Chapter 135 - : Meeting in the Desolated Desert
Li Mu arrived at the edge of the Western Continent Desolated Desert.
From what he had learned from the two bats, there were many powerful people in the Virtual Realm that not many dared to oppose.
After days of hesitation, he finally decided to go and take a look for himself.
He could decide what to do later, since he was going alone.
If things weren’t going as good as he hoped for, then he could just return.
Li Mu summoned more than two dozens of compasses and sighed, “At least one of these twenty-plus compasses would point in the right direction, right?”
He flipped opened the compasses. He even got one of them from the lottery.
“If they’re all pointing at different directions, then there must be a magnetic field here…”
There wasn’t anything to actually be scared of if he encountered a magnetic field, but what he feared was something else.
After making sure he had enough rations in his system storage, he set out into the vast desolated desert.
Meanwhile, in the desert, a dozen men and women dug their way out of the sand after the sandstorm.
They quickly patted the sands off their bodies and stare towards the endless desert in desperation.
“Tian, are you sure we can make it out?” one of them asked their leader, and everyone turned to look at the latter.
The man, whose face was unshaven and was starting to get wrinkles, gritted his teeth and said, “We can!”
However, this time, no one agreed with him anymore.
Tian had been assuring them that they would make it to the other side countless times throughout their travel across the desolated desert, but the more they paced, the more desperate they got.
When they finally decided to steel their nerves and continued on, all they could see was endless sand.
“I can’t… I can’t do this anymore… I have to go back,” the one at the end of the group said as he laid down on the sand.
Their energy was completely drained, and they had nothing left in the tank to continue to move forward.
Tian turned around and scolded them, “Get up. We have to keep moving. If we stay here, we’ll die!”
“I know… I still have a lot of water and food in my bag. You guys should use them to recover and continue… I-I’ll stay here…” the man shook his head and threw his bag towards his companions.
“We never abandon our people! You know that! Get up! We’ll get out of this together!”
“Tian, just go without me. Don’t try and stop me. I’ll kill myself if you do,” the man begged as he pulled a dagger out and rested the blade on his neck. His expression showed how determined he was.
“You…”
“Go!”
The man yelled as blood began to drip down his neck.
“Tian, come on,” another person from the group said. “You know how Qingzi is. If we don’t go, he’ll definitely kill himself.”
“This is the only way,” Qingzi said. “Don’t waste your time and go!”
The others shook their head. They picked up Qingzi’s bag and left.
Most of the people had already depleted their qis, and they barely had any energy left. To make matters worse, their rations were running low as well.
These people had experienced years of fighting and killing. They had been in countless desperate situations to know that sacrifices had to be made.
They had no choice but to leave Qingzi.
They also knew that more people will be sacrificed to ensure at least one of them could finish the job.
The group continued their journey slowly across the desert.
Ten days later and the group was still stuck in the endless desert.
Only five remained from the two dozen people.
“We have to find an oasis, or we’ll all be dead…” the only remaining woman wailed.
“Hang on there, Yun. Just a little more…” Tian encouraged.
They tried to talk as little as possible since every word they said meant spending more energy.
“Just leave me…”
“No! One more day! Just another day, and we’ll make it! I have some water left.”
Tian took his leather water pouch out and walked towards Yun’er.
“Don’t waste it…”
Before Yun’er could finish speaking, Tian forced her mouth open and poured the chilling water down her throat.
Another five days passed, and the group was finally out of food and water.
Still, there was nothing but sand in their sights.
“Dying doesn’t scare me, but it looks like no one can help our clan now…” Tian said, using the remaining of his energy. The other nodded in agreement. “There’s only one way left. Drink my blood and survive.”
Tian then pulled a dagger out and cut his own arm before shoving his arm towards another person’s mouth. He gripped his fist tightly to force himself to bleed even more.
The pain helped clear his senses a little.
“But, doesn’t this make us the same as the Bat Clan?” the man who had drunk the blood said after recovering some energy.
“We don’t have a choice. As long as you guys live on, our clan can still hope to survive…” Tian gasped. He then moved towards the woman and forced her to drink his blood as well.
A few minutes had passed, and Tian was getting paler and paler. He was trying his best to keep his consciousness intact.
However, he didn’t last long and collapsed.
He looked towards the front desperately and saw a person standing on a small hill made out of sands.
He could tell the person was a man, but he could not make out the person’s face.
Another mirage… Tian sighed in his head. Even if he wanted to speak, his mouth would not move.
“Tian!” Zhou Yun cried as she knelt next to him.
“Save your tears, Zhou Yun…” another man said. “We can come back with help when we make it out of here.”
“But, I…” Zhou Yun licked the blood on her lip and nodded as she struggled to stand up.
When she turned around, the first thing she saw was the man standing on the hill.
“I’m seeing things again…” Zhou Yun hit her own head. How can there be another human in this lifeless desert?
Zhou Yun didn’t believe that the person was actually there as his clothes were completely clean in the windy desert.
Another man from the group also noticed the person on the hill but decided to ignore it and helped Zhou Yun up instead.
One of the remaining two took his dagger up and was ready to offer his own blood as well when they heard a sigh.
“And here I thought you guys were from the Bat Clan. It looks like I’m mistaken.”
Everyone was stunned. Are we hearing things? Are our states so bad that our ears aren’t working too?
Zhou Yun and the man who was helping him turned to stare at the man on the hill.
It’s not a mirage? He’s real?
“You…” Zhou Yun gasped.
“I never thought I would meet another person in the desert,” Li Mu said as he approached them.
He’d already noticed the group way earlier, but he was surprised that there would actually be people traveling through the desert.
At first, he thought they were just a mirage caused by the magnetic field, a mirage that was replaying his past.
But the more he looked at the group, the more he began to doubt they were mirages.
Li Mu even thought they were ghosts or spirits until the leader of the group cut himself.
The moment Li Mu smelled blood, he knew they were real people.
He didn’t even want to think what these people had been through to reach such a state for the past few days.
At the same time, he was also curious as to who they were and why they were traveling through the desolated desert.
He also wanted to know if these people were worth saving.
As Li Mu approached them, he continued to study the group.
“How…”
“You guys are dying!” Li Mu gasped. “I have some food and water here!”
Li Mu quickly took out part of his rations from the system storage.
The four people gulped down the water without any hesitation.
After one of the men got his share, he walked towards Tian, who was completely unconscious, with a bowl of water.
After half a day of rest, the group finally regained some energy.
“Thank you so much,” one of them thanked Li Mu.
“I’m curious. Why are you traveling across the desert?” Li Mu asked.