Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

Zhao Manyan was unwilling to give up, and ascended directly into the sky again from where he was standing. He was trying to use the height to find the exit of the maze by searching for the golden-yellow sand.

However, the sand he saw still had the same hint of redness no matter how far he looked. Even when he came down from the sky, where he landed was actually quite far away from where he took off from. If Jiang Shaoxu had not been releasing a signal still, Zhao Manyan might have lost his way.

"Damn it, even the sky is like a maze, I was clearly flying straight up, but I was more than three hundred meters away when I landed!" Zhao Manyan cursed.

"Why don't you go higher?" Jiang Yu suggested.

"I suggest not, it's going to be the same in the sky. If Zhao Manyan went too high up, he might lose his way too. If flying into the sky worked, may Super Mages wouldn't get stuck here forever too after not believing how dangerous this place is," Jiang Shaoxu said.

The higher Zhao Manyan flew, the further away he was from where he took off. If Zhao Manyan had to reach a height where he could observe over ten kilometers away, he would no longer return to the same area.

"Let's set up the tents and wait for rescue," Mo Fan suggested.

"Mm, we shouldn't be too far away from the exit. If they use the same way we did to search for us, they should be able to find us pretty quickly," Jiang Shaoxu said.

"Speaking of which, can't we use the same way to probe our surroundings? We'll treat this spot as our center and form a straight line. If we are really not far away from the exit, we should be able to find it that way," Jiang Yu suggested.

"Let's try it then, we can set up the tents first..." Mo Fan said.

The group followed Jiang Yu's suggestion and formed a straight line.

Unfortunately, they failed to locate the exit of the maze still. Mo Fan even found the green flag he had set up previously, yet there was still no sign of Nanyu and the exit. In other words, once they entered the maze, it was impossible for them to leave it by using the same approach unless someone was tagging the exit from the outside.

"I'm afraid this maze has something to do with the Chaos Element. Give me some time, I'll see if I can crack it," Jiang Yu said.

Jiang Yu's main Element was Summoning, and his supporting Element was Chaos. It was an incredibly rare Element, just like the Space Element. Only Advanced Mages had a certain chance of Awakening it. It had not been too long ago since Mo Fan had reached the Advanced Level, thus he had not really seen the Chaos Element at work yet.

The terrifying maze in the desert had to be somehow related to the Chaos Element. Otherwise, they would have found the exit by using the same approach.

---

After setting up the tents, the group no longer dared to leave their positions after knowing how eerie the desert maze was. Even when they tried to probe around, they strictly maintained the line formation.

At night, the desert was extremely cold. Going out was their biggest problem, but they were very concerned about the missing Nanyu. They could not tell if she was safe or not.

The wind grew stronger at night, sweeping the sand into the air. The small tents could no longer withstand the force of the sand. Zhao Manyan had no choice but to lay out a Water Curtain to protect the tents.

The night was bright, the beautiful outline of the desert was clearly visible, they could even see a few sand foxes moving around and disappearing within the blink of an eye.

The group of five took turns guarding at night. Mo Fan sat outside the tents and started meditating. With so many Stars to work on, if he did not practice diligently, he would not be able to cast the spells of his different Elements adeptly. Mo Fan was very hard-working when it came to his cultivation!

Mo Fan was practicing the Nyx Regime. The Shadow Element was incredibly useful in battles, and Mo Fan had grown quite fond of the Shadow Element recently too...

As Mo Fan was about to focus, he immediately heard a loud rumble, like a group of trucks approaching from the distance.

Mo Fan opened his eyes and looked into the distance. He immediately saw a cloud of sand connecting the ground and the sky.

The cloudy sand spread across the horizon. It felt like rows of soldiers on galloping horses. The rumble gradually grew louder too.

"A sandstorm?"

"A sandstorm this big!?"

Mo Fan was shocked. He did not think much of it, until he saw the sandstorm was covering the entire horizon, and was approaching like a tsunami big enough to devour a whole city.

"Are you serious, does this place have a sandstorm every day?" Mo Fan cursed.

The sandstorm was clearly massive and destructive. Mo Fan immediately woke the others.

"I remember the team that went missing was forced to hide in the maze after encountering a sandstorm. What do we do now? Do we need to find shelter" Jiang Yu asked.

"Hold your ground, we must stay where we are, if we try hiding from the sandstorm, we'll end up just like the missing team!" Jiang Shaoxu said.

They could not afford to leave their location. The maze was simply too terrifying. The only way to guarantee their safety was to hold their position at a tagged location unyieldingly. The more they moved around, the easier it was for them to get lost, making it difficult for them to be rescued!

