The elders all had bitter looks on their faces when this blue patch disappeared once more.
They knew that this wasn’t a coincidence since it had happened twice already.
There was something that was making this oasis disappear and it was doing it on purpose.
Every time that they came close, it would suddenly disappear.
If they weren’t waiting for them to approach before making it disappear, it wouldn’t have disappeared at just the right time.
So whatever was making it happen was clearly doing it on purpose.
However, the more terrifying connotation of this was…there was someone watching them.
They didn’t know how they were doing it, why they were doing it, or where they were doing it from. They just knew that there was someone watching over them right now and this wasn’t a good feeling.
It was like being in a trap for ants and they were the ants.
They wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.
It was just that there was no way out for them.
The spiritual energy rope was cut, so it wasn’t as if they would be able to find their way out even if they wanted to leave. And this was a desert, so wandering around aimlessly would be even more dangerous.
They all waited to see what Lin Fan would do.
Lin Fan had been looking around as if he was looking for something.
After a while, he finally found what he was looking for.
It was another patch of blue.
This was the same patch of blue that they had followed two times now and he was still chasing after it.
When the elders saw this, they couldn’t help revealing frowns.
They didn’t know why Lin Fan was insisting on heading towards this patch of blue, but they couldn’t help feeling resistant to this decision.
After all, they all thought that this was just a trap and if they kept heading towards it, there would only be danger for them.
They didn’t want to follow Lin Fan towards the patch of blue anymore…or at least they didn’t want to without an explanation.
There wasn’t much other choice here, so they just wanted to at least know why Lin Fan was so insistent on heading towards it.
If they understood his point of view, it would make it easier for them to accept this.
But Lin Fan just started moving forward while saying, “Let’s go.”
The elders didn’t move even though Lin Fan started moving away from them.
Lin Fan naturally saw this, so he had no choice but to turn around and ask, “What’s wrong?”
Senior Brother Ying represented the elders and came forward to say, “Sect master, please tell us why you’re insistent on heading towards this oasis. It’s clearly a trap and yet you keep insisting on heading towards it.”
Lin Fan took a deep breath and just said, “You have to trust me on this.”
The elders knitted their brows even more when they heard this.
Just trust him?
That was all that Lin Fan had to say?
Lin Fan could naturally tell what they were thinking, but it wasn’t as if he could say anything else.
This was related to his Appraisal Eyes, one of the secrets that he had never shared with anyone.
While he was sure that they wouldn’t betray him, the Appraisal Eyes along with the system were things that he would never reveal even if he died.
After all, these were his trump cards.
If his trump cards were ever revealed, they wouldn’t be trump cards anymore.
In this dog eat dog world, there was nothing more important than keeping one’s cards hidden since that was the key to living a long life.
The elders and Lin Fan just had a stare off as both sides waited to see what the other would do.
In a sense, it was a chicken race.
In the end, the elders were the ones that gave up first.
They didn’t know what Lin Fan was basing his confidence on, but they could see how confident he was.
If he was really this confident, wasn’t it worth it to trust him?
So in the end, the elders started following Lin Fan towards the patch of blue again.
It was just too bad that this ended up in disappointment again.
The patch of blue disappeared just like before when they approached, but there was something that had changed this time.
Instead of just disappearing without a trace, a bunch of auras suddenly came from where the patch of blue had been.
These were auras that they recognized since they had fought so many of them along the way.
It was the aura of the sandworms that suddenly appeared.
As soon as they felt this aura, the elders immediately went into action.
They were already used to fighting these sandworms, so they knew exactly what they needed to do against them.
Elder Long led the way by using his Earth Tremor Technique on the ground beneath them.
The ground split apart and the sandworms were revealed.
The elders were about to attack these sandworms, but Lin Fan called out, “Wait, don’t attack them!”
The elders who had already been mid attack had no choice but to throw their attacks in different directions, creating large explosions of sand.
This didn’t deter the sandworms as they all charged at the elders.
When they did, there were spikes that appeared from the ground, all of which were aimed at stabbing the elders.
The elders had no choice but to jump back and scatter out of the way.
Since they had forced themselves to divert their attacks, they had been caught off guard by the spikes of the sandworms. The spikes slammed into the bodies of the elders and sent them flying.
It was a good thing that these elders had put up barriers at the last second and blocked the brunt of these attacks. It was just that these barriers had been put up in haste, so they still received a few injuries.
There was one elder that wasn’t able to stop his attack in time, so his attack slammed right into the sandworm near him.
When the attack hit the sandworm, it didn’t destroy the sandworm completely like it had done before.
Instead, the sandworm suddenly started to swell as if there was something that was blowing it up on the inside.
The elder who had attacked this sandworm couldn’t help being caught off guard when he saw this as he didn’t know what was happening.
Lin Fan had also seen this, so he shouted, “Run!”
But it was too late for the elder.
He knew that something was wrong, so he quickly raised his hands in front of him to create a barrier.
Then the sandworm suddenly exploded.
The force of the explosion raised up the sand around the elder, so they weren’t able to see him clearly. But before the sand had been raised, they had seen the elder being thrown back by the force of the explosion.
The other elders all had grim looks as they waited for the sand to settle.
When the sand settled, they saw that the elder was still standing…but the burns on his arms were very severe.
It was clear that he had been seriously injured by this explosion.
They wanted to help, but…they didn’t know what they could do to the sandworms without making them explode, so they couldn’t help hesitating.
Lin Fan gave the order immediately after seeing that the elder was still alive, “Use your spiritual energy barriers to block them. As long as there’s not enough force and spiritual energy, they won’t explode.”
The elders were surprised to hear this, but they quickly sprang into action.
The elders that were closest to this seriously injured elder immediately surrounded him and used their barriers to protect him.
When the sandworms slammed into the barriers, they were repelled without suddenly exploding which made them let out a sigh of relief.
The other elders started pushing back the surrounding sandworms and created a perimeter around that injured elder. That way, they would be able to treat that elder while also having some space to think about how to deal with these sandworms.
Lin Fan went to the center of this area and went right beside the elder, using his Appraisal Eyes on the wound.
When he saw that there was no poison in that elder, he said, “Just use the healing powder and he should be fine.”
The elders that had gathered around him nodded before taking out the powder he was talking about.
This was the powder that they had used in the sect sparring for the guests that had been injured.
Naturally, Lin Fan had also given a bunch to these elders just in case.
After the powder was used on that elder, they could see his wounds healing at a visible rate.
Only then did they let out a sigh of relief.
But they were still facing another problem.
These were sandworms that would explode when they were attacked…so how were they supposed to fight them?
Would they have to tank the blows and use the healing medicine to heal the injuries?
That was not sustainable and very risky…
But it wasn’t as if they had another choice…
So they all looked at Lin Fan as if waiting to see if he had anything to say.
Lin Fan had been staring at the sandworms after he finished appraising the elder, trying to find a way to defeat them.
When he saw the way…he couldn’t help biting his lip as he muttered, “Really?”