Chapter 74: Section 75: Oasis
Zhenjin was merely left feeling a bit stuffy from the impact, the tough scorpion shell had protected his brain, and he didn’t feel dizzy at all.
A normal person slamming at the speed he just did would surely have met with a bloody, broken head.
Seeing that the lizards had already run far away, Zhenjin knew he couldn’t catch up. Plus, with Zi Di, Cang Xu, and others still far off, he gave up on the chase.
Through this battle, Zhenjin deeply realized, “The gun scorpion form is indeed very strong, but to fully unleash the gun scorpion’s abilities, I still need a lot of practice.”
Right now, he couldn’t even run normally or, to put it more accurately, quickly adjust direction while running.
He then looked at the Heart Core, which had lost a quarter of its demon energy.
...
A complete transformation into a gun scorpion consumed demon energy quickly, much more so than merely transforming one or two parts before.
Yet Zhenjin did not rush to cancel this form.
He scuttled over to a lizard corpse, stabbing his scorpion tail into the lizard’s belly with a “puchi.”
The next moment, he used his mind to control the Demon Core in his heart.
The familiar red light surfaced, revealing four bloodlines on the lizard’s body. The bloodlines quickly entwined, binding the lizard thoroughly.
Then the bloodlines sank into the lizard’s body, dimming a bit.
But soon, the bloodlines brightened again, contracting with fierce speed, bringing back into the Heart Core the essence of the lizard’s bloodline.
The lizard’s body turned into a pile of carbon dust.
The reserve of demon energy in the Heart Core had risen a bit.
“Now, I can mutate out the crown of the lizard.”
“Even if my entire body undergoes mutation, under these circumstances, I can activate the Demon Core, absorbing and transforming the target life form.”
After verifying this conjecture, Zhenjin finally canceled the gun scorpion form and returned to his human shape.
Next, he absorbed and transformed most of the lizard corpses on the battlefield.
These lizards had just died, still fresh, with much of their magic power remaining, so each lizard converted a significant amount of demon energy.
In the end, upon checking, Zhenjin found that the reserve of demon energy in the Heart Core was now one and a half times higher than before the battle.
“Now, I can fully mutate into this acid-liquid lizard.”
“But only to a Black Iron Level.”
This result plunged Zhenjin into deep thought.
He gained a new understanding of the Demon Crystal in his heart.
“It seems that the Life Level I mutate to isn’t based on my own life tier, but on the tier of the life I absorb.”
“I’ve absorbed a Silver Level Silver Spear Scorpion leader, so I can mutate into a Silver Level Silver Spear Scorpion.”
“But I haven’t absorbed enough Silver Lizards, the highest was just Black Iron Level, so I can only mutate into Black Iron Level lizards.”
“However, after the Silver Lizard was killed, I processed its body, obtaining a lot of lizard meat, and ate quite a bit afterward.”
“So in this, there’s actually an accumulation of quantity.”
“If I had only absorbed a small part of the Silver Spear Scorpion’s body, without enough quantity to lead to a qualitative change, I wouldn’t have been able to mutate into a complete Silver Level Silver Spear Scorpion.”
As the sun climbed, the temperature in the desert started to increase markedly.
Zhenjin stopped his train of thought and began dressing.
“A complete mutation is powerful, but having to take off clothes each time is quite inconvenient.” Sёar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
While dressing, Zhenjin noticed a tear at the back of his trousers, and an awkward expression crossed his face.
After he put on his clothes, he deliberately adjusted his top to cover the tear in the rear.
Then, he picked up his blade, making many cuts on the remaining lizard corpses.
This blade had belonged to a member of the exploration team, who had perished in the Volcanic Cave. When Zhenjin carried Bai Ya away, he did not forget to take these valuable survival resources.
It was just an ordinary iron-made blade, nowhere near as sharp as the Spider Blade. A normal person would need several strikes to penetrate the skin of a Black Iron Lizard.
Zhenjin then erased any suspicious traces from the battlefield, burying all carbon dust.
