Sun Fuping gestured for Nian Songyu to wait just a little longer.

And so they waited, for nearly a quarter of an hour.

The desert had fallen completely silent. Whatever creatures had once been hiding nearby had long since fled from the stink bomb’s blast radius. Now, aside from the low moan of the wind, there was not so much as a tremor across several meters of sand.

“Still nothing?” Nian Songyu’s tone was sharp with impatience. “Time is precious.” Panlong Desert darkened fast, and in another two hours, it would be night. They could not afford to waste daylight like this.

“Still nothing,” said Situ Han, wiping at the sweat streaking down his temples. It was unclear whether it was due to the heat or the pressure. “It might be far away. It’ll take time to get here.”

He Lingchuan stepped in to back him up. “I’ve seen it before. It’s massive. If it really appears, it might actually get us through the desert. It will save us time and effort.”

“Might?” Nian Songyu’s eyes narrowed. “And you’re using that kind of uncertainty to waste our time?”

Two more incense sticks’ worth of time passed, and there was still no movement. The end of the Hongya Route remained eerily calm.

A mighty wind swept through the group with a long, low howl before racing off into the distance. The group stood motionless, their anticipation long since frayed.

Nian Songyu tapped his index finger against the scabbard of his blade—tap, tap, tap. It was a habit of his when irritation began to brew.

The longer they waited, the more he felt that this was all a farce, some plot concocted by the father and son to make fools of them. After all, it was He Lingchuan who had first brought up the so-called “incense balls.”

Nian Songyu’s gaze grew increasingly hostile. He Lingchuan pretended not to notice, though he was beginning to feel a twinge of unease himself.

The sun was dipping low in the sky. They were running out of time.

Finally, even Sun Fuping ran out of patience. “No more waiting. Everyone, aboard the ships.”

In the time they had been waiting, he had already divided the expedition team into three groups, each assigned to one of the walnut boats. Now, delay was no longer an option. They had to move.

But just as people began to step forward, Situ Han suddenly raised a finger to his lips. “Shhh! It’s coming!”

It was a terribly improper gesture to make toward so many high-ranking figures, but his tension was so intense that he did not care.

And then—

CRASH!

The desert split open with a sound like water being torn apart. Yellow sand burst forth in all directions like a localized sandstorm had erupted at their feet.

A massive creature burst up from beneath the surface, leaping nearly three meters into the air. Clutched in its gaping jaws was the cured meat that had been buried earlier.

Then, it crashed back down with a thunderous thud, kicking up another wave of dust and grit.

With shocking speed and grace for something its size, the beast immediately dove back into the sands. In the blink of an eye, it was gone, leaving only a deep gouge in the dune as proof it had ever been there.

Situ Han was left coated in sand but was absolutely elated. “It’s here, it’s really here! I told you so! Pweh, pweh!” He spat out several mouthfuls of sand.

Only a few, like State Preceptor Sun, had the reflexes to shield themselves with barriers of vigorous qi. The rest of the group was left coughing, blinking, and wiping sand from their faces.

But now that the dust was clearing, they had all clearly seen the creature that Situ Han’s “bait” had drawn out.

It looked like something between an eel and a giant earthworm. It was long, cylindrical, and limbless. Its segmented body matched the color of the desert sand so perfectly that if it lay still, even the sharpest eyes might not spot it.

However, unlike an eel, it had a gaping, grotesquely large mouth that stretched wider than the diameter of its own body. Inside, rows upon rows of needle-thin teeth gleamed faintly. Two long whiskers flanked its maw, twitching slightly—probably to help sense disturbances in the shifting sand.

Zeng Feixiong blurted out in shock, “That’s a sand wyrm! A huge one!”

That thing was an entire twenty-five meters long!

Even the nearby soldiers instinctively took a half-step back. That kind of sheer size exerted a primal pressure on the human mind, and no amount of reason could suppress it.

These so-called sand wyrms were not sea creatures like snake eels; they were native to the desert. In fact, whether on land or in the sea, some creatures just did not need legs.

