Chapter 58: Shrinking the Earth to Inches

The wind howled, and the barrier trembled on the verge of collapse. The sandstorm outside was still raging, the coarse grains of sand like countless tiny blades, trying to cut everything to pieces.

Ye Su wanted to go look for You Fushi, but doing so would require opening the barrier—and right now, the barrier was the only protection keeping everyone safe.

"Once the storm clears, we’ll go find them!" Xu Chengyu shouted, pressing Ye Su back down. "Right now, protect yourself first!"

Ye Su lowered herself to the ground. One hand channeled spiritual energy into the ground to support the barrier alongside the others, while the other hand tapped open her communication jade to contact You Fushi.

—No response. The communication jade had stopped working.

All five of them were cultivators at the Golden Core level or higher, but even with their combined efforts, the barrier was struggling against the wind and sand outside.

Ma Congqiu couldn’t hold on—his portion of the barrier suddenly broke, and the sandstorm swept in like a flood.

"Senior Brother!"

"Congqiu!"

Beside him, Lu Jiu reached out to grab Ma Congqiu, but the storm was too violent. She also had to maintain her own section of the barrier and had no strength to spare.

In that critical moment, Ye Su flung a Burrowing Talisman, slapping it onto the back of Ma Congqiu’s head.

But this realm was strange—the talisman didn’t work properly. Ma Congqiu’s head and upper body were instantly buried in the earth, leaving him stuck upside-down like a turnip. But he still stubbornly stretched out one arm, doing his best to support the barrier again.

"Don’t stick that on me!" Lu Jiu panicked when she saw Ma Congqiu’s tragic state and shouted at Ye Su. Somehow, she found strength from who-knows-where and forced more spiritual energy out of her nearly depleted reservoir to reinforce the barrier.

Ye Su: "…"

"Actually… this isn’t so bad," Ma Congqiu said, half-buried in the dirt, his voice muffled. "I can’t hear the wind anymore. You guys should try it."

"Senior Brother, save your energy," Zhou Yun said helplessly.

Xu Chengyu looked up at the dark sandstorm right above them. "I don’t know how long this will last, but we won’t be able to hold on much longer."

Ye Su didn’t respond. She was searching for any useful talismans—but nearly all of them had become much less effective here.

"Congqiu, give us your spirit stones," said Xu Chengyu. He was supporting most of Zhou Yun’s section of the barrier, and Zhou Yun was also taking over part of Lu Jiu’s, so this would help lighten Ma Congqiu’s load.

"Give me a sec," Ma Congqiu said, his upper body still stuck in the dirt. He struggled to open his storage pouch with one hand, grabbed a handful of spirit stones, absorbed some to restore a bit of his spiritual power, and poured out a few top-grade stones to keep, sending the rest over to the others.

"The black sandstorm won’t last forever. As long as we can endure a while longer, it will pass," Xu Chengyu said. He kept a few spirit stones for himself and handed the pouch to Ye Su.

Lying flat on the ground, Ye Su crushed the spirit stones in her hand. Her dim sea of consciousness slowly began to refill.

She stared at the swirling black sandstorm outside the barrier, then suddenly shut her eyes and turned her awareness inward.

She still couldn’t approach the sea of consciousness—she could only watch from afar.

Ye Su focused on that golden sea. This was her spiritual domain. Everything in it should be under her control. No matter how powerful that sea was, if it wasn’t hers to use, it had no right to remain.

Perhaps sensing its master's thoughts, the golden sea began to churn violently, waves slamming against its edges.

Expressionless, Ye Su kept her awareness focused inward. The glow from her spiritual domain grew brighter while the sea itself became dimmer.

Eventually, the sea settled down and became strangely calm.

Ye Su moved her consciousness above it—for the first time, seeing the true form of her sea of consciousness.

From afar it looked like an ocean, but from above it resembled a golden galaxy, with drifting stars and a gentle flow of spiritual awareness.

She couldn’t see her golden core—apparently it had fully merged into the sea.

She moved closer and reached out with her awareness. Instead of a cold, watery sensation, countless strands of spiritual energy flowed between her fingers like mist.

