AZI Volume 3 Chapter 42

"…"

Seeing a colossal wall of sand—that seems to occupy the entirety of the horizon, coming towards their direction from a distance, Yu Ji's complexion pales in an instant.

To be buried beneath the sand, and to suffocate till death, as a result of it—that is the only possibility to appear in Yu Ji's mind.

While Yu Ji is still at a loss, Long Hua is quick to stand up, and begins tossing everything into the storage pouch.

(Goddamn, this stupid place! Even with my current cultivation base, I'd be hard-pressed to deal with something like this!)

By the time Yu Ji had turned around, Long Hua had already finished packing everything—with his bag on his shoulders.

"Wh-What do we do?"

"…"

Tossing Yu Ji her bag, Long Hua shrugs his shoulders in a nonchalant manner, as if to say that the incoming wall of sand is someone else's business.

Without any hesitation, Long Hua turns to the left, and slides down the hill of sand, while putting his sunglasses on—to prevent anything from getting into his eyes.

Despite being a bit late to follow, Yu Ji manages to catch up to Long Hua's fleeing figure, and shouts—

"Surnamed Long, say something to lighten up the mood!"

Glancing at Yu Ji with a frown, Long Hua says—

"Foul god in heaven, provide us with your blessings to survive this bullshit. Amitābha, Buddha, clear us a path with your almighty wisdom, and guide us to safety like you're supposed to. King Yama, cross our names off your book of death, you prick."

"…"

As all sorts of nonsense spews out of Long Hua's mouth, Yu Ji twitches her lips, and turns her head to the side—only to face forward just as quickly.

The brief glance that she had taken is something that terrifies her greatly, for a massive amount of sand is currently floating about in the air.

Seeing the same image as Yu Ji, via divine senses, Long Hua clicks his tongue, and says—

"In any case, run! Run as far and fast as possible! People say that if you die in the desert, your soul gets trapped here forever!"

"Way to keep things positive!"

"Deal with it, this is just the way I tend to keep a positive mindset!"

*Guuuuuuuu!!!* as the two continue to run, the sand beneath them gives off a familiar tremor—causing both Long Hua and Yu Ji to pale.

"Tch!"

"Now of all times?!"

*Pah! Pah! Pah!* simultaneously, numerous piranhas leap out of the sand—reminiscent of a dolphin pack; however, instead of attacking Long Hua and Yu Ji, they ignored the two, and continued to leap forward.

"This is…?"

Although he doesn't have any proof of this, Long Hua feels like the sand piranhas are just as fearful of the approaching sand wall.

Raising his fishing rod, Long Hua tosses the oversized cutting board out with his left hand.

"Jump!"

Saying this, Long Hua leaps into the air, and lands on top of the oversized cutting board. In the same instance, he pulls out the skewer—a component of the barbecue spit from before, and impales the cutting board with it.

Understanding Long Hua's intention, Yu Ji also leaps onto the oversized cutting board.

As soon as the cutting board lands—with them on top of it, Long Hua casts his line out.

Having shrouded the hook with his sword Qi, it easily pierces through the sand, and latches onto the body of a piranha.

Covering her hands in thick gloves, Yu Ji receives the line—that is connected to the piranha from Long Hua, and works quickly to tie it onto the metal skewer.

In a rapid manner, Long Hua replaces his hook, and casts his line outwards to latch them onto more piranhas. Rather quickly, he manages to capture enough piranhas to get the cutting board—that acts as a sledge, moving.

But in the same instance, he also runs out of hooks to use.

(Hopefully, he doesn't see this. Otherwise… I'll beat him into an amnesic.)

Manipulating the ends of the line—through his sword Qi, Long Hua manages to form a makeshift hook, and casts the line out once more.

Eventually, more than a hundred piranhas were captured—dragging the cutting board forward at a speed that allowed both Long Hua and Yu Ji to feel a hint of relief.

Heaving a heavy sigh, Yu Ji asks—

"Surnamed Long, do you consider ourselves lucky?"

"Lucky, my ass…"

"These things, they are running away from something, right?"

"…"

Seeing as how Yu Ji had come to the same conclusion as him, Long Hua nods, and collapses the fishing rod to store it away, while replying—

"Probably. But that also meant that something had caused that wall of sand behind us."

"…"

Glancing backwards at the same time, the two see the colossal wall of sand continuing to approach them.

"…"

Despite wanting to ask if whatever the thing that had caused that sand wall would come, and chase after them as well, Yu Ji felt safer to not run her mouth, whereas Long Hua remarks—

"…Surnamed Yu, in this world, there's no such thing as a coincidence. Everything that happens to people, happens for a reason. What's meant to happen will happen—regardless of an individual's wishes. Or at least that's what my mentor used to say all the time."

"…Why are you saying this now?"

The moment Yu Ji asks this—

"Because-"

*Boom!!!!!* a colossal pillar bursts out of the sand—in the far distance, in the direction that they are facing.

"We're very unfortunate."