Chapter 408: Oasis

Thinking carefully, Bai Lang hasn't eaten or drunk anything, and he doesn't even know how far he has to travel; rather than finding an oasis and being too weak from hunger and thirst to rob, it would be better to just be a little disgusted now, eat until full, and then have the strength to rob. Indeed, ever since becoming a "wanted criminal" and because of his master's attitude, Bai Lang has become open to the crimes of the rapist category. In fact, he has long been a villain—when he first set out, although the one he killed was a human trafficker and his deed was chivalrous, it still disrupted the nation's laws, and the remark "Chivalry uses martial chaos to forbid!" cannot be avoided.

And in this world Bai Lang also knows that to survive on the great desert, most of the martial artists he meets are villains, or villains who have reformed to become the oasis masters; therefore, whenever he encounters someone not traveling with a caravan, there is an eighty‑to‑ninety percent chance that robbing them is to eliminate a wicked person from this world.

Bai Lang thrust a claw forward, piercing the skin of the flesh‑worm before him. "Indeed tough, no wonder the wind‑blade force cannot penetrate." Even Bai Lang's Southern Dipper White Tiger Fist required a bit of effort to get through its hide, and the wound was closing to block his palm from going deeper. Its muscles were also highly developed and tough; Bai Lang's palm felt a great force gripping it, trying to squeeze his hand out.

The worm let out a hiss, twisted its body and tried to swallow it with its three‑lobed mouth from top to bottom. Bai Lang let out a cold laugh, pressed his palm, and as his true qi circulated it turned into a qi blade; with a simple swing he split the worm in two. Then, seizing the momentum, he straightened his leg and lifted it like a battle axe, a rising dragon from below, cleaving the flesh‑worm vertically into two halves. The worm fell to the ground. "Ah, never thought this isn't a worm at all—perhaps a beast or a fish?"

Bai Lang saw that the creature oozed not slime but red blood, and inside the split body he also found bones; this thing wasn't a worm, perhaps some kind of fish. A fish that can live on land? That doesn't seem so rare in this world… Bai Lang didn't care what it actually was; if it's a fish, it's even more edible. How to eat it? Roasting is the most suitable method now, though if there were soy sauce and mustard, Bai Lang wouldn't mind raw fish slices.

He dug out a large piece of flesh, finding no spines in the muscle, which was perfect. After the fish meat drained its blood it turned white; Bai Lang relied entirely on Internal Force to roast it, the smell was not very pleasant, and a bite tasted both fishy and tough, extremely unappetizing. He muttered a few curses, sitting by the stone trough he suspected contained poisonous water, and his finger inadvertently touched the water. "No prickling pain?"

Bai Lang lifted his finger and found the skin perfectly normal, with no discomfort. "If so, at least it isn't an corrosive toxin; a neurotoxin is still possible, but this water should be an inorganic poison… Damn, in a world with immortals and Buddhas I'm still worrying about this? Who cares, the poison here would just splash on the ground and bubble! Since there's none now, I'll just take a small sip and taste it!"

He acted on impulse, inhaled, his true qi swirling the water as he took that small sip. "A bit sweet… quite refreshing! Reminds me of those couch‑potato happy drinks." He waited to see if his stomach would rebel; meanwhile he dug up another large piece of fish meat and this time ate it raw. "All this trouble and the fish meat can only be eaten raw! Raw gives chewiness, no fishy smell, a hint of sweetness, even a fatty aroma!"

Bai Lang ate a few bites of the fish meat, then cut off a huge chunk. "Just eat this till I'm full; it's not worth preserving, forget it!" He resolved to fill his belly, stuffing dozens of jin of meat into his stomach like a tiger, and if this spring water is non‑toxic or only mildly toxic, he'll also drink his fill. He has a leather sack to carry water, so he could at least run two or three thousand li; finding the oasis would be no problem.

Practicing Southern Dipper White Tiger Fist, Bai Lang indeed took on a tiger's bearing; he forced meat into his belly and ended up consuming roughly thirty‑plus jin of flesh, about the size of a huge worm, his stomach bulging considerably. Then he tore off the fish's skin, wrapped it and slung it over his back—perhaps it could fetch some money, Bai Lang still wanted to earn an honest living. The water is probably only mildly toxic, because Bai Lang does feel a slight heady sensation.

"Other than that, that's it. What would be deadly poison to others is just a mild toxin to me, drinkable." He filled his leather sack to the brim, then took long strides, choosing a direction to keep running. "The long river sunset is gone, but the lone desert smoke still stands straight!" He admired the majestic scenery of the desert and Gobi while muttering to himself. This place is by no means a forbidden zone of life; along the way he saw low shrubs and a few towering trees.

Of course, occasional animals such as deer or horses do appear on the Gobi; they are extremely alert and flee as soon as they sense Bai Lang from afar. Bai Lang has also come across a salt‑brine pool, a pond the size of a football field covered with yellow‑white salt crusts, with only a few spots where a spring still peeks out. The hoof prints on the salt indicate that some animals actually drink this bitter water.

On the third day, Bai Lang saw the oasis on the horizon.

The oasis was still several li away, and more shrubs had sprouted on the ground; the closer he got, the denser the vegetation. "Probably can't sustain itself, still needs food imported from outside…" Bai Lang gauged the oasis's size— from his current distance it seemed about three to four kilometers wide, with a similar depth, perhaps able to house only a few hundred people.

As he drew nearer, he encountered roaming riders; they were fairly friendly, and after taking a few coins from Bai Lang they gave him a wooden plaque, which served as a pass. When Bai Lang arrived at the oasis, as expected, several wooden fences enclosed multiple springs, and the outflow formed a small lake roughly four to five hundred meters north‑south and seventy to eighty meters east‑west. The water was shallow, at most four or five meters deep.

That amount of water is already considerable, and numerous pavilions and towers have been built on and around the lake; elsewhere in the oasis there are many resident houses— it has become a town, with merchants and travelers constantly coming and going, a town that lives off trade routes. Bai Lang saw the local crops were mainly melons, fruits, and vegetables, but he also saw grapes… likely they also produce wine here.

The most common establishments here are inns and cargo stations, of course there are brothels, teahouses, gambling taverns, and even a few theater yards. Bai Lang still had some gold and silver in his pouch, so he found an inn to rest for a while.