"Trust the Ganjin." Fen Tu Kuang Ge lowered his voice, looking ahead. "You haven't seen his hidden techniques. That is..."

Superlative hidden techniques! Pan Hongji stared, stunned, at Ganjin, who lay motionless with sand piled on his body. If he hadn't witnessed Ganjin collapse into the sand just moments ago, he truly would have suspected no one was there.

The scorching Ancient Desolate Sea often made one's temperament restless or irritable, making it exceedingly difficult to conceal one's vital signs.

"This is... the hiding art of the Divine Archer Family, right?" Pan Hongji frantically searched through all the memories in his mind. Only the Yi Yu Clan possessed a similar concealment technique, yet this kind of hidden art was usually only achievable by those who had awakened the power of the Divine Archer bloodline—the Yi Yu bloodline warriors.

In a way, this concealment art was a bloodline combat skill! Except... Pan Hongji shook his head slightly. Ganjin’s method seemed somewhat different from the true bloodline combat skills of the Yi Yu Family. Those differences were akin to the concealment methods inherited from jungle beasts.

If the Yi Yu Family's hiding technique was better suited for long-range arrow sniping, then Ganjin’s method of concealment was superior because it was equally effective for long-range sniping while also being perfectly suited for close-quarters, surprise combat.

More excellent! Pan Hongji didn't want to admit that Ganjin, so young, knew so many strange things, and each one was outstanding. Yet, he had to acknowledge that Ganjin genuinely possessed such capabilities.

What a pity! Why isn't he my son? Pan Hongji felt an unending surge of emotion. If he were my son, even if he awakened the power of the Nine-Headed Serpent bloodline and caused me to die immediately, I would be willing!

Wriggling! Pan Hongji sensed Ganjin still moving beneath the sand. He detected Ganjin’s progress not by locating him through his life form, but by noticing the minute difference in how the sand flowed around Ganjin’s position compared to the surrounding sand.

Flame Violent Cactus! Through the grains of sand, Ganjin saw the true Flame Violent Cacti for the first time. Each one towered over two meters tall, as thick as water vats, with crimson flesh. They also possessed four limbs like a human, and their entire bodies were covered in thorns half a foot long.

These cacti were not basking lazily in the sun as the books described; instead, they wandered slowly in a specific formation, like sentinels.

A Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast slowly approached the territory of the Flame Violent Cacti from a distance. The nearly five-meter-long beast resembled a terrifying war chariot, and the two-meter-tall Flame Violent Cacti seemed like mere toys before it.

Squeak... Squeak... Squeak... The slowly wandering Flame Violent Cacti suddenly tensed. A dozen or so of them dashed forward like the wind, blocking the path of the Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast.

Ganjin’s eyelids flickered slightly. This speed? Were these slow-moving plant-type demonic beasts? Their speed rivaled his own full-speed dash during the Five Demon Subjugations!

The Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast! A powerhouse among mid-tier demonic beasts, far stronger than the Sand Scorpion King! With several innate magical abilities, it was incredibly formidable on sandy terrain, and its rank was much higher than the Flame Violent Cacti.

The Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast looked down at the squeaking Flame Violent Cacti, a hint of disdain in its eyes. It suddenly opened its mouth and let out a roar, as if intending to frighten the cacti away.

The Flame Violent Cacti left? Such a creature appeared? Ganjin felt a headache coming on. Did that mean the mysterious potion he had prepared was unusable? He would have to devise a new plan to deal with the Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast—this creature was swift, powerful, and extremely agile... Squeak... Suddenly, several Flame Violent Cacti burst out from the sand behind the Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast! In an instant, they formed a circle, surrounding the beast. Countless half-foot-long spines shot out from their bodies. The jū jū sound, reaching Ganjin’s ears, was like battalions of archers unleashing a rain of arrows over a battlefield.

Almost simultaneously, the Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast roared in anger again. How dare these small plant-type demonic beasts challenge the noble Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast? Golden sand beneath its feet erupted layer by layer, forming what looked like a sand wall. Many of the incoming spikes struck the wall and stopped moving; some pierced through the wall, only to fall harmlessly onto the ground shortly after, unable to harm the beast’s body at all.

In the blink of an eye, the Flame Violent Cacti had shot all their spines. The tall sand wall was now covered in thorns, resembling a massive suit of soft armor.

The Flame Violent Cacti, stripped of their spines, were now smooth and round like enormous, fiery red carrots. Immediately, new spines began to emerge from their bodies at a visible rate, launching a new wave of attacks.

