Early in the morning, Lord Yong and his disciples performed a special ritual in order to seek blessings from almighty.

Then they proceeded towards the Sea of the Dead. The entire folks of the town came to see them off and gave their best wishes for the attainment of their work.

In order to show respect, people of town bowed their heads on their departure.

With bundles of hopes, expectations and fear, the gentlemen headed towards their destination.

Route to the desert was so abstruse and rocky. Despite walking through an impalpable path, Lord Yong and the others somehow reached the desert.

They all stopped there for a while, observing the never-ending desert ahead of them. They all were in deep thought and were also desirous to conquer the desert.

Lord Yong was worried about his disciples therefore, before entering the desert he offered them a suggestion.

"As you all can see this is a terrible desert, the chances of getting the book is very low. Once you step forward, it will be difficult to come back alive. Therefore, if you don't want to come with me its fine, you don't have to risk your life for me."

All four of them kneeled down to Lord Yong and said,

"Master, we all were orphans. It was you, who made us your disciple, you made us literate, you gave us knowledge and it was only you who nurtured us like your own kids. Now it's our chance to do something for you and if we die here we would feel fortunate that we've given our lives for a good deed."

Lord Yong felt immense pleasure and pride surge through him hearing their words but was worried at the same time for their lives. They have made up their minds. Even he couldn't stop them now.

Determined, they all entered the desert together. They were wandering aimlessly in any direction and in that large desert; the black clouds as told by the Dark Lord were nowhere to be seen. The scorching heat of sun and the burning sand underneath their feet was trying hard to slow their pace.

After walking for about three hours, Lord Yong felt something under his feet. They all stopped there to check.

After digging some sand, what they saw was enough to scare the daylights out of them.

It was a corpse.

It is said that sandstorms were very frequent in this desert. Each storm was so powerful that it could toss the buried corpse from anywhere. That is why this desert has given the title of the Sea of the Dead. Due to the tempest, it would not be surprising to encounter corpses every single mile.

"Master why has this corpse not decayed even after being buried here for several years?" asked one of the disciples.

The dead body found was of a lady. One could see her red hair even the features of her face were visible. It was impossible to see a dead body of several years in this form. All they expected was to see lots of skeletons, bones on their way but what they encountered here was shocking.

Lord Yong examined the corpse for some time and told his disciples.

"The phenomena of this desert is quite different. The dry air of desert played a crucial role in preserving the dead bodies otherwise the condition of these corpses are too good to be several years old."

The moment when they were about to step forward they saw something more terrifying than the corpse.

The tornado of the sand was approaching them at a rapid pace.

Without wasting time, Lord Yong asked his disciples to immediately head towards the highest sand dunes.

They all ran for the highest sand dunes, but it's quite difficult to walk or run in the desert. They somehow reached the top of the sand dune but Lord Yong was still trying harder to reach there.

All of his disciples were helping him to reach the dune. Lord Yong asked them to leave him to ensure their safety.

"You all should go, that storm is looking violent. Don't waste your time here. Just go," shouted Lord Yong.

"We won't move a single step without you, master. We'll help you," said all of them by lending their hands to Lord Yong to come.

Unfortunately, it was too late for them. The moment Lord Yong raised his hands towards them in order to reach the sand dunes; the powerful tornado of sand dragged and swallowed them all in a blink of an eye.

Hours later

Lord Yong tried to open his eyes slowly. Everything was blurry nothing can be seen clearly. He gently rubbed his eyes to look around more clearly.

After his vision became clearer, he realised that he was under the layer of sand. He then recalled what actually happened to them a few hours ago.

"It must have been the tempest that swallowed all of us. Luckily I survived the storm."

He looked everywhere for his students but in the sea of endless desert they were nowhere to be found. Lord Yong prayed for their lives. He did not have ample time left, so he continued his journey to search for the book.

His body was burning from the heat of the sun and walking for hours on the scalding sand, blisters came out of his feet. Tiredness clung to his body and it was becoming more and more difficult to walk through the merciless desert.

Somehow, Lord Yong managed to keep walking despite all the hurdles but he was feeling thirsty. Walking on the sand was no less than walking on the flames, the frequent heat waves kept trying to stop him and his increasing thirst wasn't making it easy for him to continue. Lord Yong was really in dire straits.

Lord Yong continued to move, carrying all the pain but suddenly he was shocked to see water from a distance. He sighed in relief to see this but in another moment, he recognised it as it was nothing but a desert mirage and sadly continued to move.

He was wandering directionless in the desert. He looked at the sky and saw the Sun was about to submerge in the horizon and on the other hand, Lord Yong was still clueless about the book.

Terrified, he cried aloud. He could not control his tears from streaming down his face, while looking at the sky. Again, he saw Si-ri's smiling face when he closed his eyes and started to pray for the book as it was a last resort to save his beloved daughter. In this entire context, Lord Yong faints eventually.

A few minutes later

Lord Yong gained consciousness and quickly tried to stand. The sun was half submerged but wait, what was the black hues emitting at the direction of the sunset? Lord Yong recalls the words of the Dark Lord "The aura of the book is so dark that wherever it will be placed under the ground it will emit black clouds above it".

