Escape

It took them two whole weeks to get to the end of the massive tunnel, the reason being that the tunnel had cut across a whole Kingdom and also the children needed rest from time to time.

Immediately they got out of the tunnel the sunlight assaulted their eyes and brought warmth to their skins which had become pale, a whole two weeks without sunlight wasn't something to joke about, some of the children were becoming weaker and weaker.

After they had managed to adjust their eyes sights in accordance with the bright light, what they saw wasn't something pleasant to the eyes, the tunnel had terminated at a wastes land, a massive brown land with just a few plants that could be seen once in a few tens of meters, the few plants or grasses were brown, looking like dead plants, it seemed there had been no rain here for a very long time.

"What is this place? Concubine Rong inquired but no one had an answer to that question.

"we will settle here and use the tunnel as shelter for now, while we look for a place with greener pastures," the Queen said, and everyone began to settle down, although the concubines were not satisfied with the arrangements there wasn't anything they could do, after all, they didn't have any better ideas.

Settling down wasn't a problem, but the problem was that they were a lot of animal excrement at the entrance of the tunnel, which only meant that there were animals around that also used the tunnel as their resting place during the night or something.

"Go deeper into the tunnel, avoid the entrance, we will make fire at the entrance during the night to scare the animals away," the Queen said, and they all did exactly what she had told them.

As time passes, the place became more and more difficult to survive even the children were becoming sick, their lips became dry, their faces were covered with dust, their clothes were becoming rags, no water to drink, so they had to take chlorophylls from plants or juice from trees when they come across any, once in a while, they will be attacked by a group of desert animals such as snacks, scorpions, venomous dessert spiders and so on. The worst of it all was that two maids and tens of children had died due to sudden illnesses that could not be treated or they were bitten by rattlesnakes, without proper treatment they could not make it.

"If we continue like this we are all going to die here, we have been here for two years plus, we have run out of food and water, and the children are becoming too weak, why don't we keep moving, we might come across a better place to stay in two or three days," Yu Qian said to the Queen.

"You know it's dangerous for the children," the Queen replied.

"Yes but I also know it's dangerous for the children to stay here, so let's just give it a try,"

"Don't you think those children are too weak to travel? She asked but Yu Qian wasn't going to give up that easily.

"We still have three carts we will carry the weak once on it, let's not give up on ourselves before we even die," the Queen had nothing more to say so she agreed with her.

"Let's give it a try then, we'll leave tomorrow morning." She said. It was already late so starting the journey that night would be troublesome, moreover, most of the children had gone out to hunt wild fruit or animals, especially those who were now 11 to 14 years old.

Ming An Xian and Yu Long were 12 years old, Xin Yao was 10 and Xin Tianshi was 9, the two girls followed An Xian and Yu Long around even when they were asked not to.

THE SKY CONTINENT

The sky continent was very powerful although it wasn't the strongest it was stronger than the dust continent, they was a time when the dust continent was very strong as well, but after an occasion where they lost almost all their cultivators and the survivals were very weak, they had to go into hiding to avoid sudden death, gradually cultivation faded away in the dust continent living the people with only their mortal strength.

The four continents were like four squares that all met each other in the middle, the continents were divided by ocean but the middle was like another world on its own, the place was called the heavens gate, it was hidden from the eyes of the people, but an entrance always comes to view on every side of the continent, it happens every five years, and cultivators from all parts of the continents will go in to search for treasures or miraculous opportunities, but they was a rule which state that no one should enter a particular cave that was at the peak of the mountain.

There were stories back then that at the depth of the cave, a God of war had used his immortal core to bind Demon King and his Demons to a platform inside the cave.

About two centuries ago, the people of the Sun continent disregarded the warning and went into the cave, which they all fell into an illusion and was controlled by The Demon King, Using their blood to set him and his demonic Agents free.

It was said that the immortal core that was binding the demonic energy flew out of the cave, as well as the Demon King and his demonic Armies, the demons left the heavens gate into the four different continents creating havoc.

The immortal core was Lost and since that day the entrance to the heavens gate was hidden and had never revealed itself again.

Dust continent

The next morning, the group got up early and started their journey, it was not going to be easy especially when most of the children were not strong enough to travel a far distance through the desert, the heat and lack of water were making the already dehydrated children weaker, it wasn't only the children but few adults among them were suffering as well.

They settled early during the evening to rest, just like usual the children will go out by this time of the day to hunt, Ming An Xian and Yu Long left together Xin Yao and Xin Tianshi followed them.

The four children had walked about a kilometer away from their camp each of them was carrying a sack, they had attached robes to the sack making them look like oversized bag pack, all of a sudden they all came to a halt looking up in the sky, a far distance away from them there were two creatures fighting, the fight was very fierce.

"Let's go take a closer look" Ming An Xian said

"No it's too dangerous," Xin Yao pulled him back.

"Everything here is dangerous anyway, so this should not make a difference," Ming An Xian replied pulling away from Xin Yao and started running forward.

Xin Yao looked at Yu Long helplessly.

"Don't look at me, you know I can't stop him when he had made up his mind," Yu Long said, and shrugged his shoulder, they can't help but to run after him trying to make him stop.

When they got closer they were surprised by what they saw, it was their first time seeing such big birds, and that was not all, people were sitting on them, that was something they had never seen before or even imagine.

In the sky there were three giant Crane, on each was a man, two of them were dressed in yellow robe with black stripes on the sleeves and neck, while the other man was in white with blue stripes on the neck and sleeves.

"Hand it over if you want to live," the one in yellow said with a fierce look, in his hand was a sword ready to attack

"I don't have it even if I do I won't hand it over," the one on white reply

"do you think you can take on two of us? Even if you die here no one will know your way about so don't think we won't dear killing you."

"Hahaha let me see you try," he pull a spear out of the tin air.

"as you wish." The other men replied and pull out their weapons and they started fighting.

"It is as if they are struggling something or are they trying to steal from him?" Yu Long asked

"It seems," Xin Yao replied,

The four children hid themselves in a dry grass far away from the fighters.

Although the man on white was alone, the other two men could not beat him easily, the way he moved his spear was swift and fast his attack was powerful, Ming An Xian was paying full attention to the fight, the moves of the man on white had captured him completely.

They had fought for more than thirty minutes before the Men on yellow change their pattern of fighting, they stop fighting individually and began to combine their strength, creating a formation and it wasn't long before cuts began to appear on the men in white body.

Bang! A blade cut deep into the skull of the White Crane, the bird went crazy and flung the man away, the two men took the advantage and chased after the falling man, without hesitation they both aimed their blades at the man before they could even reach the ground the man lost consciousness, the giant bird had also fallen from the sky dead.