You promised to wreak havoc on the dungeon, but instead you've got Dragon Slime!

Claudia immediately activated the second stage of the fire elemental array. She quickly switched the molten stone to a rapid-fire burst, pressing the fire line onto the sand. The fire and sand clashed, the heat waves forcing bulges into the sand, causing it to churn like boiling water. The sand scorpions were forced forward; their carapaces were barely half-exposed when the bone-throwing soldiers in the rear pinned them to the sand with barbed spikes. Once inserted, they couldn't be pulled out.

The sand was still moving. The Ironback Beast pressed its shell down, creating a stable surface, and the monsters in the back row stepped over it, pushing their formation forward again.

Ron watched as the array of Sand Valley in the battle map flickered with light. The Sand Gang Wheel Array beneath the stone platform was drawing water from the underground river, which was sprayed out as sand smoke through the capillaries of the earth's strata, both blocking fire and hiding scorpions.

He lightly tapped the sluice gate downstream of the underground river on the disc with his baton.

The gate opened.

The underground river roared like a muffled drumbeat. Suddenly, the water stored below poured down onto the stone platform, instantly displacing the sand layer and scattering the sand scorpion's passageways. Sand and water mingled into a murky slurry, overflowing from the edge of the platform and flowing onto the street, steaming hot. The fire elemental array pressed down on it, the heat waves mingling with the water vapor, making the valley center feel like a steamer.

The Abyss's Maw blocked the thickest section of the sand on the other side. The wall-climbing beasts they brought had sharp forelimbs that could be used as large rakes. Rows of wall-climbing beasts dug the sand to both sides, turning up the stone spikes buried in the sand. The stone spikes had runes on them, which would light up when they came into contact with air. The Abyss's Maw ignored them, using the stone spikes as markers and charging in the direction of the spikes.

Halfway there, a sudden sandstorm erupted from the other side of the valley. The four black pillars on the stone platform shone with an even brighter sandy yellow light. The light climbed up the pillars and exploded with a "pop" at the top, as if rings of sand were falling from the sky, turning into an extremely thin film of sand when it reached the street.

The sand membrane lifted the charging monsters slightly, then pushed them diagonally to the side. The formation was disrupted, and the dense charge instantly fell apart.

Ron tapped his baton back, and the catapults on the Black Language Cave main formation stopped firing ordinary explosive shells and switched to "sinking hooks".

The heavy hook was a thick iron chain dragging a curved hook, with talismanic threads wrapped around its tip. When the catapult was swung to its highest point, the heavy hook was thrown out, its tip precisely hooking onto the upper edge of the four pillars of the stone platform. As soon as the talismanic threads adhered to the pillars, the black patterns on the threads lit up and turned into iron-colored ice.

The tops of the four pillars were simultaneously locked by layers of iron-colored ice. Just as the sand ring was about to fall again, it was blocked by the iron-colored ice head-on, producing a piercing "crackling" sound, and the sandy yellow light suddenly went out.

The sand rings disappeared, and the sand membrane no longer supported them. The unbalanced sand surface was like a wound with its skin peeled off, revealing the hidden mechanisms along with it.

Taking advantage of the situation, the Dark Abyss pressed forward, with Ironback Beasts and Heavy Armored Beasts forming two hard lines, and Shadow Scale Puppets inserting themselves into the gaps between the lines, specifically targeting the defenders bitten by Sand Scorpions to finish them off.

Suddenly, the stone platform sank with a thud, a crack appeared in its base, and a hidden door was kicked open. The Sand Nether Valley protectors, who had been hiding inside, rushed out with short halberds. The short halberds could be fatal if they were thrust into the eye slits of the heavily armored beasts. They charged fast and fiercely, and the helmets of the first row of heavily armored beasts were ripped open.

The Shadow Scale Puppet cut in directly from the side, its two short swords simultaneously stabbing towards the inner guard's armpit. The tips of the swords penetrated half an inch, causing the inner guard's back to arch, and he fell sideways.

