Lost City
While following the male and female leads can indeed allow them to get involved in the main plot, can the supporting characters, who are also able to escape danger and turn misfortune into good fortune, do the same? This is what Han Jiang is worried about.
The group found a nearby shelter—it must have been a shop before it collapsed, with tables, chairs, and shelves inside.
"The wood hasn't rotted at all after all these years," Han Jiang said.
"How can there be corrosion without decomposers?" Wen Xu tapped Han Jiang on the head. "I learned that in high school biology."
"When I took the college entrance exam, I handed in my brain along with the exam paper."
Hanqi interjected, "Senior sisters, what are you talking about?"
"It's nothing, let's find a place to sit down," Han Jiang said evasively.
The shop is located on the outside, and inside are several rooms.
Cang Jingmo untied the ropes binding everyone, and he and Cang Jingqi found two wooden planks to block the shop's main door and the room's entrance.
They rested in the innermost room. Since it was inconvenient to light an open flame, Cang Jingqi brought several glowing stones and distributed them to everyone.
The temperature in the desert drops significantly at night, but luckily I had prepared in advance and packed warm clothes with me.
The three girls huddled together, with the two brothers on either side, taking turns keeping watch.
Besides the sound of the strong wind, the occasional cries of wild animals could also be heard outside.
Hanjiang was half asleep when Wenxu gently shook him awake. All the glowing stones had been put away, and the room was now pitch black.
Heavy breathing mingled with the sound of footsteps on sand, right next to me.
Wild animals have spotted them!
They had neither a fire nor made any noise, so how did the wild animals find them?
There was no time to think. Two wooden planks were enough to block the wind and sand, but they were no match for wild beasts, easily dealt with with a single palm strike.
Cang Jingmo gestured in the darkness, indicating that if the wild beasts rushed in, they should scatter and flee in two groups before rejoining.
Han Jiang turned her head and saw Wen Xu tying a rope around Han Jiang's waist, handing the other end of the rope to Cang Jingqi. She subconsciously grabbed Wen Xu's hand, but Wen Xu brushed her hand away, tightened the rope, and then stuffed a handful of talismans into Han Jiang's arms.
After the warmth dissipated and the cold descended, it moved closer to Cang Jingmo's position.
The meaning is clear: she was with Cang Jingmo, while Han Jiang followed Cang Jingqi.
The beast, realizing there were people inside, roared and smashed open the door.
Han Jiang's waist tightened as Cang Jingqi used a rope to pull her into his arms, half-carrying her as he rushed out the door first.
Wen Xu knew that Han Jiang would have a hard time protecting herself under these circumstances, and she herself was forced by her mission to be unable to protect Han Jiang, so she entrusted Han Jiang to Cang Jingqi.
There are more wild animals outside.
By the light of the moon, Han Jiang could make out the appearance of the beast. Half of it was still attached to rotting flesh, and the other half revealed its eerie white bones, as if it had died but not completely decomposed and crawled out of the ground again.
His eyes were bloodshot, and half of his face was white bone.
“Completely devoid of any spiritual energy…” Cang Jingqi’s voice was right next to my ear.
"No spiritual energy? Isn't that just a lifeless thing?" Han Jiang said.
Cang Jingqi jumped onto the roof: "I've never seen it before either."
With a loud "bang," the wild beast inside the house was kicked out.
The three jumped out of the shop one after another.
As soon as Hanqi appeared, all the wild beasts locked their gazes on him instantly and pounced on him.
Is the female lead some kind of innate harbinger of misfortune?
The Hundred Waste Desert devours spiritual energy, and even wild beasts are lifeless creatures devoid of spiritual energy. Therefore, these lifeless creatures will seek out things with spiritual energy, such as these few.
What attracts wild beasts is nothing other than the spiritual and demonic energy inherent in both humans and demons.
The overflowing spiritual energy of the cold maple makes it even more attractive to wild beasts.
