A Cup of Clear Water, Twenty Coins

The scene just now scared the white dog into yelping, and it turned and bolted.

The monster gave chase immediately, and both soon vanished behind a sand dune.

A caravan guard in the rear cursed viciously. With one less client to escort, his pay would be docked accordingly.

This was the Coiling Dragon Desert's way of greeting everyone.

The relaxed atmosphere among all the teams that witnessed this vanished in an instant.

Zeng Feixiong withdrew his gaze and muttered, "That was his mistake. On Red Cliff Road, children and dogs must be kept on a leash."

"That's the first time I've seen a Yellow Flounder that big," He Lingchuan remarked, clicking his tongue. His original self had been an avid hunter and knew that a Yellow Flounder wasn't a fish, but a monster that lurked in deserts and Gobi terrain, specializing in ambushing small animals passing by.

It could dive and surface in the sand with ease, moving faster than any four-legged creature.

But these things were usually only slightly larger than a dog; even if it had become a demon, it shouldn't have been that size!

"This is the Coiling Dragon Desert, after all." Zeng Feixiong had escorted caravans through here many times and was long since unfazed. "Resentful spirits affect everything here. Even monsters that originally possessed intelligence will be corrupted if they stay in the desert too long."

That made sense. That was why, even though Sand Leopards hunted in the Coiling Dragon Desert, they always stayed in the West Mountain to dwell and breed.

The magnificent desert looks the same no matter how long you stare at it.

The journey was calm and boring. As long as you didn't step one inch off Red Cliff Road, you only had to deal with the hot wind, the scorching sun, and the occasional sandstorm.

For a prepared and experienced team, these were all bearable.

After three days of travel, the team finally arrived at Baiyuan Station.

This was a relay station on Red Cliff Road, used by traveling merchants to rest; its predecessor had been an ancient city.

There were over a dozen ancient cities in the Coiling Dragon Wilderness, but few remained after a hundred years. Baiyuan City had long since been swallowed by yellow sand; later arrivals had excavated its old foundations and added a few rows of houses along the side of Red Cliff Road.

Within the bounds of the ancient city, just like on Red Cliff Road, one would not be attacked by resentful spirits or monsters, making it a great place for merchants to stop halfway.

As the team pulled into Baiyuan Station, He Chunhua hurried over to negotiate with the station official.

Indeed, Blackwater City maintained a relay station here and dispatched personnel to manage it. However, the regulations here were very loose, unlike the strictness found within the Yuan Kingdom.

At times like this, in places like this, the power of money became apparent.

Baiyuan Station allowed passing merchants to set up tents, and it sold food and water. If people wanted to splurge, they could also rent a small room.

Of course, the Coiling Dragon Desert itself had no water source; all ingredients, fresh water, and building materials had to be transported from within Blackwater City.

Where there is demand, there is business. Those who wanted to trade here first had to grease the palms of the station officials, then go to great lengths to transport goods to this barren land. With all sorts of costs piled on top of each other, a basic set meal of a steamed bun and a bottle of water selling for thirty wen—not expensive, right?

A bowl of mutton soup with flatbread, the kind with only grease and no meat chunks, selling for two qian of silver—not expensive, right?

An overnight room for five taels of silver—you'd feel like you were getting a bargain just by staying in it, right?

If you also wanted to take a hot bath in the desert to wash away the dust and fatigue of the road—

State Preceptor Sun, Commandant Nian, and the Eldest Young Master He all had this desire, so Governor He had no choice but to spend the money.

This single expense alone could have bought five mu of prime farmland near Blackwater City—permanent real estate.

After bathing and eating a few luxury set meals until half-full, He Lingchuan finally felt his strength returning.

Despite his sturdy build, these three days had been exhausting, and he didn't know how many more hardships lay ahead.

In contrast, He Chunhua still appeared to have energy to spare; clearly, he was not as weak as he looked on the surface.

He Lingchuan also bought a few set meals for Zeng Feixiong, otherwise, the man would have been short on cash and forced to gnaw on cold buns with the soldiers.

Zeng Feixiong felt bad and declined several times, but he was no match for the Eldest Young Master's persistence, so in the end, he could only accept it with gratitude, thanking him repeatedly.

He Lingchuan knew that this man was straightforward but not reckless, and since he was leading the troops into the desert this time, he patted him on the shoulder and said, "Only with good food and drink will you have the strength to work. The safety of my father and me is in your hands."

"Governor He and you have treated this subordinate with great kindness and resolved my worries; I will serve you with my life!"

"Serving with your life is a bit much," He Lingchuan laughed. "By the way, I heard your father was the only survivor to return from the Coiling Dragon Ruins?"

Zeng Feixiong's expression dimmed. "Yes. Twenty years ago, someone paid a high price to hire him as a guide, and he was the only one to return alive. But he lost his mind from that day on, and even the Great Shaman couldn't cure him. No one knows what happened to them; he just mutters one word all day long—water."

"Water?" The desert was indeed short of water, but what kind of trauma had Zeng Feixiong's father suffered to remain obsessed with water even after losing his mind?

At this moment, Sun Fuping came to call them; he wanted to gather the leaders in his room for a meeting.

A guard brought a large amount of yellow sand from outside and poured it onto the table.

A simple sand table was ready.

"We are almost finished with Red Cliff Road," Zeng Feixiong said, gesturing over the sand table. "The day after tomorrow, we will leave the main road and enter the desert. The real test begins then."

"Red Cliff Road originally connected to Coiling Dragon City." It was a military supply route, after all; it had to reach the city walls to be of any use. "Not long after the Coiling Dragon Wilderness turned into a desert, the nearby peaks collapsed and smashed this road to pieces."

He drew a circle on the sand table. "If you want to go to Coiling Dragon City, you have to take a detour and enter through the gap in Ying Mountain."

This detour was no longer on Red Cliff Road, and the dangers they were about to face would increase significantly.

By comparison, the journey of the past three days felt like a vacation.

The group then discussed various countermeasures.

Although the He father and son had friction with Sun and Nian, when it came to their own lives, they discussed the matter with extreme focus.

He Lingchuan had been listening in silence, and only when the discussion had nearly wound down did he voice a long-standing confusion:

"As an isolated enclave, Coiling Dragon City held out for thirty-two years while surrounded on all sides, which is nothing short of miraculous. What, then, was the reason it was finally breached?" This was the mystery of the Coiling Dragon Desert; neither history books nor local legends offered a definitive account. Only among storytellers could one find far-fetched explanations. "Could it be, as the locals of Blackwater City claim, that Coiling Dragon City lost its backbone because Zhong Shengguang died of illness?"

People are inclined to seek a rational explanation for unsolved mysteries. Zhong Shengguang had occupied Coiling Dragon City for over thirty years, aging from a young man into an old one, and years of constant warfare would have taken a heavy toll on his body and mind. This explanation was the most plausible of all the legends He Lingchuan had heard.

He was curious about the truth.

"From the clues I have gathered, this legend actually holds some truth; Coiling Dragon City did indeed lose its backbone." Sun Fuping poured himself a cup of water—clear water that cost twenty wen a cup. "But it wasn't Zhong Shengguang—it was the Red General!"