Night Encounter with Sand Bandits

Zhou Xuanhao's successful Foundation Establishment was a momentous occasion for the entire Zhou Family, worthy of widespread celebration. After personally confirming the situation at Haoyang Cave, Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan returned to the family and issued invitations to cultivators from all directions to attend the ceremony and celebration.

Nearly every cultivation family and prominent rogue cultivator with good relations with the Zhou Family in the vicinity of Jade Spring Lake Oasis received an invitation.

Upon receiving these invitations, individuals either dispatched family elders with gifts to attend the ceremony or personally brought their younger disciples to broaden their horizons.

Cultivators previously stationed outside the family also temporarily set aside their tasks and rushed back to participate in a celebration unseen for decades.

A large number of cultivators gathered on Jade Spring Peak, transforming it from a relatively quiet place into a bustling hub.

The Zhou Family seized this opportunity to host a small exchange meet on Jade Spring Peak, offering accumulated treasures such as pills, artifacts, and talismans from their vault for sale to visiting rogue cultivators, while also purchasing raw materials for alchemy and artifact forging from them.

As for the family cultivators, since most cultivation families had their own artifact forgers and alchemists, the Tier 2 spirit pills and artifacts offered by the Zhou Family were not enough to attract their interest in purchasing.

However, occasionally appearing unknown spiritual items in the hands of some rogue cultivators would pique the interest of these family cultivators, leading them to make a few purchases.

Subsequently, these rogue cultivators would use the Spirit Stones they acquired to buy artifacts and pills from the Zhou Family's stalls.

But Zhou Yang would not be able to witness this lively scene.

After gaining some insight from Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan's words that day, he revealed his intentions to his parents and then returned to the family with the Old Clan Leader.

Upon returning to the family, Zhou Yang bid farewell to his godmother, Zhou Xuanyu, and then, with the blessings of the Old Clan Leader and his godmother, he rode a Sand Camel Beast alone and departed from Jade Spring Lake Oasis.

Excluding the family mission to Qingping Mountain Oasis years ago, this was Zhou Yang's first solo journey in the thirty-two years since arriving in this mysterious and vast Cultivation World.

His destination was the White Sand River Oasis, a desert oasis over six thousand li away from Jade Spring Lake Oasis, where the largest cultivator market town in the surrounding tens of thousands of li, Golden Sand Market, was located.

The ruler of the White Sand River Oasis was the Chen Family of White Camel Ridge. The Chen Family was a cultivation family with a history of seven to eight hundred years, founded by a Purple Mansion Stage expert. The current Chen Family Head, Chen Yaohui, had surpassed his predecessors, with a cultivation level even higher than the ancestor who founded the Chen Family.

Currently, the entire Chen Family of White Camel Ridge comprised one Purple Mansion Stage cultivator, twelve Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators, over a thousand Qi Refining Stage cultivators, and millions of secular clan members, making it the largest cultivation family in the surrounding tens of thousands of li.

When disciples of the Chen Family of White Camel Ridge ventured out, even disciples of the Yellow Sand Sect would show them respect, indicating their prominence.

Given the Chen Family's distinguished background, small cultivation families like the Jade Spring Zhou Family were not even on their radar; they were not on the same level.

However, Zhou Yuquan, the ancestor of the Zhou Family who founded the Jade Spring Zhou Family, had once provided significant assistance to Chen Yaohui when he was young, due to his own origins from the Yellow Sand Sect.

Therefore, after the founding of the Jade Spring Zhou Family lineage, the Chen Family ancestor, grateful for the past kindness, not only gifted two shops in the "Golden Sand Market" established by the Chen Family to the Zhou Family as a congratulatory gift but also included the Zhou Family in the Chen Family's alliance, allowing the Zhou Family to share the benefits within this alliance.

Events like the upcoming "Foundation Establishment Assembly" hosted by the Chen Family were activities only eligible for Chen Family alliance members.

