Chapter 0074 – Thunder Fall Desert
In less than an hour, Ning Cheng arrived at the edges of the Thunder Fall Desert, in front of his eyes was dark yellow misty world stretching out for as long as his eyes could see, it was somewhat similar to the world inside the Mysterious Yellow Bead, especially because of the yellow misty like fog that hung over the desert, because of which he could not clearly see in front of him.
At the edge of the desert, where he was standing, there was a huge boulder, this huge boulder had a simple map carved on it which showed the locations of the various entrances to the desert.
Ning Cheng did not hesitate for a single bit, and riding the Flying Sword, flew past the giant boulder into the desert. After the time it takes for a stick of incense to burn, Ning Cheng found that he had to get down from the Flying Sword in order to proceed forward.
Even if he already had the cultivation of True Condensation Realm, because of the violent sand storms in the Thunder Fall Desert, he could not properly control his flight on his Flying Sword. Similarly, he could also not make out the specific markings that he had seen in the map of the Thunder Fall Desert while flying.
Ning Cheng put away the Flying Sword, but on the contrary his speed actually increased when he travelled by foot. Although he had announced before in the Moon Sand Town to convey the message to the person who issued the arrest warrant that he would be back to kill him, but he knew that he was still far from being a match for that person, so the quicker he could escape the better it would be for him.
Three days later, Ning Cheng finally found the second marking from the simple map that he possessed, it was withered poplar tree.
Ning Cheng sat down among the withered up roots of the poplar tree, after running nonstop for three continuous days in the desert, he was feeling a little tired.
Just as Ning Cheng sat down, he heard an extremely frightening howl, which made Ning Cheng immediately stand up. A yellow dragon that was entirely made up of fine sand was rushing towards him at a very fast speed. Ning Cheng did not even have the room to try and counter, when he was directly swept up by this yellow dragon, and was simultaneously carried away by it as it flew away.
At this moment Ning Cheng could only utter a dark sigh in his heart towards this crazy turn of events, if it had been an ordinary person, they would have been smashed to pieces by just the charge of this yellow sand dragon.
Ning Cheng soon felt that something was not right, this sand dragon was just like a tornado, after he had been swallowed by the sand dragon, he could feel that this sand dragon going in a particular direction.
The reason why he felt that something was not right, was because Ning Cheng was already a cultivator at True Condensation 1st Level, a cultivator at the True Condensation 1st Level should not be someone who would be swept away by the sand blowing about in the desert, right?
With the sand piling around his feet more and more, constricting his legs, Ning Cheng started to feel a bad feeling in his heart which was growing heavier and heavier with each passing moment. He had a gut feeling, that if in the end he could not break free from these sand shackles then he would definitely be transported to a place that would really be unpleasant to him.
Thinking of that, the anxiety in Ning Cheng’s heart grew to a huge extent, as he punched out with his fist. This fist contained the insights of the Killing Intent of the Great Axe that he had encountered in the Daan Forest, but since he did not have a Great Axe on him, he could only use this comprehension of its aura with only his fists. But it turned out, that when he used his Axe Fist, the effect seemed to be quite good.
“Bang” a sound emerged as his fist collided with the leather like skin of the mouth of the sand dragon, Ning Cheng directly blew open the sand dragon’s mouth, Ning Cheng did not think and immediately shot out of the mouth of the sand dragon like an arrow.
The next moment, the yellow sand dragon had already gone far away while roaring continuously.
When Ning Cheng looked down, he found that other than the dragon hide armour that he had received from the old woman back in Nan Yuan City, the rest of his clothes had already disappeared, there were even numerous scratches on his body that he had received from the fine sand.
“Amazing.” Ning Cheng exclaimed out, as he quickly took out another set of cloths to put on.
This Thunder Fall Desert even contained something like this sand dragon, if he failed to come out of this sand dragon, then what would have the result been?
At this time the sand dragon had already long since disappeared, but Ning Cheng found that he had lost his bearings. Ning Cheng looked in all four directions, trying to find the direction in which the withered poplar tree was, but feeling something under his feet, he subconsciously jumped up.
The place where he was just standing a moment ago had turned into a giant sand whirlpool, the sand all around it was pouring into this whirlpool, forming a funnel shape.
A powerful suction force was being transmitted from this whirlpool, this powerful suction force had appeared very suddenly, and Ning Cheng was almost sucked into this funnel shaped whirlpool.
Ning Cheng forcefully operated the True Essence in his body, and mounting his Flying Sword once again, he immediately rushed out of the whirlpool.
After a few breaths time, Ning Cheng finally landed on the sand, watching the terrible whirlpool from a huge distance away, for the first time he felt the fearful nature of the Thunder Fall Desert.
If he was sucked into this whirlpool, even if he did not lose his life, who knows what was inside this whirlpool?
It seems that he had to find a complete map of this place before he wanted to walk around in here, otherwise trying to get out of this Thunder Dessert would only be a dream for him. Even though he was walking on the safe line that was marked on the map that he had on him of this desert, he still met several dangerous situations over the past several days. Now that he had deviated from the original safe path of the map, the danger level had increased several times over. If that sand dragon had not carried him off, he would not have deviated from his original route.
