Chapter 27: The Western Desert
Recap: Fang Yuan retrieved the fourth fragment from the sunken city. Now, with four fragments in his possession, he sails west toward the Western Desert, where the fifth fragment lies buried in a tomb untouched for a thousand years.
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The Western Desert was a sea of sand.
Fang Yuan stood at the edge of it, his grey robes dusted with the fine grit that the wind carried from the endless dunes. Behind him, the port city of Sand's Edge was already a smudge on the horizon. Ahead, nothing but gold and heat and silence.
The merchant caravan that had brought him this far would go no further. Their camels could not survive the deep desert, they said. Their guides would not risk the wrath of the tomb guardians. They had crossed themselves, taken his primeval stones, and wished him luck—the kind of luck they reserved for the dead.
He opened his Status screen.
TRAINER: Fang Yuan
Rank: 6 (Immortal)
Primeval Stones: 481
Immortal Essence Stones: 0
Active Subjects: 20/∞
Total Captures: 32
Fragments: 4/7
Next Fragment Location: Tomb of the First Emperor, Western Desert
The First Emperor. The one who tried to open a door a thousand years ago. The one whose city was swallowed by the sea. His tomb is here, in the deepest part of the desert, guarded by the creatures he left behind.
He released his Magma Tortoise Gu. The creature materialized in a blast of heat, its shell glowing, its eyes burning. It would serve as both mount and weapon—its body could withstand the desert heat, and its flames could ward off anything that lurked beneath the sand.
He climbed onto its back and rode into the desert.
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The days blurred together.
Sun and sand, wind and silence. The Magma Tortoise moved with a steady, grinding pace, its legs sinking into the dunes, its shell radiating warmth that kept the night's cold at bay. Fang Yuan slept in short stretches, his Subjects circling above or burrowing below, alert for threats.
On the second day, they came.
Sand Serpents—dozens of them, their bodies pale, their mouths ringed with teeth, their eyes blind but their senses sharp. They rose from the dunes like a tide, their hissing filling the air.
Fang Yuan released his Storm Phoenix Gu. "Storm Call."
The sky darkened. Lightning arced from the phoenix's wings, striking the sand, sending the serpents recoiling. The Magma Tortoise spat molten rock, carving a burning circle around them.
But the serpents kept coming. They were endless, driven by hunger or instinct or something older.
Fang Yuan released his Stone Dragon Gu. The dragon materialized, its roar shaking the dunes. It breathed golden fire, incinerating a dozen serpents at once.
Still they came.
They're not attacking randomly. They're being controlled.
He reached into his pocket and touched the fragments. The First One stirred, weak but aware.
Something in the tomb. Something old. It senses the fragments. It wants them.
Fang Yuan smiled. "Then let it come."
He released his Moonlight Dragon. The creature of silver and gold rose into the air, its light blinding. The Sand Serpents hesitated, their blind faces turning toward the light as if they could see it.
"Flash," Fang Yuan said.
The Moonlight Dragon pulsed. A wave of silver light swept across the desert, and the Sand Serpents screamed—a sound like tearing metal—and dissolved into dust.
The desert fell silent.
Fang Yuan rode on.
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The tomb rose from the desert like a mountain of bone.
Its walls were white, bleached by a thousand years of sun, its entrance a gaping maw flanked by statues of warriors with blank stone faces. The sand around it was undisturbed, as if nothing had approached it in centuries.
Fang Yuan climbed off the Magma Tortoise and recalled it. He released his Moonlight Dragon, its light pushing back the shadows that clung to the tomb's entrance.
He stepped inside.
The air was cool, dry, heavy with the smell of dust and death. The walls were carved with scenes of war and conquest—armies marching, cities burning, a figure on a throne receiving tribute from a hundred kneeling kings.
The First Emperor. He conquered half the known world. And then he tried to open the door.
The corridor sloped downward, deeper into the earth. Fang Yuan walked for what felt like hours, the Moonlight Dragon's light the only thing breaking the darkness.
He found the first chamber at the end of the corridor.
It was vast, its ceiling lost in shadow, its floor covered in broken pottery and rusted weapons. In the center, a sarcophagus of black stone lay open, its lid shattered, its contents gone.
But the chamber was not empty.
Figures stood in the shadows—dozens of them, their armor rusted, their faces hidden behind masks of gold. They did not move. They did not breathe. But their eyes—their eyes were open, watching.
The emperor's guards. Preserved by the tomb's power. Waiting.
Fang Yuan walked through them, his steps steady. The guards did not move. They only watched.
He reached the far end of the chamber and found another corridor, this one narrower, its walls carved with scenes of a different kind—a door, a void, a creature of shadow and bone breaking free.
He knew what he was opening. He opened it anyway.
The corridor ended at a second chamber.
This one was smaller, its walls lined with shelves of clay tablets, their writing faded but still legible. At the center, a pedestal of black stone. On the pedestal, a shard of crystal—white as bone, pulsing with cold light.
[Fragment of the First One acquired]
5/7 fragments collected
Fang Yuan walked toward it. His hand reached out—
And the walls crumbled.
The shelves collapsed. The tablets shattered. And from the dust, figures rose—not the masked guards, but something older. Their bodies were human, but their faces were not. They had no eyes, no mouths, only smooth skin stretched over bone.
They spoke with one voice, a whisper that filled the chamber.
You carry the fragments. You seek the door. You will not open it. You will die here, as the emperor died. As all who came before died.
Fang Yuan smiled. "I've died before."
He released his Subjects.
The Stone Dragon materialized behind him, its roar shaking the dust from the walls. The Storm Phoenix circled above, lightning arcing. The Frost Serpent coiled at his feet, ice spreading across the floor. The Magma Tortoise rose from the rubble, its shell blazing. The Solar Dragon bloomed in a burst of golden light. The Moonlight Dragon hovered at his shoulder, its silver radiance pushing back the shadows.
And the Spring Autumn Cicada—the legendary Subject, the creature of time—materialized at his side, its wings buzzing, its eyes gold.
The faceless figures paused.
"You don't know me," Fang Yuan said. "You don't know what I've done. What I've survived. What I've become."
He raised his hand.
"Dragon Breath. Thunder Shock. Ice Beam. Flame Charge. Solar Beam. Flash. And Time Rewind."
The chamber exploded.
Golden fire, blue lightning, white ice, red flame, green light, silver radiance—all of it combined, all of it focused, all of it channeled by the Spring Autumn Cicada's power. Time itself twisted, looped, compressed.
The faceless figures screamed. Their forms dissolved, their voices fading, their presence erased.
When the light faded, Fang Yuan stood alone in the chamber. The pedestal was intact. The fragment pulsed with cold light.
He took it.
[Fragment of the First One acquired]
5/7 fragments collected
He tucked it into his pocket with the others. The five fragments pulsed together, their rhythm faster now, almost a heartbeat.
Two more, the First One whispered. Two more, and I will be whole.
Fang Yuan turned and walked out of the tomb.
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The desert was waiting.
The sun was setting, painting the dunes in shades of orange and red. Fang Yuan stood at the tomb's entrance, his Subjects recalled, his pockets heavy with fragments.
He opened his Status screen.
Fragments: 5/7
Remaining Locations:
· Southern Swamp – guarded by creatures older than the Gu
· Central Mountains – inside the Steel Clan's deepest mine
Two more. The swamp and the mine. Then all seven.
He reached into his pocket and touched the fragments. They pulsed with a hunger that was not his own.
Soon, he thought. Soon, you will be whole. And then we will see who controls who.
He released his Magma Tortoise and rode south.
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End of Chapter 27