Chapter 115

Chapter 115

The scorching sun beat down on the golden sand that glittered like a carpet of gold, reflecting the sunlight so intensely it stung the eyes.

A swarm of crimson crystal ants emerged from the sand pits, akin to flames dancing upon the sea of gold.

"Rumble~"

A long, drawn-out cry echoed as the dromedary thrashed its hooves, seemingly trying to avoid the crimson crystal ants crawling out from the pits.

However, the crimson crystal ants were too swift, crawling over in a dense mass. Startled, the dromedary, with its rear end raised, was about to dash away from this perilous area.

Wen Qiao pulled the reins with one hand and let out a soothing "shh," patting the dromedary's back. "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Watch me; I'll take care of them!"

Under her comfort, the dromedary finally calmed down, turning its head to stare at her with those adorable, jet-black eyes, as if placing immense trust in her.

Wen Qiao didn't betray that trust. She leapt off the dromedary's back and summoned a long sword, which she swung at the group of crimson crystal ants that had already reached her feet.

The sword stirred up a cloud of sand, simultaneously blocking the crimson crystal ants' path.

The crimson crystal ants, caught in the swirling sand, were sliced into two by the sword, their bodies scattered across the ground.

Upon realizing that the swarm of crimson crystal ants had been halted, the dromedary ceased its retreat, standing quietly and watching the battle with those endearing black eyes.

Ning Yuzhou sat atop the dromedary, looking down at the fight below.

Wen Tutu and two yellow crystal ants clung to the dromedary's head, their antennae moving about as if sensing something.

Unlike the docile and harmless yellow crystal ants, each crimson crystal ant was the size of an adult's fist, naturally belligerent, and fond of fresh flesh. Both demonic beasts and cultivators were on their menu.

In the drifting desert, when a demonic beast or cultivator was injured, the last thing they wanted to encounter was a swarm of crimson crystal ants. These desert predators could smell fresh blood from miles away, then swarm over to devour the wounded creature or person.

Crimson crystal ants possessed formidable teamwork abilities. They would stack themselves together to form a giant ant to attack, causing even cultivators at the Yuanling Realm to tremble in fear. However, if one could disrupt their formation at the start and prevent them from uniting, they became easier to handle – provided there weren't too many of them.

The number of crimson crystal ants that appeared wasn't excessive. As Wen Qiao killed them, she also checked the sand pits. When she saw no more ants emerging, she knew this nest wasn't large.

The swarm of crimson crystal ants they encountered after entering the desert was much larger, with tens of thousands surrounding the Baolai caravan, leaving its members in disarray. This near miss almost caused them to miss their resting spot.

With great strength, Wen Qiao could cleave a crimson crystal ant in half with every swing of her sword.

Aside from using her sword, Wen Qiao also utilized talismans in combat. Throwing fire talismans, lightning talismans, and explosive talismans, she severely injured the crimson crystal ants, rendering them immobile.

Half an hour later, Wen Qiao finally eliminated the entire nest of crimson crystal ants.

The corpses of crimson crystal ants were also valuable materials for refining artifacts. Wen Qiao collected the intact bodies and stuffed them into a storage bag, planning to sell them in the next cultivation city they reached.

As for those that were burnt and damaged by lightning, their value was significantly reduced. Wen Qiao left them to be swallowed by the wind and sand.

After dealing with the obstructing crimson crystal ants, Wen Qiao climbed back onto the dromedary, patted its neck, and urged it to continue on its journey.

Ning Yuzhou took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from her forehead, speaking gently. "Ah Zhuo, you've worked hard."

"It's fine. There weren't too many of these crimson crystal ants."

Wen Qiao said with a smile, taking out the map from her bosom and studying it again carefully.

Since leaving Shagu City, they had been wandering in the desert for a month.

During this time, they deviated from the route marked on the caravan's map and had to find their way through the desert themselves. Although they had Senior Brother Chen's map, the drifting desert was simply too vast. With the sand constantly shifting, a small misstep could easily lead them astray, causing them considerable trouble.

It was said that many travelers in the desert got lost just like this.

As the sunlight gradually shifted westward, the dromedary's pace grew restless.

As a demonic beast that traversed the desert, the dromedary's level was low, but it still had a certain ability to sense danger from nature. Whenever night approached and they hadn't reached a safe cave, the dromedary would become restless. Unfortunately, due to the dromedary's gentle disposition, even when restless, its signs weren't obvious, often being overlooked by humans.

