The next day.
As the first hint of light appeared in the sky, Nian Jiaojiao left without disturbing anyone. She glanced at the front door of her home, drew her fan, and set off.
Little did she know that after she left, five well-dressed men appeared at the entrance.
They stood there for a while before turning back inside.
Meanwhile.
Nian Jiaojiao was the first to arrive at Shazhou.
The sky had already turned a vibrant orange-red, as if painted by a brush, spreading quickly and illuminating the distant horizon, bathing the entire sky in a fiery glow.
Upon reaching Shazhou, Nian Jiaojiao did not immediately use her abilities to depart again. Instead, she headed to the nearest small town.
Seeing the town's exotic architecture and culture once more, her mood, which had been agitated by the hot weather, improved slightly.
She went to a tea stall and drank iced tea in large gulps.
At this moment, a caravan arrived at the tea stall where Nian Jiaojiao was.
The previously empty tables and chairs around her were suddenly filled with people.
"Waiter! Waiter!"
The caravan leader called out.
"Coming! Esteemed guests, what can I get for you?"
"Hey! What are you talking about? What else do you have besides iced tea here?"
To the caravan leader's rhetorical question, the waiter awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
At this point, a guard beside the leader spoke:
"A large bowl of iced tea. Serve two big bowls to each of the sisters, let them have a good drink! Damn it, we were almost dried up in the desert!"
"For my esteemed guest, please wait a moment!"
After speaking, the waiter quickly ran to the back to fetch the iced tea.
Several women sitting at the table next to Nian Jiaojiao were talking loudly. Suddenly, one of them noticed Nian Jiaojiao. She nudged the person next to her with her elbow and gestured with her head for the other to look at Nian Jiaojiao.
It had to be said that Nian Jiaojiao's scholar-like attire and her fair, delicate skin made her stand out in the windy and sandy Shazhou.
A guard suddenly stood up and sat down beside Nian Jiaojiao.
"Miss, you look like a scholar, don't you?"
Ordinarily, a person traveling alone would be cautious and would not easily strike up a conversation with strangers.
However, Nian Jiaojiao's current cultivation gave her confidence. Moreover, these seasoned travelers had seen a lot, and she was happy to converse with them.
"Yes, I have read a few books."
At this moment, a few more guards joined them, adding to the conversation.
"Since you are a scholar, why do you come to this barren land?"
"As the saying goes, reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles. After reading books, one should also walk around and see more."
"Hehe! I like how this girl speaks. Unlike those bookworms who read dead books in academies, but are arrogant and don't put us common folk in their eyes at all."
"You jest, my dear sister. The Great Yue Dynasty openly promotes cultivation methods, and now every profession can lead to success. There is no distinction between high and low status."
Although the guards understood that Great Yue still respected scholars and that scholars were the foundation of Great Yue, their words made them feel good!
Thus, after a short chat, everyone began to converse freely.
"Here's your iced tea!"
At this moment, the waiter brought out bowl after bowl of iced tea.
Nian Jiaojiao waited until everyone had drunk a bowl and quenched their thirst before asking:
"This junior is out to gain some experience. May I ask where you all are from, and if you have any interesting stories from your journey, could you share one or two?"
By now, they were all addressing each other as siblings. As soon as Nian Jiaojiao asked, someone answered.
"Sister, you've asked the right person. Our caravan is not large, and we take on small orders. For survival, we mainly focus on quantity, so our experiences might be even more extensive than those of large merchant teams."
"We went to Sanzho last time, so we directly accepted orders from Sanzho and are preparing to head to the prefectural city of Shazhou. The journey along the way, oh, what a story..."
Nian Jiaojiao's heart stirred.
"Oh? What a coincidence, I was just planning to go to Sanzho!"
"What? You're going to Sanzho now? Sister, the road to Sanzho is not easy at this time. You'll have to take a long detour. This order we accepted this time is a loss."
"Sister, what do you mean?"
As she spoke, the guard looked around and lowered her voice:
"There have been demons from beyond the heavens appearing at the border between Shazhou and Sanzho!"
