Chapter 0075 – The King In The Desert
Ning Cheng would never believe that his luck really was that good. He was not clear about what was going on, but then he heard an exploding sound coming from somewhere above his head, it was immediately followed by a thick lightning bolt that fell to the ground.
This thick lightning bolt fell in a place that was not far from where Ning Cheng was standing, when the lightning bolt struck the sand, it was instantly vaporised into nothingness, the vacuum created by it immediately birthed a giant whirlpool. The surrounding sand immediately fell into this giant whirlpool, allowing this whirlpool to get larger and larger. From this whirlpool emerged a formidable suction force, which even Ning Cheng could feel from a distance.
Ning Cheng, at this moment, immediately came to understand that those sand Monstrous Beasts had run away because they knew that this kind of lightening was going to fall, so fearful for their life, they finally escaped, once the lightning fell on those Monstrous Beasts, there was simply no need to ask what would have happened, even he imagined that those Monstrous Beasts would definitely be vaporised into nothingness just like the sand.
At this moment Ning Cheng knew that if he continued to stand in this place it would be really bad for him, so he immediately rushed out, and even followed the same direction that those Monstrous Beasts escaped in.
Just as Ning Cheng left the place he was standing in, a huge lightning bolt as thick as his thighs fell in the same exact spot, immediately the sand around the impact area was completely disintegrated into an extremely fine powder. This created another giant whirlpool which connected with the previous whirlpool, immediately increasing its size.
With that kind of formidable power that was emanating from the lightning strikes, not to mention a cultivator in the True Condensation Realm, even if it was a cultivator in the Essence Building Realm, if they were struck by even one of those lightning bolts, then the only outcome for them would be death.
Ning Cheng immediately increased his speed to the maximum possible limit, as he rushed forward in a straight line along the yellow sands.
When the third lightning strike stuck, it was very close to Ning Cheng’s feet, although Ning Cheng was able to get away from it in time, but the aftermath that the lightning strike brought instantly shredded his clothes into thin strips.
As the third lightning strike struck the sand just below his feet, he found that the lightning was getting more and more intense, moreover it seemed to be getting even more difficult for him to evade them.
Ning Cheng, while fleeing, finally understood something about these lightening, although the impact area of these lightening was huge, but they always moved in a straight line. This time Ning Cheng no longer fled along the same route that he was running on, but rather slightly changed his direction.
“Boom Boom” sounds were unceasingly ringing behind Ning Cheng, although Ning Cheng was able to escape from those lightening, but he was not able to fully escape those sand whirlpools formed by it. Fortunately, Ning Cheng had prior experience in dealing with those sand whirlpools, although they were a bit unexpected, but they were not able to suck him inside. What truly made him afraid was the terrible lightning strikes behind him.
After running for almost a full day, the rumblings of thunder behind him was getting smaller and smaller, and finally completely disappeared along a different direction.
Ning Cheng finally stopped, as he continuously took in large mouthfuls of air and said to himself, “So this is the so called lightening that falls in this dessert, the most horrifying thing in this dessert are actually those lightning strikes.”
Ning Cheng had just started to relax, when he heard an extremely loud howl and a whistling noise, and immediately a white light was visible to him coming from the distant horizon.
Someone? Ning Cheng quickly determined that this loud howl was actually artificial. At this time, he had once again lost his bearings because of those lightning strikes, so what he really wanted the most was to meet other people, he was afraid that he would miss this person, so he immediately hurried towards the white light.
After half an hour, Ning Cheng finally appeared at the periphery of this place, and immediately determined that there really was a human settlement here.
Not only was there humans here, but there even were several buildings similar to a yurt constructed here. Besides these yurts, there was even a vast swath of green vegetation, there was even a clear lake in it.
There were several guards protecting these temporary housings, when Ning Cheng looked them, he found that the cultivations of these guards were really poor, in fact most of them were only ordinary people, who did not emit any Qi fluctuations. At best, they only looked tough and only had a small amount of Killing Intent around them.
It is already extremely dangerous here, how did these people even get here? Ning Cheng was very surprised in his heart. In this place, even with his cultivation it was very difficult for him, he could be swallowed by the dessert anytime and anywhere, and yet he found that these guards staying here who did not even have any cultivation. Ning Cheng rubbed his eyes, and almost thought that he had seen it wrong.
Ning Cheng decided to have a look, in the shortest possible time, discarded the shredded clothes on him, cleaned his dust covered body, and put on a set of clean cloths, he once again put the broken Spear on his back. Then slowly moved towards the closest yurt, while simultaneously concealing his cultivation to make it look like he was at Qi Gathering 7th Level.
Although these people’s cultivation levels were not high, there were even people who did not cultivate, he just did not want to display too much of his power.
Ning Cheng had just approached the nearest yurt, when two soldiers who were patrolling noticed Ning Cheng, and immediately walked towards him.
“Excuse me, my two friends, I have become lost here, and am very thirsty and hungry, could I borrow a bed from you for a short while.” Ning Cheng did not wait for the two guard to approach him, and immediately walked over to them and spoke in a polite way while clasping his fist.
These two people looked at Ning Cheng from head to toe, while thinking of how Ning Cheng did not seem to look like he was very thirsty or hungry. On the contrary, it looked more like Ning Cheng was a next door neighbour who dropped by for a visit.
One of the two soldiers gave a meaningful wink to the other soldier, when the other soldier saw the wink, he quickly turned around and walked back.
After the other person left, the remaining soldier said to Ning Cheng, “Please stay here for a while, this is the dwelling place of our King Wang Nian, we must have to first report this matter before saying anything.”
Ning Cheng had already noticed the look in the soldier’s eyes, he immediately came to know that the opposite party was not someone simple. He casually relied, “Oh, in that case, I’ll go look for some other place to rest.”
