Top-tier Unruly Master-Chapter 1603 - 1640: Palace Sheepskin
Ding Fan felt quite embarrassed for a moment; the spiritual energy here was extremely sparse. Even if he wanted to fly, he couldn’t maintain flight for long, nor fly out of this scorpion swarm. While wielding his sword to slay the scorpions bombarding the defensive array, Ding Fan tried to stay calm and analyze the situation carefully.
Observing the geographical location he was in, Ding Fan felt somewhat regretful. He was in a shallow sand pit, which didn’t seem special but was advantageous for the scorpions’ attacks. Ding Fan wished he hadn’t chosen this spot.
Boom!
The defensive array was finally breached by the swarm of scorpions. Ding Fan’s face was extremely grim. He swung his flying sword continuously, executing the second move of the Wind-like Sword Technique. As he wielded the flying sword, countless sword beams blasted towards the scorpions.
With one stroke of the sword, dozens of scorpions perished, but soon more scorpions from the rear rushed to pierce at Ding Fan’s feet with their sharp stingers. Ding Fan had to keep swinging his longsword to cut down the scorpions at his feet.
In no time, Ding Fan felt that he had expended half of his divine vigor. However, as he observed with his divine sense, the number of scorpions didn’t seem to decrease much. More scorpions were appearing than he could kill. His feet were surrounded by heaps of scorpion corpses.
The scorpions seemed unfazed by fear and continued their relentless attacks. Two hours passed, and with still three or four hours until dawn, Ding Fan recalled that when he first entered this desert, the scorpions hadn’t appeared until night fell.
Therefore, Ding Fan deduced that the scorpions might be afraid of daylight and only dared to move at night. He thought that if he could hold out until dawn, the scorpions might retreat. But by now his divine vigor was almost depleted from using the Wind-like Sword Technique.
Ding Fan realized that if he wanted to last until daylight, he could only rely on his reserves of the medicine pill. However, he knew it was just his first night in the Xuantian Secret Realm, and his supply of medicine pills was limited. If he used them all up, his chances of survival in the secret realm would diminish significantly.
Ding Fan felt a wave of despair as the scorpions continued their ceaseless attacks. Suddenly, a sharp, piercing sound startled him.
Boom, boom, boom!
Heavy footsteps approached. Using his divine sense, Ding Fan saw a group of colossal scorpions heading toward him. These massive scorpions stood over a meter tall, with raised tails reaching over two meters high, their limbs and claws were black and shiny, looking very terrifying.
Ding Fan’s heart sank. He never expected so many large scorpions to show up now. To his dismay, there were over a dozen of them, moving towards him swiftly. In little time, they would reach him.
A wave of despair washed over Ding Fan. These countless small scorpions had already driven him to despair, and now there were so many large ones. Ding Fan anticipated that slaying the larger scorpions would not be easy, especially since there were over ten of them.
Soon, with resounding booms, the large scorpions were upon Ding Fan. In his moment of desperation, he suddenly remembered something. As the scorpions thrust their tails at him, Ding Fan released a burst of arctic chill, causing the air around him to freeze into frost.
The giant scorpions’ tails, initially aimed at Ding Fan, recoiled upon sensing the bone-chilling cold. They halted, their black eyes cautiously watching Ding Fan. The smaller scorpions at his feet also ceased their attack, lying around him warily.
Seeing this, Ding Fan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
In the nick of time, Ding Fan recalled the existence of the Frost Toad, so he decided to try releasing some arctic chill. To his surprise, the arctic chill was quite effective against the scorpions. He promptly took out the Frost Toad and placed it in his hand.
The Frost Toad seemed somewhat unwilling, but there was no choice for it in this dire situation. Once the Frost Toad was in Ding Fan’s hand, eerie noises emanated from the scorpions around him, then they quickly scattered away. In no time, apart from the piled scorpion corpses, no scorpion, large or small, was in sight.
Ding Fan finally let out a sigh of relief and, looking at the Frost Toad, gratefully and apologetically said,
"Thank you, old friend, for suffering on my behalf."
"Wah!"
The Frost Toad heard Ding Fan’s words, let out a croak, and immediately returned to Ding Fan’s storage bag. Ding Fan guessed that the frosty toad might just dislike the desert environment. At this moment, Ding Fan sat down heavily on the ground, feeling extremely exhausted, and the True Qi within his body was nearly depleted. If it weren’t for the timely thought of the Frost Toad, he might have faced a grim fate.
