeling empty and hopeful.


    The joyous mood seemed to recede all of a sudden; what had been so intense just moments ago now vanished in an instant.


    What followed was frustration.


    Under Zhenjin’s leadership, the exploration team had not easily hunted down a group of rats and just started to see some progress before they were dealt a lethal blow.


    It was fear.


    If he faced the same violent sandstorm again, could he be lucky enough to escape a second time?


    It was helplessness and confusion.


    Where should he go from here? Where could he turn?


    It was a heavy burden.


    He had once vowed to himself to protect his fiancée. Now, was Zi Di alive or dead? If she was dead, where was her body?


    And as the sole heir of the Hundred Needle Family, he needed to compete and win the position of White Sand City Lord, but now he was trapped on an island, having faced death multiple times. Could he still survive to escape this island? Could he have the opportunity to shoulder the responsibility of revitalizing his family?


    All these emotions intertwined, making Zhenjin once again struggle to breathe.


    At this moment, he felt extremely helpless and weak.


    He wanted to hold back; he remembered his identity as a Holy Temple Knight. But still, his tears silently fell.


    Zhenjin did not wipe away his tears but watched them fall onto the dry sand, where they seeped in, creating tiny craters, trying to expand, but the dampness was limited to a very small area.


    Compared to the vast desert, no, the entire dune, these tear-stained pits were so minuscule and pitiful.


    “How much they resemble me,” Zhenjin lamented.


    Once again, he prayed sincerely, “Oh God, my great Holy Emperor, You are a living deity, victorious in all. At this moment, Your knight, Your believer, Your child pleads for Your response, begs for Your mercy, prays for You to show me the right direction, to point out the path of courage…”


    This time, Zhenjin’s prayer was rambling, more plentiful in content than ever before.


    A venomous desert viper had discovered Zhenjin, and this pitiful young man was quickly seen as prey.


    The viper approached quietly; its scales, very similar to the color of the sand, moved in an S-shaped curve, not only swiftly but also completely silent.


    As it drew near, the desert viper suddenly sprang up behind Zhenjin!


    But in the next moment, Zhenjin, without turning his head, casually stretched out his hand and caught the viper in mid-air.


    The viper’s mouth was wide open, its tongue flicking in and out as it struggled frantically, but its throat was tightly clenched in Zhenjin’s grip.


    The over half-meter long viper was tightly coiled around Zhenjin’s arm.


    But Zhenjin did not move, neither his kneeling body nor his arm moved, as if they were cast from iron.


    Zhenjin stopped praying and silently listened to the final death hisses of the viper’s life’s journey.


    He remained silent, his head bowed, and when the viper was forcefully strangled to death, it never saw the face of its killer.


    The sun rose higher and higher.


    The surface of the desert became scorching hot, and the air in the distance distorted with the heat.


    A blond young man slowly emerged from the back of the sand dune, merging into the vast expanse of the desert like a drop of water.


    This young man had handsome features, but at the moment he was covered in dust, his clothes tattered.


    On his shoulder, he carried a dead desert viper, draped like a chain.


    This viper was different from the usual ones, with a tail that spiraled, reminiscent of a goblin-made metal spring.


    On this cursed island, even a common snake was bizarre.


    Zhenjin was no longer crying; his face was expressionless.


    He had come to understand one thing—


    Gods might be merciful, knights probably are merciful, people might be merciful…


    But, in nature, there is none.