The Abyss's Throat sliced ​​open a second breach behind the stone platform. The mountain path on the side of the cliff was narrow, and the foremost wall-climbing beast simply tore through the mountainside, pulling out the wooden skeleton embedded within. The wooden skeleton was a hidden passageway built within the Sand Nether Valley, which had been ripped into a broken chain. Someone was moving inside the passageway; shadows slid like centipedes through the sections of the skeleton, only to find at the end that the exit had been torn down.

The Abyss's Maw shoved the exploding bottles into the gaps in the skeleton, causing them to explode in a series of bursts. The skeleton, like a broken rope, fell onto the sand, along with the people inside. Before the sand could settle, the heavy armored beast's hooves filled in, stepping on it and stopping the creature from moving.

The siege forces outside the valley entrance also pushed their pace inward. Swarms of slimes pressed onto the streets in front of the stone platform, sealing off the alleyways like glued trenches. Bone minions hurled chained hooks, pulling down any remaining, barely hold-up counterattack points on the rooftops, causing the roof frames to collapse everywhere.

Claudia advanced from the lakeshore toward the heart of the stone platform, setting all the resurrectable murlocs on fire with her purifying flames. The Old Blind Eyes were fiercer in the water, but out of the water they could only use short crossbows, whose arrows were bent by the heat before they even flew three feet.

She threw the last molten stone into the center of the stone platform. The platform trembled, and flames seeped into the cracks, igniting her heart.

Ron stared at the terrain panel, tapping his finger on the deepest vein. That was the junction of the underground river and the sandstorm array, where there was a valve. He had only opened the downstream side before, but now he had opened the upstream side as well.

The two sluice gates opened simultaneously, and the water of the underground river, like two colliding dragons, violently crashed against the cavity of the Sand Gang Wheel Array. The Sand Nether Valley people were pumping water, but their efforts were thwarted halfway through. Water and sand collided, causing the core of the array to flow backward, and the cavity beneath the stone platform emitted a muffled sound, like a giant beast holding its breath.

The next instant, a square brick suddenly collapsed from the center of the stone platform, revealing the array eye of the Sand Gang Wheel Array. Inside was not some treasure, but a pile of sandstone that had been shaved into rings, with dense chisel marks carved on the surface.

Ron pressed the baton down.

The heavy iron chains tightened suddenly, causing the four pillars to creak and groan. The iron-colored ice at the top of the pillars tightened, cracking the core. The sand array lost its support, and the ring stones in the array's core scattered with a crash, like an overturned urn.

The formation of Shaming Valley collapsed.

The sand no longer supported it; the sand membrane shattered into dust. Sand scorpions spun around in the ground, trying to escape, but were swallowed by the churning sand. The Dark Sea Abyss advanced to the stone platform as easily as cutting through tofu.

A clanging of metal echoed from behind the stone platform. The Abyss's Maw ripped open the last wooden wall, revealing the inner sanctum door hidden behind it. The door was made of thick stone, covered with sheet metal. The wall-climbing beast struck it three times; the sheet metal curled up at the edges, and the stone door loosened.

Claudia suppressed the fire in her palm to its lowest setting, the flames shooting in like sharp lines along the cracks in the stone door. A burnt smell emanated from the iron sheet; the door cracked open, and air rushed out, carrying a musty and medicinal odor.

The inner hall was dark, with a shallow channel running along the ground, the water slowly creeping forward. At the end of the channel sat a long table, on which lay a small sand mirror. The mirror reflected the situation outside the valley: the fire at the valley entrance was still burning, and the advance routes of the three armies were clearly visible.

A tall, thin figure sat beside the table, draped in a gray cloth, with a box covered in a black cloth beside him.

He didn't get up; instead, he ran his finger across the sand mirror, and ripples appeared on its surface. The ripples coalesced into rows of symbols, like water flowing from the mirror to the ground. The grooves already carved on the ground lit up, shining brightly.

