The moment Alex saw the arrow, he turned in the direction it came from.
He didn’t see anything, but following its direction, there had to be something there. There had to be someone there.
A person.
After so many months.
Alex wasted no time. He called on the blood armor to cover up his skin, and immediately flew in the direction, covering a distance that would have taken him an hour in half a minute. He looked everywhere, but he saw no one at all.
At first, Alex’s brows furrowed as he wondered if the person had run away. However, upon taking a closer look at the sand dunes, he saw signs of footsteps that could not have been hidden at all.
It went right up to the peak of a dune where the steps went nowhere.
Alex immediately flew down to where the footsteps ended and looked around. He couldn’t see the person anywhere, but looking at where he had come from, this place had the perfect vantage point to shoot him from.
He looked around, trying to determine where the person had run off to. There were no more footsteps from here to say he had walked out to anywhere, and since Alex had come down from the sky, he hadn’t flown away in the sky either.
That left…
Alex delivered a single punch with so much force behind it that the mere passing of it ripped the sand off the dune with a strong wind.
Most of the sand was blown away, and along with it tumbled away a man. He tried to claw at the sand to keep in place, but there was nothing he could grab at.
Alex stepped on his arm, stopping him from going anywhere. And at the same time, he pressed on it hard enough to make the man cry out in pain.
“Why did you attack me?” Alex questioned.
The young man immediately started shouting. “Forgive me, senior. Forgive me. I thought you were a participant. Forgive me.”
Alex narrowed his eyes, looking at the young man. “Who are you?” he questioned.
“I am called Lang Luxin. I am an inner disciple of the Red Sand sect,” the man said.
Alex raised his eyebrows.
‘Sect? In Hell?’
He had thought it would all just be tribes and cities. He hadn’t expected to hear of a sect.
He lifted his feet, but the young man stayed on the ground, not even daring to look up.
“You can get up,” Alex said.
The young man finally turned his eyes up and slowly got up. He looked at Alex with a fearful look, as if he was worried he would be killed.
Alex’s blood armor also made him look weirder now. His helm covered most of his face, except for a small region, which was covered in a veil already. So all the man could really see was his eyes.
“Why did you attack me again?” Alex asked. “Because you thought I was a participant?”
The young man nodded. “My apologies, senior. I didn’t expect someone other than the participant to be out here.”
“Participant of what?” Alex asked.
The young man narrowed his eyes. “Of the event.”
Alex waited for him to continue, but it seemed the young man expected him to understand everything with just that one word.
“What is this event?” Alex asked. “I’m not from around here. Explain it to me properly.”
The young man narrowed his eyes. He had questions, but it seemed he didn’t want to get on Alex’s wrong side, so he explained first.
“It’s the Endless Night sect’s entrance test. The second test to be exact,” the man said.
Alex narrowed his eyes. “You’re going around killing people in order to enter a sect?” he asked.
“The test is to bring back as many Sunhearts as we can, senior. Sometimes, that is easiest done by killing the other participants. My apologies for thinking you were one. If I knew there were anyone other than the participants in this region of the desert, I would have never attacked.”
“You are forgiven,” Alex said. “I’ve actually been searching for someone to lead me to a city or a tribe. Anywhere with people really. Can you do that for me?”
The man hesitated. “Senior, I… I must spend my time searching for Sunhearts. I can’t take you anywhere.”
Alex frowned. “Can you tell me what direction the nearest city is in then? I will just go there myself.”
The young man nodded.
“If you go straight in that direction, you will come across a river in about 10 days. If you follow the river up or down, you will come to any civilization.”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “There’s a river here?” he asked.
The young man nodded. “It comes from the northern mountains.”
Alex was quite interested in finding that. Rain in desert was very rare, so the possibility of finding water was just as rare as well.
But if there was a river there, then there was likely a lot of vegetation there as well.
Alex couldn’t help but want to go there right away. He wanted to head over immediately, but he decided to spend a day or two with the man. He needed to learn as much as he could about this region of the desert before he went there.
The very first question he had for the man was one that stemmed from an inconsistency in the man’s explanation.
“What sect did you say you came from?” Alex asked.
“The Red Sand sect, senior,” the man said.
Alex nodded. “And this event you are participating in, you mentioned it was the entrance test for the Endless Night Sect?” he asked. “Are you trying to change sects?”
“Of course,” the man said. “Everyone wants to join the Endless Night sect. Even my sect’s sect master would join it if he fit the criteria.”
Alex raised an eyebrow.
“Is the Endless Night sect that good?” he asked.
“Of course it is,” the man said. “It is the oldest and biggest sect of this world, dating back to hundreds and thousands of years.”
