This was a catastrophe that defied description.
Before they hid in their underground shelters against sandstorms, countless Sha Clan people all thought this was just an ordinary sandstorm.
Sandstorms were far too common in the Sand Sea; not experiencing several in a year would be abnormal.
But this time, the hurricane sandstorm lasted for as long as two months.
The closer a tribe was to the direction of the Molten Hell Sea, the longer the hurricane sandfall raged.
Vegetation with shallow root systems was directly swept away by the hurricane; what remained was drenched by countless showers of high‐temperature volcanic ash falling from the sky, and under the onslaught of searing heat and all kinds of poisonous substances within the ash, it withered at terrifying speed.
The Sha Clan people living in the Yizhi Sand Sea were the people most capable of enduring calamity; years of harsh living conditions had tempered in them nerves of incomparable toughness.
Drought, black sandstorms, even total crop failure—such disasters could not draw from them a single tear.
Most of the time they would simply look over the fields that had yielded nothing, then once more clench their fists and grimly exert their strength, trying to carve out a path to survival.
But today, the entire Black Sand Tribe was filled with weeping, heart‐rending cries.
Because of its location, the Black Sand Tribe was not the first to be hit by the hurricane sandstorm, nor did it suffer the longest.
The hurricane sandstorm only raged above the Black Sand Tribe for just over twenty days, but after twenty days, the Sha Clan people of the Black Sand Tribe collapsed.
The several million Yidongqing Divine Trees that had only recently been planted by the envoy of the Yizhi Sand Sea Sky God, and the Yidongqing Divine Tree Flowers that had bloomed all around the tribe in the days before, had already all withered.
Not only had the Yidongqing Divine Tree Flowers withered, even those lush Yidongqing Divine Trees themselves were gone.
Hei Mann, the chief of the Black Sand Tribe, knelt there, clutching a dozen already‐rotted Yidongqing Divine Trees in his hands, howling and weeping in agony.
"Great Heavenly God, why do you visit such a calamity upon your children? We are your devout children!"
A few breaths later, the cries of despair merged into one continuous wail.
Without wheat fields, without Sea Buckthorn Trees, they could still plant again, could still pull through, but without the Yidongqing Divine Trees, even if they managed to survive the cold winter in the Sand Sea, they would not make it through next year!
Before long, the inside and outside of the Divine Temple of the Black Sand Tribe were packed with Sha Clan people bowing in worship and praying.
And this same scene was playing out in one Sha Clan Tribe after another.
At this moment, Ye Zhen was also burning with anxiety, so anxious that he could no longer spare any attention to savor the marvelous sensation transmitted from the statue.
After Ye Zhen used the Secret Technique of the Yizhi Temple to enshrine statues empowered with Primordial Spirit Power in each tribe, under normal circumstances Ye Zhen would not sense anything.
However, when a large number of believers bowed in worship and prayed before them, Ye Zhen’s Primordial Spirit would sense a very strange fluctuation.
Under normal circumstances, this was a good thing; this was how the Divine Lord behind each statue obtained All Living Beings’ Will Power.
But now, Ye Zhen did not wish to feel even the slightest trace of such fluctuation.
Because the more often such sensing fluctuations from the statues appeared, the more tribes that meant were afflicted by disaster.
And these were only the afflicted tribes within Ye Zhen’s own territory; as for how many tribes within the territories of the other Sand Sea Divine Priests were suffering, only heaven knew.
This hurricane sandstorm had drawn the attention of the upper echelons of the Yizhi Temple not long after it began.
Grand Priest Nahar had also sent warnings to the various Sand Sea Divine Priests.
But no one had expected it to last this long.
During the time the hurricane sandstorm persisted, the Sand Sea Divine Priests of the Yizhi Temple had not failed to exert themselves.
They unleashed all kinds of earth‐shaking methods, hoping to block the Sand Explosion, to disperse this hurricane sandfall and lessen the damage.
