Chapter 75: Oasis

Chapter status: Unedited

The collision only inconvenienced Zhen Jin, the hard scorpion carapace protected his brain, and he didn’t even feel the least bit dizzy.

A normal human colliding at his speed would definitely have met a bloody end.

Seeing that the lizards had already run far away, Zhen Jin knew he could not catch up, in addition Zi Di and Cang Xu were still elsewhere, thus he gave up.

This battle let Zhen Jin understand one point: “The spear scorpion form is really formidable; however, I still need a great deal of practice to display its full abilities.”

He couldn’t run normally, or to be more accurate, he couldn’t quickly change his direction while running.

Looking at the magic core again, it seems a quarter of its magic has been consumed.

Completely transforming into a spear scorpion consumes magic far faster than just transforming one or two parts.

But Zhen Jin did not change back his form.

He used his many feet to crawl to the dead lizards and used his scorpion tail to stab one of their bellies.

After a moment, he then activated his magic core.

The familiar red light appeared, and four blood threads appeared on the lizard’s body. The blood threads quickly twisted around and trussed up the lizard's body.

The blood threads soon entered the lizard’s body and became somewhat dim.

But the blood threads quickly turned rosy again, contracted, and drew the lizard’s bloodline essence from its body and back into the magic core.

The lizard corpse turned into a pile of ash.

The magic core’s magic reserves rose somewhat.

“Now I can transform a lizard head.”

“Even though I have transformed my entire body, I can still activate the magic core to absorb and convert lifeforms.

After verifying this conjecture, Zhen Jin rescinded the scorpion form and restored his human body.

Following that, he absorbed and converted most of the dead lizards.

These lizards had just died and were very fresh, so they still had most of their accumulated magic, as a result each lizard was converted into a lot of magic.

Finally, Zhen Jin inspected the magic core and found that its magic reserves were at least fifty percent greater than what it was when the battle started.

“Now I can transform into a complete acid lizard.”

“But only into an iron level one.”

This result made Zhen Jin sink into contemplation.

He had a new realization of this magic crystal in his heart.

“It seems the level of life I transform into is not based on my own life level, rather it is determined by the level of life I absorb.”

“I absorbed the silver level spear scorpion leader; therefore, I can transform into a silver level scorpion.”

“But I have not absorbed a silver level lizard, only up to iron level ones, therefore I can only transform into an iron level lizard.”

“However, when the silver level lizard died, I processed its corpse, harvested its meat, and ate a lot of it.”

“So, it seems this is an issue with the quantity I have accumulated.”

“If I had only absorbed a small part of the silver level spear scorpion’s body, I would not be able to achieve a qualitative change and would have been unable to transform into a complete silver level spear scorpion.”

The sun rose and the desert’s temperature began to significantly increase.

Zhen Jin stopped his train of thought and started putting on his clothes.

“Although complete transformation is very powerful, undressing every time I do so is very inconvenient.

As he put on his clothes, Zhen Jin became embarrassed when he saw that there was a hole in his trousers.

After putting on all of his clothes, he intentionally fiddled with his jacket, so it covered the hole exposing his buttocks.

He then picked up a knife and made many cuts in the remaining lizard corpses.

This knife originally belonged to an exploration team member who died fighting in the volcanic region. When Zhen Jin carried Bai Ya out, he did not forget to take such precious supplies with him.

It was only a common iron knife and was nowhere as sharp as the spider sword. It would take a normal person several consecutive cuts to split open the lizard’s skin.

Zhen Jin also cleared the battlefield of any suspicious traces and buried all of the carbon ash.

After double checking everything, he left the granite boulders and ran to where Cang Xu and Zi Di were.

Seeing Zhen Jin’s exhausted face and bloodstained body, Zi Di became very worried and stepped forward at once to check him.

Confirming that Zhen Jin was not wounded, the girl breathed a sigh of relief.

“I killed a few lizards. I also repelled the remaining ones and got us food.” Zhen Jin laughed.

