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墨書 Inktalez
Cui Ming pulled out a stack of cash and began distributing chips. "Come on, come on, it's time to place your bets. The loser has to run five kilometers naked towards the sun."
Zhir nodded, glancing at Feng. Feng was not going to run naked, which left Zhir feeling a bit disappointed. After all, he had calculated everything so carefully in this detailed game, only to be tricked.
Cui Ming no longer disliked Zhir. Although his temperament was a bit odd, he found him quite interesting. With just a glance exchanged between them, they silently agreed to partner up and send Feng off to run naked. Cui Ming didn't see it as a boring prank nor did he show much enthusiasm; he simply felt it was the right thing to do.
There was no way anything unexpected would happen. Amidst the sighs of resignation, Feng stripped off his clothes and ran naked… In truth, it was rather dull; two men watching another man run naked was just a prank that would only happen in the desert.
Feng found it uninteresting and couldn't focus on playing. So it turned into a game for two. Cui Ming picked up a handful of small stones from the bushes and began drawing on the sand. He and Zhir squatted down to play Gomoku on the sandy ground. Feng watched for a while but soon grew bored, wandering back and forth aimlessly. Eventually, he decided to run and embrace the wild wind, sitting cross-legged atop a dune to meditate and experience the harsh desert winds in a different way.
The day passed like this. When Feng opened his eyes, he took out his binoculars to look at Bean Sprout Spring and saw that the two were still squatting in the sand… How deep was their grudge? They could play Gomoku all day long. Feeling hungry, he lazily returned to eat something. After watching for a moment, he noticed there were no stones on the board; instead, it had been marked with numbers—vertical from one to seventeen and horizontal from seventeen to thirty-four. The way they played left Feng speechless.
"Six, thirty," Cui Ming focused on the board.
"Five, twenty-nine," Zhir replied.
Feng couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you bored? Playing blind chess?"
Cui Ming glanced around before responding, "Find something interesting to talk about."
Feng Dao said, "Actually, there is something—we need to go gather food from other oases."
Zhir stood up. "I take my leave then; come over to my place sometime."
Cui Ming also got up. "Sure."
Zhir turned and picked up his pack, walking slowly towards the desert until he disappeared into the distance. Cui Ming looked at Feng and wondered if this person was too straightforward; Zhir was clearly not an ordinary person—he was simple yet profound.
That night they played chess under a moonless sky. Feng had already grown accustomed to Force's gaze, so he felt everyone should be able to see clearly.
Feng's focus was not on Zhir at all as he began packing up their things. "This place isn't really suitable for long-term residence; we mainly operate between the third and fourth oases. I'm planning to widen and deepen the waterway at Bean Sprout Spring for fish farming."
Cui Ming asked, "Since you know where the Underground River is located, why not dig out a lake?"
"Can we do that?" Feng asked in surprise.
"No," Cui Ming said with a bitter smile. Theoretically, it was possible, but it required equipment and personnel to break through the hard surface layer.
Feng shrugged, "The third oasis has a lake."
...
Why would there be a lake in the desert? This question puzzled geologists for a long time, and they concluded that it was due to underground water. But where did the underground water come from? It generally originated from glaciers and snow-capped mountains far away, melting and flowing through underground rivers to reach this place. Some also suggested that it was because of good permeability in rainy areas, allowing rainwater to be stored in underground rivers. Regardless of its truth, ten days later, Feng and Cui Ming arrived at what Feng referred to as their permanent residence: Moon Lake.
Moon Lake was quite large, and when they arrived, it was raining in the area. This place was not exactly an oasis; there were no green plants around, resembling water in a sandpit. Surrounding Moon Lake were dunes, and Feng remarked that this place was peculiar, with abundant rainfall. It had distinct dry and rainy seasons; during the dry season in winter and spring, the lake's surface area shrank to only one-twentieth of its original size. When the rainy season came, it would return to its former size. The most beautiful sight was the grass in the water; after the dry season, they turned into clumps of green plants waiting for the arrival of rain.
Feng mentioned that he had consulted some geological experts after going out. The experts told him that lakes in deserts were not uncommon. Lakes existed because there was a massive underground reservoir beneath them. Deserts could receive rain; however, the rain evaporated quickly and could not form lakes or support green plant growth. But the underground reservoir served as a storage system; rain falling into the lake wouldn't be absorbed like it would on sand or evaporated by the heat of the ground. Continuous rainfall in this region would cool down the sand, allowing water to seep into the soil and eventually enter the underground reservoir's waterways for storage. Why were there no green plants around? It was because Moon Lake sat directly above the reservoir while surrounded by dunes; during the rainy season, green plants would grow, but in the dry season, they died due to lack of moisture.
With no green plants around, food sources here consisted of freshwater animals. Fish, shrimp, and crabs were abundant but relatively few in number due to the dry season. This time Feng had another major project: to deepen parts of Moon Lake. In expert terms, this meant reducing the lake's surface area while increasing its depth so that aquatic animals could have a better living environment during the dry season.
