Translator: Cinder Translations
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Song Wen held a mid-grade spirit stone in each hand, pure spiritual energy continuously flowing into his body.
In the Endless Desert, his physical body felt like a sieve, with spiritual power leaking out constantly.
To maintain a sufficient level of spiritual energy within his body, he had to keep replenishing it.
If there were no pursuers behind him, Song Wen could rely on his strong physique to move slowly through the desert.
However, the threat from the Nascent Soul cultivator lood like a sword hanging over his head, preventing him from daring to pause even for a mont; he could only advance quickly.
Suddenly, in the distant sky, an outline of a ruin eroded by wind and sand appeared, suspended in the air.
The ruins seed to have been abandoned for many years, looking dilapidated and worn.
Song Wen frowned.
What was this?
A mirage?
Or an illusion?
This was not the first ti he had seen such ethereal visions in the Endless Desert.
These apparitions sotis vanished in an instant, while at other tis, they lingered for several hours.
After contemplating for a mont, Song Wen flew toward the outline of the ruins.
He traversed through the swirling yellow sand for two hours.
Just like when he had chased those phantoms in the past, until the illusion gradually faded, he saw nothing but yellow sand around him.
Suddenly.
As Song Wen soared through the air, he noticed sothing move beneath the sand dune—a patch of yellow sand suddenly stirred, revealing a sand pit the size of a water jar.
It seed as if sothing underground was pushing against the sand.
Finally spotting sothing unusual in the otherwise monotonous yellow sand, Song Wen imdiately halted his flight, suppressed his presence, and focused intently on observing the sand dune below.
After a mont, the patch of yellow sand stilled again.
After waiting for about half a tea ti, the sand pit showed no further movent.
But then, about ten feet away from the sand pit, suddenly, the yellow sand exploded.
A towering figure, six feet tall, leaped out from beneath the yellow sand.
This was a being that looked extrely bizarre.
The creature had a lizard-like head, but human-like limbs, with both hands and feet being very broad, adorned with sharp claws.
A thick tail trailed behind it.
The tail was about four feet long, dragging on the ground and constantly swaying from side to side, sweeping up the yellow sand.
In its left hand, the lizardman grasped a long worm that asured three feet in length.
The worm was already dead, hanging limply.
The lizardman carried the worm and stepped forward, moving swiftly between the various sand dunes.
Song Wen floated in the air, following closely behind, keeping pace.
This lizardman emitted no spiritual energy fluctuations, yet its physical strength was surprisingly powerful, comparable to a mid-stage Foundation Establishnt cultivator.
The lizardman moved quickly, covering two or three thousand feet in just over two hours.
He had no idea how it discerned direction in the vast expanse of yellow sand.
Finally, the lizardman began to slow down as it reached its destination.
Song Wen had hoped that the lizardman would lead him to an oasis, but that wish was dashed.
What lay below was not an oasis but a cluster of buildings.
The building complex looked just like the mirage Song Wen had seen not long ago.
At this mont, Song Wen realized that this was not so ancient ruin but rather a settlent built by a group of low-intelligence beings.
The buildings were haphazardly scattered, with several houses constructed from piled stones.
The stones varied in size and were stacked together in a very crude manner.
It was as if a group of unruly children had randomly piled blocks, and it seed like they could collapse at any mont.
The walls were riddled with holes and gaps, so of which were large enough for a person to crawl through.
It was truly a place where wind whistled through from all sides, with yellow sand blowing across.
The stones used for building the houses were not natural stone materials but rather bound together by yellow sand.
Within these houses, there were no fewer than a thousand lizardn.
Both male and female lizardn were present.
Earlier, Song Wen had seen that the one he encountered was a male.
It was easy to distinguish between the male and female lizardn; the females had two protrusions on their chests that resembled those of a cow.
The male lizardman holding the long worm was among the top-tier individuals among these lizardn.
The lizardman carried the long worm, weaving through the dilapidated houses, heading toward the center of the settlent.
There, a grander and more imposing house stood.
This house was built from actual stone blocks, which were grayish-blue in color; it was unclear where they had been transported from.
Among the crumbling houses, several small lizardn appeared, gazing hungrily at the long worm in the male lizardman's hand.
They looked like starving children who had long been deprived of food upon seeing sothing to eat.
One after another, small lizardn erged from the houses, trailing behind the male lizardman as they made their way to the central blue stone house.
Gradually, a group of no fewer than fifty small lizardn gathered behind the male lizardman.
Upon arriving outside the blue stone house, the male lizardman began to screech loudly.
Suddenly.
A water bag, the size of a basin, was thrown out from the blue stone house.
Joy spread across the male lizardman's face.
It caught the water bag with one hand.
Tilting its head back, it opened its mouth wide and began to drink eagerly.
Clear water dripped from the corners of its mouth, falling onto the yellow sand below.
In an instant, it was buried beneath the yellow sand, disappearing without a trace, leaving only faint spiritual energy behind.
Quickly, a large bag of clear water was gulped down into its stomach.
As for the long worm it had been holding, it was casually tossed aside on the ground.
The small lizardn surged forward, tearing at the long worm.
Before long, the worm was ripped to shreds, consud by the swarm of small lizardn.
For dozens of small lizardn to share a single long worm was hardly enough to fill their hungry bellies.
They cleaned the long worm to the last morsel, wasting nothing.
Even the black viscous liquid that flowed from the worm's body and fell into the yellow sand was eagerly scooped up by the small lizardn and swallowed.
After drinking all the water, the male lizardman appeared exhilarated, shaking its head as it headed toward a broken-down house.
Inside the dilapidated house were two female lizardn.
Before long, the sounds of 'yi yi ya ya' echoed from within, the voices particularly shrill.
From high in the sky, Song Wen watched with great interest.
These lizardn possessed strong physical bodies but had no spiritual energy or spiritual awareness.
They perceived their surroundings entirely through sight and sound.
What intrigued Song Wen the most was that within the central blue stone house of the settlent, there resided a human cultivator—a male cultivator at the early Foundation Establishnt stage.
It was this individual who had just given the male lizardman a bag of clear water.
Moreover, that bag of water contained a significant amount of spiritual energy.
Half an hour later.
The sun set in the west, and night fell.
Flickering lights appeared sporadically within the settlent.
The lizardn returned to their respective houses.
Song Wen descended from the sky and landed outside the blue stone house.
"Friend, may I trouble you to open the door for a chat?"
Inside the stone house sat a middle-aged male cultivator, who was in the midst of ditative practice. Upon hearing Song Wen's words, he suddenly jolted awake, springing to his feet with a look of shock on his face.
A person had appeared outside, and he had been completely unaware of it.
It could only be said that the cultivation level of the person outside was far superior to his own.
(End of the Chapter)
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Translated 4 Series, 1.65K Chapters and 2.01M Words.
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