novelraw Chapter 149 : Wasteland Relic City
Chapter 149 : Wasteland Relic City
"Although that's what we say, the sect's reward isn't directly giving us the legendary Immortal Sect inheritance, but rather an opportunity to search for the Immortal Sect ruins. They're using the immortal ship to safely escort us to the Wasteland Relic City, along with an access token," Su Chen'an explained patiently, looking at the few people forcing themselves to stay awake. He shook his head with a smile and continued, "According to the information I've gathered, the Wasteland Relic City is the remnant of a great sect from hundreds of years ago, the Myriad Stars Sect. If we can find the Immortal Sect ruins, it's not just an ordinary opportunity, but the entire inheritance left behind by an once incredibly glorious sect..."
This is the enormous wealth of an entire sect.
Even if only a fragment of ruins remains, if they can successfully find the ruins, obtaining even a single item or inheritance from inside would be an unimaginably huge opportunity.
The journey to the Barbarian Relic City was long and distant. Even with the flying ship, it would take at least half a month.
During this time, they would have to go through various death valleys, desert storms, and the like.
The scorching sun hung high, the air dry and searing. As far as the eye could see was an endless expanse of yellow sand desert, with spiritual energy so scarce it was almost non-existent.
Even cultivators with physical qualities far surpassing ordinary people would find it difficult to survive in such conditions for long periods.
The smoothly sailing flying ship suddenly jolted violently. Tantai Ming, who was leaning on the railing looking around, almost got shaken off. After shaking his head to clear it and seeing the situation before him, he ran off to find his Junior Sister and the others.
"Ahhhhh, it's bad, it's bad, it's bad! Something terrible has happened!"
Mu Chihuai covered his ears. "Quiet, we're not blind."
The sky had imperceptibly darkened, fierce winds raged all around, and the yellow sand in the air formed an increasingly large and powerful vortex, rapidly rushing towards them.
It was a rare sight indeed. Their luck was so bad that they encountered a desert storm so quickly.
"You young disciples, step back. The flying ship is inscribed with heaven-grade defensive formations, sufficient to resist the desert storm. There's no need to panic," an elder who had come to escort them reassured.
This flying ship was a high-grade carrier spirit tool jointly refined by the Sect Leaders and Elders of the Alchemy Sect and Eight Trigrams Sect. The materials used were all ten-thousand-year mystical iron and various hard ores. It was also inscribed with various high-grade heaven defensive formations, all in preparation for such special circumstances.
As a precaution, there were also two Divine Transformation stage elders escorting them.
The moment the desert storm hit, everything in its path was instantly swept up. The flying ship reduced its speed, a faint, semi-transparent spherical barrier appearing around it. When the storm struck, it didn't even cause a ripple, steadily passing through the dangerous area of the storm, slowly moving forward...
Chu Sang saw several cultivators traveling not far away just moments ago. In the instant the storm arrived, they vanished.
It wasn't that they were blown away,
But that their flesh and blood bodies were directly torn into countless pieces by the storm, obliterated into ash.
Everyone present swallowed hard, terrified.
This place was even more dangerous than they had imagined. No wonder the sect specially sent a flying ship to escort them. If they had come on their own, they probably wouldn't even see the gates of the Wasteland Relic City before being sent to meet their ancestors.
"Quick, look! What's that!"
After the storm passed, Tantai Ming, emboldened by his skills, was again hanging on the railing, craning his neck and shouting.
In the distance, on the golden horizon, buildings gradually appeared, seeming to be a prosperous and bustling city—
Had they finally reached their destination?!
"No, no, there's no aura of living people there!" Xiao Bai shook its head, saying in a milky voice.
Chu Sang also felt it was strange. This place was no longer suitable for habitation, so how could such a prosperous city appear? Moreover, according to the information Fifth Senior Brother had obtained, the only city in this area was the ancient city ruins from a hundred years ago, long since abandoned. How could it still be so prosperous?
Mu Chihuai gave everyone a bottle of Clear Spirit Pills. After taking the pills, the prosperous city instantly vanished, disappearing from view.
"This is a mirage unique to the wasteland. It often wanders around various corners of the wasteland, transforming into what passing cultivators desire most in their hearts, luring them over to become its nourishment..." Unlike the tall, serious elder from the Alchemy Sect traveling with them, the Eight Trigrams Sect elder was a kind-looking fat old man. He sat down in front of them with a smile, chatting with them.
The fat elder was most interested in the young girl Chu Sang, his eyes constantly glancing at her.
Chu Sang asked with concern, "Elder, do you have a twitch in your eye?"