Ron immediately recognized this as Sand Valley's "backup plan".

He pressed his hand on the command panel, and the two repeating crossbow towers of the main Black Language Cave formation rose from the valley entrance, their quivers filled with cracked black arrows. These black arrows were replicas from the City of Illusions, with thin shafts and grooves at the fletching for piercing spirits.

The two repeating crossbow towers unleashed a barrage of fire towards the inner sanctum. Black arrows pierced the walls and entered the inner sanctum, their piercing grooves emitting short hissing sounds. The white lines that had just lit up on the ground dimmed one by one, like strings of lights being snapped underfoot.

The gray-clothed man paused, and the patterns in the sand mirror trembled. He reached out to lift the black cloth beside him, revealing a palm-sized sand jade core underneath. The core had cracks, and light shone from within the cracks.

The Abyss's Maw had already rushed into the palace gates, and the Shadowscale Puppet lunged at the table. The gray-clothed man raised his other hand, and a small stone ring fell to the ground from his fingertip. As soon as the stone ring touched the ground, the sand channels in the palace floor arched upwards, forming a hard sand wall that enclosed the area in front of the table into a small well.

The puppet crashed directly into the sand wall, the blade shaving off half an inch of sand powder, but still didn't cut through.

When Claudia entered, the fire in her hand was almost invisible. She pressed the fire against the sand wall, patiently building up the heat little by little. The moisture inside the sand wall was baked out, and the sand grains began to dehydrate and become brittle.

Ron didn't urge him. He had the Ironback Beasts pry open the door completely from the outside, and then ordered the Slime Swarm to make the threshold of the inner sanctum smooth to prevent the people inside from escaping.

The gray-clothed man's fingertips touched the sand jade core again. Immediately afterward, a fine rain of sand fell from the roof, entering the ground channel. The lines in the channel shone even brighter than before, almost splashing out.

On the control panel, Ron partially closed the upstream and downstream sluice gates that had been activated, leaving only a small gap of water. As soon as the trough lit up, he immediately instructed Dark Sea Abyss to throw "Frost Salt" into the upstream side channel.

Frost salt cools quickly and drastically upon contact with water. The water temperature in the side channel plummeted, seeping into the trough inside the inner palace, and the white line, halfway bright, suddenly emitted a crisp sound.

With a "snap," the most crucial wire in the sand trough broke. Like a snake being choked, the other branches twitched, and one by one, the lights went out.

Claudia then increased the power and pushed against the thinnest part of the sand wall. The temperature difference between the inside and outside of the sand wall was immense, and it became brittle, cracking open like a dried-up riverbed.

The Shadow Scale Puppet then tore the thin opening into a door, creating a gap in the entire sand wall. The gray-clothed man raised his hand to press the sand jade core, but the Shadow Scale Puppet's knife was already pressed against his wrist, pinning it to the table.

The gray-clothed man didn't struggle; he uttered a single word. Suddenly, the light inside the cracked sand jade core bulged, as if someone had breathed a breath into it.

Ron typed "Avoid" on the command panel.

All the black-speaking monsters in the inner sanctum retreated simultaneously. The floor from the threshold of the inner sanctum to the outer room rose up like a blanket being lifted, then suddenly collapsed. A sand spike shot up from the center of the collapse, pulverizing the long table, the sand mirror, the sand jade core, and the gray cloth figure.

Dust sprayed outwards, and those tiny, invisible specks of sand were about to escape into the air when they were immediately trapped by the slime membrane that Ron had prepared beforehand. The slime membrane firmly wrapped the speck of sand, rolled it into a ball, and sent it back into the hall, where it fell into the newly collapsed pit.

There was still water at the bottom of the pit, and the water still contained frost and salt. The sand powder would clump together as soon as it came into contact with it.

The sounds from the inner chambers ceased.