Yet before this heavenly disaster, human power appeared incomparably insubstantial.
Even an existence like the Grand Priest, who possessed power comparable to a Creation God, was negligible before this heavenly disaster.
The terrifying hurricane sandstorm surged without cease; even Grand Priest Nahar could not change its winds, could only do his utmost to resist.
With Grand Priest Nahar’s power, he could block the hurricane sandstorm within a thousand‐li radius; he could block it for one day, two days, even three days.
But only three days.
When the unending hurricane sandstorm had accumulated power terrifying enough, even Grand Priest Nahar was injured.
Over these two months, the Sand Sea Divine Priests of the Yizhi Temple could be said to have expended tremendous effort.
Even those like Xiao Ze and Wuy Youu, who had previously been at odds, did all they could to mitigate the disaster.
Because they knew very well what sort of losses this catastrophe would bring.
But still, that same truth remained: before a heavenly disaster sweeping across several million li on such a scale, human strength was truly insignificant.
High above the Yizhi Sand Sea, Xuan Sheng of the Heavenly Temple watched everything happening within the Yizhi Sand Sea through the Heavenly Domain Ten Thousand Sky Divine Mirror Avatar, utterly shocked.
Even Xuan Sheng had not expected that one of their decisions would bring such a terrifying heavenly disaster upon the Yizhi Sand Sea.
But thinking the other way around, the Heavenly Temple’s arrangement in the Molten Hell Sea had been in place for more than eight thousand years; the amount of glacial water accumulated by that Formation was veritably oceanic, and likewise, the lava and magma there seemed inexhaustible.
After the shock passed, excitement filled Xuan Sheng’s eyes.
This was an astonishing discovery.
If they had discovered the situation over at the Molten Hell Sea earlier, and could have triggered such a natural disaster, then when their Heavenly Temple had marched west to Yizhi Sand Sea in the past, putting on such a show first would have greatly reduced the difficulty of the western expedition.
If he reported this discovery, Xuan Sheng might very well become the first great meritorious contributor to the conquest of Yizhi Sand Sea in the future.
With this merit alone, it would be no problem for him to obtain a sizable territory in Yizhi Sand Sea.
The territory of Yizhi Sand Sea and the Sha Clan people were exactly what all the Saints and Gods of their Heavenly Temple were drooling over.
The reason was simple: a single believer from Yizhi Sand Sea contributed All Living Beings’ Will Power nearly a hundred times greater than that contributed by ordinary believers developed by their Heavenly Temple.
Overjoyed, Xuan Sheng immediately wrote this discovery, along with a concrete strategy for the western expedition to Yizhi Sand Sea, into a "Western Expedition Strategy" and sent it back to Sun and Moon Heaven. At the same time, he suggested they could start planning the western expedition as soon as possible; if planned well, they could make their mark within sixty years.
No matter what, as long as his Western Expedition Strategy was used in the future, the merit would not escape him.
As for the dead Sha Clan people, Xuan Sheng had never cared.
Would a mortal care about the ants he casually stepped on while walking?
No!
With Xuan Sheng’s status, plus the cooperating Shadow Capture Jade Slip, his Western Expedition Strategy quickly drew the attention of Sun and Moon Heaven, and the Heavenly Leader of Sun and Moon Heaven personally sent a reply to Xuan Sheng.
"This strategy is excellent, but the various Divine Monarchs already have major plans underway. In the coming years great changes will occur, and my Sun and Moon Heaven has no extra strength to launch a western expedition. This strategy is best shelved for now.
However, since you are in Yizhi Sand Sea, you should find the Five Seed Pomegranate as soon as possible. If you can retrieve the Five Seed Pomegranate within three years, that will be counted as a great merit for you as well!"
After reading the Heavenly Leader’s reply, Xuan Sheng was somewhat disappointed.
He had been stuck at Half-step Creation Realm for so many years, unable to break through to the Creation Realm—what was he lacking?
