Strip! Strip It All!

The caravan moved at no slow pace. It was clear these people were all professionals.

They ate only one meal a day and rested only two hours at night. The rest of the time, they traveled without seeming to tire.

To Gu Qingfeng, these dunes looked almost exactly alike, yet the caravan could tell their direction without ever stopping.

Honestly, this desert was far larger than Gu Qingfeng had imagined.

This was already his second day following the caravan, and yellow sand still filled the sky.

Not until dusk did a forest finally appear ahead.

Poplar Forest.

After so long with nothing but yellow sand before his eyes, the patches of green beneath the clear sky were like green clouds, fresh and striking.

As they passed through the Poplar Forest, a shallow stream appeared on the ground.

The caravan began to rest, and Gu Qingfeng washed his face and drank by the stream.

By now, the caravan members were clearly looking at him in a new light.

Because all along the way, Gu Qingfeng had kept pace with them without falling behind. He even looked quite relaxed.

That endurance alone was beyond what ordinary people possessed.

After drinking his fill, Gu Qingfeng felt thoroughly refreshed.

Only after crossing a boundless desert without a single drop of water or blade of grass could one understand how precious and delightful water truly was.

The caravan rested for only the time it took two incense sticks to burn. After adding some black oil to the Iron Horses, they continued on their way.

It was clear they had no intention of spending the night in this "good place," where there was both shade and water. They wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

Thinking of the strange occurrences along the way, Gu Qingfeng naturally knew the caravan had its reasons, so he hurried after them.

Once they left the Poplar Forest, the landscape before them had changed completely.

Half the ground beneath their feet was covered in wild grass. The hills rose and fell gently, and even unknown wildflowers bloomed upon them.

Compared to the endless yellow desert, this place was truly filled with green.

At last—he had finally walked out of that desert!

At that moment, the young woman who had questioned him earlier rode over on an Iron Horse trailing black smoke.

She tossed him a waterskin and said, "It's wine we drink ourselves. Our young clan leader is treating you."

Gu Qingfeng caught the waterskin and clasped his hands in thanks.

At the front of the caravan, the young clan leader dressed like a scholar clasped his hands in return.

Now that they had reached this place, water would no longer be scarce, and they had also seen that Gu Qingfeng was no ordinary man.

This waterskin of grape wine was also a gesture of goodwill toward him.

In truth, when Gu Qingfeng had first begun following the caravan, they had deliberately increased their speed and shortened their rest periods, intending to shake him off.

Because caravans did not like strangers of unknown origin.

The reason Liu Yu, the caravan's leader, had allowed him to follow before was merely because he could not gauge Gu Qingfeng's depth, and he could not show weakness. Thus, he had chosen to "save face."

Now, it seemed that face had been worth saving.

Liu Yu believed that Gu Qingfeng's physical strength alone was beyond that of an ordinary person.

If a conflict had arisen then, his Liu Household Finger Technique could have dealt with Gu Qingfeng, but it would not necessarily have been easy.

As the leader of this caravan and the future clan leader of the Liu Household, Liu Yu never lightly underestimated others, nor did he lightly underestimate himself. That was his way of conducting himself in the world.

In fact, Gu Qingfeng had noticed yesterday that everyone in this caravan had very long fingers.

Especially their leader—his fingers were at least an inch longer than Gu Qingfeng's. He surely possessed some unusual skill.

After leaving the desert, the caravan continued onward.

As the sun set in the west, night swiftly shrouded the earth.

Unlike the desert, where the night remained open and relatively bright, this hill-like region was darker at night, and its terrain was more complicated.

Torches were thrust into the severed heads of the black-smoke-belching Iron Horses for illumination.

It was clear the caravan knew this route well. Even when faced with slopes and gullies, they could easily avoid them.

Thanks to that waterskin of grape wine, the caravan members clearly grew somewhat closer to Gu Qingfeng.

This was likely because, after their leader had made his stance clear, the caravan no longer treated him with excessive caution.

Gu Qingfeng spoke for a while with a young man at the rear of the caravan, only then learning that they were not far from their destination.

The place they were headed to was called Red Tears City, a major city in this region.

At their pace, they could arrive in just one day.

Hearing that he could reach the first city he had encountered in this world in only a day, Gu Qingfeng could not help feeling excited.

At the end of the day, humans were social creatures.

Especially someone like him, a transmigrator who had once enjoyed a life where he could find a night market just outside his residential complex and order takeout from home.

He would finally have a chance to see the first city of this world!

And it was a major city.

He did not know whether that was good or bad.

But he was looking forward to it.

Just then, with a bang!, a surging blaze suddenly erupted ahead.

The caravan man who had been speaking with Gu Qingfeng cursed, "Motherfucker!" and charged over.

An Iron Horse had caught fire.

An explosive blaze!

In an instant, a savage pillar of fire spewed from the Iron Horse's severed head.

The flames were fierce, impossible to put out at once.

The young clan leader at the front reacted swiftly. His long fingers untied the reins in an instant, preventing the flames from spreading to the goods.

Then dirt flew everywhere.

The caravan members all had long fingers, and they were equally adept at digging. In an instant, they hurled great clumps of earth toward the burning Iron Horse.

Moments later, the Iron Horse's severed head was buried tightly, completely smothering the flames.

Because of this fire, the caravan could only stop for the moment.

The terrain here was relatively flat. When the wind blew, the short grass all around swayed with it like waves.

Gu Qingfeng found the scene rather beautiful.

This explosive fire on an Iron Horse looked like a major accident no matter how one viewed it, but to Gu Qingfeng's surprise, in less than the time it took two cups of tea to brew, the Iron Horse was back on the road.

Only, as it started moving again, its body was covered in blood-red droplets, like a sick person drenched in sweat.

This time, the caravan slowed down somewhat.

The stretch they had just crossed was hilly, rising and falling with many slopes. Here, the terrain was flatter.

Green grass mixed with unknown little wildflowers spread across the level earthen ground all the way into the distance.

In the latter half of the night, moonlight broke through the clouds and illuminated the grassland, allowing them to see farther.

Yet for some reason, Gu Qingfeng felt this night was longer than he had expected.

By his sense of time, dawn should have been close, but it was still deep in the night here.

Gu Qingfeng had just been about to ask the time when the entire caravan suddenly stopped.

It stopped strangely.

Everyone abruptly looked up at the sky, at that round moon.

Suddenly, the voice of the woman who had questioned Gu Qingfeng earlier rang out sharply.

"It's the Yin Moon!"

"Quick! Strip!"

"Drain the water!"

"Drain all the water!"

Gu Qingfeng: "???"