Golden grains of sand reflect a dazzling light, blinding the eyes and obscuring the view. The scorching sun bakes the desert, causing the once tranquil sands to boil like a furnace. The rolling heat waves distort the air, blurring the world. The fiery wind whips up the sand, etching a devilish grin on the ground. The sharp sand tears at wounds, causing unbearable pain.

Between two sand dunes, a slightly thin middle-aged man and a young man stand facing each other, their hands extended forward. Another slightly taller middle-aged man stands with his back to them, more than ten meters away, slowly turning around, holding a transparent pendant that looks like a droplet of water in his hand.

The young man’s name is Huan Tianli, the slightly thin middle-aged man is named Liu Yu, and the slightly taller middle-aged man is named Wang Chen.

Huan Tianli turns his head to look at Wang Chen, who is turning around. His eyes are filled with tears, his expression complex and pained. With a hint of a sob, he looks at Wang Chen and says, “Uncle Chen, is it really you?”

Wang Chen lowered his head slightly, his eyes flashing with deep guilt and reluctance. But then he lifted his head, his face left only with coldness: “Yes, it’s me.” “What, weren’t they your best friends?” Huan Tianli asked in a trembling voice.

When Huan Tianli was ten years old, a fire took the lives of his parents, and he was adopted by his parents’ close friend, Wang Chen. Wang Chen said the fire was an accident, so Huan Tianli assumed his parents were ordinary people who died in the fire. He just didn’t understand why Liu Yu, another close friend of his parents, disappeared after the fire.

Wang Chen treated Huan Tianli as if he were his own child, and even taught him cultivation. Huan Tianli never doubted him until about ten hours ago, when Wang Chen found him and told him that there was a very dangerous fugitive in the northwestern desert that he needed to deal with. He gave him a locator with the fugitive’s location. Huan Tianli didn’t think too much, took the locator, and chased after it.

But Huan Tianli never expected that this fugitive would turn out to be Liu Yu!

After recognizing each other, Liu Yu told him that his parents were also cultivators, but they didn’t tell him when he was young. Given his parents’ cultivation level, it was impossible for them to be killed by a fire. The real killer of his parents was the man standing in front of him, Uncle Chen, who had raised him for more than ten years and treated him like his own child.

“Why?” Wang Chen sneered, his gaze turning to the jade pendant in his hand. “This pendant can open a path to godhood. Who doesn’t want to become a  divine spirits? Who doesn’t want eternal life? It’s just hateful that your parents wanted to compete with me for it.”

Wang Chen looked at Huan Tianli, a flash of pain in his eyes, but it was only a fleeting moment. “I originally wanted to treat you as my own child to make up for my guilt, but who knew that I couldn’t get the pendant from you or your parents.”

Wang Chen turned his gaze to Liu Yu again. “Coincidentally, you also disappeared after the fire. I guessed that they might have known that I was going to harm them, so they gave you the pendant and let you escape while I was unaware. They were good, willing to give things to you but not to me. Haha, it’s been more than ten years, Liu Yu, you made me search hard for you!”

A cold smile appeared on Wang Chen’s face. “Unfortunately, no matter how well you hide, I still found you. And I guessed that after you saw Huan Tianli, you would think of those two friends and give him the pendant. As expected!”

Indeed, after Liu Yu revealed the truth to Huan Tianli, he intended to give the jade pendant to him. He didn’t want the pendant to affect their relationship, just as he didn’t participate in the scramble for it when he first discovered it.

However, just as he was about to hand over the jade pendant to Huan Tianli, Wang Chen, who had been hiding in the shadows, rushed out and snatched the pendant. Hence, the scene before them unfolded.

Liu Yu gritted his teeth and glared at Wang Chen, “Wang Chen, you’re a beast! We treated you like a brother, and yet you…”

“Brother?” Wang Chen suddenly let out a cold laugh, somewhat ferocious. “If you treated me like a brother, then why did you compete with me for the pendant? Why didn’t you just give it to me? If you had given it to me, none of this would have happened today. We could still be best friends. How can you blame me for this? It’s all their fault!”