With a focused thought, Ye Su scooped up a handful of consciousness. A soft golden light rose like ethereal smoke.

Opening her eyes again, she looked at the sandstorm outside the barrier. Then she closed them once more. Guided by her spiritual awareness, her perception now swept across thousands of miles—all of it barren black soil, with sandstorms raging over the land.

Among the people beneath the slope, only Xu Chengyu—who had reached the early Nascent Soul stage—noticed the sudden emergence of a wave of spiritual awareness.

They were too close for him not to recognize who it came from.

Ye Su had spiritual awareness?

Had she been hiding her cultivation level all along?

He was filled with questions but didn’t dare lose focus. All he could do was reinforce the barrier again.

Ye Su’s spiritual awareness seemed limitless, continuously expanding and reaching out. But she still found no sign of the three missing people.

Just as she was about to withdraw her spiritual sense, she suddenly detected a sunken cave not far from the slope.

Ye Su stopped extending her awareness and, without hesitation, sent it into the cave.

Inside, Cheng Huai’an and Lian Lian had fainted and were lying on the ground. Two animal-hide ropes were tied around their waists, held in the hand of a man with messy hair, a bearded face, and long eyebrows.

The two were breathing steadily and didn’t appear to be injured. Ye Su let out a small breath of relief. But then, the man lying on the ground with the long beard and brows suddenly seemed to sense someone spying with spiritual awareness. He looked up and pointed a finger: "Tch!"

In that instant, Ye Su’s spiritual awareness was forcefully bounced back.

Inside the barrier on the slope, Ye Su’s body trembled. She opened her eyes, and her spiritual awareness returned to her sea of consciousness.

Beside her, Xu Chengyu seemed familiar with this kind of reaction. "Someone noticed you?"

Ye Su wasn’t surprised that he knew she had used spiritual awareness. She simply said, "Cheng Huai’an and Lian Lian are safe for now. But there’s someone else down there."

She recalled the man’s appearance and added, "He’s been here for a long time."

"He’s been here a long time?" Xu Chengyu paused, then quickly understood. "Someone from an earlier expedition into the Desolate City secret realm?"

"Most likely. Those two are in his hands," Ye Su replied, still unable to sense any trace of You Fushi.

She had brought everyone in—she had to get everyone out whole.

"If someone has survived down there, then this black sandstorm will definitely pass eventually," Xu Chengyu said, visibly relaxing a bit. "We just need to hold out until it’s gone."

Fortunately, Ma Congqiu still had 10,000 top-grade spirit stones on him—enough to sustain them for a while longer.

……

About twelve hours had passed when the black sandstorm finally began to weaken, even showing signs of fading away.

The five of them feared it might just be a trick—that the sandstorm could sweep in again—so they waited another hour before taking down the barrier.

"Fellow Daoist Lu, Junior Sister Zhou," Ma Congqiu said, both hands trembling as he propped himself up on the ground, "give me a hand and pull me out."

Lu Jiu and Zhou Yun held back their laughter. Each grabbed one of his legs and pulled him out.

As soon as Ma Congqiu was out, he peeled the Earth-Evasion Talisman off the back of his head, sat on the ground, and looked at Ye Su. "Your talisman might’ve worked too well."

Ye Su gave him a glance, then suddenly stepped onto the slope together with Xu Chengyu. They looked into the distance, watching a man slowly emerge from the retreating sandstorm.

His robe was filthy and tattered, his hair was streaked with gray, and his face was covered with a long beard—his features were completely unrecognizable.

"Who is that?" Ma Congqiu and the others stepped up behind them and, seeing the figure in the distance, couldn’t help but ask.

"The two behind him are Cheng Huaian and Lian Lian!" Zhou Yun lifted her hand to shield her eyes and stared for a while before speaking. "They’re still alive!"

Lu Jiu muttered, "Why does it feel like he’s walking unusually fast?"

"Shrinking the ground into inches!" Xu Chengyu’s pupils narrowed—this was clearly a technique only cultivators in the Integration Stage could perform.