After ensuring everything was correct, he left the gold mica stone area and jogged to meet Cang Xu and Zi Di.
Seeing Zhenjin exhausted, with many new bloodstains on him, Zi Di was very concerned and rushed to inspect him.
Once she confirmed that Zhenjin had no wounds, the young girl let out a sigh of relief.
“I killed a few lizards. The rest I scared away, now we have food,” Zhenjin said with a smile.
This good news brought joy to the faces of Cang Xu and Zi Di.
Carrying Bai Ya on his back, Zhenjin led the two back into the gold mica stone area.
Seeing no fewer than five lizard corpses, both Cang Xu and Zi Di were visibly shaken.
Cang Xu scanned the battlefield, saw the complex traces of the fight on the sand and stones, along with many lizard tracks extending outward, and expressed heartfelt admiration.
“Lord Zhenjin, I’m beginning to believe Lady Zi Di’s guess now.”
“You are probably more than just Silver Cultivation. To have such powerful combat strength under such poor physical conditions is very unusual. This group of lizards had at least thirty members, yet you singlehandedly managed to kill five of them with just an ordinary blade, without using Fighting energy, and you even forced the whole group to flee.”
“Sir, you are so valiant. But what I admire even more is your fearless spirit. You charged into a massive Magic Beast horde alone, undaunted by formidable enemies, such an action and scene, if placed in history books, would match those famous heroic solo warriors.”
“Although I didn’t witness it myself, I can imagine the valiant scene of you charging into those lizards. Surrounded by them, you relied on extraordinary courage and exquisite combat skills to fight bravely. The lizards spewed Acid Liquid, and you were in a dangerous situation, but you had an exceptional will, always maintaining ice-like calm.”
“An ordinary iron blade in your hands could set off waves of blood. Moving and dodging among the lizard group, both brave and exquisite, you were like an Elf dancing in the woods.”
Zhenjin touched his nose, feeling somewhat embarrassed by the praise: “You flatter me.”
“No,” Cang Xu shook his head, his attitude very firm, “although I am not adept at combat, I do have years of experience. These battle marks can’t be faked.”
A large part of these battle traces were actually forged by Zhenjin.
Seeing that he had successfully deceived Cang Xu, Zhenjin felt a mix of relief and guilt: “I had to do it, this lizard meat will be enough for us to eat for quite a while.”
Yet Zi Di seemed to be frightened by Cang Xu’s description. Her purple eyes fixed on Zhenjin, she spoke softly, “My lord, please don’t take such risks in the future. Quite often, we can devise a long-term plan.”
Zhenjin nodded: “Don’t worry, I have a sense of it. In fact, ever since we shook off the scorpion swarm, I’ve felt a sort of renewal. It’s as if I’ve made some breakthrough, yet also as if I haven’t. Now, when I fight, my thoughts are clearer than before, I understand the state of my body better, knowing what I can and cannot do.”
Zhenjin said this after careful consideration—he needed to lay some groundwork.
He deliberately kept it vague, to leave an impression on those around him.
In the future, after he used the Heart Core to solve threats, this would make it less strange and abrupt to others that he had grown stronger.
After hearing this, Cang Xu nodded repeatedly: “I have heard of similar cases.”
“In the Eastern Empire, there is a group of cultivators who practice Fighting Energy and admire strenuous cultivation. During their training, they wear Magic Prohibition Rings on purpose, don heavy burdens, dress in the simplest clothes, sometimes trekking barefoot in the mountains, or sitting under waterfalls to endure the impact of thousands of tons of water.”
“They restrain most of their power, keeping their bodies in the harshest conditions at all times, to torment their physique and refine their spirit and will. Often, their Fighting Energy Cultivation breaks through the limit, growing rapidly.”
“After all, Fighting Energy is extracted and wrung out from a person’s body. The stronger the flesh, the higher the own limits that can be surpassed, the more potential that can be squeezed out, and the stronger the Fighting Energy becomes.”
