“You were already here when you woke up?” Zhang Xuan was taken aback.
He had woken up in the forest ruled by the Five Monarchs, but these people actually woke up here. Could it be that the crowd was not just teleported to a random location, they were teleported to random folded spaces as well?
It’s no wonder I couldn’t feel Luo Ruoxin or any familiar auras around!
He had encountered quite a few cultivators in the forest earlier, but he did not find any familiar faces. He had not thought much of it back then, but at this moment, it was already more than apparent that something was wrong.
It seemed like the Temple of Confucius was far more complex than he had predicted.
“What was the sand giant earlier? Since you have been here for several hours already, did you notice anything striking?” Zhang Xuan continued asking.
The forest was filled with treasures and the ‘teacher’s milieu’, which could raise a cultivator’s Soul Depth. On the other hand, this desert seemed to be challenging a cultivator’s limits. Parched and sweltering, they were completely two different worlds!
But since everyone was teleported to a different folded space, there should be some kind of exit that would take him to another folded space.
“The sand giant is a lifeform that exists in this desert. We encountered it after traveling for roughly four hours, and it attacked us upon noticing our presence… If not for your help, we might have already succumbed by now!” the Intuitive Impulse cultivator revealed without hiding anything from Zhang Xuan.
“As for anything striking… I’m afraid I didn’t see anything of that sort. However, we did encounter a few other groups during our journey, and they seemed to be looking for an oasis. I’m not too sure whether they have managed to find it or not, but we didn’t see anything of that sort on our journey…”
“Oasis?”
Those words made Zhang Xuan’s eyes light up.
Indeed! Since there was a desert, there was bound to be an oasis somewhere.
It was highly likely that the exit would be located in the oasis!
Zhang Xuan nodded in delight upon finding a clue as to what he should be looking for. After which, he turned his sight back to the Intuitive Impulse realm cultivator. “How did you encounter the sand giant earlier?”
“We were simply resting to alleviate our exhaustion and quench our thirst when that fellow suddenly appeared and attacked us!” the Intuitive Impulse realm cultivator replied.
“You were trying to quench your thirst?” Zhang Xuan frowned.
If that was the triggering factor, he did drink a bit of spirit essence earlier too, but the sand giant did not appear.
“That’s right. However, it feels like there’s something really weird about this place. No matter how much water we drink, it doesn’t seem to quench our thirst. Instead, the more we drink, the feebler we become,” the Intuitive Impulse realm cultivator said bitterly.
“Drinking water doesn’t work?” Bewildered, Zhang Xuan flicked his wrist and took out a gourd of water. With a sip, he realized that his mouth was getting more and more parched. It was as if he was pouring flames into his body, causing it to wither bit by bit.
He threw the gourd back into his storage ring and took out the spirit essence that he had collected from the forest earlier. Taking a sip of it, he felt his acupoints loosening in relaxation. The parched sensation on his tongue alleviated, reinvigorating him.
“I see…” Zhang Xuan nodded in realization.
From the looks of it, it seemed like water was useless there. The only replenishment one could drink was spirit essence!
“Elder, you have spirit essence with you? Can you… share some with us?”
While none of those in the group were as strong as Zhang Xuan, they were still top-notch experts of the Master Teacher Continent. With their sharp eyes, they saw his lips cracking after drinking a sip of water, but drinking a sip of spirit essence brought him back to normal condition.
It was apparent to them that only drinking spirit essence would alleviate their thirst and soothe their exhaustion!
“You want some spirit essence? I am…”
Since Zhang Xuan had collected plenty of spirit essence earlier, he was very willing to give it out to the other members of the group. However, a thought came in his mind, and he asked, “Give me a moment first. You mentioned earlier that the sand giant attacked you while you were drinking water, right?”
The crowd nodded.
“May I trouble you to copy what you did when you drank water earlier? Make sure not to leave out any details. If we could attract another sand giant, it could possibly provide us with the key to escaping from this desert!” Zhang Xuan instructed.