Zhou Yang's trip to the White Sand River Oasis was not only to seek an opportunity to break through his cultivation bottleneck but also to carry the heavy trust of his family, following in his father's footsteps to oversee the family's shop in the "Golden Sand Market" in place of his father, Zhou Xuanhao, who had already achieved Foundation Establishment.

The route from Jade Spring Lake Oasis to White Sand River Oasis was already well-established. Although there were no formal roads in the desert, through the collective efforts of several generations of Zhou Family cultivators, dozens of "signal towers" had been erected in the thousands of li of desert between the two oases to ensure that Zhou Family cultivators traveling between them would not get lost.

Of course, "signal towers" were Zhou Yang's interpretation. In reality, the Zhou Family's formation masters had refined dozens of Tier 1 High-grade formations called "Yuan Magnetic Attraction Formations," and then had them deployed across the thousands of li of desert between Jade Spring Lake Oasis and White Sand River Oasis.

Zhou Family cultivators or cultivators closely associated with the Zhou Family, as long as they carried a specially refined Tier 1 artifact, the "Yin Yang Magnetic Needle," while traveling on this route, could establish contact with any formation within a hundred li, completely eliminating the worry of getting lost.

However, despite the guidance of the "signal towers" preventing them from getting lost, the treacherous and unpredictable desert weather still gave Zhou Yang, on his first long journey, a difficult time.

After departing from Jade Spring Lake Oasis, he encountered three sandstorms within just half a month. Each time a sandstorm approached, he could only hide under the Sand Camel Beast like an ostrich and watch helplessly as countless yellow sands "buried" him alive.

While sandstorms might have only left Zhou Yang dusty and a bit battered, the quicksand, which could appear anywhere in the desert, was truly life-threatening.

Unlike sandstorms, quicksand did not show obvious signs before appearing; you only realized you were trapped in quicksand after stepping into it.

The innate special talent of the Sand Camel Beasts allowed them to detect anomalies before sandstorms arrived and warn their masters in time.

However, even these desert-dwelling demonic beasts were helpless against quicksand.

Before people and livestock step on it, quicksand looks exactly like normal sandy ground, making it very difficult to detect.

Once one steps on quicksand, an adult male of normal weight would disappear completely beneath the surface in less than ten seconds.

Zhou Yang and the Sand Camel Beast beneath him, weighing over three tons combined, would sink to the depths of the quicksand in less than three seconds if they were to get trapped.

The first time Zhou Yang, along with the camel beast, fell into quicksand, he had no time to react before sinking beneath the sand surface with the Sand Camel Beast.

Fortunately, before he left, Old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan had repeatedly instructed him to keep several "Earth Evasion Technique" talismans in his sleeve. In his panic, he managed to activate the talismans in time, allowing him and the Sand Camel Beast to escape the quicksand area.

This experience of being trapped in quicksand had thoroughly terrified Zhou Yang. The suffocating horror, like falling into an abyss, was more frightening than death itself.

From then on, every day as he rode on the Sand Camel Beast, he would release his divine sense to scan the ground ten meters ahead, and he also affixed "Earth Evasion Technique" talismans to his arms and legs.

Although this method was extremely mentally taxing, it at least provided peace of mind.

However, this significantly reduced Zhou Yang's travel speed, allowing him to cover less than three hundred li per day, far below the Sand Camel Beast's normal speed of five hundred li per day.

One day, after a full day's journey, Zhou Yang, exhausted, set up camp at the leeward side of a sandy slope.

He first set up his camping tent, then fed the Sand Camel Beast a few Tier 1 spirit pills, "Essence Pills," refined from the essence of demonic beast flesh and blood to replenish its energy, and hung the camel bells.

After completing these tasks, he confidently left the Sand Camel Beast to stand guard outside for him and entered the tent to meditate and recover his depleted divine sense.

The desert night was cold, with temperatures dropping to below zero. Zhou Yang was somewhat comfortable inside the sealed camel leather tent, but the Sand Camel Beast lying outside had curled its limbs into a ball, and the breath exhaled from its mouth and nose condensed into white mist.

