Chapter 110

Chapter 110

As the red sun in the desert sank below the horizon and darkness fell, a fierce wind rose, and sandstorms raged.

The oncoming sandstorms were like a terrifying monster ready to devour anyone in its path, covering the sky and earth, roaring and spreading across this land of yellow sand, consuming all living creatures hidden deep within the sand.

Wen Qiao stood at the entrance of the cave, looking out at the world beyond the barrier.

The howling sandstorm blotted out the sky, plunging the entire world into a terrifying disaster.

In the face of nature's terrifying power, these cultivators who defied the heavens were so insignificant, hiding in this small cave, listening to the sounds outside.

She could feel the terrifying force hidden in the sandstorm, a taboo that even gods couldn't touch.

"Ashuo, come rest."

Hearing Ning Yuzhou's voice from inside the cave, Wen Qiao turned around and walked deeper into the cavern.

This cave was about ten meters deep. Two dromedary beasts were placed at the entrance of the cave, while they rested farthest inside the cave.

What was once an empty cave now had some tables and chairs added to it.

Ning Yuzhou sat on a low stool, with a pill furnace in front of him, beneath which burned talismanic fire, filling the air with a fresh aroma.

On the side table, Wen Tutu squatted there, gnawing on spirit fruit, her ruby-like eyes fixated on a yellow crystal ant eating ant-fragrant leaves nearby.

Yellow crystal ants were omnivorous demonic beasts. Although their main diet was ant-fragrant leaves, they could eat almost anything else. When there was no food, they could even eat sand and soil, making them a very easy-to-maintain type of ant. However, yellow crystal ants preferred ant-fragrant leaves the most, as not only did the leaves make their bodies stronger and their shells more beautiful, but they also facilitated their evolution.

Since ant-fragrant leaves benefited them, Wen Qiao didn't hesitate to feed them with the leaves. After all, she had already planted an ant-fragrant leaf tree in her spatial realm, so they could eat to their hearts' content.

Suddenly, Wen Tuto slapped one yellow crystal ant with a paw, sending it flying.

Wen Qiao caught something out of the corner of her eye, reached out to grab it, and upon opening her hand, found it was a yellow crystal ant. Seeing the demon rabbit innocently munching on spirit fruit on the table, she understood what had happened.

Returning the yellow crystal ant to the table, Wen Qiao solemnly lectured Wen Tuto: "Wen Tuto, don't bully the yellow crystal ants."

Wen Tuto continued to crunch on the spirit fruit, acting as if she didn't understand what Wen Qiao was saying.

The yellow crystal ant that had been slapped by the rabbit's paw was calmly placed back on the table by Wen Qiao. It then nonchalantly crawled onto a sheet of ant-fragrant leaves and quietly nibbled away, completely unaware of what had just transpired.

Another yellow crystal ant also ate the leaves calmly, indifferent to the fate of its companion.

Of the three mutated demonic beasts they raised, one feigned innocence, while the other two were completely oblivious to what had happened. It seemed lecturing them would be pointless.

Sighing, Wen Qiao scooped up Wen Tuto in her arms, planning to separate them as much as possible in the future.

After the soup in the pill furnace was done cooking, Ning Yuzhou placed a steaming bowl of soup in front of her, watching her drink it with a smile.

Wen Qiao took a few sips and tasted diluted ten-thousand-year spirit milk in the broth, prompting her to look up at him.

Ning Yuzhou asked, "Is something wrong? Does it not taste good?"

"No, it's very good," Wen Qiao said, holding the spoon. "Aren't you going to have any?"

"No need, this is for your body's nourishment, it's useless to me."

"But it can't be useless, there's ten-thousand-year spirit milk in it." Regardless, Wen Qiao offered the spoon to him. "You should also have some; we'll split it."

Seeing her stubborn expression, Ning Yuzhou couldn't help but curl his lips upward. As she furrowed her brow, he gently said, "Alright, I'll have some too."

Seeing him finally take the spoon and drink the soup, Wen Qiao smiled.

In this ten-meter-deep cave, the two of them sat together, sharing a single spoon to finish the steaming, delicious soup.

After drinking the soup, Wen Qiao took out the tent from her storage bag and set it up around them.

Having set up the tent, she beckoned Ning Yuzhou to rest inside, saying, "Tonight is our first night in the desert, and it should be safe. We can get a good night's sleep and conserve energy for tomorrow's journey."

Ning Yuzhou found her words amusing, but agreed with her nonetheless.

The moving desert at night was not only dangerous, but temperatures plummeted rapidly. By midnight, the cave walls were covered in frost, and the two dromedary beasts huddled together at the entrance for warmth.