"..."
The kind smile on the fat elder's face became a bit stiff.
Chu Sang hadn't participated in the Talisman Competition, but their sect's usually arrogant chief disciple often mentioned her, saying that her talismans were more effective than those popular in the market. He very much wanted to have a competition with her. Over time, these few elders all learned—there was such an undiscovered gem in the outside world?
The fat elder wanted to take this opportunity to probe for information, and also get acquainted with this exceptionally talented young girl, to see if he could poach her to the Eight Trigrams Sect as a joint disciple in the future.
"You should know our sect's chief disciple, Cui Xiu. He has mentioned you more than once in front of us elders." The fat elder quickly recovered his expression and continued with a smile, "Do you know why?"
She blinked in confusion.
Lowering her head, she thought seriously for a moment. "I... understand."
"What do you understand?" The fat elder thought contentedly that this young girl was quite perceptive.
"I understand, he must have a secret crush on me!"
After careful consideration, Chu Sang suddenly realized, then came to a serious conclusion, gesturing as if blowing a non-existent smoke ring, "Well, after all, I'm so outstanding, it's only natural to be secretly admired."
As she spoke, she let out a long sigh, seeming extremely troubled.
"..." The fat elder's chubby face twitched. He had seen shameless people before, but never one this shameless.
Except for Tantai Ming, the other members of Lingqing Sect were already used to this, unsurprised by their Junior Sister's unrivaled self-adoration.
As for why we say except for Tantai Ming, he immediately stood up and indignantly added, "I knew it! That guy has ulterior motives towards Junior Sister! Just wait until I see him next time, I'll beat him to death!!"
"..."
Well, these two were a match.
"Ahem, that's not... I heard from Cui Xiu that your talisman drawing is quite good?" The fat elder also realized that the young girl wasn't buying this at all, and quickly steered the conversation back on track, getting straight to the point, "Would you mind letting this old man take a look at your talisman techniques?"
Chu Sang didn't mind and took out a few talismans she had drawn while staying up late before coming.
The fat elder took the talismans and examined them carefully over and over, unable to hide the admiration in his eyes.
This young girl wasn't even a proper talisman cultivator, but a triple cultivator.
Dual cultivation was already rare enough, triple cultivation was an endangered species. In the hundreds of thousands of years of history in the entire cultivation world, the number of triple cultivators could be counted on one hand.
For a triple cultivator to master one of the cultivations to the point of integration was already quite remarkable.
Unexpectedly, this young girl not only excelled in sword techniques, but her talisman techniques were also not inferior to those of the direct disciples in their Eight Trigrams Sect.
Judging by the fluent talisman patterns on these talismans, probably only their sect's chief disciple could be mentioned in the same breath.
"I wonder if the young friend would be interested in becoming a joint disciple in our Eight Trigrams Sect?"
This was really getting to the point.
The expressions of her Senior Brothers and Sisters immediately soured.
Tantai Ming pouted. How come after this sect competition, these unethical major sects were all coming to poach people??
Would the next one be the Alchemy Sect trying to poach Fifth Senior Brother??!
Tantai Ming's prediction came true. The Alchemy Sect elder, who had been coldly treating everyone else equally, went to show concern for Su Chen'an, smiling so gently that it gave the others goosebumps.
The two elders with ulterior motives were forced to interrupt their attempts to poach people.
The flying ship entered the inner region of the Death Desert. From beneath the yellow sand, huge hands formed of condensed sand reached out, grabbing the edge of the ship, pulling down with the force of a thousand jin, trying to drag it into the endless sea of sand below.
"These are sand spirits common in the wasteland. These sand spirits have their own consciousness and often attack passing cultivators."
The two elders hurriedly formed seals to activate the flying ship's attack formations. One powerful spiritual energy beam after another shot out, shattering those ghostly sand hands back into piles of yellow sand.
There were far too many sand spirits everywhere. Even though the formations protected the people inside the ship from harm, these condensed sand piles blocked the ship's path forward, obscuring vision and making it difficult to fly normally.
"Big Senior Sister, Seventh Senior Brother, let's three go out to clear the sand spirits." With the two elders needing to maintain the ship's normal flight, the task of clearing the sand spirits naturally fell to the three sword cultivators.
"Be careful, come back if you encounter any unfavorable situations."
The disciples who could win in the competition were all talented cultivators capable of handling themselves. The two elders weren't particularly worried, but what they found a bit strange was, "This isn't the first time Brother He and I have led a team to the wasteland. We've encountered storms and sand spirits before, but the situation has never been this severe..."
⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱
A group of sand bandits hidden in the dark were restless.
The leader was a middle-aged man with a face full of pockmarks and an unsightly appearance. He manipulated earth-attribute spiritual energy in his hand, forming ghostly hands from the originally calm wasteland, reaching towards the flying ship.
The underlings beside him rubbed their hands together eagerly, "Boss, are we going to make a big score today!?"
"When have I, Ma Hezheng, ever failed?" The man sneered, "Look at those people on the flying ship, just a bunch of young cultivators with more money than sense. They're most likely another group of fools coming to search for the Immortal Sect ruins. Every year there are a few idiots who come to deliver money to us. How could the legendary Immortal Sect ruins be so easy to find? Even we local cultivators can't find it, how could these outsiders find anything! They might as well benefit us!"
Ma Hezheng smiled sinisterly. They had done plenty of robbery and murder.
In previous years, the cultivators they encountered were all poor, with nothing valuable. This group of cultivators, just judging by the spirit ship they were riding, was already a great treasure. They were clearly a group of young disciples overly protected by their sects, thinking themselves to be heaven's chosen ones, overestimating themselves, wanting to seek the opportunity of the Immortal Sect ruins. In the end, they would either return empty-handed or be robbed and killed by them.
"The time is right, go!"
At Ma Hezheng's command, the other dozens of sand bandits all swarmed forward.
On the other side, Chu Sang and the other two quickly cleared a path and noticed the movement from the sand bandits' side.
The other side clearly didn't have a clear understanding of the strength of both parties.
Chu Sang wasn't worried at all. She narrowed her eyes and turned to look at the two elders, "Who are they? How come they're not affected by the wasteland's sand spirits?"
"They are the Sand Dune Tribe, a very special human race. They can be considered native cultivators of the wasteland. Their ancestors have lived in this wasteland for thousands of years, so the techniques they cultivate are related to it. It's said that they have even learned to raise and control sand spirits. The large number of sand spirits just now was probably their doing."
Dealing with these newbie disciples, the two elders finally found a bit of superiority that wasn't much. They patiently explained, "There are many strange people and unusual tribes in the cultivation world. Besides the Sand Dune Tribe, there are others like the Separation Fire Tribe. You can't gain this much knowledge just by staying in the sect."
Chu Sang turned her gaze back to those sand bandits who thought victory was assured. She weighed the sword in her hand.
"Seventh Senior Brother, go!"
Tantai Ming was getting more and more used to being ordered around. Having just broken through to the Nascent Soul stage, he was even more eager, desperately wanting to find a group of sandbags to practice on. This group of sand bandits who voluntarily delivered themselves was exactly what he wanted.
With his back foot kicking off the railing, the young man shot out like an arrow leaving the string. In the blink of an eye, he charged in front of the group of bandits. Several qilin sword intents roared out from the long sword in his hand. The sand bandits, who were strutting proudly one second ago, were routed the next second.
Damn it, is this a joke?!
There's actually a Nascent Soul stage cultivator??!
The Barbarian Relic City was said to hold the inheritance grounds of the legendary Immortal Sect, but why were there only a handful of people coming to search for it each year? Apart from the harsh geographical environment itself, the most important reason was—there were conditions for entering the Immortal Sect inheritance grounds.
Only young disciples under fifty years old were qualified to enter.
So even those accomplished cultivators who were already hundreds or thousands of years old could only look on with envy.
Although the young geniuses of the eight major sects were abundant, in reality, looking at the entire cultivation world, being able to break through to the Golden Core stage within fifty years was already considered an extremely rare dragon among men.
These sand bandits had been robbing and killing for many years. Most of the young cultivators they encountered were at the Foundation Establishment stage, at most Golden Core. This made them fearless. They never expected to encounter a Nascent Soul stage cultivator today!
This time they had really kicked an iron plate.
Ma Hezheng realized something was wrong and turned to run.
"Want to run? It's not that easy!"
The young man laughed coldly, his figure like lightning. The speed and strength of the Nascent Soul stage were not something a few Golden Core cultivators could compare to. He effortlessly knocked down the leader Ma Hezheng, stepping on him.
The other sand bandits were all surrounded by the Weeping Blood Sword. Those who didn't obey were killed.
"Speak, who are you people, daring to set your sights on us?"
The young man stepped on the big man's head, pushing it into the yellow sand. A flash of wild arrogance passed through his eyes. The next second, he turned his head to look at Chu Sang and the others who had arrived, changing his expression in an instant.
"Big Senior Sister, Junior Sister, look how I subdued this group with just three punches and two kicks. Aren't I amazing!!!"