Ron shrunk the battle map, and the blue lights in the valley center disappeared one by one, leaving only scattered resistance at the edge of the stone platform.

The Dark Sea pressed down, the Abyss's Throat sliced ​​at the flanks, and the Black Whisper main force swept in from the street corner. The monster horde, like the receding tide, flooded every nook and cranny.

On the stone platform, the once remarkably stable layer of sand had all crumbled, revealing a jumble of messy stone beams, wooden frames, bone spurs, and abandoned canals. White steam was still rising from the canals, the frost and the heat waves mingling and exhaling.

A centurion from the Sand Valley, clad in light armor, burst from the collapsed side hall, carrying a broken flagpole. The flag on the pole had been burned to ashes, leaving only the iron ring at the top. He surged toward the edge of the stone platform, trying to squeeze through the chaotic army.

The wall-climbing beast from the Abyss's Maw pounced from the side, biting his hip and yanking him to the ground. The centurion fell to the ground, his flagpole still trying to shove forward an inch before being crushed by the heavy beast's hooves.

He didn't move anymore.

The valley's voice had changed. Before, it was the howl of sand, the explosion of fire, and the roar of catapults; now, only the sounds of shattering, collapsing, and churning wet mud remained.

Chapter 150

Ron pushed the terrain disc back. The disc became flatter, and the red line almost covered the entire center of the valley.

He didn't shout victory, nor did he order his men to stop. He simply ordered them to surround one direction—the downhill slope behind the stone platform, the break leading to the lower reaches of the underground river. The remnants of Sand Valley would always head that way.

The Dark Abyss placed its shields on the slope, then laid down a layer of slime membrane, like applying a thick layer of oil. The slope became slippery, and the sand beneath their feet sent them tumbling straight down.

The throat of the abyss encircled the cliff from the side, sealing off the riverbed below. A row of stakes was driven into the riverbed, with iron chains attached to the tops of the stakes and barbs wrapped around the chains.

The remaining people in the valley began to surge down the slope. The queue was packed together, pressing down layer by layer. Someone stepped on the slime membrane and slid three meters away, knocking over the people in front of them. The people behind then followed, piling up like flour being poured from a well, row after row.

The armored beasts and ironbacks advanced from the flanks, effectively squeezing the entire ramp into a funnel shape. At the bottom of the funnel were iron chain posts, above it was a slime membrane, and the middle of the funnel was filled with sand and water.

Once someone goes in, there's no turning back.

Ron gently pressed down on the baton, and the catapult's final hook was thrown out, hooking onto the edge of the funnel. The chain was pulled back, shrinking the funnel opening another notch.

At this moment, the energy in the valley collapsed. The strength that had been supporting the formation was gone, leaving only the heat dissipating everywhere and the sand crushed underfoot.

Claudia stepped onto the stone platform, landing beside the collapsed eye of the formation. She glanced down at the hardened mass of sand, then took another step forward and gently twisted her foot. The hardened mass cracked into several pieces.

She raised her hand, and the distant line of fire dropped half a notch. The roar from the valley entrance receded, and the swarm of slimes began to retreat.

Ron closed the terrain disc halfway, his fingertip still hovering on the outer ring. There was a lit dot on the outer ring.

That's in a deeper location.

The ground of Sand Valley has been turned upside down, but something underneath is still pushing upwards.

He pressed the plate down again, bringing the red line closer to that point. The arrows for Dark Sea Abyss, Abyss Throat, and Black Whisper Main Array all shifted an inch off the map at the same time.

The sound of water suddenly became very soft at the entrance to the inner sanctum's pit. It was as if something enormous had taken a breath in the water.

The ground in the valley floor loosened slightly.

This loosening isn't a collapse; it's moving in a different direction.

Ron released the half-closed terrain disc, lifted his palm upwards, and created a new layer on the disc. The new layer was deeper than the previous one, with sharper lines, like veins carved from a crack in a stone.

He pointed to the center of the vein.