Without wasting a single second, he immediately ran towards the black clouds. When he reached there, he saw four other men who were digging. The moment they turned, Lord Yong shouted with happiness "Students!"

They all ran towards their Master and hugged him as if they were hugging their own father. Tears were streaming from their eyes.

"I am happy that you are alive," said Lord Yong in happiness.

One of the disciples showed him the book, the book of the Devil to his master.

Lord Yong's hands were shivering while touching the book.

Corner of his lips stretched out showing a perfect smile after holding the book. They all thanked god for this.

"We should leave now, it's getting dark. The desert can be more dangerous at night," said Lord Yong.

They all proceeded with a relief of getting the book. Lord Yong drank some water given by his disciples on the way. They had little food for their way and some water to survive in the desert.

Lord Yong knew that they had not won the whole battle yet. At night, the desert can show some other colours too. Therefore, they increased their pace.

Fortunately, it wasn't too dark and the moonlight had lit their path.

There was drop dead silent in the desert until a crackling sound in the desolation startled them. The moment they searched for the direction of the sound, a hand erupted from the sand and dragged one of the disciples under. He shouted for help.

He shouted for help as all the others kept trying to pull him back out from the sand that was trying to swallow him.

After some time of struggle, they rescued him. All they could hear was their own breaths, coming in gasps.

Lord Yong's presumption was right. "There is something in this desert that does not want us to take this book out of the desert. It is obvious that this book is cursed; lots of people have lost their lives because of this book. Therefore, it will follow the negative powers."

Lord Yong quickly took out a talisman from his bag and stuck it on the book to save it from the ungodly energies.

They continued walking to get out of the desert. At night, the coldness of the desert was becoming unbearable. They all started to shiver in no time. As they were about to reach the end of the desert, the ground started to steep abruptly. They all stopped then and there. They were helplessly seeing the steeping of the ground, in a few seconds it created a deep chasm.

It was impossible to reach the other side of the ground. To make things even worse a violent dust storm was forming behind them and it was slowly taking the face of the devil. There they met with the daunting creation of thunder and darkness. Two pupil less eyes stared at them with pure hatred, he was so horrible that just a single glance of him could give death to the faint hearted.

The situation was becoming more menacing as they did not have any way to run or save their lives. In front of them was the devil who was oozing out with anger and behind them there was the deep chasm.

"This is my book. How dare you touch my belongings? Give it to me otherwise I will kill you all," said the devil in extreme fury.

Lord Yong knew that he was the same sinister malcontent soul who cursed the whole town to die. He was the last owner of the book and the book is the only source of his existence as an evil soul in the desert.

Lord Yong needed to think of something to kill two birds with one stone, to kill the devil and save the book at the same time. But the crux of the matter was that he needed to destroy the book in order to kill the devil. The book was the only medium for this evil spirit to roam around this territory.

The devil was slowly crawling towards them with several bizarre wounds oozing a thick, foul liquid, suggesting this being was definitely not alone. He moved forward, his legs sturdily carrying its demonic body with a collected energy.

Lord Yong and others were froze in complete terror.

The devil then moves his hands to grab the book with eyes full of disgust.

Lord Yong tried to convince him by making some deals but all his words fell on deaf ears.

But out of the blues, something unexpected happened. A strong gust of wind ruffled the pages of the book. The opened page in front of Lord Yong read the spell to kill Evil spirits. Lord Yong's eye flickered with relief.

Lord Yong immediately started reciting the spell and fortunately, it worked for them.

As soon as the words were said the spirit began to burn up. Fire encased it from all sides causing it to cry and weep. After a few minutes with a piercing cry and huge bust of light, it vanished without any traces.

The steeped ground behind them came into its real form. Everything was calm and silent.

It was a strange feeling to be on the footsteps of so many bodies who had lost their lives. The disaster made them sleep forever engulfed by the duvet of sand; the cadres submerged under the sand are of the people who once spent their lives here. You couldn't help but feel lost in this desert. It was a lonely place with distant memories of the town that was once here and also home to the families who lived here.

Lord Yong with his disciples felt relieved once they came out of the desert alive with the book.

They all were exhausted and had no energy to move anymore. Seeing his students' condition Lord Yong decided to rest under a big tree.

"You all can take a nap here, we'll proceed tomorrow morning," said Lord Yong.

Next morning they all headed towards the town and the moment they reached there, the faces of the people were blooming with happiness. They all were obliged for their great deed that saved their town from the horrendous future.

The chief of the town welcomed them with great honour and requested them.

"You people have saved all of us from an unfortunate ending. The whole town of Xinjiang province will always be grateful to you. Thereby, I would like to announce a celebration tonight in your honour. We all will feel blessed if you accept this request and stay here tonight so that we can celebrate your victory," requested the old man.

"That's really kind of you all to honour us but as you see we are on a mission and we are lacking time. Thank you so much for your hospitality. I'm not willing to refuse your proposal but we are helpless. Therefore, we must proceed towards our destination," Lord Yong said politely.

"I can understand your dilemma but you need to accept some of our gifts as a token of our respect," the old man said.

Lord Yong could not deny their gifts and eventually accepted the gifts from them. After some time they all bid goodbye to the folks of town and started their journey with lots of good memories.