A wooden boat of this size could hardly be called enormous, but there was more than enough room to fit seventy or eighty people. Besides, there were three of them—plenty of space for the entire party.

Everyone looked up in awe, letting out a long "Whoa."

Even though they already knew Sunx Fuping was the National Preceptor and possessed extraordinary means, the sight still left everyone stunned.

Hee Lingchuan, however, heard Zeng Feixiong mutter in a voice full of wonder, "So that’s a Profound Crystal, huh? It’s my first time seeing one."

"It’s green, so it’s just a Lower-Grade Profound Crystal," Hee Lingchuan said with his typical nonchalance.

As it happened, Nian Songyu overheard him and immediately turned to ask, "You have Mid-Upper Grade ones?"

"No, of course not!" Hee Lingchuan laughed. ’If I admitted to it, they’d just confiscate it, wouldn’t they?’

The problem was, he actually did.

In Hee Lingchuan’s Storage Bag, there currently lay a Profound Crystal. It was a deep green, of a slightly better quality than the one National Preceptor Sunx had just fed to the Walnut Boat.

Profound Crystals were the solidified form of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, typically only forming during periods of Spiritual Qi eruptions. Humans would gather, purify, and refine them, sometimes adding other materials to create Profound Crystals of various types and grades.

These things had many uses. They could replenish the True Power of Mages and Demons, power mechanical Puppets, drive Arrays, and much more. These three small Walnut Boats looked unassuming, but the cost to operate them was steep.

It had been a long time since the last great Spiritual Qi eruption, so Profound Crystals were becoming increasingly rare and expensive. National Preceptor Sunx used one so casually to power the Walnut Boats, whereas Hee Lingchuan possessed only a single one—a grand gift from an Envoy of the Northern Demon Kingdom in exchange for a favor.

One used a luxury item for a mundane task, while the other treasured it as a priceless possession. The difference in their status and wealth was instantly obvious.

As Hee Lingchuan was observing this, Nian Songyu was questioning the Sand Bandits. "Do you people have any other tricks that might be useful?"

Situ Han, who had also been admiring the Walnut Boats, shook his head repeatedly. "There are too many people. Our crude methods probably won’t be of any use."

Nian Songyu had only asked for the sake of it, not actually expecting them to have a good solution. But Hee Lingchuan laughed. "What about your fragrant balls? Didn’t you bring any this time?"

"Oh, we have them," Situ Han said. He hesitated, glanced at Sunx Fuping, and added sheepishly, "It’s just... they’re not exactly what you’d call refined."

"Staying alive is what matters. Being refined is not important."

Nian Songyu asked Situ Han, "Is it effective? Very effective?"

"It usually works well." Situ Han patted the boat’s hull. "How do we get this treasure moving?"

Nian Songyu didn’t hide it from him. "Profound Crystals."

’That’s like burning money every second,’ Situ Han thought. After a moment, he said, "If we’re lucky, perhaps you two gentlemen won’t need to use up a Profound Crystal."

This piqued even Sunx Fuping’s interest. "Oh?"

Profound Crystals were hard to come by, so it was best to conserve them whenever possible. They were the kind of thing that had a price but no market; an ordinary person couldn’t buy one even if they had the silver.

Situ Han humbly stressed again, "If we’re lucky!"

"Let’s see you try it, then," Nian Songyu said coolly. "If it doesn’t work, you’ll be delaying official business, and I’ll throw you off this boat to feed the Demons."

’Why did I have to open my big mouth!’ Situ Han wanted to slap himself. "In that case, everyone please cover your noses."

’Cover...?’

Hee Chunhua saw his eldest son and the bandits raise their face coverings over their mouths and noses, so he did the same.

At a command from Situ Han, his Sand Bandits brought out a box. They opened it to reveal a soft-padded interior, in the middle of which sat a bulging, bubble-like object.

Nian Songyu stared at it, unable to figure it out. "What is this?"

"Captain Nian, have you never seen a pig being butchered?" Hee Lingchuan laughed. "This is a pig’s bladder. You can blow it up like a balloon. It’s not even close to its full size yet."

’This rascal grew up with the best of everything in Black Water City, a textbook rich heir and young noble. By all rights, he shouldn’t know what a pig’s bladder is. But he was just too much of a troublemaker. He used to love filling pig bladders with water and hanging them from the old tree on the main street. Then, if someone he didn’t like walked underneath, he’d fling a metal skewer at it...’ Seeing his son’s smug expression, Hee Chunhua couldn’t help but curse inwardly.

Nian Songyu, who was accustomed to a life of luxury, had certainly never seen such a thing. He rarely even ate pork, considering it a lower-class meat. He wrinkled his brow in disgust. "What is it for?"

"It provides a good seal. Otherwise, we’d be the first to suffer," Hee Lingchuan explained. As he spoke, the Sand Bandits took out a large slab of cured meat, tied it with a thick rope, then undid the binding on the pig bladder and poured its contents all over the meat.

It was a viscous, dark-green liquid that bubbled thickly and even seemed to give off an occasional wisp of white smoke.

The moment it was exposed to the air, everyone’s sense of smell was viciously assaulted.

The stench was like a severe case of athlete’s foot that had stewed in an airtight boot for a month, mixed with the body odor from half a year without bathing. The finishing touch was the unique aroma of dead fish and rotten shrimp left to ferment for years in some forgotten corner of a smuggler’s wharf.

It was a masterful symphony of fishy, pungent, and gamy odors—a stench that had achieved a style and level all its own.

The soldiers who hadn’t covered their noses in time immediately retched.

The most terrible thing about the smell was that a single whiff was enough to sear it into your memory, making it impossible to forget.

A chain reaction followed. Those who had been desperately holding it in could no longer resist and began clutching their stomachs, vomiting one after another.

Fortunately, the Sand Bandits quickly tossed the cured meat onto the sand and covered it with a few handfuls of dirt. Aided by the powerful desert wind, the stench soon dissipated.

Everyone gasped for breath, never realizing what a beautiful thing it was to simply breathe.

Nian Songyu’s face was pale. "Outrageous! What on earth is the point of this thing?"

He also felt his chest tighten with the urge to vomit and had to exercise extreme self-control not to. But when he turned and saw Hee Lingchuan’s delighted expression, he couldn’t help but suspect the little bastard was just using this as an opportunity to mess with him.

’With a smell that bad, who wouldn’t be affected?’

"Just watch," Hee Lingchuan said calmly, pointing at the spot in the sand where the meat was buried.

Everyone looked and saw that, with the burial spot as the epicenter, trails were appearing all over the sand. They were of varying depths, but all were rapidly spreading outward. Clearly, numerous creatures had been hiding under the sand, and the stench from the meat had sent them fleeing for their lives.

The stuff wasn’t just potent against humans; it was also highly effective against mutated creatures and Demons.

In fact, because their sense of smell was far more sensitive than a human’s, the spiritual and physical trauma they suffered was even more severe.

"It can scare off even Exotic Beasts. Not bad. What other uses does it have?" This tactic took Sunx Fuping by surprise. ’A poison gas attack... I never considered that when I was making my plans. It seems the crude methods of country folk can be quite effective sometimes.’

"This alone is far from enough!" Nian Songyu cracked his knuckles. ’These Sand Bandits know the Hee father and son. Are they ganging up on me?’

Seeing Nian Songyu’s displeased expression, Situ Han was confused. "Wait, just wait! The key to crossing the desert is coming!"

’Coming? What’s coming?’