After two more days of travel, the heavens and earth remained the same dull yellow. The water supply in the group had run out yesterday. People could still endure, but last night, as if struck by plague, the camels began collapsing one after another, foaming at the mouth. By morning, five were already dead. In the desert, having no camels meant waiting to die, so this group of sand barbarians who had always lived by the blade finally began to panic.
When Longge sensed something wrong and opened his eyes, it was already too late. The guild members he had hired had red eyes, stripped him of all his possessions, and were preparing to return to Luya City. No matter how Captain Zhaba scolded them, he couldn’t stop this pack of red-eyed wolves.
Longge frowned and with a swoosh drew the saber from his waist, about to step forward and fight these barbarians. At this moment, he suddenly saw Baru roar angrily, pull off his own pants down to his ankles, disgustingly exposing his private parts, and stride toward the northwest corner of the camp.
“Beast!” Longge shouted loudly, raising his blade to chase after him. The other team members saw this, their eyes immediately became frenzied, and they all dropped the goods in their hands to pursue.
Pure white camels were always extremely rare in the desert. In the eyes of some tribal peoples on the desert, white camels were messengers of the spirits, holding a status like sacred totems. On the golden sand, a white camel lay on the ground, contentedly dozing. Beside it, a petite woman in white robes with a connected hood lay on her side, eyes closed, clearly sleeping.
The chaotic footsteps drew closer. The woman’s eyes suddenly opened—sharp and piercing, not at all like someone just awakening. The camel beside her was very alert, immediately standing up to guard its master, vigilantly watching toward the source of the sounds.
“Damn it, since I won’t live much longer anyway, might as well have some fun with you first!”
Speaking thus, he charged forward with a ferocious expression.
“Beast!” A bright blade suddenly struck down. The man surnamed Longge leaped forward from behind with ice-cold eyes, blocking in front of the woman, glaring angrily at Baru and the group of men with greedy eyes behind him, saying sternly, “You can take the goods and gold, but if you dare act recklessly, I swear I’ll kill you first!”
“Second Brother!” Captain Zhaba ran forward, grabbing Baru and shouting, “Don’t cause trouble! Quickly apologize to Brother Longge!”
“Apologize for what?” Baru shouted angrily, “Big Brother, let’s first take this woman to vent our desires, then kill them both together. Who would know we did it? The desert is so vast—we’ll just say they died in the desert. Who would blame us?”
“I would blame myself!” Captain Zhaba shouted, “We’re a guild, not bandits!”
“I just want to return alive to see my wife and children!” Baru angrily turned around and shouted loudly to the other men, “Whoever wants to follow me, come take this woman!”
“Me!” a voice suddenly called out, “I’ll follow Boss Baru!”
“Me too, I’ll follow Boss Baru!” “It’s all this woman’s fault! If not for her, we wouldn’t have come to the Desert of Death!” “Right! First do her, then take the money back to Luya City!”
The crowd immediately became clamorous. Longge’s brow furrowed tightly as he protected the woman, cold sweat seeping from his blade-gripping hand. But that woman, in such a chaotic environment, still lay there quietly. If not for the slight rise and fall of her chest, others might think she was already dead.
A burly man suddenly charged forward first, running while stripping off his upper garments, reaching to remove his pants. Longge frowned and suddenly thrust his blade forward, slashing the man’s arm and shouting, “Get back! One more step and I’ll kill you all!”
A piercing scream suddenly rang out. The man’s arm immediately split open with a large gash. This was clearly Longge showing mercy—otherwise this arm might not have been saved. The bright red blood immediately stimulated Baru and the other sand barbarians. Baru took the lead, shouting loudly as he charged forward.
More than twenty burly men rushed forward together. Longge immediately was no match. The man gritted his teeth, raised his war blade, and prepared to meet the enemy. However, at this moment, a white shadow suddenly sprang from the ground. Black long hair flashed past his eyes in an instant, and a snow-bright, sharp dagger like lightning across the blue sky violently slashed toward the more than twenty approaching men.
Attacking when unprepared, striking when unexpected!
An inch shorter means an inch more dangerous. In an instant, long winds swept up. The white-clothed woman’s speed was swift beyond compare, her movements clean and efficient, striking like lightning. Lines of blood shot skyward, mixed with hoarse screams. In less than a moment, corpses of Luya Guild members lay scattered everywhere. Some had blade wounds to the neck and were already dead, while others were still convulsing on the ground, clearly in great pain and distress.
The woman stood in a pool of blood, her garments snow-white, her face covered by a hood with a veil blocking most of her face. Only a pair of indifferent, cold eyes were visible outside, like accumulated snow on Tianshan Mountain—clear and ice-cold.