In the freezing cold, Wen Tuto couldn't bear it and quickly burrowed into the tent.

The two yellow crystal ants remained unaffected; they were originally demonic beasts of the moving desert and had long adapted to the desert climate. Ning Yuzhou left them on watch.

**

Indeed, apart from the raging sandstorms outside, nothing unexpected happened during the night.

When dawn broke, the sandstorms subsided, and the world regained its tranquility.

A red sun rose above the horizon, bathing the desert in a golden glow. As the sun ascended, the frost dissipated, and the ground temperature quickly climbed, soon turning the yellow sand scorching hot, akin to a steamer.

The cries of the dromedaries echoed, accompanied by the sound of camel bells, breaking the silence of the desert morning.

Everyone emerged from the cave, leading their dromedaries, ready to depart.

The desert climate during the day was dry, as if the entire world was being roasted by fire. Fortunately, the cloaks worn by cultivators could regulate temperature, so they weren't too uncomfortable.

Dromedaries were demonic beasts capable of traversing the shifting desert. They were docile and harmless, obedient to human commands, and knew no fatigue.

During the day, as they traveled through the desert, the dromedaries carried them, and the moving sands had little impact on them. They would only stop at caves along the way when the sun set, resting through the perilous nights.

Merchant caravans surviving in the moving desert all had clear maps, knowing where the caves formed by sandstone were located and when to rest, timing everything perfectly. This was why many people preferred to follow caravans when entering the moving desert.

On the third day of entering the desert, they arrived at the first human cultivation city located in the middle of the desert.

This cultivation city was naturally built by humans transforming sandstone caves. The caves here were larger and more numerous than any they had seen since entering the moving desert, forming a complete and rich cluster of caves. Cultivators transformed them into a cultivation city located in the midst of the desert, where many cultivators settled, becoming residents of the desert.

The first stop of the caravan was here.

They would rest for a while here and sell some goods brought from the outside world to the shops in the cultivation city. They would also purchase some specialties of the Flowing Desert to sell in the cultivation cities outside after leaving the Flowing Desert.

It cost twenty spirit stones to enter the city.

This entrance fee was more expensive than those of large cultivation cities in the Central Continent, but this was a city in the Flowing Desert. Their rules were like this, take it or leave it.

After entering the cultivation city, the first thing they saw was a huge cave that was hundreds of feet wide and tens of feet high.

There were quite a few cultivators in the cave. It was divided into two areas. One side was where cultivators could park their dromedaries, with someone specially assigned to watch over them and charge fees based on the number of days they stayed.

The other side was a small market where many cultivators had set up stalls to sell specialties of the Flowing Desert. There were all sorts of demon beasts' corpses, furs, flesh, bones, demon cores, and spirit herbs in abundance, which dazzled the eyes.

After parking their dromedaries, Ning Yuzhou and Wen Qiao went to the market for a walk.

Those cultivators warmly greeted them, but when they realized that these two people were the kind who only looked but didn't buy, their faces fell, turning cold very quickly.

Wen Qiao had seen many businessmen before, but she had never encountered such pragmatic ones. Therefore, she became even less inclined to buy anything.

If they wanted these things, they could hunt them themselves instead of wasting money.

After looking around, the two rented a cave in the city to rest.

After resting for a night, the caravan continued its journey the next day.

When they set off, Wen Qiao deliberately looked at the cultivators following the caravan and found that a few were missing. Those people must have stayed in the cultivation city. However, the several fierce cultivators hadn't left and still followed the caravan.

Wen Qiao didn't have a good impression of them. Although she couldn't see their faces under the hoods, her intuition told her that they harbored ill intentions toward the caravan and everyone else.

Ever since they entered the desert, apart from when they rested at night, they never took off their cloaks, with hoods covering their faces, so no one knew what each other looked like.

On the tenth day of entering the Flowing Sand City, due to being attacked by a group of Crimson Crystal Ants halfway, they wasted some time and almost missed their place to stay.

"The sky is getting dark, hurry up!"

The cultivator of the caravan yelled hoarsely, urging the dromedary beneath him to speed up.

The others also ran with the caravan.

The dromedaries changed their leisurely pace and galloped across the yellow sand, kicking up a cloud of dust.

However, even though they hurried as much as they could, night still came as scheduled.

As the sun gradually disappeared below the horizon, a gust of wind brushed across the ground, bringing with it a sense of danger. It was as if an invisible hand was gripping their hearts. Everyone felt the arrival of nature's might, making their scalps tingle.

Some cultivators complained about the dromedaries' slow speed and actually abandoned them, rushing forward on foot.

The wind grew stronger, and the ground was swept up with sand.

The sandstorm roared, blinding their eyes and quickly obscuring the path ahead.