Shortly after Ding Fan began cultivating, the sky gradually began to brighten.
Then, Ding Fan released his Divine Sense, trying to find a direction to exit the desert. However, what Ding Fan didn’t expect was that his Divine Sense couldn’t see beyond the desert at all, leaving him feeling a bit helpless. So, relying on his instincts, Ding Fan started walking in one direction.
In the vast, endless desert, Ding Fan didn’t know how long he had walked. Suddenly, within his Divine Sense, he noticed what appeared to be a palace-like structure not far from him, which startled him. He didn’t expect there would be a palace here. Could there be someone living here? If there truly were inhabitants, it would be good news for Ding Fan.
Without hesitation, Ding Fan headed towards the palace. Along the way, he occasionally saw some white bones and skeletons on the ground. Ding Fan thought that these must be people who died here long ago. Every so often, he also spotted a few scattered scorpions, just like the ones that had attacked him the previous night.
But under the scorching sun during the day, these scorpions were just buried in the yellow sand, occasionally surfacing before quickly burrowing back in. Ding Fan didn’t pay them much mind. Even if night fell, with the Frost Toad around, he wasn’t afraid of these scorpions anymore.
Not long after, the "palace" appeared in Ding Fan’s sight. However, the palace was severely damaged, with even the walls weathered quite a bit. Moreover, about one-fifth of the palace was buried in yellow sand, leaving only some ruins and a few very simple rooms.
Ding Fan walked to the vicinity of the palace and released his Divine Sense to scan the area, discovering that there was a very thin defensive array outside the palace. However, it had been there for a long time and was almost negligible, offering virtually no defensive effect.
Then Ding Fan entered one of the rooms in the palace. Inside, he found a large amount of white bones and skeletons on the floor. Even the clothes of those long-dead people were gone, completely buried under the deep yellow sand.
Inside this room, the only things left were some iron-made metal objects, which shocked Ding Fan. Apart from some iron-made frames and the like, there was nothing else in the room.
Ding Fan couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. He originally thought he might meet some people here, but now it seemed impossible for anyone to be living in such a place.
Ding Fan then visited a few other rooms, all of which were in similar condition, with only the bones and skeletons on the floor and nothing else. But in a corner of one of the rooms, on a stone platform, Ding Fan found something that piqued his interest: a piece of parchment.
The stone platform seemed about half a meter high and appeared round, but once Ding Fan noticed the edges of the platform in the northern direction, he could tell it was square; it’s just that the edges exposed to the elements had been weathered smooth. Ding Fan was a bit curious.
The room was very dry, with yellow sand blowing in from the window. The wooden furniture inside had all weathered away. However, the parchment on that stone platform looked so fresh that even when Ding Fan touched it, he found some parts of it still moist inside.
This surprised Ding Fan even more. However, there were no words or patterns on the parchment, and for a moment, Ding Fan couldn’t figure out its purpose. But Ding Fan knew that the parchment might not be a simple item. Just the fact that it had survived so intact in a room so severely weathered was extraordinary. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖
Ding Fan immediately put away the parchment and walked out of the room, leaving the palace.
Upon exiting the palace, Ding Fan discovered with his Divine Sense a distant oasis, which was an immense surprise for him. With this oasis, at least he could escape the desert more quickly. Without delay, Ding Fan quickened his pace toward the oasis.
The oasis was quite far from Ding Fan, several hundred kilometers away to be precise. What puzzled Ding Fan was that after walking for a while towards the oasis, he still found himself far from it.
However, Ding Fan didn’t lose heart. Seeing an oasis in the vast desert was like being reborn, and he wouldn’t miss this opportunity. Although he was still far from the oasis, he didn’t give up.
Ding Fan knew that there were no landmarks in this vast desert, making it difficult for him to accurately estimate the distance to the oasis. Thus, he simply ignored these concerns, believing that if he kept heading in this direction, he would eventually escape the desert.
The Spiritual Energy here was very thin, and many dangers were unknown. Therefore, Ding Fan didn’t continue Sword Flight but instead maintained his Divine Vigor at a full state to deal with any changes or dangers.