He did not expect the sand giant to be so weak as to die with a single toss of his spear. Considering how large the desert was, it would be foolish to think that he would be able to find the oasis just by wandering around aimlessly. The wiser decision would be to rely on the native race living in this desert!
However, the problem was that he would have to first attract a sand giant.
The fact that he had wandered around for more than two hours but encountered no sand giants likely meant that there was some kind of trigger to draw it in.
“This…” No one in the crowd was a fool. Upon hearing his words, they widened their eyes in realization and nodded. “Very well!”
Zhang Xuan put his Dragonbone Divine Spear aside and reverted his aura back to normal, making it appear as if he was an ordinary Aureate Body realm cultivator on the surface.
Hula!
After accomplishing all this, he turned his gaze to the crowd and gestured for them to do it. One of the cultivators swiftly flicked his wrist and took out a gourd.
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At their cultivation realm, there was no one who did not have a storage ring. They would usually keep a long-term supply of food and water in their storage ring in case of emergencies.
The cultivator gulped down several mouthfuls of water, but the more he drank, the more withered he seemed to become. Frustrated, he tossed the gourd into the sand.
Gulu gulu!
When the water from the gourd flowed into the sand, it was as if water had been poured upon burning oil. A sizzling sound echoed across the desert as white smoke drifted into the air.
Boom boom boom!
As the white smoke drifted higher and higher, the crowd suddenly heard the sound of flurried footsteps sounding from afar. Two massive sand giants were bolting in their direction!
“They are both at Sempiternal realm primary stage… Elder, you must protect us!”
The faces of the crowd warped in horror.
It was at the behest of this elder that they had lured the other party over. While they had the numerical advantage, they knew that they did not stand a chance against two sand giants given their current fighting prowess.
“Rest assured!” Zhang Xuan said confidently.
Instead of whipping out his Dragonbone Divine Spear, he pushed his feet against the burning sand and dashed toward one of the sand giants.
He opened his palm wide and pressed down heavily on it.
Hula!
A powerful rush of zhenqi swiftly enveloped the saint giant.
Roar!
It seemed like the sand giant also possessed sentience. It appeared to be aware of the disadvantageous position that it was in and raised its fist in a fluster to break open the zhenqi around it.
A furious storm swept across the area, and clouds of sand rose into the air.
Without a doubt, the sand giant was a powerful adversary. It was no wonder the group of eighteen had their hands tied dealing with it. However, it was still insufficient as an opponent for Zhang Xuan.
The sand giant hurled punch after punch, but it was unable to breach the zhenqi barrier around it.
On the other hand, the second sand giant seemed to have realized that Zhang Xuan was a formidable foe as well, and it charged forward in a hurry to aid its companion.
“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on leaving you alone!” Zhang Xuan chuckled softly as he flicked his other palm at the second sand giant.
Padah!
The second sand giant was immediately forced to the ground, unable to move at all.
Gazing coldly at the two helpless sand giants before him, Zhang Xuan harrumphed coldly. “Submit to me, and I can spare you from death!”
“Roar!”
It was hard to tell whether the two sand giants had truly understood his words, but they released ferocious howls and continued clawing at the zhenqi pressing them down.
“It seems like you aren’t going to submit to me until I show you a bit of force… Very well, I shall let you try my hand then!” Seeing that he had been disregarded by the two sand giants, Zhang Xuan narrowed his eyes coldly.
He flicked his finger and sent a surge of sword qi toward the two sand giants.
Before taming a beast, one had to first exert one’s dominance over the beast to show the beast that resistance was futile. Only a beast who had given up on resistance could be tamed.
This was the method commonly used by most beast tamers, pummeling the beast first before dropping them incentives… While the sand giants did look a little silly, it was likely that they obeyed this convention as well.
Weng!
Zhang Xuan was intending to use his sword qi to teach the sand giants a lesson, but as soon as the sword qi sliced through the two of them, they began crumbling apart.
Huala!
In the blink of an eye, they had been reduced to a pile of yellow sand.
“The hell…” Zhang Xuan’s lips twitched.