Despite saying that, as they set out, things felt increasingly wrong.
The surrounding land was gradually turning into a desert, and the dust beneath their feet grew thicker.
“Sister Luo, are you sure this is the place?”
Bai Qianqian, who had been silent until now, spoke with a hint of doubt.
Luo Qingyao’s body was light; in the blink of an eye, she flew 100 meters into the air.
However, as far as the eye could see, yellow sand rolled and dust flew.
In the distance, she could even see a faint sand tornado.
“Uh, it seems there really is a bit of a problem with the destination…”
Luo Qingyao looked at the sand-filled scene.
Even as a soul body, she felt a sense of oppression.
The sparse vegetation behind them had completely given way to desert.
“No, something is wrong. Why have we come to a desert?”
Luo Qingyao waved her hand, summoning the route map she had drawn earlier.
Though sketched in haste, the route was based on what she had seen from the sky with her own eyes.
It shouldn’t be this ridiculous.
An image woven from soul power manifested instantly.
Bai Qianqian studied it for a long time and found no issues.
But with the sand blowing everywhere ahead, it didn’t look like there was a town at all.
On a distant sand dune, Bai Qianqian even saw a caravan resembling a line of black dots.
Luo Qingyao was still staring at her map, reflecting on which turn she had taken wrong.
But as Bai Qianqian looked at the desert and then back at the projection, her brow furrowed as if she had discovered something.
“Sister Luo… why don’t you try looking at this map upside down?”
When Bai Qianqian said those words, Luo Qingyao’s entire body froze.
As the map was flipped over, both of them fell silent.
Luo Qingyao tried to put the map away as if nothing had happened, but when she glanced sideways, she saw Bai Qianqian staring at her quietly.
“Qian… Qianqian, this, uh…”
Luo Qingyao felt a bit uneasy under that gaze.
After all, since boarding the ship at the Bai Family Port, they had spent four or five days switching between carriages and boats, even using spiritual power to fly along the way.
The process could be described as nothing but tedious.
“Don’t worry, Sister Luo. Everyone makes mistakes. I won’t blame you,” Bai Qianqian responded flatly after realizing the map had been held upside down.
Hearing that the girl didn’t intend to blame her, Luo Qingyao immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’m glad to hear that. Don’t worry, Lin Xinyi won’t be able to escape. When the time comes, the two of us will launch a surprise attack!”
Before Luo Qingyao could finish, she turned around to see Bai Qianqian, who had been beside her just a moment ago, now crouching behind a rock.
Her expression was one of total despair, her morale clearly crushed.
“Qianqian!!”
Luo Qingyao hurried over.
Bai Qianqian leaned in the shadow of the rock, her bamboo hat already tattered.
Even her eyes had lost their luster.
Luo Qingyao had never seen Bai Qianqian look like this before.
“I thought I would see Master in four or five days, but I didn’t expect us to head in the opposite direction. Four or five days back, then another four or five days to go…”
The more Bai Qianqian spoke, the more despair she felt.
From the moment she left the Bai Family Port, the ‘Master energy’ within her had been completely exhausted.
She was now in a state of deficit.
“Qianqian, don’t give up! Although it will take another eight or nine days to see Lin Xinyi, if you just persevere a little longer— just a little longer— you can do it!”
Luo Qingyao intended to continue her hollow encouragement, but Bai Qianqian simply slumped behind the rock, looking entirely ready to give up on herself.
Seeing this, Luo Qingyao panicked.
Bai Qianqian could usually resolve any problem easily, but once she fell into such a slump, it was all over.
Luo Qingyao still remembered a time when she worried that Lin Xinyi’s presence would hinder Bai Qianqian’s cultivation.
She had kept Bai Qianqian away from Lin Xinyi for an entire week.
To this day, Luo Qingyao remembered the outcome.
At first, Bai Qianqian hadn’t shown any abnormalities.
But by the third day, she suffered from low spirits and a loss of appetite.
By the fifth day, she was even showing withdrawal symptoms.
Because of that, Luo Qingyao never dared to force Bai Qianqian away from Lin Xinyi again.
However, on the first day after that week, Lin Xinyi was the one who suffered.
Although Lin Xinyi didn’t remember it, Luo Qingyao recalled the scene vividly.
It took three whole days before Bai Qianqian finally let her go.
‘Tsk, what should I do? If this continues, Qianqian is going to enter the third stage again…’
Luo Qingyao recalled that Bai Qianqian’s motivation for training so hard lately was to stand at the same height as Lin Xinyi.
She wanted to take first place in the Sect Selection and then surprise Lin Xinyi by taking her as her master in a formal setting.
“Sister Luo, I’m fine. I just… don’t feel like moving.”
“The problem is, it’s hard to feel at ease seeing you like this…”
Bai Qianqian longed for Lin Xinyi even in her dreams.
Luo Qingyao knew how hard the girl worked to achieve her goal; she often saw Bai Qianqian meditating alone inside the Grotto-heaven in the middle of the night.
Her progress was staggering.
She had gone from a total novice to the peak of the Foundation Establishment Stage.
“It’s all right, Sister Luo. Perhaps Master and I truly aren’t meant to be joined by love…”
As Bai Qianqian spoke, she slowly unsheathed the long sword in her hand.
Startled, Luo Qingyao immediately snatched it away.
Before Bai Qianqian could react, she simply stared down at her empty hands.
“Sister Luo, why did you take my sword away?”
“Don’t do anything rash! It’s just a matter of traveling a bit further. There’s no need to go this far!”
“Sister Luo, you’ve misunderstood. I just felt that holding Master’s sword would allow me to recover a little bit of ‘Master energy’…”
“Oh, I see…”
Feeling a bit embarrassed, Luo Qingyao returned the sword.
After taking it back, Bai Qianqian continued to lean against the rock, showing no signs of regaining her vitality.
Luo Qingyao looked left and right, feeling helpless.
“What should I do…?”
While Luo Qingyao was fretting, she suddenly noticed ripples of spiritual energy in the distance.
She narrowed her eyes and saw that the caravan, which had been resting on the dune, had suddenly descended into chaos.
Several people had drawn their weapons and were engaged in a melee.
Luo Qingyao didn’t want to mind other people’s business at first, but then something occurred to her.
‘There are cultivators in that caravan. Perhaps the cultivators of this region would know of a nearby town.’
Luo Qingyao recalled that any large town would certainly have routes for spiritual boats.
Once they boarded a spiritual boat, they could travel a thousand miles in a day.
Returning to Nanzhou would save a vast amount of time.
“Qianqian! Don’t sleep, I have a way! The caravan ahead is in danger. Let’s make contact with them first!”
Bai Qianqian had intended to keep moping, but when she saw the flashes of blades and swords in the distance, she slowly stood up and adjusted her bamboo hat.
“Does Sister Luo have a plan…?”
“If there is a caravan in this desert, there must be a town. Once we find a town, we won’t have to worry about the distance back and forth!”
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