Chapter 425: Crystal Worms’ Desert
"Wait, something is not right." He suddenly frowned.
"What’s wrong?" Yu Nianzhen questioned.
"Azhen, do you remember what senior Niu said?"
When Yu Nianzhen heard the question, he was confused for a moment but soon came to.
"You are right, things don’t add up." He said with a frown on his face.
"What’s not right?" Xuan Ke asked.
"Senior Niu said we will be away from the Cangxing world for more than one thousand years. If Brother Li is right, the time does not match."
"We stayed in the Sea of Enlightenment for one hundred years and are going to stay in the Treasure Island for four hundred years. That only makes five hundred years. Brother Li, did you make a mistake?" Xuan Ke couldn’t help but look at Li Futian.
"I didn’t make a mistake." Li Futian assured.
"Maybe this place has another level?" Bing Lan suggested.
"Maybe." Yang Xu agreed.
Since they couldn’t make heads or tails of the situation, everyone dispersed.
Three days later, everyone was fully recovered and they met in the ancient palace’s backyard.
"Are we having yak barbecue?" Xuan Ke asked excitedly.
"Mmmm." Jiang Yue nodded happily.
In the Cangxing world, he had eaten many kinds of meat but never level five and level six demonic beast meat.
Now that he had an opportunity, he couldn’t help but be happy.
"We can’t have too much of the level six yak meat." Yang Xu cautioned.
No matter how powerful they were, they were still nascent soul realm cultivators.
If they ate too much level six meat, the beast’s excess energy would riot in their bodies which would damage their meridians.
"We know." Jiang Yue said and stuck his tongue out.
A quarter of an hour later, the food was ready and everyone ate their fill.
When they finished, Jiang Yue put away the ancient palace and the seven continued towards the crystal worms’ desert.
"Unfortunately, there are no herbs on the plateau." Xuan Ke said as he looked at the sprawling grasslands.
"There are no herbs but the heaven and earth qi is more than one hundred times denser than the Cangxing world. Cultivating in this place is already a great benefit." Li Futian said.
"True." Xuan Ke agreed.
Even if they didn’t find any opportunities, it was still possible to reach the peak of the nascent soul realm in four hundred years.
"There is another herd of wild yaks in front of us." Yang Xu suddenly said.
"How big is it?" Yu Nianzhen asked.
"It has thirty yaks and the leader is at the mid-stage of the fifth level."
"Fortunately." Chen Qing said and the group continued without changing their course.
In this way, the seven travelled across the plateau for eight days before they arrived at the edge of the crystal worms’ desert.
"I have an original map fragment of the crystal worms’ desert." Xuan Ke said and quickly removed the fragment.
At a glance, the original fragment looked like the copied map.
However, it exuded a hidden mystery that made it seem a little different.
"Let’s sit here for a while. We can study the map while we rest." Yang Xu said.
With that, everyone sat in a circle and the map fragment was placed at the centre.
"Although it feels a little mysterious, I don’t see how it’s different from the copied map." Xuan Ke was the first to say.
However, no one answered him.
Everyone focused on studying the map fragment but their study ended in frustration when they found nothing.
Just when they were about to give up, Li Futian gasped.
"Did you find something?" Jiang Yue eagerly asked.
"Wait a moment." Li Futian said and then closed his eyes.
A few breaths later, he opened his eyes and smiled.
"Use your soul power to study the map." He said.
A moment later, everyone couldn’t help but look at each other excitedly.
"There is a soul stone mine in the crystal worms’ desert.’ Jiang Yue said.
After using soul power to look at the map fragment, a map beneath a map appeared.
It was this hidden map that showed the location of a soul stones mine.
"However, the location of the mine is in the depths of the crystal worms’ desert. We can assume that the most powerful worms will be entrenched there." Yu Nianzhen said.
"With our current strength, reaching the depths may be impossible." Bing Lan said.
"For now, let’s walk around the periphery. If we can’t make it on our own, we can find others to form a temporary alliance."
The next morning, the group packed their things and entered the crystal worms’ desert.
However, as soon as they stepped into the desert, everyone frowned.
"Is it just me or..." Chen Qing was startled and stopped midstance.
"I feel it too." Xuan Ke said with an ugly look on his face.
"The desert is sucking my soul power." Jiang Yue spoke through gritted teeth.
When he stepped on the desert, he felt his soul power being pulled towards the sand.
In desperation, he used his soul cultivation technique to resist the pull but the effect was not too great.
"Retreat to the plateau." Yang Xu shouted and pulled his wife to run back.
At the same time, the others did the same and a breath later, they were all back on the plateau.
"Something is approaching from underground." Yang Xu said before anyone could ask.
"It’s a crystal worm." Yu Nianzhen said and pointed at where they were previously standing.
In place was a large worm.
The worm was about eight metres long and its body looked almost as hard as a late-stage spirit rank shield.
"It’s at the late stage of the fourth level." Jiang Yue observed.
"Ordinarily, such a worm should be easy to deal with. However, dealing with it while preventing our soul power from draining to the ground is a little difficult." Xuan Ke said and sighed.
"That’s why I asked everyone to retreat." Yang Xu said.
"The crystal worms’ desert is a holy place for soul power training." Yu Nianzhen suddenly said.
"Looking at the map of Treasure Island, the other places also look suitable for training." Bing Lan said.
"The Crystal Worms’ desert is for soul training, the lightning valley is for body training, and the myriad forms mountain is for qi training." Jiang Yue said.
"I have a guess. Do you want to hear it?" Li Futian said with a smile on his lips.
"Does Brother Li want to say that this place may be the gateway to where we need to go to advance to the reincarnation realm?" Yu Nianzgen asked.
"As expected, Brother Yu figured it out." Li Futian said and continued.
"In the reincarnation realm, we will endure one tribulation every one thousand years for nine thousand years. However, the tribulations are unlike the ones we have endured so far. This place may be the world’s way to prepare us for the reincarnation realm."
"It makes sense when you say it like that." Xuan Ke said, sounding a little excited.
"In that case, we should take full advantage of the situation." Yang Xu said with a solemn look on his face.
Although he did not belong to the oldest generation in the Cangxing world, he knew a lot about the world.
Even though nothing was explicit, Yang Xu felt that everything was odd.
He always felt that the world was making some kind of last-ditch effort; taking a stand and putting up its final struggle.
Thinking of this, a sweat broke out all over his back.
After all, it was not a good thing for a world to be pushed to its final struggle.
If they lost, Yang Xu didn’t dare to think about what would happen to them and everyone in the Cangxing world.
"Fellow Daoist Li..." Yang Xu started but Li Futian quickly interjected.
"We should make a plan to deal with the crystal worm." Li Futian said and then turned to Yang Xu.
"Senior Yang, did you need something?" He asked.
Hearing that, Yang Xu narrowed his eyes but didn’t ask the questions in his mind.
"I wanted to say that we need to come up with a plan to deal with the crystal worm." Yang Xu said instead.
When he heard that, Li Futian smiled and Yang Xu sighed.
[Senior Yang, we only need to do what we can do. What we can’t do will be done by others.] Li Futian transmitted.
While speaking, he subconsciously looked at Jiang Yue and Yu Nianzhen with a complicated look on his face.
Seeing this, Yang Xu couldn’t help but be shocked.
Since he met the two, he always felt they were special.
However, he only thought they were special because of their exceptional talent.
’Seems like I thought too simply.’ He thought and subconsciously clenched his hands.
Even though he liked that his children were special, he was also worried for them.
After all, those with a great fate never had a smooth path.