He was lacking sufficient All Living Beings’ Will Power.
And Yizhi Sand Sea was precisely a place rich in All Living Beings’ Will Power.
However, without support from Sun and Moon Heaven, there was nothing he could do alone.
For now, he could only pin his hopes on recovering the Five Seed Pomegranate and earning a reward.
With that thought, Xuan Sheng’s Heavenly Domain Ten Thousand Sky Divine Mirror Avatar once again began searching Yizhi Sand Sea like a sieve.
As for that newly risen Divine Envoy in Yizhi Sand Sea, the one capable of large-scale planting of the Yidongqing Divine Tree Flower, Xuan Sheng had originally listed him as a target that must be eliminated in the Western Expedition Strategy.
Now that the Western Expedition Strategy had been shelved, there was no need to pay attention to him.
Whoever presided over the western expedition in the future could worry about him then.
Right now, his goal was to find that Martial Artist whose Cultivation was around the Sixth Stage of Dark Palace Realm; every Martial Artist in the Sand Sea whose Cultivation was around the Sixth Stage of Dark Palace Realm became Xuan Sheng’s key surveillance target.
While Xuan Sheng was painstakingly searching for suspicious targets as if sifting sand through a sieve, Ye Zhen had already not slept for half a month.
After continuously catalyzing a massive number of Yidongqing Divine Trees for six straight days, the huge consumption of Spiritual Power and the rapid recovery by Refining large amounts of Spirit Stones had caused Ye Zhen’s meridians to start aching.
One tribe after another—each time he restored the planting of Yidongqing Divine Trees for a tribe to almost normal, Ye Zhen would, under the protection of large groups of Divine Guards, head to the next tribe.
Although Yizhi Sand Sea was boundlessly vast, the big and small tribes scattered across it like stars were not far apart—every few hundred li, or at most over a thousand li, there would be a tribe.
The time left for Ye Zhen to rest was very little.
The continuous high-intensity expenditure made Ye Zhen’s face turn pale, and even his aura became somewhat unstable.
"My lord, let’s rest in this tribe for one night. If you keep going like this..." Chief steward Huang Tuo knelt in front of Ye Zhen, who had just catalyzed a million Yidongqing Divine Trees, his face full of anxiety.
"I’m fine, I can still hold on, just a few more days..." Suddenly, the image-sense from the Divine Statue surged into Ye Zhen’s mind again. Forcing down the flush on his face, he said, "Set off quickly..."
"My lord..."
Ye Zhen waved his hand. "I have confidence. If you go a little slower on the way, I’ll have enough time to recover. Wake me when we arrive."
This wasn’t because Ye Zhen’s Saintly compassion was overflowing.
It was because Ye Zhen understood all too well the disaster that would follow if all the Yidongqing Divine Trees withered.
The Yidongqing Divine Tree was called the Tree of Life of Yizhi Sand Sea for a reason.
Its role in protecting the underground dark rivers was especially important.
Once the Yidongqing Divine Trees all died out, the underground dark rivers, without the protection of the Yidongqing Divine Tree root nodules, would see their seepage speed increase exponentially.
If this couldn’t be dealt with quickly, who knew how many tribes in the Sand Sea would vanish in a year or two, and how many Sha Clan people would die because of it.
This was the fundamental reason for Ye Zhen’s urgency.
This was the true disaster brought by this hurricane sandstorm!
Huang Tuo nodded, gesturing for departure. After Ye Zhen sat cross-legged to begin recovery, with a wave of Huang Tuo’s hand, the originally fast-flying group suddenly slowed to a crawl like a tortoise.
For a journey of merely eight hundred li, Huang Tuo and his group took a full seven hours of flight.
When Ye Zhen opened his eyes, there was still nearly a hundred li to go before the next tribe.
When the refreshed Ye Zhen figured out the real reason, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He couldn’t really blame them, he could only hurry on his way.
