Novel Full Chapter 679: The Unusual Nature of the Sandworm
Chapter 679: Chapter 679: The Unusual Nature of the Sandworm
After setting up the activation array for the Dark Gem, Charles didn’t go back to the surface with Zara.
He decided to use this chance to quietly leave the Serpent’s Eye Lake Oasis without anyone noticing. That way, the spies from the Stellar Empire hidden in the oasis wouldn’t detect his movements.
“There’s still some time before the final battle. I have to use this precious window to weaken the enemy,”
Charles said calmly to Zara.
Zara’s emotions were still a bit stirred, but she nodded.
“I understand. I trust you. I’ll make everyone believe you’re still moving around in the underground area.”
Her answer made Charles smile.
He gently patted her head.
“You’ve done great.”
Then he turned around and left without another word.
Zara watched his back until he completely disappeared from sight, then slowly withdrew her gaze.
She quickly returned to the grand pyramid at the center of Serpent’s Eye Lake Oasis.
There, she told High Priest Kent and General Sost that Charles had gone to act alone.
Her real purpose was to erase any doubts the two might have had.
These two were people she completely trusted.
If even they couldn’t be trusted anymore, then there was no one left who could be.
As for Charles’s decision to move on his own, Kent and Sost had very different opinions.
Kent frowned, hesitating for a while before saying:
“Why does he always insist on taking such risky actions? What if he’s attacked while he’s alone?
I know he’s incredibly strong. But once the enemy discovers his location, they’ll throw everything they have at him to hunt him down.
When that happens, we won’t be able to offer him any support at all.
If he dies out there, we’ll lose any chance of stopping the Stellar Empire’s invasion.
Wouldn’t it be safer for him to stay here at Serpent’s Eye Lake Oasis?
Here, nothing can threaten him.
Does he really think the power we’ve gathered still isn’t enough for the coming battle?
If that’s what he believes, then why did he promise us so confidently before that we would definitely win?”
Kent’s voice carried the weight of long-held frustration.
He finally let out all the complaints he had been keeping inside about Charles.
Zara didn’t care about anything he said.
She just looked coldly at High Priest Kent without giving any response.
General Sost chose to speak up and calm him down.
“Your concerns make sense. But right now, we’re in a situation we’ve never faced before. All we can do is trust Charles’s judgment. Without him, we wouldn’t even be alive to have this conversation. The Stellar Empire would’ve killed us long ago.”
Sost’s words left Kent with nothing to say.
He stayed silent in the end.
“We have to keep this secret,” Zara finally spoke, her tone firm.
“No one can know that Charles has already left. Only that way can he strike the enemy by surprise.”
Kent and Sost both understood the logic behind it.
Neither of them objected.
So the three of them worked together to hide the fact that Charles had already left the Serpent’s Eye Lake Oasis.
Because of that, the crown prince of the Stellar Empire would only receive intel saying Charles was still there.
Even if he got suspicious and decided to take some precautions, he wouldn’t allocate too much power to guard against something he thought was highly unlikely.
After leaving the Serpent’s Eye Lake Oasis, Charles didn’t immediately go searching for members of the Ancient Academy.
Instead, he chose to first study the creatures known as Sandworms, which lived deep beneath the Atacama Desert.
Before this, he had only encountered Sandworms twice.
The first time was right after entering the Atacama Desert.
Back then, he saw them as extremely dangerous monsters and avoided them completely.
The second time was beneath the Serpent’s Eye Lake Oasis, where he came across a Sandworm twisted by the power of curses.
That one was far stronger than a normal Sandworm.
After those two encounters, Charles came to believe that Sandworms had the potential to become mystical beasts.
Even if they couldn’t become his contracted creature, he thought there might still be a way to control them.
If a large number of Sandworms were gathered together, the destruction they could cause would be terrifying.
After two full days of searching, Charles finally discovered a tunnel leading to a Sandworm nesting area deep within a Desert Goblin underground lair.
“Do Desert Goblins also hunt Sandworms?”
