Desert Hardships

Yan Qingshan took two small sips of the cool water Qingling carried close to her body. The cool, moist sensation left him feeling thoroughly refreshed.

In the desert, drinking ice-cold water directly was not necessarily a good thing; it could easily upset one's stomach. Cool water at a suitable temperature was actually better than ice water.

As the owner of the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils, Qingling possessed an innately powerful physique. Even the harsh conditions of the desert could not affect her too greatly.

The snake people were naturally cold-natured and yin-aligned, which was why they could survive and reproduce in the harsh Tagore Desert. Qingling was of mixed blood from two races and had awakened the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils. In terms of Bloodline Level alone, she was even higher than the current Queen Medusa.

Because of the snake people bloodline within her, Qing Lin's body continuously released a frigid energy that protected her. Naturally, the cool water she carried close to her body was at an extremely suitable temperature.

After drinking some water and eating a little food to replenish his strength, Yan Qingshan held a first-tier Qi Return Pill he had bought earlier in Black Rock City in his mouth and circulated his cultivation method, rapidly restoring his Dou Qi.

With Old Ya, a top-tier alchemist, providing him with second-tier Qi Return Pills, Xiao Yan never had to fear depletion during cultivation. His Dou Qi was always sufficient.

Yan Qingshan, on the other hand, had it much harder. Although he had money, medicinal pills were expensive. Even first-tier Qi Return Pills were quite precious. He was only willing to use them during this sort of harsh training; during ordinary cultivation, he merely circulated his cultivation method on his own to recover Dou Qi.

More than half an hour later, Yan Qingshan had recovered all his Dou Qi and rose to his feet. Clenching his fists, he could feel that his cultivation had improved slightly again. He was not far from becoming a seven-star Dou Zhe.

Across the vast desert, yellow sand raged. The rising sun illuminated the earth, and in the direction where the sun had set, two people and two camels slowly arrived at this stretch of sand beneath the newborn dawn, where the sand was somewhat warm.

This was a flat stretch of desert, with extremely ordinary and common terrain. There were simply too many places like this amid the great desert.

After walking for an entire day and night, stopping and starting all along the way, Yan Qingshan had finally reached this sandy expanse, a place that could be reached in little time while riding a camel beast. He stepped forward twice and stood atop a small dune, gazing around with a contemplative expression.

This place was not far from Stone Desert City. On a fine camel beast galloping at full speed, one could make a round trip in half an hour, yet they had traveled for an entire day and night.

It was not that Yan Qingshan was too slow. Rather, he had chosen to walk slowly over the sand, using the wind and sand to temper his body and Dou Qi. Every so often, he had to stop and recover his Dou Qi, and the time spent recovering it was far longer than the time spent walking.

Moreover, once night fell, the desert temperature plummeted rapidly. It was cold enough at night to make one shiver, and it was easy to lose one's direction in the darkness.

Yan Qingshan did not deliberately seek suffering either. Following Qingling's suggestion, he rested where they were for the night. Only when the horizon began to brighten did they continue onward, traveling another stretch before arriving at this warm patch of sand just as day broke.

The temperature difference between day and night in the desert was enormous. During the day, under the sun, the surface temperature could reach nearly one hundred degrees. In the hottest places, an egg buried in the sand would cook before long. Yet at night, the temperature could even fall below zero. Such a drastic difference was truly hard to imagine.

When one first woke in the morning, the ground was still somewhat cold. In certain parts of the desert, as the sun rose and the temperature climbed, dew could even appear. This was the rarest and most precious thing in the desert—water.

Yet the patch of sand Yan Qingshan now stood upon grew warmer the closer he came. By the time he reached the edge of the destination marked on the map, it already felt like yesterday at noon. The temperature in this area was highly abnormal.

However, no matter where he looked, there were no unusual structures nearby. There was not even the shadow of a mountain, much less a cave. The tallest dunes showed nothing out of the ordinary either. It looked like an entirely ordinary desert.

"Shuguang, scan and analyze the data of this region..."

Yan Qingshan stared intently at his surroundings. The Thunder Eyes he had gained after the Lionheart Baptism had greatly enhanced his powers of observation and intelligence gathering, while even his Soul Perception had become much stronger. Yet this expanse of yellow sand was so vast that its boundaries could not be seen, making it difficult to locate the target he sought.

"The target exceeds the search range. I can only vaguely sense an unknown heat source underground; detailed information cannot be obtained... The thing is underground, but with my strength, digging around blindly in the desert will only end with me burying myself alive!"

Yan Qingshan crouched down and grabbed a handful of yellow sand. The scorching grains made him frown. The Green Lotus Core Flame and the Two-headed Fire Spirit Snake should, if nothing unexpected had happened, be beneath this desert. Yet he seemed to have no way of getting down there.

Digging holes in the desert was extremely dangerous because desert sand was very loose. If one dug at an angle or sideways, the sand above would collapse completely before long.

But if he dug straight down, there was an underground lava pool below. He would probably be finished by the high temperature before digging through. Even if he truly dug a straight passage through, the backflow of magma surging out would be enough to deal with him.