However, in other deserts, adult sand wyrms typically did not grow beyond three meters. Experienced desert travelers sometimes even hunted them for food. But this one? Even Zeng Feixiong, who had led patrols along the Hongya Route for years, had never seen a sand wyrm so enormous!

Situ Han, greatly relieved, said, “This isn’t even a sand wyrm king... The biggest we’ve seen was over forty meters long.”

“Well, if it’s a big one, then a single piece of meat sure won’t satisfy it.” He Lingchuan pointed at the three walnut boats. “However, a sand wyrm this size should have no trouble pulling a boat. Also, keep in mind that these creatures usually travel in groups.”

In other words, the cured meat had most likely not just lured out a single sand wyrm.

Just as seaside children might fish, the original He Lingchuan, having been raised near the Panlong Desert, had “fished” many a sand wyrm himself.

Of course, he had never used such heavy bait before, so he had never reeled in anything this massive.

Situ Han nodded and said, “Everyone aboard. We can still use the boats to traverse the desert. The boats are going to be just like horse-drawn carts, though this will just have a bit of a desert flavor to it.”

And so the soldiers boarded the three boats in separate groups. At the prow of each walnut boat, the carved boatman now stood ready, holding a thick guiding pole and tying it off with a taut hauling rope.

This time, everyone remembered to cover their faces. When the bandits brought out another slab of cured meat and poured on the signature foul-smelling liquid, no one got hit by the stench. Nian Songyu himself stepped up. He speared the extra-pungent meat onto the pole at the front of the lead boat and hoisted it high.

The boatman’s pole, being part of the enchanted walnut craft, could extend or shorten at will.

The sand bandits’ foul concoction was their last-resort survival weapon. It was able to drive off nearly every living thing in the desert. But as with all things, its greatest weakness was also its greatest strength. To sand wyrms, that smell was not offensive at all.

In fact, strictly speaking, sand wyrms loved foul smells.

They were scavengers by nature, and where other beings fled from rot and reek, sand wyrms sniffed it out as if it were the finest aroma. To them, the smell of that meat was the dinner bell, like the signal for a village’s annual forty-eight-dish feast. No matter the distance, they would come.

Situ Han reminded everyone, “They’re dumb as bricks. Just dangle the meat and they’ll move.”

Since they had come all this way for a sniff, they were unlikely to leave anytime soon.

Sure enough, the moment the meat was raised, another massive sand wyrm burst from the dunes and lunged for it.

This one was even bigger than the first.

Nian Songyu reacted quickly. With a flick of his wrist, he jerked the pole upward and caused the meat to leap out of the creature’s reach.

It snapped at empty air.

The nearby boatman threw out a rope with expert aim, looping it right over the sand wyrm’s thick neck.

Although the sand wyrm was limbless and round-bodied, it had natural ridges and segments across its body. The loop slid down two rings and then locked tight at the third.

Startled by the restraint, the sand wyrm immediately bolted forward, dragging over a hundred meters of line behind it. The rope pulled taut, and then it held. Nian Songyu then lowered the pole, suspending the cured meat right in front of the creature’s nose.

Drawn by the tantalizing scent, the sand wyrm promptly forgot it had been caught. Drooling, it surged forward, chasing the meat like a prize.

Its strength was tremendous. With barely any effort, it hauled the entire boat, as well as everyone on it, forward through the desert.

The boat was moving, and it was moving quickly.

With each twitch of Nian Songyu’s pole, the sand wyrm turned obediently, trailing the bait with single-minded focus. A low shuffling sound could be heard coming from beneath them as the bottom of the walnut boat scraped over sand, proof that they were traversing the desert successfully.

The helmsman had the most important job in this operation. They had to keep the boat aligned with the wind and the wyrm’s path so that the bait would always hang ahead, rather than fumigate the passengers behind. At the moment, nothing could be more important.

In the blink of an eye, Nian Songyu’s boat had already sailed over a third of a kilometer ahead.

“Our turn now.” With a successful trial leading the way, everyone else was newly energized. Sun Fuping and Zeng Feixiong led one group onto the second boat. The He father and son, along with Situ Han and the other sand bandits, boarded the third. Each of them used the same method. And just like that, one after another, the boats began to sail the sea of sand.