“What is this place? Have we been transported out?” Xu Yingdie climbed up in shock and asked in her first words. She was dressed in a white daoist robe, and with her snow-white hair originally appeared somewhat illusory. However, together with her stunningly beautiful face, it added a little more poignancy to this illusion.
Ning Cheng and Yin Kongchan woke up at the same time, and the three of them were not very far apart. The blinding sunlight shone on their bodies, making it clear to the three of them that this was definitely not the Ghostly Mist Graveyard, nor was it the space where the Nine Yin Marrow of the Earth’s Core was located.
Ning Cheng stood up, patted the fine sand on his body and looked up at the endless desert, he knew that this was definitely not being transported out.
There was not a single bit of spiritual energy here, and not only that, his sea of consciousness was also completely sealed. It was as if the true essence in his dantian had fallen asleep, without a single movement.
In other words, Ning Cheng had experienced such a feeling for over twenty years, could he not be clear about it? Back then, when he was living on Earth, this was the state he was in. There was no divine sense, no true essence, a completely ordinary mortal.
Yin Kongchan also climbed up, her pale yellow dress looking more and more out of the ordinary under the reflection of the sunlight.
“We didn’t get out, and were transported to a place even more terrifying than that space just now. There is no aura here, the sea of consciousness is sealed, the true essence cannot move, and here we are completely and utterly ordinary mortals. And ……” Yin Kongchan said slowly.
Yin Kongchan looked at Ning Cheng and Xu Yingdie and said, “And here we need to be like a most ordinary person, running for food, or else one day we will be starved to death.”
Ning Cheng and Xu Yingdie, who had not felt anything, immediately felt a pang of hunger after hearing Yin Kongchan’s words.
Ning Cheng’s heart shook as he once again remembered one of the three lessons that Rui Bai Shan had given him. At all times, have the assurance of survival and do not be starved to death. Previously, he had thought that it was useless to refine something like a grain-removal pill, a clear water pill and so on because of this experience from Rui Bai Shan. If they had been trapped here and couldn’t get out, how precious would things such as the grain-preventing pills and clear water pills they had made before be? Where was the uselessness?
Thinking of this, Ning Cheng subconsciously touched his belt, this belt was the one he had especially refined for this place in the Ghostly Mist Cemetery, inside were over two hundred Clear Water Pills, and over two hundred Valley Cleansing Pills, as well as a toothbrush, there was also a Mitsubishi Stinger strapped to his calf.
In addition to this, he had also made a cloth bag, some healing pills, some wrist guards, a dagger, a telescope, a compass and other such wilderness survival items. Unfortunately all these things were in the cloth bag, and because he felt he was doing something brain-dead at the time, the cloth bag was thrown inside his ring and he could never take it out again.
It was the same as saying he had refined something when he had a sense of crisis, but most of these things he had no way of taking out and using.
Touching his belt once again, Ning Cheng secretly celebrated that it was fortunate that the belt had not been thrown into the ring, otherwise his previous crisis awareness could really have been a completely useless exercise.
Thinking about the uselessness, Ning Cheng thought of Rui Bai Shan again, and his heart became more and more horrified. Suddenly, he found that the few pieces of meaningless advice that Rui Bai Shan had given him were all surprisingly useful. He had chosen to trust Yin Kongchan at the most helpless moment, and as a result, Yin Kongchan had really saved him.
Later, because he suspected the two, Xu Yingdi and Yin Kongchan’s words were both simply ignored by him. Wouldn’t this be another piece of advice that Rui Bai Shan had said, not to completely trust one’s close friends when necessary?
Together with the advice not to be starved to death now, Ning Cheng realised at this time that not only were Rui Bai Shan’s three pieces of advice useful, but they were also very useful. Could it be that Rui Bai Shan had also come to this place? Or was it that Rui Bai Shan knew that he was coming to this place? If the latter was the case, then Rui Bai Shan was simply too terrifying.
“Yin Kongchan, I would like to ask you a question. In my hometown there is also no spiritual energy and one cannot cultivate, and one’s lifespan is also limited, is this kind of place just like that?” Ning Cheng thought of Earth, was it possible that when he returned to Earth in the future, his divine sense and true essence would be completely sealed away?
Yin Kongchan shook his head, “No, these are two completely different places. Where you can’t cultivate, you can still run your true essence and stretch your divine sense, and you can use spells just the same, only your cultivation is stagnant. The kind of place we are in, as the Grand Palace Master told me, is called the Abandoned Land. The Abandoned Land is a place where there is no spiritual energy, no use of true essence, and no use of divine sense. Here, any spells are fake. In such places, whether they are cultivators, immortals, or great powers, they must all run around like mortals, trying to stay alive.”
Ning Cheng fell silent and did not continue to speak, he was thinking if he could not get out, could he use that talisman at the bottom of the Blood River to leave this place? Then Ning Cheng put this thought aside, he had lost that talisman in his ring, now he couldn’t take out anything inside his ring, what else could he talk about the talisman?
