Encountering Sand Bandits at Night

Zhou Xuanhao's success in reaching the realm of Foundation Establishment was a joyous occasion for the entire Zhou clan. Therefore, Zhou Minghan ordered his people to send out invitations the moment he returned to the clan from Haoyang Cave to immortal cultivators from all over the world to the celebratory ceremony.

Almost all immortal cultivation clans and expert rogue cultivators around Yuquan Lake Oasis who had a good relationship with the Zhou clan received an invitation.

Clans who had been invited would either send their clan elders over with gifts as representatives to congratulate the Zhou clan or personally attend with their younger generation to broaden the latter's horizons.

The cultivators that the Zhou clan had originally sent to the outside world were also called back temporarily to participate in the celebration.

After all, it was the first one to be held in decades.

A large number of immortal cultivators gathered at Yuquan Peak, causing the usually quiet place to become lively.

The Zhou clan took this opportunity to hold a small-scale trade fair on-site as well, displaying their stored medicinal pills, magical artifacts, spiritual talismans, and other treasures from the treasury. Their target customers were the rogue cultivators present. In exchange, the Zhou clan bought all sorts of pill refining and artifact refining materials from the rogue cultivators.

The Zhou clan did not target or expect sales from cultivators from other immortal cultivation clans as the latter usually had their own artifact refiners and alchemists to refine their own Grade 2 spiritual pills and magical artifacts.

On the other hand, the cultivators from other immortal cultivation clans were more interested in the random spiritual items that were occasionally offered by the rogue cultivators.

With whatever spiritual stones they had obtained from their sales, the rogue cultivators would use them to buy the Zhou clan's magical artifacts and medicinal pills.

However, Zhou Yang was not able to witness such liveliness.

When he had his epiphany the day Zhou Minghan arrived at Hao Yang Cave to witness Zhou Xuanhao's success, Zhou Yang had expressed his wish to travel the world.

Once he had arrived back at the clan, Zhou Yang received some advice from Zhou Xuanyu and the clan leader. Then, after saying his goodbyes, he rode off alone on a Camel Beast and left Yuquan Lake Oasis.

If he didn't count his time at Qingping Mountain, this would be the first time Zhou Yang went on a long journey alone after having been in this mysterious and vast immortal cultivation world for thirty-two years.

His first destination was White Sand River Oasis, a desert oasis that was more than three thousand kilometers away from Yuquan Lake Oasis. It was where Jinsha Square City, the largest marketplace in the immortal cultivation world, was located.

The ruler of White Sand River Oasis was the White Camel Ridge Chen clan. The Chen clan was an immortal cultivation clan that had been around for seven hundred to eight hundred years. The founder of the clan was a Zifu expert and the current head of the Chen clan, Chen Yaohui was already at a point where he would soon surpass the founder's cultivation level.

Currently, the White Camel Ridge Chen clan had one immortal cultivator in the realm of Zifu, twelve in the realm of Foundation Establishment, over a thousand in the realm of Qi Refinement, and over a million mortal members. It was the largest immortal cultivation clan within a radius of tens of thousands of miles.

When disciples of the White Camel Ridge Chen clan went out, even disciples of Yellow Sand School would respect them. It was obvious how illustrious the Chen clan was.

The Chen clan had a notable background, unlike the small immortal cultivation Yuquan Zhou clan. The two clans were not on the same level at all.

However, the Zhou clan's founder, Zhou Yuquan, had once helped Chen Yaohui when the latter was young and the former was still a part of Yellow Sand School.

Therefore, when Zhou Yuquan established the Yuquan Zhou clan, the Chen clan leader not only gave the former two shops in Jinsha Square City as congratulatory gifts, Chen Yaohui had also recognized the Zhou clan as an ally of the Chen clan. As such, the Zhou clan had been able to have a share of the welfare of the Alliance Circle.

The ability to attend the Foundation Establishment Meeting was one such privilege of being a part of the Alliance Circle.

Zhou Yang's trip to White Sand River Oasis was not only to look for an opportunity to open up the bottleneck but also because he had been entrusted by his clan to succeed his father at the clan's shops in Jinsha Square City.

The route from Yuquan Lake Oasis to White Sand River Oasis was a well-trodden path. Although there was no road in the desert in a strict sense, the joint efforts of several generations of Zhou clan cultivators, especially their array formation masters, had erected signal towers along the thousands of miles between the two oases to ensure that cultivators of the Zhou clan would not get lost.

Of course, only Zhou Yang called them signal towers. In the immortal cultivation world, they were called Advanced Grade 1 Magnetic Traction Arrays.

As long as the cultivators of the Zhou clan or those who were close to the Zhou clan walked on this road with a specially refined Grade 1 Yin Yang Compass, they would not have to worry about getting lost.

The only thing that could interfere with one's travels along the road was the natural environment, which did not allow Zhou Yang's journey to be that smooth. 

The moment he left Yuquan Lake Oasis, he had encountered three sandstorms in just half a month. And every time a sandstorm came, he could only hide under the belly of the Camel Beast and pray that the sand would not bury him alive.