These domesticated Sand Camel Beasts were not only the best riding mounts in the desert but also excellent sentinels.

In the silent desert night, the Sand Camel Beast's excellent perception allowed it to clearly sense the digging sounds of mice several meters underground. With them on guard, it was virtually impossible for desert demonic beasts attempting to launch sneak attacks from underground to succeed.

As the night deepened and the temperature continued to drop, the Sand Camel Beast on guard outside the tent had buried more than half of its body in the yellow sand, with only its head exposed above the ground.

Suddenly, the seemingly slumbering Sand Camel Beast's eyes snapped open, and it raised its head alertly towards the top of the sandy slope.

Jingle!

The urgent sound of camel bells, accompanied by the Sand Camel Beast's anxious neighing, quickly woke Zhou Yang, who was meditating inside the tent.

Without a second thought, he flicked his sleeve and summoned the Silver Gang Shield artifact, which had saved his life countless times before, then charged out of the tent under its protection.

Whoosh!

As soon as he burst out of the tent, Zhou Yang heard a sharp whistling sound explode near his ear. This sound was all too familiar to him; it was the sound of cultivators propelling flying swords through the air.

As expected, in the next moment, he saw a golden light collide with his Silver Gang Shield artifact.

"A Tier 2 High-grade defensive artifact!"

The golden light scattered upon hitting the Silver Gang Shield, revealing a two-foot-long golden conical artifact. Simultaneously, a surprised exclamation rang out from not too far away.

Zhou Yang followed the sound and saw two cultivators, clad in black robes and masked, standing on the sand slope looking in his direction.

Seeing him look over, one of the black-robed cultivators reached out and recalled the conical artifact that had failed its sneak attack. His eyes filled with greed as he stared at the Silver Gang Shield artifact in front of Zhou Yang and growled fiercely, "Kid, I'll give you a chance to live. Hand over this Tier 2 High-grade defensive artifact, and I'll spare your life!"

"Sand bandits?"

Zhou Yang frowned, ignoring the black-robed cultivator's taunts. He looked at the two uninvited guests thoughtfully and asked.

Hearing his blunt question, the two black-robed cultivators' eyes turned cold. The one who hadn't attacked yet said coldly, "Knowing we're Sand Bandits and still remaining so calm... it seems you aren't just a cultivator from an ordinary family, little brother. May I ask which family you come from?"

"Why? If I tell you, will you stop and leave?" Zhou Yang asked with a half-smile, his eyes full of mockery.

"Of course not!"

The black-robed cultivator who had spoken shook his head, then waved his sleeve and summoned a shimmering crimson banner. He looked at Zhou Yang and sneered, "However, if you clearly state your origins, after we kill you, if we find your belongings are good, we might kindly send your corpse back to your kin!"

"I see!"

Zhou Yang nodded, then suddenly waved his hand. The four "Armor Piercing Daggers" sheathed at his waist unsheathed in response, whoosh whoosh whoosh, transforming into four streaks of bone-chilling white light that shot towards the sand beneath him not far behind.

Ah!

A shrill scream instantly erupted from beneath the ground behind Zhou Yang.

"Third brother!"

"Third brother!"

On the sand slope, the two black-robed cultivators' expressions changed, and they couldn't help but exclaim.

It turned out they hadn't come alone tonight; there were three of them, with one person hidden underground, waiting for an opportunity to launch a sneak attack.

However, man plans, and the tiger plans. Zhou Yang had already discovered that someone was hiding underground.

So, he played along with the two black-robed cultivators on the surface, stalling for time. After locking onto the enemy's position, he suddenly summoned his artifacts and launched a counter-attack.

Thanks to book friends Kuai Yi Kuai Le, Yi Ge Ren De Ye 97, Qing Feng Fu Luo Ye, and Bai Yi Xiao Zhan for their 100 QiDian coin tips. The first three book friends have tipped for the second time. Thank you, thank you. Lastly, I ask for recommendation tickets, collection, and to join the new book investment group. The new book investment is still one short of a full hundred, and it's just not moving. So frustrating