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墨書 Inktalez
Time passed unmeasured in the depths of the Boundless Desert, where the sun never set, and the group’s pace slowed further.
Suddenly, the Willow Branch connecting to the Insect Monster snapped, causing Liu Rou to fall backward. The Insect Monster, now free from Liu Rou's control, became agitated and restless.
“Qingxue, freeze it,” Zhao Yang said as he cradled Liu Rou. “We still need it for transportation.”
Yu Qingsnow nodded and began to cast her freezing spell on the Insect Monster, but to her shock, she found that her ice powers could not coalesce!
“Nangong Wuxin remarked, “The Boundless Desert has almost no moisture. These insects only contain a small amount of oil in their bodies, which cannot freeze.”
As she spoke, Nangong Wuxin unleashed the Demon Hunting Soul Pursuit Technique and shattered the Insect Monster's head.
This time, Yuan Shu merely frowned and remained silent.
Zhao Yang shielded Liu Rou from the scorching sun with his body. He pulled out a white porcelain bottle from his Cosmic Bag and opened it, only to find it empty. He then took out another bottle, which was also devoid of liquid. Zhao Yang dripped the few remaining drops of water into Liu Rou’s body and carefully poured what little water was left from each bottle into her mouth. Finally, he produced a somewhat shriveled Spiritual Fruit and placed it in Liu Rou's mouth.
Liu Rou slowly opened her eyes and chewed on the not-so-tasty Spiritual Fruit. She softly said, “I’m sorry, Brother Zhao Yang. I worried you.”
Zhao Yang gently scratched Liu Rou's nose and replied, “Silly girl, if you can’t hold on any longer, just tell me.”
At that moment, Yuan Shu spoke up. “Zhao Yang, do you still have any Spiritual Fruits?”
Zhao Yang replied solemnly, “I do have some left.”
Yuan Shu retorted, “You have them but won’t share? Is this how friends behave?”
Nangong Wuxin’s face suddenly darkened with anger. “I don’t think you’re fit to be our friend. If you keep talking nonsense, I won’t hesitate to kill you. Zhao Yang may consider you a friend, but I never have. From the first day I saw you, I felt you were not one of us.”
"Alright, Wuxin," Zhao Yang said as he helped Liu Rou up, urging everyone to move forward. "When a person faces the brink of death, they often reveal something different from their usual self; it's human nature. He wants to survive too."
Seeing that Zhao Yang was not angry, Song Baliang snorted and addressed Yuan Shu, "Be more like a man. Throughout this journey, my junior brother has taken great care of you, providing you with plenty of Holy Fruit when it was available. If you say anything now that sows discord between us, no one will tolerate you."
Yuan Shu remained silent, a hint of malice flickering in his eyes, but a slight wicked smile played on his lips as he glanced at the two monks from Xuanfo Temple walking ahead of him.
Suddenly, one of the monks thrust a sharp tentacle of a giant insect towards Nangong Wuxin's waist. Wuxin let out a muffled groan and suddenly swung his arm, unleashing an overwhelming force that sent the monk flying, blood spewing from his mouth as he fell ten zhang away.
"Konghui, have you lost your mind!?" another disciple from Xuanfo Temple questioned.
Konghui got up, confusion evident in his eyes. He looked at the hostile gazes from the others and then at his own hands, which were stained with blood. He couldn't help but exclaim, "Kong Yuan, what... what happened to me?"
"Don't you realize you just attacked Junior Brother Nangong?" Kong Yuan replied.
Konghui shook his head as he looked at the pale-faced Nangong Wuxin. "How could I possibly attack Junior Brother Nangong? I have no idea what I was doing."
Nangong Wuxin and Song Baliang exchanged questioning glances with Zhao Yang. Zhao Yang shook his head and said softly, "My Divine Sense has been greatly diminished; my range of observation is less than one-thousandth of what it used to be. But I can assure you it wasn't Yuan Lie."
Zhao Yang then turned to Konghui and asked, "Konghui, do you remember when you lost consciousness?"
Konghui replied, "It was just a moment ago; I truly don't know what happened."
"Junior Brother, Konghui grew up with me; he would never intentionally harm Brother Nangong," Song Baliang interjected.
Zhao Yang hesitated for a moment. After spending time together, he too felt that Konghui was not that kind of person. At that moment, Nangong Wuxin spoke up: "Zhao Yang, Konghui is not like that; someone must have controlled his consciousness for him to act against me. It's not his fault."
Zhao Yang sighed and said, "At the moment, I can't figure out who wants to harm us. However, to be honest, when we entered the Boundless Desert, I heard someone instructing another person to kill us all. I don't know who that person was; it could be one of us or someone with much higher cultivation hiding nearby. To be safe, I need to temporarily restrain your cultivation and seal your Sea of Consciousness. Otherwise, the enemy might take advantage of any weakness. Your Divine Sense is too weak for our needs."
Konghui hesitated for a moment before nodding.
Zhao Yang then sent Chaos True Qi into Konghui's mind. A faint trace of Chaos True Qi slipped into Konghui's brain under everyone's gaze, but suddenly a scream erupted from Konghui's mouth as he pointed at Zhao Yang and cried out, "Don't extinguish my Primordial Spirit! Don't kill me!"
"Um? Zhao Yang, junior brother." Kong Yuan looked at Zhao Yang with confusion and anger.
Zhao Yang quickly withdrew his hand, pulling back the Chaos True Qi, but it was too late; Konghui's eyes widened in shock as blood poured from his seven orifices, and he died.
Kong Yuan held Konghui's lifeless body and wept bitterly. He turned to Zhao Yang and said, "Since you already said you would seal his cultivation and Sea of Consciousness, why did you still kill him?"
Zhao Yang replied, "If I wanted to kill him, would I have needed to go through all this?"