A distance of a hundred li was just a dozen or twenty breaths; it passed in the blink of an eye.
When he arrived, the Black Sand Tribe’s chief Hei Mann and his clansmen had long since been kneeling there, though he didn’t know how long they’d been waiting.
A vast dark mass of people—old folks, children—were all kneeling there in silence, waiting for the arrival of Ye Zhen, this summoned Divine Envoy. It was extraordinarily shocking.
In fact, after receiving the notice and learning that the Divine Envoy would come, the tribe’s chief and the Sha Clan people had spontaneously adopted the most devout posture, kneeling there to welcome the Divine Envoy’s arrival.
Ye Zhen had been traveling slowly for seven hours along the way; they had knelt for seven hours.
Some Sha Clan people fainted while kneeling, woke up again, and then knelt once more.
The only thing supporting them was a single belief—hope!
The hope of staying alive!
When countless Yidongqing Divine Tree Seeds scattered down and a vast number of Yidongqing Divine Tree Flowers once again blossomed throughout this tribe, tears silently flowed from the eyes of the tribe’s people. In their gazes, there was nothing but fanaticism.
Right now, even if Ye Zhen told their entire tribe to die, they wouldn’t hesitate in the slightest!
These past few days, Ye Zhen had already grown numb to such scenes.
As for the explosive surge of All Living Beings’ Will Power within the Dark Palace, Ye Zhen had long grown used to it.
This was indeed a great opportunity to collect All Living Beings’ Will Power, but deep down, Ye Zhen did not wish for such an opportunity to exist.
Never mind that Ye Zhen had regrown a massive number of Yidongqing Divine Trees for them, protecting the Life Water they relied on to survive; the damage caused by this disaster was impossible to avoid.
This winter, in this Yizhi Sand Sea, who knew how many people would starve to death!
How many human tragedies would occur...
The Sha Clan people of Black Sandfall knelt there, watching Divine Envoy Ye Zhen display divine miracles, then desperately kowtowed, sending him off with the fresh blood from their foreheads.
However, this time, not long after Ye Zhen left, a Jade Scroll tore open the void and appeared before him.
Although Xuan Sheng’s Heavenly Domain Ten Thousand Sky Divine Mirror Avatar had sealed off the space between the Yizhi Sand Sea and the outside world, the void within the Yizhi Sand Sea could still be traversed.
The contents of the Jade Scroll were very simple: it was a Jade Scroll in which several Sand Sea Divine Priests requested to convene a meeting.
To put it bluntly, they wanted Ye Zhen to return to the Heavenly God Golden Hall of the Golden Tribe in the shortest possible time.
After reading the contents of the Jade Scroll, the corner of Ye Zhen’s mouth curled into a cold smile.
Now they remembered him, Ye Zhen?
The meaning behind summoning him over could not have been clearer.
Ye Zhen still remembered clearly how, a few days ago, Xiao Ze, Huaa Xing’an, Wuy Youu, Weng Lide and the others had threatened him, that throat‐slitting gesture.
Ye Zhen had no leisure for that.
With a cold smile, that Jade Scroll turned to powder between Ye Zhen’s fingers.
Of course, it wasn’t that Ye Zhen was cold‐blooded.
Ye Zhen wanted to save these suffering Sha Clan people more than anyone.
But Ye Zhen’s current strength was limited. He himself had struggled up step by step from a most ordinary mortal, and he knew the suffering of common folk. He wanted to save people with all his might.
But as for whom he saved first, which tribe he went to first—there had to be some sense of near and far, closeness and distance, right?
Asking Ye Zhen to abandon the people in his own territory to go save the people in the territories of those other Sand Sea Divine Priests—Ye Zhen wasn’t that noble yet!
Even if he really were to go, Ye Zhen would at least have to rescue the disaster victims in his own territory to a decent extent before he went over.
"Hurry, head to the next tribe. Today we’ll try to cover fifty tribes."
