Chapter 1713: 1713. The Bizarre Lakewater

Covering only several dozen mu, the oasis was not too big. There was a crystal-clear lake sitting quietly at the center of the greenery. Like a beautiful gemstone embedded at the tip of a tiara, it was extremely eye-catching. A massive tree towered by the side of the lake, and its lush leaves provided coolness for the cultivators standing beneath.

“There’s indeed an oasis!”

“Water! I want to drink water!”

Unable to take it any longer, the cultivator dashed forward in desperation.

Upon seeing the oasis, Zhang Xuan fell into a moment of contemplation. He quickly scanned his surroundings before his eyebrows shot up in horror.

“Wait a moment! Don’t drink the water!” he shouted as he rushed forward to stop them.

However, too overwhelmed by thirst, the reddened-eyed crowd had already charged straight toward the lake in desperation. In the time he had spent contemplating, some of them had already scooped up a handful of water and sipped on it.

Noticing Zhang Xuan’s intense reaction, one of the calmer cultivators turned his gaze over and asked, “Elder, what’s wrong?”

Even though the young man had been depriving them of spirit essence in order to lure the sand giants, it was a fact that he had brought them to the oasis. On top of that, he had shown sharp judgement far surpassing any of them. Perhaps, he might have noticed something that led him to stop them.

“There’s something really weird about this situation!” Zhang Xuan remarked as he hurriedly held back the other cultivators who had not sipped on the water yet. “Given how long it has been since you teleported in here, some groups should have discovered the secret behind the desert and rushed over to the oasis. In fact, the footsteps around show that some people have definitely been here before us. Yet, where did those people go?”

He had been delayed in the forest for several hours before coming to the desert. While the secret behind the desert was rather obscure, there were bound to be some who were able to find their way over.

After all, most of those who had entered the Temple of Confucius could be considered as powerhouses of the Master Teacher Continent. Their intelligence and sharpness far exceeded that of ordinary cultivators.

However… where did those people head to?

“You’re right! There are indeed footsteps leading into the oasis…” Taken aback, the Intuitive Impulse realm cultivator hurriedly looked around him and noticed some shallow footprints around the perimeter of the oasis. Unfortunately, they had become indistinct after being cloaked by a layer of sand.

“Amazing, this water really works! Finally, I won’t have to suffer anymore…”

The few who had dashed into the oasis and tested the water cried in excitement.

The water that they had brought could not quench their thirst at all. In fact, it only seemed to further dehydrate them. At this point, they felt like they were on the verge of bursting into flames.

“Let me give it a try too…”

Upon hearing those words, the other cultivators whom Zhang Xuan had stopped immediately dashed forward, wanting to get a taste of the water as well. However, just as they were about to drink the water, the middle-aged man who had first drunk the water suddenly began convulsing wildly, and white smoke rose from his body.

“Ah…” A hoarse cry of agony escaped from his throat.

It was as if something was strangling his neck, causing him to roll frantically on the ground with his eyes bulging in desperation.

But the more he rolled, the more smoke seemed to rise from his body. It felt as if he would combust into flames at any moment.

“I…”

The middle-aged man was not the only victim. Another three cultivators who had rushed ahead of the pack to drink the water had fallen to the ground as well. White smoke began drifting from their bodies, and it looked like they were being put through inhuman pain.

“This is really bad!”

Alarmed, Zhang Xuan hurriedly flicked a surge of Heaven’s Path zhenqi toward the middle-aged man, intending to alleviate his conditions. However, before his Heaven’s Path zhenqi could reach him, the rolling figure suddenly cracked in the middle.

Huala!

He was reduced to a heap of yellow sand.

“This…”

Horrified by the sight before them, the crowd hurriedly backed away from the water with pale faces.

If the cultivators before them had been burned into cinders or reduced into skeleton, they could still have accepted the conclusion.

When they chose to enter the Temple of Confucius, they had already resolved themselves that they might not come back alive. However, these men had been reduced to yellow sand! What on earth was going on?

To be reduced to sand upon death… It could not be that the vast desert around them was the remains of countless corpses, could it?

Just the thought left goosebumps rising all over their bodies, and terror seeped into the very depths of their soul.

“Elder, save me…”

With the middle-aged man being reduced to a heap of yellow sand, the other three cultivators pleaded with horror imprinted in their eyes.

They had entered the Temple of Confucius with the intention of overcoming their bottlenecks and progressing to higher ranks. Who could have known that it would actually bring them so close to the jaws of death?

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Zhang Xuan was also startled by the happenings, but he knew that it was not the time for him to fall into a daze. He quickly rushed to the three of them and placed his fingers on them. His Heaven’s Path zhenqi swiftly surged into the bodies of the trio.

