Chapter 435: Seeking Wealth and Honor Amidst Danger

Tuan Tuan froze: "Huh? I just asked you guys, didn't you say you didn't know?"

Xiao Er and Lu Qi exchanged a glance, suddenly understanding something.

"Miss," Lu Qi whispered, "you just asked about 'Gui Tong,' but now you're saying 'Oasis'."

Xiao Er nodded: "They might only know the Oasis, not Gui Tong."

Tuan Tuan suddenly realized, her little face turning red.

She faced the scorpion swarm, earnest: "Sorry, little bugs, I asked the wrong question."

She paused: "Then, after you've had your fill, could you take me to find the Oasis?"

The scorpion swarm lowered their pincers, turned their heads together, and crawled northward.

Xiao Er hurriedly lifted Tuan Tuan onto the camel, and the three resumed following.

This time the journey was especially long.

The blazing sun hung high; everything in the heat haze was steaming and twisting, undulating as if melting.

Tuan Tuan was jolted into near-sleep, her little head nodding bit by bit.

Suddenly Lu Qi shouted: "Look ahead!"

Xiao Er and Tuan Tuan simultaneously looked up.

A hazy green outline appeared faintly at the desert's edge.

Tuan Tuan instantly woke: "Little bugs, you're amazing!"

The three quickened their pace; after about half an hour, they reached the Oasis's edge.

Lu Qi let out a long breath: "We finally found it!"

Just as the three were about to step into the Oasis.

"Woo—woo woo—"

A strange howling sound came.

That sound started low and muffled, like a beast roaring in the distance, then turned into a piercing shriek.

Lu Qi's face changed drastically: "Sandstorm! Quick! Find shelter!"

Before his words finished, a huge yellowish sand wall appeared on the distant horizon, rushing toward them at great speed.

The sky-covering sandstorm was like the whole desert being overturned.

Xiao Er pointed to a rocky hill beside the Oasis: "Over there!"

The two jumped off the camel, Xiao Er tightly holding Tuan Tuan in his arms.

Lu Qi scanned the hill; there was a natural hollow formed by years of wind and sand erosion.

"Brother Xiao, go in there!"

The camels also seemed to sense the danger, all lowering their bodies and huddling together.

The three quickly darted into the hollow.

The next moment.

"Boom—!"

The sandstorm slammed against the rocky hill like a tsunami.

The entrance was instantly half-filled with blowing sand, light suddenly dimming.

The wind sounded like myriad wailing ghosts, stabbing pain into the eardrums.

Xiao Er pressed Tuan Tuan tightly to his chest, back to the entrance, letting sand pelt his back like hail.

Sand kept pouring into the entrance; Lu Qi desperately dug with his hands to keep it from being sealed.

This sandstorm lasted nearly an hour.

When the wind gradually subsided, the three were as if just dug out of the earth, heads and faces covered in sand.

Xiao Er released Tuan Tuan and helped her brush off the sand.

Lu Qi asked: "Miss? Are you alright?"

Tuan Tuan's eyelashes were dotted with fine sand: "I'm fine! Just my ears are full of sand, so itchy!"

The three emerged from the hollow; the sight before them left them all stunned.

After the sandstorm, the whole desert looked as if a giant hand had smoothed it over.

The dunes had completely shifted position.

What were once high slopes became flat ground, and former low valleys rose into sand hills.

The Oasis that had clearly been right beside them moments ago was now half a li away.

Lu Qi looked around: "Where are the camels?"

Xiao Er pointed: "There!"

Three camels struggled to rise from the sand heap, shaking off the sand.

They were very agile, none injured.

Tuan Tuan looked around: "Where are the little bugs?"

The scorpion swarm that had guided them, not a single one was visible now.

Tuan Tuan shouted toward all sides: "Little bugs! Where are you?"

Only the wind answered her.

Lu Qi comforted: "Miss, don't worry. This is their home; when the sandstorm comes, they have plenty of ways to hide, and they can run much faster than us."

Tuan Tuan thought, then nodded: "Right!"

Even so, a hint of disappointment appeared on her little face.

Those little bugs had led them to water, shown them the way; now they suddenly vanished, and she always felt something was missing.

Xiao Er understood what she was thinking: "Miss, let's first go find water."

"Hmm."

The three again mounted the camels, and after a while finally entered that oasis.

The vegetation here is much sparser than it looked from afar.

Most of the oasis consists of thorny shrubs and some wilted wild grass.

After getting off the camel, Tuan Tuan let go of Xiao Er's hand, sprang on her short legs and ran inside: "I'm going to find water!"

Xiao Er and Lu Qi hurried after her: "Slow down, Miss!"

After just a few steps, Tuan Tuan cried "Ah!" as something tripped her, and she lunged forward.

"Careful!" Xiao Er, quick-eyed and quick-handed, grabbed her in one swoop.

Lu Qi rushed forward, blocking in front of Tuan Tuan, and warily looked at the thing on the ground that had tripped her.

It turned out to be a section of arm protruding from the sand, already completely turned to white bone!

The hand on the arm had its five fingers slightly spread, as if even at the last moment of life it were still craving something.

Xiao Er gently pressed Tuan Tuan's little head into his own chest: "Don't look."

Lu Qi squatted down and carefully brushed away the sand around that arm.

A complete skeleton gradually emerged.

"It's been dead for some years." Lu Qi examined it closely: "No flesh left, but the bones are quite intact; the desert's dryness has preserved it well."

Something seemed to be pressing down beneath the skeleton.

Lu Qi reached in and pulled out a leather sack long since dried hard and cracked.

He opened the mouth, and a bundle of black‑colored sheepskin paper tied with thin cord appeared.

Lu Qi took out the sheepskin paper, held it before Xiao Er and Tuan Tuan, and carefully unfolded it.

The writing was in charcoal; although many parts have blurred with age, the gist can still be made out.

Lu Qi quietly read aloud the words on it:

March 17, traveling together with Wang Wu and Li Er.

It is said that deep in the Tenggeri lies an oasis called Gui Tong, whose water can cure a hundred poisons and which also holds a treasure worth a fortune.

Seeking wealth through danger, we sold all we had, readied our equipment, and took the gamble.

April 2, the water ran out.

Li Er went mad; last night he walked into the sandstorm and vanished without a trace.

April 10, Wang Wu collapsed.

On his deathbed he grabbed my hand and said he had seen the oasis.

I didn't want to die, so I drank his blood.

I must find Gui Tong!

April 12, I finally found the oasis!

Is this Gui Tong? It must be!

The lake water is clear, shaped like a human eye!

I plunged into the lake and drank my fill! Tomorrow I'll go look for the treasure!

But it was wrong, all wrong—the lake water is poisonous!