With no shelter outside the city, they could only flee within the city.
Unexpectedly, those wild beasts could also scale walls and leap over high walls.
Han Jiang saw Cang Jingqi's exhaustion for the first time, panting softly beside her.
The desert was constantly draining everyone's spiritual energy, and they also had to fight off wild beasts. Their bodies were nearing their limits.
Han Jiang's body felt no discomfort. The spiritual energy dissipation body could not only dissipate external spiritual energy damage, but also inhibit the loss of spiritual energy within the body.
"At this rate, we'll be worn down to death before the wild beasts even kill us!" Wen Xu said. "Second Prince! Let's head towards the center of the city! There seem to be fewer wild beasts there!"
Han Qi was surrounded and couldn't break free: "You guys go first!"
"A great opportunity!" Han Jiang immediately said, "Sister Wen, you go first, we'll stay here to attract the wild beasts!"
"Us? Han Xiaoman, who's talking to you about 'us'?" Cang Jing retorted.
Han Jiang ignored Cang Jingqi's words and dragged Cang Jingqi closer to Han Qi.
Cang Jingmo wanted to stay, but Wen Xu advised, "Let's find a safe place in the city first, and then come back to meet you!"
Watching the two walk away, Han Jiang felt half relieved. Now he didn't have to worry about the mission. Wen Xu would take Cang Jingmo to find the Tranquil Heart Pearl. All that was left was to protect his life.
Wen Xu left a large pile of talismans for Han Jiang. The spiritual power required to use the talismans was not much. She tore off two and handed them to Cang Jingqi.
The biggest difference between the exploding fire talisman and the ordinary fire talisman is that it can explode, and half of them are used as fireworks.
Cang Jingqi blasted away the wild beasts around Han Qi, gaining space to escape.
The shattered beasts melted directly into the desert, then regenerated from the earth, crawling out of the desert endlessly, immortal and indestructible.
The sight of it made me feel nauseous.
The explosion lured away most of the wild beasts, and Wen Xu and Cang Jingmo were temporarily safe.
As for Han Jiang and his two companions, after circling the outer city, they successfully shook off the beasts and entered the inner city.
There seemed to be something inside the inner city; the wild beasts gathered together but dared not approach.
An invisible force separated the inner city from the outer city.
The inner city was no longer a residential area, but a castle.
The flowing sand and wind have reshaped the pillars, and Han Jiang noticed that the marks left on the building resembled the flow of water. Perhaps this place really was once an ocean.
Wen Xu and Cang Jingmo should have already entered the castle.
I don't know which entrance they used.
Another gust of wind swept in, and without thinking twice, the three of them randomly chose an entrance to enter the sandcastle.
The glory of the past is still faintly visible.
Climbing the steps, you enter the main hall.
The center of the hall is recessed, which was originally intended to be a pool-like design.
The castle is much better preserved than the surrounding buildings. Most of it has not sunk underground, and the main hall is almost intact, with the carved patterns covered by a thin layer of ash.
Cang Jingqi picked up the sword from the ground, and with a slight squeeze, it shattered into sand.
"It looks intact, but it would break at the slightest touch," Cang Jingqi warned Han Jiang not to move it.
“It seems this castle is on the verge of collapse. We need to leave here as soon as possible. Can you sense Sister Wen’s spiritual energy?” Han Jiang asked.
Cang Jingqi shook his head: "My perception of spiritual energy relies on my own spiritual energy. As soon as it spreads out, it is absorbed. How can I sense it?"
Han Jiang can only pin her hopes on the original book that Wen Xu has read, hoping that the story after entering the city will be described in detail in the book, so that Sister Wen can have someone to rely on.
Hanqi stood motionless by the pool after entering the hall, observing for a long time before stepping down into the pool and bending down to brush away the dust on the ground with his hands.
"Senior sister, come and see." Han Qi said.
It turns out that there was a formation in the center of the hall.