Wen Qiao didn't overlook it. She had a natural ability to perceive the emotions of living things. Although the dromedary's intelligence wasn't high and it couldn't clearly express its feelings, Wen Qiao could still understand some of its emotions.

Wen Qiao patted the dromedary's neck to reassure it, gazing at the vast expanse of desert ahead, feeling somewhat heavy-hearted.

She looked at the map again and said solemnly, "Husband, we need to speed up."

Ning Yuzhou held her waist, his voice still calm and soft. "Mm, Ah Zhuo, you don't have to rush too much."

How could Wen Qiao not be anxious? If they missed the chance to shelter in a cave, they would be consumed by the sandstorms at night, turned into a pulp without a trace left behind.

The light of the setting sun slowly disappeared, the wind brushing against the ground, stirring up fine sand.

As darkness fell and no caves were found nearby, Wen Qiao's heart sank, her brows furrowed deeply.

She caressed the stone python whip hanging from her waist, contemplating whether they could create a safe shelter underground using the stone python vines if they missed the cave.

Behind them, the sandstorm rose, transforming into a terrifying beast eager to devour them.

Ning Yuzhou placed his hand on her shoulder and suddenly said, "Ah Zhuo, let's enter the space."

Wen Qiao was taken aback.

Before she could react, both of them, along with the dromedary, vanished from their original location, entering the space.

Just as the sandstorm swept towards them, blotting out the sky and plunging the world into darkness and a storm of sand.

Suddenly changing environments, the dromedary was stunned for a moment, but after sensing the disappearance of danger, it regained its composure, silently watching the two humans.

Wen Qiao looked around the space and asked, "Is it alright for us to come in here like this?"

The space could be considered a derivative of Ning Yuzhou's divine and peculiar bloodline power. Wherever Ning Yuzhou was, the space was there; it couldn't move independently. Entering the space directly in the desert meant the space remained stationary in the desert. Wen Qiao was worried whether the might of the drifting desert at night would affect the space.

If anything happened to the space, Ning Yuzhou would also be in trouble.

This was also the reason why Wen Qiao had never considered hiding in her space when encountering danger—she had never wanted to put him in harm's way.

"It's alright." Ning Yuzhou was very calm. "The dangers of the moving desert only target living beings within it. The space can isolate our aura, so the desert's perils won't affect us inside the space."

Some mustard seed spaces were created by powerful beings who carved out a separate dimension and incorporated it into a chosen vessel, refining it into a mustard seed space capable of accommodating life. If someone with a mustard seed space were in the moving desert, they could simply hide in their space and not fear the night's moving desert.

This was what Ning Yuzhou had discovered after entering the desert.

After hearing this, Wen Qiao finally felt reassured.

She sat on the stone golden python vine's branches, feeding some leaves to the hardworking dromedary beast, patted its head, and let it find a place to rest on its own.

After entering the space, Wen Tutu ran to the spiritual field to eat some spirit grass. The two yellow crystal ants calmly climbed onto the ant-scented leaf tree to gnaw on the leaves, leaving Wen Qiao without any concerns for them.

Tonight, they would spend the night in the space, and there was nothing safer than that. Ning Yuzhou took out his pill furnace and began to brew soup.

Wen Qiao sat beside him, diligently comparing the routes on the two maps, frowning as she thought about their current location.

Ning Yuzhou, seeing her deep in thought, couldn't bear it and comforted her with a smile. "Ah Chuo, don't worry. We have plenty of time to search; we will find it sooner or later."

Wen Qiao silently looked at him, understanding his meaning. With the space, even if they missed a resting spot, they wouldn't have to worry about the dangers of the moving desert at night. Compared to the travelers on the desert, they were indeed much safer.

Thus, they no longer had to worry about safety during the night and could freely roam the desert.

After drinking the soup, Wen Qiao went to check on the spiritual field.

Rarely entering the space, she naturally didn't waste any time. She sat in the spiritual field and spent several hours nurturing the spirit grass within the space. Even the ant-scented leaf tree was ripened by a year, becoming even more lush and sufficient to feed the two yellow crystal ants for a long time.

Ning Yuzhou, on the other hand, refined several batches of pills.

Not only were there detoxification pills, but also various types of poison pills.

