Wu Xingyu smiled smugly. "So the heads on your body are your weak spots?"
Bat's ashen face answered his question. Without wasting another second, Wu Xingyu threw his fan a second time. It travelled cleverly through the air, chasing Bat's dismal attempts to evade it and cut off several more heads. He suffered another backlash that drew blood from his lips.
Bat regressed to his former height and width as he lost more of his heads. Some of them started screaming before dissolving into skulls. The horrific sounds echoed throughout the desert, giving this barren landscape a chilling atmosphere.
"AAAHHHHH! HELP! HELP ME! SOMEONE SAVE ME! AAAAHHHH!"
"DIE YOU FUCKING BASTARDS! I'LL KILL YOU ALL!"
"HA HA HA! BURN IN HELL, ALL OF YOU! HA HA HA!"
There were pleas of help, wails of desperation, threats to kill, screams of terror and cackles of cruelty, intense emotions of all kinds being hollered out of the heads as they squirmed and writhed until they were partially buried, the sand muffling their voices.
"His… heart…" one of them hoarsely whispered at them. It belonged to Yan. Song Yehai listened closely to what he had to say. "Bat's heart…"
"Bat's heart?"
"Stab… through it…"
Song Yehai stabbed his sword into the left of Bat's back, the silver blade protruding out of his chest. A choked gasp of immense pain escaped his mouth as he slumped forward and the sword was pulled out. The last remaining heads dropped off him on their own, the smoke chains dissipated and the putrid scent of rotting flesh stuffed the atmosphere.
"Fuck… you… Moon Dragon!" cursed Bat.
Wu Xingyu wrapped his sash around him and lifted him high into the air.
"Snow Phoenix, what the fuck are you…?" before Bat could finish, he was slammed headfirst into the ground multiple time until his head was cracked and he almost almost knocked out. "You… if you… want to kill… just… kill…"
"No, I don't just want to kill," said Wu Xingyu coldly. He gestured at Song Yehai, who looked at where he was directed at and implicitly understood. With his whip he dragged the cactus with his whip across the sand until it was right underneath him.
Bat blearily opened his eyes and saw the cactus. He was immediately deathly fear-stricken. "No… n-n-no, please stop!"
Ignoring his pleas Wu Xingyu yanked on his sash, smashing Bat right into the cactus. Blood splattered everywhere from the countless holes he was riddled with as he met this grisly end. He screamed briefly, tormented by his worst nightmares before losing his voice to the spines punctured through his neck and throat.
Though his gasps of air were short and barely audible, they seemed to transmit an invisible sonic energy that attracted a large pack of desert wolves. They surrounded Song Yehai and Wu Xingyu, growling ferociously until they saw Bat, and the grievous state he was in, and began backpedaling with cold sweat dripping down their fur.
"K-k-kill… them…" Bat ordered hoarsely as the last bit of life force drained from his body.
Song Yehai lashed out his whip. The crack, loud as a thunderclap, frightened the wolves into scampering as far as they could from the two grandmasters.
"A fitting end for this demon," Wu Xingyu had his sash wring itself clean of blood before returning to him. "He wasn't much of a challenge."
"He only stole from others. He can only be so strong."
All the heads dissolved into skulls that then disintegrated into sand, becoming one with the desert. Dragging Bat's corpse with them, they reaching the quicksand that trapped the travellers and dumped the body along with the Nightmare Cactus into the centre. Slowly the two sank below the surface, becoming buried together.
"The Iron-Clawed Scorpions are said to have an appetite for demon blood," Wu Xingyu picked up a handful of sand from the trail drenched in Bat's blood and tossed it into the air just as the winds picked it up. "Let's see if this can attract one of them."
They waited a few minutes before he tossed another handful of bloodied sand. Song Yehai covered his nose as the pungent tang of blood made the air almost difficult to the breathe.
"Here comes one!" Wu Xingyu pointed.
The Iron-Clawed Scorpion that appeared was as long as the lower arm of an adult human with a black shell and silver pincers and stinger slightly rusted along the edges. It charged audaciously across the desert as though it was an apex predator. Though faster than the average scorpion, Wu Xingyu and Song Yehai could easily catch it with their sash and whip, entangling it the minute it was only a few steps away.
