The genius who counterattacked the mainland

Xu Tiancai cast a large-scale protective spell, and a transparent light shield rose around them, blocking out the knife-like sand. The sandstorm howled, and the light shield trembled violently under the powerful impact, and the light flickered.

"This sandstorm is too fierce, we have to find a place to hide!" Lin shouted loudly, her voice almost drowned out by the roar of the sandstorm.

Agang swung his battle axe, trying to clear a path through the sandstorm, but the sand quickly filled the path again. The mysterious figure and the Ice Princess also cast their own magic to try to stabilize the protective shield and find the weak points in the sandstorm.

As the sandstorm raged, they struggled forward. Suddenly, Xu Tiancai felt a powerful suction coming from underground. Before he could react, the sand beneath their feet began to sink rapidly, forming a huge vortex.

"Oh no, it's a sand vortex!" Xu Tiancai shouted. They tried to escape, but the suction of the vortex became stronger and stronger, and cracks began to appear in the light shield.

"Everyone, hold on to each other!" Ah Gang reached out and grabbed the people around him. They hugged each other tightly, trying to resist the vortex's suction. However, the vortex's force was too strong, and they were slowly dragged under the sand.

After being completely submerged by the sand, they found themselves in a vast underground cavern. The walls were inlaid with faintly glowing crystals, barely illuminating the surroundings. An ancient and mysterious aura permeated the cavern, and strange sounds echoed, like the whispers of ancient creatures.

"Where is this place?" Agang looked around vigilantly, the battle axe still tightly held in his hand.

"I'm not sure, but we have to find a way to leave here and return to the ground first." Xu Tiancai said. He began to observe the environment of the cave and look for an exit.

They walked along the cave, their feet on the soft sand, leaving deep footprints with each step. As they walked, they discovered some strange murals on the cave walls. These murals were somewhat similar to those they had seen in the desert ruins, but also different. The murals depicted giant creatures fighting in a sandstorm, and figures performing mysterious rituals, seemingly sealing something.

"These murals may be related to the secrets of this world." Lin said. She stopped and studied the murals carefully.

At this moment, a heavy sound of footsteps came from the depths of the cave, as if a huge creature was walking towards them. The sound was getting closer and the ground began to tremble slightly.

"Prepare for battle!" Xu Tiancai shouted, and they quickly prepared for battle, the light of the artifact shining in the darkness.

A massive sand golem emerged from the darkness. Its body was composed of sand, yet it was vastly larger than the sand monsters encountered previously, standing over ten meters tall. Its eyes were two massive red crystals, emitting an eerie glow. Its arms were thick, and every swing of them stirred up a cloud of sand.

The Sand Golem, upon seeing them, let out a deep roar and charged towards them. Its massive body moved at breakneck speed, like a chariot out of control in the cave.

A Gang was the first to rush forward. He leaped high, his battle axe wrapped in the power granted by the artifact, and chopped towards the sand puppet's legs. The battle axe hit the sand puppet's legs, splashing a burst of sand, but only leaving a shallow mark on the sand puppet's legs.

Xu Tiancai combined the power of the stars, the phoenix, and the guardian pearl with the power of the four divine artifacts, forming a series of colorful light arrows. These light arrows rained down on the sand puppet. After the light arrows hit the sand puppet, its body trembled slightly, but it didn't suffer much damage.

Lin cast a large water spell, and a large amount of water gushed out from her hands and poured towards the sand puppet. After the water came into contact with the sand, the sand puppet's body became more compact and its movements became more flexible.

"Water is useless against it; instead it increases its power. We have to try another method!" Lin shouted.

The mysterious figure and the Ice Princess each cast their own magic. The mysterious figure summoned the power of disintegration from the darkness, attempting to disintegrate the sand golem's structure. The Ice Princess, in turn, cast ice magic, forming a circle of ice spikes around the sand golem, attempting to restrict its movement. However, the sand golem easily broke through the ice spikes and continued to charge towards them.

"Attack its eyes, that might be its weakness!" While dodging the sand puppet's attacks, Xu Tiancai observed that its eyes seemed to be the core of its energy.

They began to attack the sand golem's eyes. Lin cast a precise spell, gathering the wind element into a sharp wind blade and shooting it towards the sand golem's eyes. The wind blade hit the sand golem's eyes, and a crack appeared on the red crystal.

Agang swung his battle axe and struck at the other eye. Sparks flew as the axe struck the crystal, and cracks appeared on the eye. The mysterious figure and the Ice Princess simultaneously attacked the sand golem's eye with their magic. Their combined force shattered the golem's eye completely.

After losing its eyes, the Sand Golem began to frantically wave its arms around in the cave, crashing around. Its attacks became more disordered, but still powerful, and sand and rocks kept falling from the cave walls as it struck.

"We have to be careful not to get hit by it!" Xu Tiancai shouted. They dodged the attacks of the sand puppet while looking for a way to defeat it completely.

During observation, Xu Tiancai discovered that after the sand puppet lost its eyes, there was a point on its back with strong energy fluctuations, which seemed to be the key to maintaining its movement.

"Attack the energy point on its back!" Xu Tiancai shouted, and they launched their attack towards the sand puppet's back energy point. Lin cast a powerful spell, fusing the elements of fire, water, and earth to form a massive elemental leopard, which pounced on the sand puppet's back. The elemental leopard opened its maw and unleashed a powerful wave of energy, blasting towards the energy point.

