PS: Do not say the New Year's well-wisher came late; under clear skies and warm sun, we had our tryst. The spring breeze suffered only for its tender feelings; tender reds and fresh greens always called for verse.
The four continued onward, doubly cautious.
Judging by the distance, Dragon Whisker Ravine was already nearly a thousand li from Loulan City. The range of human cultivators' patrols extended no more than fifteen hundred li west of Loulan, a limit established through countless cultivators' experience over the years.
Farther ahead, undead creatures became increasingly numerous. They would not even lurk beneath the sand, instead swaggering among the dunes. Those were not something their mere squad could handle.
Their patrol thus far had largely followed this pattern: undead creatures rarely appeared closer to Loulan, but the farther west they went, the more there were. In effect, this stretch of dunes, one or two thousand li across, was a buffer zone between the undead and humanity.
Several days later, they encountered the only human expedition they would see on this patrol. More than twenty explorers were mining beneath a *** mineral stratum.
"It's mica starstone, a very precious cultivation material. Deposits of this ore aren't large, so once one is discovered, they'll dig out every last scrap." Nan Xiangye knew quite a bit. His three-month head start had not been spent idling.
All twenty-odd people were cultivators. Most were minor cultivators who had yet to reach Profound Connection. They had come here to save up enough resources for their cultivation and formed the main mining workforce. Five were cultivators who had truly entered the Dao: four at Profound Connection and one at Spirit Sense, the organizer of this expedition.
As soon as the Spirit Sense cultivator noticed them, he flew over from afar to