The scorpion cut itself loose from the binds. The stinger shot out, its segmented, curled tail straightening and lenghting as it did, and attempted to pierce into Wu Xingyu. Song Yehai rushed in front of him and caught the tail, seizing the ends just below the stinger. With his other hand he flicked a needle into the scorpion's head. It instantly became limp and collapsed to its side. Song Yehai pulled its body into his hands by the tail.
"It's too big to fit inside one of my jars like the green spider."
"Then we'll just collect the venom," Wu Xingyu took out an empty vial. "Pass me the stinger."
Song Yehai handed the stinger to Wu Xingyu. Wu Xingyu inserted the stinger into the vial's opening. His sash bound around the scorpion's main body and claws, fully immobilising it, before he nodded at Song Yehai, who removed the sedative needle.
After a few minutes the scorpion began to writhe and wriggle with increasing frenzy. Wu Xingyu firmly held its tail in place as venom dripped out of the stinger.
"I can make the scorpion secrete its venom faster," suggested Song Yehai.
"Go ahead."
Grabbing a new needle Song Yehai pierced into the scorpion's head. Its agitation rocketed and the sash tightened its hold on it. The vial's weight grew at a much faster rate. Wu Xingyu parted the stinger from the opening and peered inside before bringing the stinger back. "Try again."
Song Yehai inserted a second needle and the vial was quickly filled to the brim. Wu Xingyu closed the lid and released the tail. Song Yehai pulled out the two needles before the sash undid itself.
"Yehai! Look out!"
The stinger was suddenly fired at Song Yehai, who whipped it away before he could get stung. The scorpion snapped its pincers and took a predatory stance before charging forward. Wu Xingyu's sash tangled around its legs that crawled faster than the average scorpion. It attempted to snip through the fabric when Song Yehai's whip coiled around one of its pincers. Its tail extended, following the whip as it travelled through the air.
The ends of Wu Xingyu's sash grappled onto its tail, keeping the stinger from coming in contact with Song Yehai.
"If I recall correctly, your core is metal, right?" asked Wu Xingyu.
"Yes," replied Song Yehai.
"That explains it," Wu Xingyu's hand tightened into a fist and the sash tightened until blue blood ruptured out from the joints between each segment. The scorpion's tail dropped lifelessly onto the ground but its claws persisted in reaching its desired prey. Song Yehai stepped back and cracked his whip. The left pincer looked as though it had been hammered into a demented, unusable state.
Wu Xingyu stared in amazement at the power of Song Yehai's whip overcoming the hardness and durability of iron. It then went for the right pincer, bending its shape to mirror that of the left pincer. Blue blood oozed from the dents and cracks.
Disarmed of all its biological weapons the scorpion burrowed into the sand. It leapt out under where Song Yehai stood. Song Yehai jumped out of the way.
"Stubborn creature, this one!"
Pulling its disfigured pincers out, the scorpion snapped them wonkily in the air when a streak of purple sliced through the air above it. Blue blood splattered from its head where it had been cleaved by the Purple Feather Fan.
Song Yehai stepped up to the corpse to examine it. "Was it after my core?"
Wu Xingyu shook the blue blood from the ends of his fan. "Yes. Their nature is derived from devouring metal spiritual cores."
"Devouring metal spiritual cores?"
Wu Xingyu explained how the Iron-Clawed Scorpion came to be.
Three hundred years ago the Scorpion Demoness was one of the most evil, bloodthirsty demons who killed humans and demons indiscriminately. No one was strong enough to stop her until one day she was said to have come to the deserts, got ambushed and captured by a sect. They decided to take her back to the city and publicly execute her.
Fortunately for her during her captivity, thousands of scorpions came and poisoned her captors but could not break her free from her chains. She ordered one of them to dig into the stomach of a cultivator, fish out his metal spiritual cores and eat it. The scorpion's claws turned into iron and cut her chains loose.
Since then she started killing cultivators with metal spiritual cores to give to her scorpions, breeding many Iron-Clawed Scorpions to assist her with more mass murders and earning herself the title of the Scorpion Demoness.
"The Scorpion Demoness once speculated that only cultivators with metal spiritual cores can survive their venom without anti-venom, but I don't know if that's ever been fully confirmed or not."
"Had the sect that captured her simply executed her on the spot rather than deciding to bring her back to show off their achievement, the Iron-Clawed Scorpion wouldn't have come to be," mused Song Yehai.
Wu Xingyu agreed wholeheartedly. "It is quite unfortunate."