Continue driving down the valley.

The stone platform at the heart of the valley had been reduced to a pile of rubble, but the downward force still lingered. Ron's terrain compass trembled twice, as if supported by some underground force. He knew this wasn't a desperate last stand by remnants of an army, but rather the true trump card of Sand Valley.

The geological profile unfolded on the plate, layer by layer, turning downwards. What was initially thought to be just a sandstorm formation turned out to be a winding black band deeper within. It wasn't an ordinary underground river, but a "vein" encased in hard rock. The vein was wide enough for a heavily armored beast to pass side-by-side, and its flow wasn't clear water, but a black current mixed with fine sand and glitter.

Without hesitation, Ron gave the order: "Deep Sea Abyss, send the deep-diving team down to explore; find the entrance to the Abyss Throat on the side of the cliff; don't move the main formation yet, seal the valley entrance."

On the other side of the lake, the lurking monsters of the Dark Abyss, chained and equipped with floats, plunged into the waterway that had collapsed beneath the stone platform. The waterway was wider than expected, the surface of which was deathly still, but the dark current beneath was pushing them forward. The lead black-striped crocodile flicked its tail, its chains tangling with a nearby stone pillar, barely managing to stabilize the group.

The temperature at the bottom of the water was strange; it wasn't bone-chillingly cold, but rather had a stuffy, sultry heat, like diving in a steamer. Further on, the water began to shimmer with a bluish light, which was stretched into long threads as it passed through the black current, constantly drifting along the bottom.

The giant crocodile lunged forward and bit off a long strand of silk. It immediately released its grip, and the thing writh in the water before instantly disintegrating into a cloud of powder. The powder, seemingly alive, crawled along the water towards the monster's body. The ironback beast at the back of the group, with its sharp eyes, spat the powder back into the water, preventing it from crawling into its armor.

Beyond the throat of the abyss, a stone door was finally revealed through a passage carved out from the side of the cliff. The stone door was engraved with dense sand patterns, and in the center of the patterns was a golden egg the size of a thumb.

The wall-climbing beast used its forelimbs to try and catch the egg. As soon as it touched it, the egg cracked open, and a stream of golden slurry flowed out. As soon as the slurry hit the ground, the surrounding sand and gravel seemed to melt away, collapsing into a heap.

The captain of the Abyss's Maw immediately ordered three freezing bombs to be stuffed into the crevice. The freezing bombs exploded, instantly freezing the mortar into a hard shell that sealed the crevice along the egg surface. Taking advantage of this opening, the wall-climbing beast and the shadow-scaled golem together pried open the stone door, revealing a slope leading directly to the underground veins.

Ron looked at the two lines that were approaching the black bands, pressed his finger on the center of the board, and the marked red dots flashed on the two lines.

"Join forces and seal off their retreat."

The Dark Abyss's stealth team, carrying the dampness of the black current, climbed the slope and met up with the vanguard of the Abyss's Throat halfway up. The air here was a mixture of moisture and fine sand; inhaling it felt like rubbing your throat with sandpaper. The ground trembled—not from an earthquake, but from something enormous breathing beneath.

Ron personally led a small elite squad into the valley. He walked to the end of the slope and looked down—the black veins resembled a skinned dragon, slowly writhing along the ground. The dragon's spine throbbed, and with each thud, the black currents within the veins whipped up waves of sand that crashed against the stone walls on either side.

“That’s not a river,” Ron whispered. “It’s a creature.”

The dragon's scales had long been stripped away, and its body was studded with runes from the Sand Nether Valley, used to draw black currents to power the valley. Yet, this thing was clearly still alive, even struggling.

Four massive sand pillars were driven into its back, with thick chains attached to them. The other end of the chains was connected to the stone platform above—meaning that the Sand Gang Wheel Array had always been the shackles that bound this dragon.

Ron recalled the moment the formation collapsed, noting the trembling of that vein and the obvious increase in breathing.