Another guard agreed:
"Yes, so the journey from Shazhou to here, which should have taken five days, took a full 12 days because we had to bypass that area. We lost a lot!"
Nian Jiaojiao touched the rim of her tea bowl, seeming to ask curiously:
"Have you seen these demons from beyond the heavens?"
Several people shook their heads, all stating that if they had seen such a thing, they wouldn't be sitting here chatting.
However, one of them shared some of the rumors she had heard with Nian Jiaojiao.
Information 1: The hands of the demons from beyond the heavens are "long," and even if someone escapes for hundreds of miles, they will be pulled back.
Information 2: The demons from beyond the heavens are like large insects and like to hide in the sand and gravel. This is why the demons from beyond the heavens have not invaded Sanzho.
After chatting and drinking tea, Nian Jiaojiao bid farewell to the caravan and headed out of the town first. She retrieved the great saber she had hidden, then took out her fan and set off for her destination again.
...
The border between Shazhou and Sanzho.
Beneath the gravel.
"Young Master, Young Master, how are you?"
Uncle Xu called out with difficulty.
Although he was a cultivator, he was gradually weakening due to prolonged lack of food.
But the Young Master was in a worse condition than him...
Looking at the dense presence surrounding Jun Ye...
Xu Jian felt a bout of nausea.
It was precisely because of this that Jun Ye had been in a coma for so long without waking up.
His own situation was slightly better than Jun Ye's, but his movements were restricted, and he could not break free.
Xu Jian seemed to give up struggling.
He gazed into the endless darkness, his thoughts drifting away.
Chuan'er, I have wronged no one in my life, but I have wronged you alone...
Scholar Xu...
Xu Jian suddenly remembered that woman. For some reason, he thought of that woman before his death, and his heart was filled with mixed emotions.
...
A day later, Nian Jiaojiao finally reached her destination.
"Is this the place?"
Nian Jiaojiao narrowed her eyes, looking at the occasionally undulating desert.
This desert seemed to have a life of its own...
Thinking this, she did not, as before, take out her peach wood fan from her embrace. Instead, she unslung her great saber from her back and held it in her hand.
Yes, the great saber offered a sense of security!
Nian Jiaojiao was once again grateful for her choice.
Since the caravan members said that the demons from beyond the heavens would suddenly emerge from the gravel with their hands, she had to remain alert against surprise attacks.
Nian Jiaojiao advanced slowly, dragging her great saber.
Her consciousness probed the surroundings.
If there was any movement nearby, she could react quickly and deliver a fatal blow to the opponent.
In less than fifteen minutes.
Hmm?
There seemed to be something under the ground.
Sensing movement beneath her feet, Nian Jiaojiao leaped up with her great saber.
At this moment, a long black shadow indeed shot out from the ground she had just stepped on, reaching directly for her ankle.
"Hiyah!"
Nian Jiaojiao instinctively uttered the classic exclamation from her past life.
The long saber struck the black shadow, but the shadow seemed unaffected. Instead, the saber was flung back.
What is this?
After landing, Nian Jiaojiao looked closely.
Suction cups?
The black object was covered in suction cups, resembling octopus tentacles.
An octopus in the desert?
Damn it!
Blast it, her trypophobia was acting up again!
Before Nian Jiaojiao could even get goosebumps, another tentacle with suction cups appeared at her feet.
There were already two tentacles!
Nian Jiaojiao could not dodge them easily.
But tentacles began to shoot out from beneath the desert surface one after another, reaching for Nian Jiaojiao.
"My goodness, there are seven tentacles! Could it really be an octopus?"
In this desolate desert, naturally, no one answered Nian Jiaojiao's question, and the tentacles continued to increase...
When the tentacles increased to fifty, Nian Jiaojiao found it increasingly difficult to dodge.
Can this great saber even be used?
It was, after all, an artifact of the Object Manipulation realm. If it couldn't cut through a single tentacle, all this energy would have been wasted!
Nian Jiaojiao grumbled as she instinctively glanced at the saber's blade.
Suddenly, she saw a line of small characters at the junction of the blade and the hilt...