This good news lit up Cang Xu and Zi Di’s faces with delight.

Zhen Jin picked up Bai Ya and led the other two towards the granite boulders.

Seeing that there were five dead lizards, Cang Xu and Zi Di revealed their shock.

Cang Xu swept his eyes over the battlefield and saw traces of a fight in the sand along with many lizard footprints. He then gave a sincere exclamation of admiration.

“Lord Zhen Jin, I am now beginning to believe Lord Zi Di’s conjecture.”

“I fear you really do not only have just a silver level cultivation. To have such strong physical strength in such malnourished conditions is not ordinary. This lizard group had at least thirty lizards, yet you used an ordinary knife without battle qi to kill five of them as well as forcing the rest to flee.”

“My Lord, you are so brave. But the thing this old one admires more is your boldness and lack of fear. You charged alone into an enormous magic beast group, unafraid of powerful enemies, this spectacle and conduct will be placed into the history books like those famous heroes.”

“Although I did not witness it, I can imagine the scene of you heroically charging alone into those lizards. Those lizards surrounded you, but you relied on your surpassing courage and formidable battle skills to kill them. The lizards spat acid at you, but even in a dangerous situation you were calm and collected like ice.”

“An ordinary iron knife in your hands can spill waves of blood. You blinked through the lizard group as gallantly and exquisitely as an elf dancing in the woods.”

Zhen Jin touched his nose and felt somewhat embarrassed from the praise: “I really don’t deserve that much praise from you.”

“No.” Cang Xu shook his head with a resolute attitude, “Although I am not good at fighting, I have also lived for a long time. The traces left on this battlefield are not fake.”

A large portion of the traces on the battlefield were fabricated by Zhen Jin.

Seeing Cang Xu successfully hoodwinked, Zhen Jin’s heart both relaxed and felt somewhat ashamed: “I had to do this, this lizard meat will last us a long time.”

But Cang Xu’s description scared Zi Di, her violet eyes gazed at Zhen Jin and she softly said: “My Lord, from now on I ask you to not take such risks again. We can take our time to decide more times than not.”

Zhen Jin nodded: “Be at ease, I understand. In fact, ever since I got away from the scorpion group, I experienced a sensation of being reborn. I felt like I had made a breakthrough, but it also felt like I hadn't. When I fight now, I feel clearer and have a greater understanding of what I can and cannot do.”

The things Zhen Jin said were also products of careful deliberation——he wanted to cover up some things.

He was deliberately vague to give the others a certain impression.

In the future, after he used the magic core to dispose of threats, it would allow the others to not think that it was strange and abrupt that he was stronger.

Cang Xu heard these words and nodded repeatedly: “I have also heard of the circumstance you speak of.”

“In the Imperial east there is a group of cultivators who practice penance. They cultivate by wearing heavy rings that prohibit magic and the simplest of garments, they then trek mountains barefoot or sit under waterfalls or in rivers to endure the impact.”

“They restrain the majority of their power to put their bodies in the most difficult situations, thereby torturing their bodies so they can temper their spirit and will. Usually, their battle qi cultivation can break through barriers and grow quickly.”

“In the end, battle qi is power derived and extracted from a human’s physical body. The stronger a human’s body, the higher the breakthrough limit, the more potential is extracted, and the stronger the battle qi.

The human body is the basis of battle qi while magic is different, for the essence of magic is making use of external elements. The essence of divine spells is from gods granting their power.

“Lord Zhen Jin, your experience on this island resembles those penance cultivators. In the moment of life and death, your body can break through its limits and unearth your deeply buried potential. It is very possible that when you leave this island, your battle qi cultivation will move a step forward.

Cang Xu spoke with conviction but Zhen Jin, as the person being discussed, felt a bit stupid listening to it.

He did not need to rack his brains because Cang Xu had already given a perfect explanation.