Huala!

As soon as his zhenqi entered their bodies, he immediately sensed a bundle of flames devastating each of their bodies, threatening to burn them into cinders.

“Humph!”

With a harrumph, Zhang Xuan channeled his Heaven’s Path zhenqi to quell those bundles of flames.

Tzzzz!

As soon as his Heaven’s Path zhenqi collided with the bundles of flames, he immediately felt a powerful force corroding his Heaven’s Path zhenqi, seemingly attempting to combust his zhenqi into flames.

“Break!”

Furiously infusing more and more Heaven’s Path zhenqi into the three of their bodies, Zhang Xuan’s body began to take on a golden sheen, as if turning into a moving golden sculpture.

His zhenqi, physical body, and Primordial Spirit were able to endure even the might of the Empyrean Heavenly Flame. While the bundles of flames in the trio’s bodies were a little queer, they still were not sufficient to hurt him.

Hu!

Under the furious onslaught of his zhenqi, the bundles of flames were finally quelled. Feeling that they were finally out of death’s jaws, the pale-faced trio crumbled to the ground with a mixture of relief and trepidation. They quickly kneeled onto the ground and kowtowed to Zhang Xuan. “Elder, thank you for saving our lives!”

“There’s no need to stand on ceremony!” Zhang Xuan said with a wave of his hand. Turning to the crowd, he said, “There’s something really queer about this place, so let’s not stay around the lake. For the time being, let’s back out of the oasis!”

Even if Zhang Xuan had not said such words, the crowd would have been too frightened to remain around the lake anymore.

Death was not that frightening of a concept to them anymore, but to be burned down into yellow sand, such that every last trace of their existence would vanish… this was an extremely sinister way of dying that they could not even bear the thought of.

Unlike the rest of the crowd, Zhang Xuan did not back out of the oasis. Instead, he walked up to the heap of sand remaining of the middle-aged man and pinched a handful of it up. Leaning in, he examined it closely.

The middle-aged man had been burned so cleanly that not even his clothes were left. Had he not seen it with his own eyes, he would have never believed that a person could simply vanish just like that.

“Elder, what do we do now?”

An Intuitive Impulse realm cultivator stepped forward to examine the heap of sand as well, but he was unable to deduce anything from it. Thus, he could only turn his gaze to Zhang Xuan.

“Take this spirit essence and let the crowd drink it!” Zhang Xuan flicked his wrist and tossed several gourds over.

This was the spirit essence that he had gathered from the forest, and it could alleviate the thirst of the crowd for the time being.

It was not that he had intentionally kept it away from the crowd, but it appeared that one who had drunk the spirit essence would not be able to attract the sand giants anymore. As such, he had been left with no choice but to keep it away from them so that they could reach the oasis. However, since they had already reached their destination, there was no reason for him to keep it from them anymore.

“Thank you, elder!”

Taking the spirit essence, the Intuitive Impulse realm cultivator hurriedly passed it around the crowd, and after gulping down large mouthfuls of it, their thirst was finally quenched. They could not help but turn to Zhang Xuan with looks of gratitude.

Paying no heed to the crowd, after Zhang Xuan had finished examining the sand grains, he began walking around the perimeter of the lake.

A cold air was emanating from the lake before him. Standing beside it, he could not feel the slightest hint of heat despite being in the midst of a sweltering desert. At the same time, the lake was also extraordinarily clear. It looked so innocent that it did not seem to have anything to do with the flames that had killed the middle-aged man earlier.

Despite scanning the perimeter of the lake, Zhang Xuan was unable to find anything peculiar about it. There were also no animals or the like within the oasis, so the matter could not really be attributed to anything else. Seeing that he had reached an impasse, Zhang Xuan walked up to the lake and scooped up the water, just like what the middle-aged man and the trio had done earlier.

“Elder, be careful!”

Seeing that Zhang Xuan had scooped up the water, everyone leaped in fright.

“It’s fine!” Zhang Xuan reassured them with a smile.

Even the Empyrean Heavenly Flame was unable to hurt his body in the least, so there was no way that bundle of flames could pose any threat to him.

Looking at the clear water that he had scooped up in his both hands, he scanned it using both his Eye of Insight and Spiritual Perception, but he was still unable to find anything wrong with it. Perplexed, he leaned in and sipped a mouthful of the water.

“Elder!”

“Be careful!”

The faces of the crowd turned pale in horror upon seeing the unbelievable sight before them.

The middle-aged man had died shortly after drinking the water. What were they supposed to do if something happened to the elder before them as well?

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