Kong Yuan retorted, "You're so clever; can't you see any clues? How do you explain the fact that Konghui's Primordial Spirit was instantly extinguished? We clearly saw your True Qi enter his Sea of Consciousness!"
Zhao Yang fell silent for a moment and said, "I cannot explain."
"Kong Yuan," he continued, "there's something strange about this. The enemy likely wants to sow discord among us. But they are mistaken; they can target anyone but not my junior brother because everyone's lives here were saved by him. Without him, we would have been dead long ago!"
Kong Yuan closed his eyes and uttered a Buddhist chant: "Amitabha. Konghui, after more than twenty years as Senior Brothers, who would have thought you would sacrifice yourself like this? It's truly not worth it."
Kong Yuan laid Konghui's body flat on the ground, adjusted his clothing, and wiped the blood from his face like a devout believer. Everyone watched as he buried Konghui's body in the yellow sand.
Time passed—perhaps three days, perhaps three months, or even longer. The sun grew increasingly hot. Zhao Yang took out a large canvas tent from his Cosmic Bag and said, "Let's take a break for a while."
Everyone's faces were grim, even the stunningly beautiful Yu Qingsnow and Liu Rou had cracked lips at this moment. Yu Qingsnow tried to condense some ice water, but the water elements in the Boundless Desert were too sparse; no matter how much True Qi she expended, she could only gather a few drops.
Song Baliang's face was sunburned to a deep shade, and his lips were severely chapped. He swallowed hard, trying to gulp down some saliva, but there was none. He glanced at Zhao Yang but ultimately remained silent.
Yuan Shu said, "Zhao Yang, could you share some Spiritual Fruit with us? It's not that I have any objections, but look at everyone; we're all parched like this. If we don't get water soon, even as cultivators, we might not last three days."
This time, Nangong Wuxin's face only flashed with anger, but he didn't speak up because he was too thirsty; his throat felt like it was on fire.
Zhao Yang closed his eyes and said, "Let me tell you a story."
"Brother Zhao Yang, you’re not going to use the 'looking at plums to quench thirst' trick again, are you?" Liu Rou teased.
Zhao Yang gently patted Liu Rou's hair and replied weakly, "No, this story is about a group of travelers. They also got lost in the desert and coincidentally ran low on water. Their leader told them that they had half a bottle left; if they could just hold on until the first person collapsed, the second person would get that half bottle of water. In the end, everyone except the leader made it out of the desert."
"Why?" Nangong Wuxin and Liu Rou asked simultaneously.
Yu Qingsnow forced a smile and said, "Because they didn't have any water at all."
Zhao Yang continued from Yu Qingsnow's words: "That was a story about ordinary people. Saying there was water was merely giving them some hope to keep going; otherwise, they wouldn't have lasted. In reality, many of the team members had already guessed this fact, but they didn't bring it up because acknowledging it meant they couldn't continue."
"So you're saying we're doomed?" Kong Yuan said with a bitter smile. "Well then, I hope my junior brother Konghui doesn't move too fast; it would be nice to have company on the way to Paradise."
"Let me sleep for a bit," Zhao Yang murmured as he slowly closed his eyes. He didn't know how long it had been since he last slept—days? Months? Perhaps even longer.
When he awoke again, Liu Rou and Yu Qingsnow were still asleep beside him. However, Zhao Yang could clearly feel their life force slowly dissipating; their internal moisture was nearly dried up, and their faces had turned extremely pale. Not far away, Nangong Wuxin had also become emaciated; his once lively eyes now looked dull and devoid of color.
Song Baliang stood with his back to them, completely motionless.
Zhao Yang woke Yu Qingsnow and Liu Rou, then walked behind Song Baliang, injecting a trace of Chaos True Qi into his body. He could no longer sense Song Baliang's breathing. Throughout their journey, Zhao Yang had not taken a single drop of water, and Song Baliang had not asked him for anything either. As a Body Refinement practitioner, his physical body was nearly immortal, but he never expected that the Boundless Desert could take his life.
The sound of Song Baliang's breathing reached Zhao Yang's ears. He opened his eyes, sat up, and looked at Zhao Yang. Zhao Yang said, "Senior Brother, why don't you rest for a while?"
Song Baliang forced a smile and replied, "I can't sleep completely; otherwise, the enemy might take advantage of our weakness."
Once everyone was awake, they continued to follow Zhao Yang forward. After an unknown amount of time had passed, when Zhao Yang turned to look at them, tears streamed down his face. Song Baliang's face had become incredibly gaunt; his cheekbones were prominent, and his cheeks were sunken in. A once tall man had been reduced to this state.
Yu Qingsnow fared slightly better because she was a practitioner of the Snow Spiritual Root and had mastered the ultimate ice attributes. Her body lost moisture very slowly. She had consumed an unknown amount of cultivation to barely maintain her beautiful appearance. Although Liu Rou was severely dehydrated, her true form was that of a demon. No one knew how much life essence Zhao Yang had secretly allowed the Ginseng King in his arms to transfer to Liu Rou just to keep her alive.
Nangong Wuxin and Kongyuan Monk were also extremely emaciated, nearly losing their human forms. However, Yuan Shu only appeared pale with cracked lips, looking about the same as Zhao Yang and the others.
Finally, one day when Zhao Yang and the others rested again, Kongyuan Monk silently passed away. His skeletal body contained no moisture and looked somewhat frightening.
Song Baliang wanted to cry but had no tears left; he wished to bury Kongyuan. Just then, a gigantic Black Beetle suddenly appeared not far away. The Black Beetle emerged from a mound of dirt and surprisingly spoke human words: "It has been a long time since anyone appeared in the Boundless Desert; you have managed to come this far! You look quite delicious."
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