Survival of the Nation: My luck was a tiny bit worse.

The two were not surprised that the creature wanted to go to their camp—

After all, there are plenty of creatures that want to go to their camp, whether they are two-legged creatures or wild beasts, and it wouldn't be a problem if an unknown creature came along now.

But the problem now is—

"Aren't you the desert lord? Logically speaking, you should be our enemy too, right?"

Leng Ruolan raised an eyebrow. "How could you just disappear like that?"

"The kernel fragment is the foundation of my existence. Without it, my body will gradually disintegrate within days, returning to being part of the forbidden zone."

The desert lord gazed at the sky, his expression utterly calm.

"I used to be one of them, but later I didn't want to be associated with them, so I was kicked out."

From the day I accepted this mission, I was ready—”

Then Ou Yun interrupted the spellcasting, saying, "Then you might as well not hand it in."

"?"

The desert lord was taken aback.

"You said you've lived here for thousands of years, studying every inch of this desert and every creature. You know how to suppress abyssal energy, as well as the weaknesses of those lords and the operating mechanism of the Matrix."

Europe shrugs.

"Don't you think you're more valuable than kernel fragments?"

The desert lord looked at him somewhat blankly.

Ou Yun continued to reassure it, "Don't worry, since the fragment is a key item, we'll definitely accept it, but not now. Keep it for now and stay alive. Then come with us. Help us cross the snow mountain and collect the remaining fragments. We'll decide whether to hand over the fragment on the day we truly complete the game."

Without waiting for its reply, he reached out his hand to it.

Our slogan is—

Ou Yun immediately turned around and glanced at Leng Ruolan.

"..."

Leng Ruolan sighed helplessly, then cooperated and continued his words.

"Since we're already here..."

*

On the ground, the sandworms' suppression period has ended.

All the sandworms regained their mobility at the same time and rushed towards the camp with even greater frenzy than before.

The desert lord turned around and looked down at the fifteen giant sandworms at his feet.

Then it snapped its fingers softly.

All the sandworms suddenly froze, the purple patterns on their carapaces began to flash wildly, and then, as if something had torn them apart from the inside, they all exploded.

Purple fluid spilled onto the sand, and fifteen sandworms turned to ashes in the blink of an eye.

[Congratulations to Ou Yun and Leng Ruolan from the Dragon Kingdom, along with their assistants Marcus, Douglas, and Alexander, for successfully defeating the Abyssal Sandworm (swarm)!]

[Triggered 10,000x drop: Abyssal Sandworm!]

【…】

A series of notifications about the 10,000x multiplier instantly exploded in front of Ou Yun and Leng Ruolan (as well as Chen Hao, who was far away at the camp).

Ou Yun laughed, "Hey, why isn't the Desert Lord's kill showing up?"

Desert Lord: "Revealing my information is not a good thing. Are you sure you want to do this?"

Ou Yun: "Then it's alright."

*

The way the desert lords came down from the stone pillars was completely different from how they climbed up them.

It took a step forward and then floated down from a height of thirty meters as lightly as a feather.

Her long, silvery-white hair spread out in the night breeze, starlight filtering through the strands and scattering like shards of silver across the floor.

Leng Ruolan (whispering): "Isn't this a bit too pretentious?"

Ou Yun (whispering): Well, what can we do? They're a lord, or some kind of guardian. We'll just have to put up with it.

Desert Lord: ...

*

The desert lord stood in the center of the camp, surrounded by twenty-three coffee worms, all of whose straws had turned a silvery-blue color never seen before.

Instead of turning red, they lay quietly on the ground in an almost reverent posture, gently touching the desert lord's ankle with their straws.

"These little things like you very much."

Ou Yun found it amusing, "They turn purple when they encounter sandworms, turn red after drinking sandworm blood coffee, and now they're turning blue when they meet you—"

Like a chameleon.

"The desert burrowing worm has the highest sensitivity to energy fluctuations among all desert organisms."

The desert lord bent down and gently stroked the scales of one of the coffee worms with his fingers.

"They sense the core energy within me. Turning blue means safety, turning purple means danger, and turning red means excitement. When you feed them with insect blood coffee, they should be both excited and satisfied—the abyssal energy in the insect blood is the most delicious food for them."

Alexander—having followed Europe for so long and witnessed countless bizarre and outrageous things, even now, seeing the Desert Lord so directly, he only scratched his head slightly in bewilderment: "So... this thing is really called the Desert Digging Worm?"

"You call it the Coffee Bug? It sounds nice. Anyway, names are given to outsiders; our own people don't need names."

The desert lord stood up and looked around the camp, which included tents, campfires, defensive walls, and other living facilities.

"This is where you live? It's simpler than I imagined, but much warmer than other human camps I've seen."

"You haven't seen our main camp."

Alexander quickly answered, "You'll see when you get there—stone houses, a mill, an ice cellar, a watchtower, and a mutated plant that grows by eating corpses."

The desert lord's expression changed slightly: "...That last sentence made me a little uneasy, but I'll choose to ignore it for now."

Nanbei remained lying on the stretcher, scrutinizing the new silver-haired, eyeless humanoid creature with a critical gaze.

The desert lord also noticed it. It walked up to Nanbei and squatted down, its slender fingers gently hovering above Nanbei's wounds without touching them directly.

"There is residual abyssal energy in the wounds of this big cat."

It said, "Although your medicine stopped the bleeding, the residual energy will slow down the healing process and give it nightmares. I can help it purify itself—if it's willing."

Nanbei stared at the desert lord for a long time, baring his teeth and panting heavily.

Ou Yun grabbed it and held it down. "It said it was willing."

Leng Ruolan nodded in agreement, "That's right, that's right, Lord, please do it!"

Where else can you find such a good thing as the lord personally healing your wounds!

North and South: ...

*

A faint silver-blue halo appeared on the desert lord's fingers.

A halo enveloped the wounds in the north and south, and a wisp of extremely thin, dark purple mist seeped from the edge of the wounds, vanishing into nothingness the moment it came into contact with the silver-blue halo.

Nanbei's body visibly relaxed, and it let out an extremely pleasant snore before closing its eyes and falling asleep.

"Alright, the wound will be completely healed by tomorrow morning."

The desert lord withdrew his finger.

"However, it has lost quite a bit of blood, so it's best to eat more tonight to replenish its strength."

Hongdou immediately grabbed the biggest piece of roasted meat and placed it near Nanbei's mouth. Nanbei didn't even open his eyes before opening his mouth, biting into the meat, and starting to chew.

"This cat really knows how to enjoy life," Alexander remarked.

"It deserves it," Leng Ruolan said.