The human body is the foundation of Fighting Energy, while Magic is different, the essence of Magic is about leveraging external elements. The essence of Divine Arts is the Divine Power actively lent by the gods.
“Lord Zhenjin, your experience on the island is akin to these ascetic warriors. At the brink of life and death, your body broke through its limits, uncovering the potential deep within. Quite possibly, when you leave this island, your Fighting Energy Cultivation will advance even further.”
Cang Xu spoke with conviction, and even Zhenjin, as the person concerned, was a bit dazed.
He hadn’t expected that after just broaching the subject, Cang Xu had already provided a perfect explanation.
Zhenjin came to his senses and couldn’t help but appreciate Cang Xu more.
“If I had such house servants or subordinates, how smoothly future affairs would be handled.”
“Unfortunately… Cang Xu is just an ordinary person. If he could cultivate, it would be truly perfect.”
As for Cang Xu’s status as a wanted criminal, Zhenjin didn’t care.
It was only the Shata Family that issued a warrant for Cang Xu. The territories of the Hundred Needle Family and the Shata Family were far apart, and they had already pledged allegiance to the Holy Emperor’s line. Sheltering an ordinary person like Cang Xu, the Shata Family couldn’t do much to Zhenjin.
Then, the three of them set to work, processing the lizard corpses, cutting them into strips and chunks.
Even though they had meat, no one indulged in a feast.
The food was plentiful, but it was still not limitless. After experiencing this hunger, Zhenjin and the others treasured every portion of food even more.
After tallying up the quantity of lizard meat, they had a detailed plan—exactly how much meat each person would eat each day, each meal.
Another important reason they didn’t indulge was that there was very little water left.
The human stomach doesn’t store water, but digesting food requires a large amount of water. The body’s water seeps into the stomach to participate in the digestive process.
In the absence of sufficient water resources, eating a large amount of meat could also be fatal.
“Next, we have to supplement our drinking water,” Zi Di said.
“If we can’t find water, even if we don’t starve to death, we will die of thirst. However, I believe there must be a stable and large-scale water source nearby,” Cang Xu said with firm conviction.
There lived scorpion and lizard swarms here, both of large scale, with copious amounts of water being an essential resource to support life activities.
Unless they too were teleported here.
But all the signs indicated that this was unlikely—both these beast swarms had lived here for a long time.
“We can observe the lizards’ footprints; perhaps these traces could lead us to the water source,” Cang Xu offered a good suggestion.
In the evening, the sunset was like fiery satin across the sky.
The lingering light of the setting sun fell on Zi Di’s face, and those purple crystal-like eyes suddenly sparkled.
“Look, the oasis is over there!” The girl who had climbed atop a sand dune pointed excitedly ahead.
Zhenjin had already seen and sensed it, now carrying Bai Ya on his back, he remarked: “Indeed, we’ve found it.”
The trails left by the lizard activities had given them much guidance.
Cang Xu was the last to reach the top of the dune, he looked into the distance, gasping profoundly: “Right, that should be the oasis. But we must also be wary of mirages. Mirages can create a huge psychological gap, and many who strive to survive in the desert succumb to despair, giving up on living.”
As they drew closer, the view of the oasis became increasingly clear.
Zi Di saw the tall, lush coconut trees and even the fiery red mirror-like surface of the lake under the sunset.
“This is all real, this is definitely not an illusion!” the girl exclaimed.
The issue of water was perfectly resolved.
Joy surfaced on the faces of both Zhenjin and Cang Xu.
However, Zhenjin remained calm, reminding: “Be careful, the oasis provides stable water and food, but there must be other creatures visiting. We cannot be careless.”
Cang Xu glanced at Zhenjin, inwardly admiring: “Through hardships, this young knight has grown, and not just in battle prowess.”
The group officially entered the oasis.
“Wait, there are human footprints here! And they’re quite fresh,” Zhenjin suddenly whispered, his vision the strongest, he was the first to detect the anomaly.
“Does that mean someone’s in this oasis?”
“Who could it be?”
Zi Di and Cang Xu exchanged a look, both becoming vigilant.