Conflict Resumes at Three Star Spring Encounter with the Black Masked Assassin

In the end, it was thanks to the efforts of the Flower Shifting Palace trio that everyone managed to escape the quicksand. After spending some time trapped, Jack Young figured out a way to break free from the sand’s grip. He made his muscles and skin tremble, moving like a snake, and finally wriggled out of the quicksand. The Three Dragons, being powerful enough, also managed to escape on their own. As for the rest, it was Rachel Luo who came up with a way to pull them out.

The method was simple—disrupt the suction balance inside the quicksand. By placing small objects around the trapped person, say poking a few sticks down, the shifting sand would redirect its suction from the person to the sticks, letting the trapped person escape smoothly.

“Eh? Master, you can stand on the quicksand without sinking now?” Fiona Fang asked in surprise, staring at Jack Young. He was standing on the quicksand, his feet barely sinking. It was like standing on a trampoline—there were funnel-shaped dips in the sand nearby, but he didn’t get swallowed up.

“Just now, I buried myself in the sand on purpose to hold onto the boat. If I don’t want to sink—” Jack Young grabbed someone and tossed them back onto the boat. “I’ve had a bit of a breakthrough lately, so now I can do it.”

While we’re at it, let’s go over our protagonist’s power levels. Since the differences between physical strength and inner force systems can be confusing, let’s have Professor Shenshou give a quick lecture based on all the info we can reveal so far.

Ahem, students, please look at the big screen. Let’s rewind the footage and check out—yup, that immortal blockhead sitting in the prison cart. Look at that clueless face! It’s been hundreds of thousands of words already, so much filler... Ahem, anyway, back then Jack Young had huge strengths but also fatal weaknesses. His strong points: power and quick reflexes. His weak point: no inner force.

Those with powerful bodies have the edge against nature’s fury—ice, snow, storms, thunder, you name it. That’s why even in the South Pole, the tough ones are fine. But if you’re an inner force cultivator without at least an innate level, forget about having fun in the South Pole; you’ll end up as frozen tofu. On the flip side, pure physical strength is stuck obeying basic physics, and we’ve joked about that a lot. Inner force, though, has all kinds of magical effects, especially when it comes to hurting living things.

Let’s fast-forward—stop! Here, during the Flower Shifting Village surprise attack, Blockhead and Young Master Gold Fan faced off. They didn’t dare touch each other, like a cactus versus a porcupine. Blockhead, with zero inner force, had fighting power about equal to someone with forty or fifty years of postnatal training. Not too shabby, really, since in duels, inner force does counter pure physical power. Inner force users have more tricks, longer attack range, and lightfoot skills. So Blockhead’s level in regular terrain is about here.

Fast-forward again—stop! Now, let’s look at the underground battle with Lady Sanmiao. Blockhead played to his strengths thanks to the perfect terrain, trapping the enemy outside. Lady Sanmiao wasn’t stupid either; she used her sound skills to broadcast a meat-grinder show, but ultimately failed. At this point, Jack Young could perform at an innate king level thanks to the special environment.

Then Jack Young started cultivating inner force. Once he patched up his weak spot, his overall fighting ability shot up. Power level aside, at least he wasn’t a total no-go for inner force anymore, so the forty-year postnatal stage instantly became outdated.

At the twenty-year postnatal stage, Jack Young invented a brand-new combo technique. In this style, martial arts take the main role and inner force is just support—like mana in an online game, used for buffing yourself. The core is still pure fighter. And since he didn’t have much inner force, he could only use it at key moments, like a burst skill—think "shock me with some chocolate." When he let loose, he was as strong as a blade servant, maybe even better.

As his power grew, inner force became more and more useful, with more tricks up its sleeve. Like now, Jack Young spreads his inner force from the soles of his feet in a net-like pattern, increasing his contact area and boosting his lightfoot skill—so he can stand steady in the quicksand.

We won’t match power levels one-to-one—fights aren’t about stats, they change in a flash and miracles happen all the time. So here’s a heads-up from Professor Shenshou: once you fully fuse these two systems, the results are amazing. But it’s a long road, needing persistence, creativity, and constant exploration. Stay tuned!

That’s all for Professor Shenshou’s lecture.

“Alright, everyone’s here—let’s move!” Jack Young ordered. “No clue how Dream Dragon King and the Black Masked Assassin’s chase is going, so stay sharp! Let’s catch up in one go!”