Song Yehai placed two fingers on one of the pincers. The cold iron contained not a trace of spiritual energy within. He stood back on his feet. "We got what we came for. We can head back to the East Sea now."
"Hold on a second," Wu Xingyu sensed something amiss.
Song Yehai experienced the same feeling just as he was about what is it. They turned back where a twister made of sand arrived. There was no demonic energy emanating out from within this rusty orange tornado, no shadows or signs of life at its eye.
"This sandstorm," muttered Wu Xingyu. "It's purely natural!"
The sandstorm was a maelstrom that could lift people into the air or carry an avalanche of sand to bury anything in its path. The winds of the Purple Peacock Fan could not compete with it. Song Yehai and Wu Xingyu combined their spiritual energy to erect a hemispherical, translucent barrier with a cerulean shade that could barely withstand its force.
"I don't know if we can hang on," said Wu Xingyu with worry.
"Hang on!" urged Song Yehai.
The winds smashed against their barrier, testing the limits of their endurance. When twilight approached, Wu Xingyu could feel his arms straining. "How much longer is this going to last?"
Song Yehai gritted his teeth. The aerial onslaught lasted until nightfall, when the temperature plummeted to an unbearable freeze. Fortunately the confines of their barrier resisted the cold, keeping the interior comfortably insulated.
"It's calmed down now," said Wu Xingyu in relief as the air gradually became still and the dust settled around them. Every particle of sand slid off the curves of their dome, keeping their view to the outside clear. Panting a little, he took a seat and crossed his legs.
"Xingyu, you alright?"
"A little tired," admitted Wu Xingyu.
Song Yehai, as exhausted as Wu Xingyu was, sat down behind him. "Thankfully it's the two of us. If it were anyone else, I doubt we could've made it through that sandstorm."
"It might be better if we head north tomorrow."
"North?"
"We should get out of this desert as soon as possible. Heading east will take us three times as long as it would if we head north instead."
"Alright," Song Yehai agreed after taking a moment to think. "If we head north, we'll most likely arrive at Tiger Mountain."
"Oh, that mountain that's rumoured to be overrun by tigers?"
"It's taken over by the Tiger Mountain Sect."
"That's good then. If we run into someone from that sect, we probably will have less of a chance of running into a tiger."
"May I lean on you?" Song Yehai panted a little as he asked.
Wu Xingyu unhesitatingly allowed him, and they lean back-to-back at each other, resting their bodies after a long day. The sand beneath them softened into comfortable cushions and the see-through blue of the barrier blended with the night, almost becoming invisible.
Song Yehai turned back his head at the same time Wu Xingyu did. Their glances locked, their timing couldn't be more perfect. Song Yehai quickly dropped his gaze and it landed on the collar of his outer robe.
"Thanks for fixing my robe."
"Don't mention it."
"Where did you learn how to sew?"
"From my master back in the White Phoenix Sect."
"Your needlework is flawless."
"It's nothing."
"You're talented in so many things. Cooking, sewing, playing the flute."
Wu Xingyu flushed from the compliment. He turned his head elsewhere, searching for another topic. When he found one, he gently elbowed Song Yehai. "Look up at the stars."
Song Yehai complied.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" asked Wu Xingyu in awe.
A dazzling ocean of the brightest stars, enchanting and scintillating, was strewn across the black, endless sky in a vast and captivating canvas of luminescent charm. Flowing across was the Milky Way, a mystic and diaphanous ribbon of light and nebulae.
"Mm," hummed Song Yehai in agreement.
As the night wore on, the stars seemed to intensify their luminescence, their light dancing across the desert landscape like a celestial ballet of photons. Mesmerised, Wu Xingyu knee unknowingly propped up as he shared this moment of starlit tranquility with Song Yehai, who was equally entranced.
"Over there," he pointed upwards. "Is that the Scorpius?"
Tracing the scorpion outline in the cosmos, Wu Xingyu smiled. "Yeah, it is. Wow, scorpions are even in the sky in the desert."
"Right beside it is the archer."
"And over there's the Northern Dipper. It's so bright there, like a diamond."
Spotting the dots of light and counting the constellations together, the grandmasters stargazed until they were too tired to say another word. Wu Xingyu drifted to sleep first, his last thought was wishing that this moment would last forever. Song Yehai, sensing his body go limp from behind, chuckled softly.
"Xingyu. Xing meaning stars, Yu meaning rain. You tell me to look at the stars," but I only want to look at you.