Nanyu was still outside of the maze. She must have left because she had encountered a tricky situation, but she would never abandon the team. If she could return to her spot and send a signal to the group, they would be able to leave the maze.

As such, leaving was not an option. They had to hold their ground no matter how strong the sandstorm was!

"I can still defend us from a sandstorm of this level!" Zhao Manyan patted his chest confidently.

"That's good to hear! Anyway, we can't leave this place, or else we'll be in great trouble," Mo Fan nodded.

---

The sandstorm gradually got closer, but surprisingly, the sand was not as unendurable as they thought. The sand that was thrown into the sky was actually more threatening.

A sandstorm was formed when a powerful wind was blowing lots of sand into the sky. However, when the sand started falling from the sky after losing the support of the wind, it would start pouring down like a giant waterfall!

Water was soft and light, but sand was several times heavier than water. When sand was pouring down like a waterfall, it would either kill a person directly, or bury them alive after breaking every bone in them!

"My Ice Element isn't ideal in this environment." Mu Ningxue wanted to help with the defense, but in this dry, scorching desert, the Ice and Water Elements were affected to a certain degree.

"I should be able to handle it myself!" Zhao Manyan said.

Even if Zhao Manyan's Water Element was not as effective, he still had the sturdy Light and Earth Elements, both known for their outstanding defensive abilities!

"A sand tornado is approaching us from our nine, we have to stop it!" Jiang Shaoxu said.

Mo Fan looked to their nine and saw a powerful, yellow dragon approaching them amid the cloudy sandstorm. It was as strong as an Advanced Spell!

"I'll do it!" Mu Ningxue said.

The tornado mainly consisted of the Wind Element. Mu Ningxue immediately unleashed her will to control the presence of Wind Magic nearby.

Soon, a tornado with a similar size appeared in front of Mu Ningxue and headed for the sand tornado. The two tornadoes collided and immediately shattered into powerful gusts sweeping in all directions.

"Sandfall! Sandfall!" someone yelled amid the sandstorm.

Zhao Manyan raised his head and saw a huge chunk of sand pouring down at them like the giant splash of a waterfall.

If they were allowed to move from their spot, they could easily withdraw temporarily to hide from the sandfall. However, if they moved now, they would most likely get lost in the desert. Zhao Manyan clenched his teeth and cast a Rock Barrier to protect the group beneath it.

The Rock Barrier was not as sturdy as everyone had imagined. It was soon destroyed by the terrifying sandfall. Zhao Manyan quickly established a barrier of Plummeting Rays around the group.

The sand landed heavily on the golden light barrier, producing loud screeches.

The force of the sand was utterly shocking. Even when the group was hiding within the barrier, they could feel the whole place sinking.

The sand started falling along the arc-shaped barrier, but soon started to stack up around it.

Mo Fan raised his head and watched the sand surrounding the group. It was simply too thick for them to see outside...

"Aren't we pretty much buried alive?" Jiang Yu said worriedly.

"Once the light barrier reaches its limit, we'll actually be buried alive. The Sahara Desert is indeed the most dangerous place in the world. This environment alone isn't something that normal people could handle, let alone the demon creatures residing here!" Zhao Manyan said.

"What do we do now?" Jiang Shaoxu asked.

"I think we're trapped."

"As long as we didn't move from our spot."

They had no idea how long the sandstorm was going to last. The only relief was that the sand stacking on top of the barrier actually served as an extra layer of defense, protecting the group beneath it.

The group was having trouble finding peace of mind when they were stuck in such a confined space while hearing the unending rumbles from the outside.

"Jiang Yu, can you help me take something out from my bag, the pocket at the very bottom," Mo Fan said when everyone else was feeling hopeless.

"Oh, ok, sure!" Jiang Yu found Mo Fan's bag and took out a little box wrapped inside a paper bag.

Jiang Yu handed Mo Fan the box. Mu Ningxue, Jiang Shaoxu, and Jiang Yu all glanced at the extremely calm Mo Fan. They were eager to know what brilliant plan he had in mind.

Mo Fan tore the paper wrapping around the box, revealing a very common pattern on the box that everyone was extremely familiar with.

"Come, luckily I was smart enough to bring two packs of playing cards along. Otherwise, we're simply going to die of boredom here. We have five of us here, that's enough for us to play Golden Flower!" Mo Fan quickly shuffled the cards and started dealing them into five hands.

{TL Note: A well-known card game in China.}