“What are you all looking at me for?” Ning Cheng looked up and saw both Yin Kongchan and Xu Yingdie staring at him, he casually asked, and soon he understood why both of them were looking at him.
Xu Yingdie and Yin Kongchan were both core disciples of large sects, and such disciples had been trained by the sects since they were young. Even if they went out on an adventure, it wasn’t for survival. With magical power, of course, they could do whatever they wanted. Now that neither true essence nor divine sense could be exercised, they were equal to an ordinary mortal. As an ordinary mortal, the two women had no ability to survive and were clearly inferior to a grassroots character like him.
“Let’s leave this desert first and find something to fill our stomachs.” Ning Cheng said in a very dry manner.
He did not take out his own Grain Pill, nor did he take out his Clear Water Pill. The reason was simple, Ning Cheng felt that both Xu Yingdie and Yin Kongchan were a little weird, or at least the two of them were hiding something from him. Because of this, he did not continue to ask Yin Kongchan why he was not with them and instead went away alone.
Of course there was another reason, he didn’t have much of the Grain Pill and Clear Water Pill, and if the three of them didn’t make any effort, they definitely wouldn’t last long if they relied on these things to consume.
Xu Yingdie and Yin Kongchan had no idea what to do and obviously had no objection, the two of them consciously followed behind Ning Cheng. Without their cultivation, the two women were far inferior to Ning Cheng who had not yet fully recovered. In just half a day’s time, the two women were panting and their faces were pale. Under the hot sun, even their lips were dry and cracked. As the sweat evaporated, they became weaker and weaker.
It was Ning Cheng who also felt his power dropping quickly, if he did not get out of the desert as soon as possible, his two hundred or so Clear Water Pills would definitely not last long.
“I think I might not be able to walk out of this desert. I never thought that I would be so desperate for a drop of water.” Yin Kongchan looked at the endless yellow sand in the distance, as well as the sun that was gradually dipping in the west, and said somewhat hoarsely.
Ning Cheng sighed and asked, “Yin Kongchan, you have some knowledge of the Abandoned Lands, can you tell me if anyone has ever gone out from the Abandoned Lands?”
As he asked, he was already ready to take out the Clear Water Pill and the Grain Pill, each replenishing some strength first.
Yin Kongchan stopped, shook her head and said, “Those who enter the Abandoned Land are those who have been abandoned by heaven and earth, I have not heard of anyone ever getting out. But I’m sure that it’s possible to get out of here, otherwise the Abandoned Land wouldn’t be known to others.”
After saying that, Yin Kongchan looked at Ning Cheng and said, “Ning Cheng, why did you not continue to ask me after entering this?”
“I think the three of us should collaborate with each other now, so we can ask these questions later.” Ning Cheng said with disinterest.
Yin Kongchan and Xu Yingdie were no fools, Ning Cheng’s words had already indicated that he knew something, and all three of them fell silent in an instant.
“Let’s choose a direction and keep moving forward, we will always get out of this desert.” Ning Cheng broke the silence between the three of them and felt some pity in his heart. He regretted that the compass he had refined was in the cloth bag inside his ring, if only his compass was in his hand.
Just at this time, two black shadows appeared in the distance in the sight of the three.
“Someone?” Xu Yingdie and Yin Kongchan said at the same time.
“It’s two people.” Ning Cheng also said in surprise.
Since there were people here, it meant that there was soil for survival, and the three of them didn’t have to care about dying of hunger or even thirst.
The two shadows grew larger and larger and soon had reached the three men, which were two men.
Ning Cheng’s heart sank as soon as he saw these two men. These two men had skin like tree bark, with dry complexions, yellowish hair and a brownish tinge to their bodies.
This was obviously a condition that could only be caused by being in a long term water shortage. These two men should be people who survived in this vicinity, and even they had no water to drink, Ning Cheng could imagine that even if the three of them had found a crowded settlement, water should still be something in short supply.
After the two men arrived in front of Ning Cheng and the three of them, their eyes stared straight at Xu Yingdie and Yin Kongchan, and they even stuck out their dark brown tongues and licked their lips. Ning Cheng could clearly see the terrifying desire in the two men’s eyes, as if they had never seen such a stunningly beautiful, so watery woman before.
These two only hesitated for a moment before they pounced on Xu Yingdie and Yin Kongchan as if they had gone mad, without any words at all.
Although Yin Kongchan and Xu Yingdi had no true essence and no magical power, they were at least elemental souls. But they were at least Yuan-Soul cultivators, and their eyesight was still there, and their movements were agile enough. Almost at the same time as the two men pounced on them, they gave way.
The two men flung themselves onto the sand, and the next moment the two men quickly climbed up again, surprisingly agile, and this time the desire in their eyes was even stronger.
However, this time they only said something to each other, but did not continue to pounce on Yin Kongchan and Xu Yingdie, instead they pounced on Ning Cheng’s side. Obviously the two knew that Yin Kongchan and Xu Yingdie could not escape, so they wanted to kill Ning Cheng first.