If it wasn't the sandstorm, then it was the quicksand that interfered with his travels. But unlike sandstorms that made their arrival obvious and could be detected by Camel Beasts even before one could be spotted, one would only realize there was quicksand when one had already stepped on it because when undisturbed, it looked just like the surrounding sand. Quicksand could swallow up any weight and size of an object within seconds.

Even a Camel Beast could not avoid one.

Zhou Yang and the Camel Beast weighed more than three tons together. If they fell into quicksand, they would sink in less than three seconds.

The first time they stepped into one, Zhou Yang did not have time to react and fell in with the Camel Beast.

Fortunately, the clan leader had repeatedly advised Zhou Yang before he left to put a few Earth Escape Technique talismans in his sleeves so that he could escape predicaments such as quicksand by activating the talismans in time.

This experience of being trapped in quicksand really scared Zhou Yang. The terrifying suffocation that felt like he was falling into an abyss was even more terrifying than death.

Ever since his first encounter with quicksand, he had been using his Divine Sense to scan the ground ten meters ahead with the Earth Escape Technique talismans stuck on his arms and legs.

Although doing so consumed a lot of mental energy, it at least put him at ease.

Unfortunately, it also meant that Zhou Yang's travel time had been greatly increased. He could only advance less than three hundred miles every day, far below the normal speed of a Camel Beast's typical distance coverage of five hundred miles.

Zhou Yang was exhausted after traveling for the day so he decided to set up camp on a sand slope.

Zhou Yang first set up the tent, then fed the Camel Beast a few Grade 1 Essence Pills refined from the blood and flesh of demon beasts to replenish the Camel Beast's strength. Then, he hung the Camel Bell.

After doing all this, he was finally relieved and left the Camel Beast outside to keep watch for him with the Camel Bell. Then, he entered his tent in peace to meditate and recover the strength of his Divine Sense.

The temperature in the desert at night was cold, cold enough to go below zero. Zhou Yang was better off inside the camel skin tent. The Camel Beast outside had curled up into a ball as its breath condensed into white mist around its muzzle.

The Camel Beast was not only the most suitable mount in the desert but also a good guard.

Camel Beasts had the outstanding perceptive ability to sense even the sound of rats digging a few meters deep underground. With them standing guard, no desert demon beast could launch a sneak attack from underground.

The night gradually deepened and the temperatures started to drop. The Camel Beast guarding his tent had already buried most of its body into the sand, leaving only its head above the ground.

All of a sudden, the Camel Beast opened its eyes and raised its head to look toward the top of the sand slope with vigilant eyes.

Ding, ding, ding!

The rapid sound of the Camel Bell accompanied by the anxious cry of the Camel Beast woke Zhou Yang from his meditative rest.

Without thinking, he whipped out his Silver Shield and rushed out of the tent.

Whoosh!

Just as he did, Zhou Yang heard a sharp sound exploding in his ear. He was not unfamiliar with this sound as he speculated that it was the sound of an immortal cultivator commanding a flying sword through the air.

Sure enough, in the next moment, he saw a golden light collide with his Silver Shield.

"An Advanced Grade 2 magical armor!"

The golden light scattered upon contact with the Silver Shield, revealing a two-foot-long golden conical magical weapon and a surprised cry that came from not far away.

Zhou Yang followed the sound and looked over. He saw two black-robed masked cultivators standing on the sand slope, looking in his direction.

When they saw him looking over, one of the black-robed cultivators stretched out his hand and beckoned the conical magical weapon that had failed the sneak attack as he greedily eyed the Silver Shield in Zhou Yang's hands. "Kid, I'll give you a chance to live. Hand over your Advanced Grade 2 magical armor and I'll spare your life!"

"Sand bandits?"

Zhou Yang frowned.

"You know that we are sand bandits and yet you are still so calm. It seems that you are not an ordinary cultivator from an ordinary clan. May I know which clan you came from?"

"Why? Will you give up and just leave if I tell you?" Zhou Yang looked at the two people with a faint smile and mocking eyes.

"Of course not!"

The black-robed cultivator who spoke shook his head and waved his hand. Then, he took out a bright red banner and looked at Zhou Yang with a cold smile. "However, if you tell us where you came from, we might be kind enough to return your corpse to your clan after we kill you and if we get a good harvest!"

"I see!"

Zhou Yang nodded and, with a wave of his hand, the four Armor Breaker Daggers on his waist became unsheathed. They turned into four beams of white light as they shot into the sand not far behind him.

"Ah!"

A shrill scream instantly came from the ground behind Zhou Yang.

"Third Brother!"

"Third Brother!"

The two men instantly shouted in surprise.

It turned out that the group was a trio, not a duo - one of them had been hiding underground, waiting for an opportunity to launch a sneak attack.

They had not expected Zhou Yang to have already realized what was happening.

Zhou Yang had been stalling for time as he attempted to pinpoint the third bandit's location. Once he did, he launched a sneak attack back on the bandit with no hesitation.