Chapter 54: Folklore

The sun was brilliantly vaporizing our sweat and heat was prickling our skin. We had changed into loose, long-sleeved wears of wheat color and were walking slowly on the sand.

"It's actually hotter out here in the desert."

"It was also colder at night."

It was the next day and we had met up with Hanai company. They were a group that I came to know just a few days ago. Astonished that I was still alive, they gaped at my fortune when I told them I couldn't attend the family's feast that day and wasn't poisoned.

I expressed my remorse like any normal member of a family and told them of my resolution, that I'll become a great cultivator and hunt down Poison Asura one day!

"From where did you get this craoca?" asked Ule, Hanai company's scout. He patted the beast, feeling it's thick hide.

"Didn't you see it at the auction?" One of the girls sitting on a cart replied before I could.

Everyone had a shawl on their head. They covered their heads with it to shield from the dust and harmful rays of sunlight. Horses and camels also accompanied us. I'd seen horses but this was the first time I saw camels in this world. They were bigger and some even had three humps on their backs.

"Big brother, when will we stop again?"

"At noon I think. The sun will be right over our heads at that time. We'll sweat too much and won't be able to walk for long," I said.

Anyone who travelled through a desert knew that late afternoon and early morning are the best time to move. Not too cold and not too hot, that was when the temperature stayed at bearable degrees.

I took out the map copy of Shang desert and focused on the route from Fida to Rong Sât. Here, Pinchu was shown as a small supply area instead of a big town it was.

From Pinchu to Rong Sât; we'd have to go past a sandy carpet of moving dunes, a red canyon which had lots of small villages, and a huge dry forest. The last one was the most dangerous.

Rong Sât nation primarily settled over the transition zone between the desolation of desert and verdancy of fertile land. 20 days were the least amount of time required to reach there if things went well, which mostly never happened.

Within this month, we would have to leave this desert or face the active demon beasts and frequent sandstorms.

"What's this black cross over here?" Feng Yi came behind me and asked. She yesterday told me that I'd have to free her after we reached Xuahour, capital of Rong Sât. Truthfully though, I never bound her with anything. I treated her like everyone else so what more was there to even complain about?

"I don't know, let's ask Ule," I sighed and walked up to him who was busy marvelling at the size of this beast and put forth our curiosity about the mark on the map.

"Wow, so much details! Where did you get this map?" He took it from my hands and trailed his eyes through the symbols and lines made by different coloured inks.

I just told him that I bought it from one of the merchants and steadfastly refused his proposal to buy the map.

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"Even I don't know what this is..." Ule responded after some contemplation. Although he was a scout, he only knew one way from Fida to Rong Sât. He could tell whatever lied within this route but not-

"There's another cross like this near the canyon." I suddenly pointed. The other one was to the far west.

Ule Kiquur was a short man, short for his age of 34. Rank 3 and with unremarkable features (except for his cheek mole), he had worked as a merchant of Hanai company for many years now. He was married with a good natured woman and had a small boy of 6.

"I'll show this to our chief." He rolled the map close and we followed him as he walked faster.

Hanai company was led by an old woman in her late 60s. She had a son and a daughter who, fortunately, had stepped onto first and third rank of Viscera Purifying at their early forties. Thus, Hanai company didn't have to hire guards like others. They mostly traded clothing, alcohol and dry foods; the three most popular things in Shang desert.

Hu Shuo, who was silently looking after our goods and the beast until now, left the work for Ling'er and also followed us, kicking up yellow sand while doing so.

Brown and black horses neighed seeing the unfamiliar humans coming close. Those holding their reins calmed them down and glanced at us, their expressions unchanging.

The hot winds started picking up sands from the ground as we reached the other side of the slow moving group. One pracitioner took out his compass and wordlessly pointed a little left.

"Chief, do you know about this?" Ule came beside the old woman and spread open the map before her eyes.

Her back was straight and she wore loose green clothes. She had a darker skin than everyone else. She kept her white hair short and also wore a shawl like us.

"It is a good map," she commented.

"No I mean these black crosses."

The woman squinted her eyes and looked closer. The wrinkles on her cheeks underwent various contractions when she opened her mouth.

A low monotonous sound escaped her mouth as she thought for a few seconds and then nodded.

"There is one folklore about a lost kingdom in this desert. I remember seeing such marks in old maps."

"So it's just a children's story." Hu Shuo seemed disappointed. I didn't think he was interested in maps.

"Don't be so quick to sigh, young man. What if I told you that many people have disappeared around the red canyon?" Laughed the chief's son who was pulling a tall camel. Bags of different sizes lied on the back of that animal.

"A whole company of merchants were lost two years ago right at that area. We knew them.." His tone suddenly turned grim.

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