After several days of disaster relief, Ye Zhen’s method of relief had already changed.
In the first few tribes he helped, Ye Zhen had gone all out, planting as many as five million Yidongqing Divine Trees in one go.
The number of Yidongqing Divine Trees those tribes now had not only hadn’t decreased compared to before the disaster, it had multiplied several times over.
Very soon, Ye Zhen realized that this efficiency was far too low. Being able to visit three or four tribes in a day was already the limit, and Ye Zhen himself was exhausted half to death.
In the course of the relief efforts, Ye Zhen felt that, for the moment, disaster relief came first; maintaining the water volume of the underground dark river was the most important. Improving the living environment could wait for the future, not now.
So for the later tribes, every time Ye Zhen acted, he held back somewhat, basically only restoring the tribe’s previous number of Yidongqing Divine Trees, at most adding another ten or twenty percent.
For a small tribe, having several hundred thousand trees was already quite good.
Under these conditions, Ye Zhen felt quite relaxed, and Little Demon was even more so. The number of tribes they could save in a day increased greatly.
Perhaps because he had rested for seven hours earlier, Ye Zhen’s efficiency was even higher today; in a single day he passed through fifty‐three tribes.
While saving countless Sha Clan lives, he also harvested a vast sea of All Living Beings’ Will Power and Fanatics. Of course, he also unexpectedly received a large number of Jade Scrolls, and even Temple Golden Scrolls from the Yizhi Temple!
Leaving aside all the Jade Scrolls urging Ye Zhen to return, just the number of Temple Golden Slips representing official Temple orders had reached a total of twelve!
The content of each was more or less the same, and the tone grew harsher and harsher, but Ye Zhen didn’t respond to a single one; he crushed them all into powder in his palm.
By this time, it was already too late.
With Ye Zhen giving no reply at all, the Sand Sea Divine Priests gathered in the Yizhi Temple of the Golden Tribe could no longer sit still.
"This Divine Envoy Ye is looking down on the Temple’s authority way too much. So many Temple Golden Slips and he didn’t answer a single one. That’s just going too far." Sand Sea Divine Priest Huaa Xing’an, whose lips had broken out in sores from anxiety, was full of indignation.
However, none of the others responded to Huaa Xing’an’s words. Every Sand Sea Divine Priest present knew perfectly well what was going on.
They knew why Ye Zhen wasn’t answering their Jade Scrolls: the threats they’d made in the Heavenly God Golden Hall three months ago had indeed been a bit over the line.
Who could have known that such a once-in-ten-thousand-years calamity would suddenly break out in the Sand Sea?
This catastrophe covered almost half of the Yizhi Sand Sea; even a Heavenly God didn’t have such power.
If the scale were any smaller, some of them would even suspect it was Ye Zhen’s doing.
While everyone stayed silent, Sand Sea Divine Priest Wuy Youu grew anxious.
Of all their territories, his had suffered the worst. Nearly ninety percent of his tribes had been hit by this calamity.
He was truly panicking.
If they still couldn’t invite Ye Zhen over, then within two years at least eighty percent of the tribes under his jurisdiction would vanish. The believers and prestige of him, this Sand Sea Divine Priest, within his own domain would drop straight to zero.
Right now, all those desperate Sha Clan people were kneeling in and outside the Divine Temple, praying for the Heavenly God, the High Priest, and him, this Sand Sea Divine Priest, to display a Divine Miracle and save them from disaster.
If he couldn’t turn things around at a time like this, the Yizhi Sand Sea Sky God, who had already established his Heavenly God prestige throughout the Sand Sea, might be fine.
But the prestige and believers of him, this Sand Sea Divine Priest who ruled that territory, would be completely finished.
As for a few years later, when most of the Sha Clan people in his territory were dead, he wouldn’t even have a base of rule anymore—what rule would there be to talk about?
Wuy Youu was genuinely in a panic.