Cui Ming entered the lake; at its deepest point of three meters, he said, "I think Moon Lake could serve as a permanent residence."
"You idiot," Feng replied. "Of course it's fine during the rainy season, but how can people live here during the dry season? I usually go to the fourth oasis during that time; it's where I first encountered an oasis filled with many animals and plants. Cui Ming, I think deserts are great—why is no one living here?"
"You’re the idiot! It takes seven days at a cultivator's speed to get from this oasis to that one; for others, it takes twenty days—how can it be compared? Besides, if people live here, population growth will inevitably lead to resource shortages. Moon Lake can only support four or five people at most. If there's a year of severe drought, everyone will starve."
"Hey! I'm the master here; you should choose your words more carefully!" Feng retorted unhappily while digging sand. He took a sack and shovel into the center of Moon Lake to dig deeper into the sand and transport it onto a nearby dune.
Cui Ming shot him a disdainful glance while sitting in the water and asked, "Don't you feel like you're grinding an iron pestle?"
"Well, I'm bored anyway; digging for two hours each day is fine. Cui Ming, what we lack most in the desert is not time but routine. Especially for cultivators like us—only with a routine do you feel you have aspirations and things to do." Feng said confidently, "Who knows? I might just dig through to connect Moon Lake with the underground reservoir directly."
"And then a big sandstorm comes along and buries the reservoir under dunes..."
"Yeah, that's also reasonable." Feng paused his work and looked around. Even if dunes moved over Moon Lake now, water from the underground reservoir could still seep out as if directly covering it. The lakebed served as a protective layer for underground water. With this thought in mind, Feng tossed his shovel aside and used his strength to leap up from the ground. Using force beneath his feet, he quickly stepped across the water's surface and stood on a dune beside the lake. Looking around revealed a range of sand dunes surrounding Moon Lake; its elevation was lowest so that underground water could seep through layers of sand. "If one day Moon Lake gets covered by dunes," Feng declared confidently, "I'll just dig it open again right here and restore Moon Lake."
Cui Ming lazily replied while lying on the water's surface; using force had its downsides as well—it naturally wrapped around his body preventing water from entering. Now Cui Ming had turned off his force and enjoyed the comfort brought by water caressing his skin.
This place became their temporary home located three kilometers from Moon Lake where Feng set up a drying rack for meat under sunlight. He caught fish and other aquatic products and hung them on this rack to preserve them as food. Every month, Feng would carry dried fish to Bean Sprout Spring to transform it; each trip took about twenty days round trip. Feng found joy in this endeavor because he had his own work in this desert. His goal was to transform Bean Sprout Spring into an oasis with lakes and greenery suitable for two people to live permanently—though not with Cui Ming... one must have ideals.
Feng spent much time traveling; he always chose to set off against the wind—not just for work but also as a form of cultivation. He could meditate amidst sandstorms or let go of himself while following along with the wind's flow; this was Feng's unique way of breaking through his limits—a method Cui Ming clearly couldn't emulate.
Every time the wind left, it only left behind the silent desert. Cui Ming had long since grown accustomed to solitude in the prison of sand, quietly sitting on the Dune, enjoying the scorching sun and the cleansing rain, meditating without distraction. When boredom struck, he would run through the Sand Dune Mountain Range, training his enhancement abilities and mastering the use of force. After breaking through his bottleneck, he began to gradually accumulate his strength through hard work, aiming to reach the second bottleneck.
Cui Ming's enhancement abilities progressed rapidly, advancing as swiftly as if he were majoring in enhancement himself. He was pursuing a perfect combination of speed and power, with a flying card in his right hand and Card Play in his left, while holding a Fate Card in his heart. With all three cards present, he was able to focus on all three at once, not only avoiding distraction but successfully merging them into an instinctive reaction.
"I think you're adapting quite well," the wind remarked each time it returned, noticing that Cui Ming was hardly affected by the solitude of the desert, far surpassing even himself who had lived there for years.
Cui Ming always replied, "Comparing people can be infuriating."
"Hey, let's make one thing clear: just because you're adaptable doesn't mean you can take over my territory. You're a guest; you must remember that."
"Got it," Cui Ming said as he sat on the Dune tossing cards. The cards flew swiftly across the Lake Surface, tracing an arc from above before soaring back up into the opposite Dune. The most troublesome part was retrieving them; after each throw, he had to dash over to pull them out one by one, and the damage rate was high. Fortunately, he had brought half a backpack full of Poker cards. Cui Ming asked, "Are you planning to wipe everything out?"
He saw the wind slaughtering large fish in the lake, with demand much higher than before. The wind replied, "It hasn't rained much in the past ten days. We've been here for about six months now; it's almost dry season. We need to move."
"To the fourth oasis?"
Feng Dao said, "When I went to the fourth oasis last time, I found that food wouldn't be enough for both of us to get through the dry season. So this dry season, we need to go mooch off the Zhir Family."
"Does he have any objections?"
"He told me that if food is scarce, we can stay at his oasis." (To be continued.)
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