“Yes!” everyone answered in unison, then started moving forward again.

After surviving a brush with death, the group’s mood got a lot more harmonious, and their respect for the South Wasteland desert shot up. Since the Dead Desert was full of quicksand, there weren’t many high dunes, making travel pretty smooth. Jack Young stood on the mast, scanning the distance, and sometimes spotted other sand skiffs far away. But the Old Blind Man wasn’t lying—this boat was seriously fast.

There are oases in the Dead Desert, not many people but not totally deserted. The more dangerous the place, the better the loot—Dead Desert’s got plenty of perks if you can handle the risk, especially the oases. In this endless wasteland, oases are denser than outside. The group kept moving, following the marks Dream Dragon King left behind.

According to Fang Hailong’s intel, Dream Dragon King was still holding up, locked in a never-ending tug-of-war with the Black Masked Assassin. Neither side was giving up—one running for their life, the other chasing with all they’ve got. Just imagining it gave everyone chills.

Three days later, the group faced another South Wasteland disaster. This time it was “Earth Dragon Ascends”—unlike the long lead-up and short finish of Heavenly Dragon Descends, this one struck without warning. With a thunderous boom, a massive sand pillar suddenly erupted from a calm spot, like a tectonic chimney venting from underground. The sand shot hundreds of meters into the sky, roaring louder than any ship’s horn and lasting forever, deafening everyone. If you got hit by that sand jet, you’d be torn to pieces in a flash—no sand skiff could survive.

This time, though, everyone was a good distance away, so they could just watch from afar, totally awestruck by the epic scenery.

Wen Hanlong clambered up to the crossbeam of the mast. Fiona Fang was already up there, practicing her horse stance at that height. Wen Hanlong shamelessly came over to chat; she just rolled her eyes and let him be—no point in trying to kick him off anyway.

“Miss Fang, I reckon we’ll catch up to Boss Dragon at the next stop, or maybe the one after that. We might even run into that Black Mask guy. But don’t worry, the three of us have cooked up some new tricks—when the time comes, we’ll give that guy a real show. So, we’ll definitely keep you safe!”

“New tricks? Not that I’m expecting much, but I’ll trust you—for now. Just let me see what you’ve got when the time comes.” Fiona Fang replied with a bit of sass, then glanced at Wen Hanlong, curious: “But I’ve got a question. If we weren’t here—especially if my master wasn’t—would you guys still chase after them like this?”

“Doesn’t matter if Jack—” He almost blurted out the name, but Wen Hanlong thought better of it and awkwardly changed tack. If he called Jack Young by name as a peer, he’d be stuck as an uncle-level guy. But it was way too soon to play the humble grandson for a pretty girl, so he just muddled through: “Uh, even without your master, we’d still chase after them.”

“Even if it means dying?”

“Yeah, even if it means dying.” Wen Hanlong answered firmly. “The three of us are all orphans. If it weren’t for Boss Dragon, we’d have died with the Butterfly Kingdom fifteen years ago. The country fell, and three more half-grown kids dying wouldn’t have mattered to anyone. We wandered, starved, stole, got caught, got beaten. We had nowhere to go. Boss Dragon took us in, raised us, taught us skills, and made us somebody. For a lot of the old hands in our gang, Boss Dragon’s like a mom. So yeah, we’ll chase her down, no matter what.”

“Like a mom?” Fiona Fang’s eyes went wide in surprise. “Your Boss Dragon is a woman? What does she look like?”

Wen Hanlong smiled—the water bandit chief actually looked a little shy, a little bashful, a little gentle. “Her? Hard to describe. You’ll know when you see her.” He took a deep breath, then his gaze sharpened as he looked to the horizon. “If all goes well, we’ll reach Three Star Spring by tomorrow morning. We might catch up to her there.”

Meanwhile, Rachel Luo walked up to the bow, where Jack Young was quietly gazing into the distance. Jack’s hair was getting longer, giving him more of a martial arts hero vibe. Plus, with Queen Yang pushing him on his Dragon Elephant Technique training, Jack was racing for the eighth level, and all the special effects were making him look cooler by the day—like a walking, talking heartthrob. Rachel watched Jack’s profile and smiled gently: “What’re you thinking about, all spaced out like that?”