As the bright spikes flew out, Ganjin’s pupils contracted slightly. These new spines actually contained flame energy! The first volley, stuck in the sand wall, suddenly exploded. Immediately after, the second volley pierced the wall and struck the Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast one by one.

Aow!

The Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast let out a pained cry toward the sky. Suddenly, great hands formed from golden sand erupted beneath the Flame Violent Cacti, completely engulfing them and exerting a ferocious tearing force.

Chī chī... Chī chī... In the center of the battlefield, the bodies of the Flame Violent Cacti emitted sounds like cloth being ripped apart. Green fluid splashed into the air, and in a flash, a dozen or so Flame Violent Cacti were reduced to torn plant matter, with a dozen magic cores dropping onto the sand.

The Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast flicked out its tongue and swallowed the cores whole. A faint shimmer instantly coated the fur on its body.

Over two hundred Flame Violent Cacti emitted collective squeaking sounds, moving as if in chaos, colliding and squeezing against each other, constantly writhing and twisting.

In an instant, the two hundred-plus Flame Violent Cacti merged into one colossal Flame Violent Cactus!

A Flame Violent Cactus ten meters tall!

In the next second, the Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast, which had been staring upward at the giant cactus, now had eyes full of terror. A low whimper escaped its throat as it turned and fled at high speed.

The arm-like appendage of the Flame Violent Cactus rotated slightly. Dozens of two-foot-long spines rolled within the arm, assembling into a massive spear! The ten-meter-long spiked spear plunged down without hesitation, impaling the Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast and pinning it tightly in the sand.

The next second, it was as if a torrential rain began inside the Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast; its entire body began to rapidly swell—inflating, expanding, expanding, and expanding more!

Puff! Puff! Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff...

The massive spiked spear vanished. In its place, spines flew out from the body of the Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast, scattering wildly in all directions. In the blink of an eye, the beast’s body was riddled with holes like a hornet's nest, and blood surged outward from countless orifices.

Waste! Such a waste! Ganjin swallowed hard. These Flame Violent Cacti were too wasteful. The eyes of the Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast could be used for medicine, its blood for making mysterious potions, and its other body parts were also materials.

Destroyed like this, how could they be used? Ganjin frowned slightly. He watched the giant Flame Violent Cactus wriggle again, quickly shrinking back to its normal height of two meters.

However, of the two hundred-plus Flame Violent Cacti that had merged, only about one hundred and fifty remained.

Ganjin was momentarily surprised. It turned out that the fusion of the Flame Violent Cacti had a defect: splitting apart consumed some of the cacti—a detail not mentioned in any book.

Over one hundred and fifty Flame Violent Cacti simultaneously moved toward the corpse of the Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast. Root-like structures grew from the bodies of these plant-type demonic beasts and plunged collectively into the beast’s carcass.

The relatively robust demonic beast corpse rapidly deflated at a visible rate. Soon, even the hide was broken down for nutrients and absorbed into the bodies of the Flame Violent Cacti, leaving behind a pile of massive white bones in the golden, scorching Ancient Desolate Sea.

The wind blew.

The bones crumbled into dust. Only a single golden magic core remained, looking solitary amidst the yellow sand, proving that a Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast had once existed here.

The Flame Violent Cacti, having absorbed the nourishment from the Three-Eyed Sand Lion Beast’s corpse, began to writhe and squirm... Puff... Puff... Puff... Splitting! Ganjin watched as the cacti before him split apart again.

One became two. The original group, which had been just over two hundred, nearly three hundred cacti that formed the Great Flame Violent Cactus, had reduced to just over one hundred and fifty after decomposition. Now, following the division, they numbered over three hundred—far more than before the combination.

This, then, was the method of composition for the Flame Violent Cacti? Ganjin frowned slightly. No wonder there was never any mention of high-tier demonic beasts appearing among the Flame Violent Cacti, regardless of how many years they survived. It seemed that once the energy within their bodies reached a peak, they automatically split into two instead of evolving to a higher realm.

Over three hundred! Ganjin slowly exhaled the breath in his chest. Indeed, the Ancient Desolate Sea was terrifying. Three hundred Flame Violent Cacti! If there were only a few or ten, he could certainly kill them all with his strong bow, sharp arrows, and the saber in his hand.

Three hundred? If he encountered them, he could only flee!

Squeak... Squeak... The calls of a few Flame Rats drew Ganjin's attention. A piece of red metal, only the size of a watermelon, lay on the sand. Even from a considerable distance, one could easily feel the intense heat radiating from within the metal, and observe the metal absorbing the sun's thermal energy.