Once night fell in this desert, it became extremely cold.

The cold wind rolling over the sand dunes was like carrying icy blades, capable of freezing people to death.

Fortunately, everyone had prepared early and brought enough clothing.

Three fires had also been lit.

Ji Yunshu, Luo Yang, and Xiao Ba sat together.

After Lord Hu distributed food to everyone, he shouted: “After eating, hurry up and rest. Tomorrow, once we pass the sand dunes ahead, the sun will be deadly. Sleep well so you’ll have energy tomorrow. Don’t let anything happen halfway.”

Everyone responded in unison.

Luo Yang, however, replied perfunctorily, then gnawed on the flatbread in his hand.

He had walked all day and now his face showed complete exhaustion. He complained: “Just the first day and this young master is dead tired. There’s still a whole month to go! I’m afraid before we even get there, I’ll already be dead.”

Xiao Ba also echoed miserably: “Brother, I’m tired too.”

“It’s all your fault! Why did you have to open your mouth for no reason? Let people pour poison down your throat.”

“I didn’t want to either, but with a knife at my neck, I was so scared I couldn’t help but cry out.”

Luo Yang truly had no strength left at all. Exhausted to the point of collapse, he stuffed the remaining half of his flatbread into his pocket and fell down to sleep.

Xiao Ba could only hang his head dejectedly and continue gnawing his flatbread by the fire.

Ji Yunshu, sitting across from him, handed him a water flask: “Drink some water.”

“Miss, you’re really kind.” Xiao Ba smiled as he took it, tilted his head back, and gulped it down.

Completely forgetting who had forced that poison pill down his throat!

Seeing this lad being so innocent, Ji Yunshu felt somewhat reluctant in her heart, but one matter was one matter—now was not the time to be softhearted.

Just then, several wolf howls came from the distance.

Very eerie!

Lord Hu and his people remained completely calm.

Those who should eat ate, those who should drink drank, those who should sleep slept.

But Xiao Ba was like a bird startled by the twang of a bow, scared out of his wits. His body curled into a ball as he vigorously shook awake the already sleeping Luo Yang.

“Brother, wolves… wolves are coming!”

Luo Yang squinted his eyes and listened. Indeed there were wolf howls, but he was too exhausted and had no energy to run. He waved his hand: “If wolves come, you can’t escape anyway. Might as well wait for death. I need to sleep—don’t disturb me.”

And he collapsed back down.

“Brother?” Xiao Ba’s eyes darted around. His hands nervously churned through the sand a few times, but unexpectedly touched something hard.

He pulled it out to look.

A skull suddenly crashed into his vision.

“Ah!” He screamed.

And leaped up.

Diving straight to Ji Yunshu’s side.

Seeing his cowardly appearance, everyone roared with laughter: “What are you afraid of? It’s just a wolf’s skull.”

Xiao Ba said: “How… how can I not be afraid?”

Uncle Jing, who was drinking water, said: “Little brother, rest assured. Having a skull here means this place is safe. Wolves won’t come.”

“It’s been eaten down to a skull, and it’s still safe?” Xiao Ba’s voice trembled.

“You don’t understand. Precisely because there’s a skull here means the wolf pack came through before. Desert wolves won’t kill and bite people in the same place for several years. Besides, we have fires burning here—wolves don’t dare approach.”

Xiao Ba was skeptical.

Are you bullying me for being uneducated?

Wolves eating people have time and location restrictions?

Ji Yunshu turned her head to look at him and consoled: “You’re so skinny, you’re not even enough to fill a wolf’s teeth gaps. Don’t worry—even if they bite, they won’t bite you first.”

“Really?”

“You can choose not to believe it.”

He wrinkled his face, but would rather believe it. Only then did he return to his original position. But after that fright, he had no appetite for flatbread anymore and lay down beside Luo Yang, who was already sleeping like a puddle of mud.

Before long, everyone had also gone to sleep.

The three fires burned vigorously.

All the surrounding cold air was driven away, and everyone slept soundly.

After all, they had traveled for a full day.

Several hours later, Xiao Ba was sleeping soundly when suddenly someone grabbed him up.

Before he could react, he opened his eyes and someone covered his mouth.

“Don’t yell!” Luo Yang whispered in his ear.

Xiao Ba had been startled at first, but hearing it was Luo Yang’s voice, he stopped making noise.

But his heart was puzzled.

Luo Yang slowly released him.

“Brother, what are you doing?”

“Shh!” Luo Yang leaned to his ear and said: “Want to get the antidote?”

Xiao Ba nodded frantically.

“Brother will get you the antidote right now.”

“Antidote? Where?”

Luo Yang pointed at the sleeping Ji Yunshu: “Search her body for it.”

“The antidote is on her?”

“Won’t we know if we search?” Luo Yang’s body dropped to the ground as he crawled stealthily to Ji Yunshu’s side.

He rubbed his hands together, planning to search her body, but just as he raised his hand, he didn’t know where to search.

After all, the person lying before him was a woman!

Searching her body like this probably wasn’t appropriate.

He hesitated and struggled for a while, but ultimately threw caution to the wind.

With his pinky finger raised, he carefully lifted Ji Yunshu’s outer garment.

But having lifted it only a tiny bit, he stopped.

His inner moral baseline was somewhat collapsing!

Every pore on his body tightened. He took a deep breath. He must get the antidote back, so gritting his teeth, he continued searching.

But there was no antidote on Ji Yunshu’s body—he only found some broken silver, which he pocketed.

How strange—why would there be no medicine?

Could it be in her undergarments?

He quickly dismissed this thought. He was after all an upright man—how could he do such a sordid thing?

No, no!

In that moment, his gaze fell on Ji Yunshu’s exposed eyes and eyebrows.

Tender white skin!

Delicate eyebrows!

Long eyelashes!

Those features were extremely beautiful.

He wondered what the face hidden beneath that cloth actually looked like.

Curiosity filled his heart. He prepared to lift that cloth to take a look, but unexpectedly a sudden gust of wind arose, and a spark splattered onto the back of his hand.

The pain made him grind his teeth.

He quickly covered his mouth to avoid making a sound.

Ji Yunshu’s eyes moved. Seeing things were going badly, he quickly crawled back in disgrace.

Xiao Ba asked softly: “Brother, where’s the medicine?”

“Medicine my ass.”

“No medicine? Does that mean I’m going to die?”

Luo Yang covered the back of his hand, which had been burned red by the spark, his brow furrowed tightly.

Xiao Ba asked: “What’s wrong?”

“Don’t worry about it!”

“Oh.”

Luo Yang rubbed it for quite a while before the pain slowly subsided.

Xiao Ba, however, stared at Ji Yunshu for a bit, his gaze falling on the black cloth bag she carried with her. He quickly nudged Luo Yang with his elbow and asked: “Brother, do you think there might be medicine in that bag?”

“I didn’t check it.”

“Then tell me, why does she keep carrying that black cloth bag? What’s inside it?”

“Want to know?”

Xiao Ba nodded vigorously.

“Wait until she wakes up and go ask her yourself.” Luo Yang instigated him.

Xiao Ba shook his head vigorously: “I don’t dare. What if she feeds me poison again?”

“You think poison is food? One pill after another?”

“Either way, I’m not going.”

“Then shut your mouth.”

Xiao Ba covered his mouth and said nothing.