After being dragged in, the two puppets continued to struggle relentlessly. Clearly, the Three Corpses Worms were capable of wringing out every last drop of a host’s potential. It had already been an hour since the group entered the city, and yet these two still had the strength to thrash about.

Unfortunately, the guards were not made of iron. Tired of wrangling them, they had simply bound the puppets’ legs and taken a nap while the puppets kept twitching.

So, the pair had been carried in and dumped on the floor. Now, however, they were curled up and trembling.

The talismanic robes wrapped around them ensured the Three Corpses Worms were confined to their current hosts’ bodies, unable to escape.

Situ Han asked in wonder, “Are they cold, or are they scared?”

“They’re scared. Think about it, would something possessed by a Three Corpses Worm even feel cold?” He Lingchuan crouched down and examined them closely. “However, they’re not scared of us.”

Their unfocused eyes made it evident that they did not even register the people around them.

However, Panlong Ruins was completely deserted, so what exactly were they afraid of?

Nian Songyu added, “Forget people, there aren’t even any Three Corpses Worms left in this abandoned city. They won’t even come near the place. Why do you think that is?”

“Something in here terrifies them,” said Sun Fuping, rising to his feet. “Whatever it is, it’s probably linked to our objective.”

He Lingchuan raised an eyebrow. “You want them to say it out loud? Can Three Corpses Worms even talk?”

It seemed Sun Fuping had brought these puppets along as test subjects.

“Ordinary ones can’t, but who knows? Maybe the ones produced by the Generous Pot could give us a clue.” Sun Fuping stepped toward the puppets and said, “Your nest, the Generous Pot, must still be somewhere in this city. Point me to it, and I’ll let you go.”

The two puppets only kept trembling, staring straight past him like he was air.

“They’re not taking you seriously!” He Lingchuan said angrily. “Give them a taste of something real. It should even save us some time.”

Sun Fuping pulled out a case of gold needles, each one tipped with a medicinal burn paste. After briefly heating them over a flame conjured from his fingertip, he plunged them into the back of the puppets’ heads, into their heart orifice[1], and into the soles of their feet.

The puppets immediately let out piercing shrieks.

Those three spots were the worms’ primary nesting grounds. With Sun Fuping’s medicine and flame directly targeting their rear ends, the pain was excruciating. Otherwise, even axes or blades could only harm the hosts, while the worms themselves would not care in the slightest.

Now, though, the worms had no choice but to take Sun Fuping seriously. Their glares sharpened, filled with hatred, like wolves sizing up their meat.

To them, humans were nothing more than empty shells.

“I know you can understand me,” Sun Fuping said calmly. “If you don’t answer, the pain will only get worse.”

After saying that, he got to work.

The gold needles were hollow, allowing him to increase the drug dosage at any time.

A moment later, everyone saw the red glow at the needle tips intensify, and the puppets’ screams went up another three pitches.

The dose had been doubled, and so had the agony.

Sun Fuping paused. “Are you going to talk now?”

Still, the puppets did nothing but shriek.

And so, he applied more punishment.

This went on again and again.

The more he did it, the slower his movements became. These enhanced Three Corpses Worms clearly had much stronger soul bodies than their ordinary kin. Otherwise, they would already be dead from the treatment a quarter-hour ago.

If the host did not sever the bond voluntarily, then once the worm died, the host would die with it.

This made gauging the right level of force increasingly difficult.

One of the puppets finally let out a wild roar, then tilted its neck and died on the spot.

So it really can’t be done, after all? Sun Fuping let out a long sigh.

He had hoped that the Three Corpses Worms born of the Generous Pot might possess some special qualities. If they could communicate, this expedition to Panlong City would be far less arduous.

Unfortunately, it seemed there would be no shortcuts on this journey.

Truthfully, he had never placed much hope in it to begin with. After all, during the war of attrition fought here over a century ago, the coalition armies must have already exhausted every method imaginable to extract intelligence.