Hanqi brushed the dust from the pool to the side, and the floral patterns and engravings at the bottom of the pool could be faintly seen.
I don't recognize the ancient characters, but the patterns look very familiar.
“It’s an altar,” Hanqi said.
It is the altar from their childhood memories.
"The Spirit Gathering Altar," Cang Jing said.
Han Jiang: "So, the people of this city are very likely to have suffered the same backlash from the Spirit Gathering Altar as the people in the village back then, having all their spiritual energy drained away."
The entire Baiwu Desert is still continuously absorbing spiritual energy. Just how great must the backlash be to have such a large area and last for such a long time!
"But back then, the Spirit Gathering Altar absorbed the villagers' spiritual energy and returned it to all living things, so the mountains surrounding the village regained their vitality. So where did the spiritual energy absorbed by this Spirit Gathering Altar go?" Han Qi asked.
As the cold air descended, I felt a chill run down my spine.
She dislikes these kinds of chilling plots the most, as they make her prone to nightmares.
“The engravings are probably used to strengthen the formation, and have no other purpose.” Cang Jingqi studied the engravings on the altar.
With a "crack," the altar sank a little further.
"I only touched the engraving," Cang Jingqi said innocently.
The next second, the entire altar plummeted.
A suction force pulled the three of them underground.
"Cang Jingqi! You just told me not to move!" Han Jiang screamed.
Cang Jingqi unleashed demonic energy to protect himself, pulling Han Jiang close to him.
Hanqi can protect himself with his spiritual power.
Han Jiang dared not open his eyes, clutching Cang Jingqi's clothes tightly.
"Han Xiaoman, Han Xiaoman..." Cang Jingqi whispered Han Jiang.
He ignored the cold wind.
"Han Xiaoman..." Cang Jingqi's tone was ambiguous.
"Don't talk to me..." Han Jiang was hanging on Cang Jingqi's body. Fortunately, with the protection of Cang Jingqi's demonic energy, he was able to maintain a rapid descent without feeling a strong sense of weightlessness.
"You've grabbed my chest..."
Han Jiang suddenly opened her eyes; she had already fallen to the bottom.
She awkwardly let go, got off Cang Jingqi, smoothed out the wrinkled clothes on his chest, and her face was burning red.
Fortunately, it was dark, so they couldn't see Han Jiang's flushed face and embarrassed expression.
"Just kidding, they didn't catch them."
"You're crazy!" Han Jiang slapped Cang Jingqi's arm hard.
Cang Jing chuckled angrily, "I was worried you were scared and wanted to ease your mood, and you hit me instead!"
"What kind of time is this to be joking around?"
The two of them bantered back and forth, while Han Qi weakly said from the side, "Um... Senior Sister, it seems like we've fallen into a basement."
Cang Jingqi took out a glowing stone to illuminate the narrow corridor, which had four doors leading to four different places.
The vast underground network is far more complex than the castles above ground.
The four doors perfectly separate the four walls.
The altar was embedded in the ground and did not look out of place.
"I didn't touch the altar when it fell; it was probably just a lifting device." Cang Jingqi changed the subject.
Han Jiang distanced himself from Cang Jingqi and approached Han Qi, saying, "There's something on this wall."
The four walls are painted with four murals.
Due to the passage of time, most of the murals have become blurred.
Han Jiang struggled to decipher the contents of the mural: "Is there a continent above a cloud?"
"It might be a sea, perhaps referring to Manzhou Island," Hanqi said.
Manzhou is actually an island separated from the mainland, but it is not far from the mainland.
"The island glowed, then it was swallowed by the sea, and then it disappeared."
Hanqi said, "That's not light; it's the island absorbing the spiritual energy from the ocean! That's why the other half of the Spirit Gathering Altar is in the ocean."
“It makes sense, but something feels off,” Han Jiang said.
"Don't be so strange, something's coming!" Cang Jingqi said alertly.
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