Now Ning Cheng walked even more carefully, at the moment he could not go look for a way to reach the Hua Continent, but wanted to seek out the original path that he was walking before.
After five days passed by, Ning Cheng encountered more than dozens of similar sand whirlpools, but he managed to escape from every one of them. Fortunately, he did not meet any creatures like the sand dragon from before.
Ning Cheng knew that he could not go on like this, if he continued like this, then sooner or later he would end up dying in this Thunder Fall Dessert.
He stopped for a while, although he could not refine a Directional Plate at the moment, but he was actually able to make a simple compass.
Ning Cheng had just taken out the simple compass that he had made, when a fishy smell assaulted Ning Cheng. Ning Cheng immediately grabbed the broken Spear on his back, this fishy smell was definitely from a Monstrous Beast. He knew that there were many Monstrous Beasts in this Thunder Fall Desert, moreover these Monstrous Beast always travelled in groups, and if one was surrounded by them, then trying to get away from them would be really difficult.
Sure enough, just as Ning Cheng grabbed the broken Spear in his hands, when a ‘Scrape Scrape’ like grinding sound was transmitted through the sand. When Ning Cheng saw the Monstrous Beasts coming towards him, he almost froze up. There were innumerable number of Monstrous Beasts rushing towards him.
These Monstrous Beasts were crowded too densely, one simply could not see the end of it. Moreover, these Monstrous Beast that were rushing towards him, were not just running on the ground, there were even many aerial type Monstrous Beasts flying towards him in the air too. Ning Cheng could even feel from the vibrations from the ground beneath his feet that there were also an equal number of Monstrous Beasts rushing towards him underground.
All these Monstrous Beast that were rushing towards him had many big and small pustules all over their faces, some of these pustules were even a foot long, they had sharp teeth which were dripping with a cloudy looking mucus, and made them look extremely ugly.
After these Monstrous Beasts saw Ning Cheng, they immediately flocked towards him, this made Ning Cheng’s scalp tingle, he had never in his life seen such a disgusting and frightening scene.
At this moment he did not dare to hesitate, bringing up the broken Spear in his hands he immediately releases one Spear Shadow after another, these Spear Shadows immediately formed a Spear Net, and managed to block out those ugly Monstrous Beast just outside the Spear Net.
If he had to fight just one of these Monstrous Beasts then he would be able to easily gain an advantage over them with his strength, but if had to fight it out with all these Monstrous Beasts together then it may not even be possible for him to do so even with his most formidable strength, he had to think of a way out of this situation.
A bloody mist spread out in front of the Spear Net, the top of the head of a Monstrous Beast could be seen clearly as Ning Cheng immediately swept out a Spear Light with the intention to kill it. Ning Cheng could clearly see that just as this Monstrous Beast was split into two halves, it was instantly eaten up by the surrounding Monstrous Beasts, while the rest of the Monstrous Beast still flooded towards him, it seems that these Monstrous Beasts simply did not know the meaning of death.
The cultivation level of these Monstrous Beasts were not high, but the quantity of these Monstrous Beasts were simply too much. Groups after groups of these Monstrous Beasts were killed by Ning Cheng, but even then a large number of groups swarmed towards Ning Cheng. Not only that, these Monstrous Beast from the sand were also giving out an extremely nauseating smell. When Ning Cheng took a whiff of this smell, he instantly started to feel uncomfortable, but under the agitation of his True Essence, this uncomfortable feeling soon disappeared without a trace.
After fighting for a full day, Ning Cheng had already slaughtered innumerable quantities of these Monstrous Beasts. His 36 Ice Spear Technique also improved by leaps and bounds, now he could continuously shoot out 13 Spear Shadows, 14 Spear Shadows…… finally he improved the technique to the point that he could simultaneously shoot out 21 of those Ice Spear Shadows.
Unfortunately, even if he improved his skill with the Spear Technique, the Qi required for Spear Technique was also growing more and more, he simply could not keep up with the rate of his consumption of his True Essence. He did not know how many of these Monstrous Beasts he had killed till now, but this swarm of Monstrous Beasts did not show any signs in reduction in size, rather there were more and more Monstrous Beasts joining in.
Despair was rising in the heart of Ning Cheng, if he had known about this, then he might as well have chosen to be swept away by that sand dragon.
The situation in front of him was something really terrible, he simply had no way to get away. Whether it was by air, or on the surface of the sand or under the sand, the number of Monstrous Beasts were simply inexhaustible.
Just when Ning Cheng was thinking of a way to use the Mysterious Yellow Bead to help out with the situation at present, the endless sand Monstrous Beasts suddenly abandoned attacking Ning Cheng, but rather crazily started to escape from the side of Ning Cheng, and in just a short while, this dense horde of Monstrous Beasts had disappeared from his view.
If not for the sand underneath him that had been dyed a dark red colour from the blood of the slaughtered Monstrous Beasts, Ning Cheng would have definitely sworn that the scene just now was an illusion.
“My luck isn’t that good right?” Ning Cheng could not believe it himself, he was sure that he was about to be killed by those sand type Monstrous Beasts, but then these sandy Monstrous Beasts suddenly and inexplicably retreated, if this was not one having good luck, then just what the hell was this?