He had merely wondered if time might have changed some things.

Just then, the remaining worm—driven mad from torment—suddenly erupted in a frenzy. In a burst of wild strength, it broke free from its restraints and lunged, grabbing hold of He Lingchuan’s arm!

The move was so unexpected that everyone was caught off guard.

Without a second thought, He Chunhua rushed forward and brought his blade down, severing the puppet’s head in a single stroke.

The shriek ended abruptly.

“Chuan’er, are you alright?” He Chunhua’s grip on his blade never relaxed.

He Lingchuan had also been startled. He instinctively pried off the corpse’s fingers, then took a moment to focus inward before answering, “I’m fine.”

The grip had been incredibly tight. Its fingers had nearly dug into his skin.

Fortunately, after circulating his true energy a complete cycle, he detected nothing out of the ordinary.

The others looked at each other in silence.

Sun Fuping stepped forward to examine his pupils. “Do you feel irritable, restless, or dizzy?”

“I’m perfectly clearheaded. I don’t sense any signs of anything abnormal. It looks like it didn’t affect me.”

Sun Fuping nodded and said, “The effects of the soul-masking powder should not have fully worn off yet, so it should still be offering some protection.”

He Lingchuan gave a long sigh. “So even these Three Corpses Worms from the Panlong Desert aren’t anything special.”

Seeing that his son was truly unharmed, He Chunhua finally let out a breath of relief. “They just refuse to leave Panlong Desert, or rather, they refuse to stray too far from the Generous Pot.”

The drive to protect the Generous Pot was already etched into the worms’ very instincts. Betrayal was impossible, even in death. This same kind of loyalty can be seen in ant colonies and beehives, where workers toil endlessly and die without complaint.

So even though the Three Corpses Worms feared something in the city and dared not enter, they still lingered just outside—in other words, in the Panlong Desert—unwilling to flee far.

He Lingchuan shrugged. If these things could be interrogated like ordinary creatures, then Baling and Xianyou would’ve uncovered every last secret about Panlong City and the Generous Pot long ago. But the god behind Panlong City wouldn’t tolerate such a fatal flaw.

“Even though Zhu Gen won’t admit it, I don’t think the trigger for the season of mad sand is particularly complex. He sent that final team out likely just to test his theory…” Sun Fuping mused. “Tell me, is there always a thunderstorm before the season of mad sand begins?”

Zeng Feixiong nodded and answered, “Yes.”

A flicker of insight crossed Sun Fuping’s eyes. “And the temple in the city, does it worship only the god Mitian?”

“Yes. According to the locals, Mitian is the sole god venerated in Panlong City.”

He Chunhua made a thoughtful sound. “You’re not suggesting…?”

“Let’s both write what’s on our minds down and compare.”

And so, Sun Fuping and He Chunhua each dipped a finger in water and scribbled a character on the table.

The group leaned in. The state preceptor had written the character for “water,” while He Chunhua had written “rain.”

The two words were close enough in meaning.

He Lingchuan stroked his chin and said, “State preceptor, you and my father are truly brilliant! Qiansong Commandery’s rainy season does come later than further inland; it almost doesn’t come until late into the eighth month or early into the ninth month.”

Nian Songyu was puzzled. “If you’re saying that rainwater is the key, does that mean the desert doesn’t normally get rain?” From what he knew, a lack of water did not necessarily mean a lack of rain. “Sometimes heavy downpours cause flash floods in deserts.”

“It really doesn’t rain here,” He Lingchuan chuckled. “Don’t compare other deserts to Panlong, they’re not worthy.”

He Chunhua added, “I’m no match for the state preceptor’s knowledge. But Deputy Commandant Zeng’s father was the only survivor of a season of mad sand inside the Panlong Desert. Even though he was mentally unstable afterward, he kept repeating one word: ‘water.’ I believe that’s an important clue.”

1. This refers to the spiritual or sensory “orifice” of the heart, through which consciousness, awareness, and perception operate. ☜