Coincidentally, over the past month, while traveling through the desert, they had collected many poisonous plants from the moving desert along the way. The poisons varied in strength, and Ning Yuzhou had equally gathered some to study whenever he saw them, taking advantage of the opportunity to refine several batches of poison pills now.

***

The next morning, after the sandstorm subsided, they emerged from the space and continued on their journey.

At noon, they passed by a cave formed by sandstone. This cave wasn't large, but it was still a safe haven.

Since it was only noon, they naturally wouldn't stop to rest in the rock cave.

Wen Qiao took out some fragrant leaf powder and sprinkled some in the cave, telling the two yellow crystal ants, "You need to remember the scent here. When we return, we might pass by again."

The two yellow crystal ants moved their antennae, indicating that they had remembered.

In the following days, they continued to traverse the desert.

After trekking for several days, Wen Qiao suddenly felt something was amiss.

"Husband, look over there. Doesn't it seem dark?" Wen Qiao pointed ahead.

Ning Yuzhou looked over. On the distant horizon, a patch of black dots appeared on the golden desert. Because of the distance, all they knew was that something was there, but they couldn't identify what those black dots were.

"Let's go take a look." Ning Yuzhou said, then added, remembering something, "But be careful."

Wen Qiao agreed and directed the dromedary beast towards that direction.

Although the dromedary beast's speed wasn't fast, it still took nearly an hour to clearly see what those black dots were.

It turned out to be a cluster of black sandstone, towering amidst the golden desert. Due to the great distance, it only appeared as a dark blotch.

Seeing that cluster of black sandstone caves, Wen Qiao and Ning Yuzhou simultaneously thought of one place: Black Rock Gorge!

Black Rock Gorge was notorious within the moving desert, a place of evil from which one could not escape once entered. The bandits in Black Rock Gorge were even more wicked and full of evil deeds. It was said that every bandit in Black Rock Gorge had their hands stained with blood, and countless cultivators had died tragically at their hands.

Upon realizing that this was Black Rock Gorge, Wen Qiao hurriedly turned the dromedary beast around to leave the area.

Although they left in time, they were still spotted by the nest of bandits in Black Rock Gorge.

A rumbling sound echoed as a group of bandits rode out on dromedary beasts from the black rocks, and some even spared no expense of essence spirit power, actually riding their artifacts towards them.

Perhaps sensing the intense killing intent behind them, the dromedary beast's skinny legs quickly carried them forward.

The cultivators riding artifacts flew at incredible speeds and caught up to them within moments, stopping just a hundred feet behind.

The two people on the dromedary beast remained unhurried. Wen Qiao flipped her hand and pulled out an explosive bead, throwing it towards the group about to fly over.

The explosive bead detonated mid-air, creating a loud explosion and a sand waterfall. Not only did it obliterate the bandits flying on artifacts, but it also frightened the group of bandits riding dromedary beasts, knocking them off their mounts.

The dromedary beasts scattered in panic.

Taking advantage of the chaos caused by the explosive bead's explosion, Wen Qiao and Ning Yuzhou swiftly escaped.

This was the first time that Black Rock Gorge had allowed prey that had come knocking on their door to escape, causing quite a stir among the bandits of Black Rock Gorge.

It should be noted that in the past, people who had entered the moving desert and gotten lost near Black Rock Gorge had all become prey for the bandits there.

The bandits of Black Rock Gorge naturally wouldn't allow them to escape and pursued them, relying on their familiarity with the surroundings.

Half a day later, Wen Qiao and Ning Yuzhou had already left the range of Black Rock Gorge and also shaken off the pursuit of those bandits.

"So Black Rock Gorge is there," Wen Qiao said unhappily. "Why did we have to get lost near such a place? Fortunately, we were alert and ran quickly."

Ning Yuzhou held her waist, a smile playing on his lips. "Next time if we pass by again, use the explosive beads to blow up that cluster of black rocks."

Wen Qiao, thinking of something, readily agreed.

Knowing the location of Black Rock Gorge, they adjusted their direction and continued searching for the abandoned Yellow Sand City.

After several days of searching, they finally stumbled upon the location.

In the distance, the remains of weathered rocks and broken walls standing amidst the yellow sands come into view. Collapsed city walls are overgrown with weeds, evoking a profound sense of history's vicissitudes. Wind-blown sand sweeps across the sky above this abandoned city, carrying with it an air of desolation.