With that, Ning Cheng turned around to leave.
When this soldier saw that Ning Cheng was leaving, he quickly arrived in front of Ning Cheng and stopped him and said, “My friend please stop, before we are able to clear up your background, you cannot leave here.”
Ning Cheng raised his eyebrows and said, “Why, it’s not like I can’t find a place for myself? But when I came by here, you people did not even give me water to drink, do you think that I came to rob you?”
This soldier who had stopped Ning Cheng was just about to speak, when a deep voice could be heard, “King Wang says, that now that you have come here, why don’t you just come in.”
When Ning Cheng heard this voice, he knew that this speaker must at least be a cultivator at the True Condensation 3rd Level, it indicated that this yurt like building to appear here, was not a simple thing.
“Yes.” The soldier gave a reverent cry before turning to Ning Cheng and said in a very polite manner, “My friend, come, follow me.”
“Lead the way.” Ning Cheng originally did not intend to go inside, but he really wanted to inquire about the route. If he could not find anything about the correct route, then he was very likely to die in this Thunder Fall Dessert.
These people dared to arrange so many temporary yurts, moreover there was even a desert oasis here, so the possibility of this being the correct route was more than 90%. This kind of opportunity, how could Ning Cheng pass it up?
Entering the range of the yurts, Ning Cheng discovered that these yurts were arranged in a unique orientation, forming a Defensive Array Formation, which happened to encircle the oasis in the middle. Just next to the oasis, there was a particularly large yurt.
The soldier led Ning Cheng to the front of this large yurt, and said, “Since our King Wang has summoned you, you can go in.”
Ning Cheng used his Spiritual Sense to sweep around the surroundings, and found that there were no abnormalities, before gradually entered the yurt.
This particular yurt was very large, Ning Cheng felt that he had entered a large hall, there was at least several hundred square meters of area inside.
Sitting at the highest seat was a long haired barefooted girl, this girl looked very beautiful but looked extremely weak, the only uncomfortable thing that Ning Cheng felt was that her pupils were in a triangle shape, which made her beautiful face look somewhat disproportionate.
In Ning Cheng’s view, she did not seem to possess any Qi fluctuations, so he could safely assume that she did not cultivate. But even if that was the case, this girl gave Ning Cheng a strange feeling.
On the two sides of this girl, there was a man and a woman standing, the woman had a rough face, but when Ning Cheng glanced at her he was surprised that this woman had the cultivation of peak Qi Gathering 9th Level. On the other hand, the man looked very delicate and had fair skin, and looked like a toy boy, but his cultivation level was already at True Condensation 3rd Level. Going down, on both sides there were two rows of four soldiers each, and all of them had the cultivation level of at least early Qi Gathering 9th Level.
In addition, in the corner of the hall there were three cultivators hanging from a rope, two men and a woman. This made Ning Cheng surprised, the three cultivators had the cultivation of True Condensation Realm, but the three of them did not even have the capacity to resist, as they hung there with their heads down, he could sense that the flow of True Essence in their bodies had become extremely sluggish. There were several soldiers standing beside them with a whip in their hand, from the scars on their bodies it could be seen that the wounds were inflicted on them by those soldiers.
The most miserable was the female cultivator, although she was at the True Condensation 2nd Level, her clothes were already shredded revealing the fair skin beneath it. But even this fair skin was scarred again and again, the fair skin could only faintly be seen from these scars.
These three people apparently still had a breath of life in them, when they heard the sound of Ning Cheng arriving, they immediately lifted their heads, and looked at Ning Cheng in a puzzled way.
An extremely peculiar smell was spreading from them, when Ning Cheng took a whiff of this scent he immediately felt a bit strange, it was similar to the scent that he had smelled from the Monstrous Beasts that he had fought before, these two odours were somewhat similar. This smell made him extremely uncomfortable, but fortunately circulating the True Essence in his body, this uncomfortable feeling instantly dissipated.
“My lord, this person trespassed into our King Wang Nian’s sanctuary.” The soldier who had brought Ning Cheng here immediately stepped forward and said while kneeling.
This girl who was called as the lord just waved her hand and said, “I know, you can go.”
Once the soldier went out, this girl looked at Ning Cheng from top to bottom but could not even detect a shred of tension in him, Ning Cheng’s cloths were very clean and was carrying a Spear wrapped in cloth behind him, and looked like he had actually come here for a walk, he did not seem the slightest bit uncomfortable. This girl frowned and said in a slow voice, “Who are you? For what reason did you charge into my North Jue Encampment.”
North Jue? Ning Cheng did not know where this place called North Jue was, he had only come here to ask about the correct route that led to the Hua Continent, so he hastily bowed his head and cupped his fists in front of him and said, “My name is Ning Xiao Cheng, I was just passing through here, I really hope that me rushing through here might not have caused any misunderstandings.”
The woman standing next to the girl, who had the cultivation of peak Qi Gathering 9th Level, suddenly shouted angrily at Ning Cheng, “You animal, speaking to the King in front of you and still not on your knees.”
Ning Cheng’s face sank, he had come here to find the right route, not to beg for mercy. Inside Ning Cheng’s dictionary, there was no such thing as begging for mercy.
Ning Cheng suddenly proceeded to take a few steps forward, all the people were thinking that he was coming forward to speak with proper etiquette, but then Ning Cheng with a flash appeared in front of the rough looking woman, lifted his hands and delivered two resounding slaps to her face.
“Slap Slap….” two crisp sounds could be heard, the people then saw that Ning Cheng had already returned to his original position, but when they looked at the face of the rough looking woman who was just slapped, two purple hand prints could distinctly be seen on both of her cheeks.