At the depths of the villa, Duan Zhu was standing right outside of the gigantic pillar of light, and he was staring at the scene in front of him with a fervent and greedy expression on his face.
He knew that what was lying inside this pillar of light, was most likely the final treasures of the 'Dragon Lord's villa'.
Originally, Duan Zhu hadn't expected to find too many things that would catch his interest and neither did he expect for the 'Dragon Lord's villa' to be dangerous to him.
After all, as a hall master of the 'Demon Emperor palace', what kind of dangerous situation had he not be in already?
Additionally, the treasures that could catch his eyes were really important.
However, contrary to his thoughts, not only was the journey to reach this place extremely dangerous, but the treasures that he had found during the past 2 years, were much more than what he originally owned himself!
Seeing that he was just a step away from obtaining the treasures hidden at the core of the villa, even the prestigious hall master of the 'Demon Emperor palace' couldn't contain himself.
Taking out a 1.7m blood-colored saber from his spatial ring, Duan Zhu first injected his qi inside it, before he started raining out powerful attacks on the pillar of light in front of him.
As for the saber in his hands, this was a weapon that Duan Zhu had found a couple of days ago, just as he arrived at the depths of the villa.
The moment that the peak Dao King saw this weapon, his body had started to tremble from excitement.
This was a weapon that would be coveted even by Dao Emperors!
After all, this saber had already surpassed the gold grade and had reached an entirely new level!
Just this blood saber by itself, was already worth more than the entire fortune that Duan Zhu had inside his spatial ring.
At the same time that Duan Zhu was attacking the gigantic pillar of light, the old king's of the Shengtian dynasty, Sheng Jun's group, was the one closest to arriving at the core of the 'Dragon Lord's villa'
A solemn expression had appeared on Sheng Jun's face when he felt the tremors coming from the villa's core region, but the old king only increased his speed in response, as he led the Dao Kings of the Shengtian dynasty even further inside!
...
At the same time, Shun Long who was still sitting with Liu Mei on Little Silver's back, had just left the mountains that were filled with magic beasts further behind them, as they entered the region of the scorching hot desert up ahead.
It was unknown what the reason behind this was, but the heat in this desert could actually affect even body cultivators.
Shun Long could feel the discomfort caused by the heat, that resulted in a painful headache,
Liu Mei however found it even harder to withstand the heat, as the unbearable temperature had quickly brought her to the brink of collapse.
Only Little Silver seemed completely unaffected by the change in the temperature on its surroundings, as it continued to fly forward completely unperturbed.
Shun Long immediately understood the reason why only peak Nascent Soul stage experts and Dao Kings would dare to venture inside the 'Dragon Lord's villa'.
After all, he and Liu Mei had been inside this place for less than a day, and yet the dangers they had already faced had completely exceeded what even most Nascent Soul stage experts could handle.
Even a late-stage Nascent Soul expert would have most likely been unable to escape from the swarm of magic beasts that had surrounded Little Silver earlier.
Seeing that she could no longer withstand the heat from the desert and would most likely end up collapsing soon, Liu Mei circulated her qi, as a thin layer of ice completely covered herself and Shun Long like a thin membrane.
Although the ice would quickly melt, and the water on Shun Long's and her own body would evaporate from the scorching temperature of the sun, the cooling feeling was more than enough to help Liu Mei withstand the terrible heat from her surroundings as Little Silver continued to fly forward.
Shun Long could also feel the discomfort caused by the heat to instantly disappear as soon as Liu Mei's layer of ice covered his body.
Additionally, as a peak rank 9 Spirit realm cultivator, Liu Mei only needed to use a tiny amount of her qi in order to create the layers of ice around her and Shun Long's bodies every few seconds.
The qi required from this action couldn't even compare to her summoning of a single skeleton.
As Little Silver continued to fly through the desert, half a day soon passed like this.
During this time, Shun Long was extremely surprised by how smooth his journey with Liu Mei actually was.
In the past 12 hours, they hadn't met with a single magic beast.
Forget about peak rank 5 or even early rank 6 beasts that Shun Long had expected to encounter, even rank 3 magic beasts were nowhere to be found.
Based on the previous 2 experiences from earlier, since the desert was closer to the core region of the villa than the mountains that were filled with the rank 5 magic beasts, Shun Long was certain that it was highly unlikely, that the only 'problem' that he and Liu Mei would face would be the uncomfortable heat from the desert.
Liu Mei also found this matter suspicious, and looking at Shun Long, she thought seriously for a moment before she said in a curious tone
''Long-ge, perhaps not every place in this villa will hide powerful magic beasts.''
Shun Long nodded his head in response as he agreed with Liu Mei's words.
He had also thought about this matter, and this was the conclusion he had just reached as well.
Indeed, it was impossible for every single mountain, forest and desert, to have hundreds of peak rank 5 magic beasts.
Just as Shun Long thought that their journey would actually continue like this, powerful sandstorms suddenly appeared in the distance ahead.
The sandstorms had enveloped the desert as far as the eye could see, and left no room to fly through.
If someone insisted on passing through the desert, they would definitely have to get past the sandstorms to continue.
And yet, the giant sandstorms didn't seem to be that easy to pass through.
Shun Long first had Little Silver stop flying before it reached the area of the sandstorms, as he then fell into deep thought.
''Long-ge, what should we do? There doesn't seem to be any other path to continue forward.''
Hearing Liu Mei's question jolt him awake, Shun Long finally nodded his head with a serious look in his eyes.
Since there was no other way to get around it, in the end, he could only get choose to get through the sandstorms.
The black panther's silver wings lit up with a bright light, as it charged towards the gigantic sandstorms directly!
However, the moment that Little Silver entered inside the sandstorm, Shun Long's expression suddenly changed.
In the middle of the sandstorm, Shun Long tried hard, but he was unable to even open his eyes. He could feel his body was heavy, as though someone or something was pressing heavily on it.
The power of the sandstorm was actually much more terrifying than what Shun Long had originally expected.
He had to use all of his strength to resist this terrifying force, and turn his body around to hold Liu Mei's body tightly, preventing her from falling off from Little Silver's body.
Every move inside the sandstorm was exhausting, and Shun Long was even certain that if he hadn't advanced to the peak of the fourth stage in the 'Monarch's Eternal body', he wouldn't even have control of his body to even provide with any resistance!
At the same time, Shun Long finally realized the danger of this desert.
If he really lost control and allowed the sandstorms to sweep his body, he would definitely die in their midst, without ever finding his way out of the desert.
And yet, Shun Long could only grit his teeth and hang on Little Silver's back as the black panther continued forward.
Although the panther's speed had dropped by almost half inside the sandstorm, Little Silver didn't seem to face any other problems.
At the same time, time continued to pass, and as he felt the pressure from the sandstorm around him get even stronger, a single thought appeared in Shun Long's mind
''This place is far more dangerous than I originally imagined!''