Just as order was gradually being restored to Western Region City, dozens of miles away, hidden beneath a secret sand dune, was a cave that had been artificially excavated and reinforced.

It was dark and damp, the air thick with a strange scent of blood mixed with rotting earth, and the rock walls were covered in twisted, earthy-yellow runes.

In the center stood a crude altar built from unknown skeletal remains and Otherworld ore.

This was the hidden base Harden used year-round to hold small-scale sacrifices to his God of Rock and receive divine grace.

"Cough... cough cough!"

Harden leaned against the cold rock wall and suddenly couldn't help but spit out a large mouthful of fresh blood.

His earthy-brown robes were tattered, revealing charred skin and a saber wound deep enough to show bone beneath; it was left by Red Beard's final long-range strike of Saber Qi.

Though he had been lucky enough to use an Earth Escape Divine Technique to save his life, his injuries were extremely severe, and the number of times he could use the technique granted by the God of Rock had been exhausted.

"Damn it... how could Red Beard... how could his Divine Power recover so quickly?!"

Harden's eyes were bloodshot.

The army of Rock Worms he had painstakingly cultivated for years was almost completely wiped out, and he himself was heavily injured, looking like a stray dog.

Not only had he failed the mission, but he had also caused such a massive mess.

He didn't dare imagine what kind of punishment he would face upon his return.

"No... I can't just go back like this. I still have a group of elite magical creatures left in the Bo Country, and I have many connections I can use among those demons."

"As long as I can win over those evil god forces, I still have hope of performing a meritorious deed before leaving Blue Star!"

As he was frantically calculating how to salvage the defeat, a few fine grains of sand fell from the cave entrance.

A Sparrow flew in silently and landed on a protruding stone pillar, quietly watching him.

Harden was startled at first, but then a hideous and twisted sneer appeared on his face:

"In this godforsaken place, there's actually a Sparrow? It seems some stupid thing was scared witless by the commotion earlier and flew in... Perfect, I have a belly full of rage and nowhere to vent it!"

He didn't take this Sparrow seriously at all, treating it as just an ordinary bird that had lost its way.

He raised a hand, a faint trace of earthy-yellow Qi condensing at his fingertip, intending to flick it toward the Sparrow.

However, in the next second—

Boom!

Harden was sent flying backward as if he had been hit head-on by an invisible battering ram.

His body slammed heavily against the rock wall behind him, the impact causing loose stones to fall throughout the cave.

His chest burned with intense pain, several ribs were broken, and the gathered rock power instantly dissipated. His eyes were filled with extreme horror and confusion.

He, a dignified Ninth-tier Gods Chosen, was actually powerless to resist.

What happened? Who attacked me?

He struggled to lift his head and look around, but he saw no enemy.

The Sparrow was still standing quietly on the stalagmite, its eyes calm and rippleless, as if that terrifying strike just now had nothing to do with it.

No matter how he looked at it, it was just an ordinary Sparrow.

However, Harden was no fool.

He understood instantly—this Sparrow was definitely not the ordinary bird it appeared to be!

It had come specifically for him!

Moreover, its strength was so terrifying that it could launch an attack without him noticing a thing!

"Who... who are you?!" Harden's voice was hoarse and filled with fear. A terrifying realization surfaced: "The Sacred Lake! Those animals! Are you one of the Animal Warriors stationed in Western Region City?"

"How did you find me!?"

The Sparrow did not answer, seemingly sizing him up, or perhaps waiting for something.

Harden was driven nearly insane by this silent gaze.

Severe injury, fear, and despair toward an unknown powerful enemy were intertwined.

He knew that he would likely not escape today.

But a strong will to survive and unwillingness to give up drove him to make one final struggle.

"You forced me... you forced me!"

Harden's eyes suddenly became crazed and resolute. He almost crawled to the crude altar, grabbed a stone knife from its edge, and hacked viciously toward the base of his own right arm!

Psh!

Blood splattered.

The seemingly fragile stone knife actually severed Harden's entire right arm at the root! The severed arm fell onto the altar, and the blood was quickly absorbed by the twisted runes, emitting an eerie red light.

"With my flesh and blood as the guide, I respectfully invite my God—the eternal symbol, the Lord of all rocks, the great God of Rock, to descend as a projection and destroy the desecrator!"

Harden roared at the top of his lungs.

He believed that sacrificing an arm, combined with the divine grace he had accumulated over time, would be enough to temporarily summon a sliver of his main god's projection!

Even if it was just a projection, it would be enough to crush this strange Sparrow.

Inside the cave, the earthy-yellow light flared brightly as a majestic Divine Might began to condense. A blurry, massive phantom composed of rock and sand slowly took shape above the altar, radiating a suffocating pressure.

The projection of the God of Rock first saw Harden, who was kneeling before the altar with a severed arm, heavily injured and with a withered aura.

Qi Ye's body was too small, his color was not much different from the stones, and he had no aura, so he was naturally ignored.

"Harden!"

The God of Rock's voice rumbled like the tremors of the earth's mantle, carrying a suppressed fury. He immediately began to berate him.

"You are still lingering here? Did this deity not already command you to abandon all affairs and evacuate Blue Star immediately!"

Harden was also momentarily stunned. He hurriedly endured the severe pain and the dizziness from blood loss, struggling to touch his head to the ground while his remaining left hand clawed into the dirt: "My God, your subordinate... your subordinate was simply unwilling to see years of operations on Blue Star go up in flames!"

"Fool!" The God of Rock's roar made the cave tremble. "Then why are you now heavily injured? Why have you placed yourself in a death trap!"

Qi Ye stood quietly on the stalagmite, watching the back-and-forth confrontation between this master and servant, feeling quite absurd inside.

These two... how did they start arguing with each other first?

However, from this conversation, Qi Ye instantly cleared up the context: it turned out that this man named Harden had defied the God of Rock's evacuation order and attacked Western Region City on his own.

The God of Rock seemed quite annoyed by this as well; it wasn't as he had guessed, where the god said one thing but did another behind the scenes.

"Great God of Rock, my operation failed. I failed to successfully plunder the resources in Western Region City. I am willing to accept any punishment!"

Harden lowered his head and recounted his experience of leading the Rock Worm army to attack Western Region City in detail.

Listening to Harden's narration, the projection of the God of Rock fell silent for a moment, the light on the rocky phantom face flickering.

His anger subsided slightly, replaced by a trace of complexity.

Having just pledged allegiance to the Lord of Spirits and still negotiating alongside the God of Bubbles to win over Alien Gods and collect Firefly Forest dungeon fragments for the Lord of Spirits, this guy had gone and caused a huge problem for him.

He looked at the Believer at his feet, who was on the verge of death but still forcing himself to kneel, and weighed his options.

Harden was indeed one of his most capable subordinates who understood the Blue Star battlefield best, even though this reckless and foolish act had almost ruined everything.

But this was a good thing.

Fortunately, Harden's operation had failed; it hadn't brought destructive consequences to the Xia Kingdom, nor had it alerted the Lord of Spirits.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

Otherwise, if news got out, he wouldn't know how to explain himself to the Lord of Spirits.