Charles muttered to himself as he looked at the tunnel’s inner walls,
where he could clearly see the marks left by weapons scraping across the stone.
That meant the Desert Goblins must have carried a lot of weapons when they went through the cave toward the Sandworm nesting ground.
If it wasn’t to fight Sandworms, they’d have no reason to bring that many weapons.
Once Charles stepped deeper into the cave, he began to notice more details.
The color of the walls grew darker and darker—not because the soil had changed, but because the stone was soaked with Desert Goblin blood.
“A lot of them must’ve died here,” he murmured, examining the cave walls carefully.
The blood had seeped in almost half a meter deep. That could only mean one thing—this place had seen countless brutal battles.
The more Charles learned, the heavier his heart felt.
He couldn’t shake the worry that if he took even one more step, he might trigger a swarm of Sandworms.
But now that he’d come this far, there was no turning back.
Finally, at the end of the tunnel, he clenched his teeth and stepped into a pitch-black space.
The moment his foot crossed the boundary, he instantly felt the presence of countless creatures around him.
They were all Sandworms, lying dormant.
Charles’s arrival woke them up.
When their eyes opened, the faint glow from within them lit up the entire cavern.
Only then did Charles see everything clearly.
He finally understood why the Desert Goblins had fought so fiercely here.
This place wasn’t just a Sandworm resting ground—it was a hatchery.
All around the massive Sandworm bodies were clusters of eggs, still in the process of hatching.
It was a Sandworm breeding nest.
Realizing that, Charles immediately abandoned his original plan.
Even if he wanted to control a group of Sandworms for battle, this was the last place to try.
The Sandworms protecting their offspring would be far too violent and unstable.
Just as he turned to leave, the ground began to quake—the Sandworms were already charging toward him.
Their movement caused massive tremors that rippled through the entire underground system.
Sand rained down from above as the tunnels began to collapse.
By the time Charles rushed back toward the tunnels dug by the Desert Goblins, the entire passage was already crumbling.
Sandworms burst out from the walls, tearing through the earth.
“These Sandworms protecting their young are completely frenzied!”
Charles gritted his teeth, a hint of regret flashing in his eyes.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have come here at all.”
But now, regret meant nothing.
The only thing Charles could do was run—fast.
Following the tunnels dug by the Desert Goblins, he climbed upward and quickly reached their lair.
He hadn’t even caught his breath when countless Sandworms burst out from the ground below.
By this point, Charles was completely exhausted.
He had no choice but to summon the Chrono Rabbit.
The chaotic currents of space-time released by the Chrono Rabbit managed to hold the Sandworms back.
Seizing that moment, Charles scrambled upward to higher ground.
He was already close to the surface.
If he kept following the tunnel, he’d reach open desert soon.
With the pressure easing a little, he turned to glance down at the Sandworms trapped inside the time-space turbulence.
Most of them were panicking—thrashing and twisting wildly, trying to crawl out of the distortion.
But a few of them acted… strangely.
Those particular Sandworms seemed fascinated by the energy.
Instead of fleeing, they stayed still—resting quietly inside the raging current.
That sight puzzled Charles deeply.
He ordered the Chrono Rabbit to lift the time-space vortex up to the desert’s surface.
As it rose, the panicked Sandworms used the chance to break free and burrow back into the ground.
But the calm ones—the ones who stayed within the turbulence—were carried all the way up to the surface.
Watching those silent Sandworms, Charles began to think maybe his earlier plan wasn’t impossible after all.
“At least some of them like the time-space current,” he muttered. “I don’t know why—but I can use that. I can control them through it.”
He made up his mind.
Before taking his next step, he would bring these time-space-affinity Sandworms back to Serpent’s Eye Lake Oasis.
They could serve as an extra line of defense.
And another idea formed in his mind.
When the Stellar Empire launched its assault, he could activate the Dark Gem’s powerful curse at the same time—
then release these Sandworms from within the Chrono Rabbit’s time-space field.
Empowered by the curse, the Sandworms would grow even more fearsome—
and unleash devastation upon the Stellar Empire’s army.