Zhou Wen suddenly felt something amiss in his hand. He looked down and saw the notebooks seemingly burn with invisible flames, turning to ashes.
Oh no! Zhou Wen immediately reacted. These notebooks should have long been destroyed with Chu He’s death. What Chu He had given him couldn’t be kept in the living world.
Before the notebook was completely reduced to ashes, Zhou Wen flipped through a few pages, but he didn’t see much content before the information was reduced to ashes. The desert wind blew, leaving no traces behind.
“It’s really like a dream. I never expected that I, Liu Yun, would make a trip to the netherworld and come back alive. What great luck,” Liu Yun said with lingering fear.
“Don’t think about that for now. Just take a look and see if you can tell where we are. Can you still find the way to the Endless Sea of Stars?” Zhou Wen perked up and sized up his surroundings.
There was yellow sand all around them. All he could see was a boundless desert with no end in sight. Zhou Wen couldn’t even work out his bearings.
“No problem. Leave it to me. However, do you really want to go to the Endless Sea of Stars? We seem to be a little unlucky. I’m afraid something will happen again...” Liu Yun glanced at the Bamboo Blade on Zhou Wen’s waist before throwing the Orchid Blade back to him. He didn’t want to carry this with him for even an additional moment.
“Does being unlucky mean that we should stay at home all day? What’s the point of living like that?” Zhou Wen took the Orchid Blade and said.
“That’s true. Alright, let’s continue.” Liu Yun didn’t say anything else. He looked around and summoned his Companion Beast to dig a deep hole as though he was observing the sand or something else.
Zhou Wen did not know how Liu Yun figured out his bearings. As he led the way, he observed the plants and sand in the desert before slowly adjusting his direction.
The desert was already boundless. After the dimensional storms, it had become even wider. Even Epic experts would probably be trapped to death if they got lost.
Thankfully, Zhou Wen had brought plenty of water and food. He didn’t have to be afraid of being trapped in the desert.
After repeatedly walking and stopping, on the fourth day, an oasis appeared in front of them.
“We’re here.” Liu Yun pointed at the oasis and shouted in joy.
“Is that oasis the Endless Sea of Stars?” Zhou Wen asked in surprise.
“No, that oasis is where I usually replenish my water. However, we aren’t far from the Endless Sea of Stars once we reach here. It’ll take another two days at most,” said Liu Yun.
Zhou Wen didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He had plenty of pure water in his chaos space, so he didn’t need an oasis to replenish it.
However, Zhou Wen didn’t tell Liu Yun about the Chaos Bead. He always retrieved water from his backpack. Liu Yun naturally didn’t know about it, so he had been economical along the way and was very thirsty. All he did was take a tiny sip of water to quench his thirst.
This oasis grew much vegetation that Zhou Wen didn’t recognize. There was a tree, but it looked like grass with thick roots. It looked very strange.
What surprised Zhou Wen was that there was actually a city in the oasis.
However, the city was very simple. The city walls were made of clay and looked like crude concrete.
“This is Hat City. Legend has it that it was built by the residents of the desert in the past. Back then, there was plenty of water here, but as the water source decreased, many residents left Hat City, causing it to gradually become abandoned. According to the elders in the desert, Hat City could accommodate tens of thousands of people during its golden years. However, due to the depletion of the water source, the area around the oasis shrank. Most of the buildings have been buried under the yellow sand. Together with the arrival of the dimensional storms, there’s no one here. Apart from some guides in the desert who occasionally come here to replenish their water, you usually wouldn’t even see a soul.”
As he spoke, Liu Yun had already led Zhou Wen into Hat City.
As Liu Yun had said, many of the buildings here were half-buried in the sand.
These buildings should have been used to extract materials from the ground. They used yellow sand to mix with something, creating materials that resembled concrete.
Not long after entering the city, Zhou Wen saw a pitch-black behemoth. On careful look, it was a black cube.
“There’s a black cube in Hat City?” Zhou Wen was somewhat surprised.
“What’s so strange about that? Many human ruins have black cubes,” Liu Yun said disapprovingly as he walked towards the well in the oasis.
The desert well was more like an underground cellar. There were stairs that allowed one to walk down, and deep inside was a pool.
However, the water in the pool wasn’t very clean. Liu Yun excitedly poured it into the water bag, but Zhou Wen stood still. He didn’t want to drink the water.
“Why aren’t you getting some water? In the desert, water is life. You can lack everything else, but you can’t lack water,” Liu Yun said to Zhou Wen.
“It’s ok, I already have some.” Zhou Wen said as he left the well. He wanted to take a spin in Hat City.
However, just as he left the well, he saw the black cube light up. On the screen were two Companion Beasts fighting.
One of them was a golden giant. The other Companion Beast was the Orochi that Zhou Wen had seen before.
The Golden Giant roared like a war god. Every punch emitted a dazzling light that resembled the sun. The Orochi’s eight heads spewed out all sorts of Essence Energy, but they failed to block the Golden Giant’s attack.
However, the lashing of its eight tails made it tie with the Golden Giant.
The fist collided with the snake’s tails, producing the sound of metal clashing. Terrifying shock waves and sparks erupted, as though they were divine weapons clashing.
The Golden Giant seemed to hold the advantage, but it was not enough to kill Orochi.
Zhou Wen watched for a while and found something strange. Orochi had eight heads and eight tails, but when it fought the Golden Giant, there was always a tail stuck to the ground. The other seven snake tails fought the Golden Giant, but that tail never came into contact with it.
Just as Zhou Wen was pondering over it, he saw the Golden Giant’s fists suddenly slam into one other. Under the collision, a golden beam of light appeared.
The Golden Giant grabbed the beam with one hand and transformed it into a gigantic blade of light. It slashed at the body of Orochi. Its might was so powerful that it was most likely the power of the Golden Giant’s Wheel of Destiny. It wanted to end the battle.
At that moment, Zhou Wen saw the snake’s tail which had never taken part in the battle move. It was like the tail of a rattlesnake as it rapidly twitched and slashed out with an unparalleled sword beam.
Clang!
The Golden Giant’s blade beam was sliced apart by the sword beam. Its body was also slashed open, leaving a long gash. It nearly tore through its chest and killed it.
Thankfully, its physique was indeed powerful, so it wasn’t halved. However, it didn’t have much combat strength left. It was summoned back by its master as a show of admitting defeat.