Seeing that the other Sand Sea Divine Priests remained silent, Wuy Youu urged anxiously, "Everyone, Divine Priest Guii Gu, Priest Xiao, say something. Right now, only that brat can save those stricken tribes.
If he still doesn’t come, my subjects will all be dead by next year."
"What can we do if he won’t come? Are we supposed to tie him up and drag him here?" Xiao Ze was racking his brains for ideas, but with that one remark laced with other implications, he sent the thoughts of all the Sand Sea Divine Priests present askew.
"Tie him up?" Huaa Xing’an’s eyes lit up. "But didn’t the High Priest already say that the Divine Artifact in that brat’s hand can’t be taken by others, and even if taken, can’t be used?"
"Well, maybe the High Priest said that just to protect him?" Wuy Youu’s eyes rolled as he spoke.
The second-ranked Sand Sea Divine Priest of Yizhi Temple, Guii Gu, gave a heavy cough. "On that point, Nahar absolutely would not lie.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have rashly supported an outsider in seizing power to become a Divine Envoy."
"This won’t work and that won’t work either, then Elder Guii, what do you say we should do?" Xiao Ze and the others were getting desperate.
"Given the situation..." Stroking his beard, Guii Gu said slowly, "we can only ask Grand Priest Nahar to step in personally."
Under the urging of the various Sand Sea Divine Priests, Grand Priest Nahar, who had been outside inspecting the disaster, rushed back to the Heavenly God Golden Hall as fast as he could. Once he understood why they had come, Grand Priest Nahar let out a cold laugh.
"Weren’t you all threatening him not long ago, saying he wasn’t allowed to set half a foot into your territories? Why have you all suddenly changed your tune now?
You’re all high and mighty Sand Sea Divine Priests, and you still have the nerve? I feel embarrassed for you old fellows!"
Grand Priest Nahar scolded the group of Sand Sea Divine Priests so badly that they didn’t even dare show their temper.
But scolding was scolding; when it came to disaster relief, Grand Priest Nahar was more anxious than anyone.
At the repeated urging of several Sand Sea Divine Priests, Grand Priest Nahar personally wrote a Golden Slip, stamped it with his unique Divine Soul Imprint, and sent it to Ye Zhen, urging him to return so they could discuss a grand plan for disaster relief.
Since Grand Priest Nahar had personally stepped forward, Ye Zhen naturally couldn’t just ignore him.
Before long, Ye Zhen’s Jade Scroll reply was transmitted back.
After reading Ye Zhen’s reply, Grand Priest Nahar’s expression turned incomparably strange, and the mocking look on his face grew even stronger.
Wuy Youu panicked. "High Priest, that Divine Envoy Ye wouldn’t be so ignorant of heaven and earth as to dare refuse even your order, would he?"
"If that’s the case, then he’s gone too far; we can’t just let that slide." Sand Sea Divine Priest Xiao Ze seized the chance to add another vicious jab.
The mockery on Grand Priest Nahar’s face deepened. With a snort, he tossed the Jade Scroll Ye Zhen had sent over to Xiao Ze. "See for yourself!"
With just a glance at the contents of Ye Zhen’s reply, the old face of Sand Sea Divine Priest Xiao Ze—who had long since trained his skin to be as thick as a city wall—turned uncomfortable, and his old cheeks began to burn!
After that, the Jade Scroll was passed around one by one.
No matter if it was Huaa Xing’an, Weng Lide, Wuy Youu, or even the senior Guii Gu, after reading the Jade Scroll, each one’s old face either flushed red and burned, or they stared, dumbstruck, at a total loss for words!
"High Priest, I’m scared. Divine Priests Guii Gu, Xiao Ze, Huaa Xing’an, Weng Lide, and Wuy Youu clearly said in front of me before that if I dared set foot in their territories, they’d cut off my head. I’m really scared..."
With just these few short lines, the faces of the entire group of Sand Sea Divine Priests were slapped so hard it rang—pa pa pa!

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