Zhen Jin’s heart could not help but appreciate Cang Xu even more.

“If I had such a counselor or subordinate, my future affairs would be smoothly dealt with.”

“It's a pity……Cang Xu is an ordinary person, it would have been perfect if he could cultivate.

As far as Cang Xu’s status as a wanted criminal was concerned, Zhen Jin did not care.

Because only the Sha Ta Clan ordered Cang Xu’s arrest. The Bai Zhen Clan’s and the Sha Ta Clan’s territories were quite far from each other, in addition Zhen Jin could already rely on his relationship with Emperor Shen Ming to shield an ordinary person like Cang Xu and there was nothing the Sha Ta Clan could do about it.

The three people then started processing the lizard corpses and sliced off pieces of meat.

Even though there was meat, none of them gorged themselves.

Although there was enough food, it was not infinite. After going through starvation, Zhen Jin and the others treasured each piece of food.

After counting the amount of lizard meat, they had formed a detailed plan——of how much meat each person would eat each day.

Another reason why they didn’t gorge themselves was because there was little water left.

Human stomachs cannot store water but to digest food, it would need a lot of water. The water inside the human body would seep into the stomach and participate in the digestive process.

Under a water shortage, eating too much meat could also prove deadly.

“Next we need to replenish our drinking water.” Zi Di said.

“If we can’t find water, even though we won’t die of hunger, we can still die of thirst. However, I am convinced there is a stable and large water source nearby.” Cang Xu said firmly.

A scorpion group and a lizard group lived here, both beast groups were very large, and a huge water source was essential to keep them all alive.

Unless they were also teleported.

But all signs indicated this was not the case——these two beast groups had been living here for a long time.

“We can follow the lizards’ footprints, perhaps their tracks can guide us to a water source.” Cang Xu put forward a good proposal.

When night fell, the horizon’s afterglow seemed like burning satin.

The setting sun’s afterglow illuminated Zi Di’s face and caused amethyst eyes to suddenly dazzle.

“Everyone come look, the oasis is over there!” The girl had climbed over a sand dune and pointed her finger ahead with excitement.

Zhen Jin had already sensed it and with Bai Ya on his back, he sighed: “We really found it.”

The lizard’s tracks gave them directions.

Cang Xu finally climbed over the sand dune, he gazed into the distance and gasped: “That’s right, the oasis should be over there. But be wary, it could also be a mirage. Mirages will raise a man's mentality to its peak and then drop it into despair causing the man to give up his will to live.”

As everyone constantly got closer, the oasis landscape became more and more clearer.

Zi Di looked at the tall and verdant coconut trees and also heard the lake that mirrored the blazing sun.

“This is all real, none of it is an illusion!” The girl shouted.

The problem of water was perfectly solved.

The faces of Zhen Jin and Cang Xu were cheerful.

But Zhen Jin still calmly warned: “Take care, the oasis provides steady water and food thus there are bound to be other lifeforms visiting it, we cannot be careless.”

Cang Xu glanced at Zhen Jin and praised in his heart: “It seems going through tribulation has not only grown this young knight’s fighting strength.”

They entered the oasis.

“Hold on, there is a person’s footprints here! In addition, these footprints are still very new.” Zhen Jin suddenly lowered his voice; his sight was the strongest, so he took the lead in finding anything unusual.

“In other words, does that mean there is someone else in this oasis?”

“Who can it be?”

Zi Di and Cang Xu glanced at each other and went on their guard. 

Notes

The sandstorm really did a number on them, it's like it was dropped from the heavens like a massive plot device to screw over the MC and his cohorts. It only took a day for the trio + still useless meatbag to reach the oasis. With the supplies at the exploration group’s disposal and not being forced into the lizard cave, I would think almost all of them would have survived the teleportation and made their way to the oasis. Oh well, it seems the author decided to cull the herd of unnamed characters and Huang Zao in order to shake up the dynamic a bit more and force Zhen Jin to awaken the power within him.