She slowly walked forward, gripping the sharp dagger, delivering a finishing stroke to each person’s neck who was dying but not yet dead. Her movements were relaxed and decisive, yet carried an indescribable terror and efficiency.
Longge stared at her wide-eyed, almost unable to believe his own eyes. Seeing her gradually approach Captain Zhaba, he couldn’t help but cry out in terror, “Stop!”
Hearing this, the woman’s movements slightly paused. She slowly turned around, her gaze circling Longge’s face, then looked again at Captain Zhaba who was paralyzed on the ground with a leg wound, eyes filled with terror. She suddenly raised the dagger and struck hard toward his head.
With a thump, the knife handle struck heavily on Captain Zhaba’s forehead. His eyes rolled back and he fainted. The woman wiped the bloodied dagger twice on his clothes, then inserted it back into her boot.
Standing up, she walked toward the men’s camp. In a short while, she led back several surviving camels. She tied one camel to Captain Zhaba’s ankle, then threw down two water skins at his feet. Then she tied the remaining camels in a line, all connected to her white camel, and silently mounted it. After walking a few steps, she suddenly stopped, turned back to Longge who was still standing in place, and said in a cold tone, “Weren’t you going to the northern frontier? Let’s go.”
Longge made a sound of realization, immediately snapped back to awareness, picked up the scabbard from the ground, and chased after her. It must be said that the Luya Guild people really had no patience. That very night, Longge followed the woman and found a water source. When he saw that azure lake, his heart nearly leaped with joy. This man who had previously appeared cold and stern-voiced before the sand barbarians now acted like a child, cheering as he jumped down from his camel, stumbled down the sand dune, and with a splash jumped into the water, laughing loudly.
The woman wore the most common linen robe of desert women, riding on camel back, standing high on the sand dune, gazing down at the man below with distant eyes. Her gaze gradually became unfocused, as if she was looking at him, yet also as if she was seeing someone else through him.
She slightly raised her head. The evening sun at the horizon painted heaven and earth a fiery red. Every evening in the great desert was the most beautiful—the heat had gradually receded, and there wasn’t yet the cold of night. It was gentle, carrying the afterglow of sunset and vicissitudes.
Five years, the woman sighed low, her voice so weathered, mixed with too much weariness.
Time passed so quickly. In a flash, he had been gone so long. And she, like a wandering ghost without a master, had drifted in this illusory world for five years.
Over five years, her footsteps had covered the great rivers and lakes, famous mountains and great rivers, searching every corner she could imagine. Unfortunately, the world was so vast that there were indeed places two legs couldn’t reach. Yellow sand stretched endlessly, the journey was long—she had long lost direction.
Zhiyan, where are you? Are you well? Do you know I’m still searching for you?
Heaven and earth were a sheet of fiery red. Night was about to fall.
“Miss!” Longge caught a sand fox and skillfully skinned and roasted it. Although fox meat tasted somewhat strange, someone who had eaten only dried rations for a month couldn’t be too particular.
The woman accepted the fragrant roasted fox meat, removed her face veil, tore off a piece of meat, and ate it in small bites.
This was Longge’s first time seeing her appearance, and he immediately became somewhat stunned, foolishly holding the scalding roasted meat without feeling it burn his hands.
Accurately speaking, this woman’s appearance wasn’t extraordinarily beautiful. Though Longge was young, he had traveled throughout the Western Region kingdoms and seen beauties of various countries—countless were more beautiful and alluring than her. However, the lonely, indifferent, cold aura emanating from this woman’s entire being was so spiritually compelling. The strength carried in her arched eyebrows, reflected in the firelight, appeared even more naturally beautiful and elegant. At this moment, she simply sat there quietly eating roasted meat, yet carried such peerless radiance. This wasn’t the charm of a sheltered lady, nor the allure of an open Western Region woman, nor the innocence of a young girl in her prime, but rather an independent, strong, stubborn, indescribable unique temperament.
The cold woman continued eating, not even lifting her head, only saying slowly in a cold tone, “Keep staring and see if I don’t gouge out your eyeballs.”
Her tone slightly rose but remained low, yet the cold breath penetrated directly, frightening Longge into shivering and hurriedly lowering his head to eat. But after a while, he raised his head again and said, “You wouldn’t.”
The woman slightly raised an eyebrow, coldly humming, “Hmm?”
“I said you wouldn’t,” Longge said firmly, “Though you seem rather cold, I believe you’re not a bad person. Otherwise you wouldn’t have saved us in that sandstorm initially, led us into the Desert of Death, and you wouldn’t have left camels and water for Captain Zhaba.”