Seeing Living People Again, the Miraculous Iron Horses!

Ever since he had encountered that bizarre flood and then been trapped in this seemingly boundless desert, the people Gu Qingfeng had wanted to meet most were other people.

He wanted to reach a city inhabited by humans.

Because he had already learned from Lu Mang Number One that the Returning Ruins were wicked and dangerous, and only cities where humans lived were relatively safer.

From his conversations with Junior Sister Qi and the others a few days ago, it seemed to be the same. Otherwise, they would not have been so desperate to return home.

"I hope they've already found their way home."

Gu Qingfeng thought this.

For those fellow disciples with whom he had shared life-and-death bonds, he hoped they were all safe and sound.

That night before last, he had truly felt that he now had several close fellow disciples, that he was no longer completely without roots in this unfamiliar world.

Through the Chivalrous Spirit Incense Burner, Gu Qingfeng had also learned that the cities in the Returning Ruins gathered many wicked demons and Outer Dao cultivators, even infamous devilish overlords.

That meant there should be plenty of sinister and demonic cultivation arts there.

To ordinary people, those demonic and sinister arts were arsenic, but to him, with his ability to reverse costs, they were simply honey.

The Yi-Wood Golden Core Feeding Formula was the finest example!

All he needed to do was proceed step by step, cultivate sinister and demonic arts steadily, then reverse their costs. He would surely grow stronger bit by bit and survive in this cursed place!

Until he returned and slaughtered the entire household of the Golden Core Immortal Venerable!

Thus, what Gu Qingfeng wanted most now was to encounter people.

To follow them to a city where humans lived!

That was also why he had become so excited upon suddenly hearing bells.

Upon hearing bells in the desert, Gu Qingfeng's first thought had been camel bells.

He swiftly climbed over the dune and looked in the direction of the ringing. Sure enough, he spotted a caravan.

It looked like a merchant caravan, with roughly a dozen people making their way across the dunes ahead.

He hurried after them.

He did not follow too closely, since it was still unclear what sort of people this caravan was.

Even if it were a legitimate merchant caravan, they probably would not welcome a stranger like him suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

But the awkward thing about the desert was that there was nowhere to hide.

Even though dawn had not yet arrived, the people in the caravan noticed him.

The group was resting atop a dune.

Yet the beasts pulling their goods were not the camels commonly seen in deserts, but horses.

The strange thing was that the horses had no heads.

Gu Qingfeng rubbed his eyes and looked more carefully, only to discover that those horses truly had no heads.

Headless horses could still pull cargo? Had he run into ghosts again?

Why had he added the word "again"?

A chill ran through Gu Qingfeng, and he could not help shrinking his neck.

At that moment, moonlight spilled across the dune, illuminating two of the headless horses.

The horses actually reflected a dull metallic gleam.

Iron Horse?

At this time, someone was holding a large jug and pouring black liquid into the severed neck of that Iron Horse.

Gu Qingfeng was somewhat dumbfounded.

"That can't possibly be crude oil, can it?"

He was no longer a clueless newbie who had just transmigrated and knew nothing.

Through the Chivalrous Spirit Incense Burner and the accounts of locals such as Qi Lingguang and the others, he considered himself to have gained some understanding of the Returning Ruins. Yet this place could still surprise him at every turn.

After seeing him, that group did not hurry onward, as though they were deliberately waiting for him.

But judging by the three people at the rear of the caravan drawing their weapons, they clearly were not waiting to invite him as a guest.

Gu Qingfeng felt it was necessary to explain his intentions, so he walked over.

As soon as he reached the foot of that dune, two men and a woman were already approaching with bone blades in hand.

"What are you doing here?"

The woman at the front asked with a stern expression.

Gu Qingfeng hurriedly explained, "I got lost. I can't find my way out of this desert."

The woman had dark skin and was clearly someone who spent all year traveling outdoors. She looked him up and down.

The other two men did the same, looking deeply wary.

Gu Qingfeng was currently wearing shorts that covered only half his thighs, along with boots on his feet. That attire truly did not make him look like a respectable person.

But Gu Qingfeng did not think they looked particularly normal either.

They looked like weather-beaten traveling merchants. Regardless of gender, all of them wore heavy makeup, and the rouge and powder looked rather out of place on their rough, dark faces.

The man on the left said, "Sis, why do I feel like he's scouting us out?"

Holding her bone blade, the woman studied Gu Qingfeng carefully and asked, "Very few people take this route. How did you end up lost here?"

Gu Qingfeng hurriedly gave them a brief account of his experience in the Lunar Mother Sea. After hearing it, all three wore expressions of surprise.

The woman gave Gu Qingfeng another careful once-over and found that he truly did not seem to be lying. "Wait here for now. I'll go speak with the leader."

After that, the two men and the woman returned to the caravan.

After a while, a green-robed man dressed like a scholar approached with several others.

"We merchants generally do not take strangers along, but little brother, you truly do seem to have had a hard time. Our food and water are limited as well, so we can only sell you a small portion. You may follow our caravan, but everything must be according to our arrangements."

"Also, if we encounter danger, we will not have the spare strength to help you. You can only pray for your own good fortune."

Gu Qingfeng nodded. "No problem. Thank you for taking me in, sir."

Afterward, Gu Qingfeng took out one of the golden anklets and exchanged it for some water and food.

The caravan leader was fairly just in his dealings. He appraised the bracelet by weight, then even gave Gu Qingfeng two silver ingots in change.

This truly was not the other party taking advantage of him.

Food and water were already expensive in the desert, not to mention that his golden anklet was an intimate toy—thin and light.

The caravan leader allowed him to travel with the caravan, but did not let him walk within the group.

Instead, he had him stay at the very rear, several zhang away from the caravan's last cart.

Clearly, they did not trust him very much.

Gu Qingfeng was happy with that arrangement.

He only wanted to leave this desert and reach a nearby city. He did not want to make friends, nor did he want to trouble anyone else.

Only now did Gu Qingfeng have the chance to observe the caravan, especially their Iron Horses.

The Iron Horses were headless, yet their steps were nimble and they moved swiftly.

It would not be quite right to say their entire bodies were metal, because parts of their limbs carried a fleshy quality, as though flesh had grown from iron—or iron had grown from flesh.

As they traveled, black smoke would occasionally rise from the Iron Horses' severed necks, while red droplets like blood appeared on their bodies, making them look exceedingly miraculous.

In his previous life, Gu Qingfeng had known a line of poetry: "Iron Horse and icy rivers enter dreams." He had never expected to see such things in this life without even dreaming.

The Iron Horses looked novel enough, but the goods carried by this caravan seemed somewhat ordinary.

The first two carts were piled with bamboo crates, which appeared to contain tea and similar goods. The later carts carried fruits, wine, leather, and other items.

Only one carriage in the middle drew Gu Qingfeng's attention.

It was obvious to the naked eye that this carriage was the heaviest.

Its wheel ruts were the deepest, and the Iron Horses pulling it belched the thickest black smoke, clearly operating under a heavy load.

The cargo on that carriage was covered by thick cloth, but its vague outlines looked like one human-shaped figure after another.

"They can't really be people or corpses, can they?"

Gu Qingfeng pondered.