The fact that the underground lava pool had not erupted and flooded outward indicated that between the pool and the yellow sand above it, there should be a solid layer of cooled quartzite blocking the magma.

However, magma was absolutely unstable. According to Xiao Yan's experiences from his memories, there were several underground passages below, likely burned out beneath the earth by repeated magma eruptions.

But at present, most of those passages probably did not connect to the outside world. Otherwise, when the magma became active and surged upward, it would have long since erupted onto the surface.

Queen Medusa later found this place and relied on her overwhelming strength to blast a passage straight to the underground with Dou Qi.

Her strength was extraordinary, and she could naturally use Dou Qi to stabilize the passage without issue. But Yan Qingshan lacked that ability. His only option now was to find a way to dig a passage directly from the surface to the underground.

But the problem was that digging randomly like a headless fly was more likely to lead straight into the lava pool. Or he might dig to an extreme depth and still fail to encounter one of the underground passageways. The latter possibility would be even worse.

Because he had no idea where underground passageways might be located, digging at random would very likely waste all his effort. The matter seemed to have reached a stalemate.

Yet Yan Qingshan was not discouraged. Instead, he took Qingling and the camel beasts back out of this sandy area and headed south, eventually arriving at a patch of woodland rarely seen in the desert.

At the center of this woodland was a shallow pool of water. However, the water was salty and could not be drunk directly, though it was a paradise for the drought-resistant, salt-tolerant plants growing around it.

Among the woods formed by poplars, desert date trees, and saxaul trees, sparse grass left large stretches of yellow earth exposed. In the more heavily shaded spots, low plants such as cacti, lithops, and aloe grew vigorously. Some desert weeds also crept across the yellow soil, and there were even traces of antelope and wild camels at the distant edge of the woods.

"Qingling, let's Set Up Camp here and stay for now!"

There were no signs of people in this area, only the occasional remains of fire pits. This was perfectly normal.

Although this woodland could barely support human life, it lacked a source of fresh water. Gathering enough fresh water every day would take quite some time. Besides, Stone Desert City was not far away, so there was little reason for anyone to remain here.

Ten days later, within the desert woodland, Yan Qingshan was somewhat damp all over and wore little more than a pair of shorts. His formerly fair skin had turned a dark yellow, almost bronze in color.

His body was coated in something damp and sticky, carrying a faint odor. It did not seem to be sweat, but rather the juices of certain plants.

Yan Qingshan had made this medicinal liquid from local materials, mixing Golden Shuttle Fruit with Snow Jade Stone Orchid, Jade Spirit Aloe, and other succulent medicinal herbs before applying it to his body. It protected against the sun while improving his physique and increasing his resistance to the fire element, though it was certainly not very comfortable.

There were actually quite a few medicinal herbs in this woodland. Because spiritual energy existed in this world, even ordinary plants possessed certain miraculous effects that had not existed in his previous life.

Take the Golden Shuttle Fruit, Snow Jade Stone Orchid, and Jade Spirit Aloe that Yan Qingshan had just used. In the eyes of the people of Stone Desert City, they were useless plants, barely fit to fill one's stomach when there was no food, though they could not be used as staple food.

They did possess Medicinal Properties, but they were inferior even to low-grade medicinal herbs like Yellow Lotus Essence. They were simply too common in the desert to be worth gathering.

But with the special processing and preparation methods Shuguang had deduced, Yan Qingshan had turned the ordinary into the extraordinary, making them into medicinal liquid that assisted his cultivation. Over these ten days, these substances had played a major role in helping him stabilize his seven-star Dou Zhe cultivation.

"Shuguang, data analysis!"

Host: Yan Qingshan

Cultivation: Seven-star Dou Practitioner

Cultivation Art: Profound-tier High-grade Lionheart King's Art (one Lionheart Baptism)

Dou Skill: Profound-tier High-grade Roaring Lion's Roar (Proficient), Profound-tier Low-grade Phoenix Soaring Steps (Proficient)

Strength: 8

Status: Healthy

Agility: 6.5

Mental Power: 33

Primary Attribute: Wood

Secondary Attribute: Lightning (Thunder Eyes)

(Data collection target: One-star Dou Practitioner average; the median for all One-star Dou Practitioner attributes is 1.0)

Ten days of arduous cultivation had transformed Yan Qingshan from the inside out. He could feel the immense changes within himself and realized this was a fortunate opportunity. Perhaps, in this woodland outside Stone Desert City, he could find a chance to break through to Dou Master.

Therefore, he decided to set everything else aside and continue cultivating...

Two months later, within the woodland outside Stone Desert City.

Yan Qingshan sat cross-legged beneath a poplar tree. A hazy azure-green radiance spread outward from his body in every direction. With his rhythmic breathing, all the surrounding plants seemed to resonate with him.

Plant after plant, brimming with vitality, became tinged with emerald hues. Wisps of jade-green spiritual energy gently rippled through the air.

This land, once sparse in vitality, now seemed filled with the rich aura of living things. The poplar behind him in particular glimmered with emerald light, its branches lush and leaves flourishing, standing peerless among the trees.