In the distance, a shadow stood motionless in the sandstorm, like an ancient guardian beast that had always been stationed there.

Seeing that shadow, the people of the caravan showed looks of wild joy and shouted, "Everyone, hurry up! There's a safe cave ahead to rest! Hurry, seize the time, we're almost there."

As if they had found salvation, the group showed expressions of pleasant surprise and rushed forward.

At this moment, the rolling sandstorm from the desert was chasing after them, and humans seemed to be racing against time, running in the sandstorm.

More and more people abandoned their dromedaries and rushed forward. Wen Qiao also found the dromedaries too slow, so she immediately jumped off the back of the dromedary and pulled Ning Yuzhou off the other dromedary, carrying him in one hand and a dromedary in the other, following the people ahead.

Ning Yuzhou: "…"

The sandstorm howled after them, devouring the abandoned dromedaries.

The painful cries of the dromedaries echoed through the wind, and the air faintly carried the smell of blood.

Wen Qiao's face was tightly tensed as she followed the others, feeling the danger brought by the sandstorm behind her, making her scalp tingle. At this moment, her mind was filled with only one thought: Run!

Just as the sandstorm was about to engulf them, they finally successfully entered the cave standing in the darkness of the desert.

The sandstorm swept past the cave entrance like the scythe of death wielded by the god of the underworld.

Those slower cultivators were swallowed by the raging sandstorm, and a series of piercing screams echoed in the sandstorm. A few specks of blood splattered onto the cave entrance and were quickly taken away by the sandstorm.

The people who had entered the cave panted heavily, staring in horror at the howling sandstorm outside.

Even experienced desert travelers were now shaken and scared.

In front of the might of nature, no one could remain calm.

Wen Qiao was also frightened. She took a deep breath and silently put down the husband she had been carrying and the dromedary she had been tightly holding upside down.

Ning Yuzhou, who had been put down by her, silently straightened his cloak.

The dromedary that had been forced to be upside down for a long time gently nudged her head against her, as if thanking her for saving its life.

Dromedaries were truly good companions of humans. No matter how they were treated, they never got angry at humans and wouldn't even attack humans on their own initiative.

After a while, everyone finally caught their breath.

The cave here was relatively small, and there was only one cave. The cave was about ten feet deep and twenty feet wide, with room to accommodate more than a hundred people.

The people of the caravan began to count heads and found that this time, because they arrived late at the cave for rest, they lost nearly twenty people in total. Eight from the caravan and the rest were the cultivators following the caravan.

After tallying the losses, the people of the caravan found places to rest and did what they needed to do.

Wen Qiao led Ning Yuzhou to find a corner to rest, and the dromedary obediently followed them.

After spreading out a demon beast hide as a cushion on the ground, Wen Qiao pulled her husband to sit down beside her while she secretly observed the people in the cave.

Tonight, everyone was resting in a cave, which led to a somewhat subtle atmosphere in the air.

Wen Qiao noticed that none of the cultivators who made her feel uneasy were missing; all had entered the cave.

Because they had arrived at a safe place, most people had pulled down the hoods of their cloaks, revealing their true faces.

Everyone knew what the caravan members looked like, but those not part of the caravan had kept their hoods up, and others rarely saw what they looked like.

When Wen Qiao pulled down her hood, she keenly sensed several bold gazes on her. She turned to look and found that they came from the cultivators who made her uncomfortable.

These cultivators also pulled down their hoods, revealing their true appearances.

They were a group of male cultivators, tall and robust, with an aura that came from the Flowing Desert. Although they hid it well, Wen Qiao was naturally sensitive to people's emotions and auras, and during the few days they had been in the Flowing Desert, she had roughly figured out some things about it.

These individuals were very dangerous.

Wen Qiao marked them as "dangerous characters" in her mind, needing to be guarded against. If necessary, she wouldn't hesitate to give them a good beating.

Others were also discreetly observing the people in the cave, their gazes crossing, each keeping watch over one another.

Ning Yuzhou pulled down his hood, revealing a face of dignified beauty, his moon-like aura making him stand out from the crowd. The surrounding gazes subtly fell upon him, especially from some female cultivators who almost forgot to look away.

Wen Qiao furrowed her brow slightly.

Ning Yuzhou, using the cloak as cover, squeezed her hand gently and smiled at her.

Thus, Wen Qiao quickly ignored the surrounding gazes, unaware that even more eyes were now on her.

Ning Yuzhou's eyes darkened slightly.

Wen Tuantuan clung to the edge of Wen Qiao's hood, looking outside. Two yellow crystal ants also crawled out of the pouch, hiding within the cloak, their antennae quivering in the air.