Upon hearing these words, Huan Tianli’s last shred of illusion about Wang Chen was shattered. His bitter face showed not only sorrow but also a touch of self-mockery. How could Wang Chen, a cultivator of such a level, choose two ordinary people as his close friends? This obvious question had never occurred to him in all these years. If he had thought of it earlier, perhaps he wouldn’t have been used by Wang Chen.

Liu Yu’s gaze also turned icy cold: “Hopeless! If the object falls into the hands of someone like you, it would be a disaster!”

After saying this, Liu Yu turned to look at the somewhat stunned Huan Tianli, “Tianli, let’s go, let’s kill this beast together! This guy’s cultivation level isn’t much higher than mine. If he hadn’t used cunning tricks, he definitely wouldn’t have been able to kill your parents. The two of us working together can definitely kill him!”

Huan Tianli turned to look at Liu Yu, nodding heavily, his vital energy slowly flowing into his hands.

“Kill me?” Wang Chen suddenly burst into a wild laugh, “I dared to come here today because I was fully prepared. Tianli, let Uncle Chen teach you one last lesson, never trust anyone too easily!”

“Ding.” Just then, a sound suddenly rang out, causing both Huan Tianli and Liu Yu to freeze.

“The locator!” Huan Tianli suddenly realized something, his face turning pale.

A loud bang suddenly echoed in the desert. The locator that Huan Tianli had placed in his clothes exploded violently. A destructive energy storm swallowed up tens of meters of land around it, and a terrifying shock wave kicked up a sky full of yellow sand.

A blue light shone on Wang Chen’s body, and a light shield protected him from all sides, blocking all the energy impact.

A deep pain flashed across Wang Chen’s face. Did he really not care about his former close friends? If he didn’t care, how could he feel guilty, how could he raise Huan Tianli as his own son? If he just wanted to use Huan Tianli, wouldn’t it be enough to treat him as an ordinary subordinate? But the only one who could draw out Liu Yu, who could make Liu Yu let down his guard and take out the jade pendant, was Huan Tianli.

But this pain was quickly covered up by excitement and ecstasy.

“My pendant!” Wang Chen raised his hand, wanting to take a closer look at the pendant, but suddenly froze. His hand was already empty at some point, the pendant was gone, “My pendant, where is my pendant!”

Wang Chen suddenly seemed a bit frenzied. How many years had it been? How many years had he painstakingly planned? How many years had he endured the torment of his conscience? He had originally succeeded, but now, the jade pendant was gone. This was tantamount to telling him that everything he had done was a joke. “Impossible, impossible!” Wang Chen no longer cared about his image and began to frantically search in the sand.

Huan Tianli only felt a wave of tearing pain, but this pain only lasted for a moment, and then everything returned to calm. “Am I dead?” Just as this thought flashed through Huan Tianli’s mind, he seemed to find himself in a dark space. Opposite him was the equally astonished Liu Yu, and between them was the jade pendant.

Huan Tianli tried to move his body but found that he couldn’t move at all. Liu Yu on the opposite side seemed to be the same. Just then, the jade pendant floating in the air suddenly shook, and then emitted two beams of light, shooting towards the foreheads of Huan Tianli and Liu Yu respectively.

The moment the beam of light hit his forehead, uncontrollable memories from the past emerged in Huan Tianli’s mind. “What’s going on?” Huan Tianli suddenly thought of a very terrifying possibility, “Is it reading my memories?”

Huan Tianli wanted to resist but found that everything had already ended. The jade pendant in the air shook twice, as if hesitating, and then seemed to make up its mind, it rushed towards Huan Tianli.

Just as Huan Tianli was trying to figure out what was going on, all the scenes disappeared, and Huan Tianli’s vision was completely plunged into darkness.