Agang, the mysterious figure, and the Ice Princess also attacked the energy point. Their combined attack severely impacted the energy point on the sand puppet's back, causing it to leak energy. The sand puppet's movements became increasingly sluggish, and finally, with a dazzling flash of light and a massive explosion, it collapsed, scattering sand across the ground.

"We've finally dealt with this big guy. Let's continue looking for an exit." Xu Tiancai said as they continued to move forward along the cave.

At the far end of the cave, they discovered a massive stone door. Carved with intricate runes and patterns, these runes and patterns emanated powerful energy fluctuations. In the center of the door was a circular groove, the shape of which was identical to the crystal skull they had found in the desert ruins.

"It seems that this crystal skull is the key to opening the stone door." Xu Tiancai took out the crystal skull and placed it into the groove.

After the crystal skull was placed in the groove, the runes on the stone door began to gleam with dazzling light. The light flowed along the lines of the runes, as if giving the stone door life. With a roar, the stone door slowly opened, and a powerful energy surged from within.

They entered the stone gate, revealing a vast hall. In the center of the hall sat a massive stone platform, upon which rested a crystal ball emitting a multicolored light. Within the crystal ball, flickering images depicted various parts of the world: mountains, oceans, forests, and even areas shrouded in darkness.

"This crystal ball... seems to be a map of this world." Lin said. She walked closer to the crystal ball, trying to see it more clearly.

When her hand touched the crystal ball, a flash of light appeared, and some information appeared in her mind. This information was about the location of various mysterious relics in this world, as well as some clues that might be related to closing the extra-dimensional channel and purifying the dark forces.

"I understand. This crystal ball is giving us guidance." Lin said excitedly, and she shared the information in her mind with everyone.

"According to this information, the next important relic is in an ancient mountain range on the edge of the desert. There may be what we need there." Xu Tiancai said, and they decided to leave this underground cave and head to the mountains.

Following the crystal ball's guidance, they found another exit in the cave. This exit led to the surface, and when they emerged, the sandstorm had subsided. The desert appeared even more desolate after the storm, with the dunes' shapes altered and new sand pits appearing in some places.

They headed toward the mountains at the edge of the desert, encountering new dangers along the way. A swarm of winged sand snakes circled in the sky. Spotting Xu Tiancai and his companions, they swooped down upon them. The sand snakes had slender bodies covered in tough, sandy scales, their eyes gleaming with a fierce gleam. Their mouths held sharp fangs, their venom corrosive enough to eat anything.

Agang swung his battle axe, sending the approaching sand snakes flying. The sand snakes were incredibly fast, nimbly dodging Agang's attacks before attacking again from different angles. Xu Tiancai fused the power of the stars, the power of the phoenix, and the power of the artifact, forming a series of shimmering, multicolored light curtains that enveloped them. The sand snakes collided with the light curtains and were deflected, but they did not give up, continuing to circle around them, looking for an opportunity.

Lin cast a wind spell, creating powerful wind blades around them. The blades flew towards the sand snakes, some of which were struck, their bodies cut in two and falling to the ground. But more sand snakes swooped down from the sky, their numbers growing ever greater.

The mysterious figure and the Ice Princess each cast their own magic. The mysterious figure summoned the devouring power of darkness, sucking some sand snakes into the darkness. The Ice Princess cast ice magic, forming ice arrows in the sky and shooting them towards the sand snakes.

Under their combined attack, the Sand Snakes' attack was temporarily contained, but they did not leave, still circling in the sky, as if waiting for something.

"We can't keep wasting time here with them. We have to find a way to get rid of them." Xu Tiancai said as he was thinking about how to deal with the situation.

Suddenly, an idea struck him. Unleashing the full power of his divine artifact, he unleashed a powerful wave of energy in one direction. Wherever the wave reached, sand was stirred up, forming a massive column of dust. This column of dust rushed toward the sand snakes, their vision obscured and causing them to panic.

"Let's take this opportunity to leave!" Xu Tiancai shouted, and they ran towards the mountains. In the chaos, the sand snakes didn't catch up immediately, and they successfully broke free from their entanglement.

After several days of trekking, they finally reached an ancient mountain range on the edge of the desert. The mountains towered into the clouds, their sides a dark, ancient red, as if stained with blood. A mysterious aura permeated the mountains, and strange lights flickered in the valleys.

"This mountain range looks very unusual, we have to be careful." Xu Tiancai said, and they began to climb the mountain along the path.

During their climb, they encountered ancient traps. There were boulders that had rolled down the mountain, engraved with runes that shone brightly, making the boulders even more powerful. There were also spike traps hidden underground, the spikes coated with an unknown poison.

A Gang led the way, swinging his battle axe to smash the approaching boulders and using the axe's power to destroy the spike traps on the ground. Xu Tiancai, Lin, the mysterious figure, and the Ice Princess followed closely behind, casting magic to help A Gang deal with the various traps.

When they reached the middle of the mountain range, they came upon a huge waterfall. The water was dark red and emitted a pungent odor. Beneath the waterfall was a deep pool, churning and swirling, as if something were swimming in it.

"This waterfall and pool of water... feel very dangerous." Lin said with a frown.