Others may not know about Jiang Luoxia, but Li Chengzhi knew about him. He was someone who can control thunder, who had killed Lin Zhenbei, suppressed the Wang family who has a heritage of over 200 years and had more than half of Jiangnan under his control. His reputation was well-known.
Even though there was a lack of water and food, life and death uncertain, a situation where strength was quite precious, Li Chengzhi still stood up and greeted Jiang Xiu, "I didn't know I was facing Mr. Jiang, please pardon me."
The students felt a chill on their backs.
They couldn't comprehend this situation. This famous shaman whose name awed the entire shaman world of Pinghai was bowing to Jiang Xiu and even speaking politely as if he were the younger generation speaking to the elder generation.
"Just who is Jiang Xiu?"
Everyone looked at each other. They didn't know who Jiangnan's Mr. Jiang was, but from Li Chengzhi's reverent attitude, it was already clear he was someone extraordinary. They felt scared now.
Qiu Yinru's eyes grew wide open too. He's that amazing?
"It's fine." Jiang Xiu stated.
Li Chengzhi and his son's attitudes towards Jiang Xiu made a complete reversal.
Meng Fei also looked at Jiang Xiu with shock. He had also heard of Jiang Luoxia's famous name in the desert, but he only knew that this person was quite influential in Jiangnan's underworld and didn't know much about him. He hadn't expected him to be so young, "A real hidden dragon."
Jiang Xiu smiled coolly at him, "You still want my water?"
Sang Bao's expression turned ugly. He didn't know who Mr. Jiang was, but after seeing that Li Chengzhi, as well as his boss, were acting afraid, he too wished to stand down, but getting terrified like this didn't conform well with a bandit's style, so he stealthily peeked towards Meng Fei.
Meng Fei laughed out loudly, "We are all on the same boat now so we should work together as one. There's no need for us to trouble Mr. Jiang."
His words were quite sensible, but everyone understood that he too didn't dare to provoke Jiang Xiu.
Professor Xu, Qian Deshen as well as the students of the Imperial Capital, were utterly shocked due to this. They hadn't expected Jiang Xiu was such a big shot and kept rejecting him ever since the term started. They had even felt annoyed due to persistence on tagging along with them and united to isolate this fresher, but as a result, they had instead kicked the iron panel.
Only, thinking about all these things in this situation where life or death was uncertain was useless.
The three factions separated into three groups. One was Meng Fei's along with his gang, another was the exploration team, and the final one consisted of Jiang Xiu and Xie Ting. They had to spend a tough night here.
Xie Ting asked Jiang Xiu, "Mr. Jiang, what's your plan?"
Jiang Xiu gave a few cookies and chocolate to her. She thanked him and ate it. The happiness a person feels after receiving food when they are extremely hunger was pretty obvious.
"Nothing. I'm not familiar with the desert, so I can only rely on you, right? Does Lady Xie venture into the desert often?"
Xie Ting's hand paused while eating. She nodded then continued eating.
"For the ancient city?"
Xie Ting nodded again.
There was no point in hiding it as the situation had sunk into such a stage.
"Your family is related to the ancient city? Maybe, you are descendants of the people of the ancient city. Actually, I already noticed that you aren't a pure Chinese Han person." Jiang Xiu asked.
Xie Ting lifted her head to look towards Jiang Xiu with eyes full of astonishment.
From her expression, Jiang Xiu became sure that his inference was correct. Only, he didn't continue asking more and didn't query about her history. Everything would become clear once they reached the ancient city.
"Rest properly to recover your spirit. We have to hurry tomorrow."
Jiang Xiu gave his bedding to Xie Ting, though it was just a blanket which was spread on the ground while he leaned against the stone to take rest.
Meng Fei's group discussed things among themselves. Only eight of them remained now, and all of them had guns, but on the opposite side. There was Jiang Xiu, Xie Ting, Li Chengzhi and Li Beng. Those pair of father and son were troublesome as they were on guard because they had killed Li Chengzhi's other son.
Sang Bao suggested, "Boss, we have guns with us. Is there a need to be afraid of that bullshit Mr. Jiang? Is he that amazing?"
Meng Fei furrowed his brows, "This person has a huge reputation in Jiangnan, and the rumors in the underworld say that it's possible he's a Demigod. It isn't sensible to openly act against him."
"What crap Demigod! If he weren't afraid of our guns, he wouldn't have allowed us to kill so many people." Sang Bao retorted.
Meng Fei nodded, "That's true as well."
"How about this? When it's dawn, I'll go off a few of them and grab their water and rations. It's fine to just leave a few of them alive as hostages along with that Xie lass. We can set out towards the ancient city in the morning." Sang Bao
"Since the enemy isn't acting, it's better for us to not act as well. Right now, that Xie lass has agreed to show the way to the ancient city, so there's no need to create an issue now. It's not too late to do that after we arrive there."
"As you say, Boss…" Sang Bao replied.
Meng Fei nodded and told them to take rest. He gazed towards the Thousand Ghosts Cliff. It was pitch-black inside there right now, similar to a beast crawling within the desert, lurking in wait for victims to fall for it. Meng Fei felt goosebumps when he remembered his experience inside there. Those skeletons were too frightening. He didn't dare to continue looking over there.
Li Chengzhi and Li Beng too kept gazing towards Meng Fei's group. They were filled with hatred of losing a son and brother. They had a method to take revenge, which was to get the machine guns inside the cliff.
But that cliff was too frightening, so Li Chengzhi and Li Beng didn't dare to go in. Though they were Shamans, they couldn't comprehend what had happened inside there as it had far exceeded their abilities.
Even Jiang Xiu couldn't feel anything abnormal inside there, let alone them. His perception was higher than theirs in the darkness yet he too was oblivious to how that person turned into a skeleton.
That's why Jiang Xiu was looking forward to something happening again tonight.
But regretfully, except for those students quaking in fear and tossing around in their sleep, nothing strange had happened at all. Qiu Yinru curled up while sleeping, and when the temperature dropped to its lowest, she began to sleep-talk. Her body began to burn hot with a fever.
In her dazed state, she felt as if someone fed her medicine as well as matter and also felt the taste of sweet chocolate in her mouth. Though she was dazed due to the fever, she faintly knew who it was. Except for Jiang Xiu, no one among them had food or water right now. Tears flowed down her eyes subconsciously.
When the sun rose on the next the day, the temperature rose up again and the people who had almost frozen up during night began to move.
Not only those students, even Meng Fei and the Li father-son duo, couldn't endure it. They pulled themselves together and started on the journey.
Around 8-9 AM, it became unbearably warm. The heat caused vapors to rise up from the ground and the air twisted in spirals. They found it pretty difficult to walk.
"Lady Xie, how much further is the city?"
Xie Ting had her hands on her knees to catch her breath. She then pointed forwards, "We'll reach it once we cross that sand dune."
Everyone looked towards that direction after hearing that. It seemed as if the horizon there shone with a golden light, mixing together with the fervent heat. They could vaguely see the head of a massive sculpture of a deity. That giant head seemed like a tiny mountain and was half buried inside the desert. It gave off an ancient and mysterious feel.
Everyone was excited at this moment.
We're finally there?
"I-Is that one of the three Heavenly Apostles?" Professor Xu said while standing up with the support of someone. Comparing it to the data they had gathered, the ancient city had three Heavenly Apostles. From the sculpture's form, it resembled them.
"Professor, what are those Heavenly Apostles?"
"Gods!"
Meng Fei also stared at it with his mouth agape. The radiance emitted by the deity's sculpture as the same as what's mentioned in the data. That deity's sculpture was created from pure gold and was equivalent to a mountain of gold.
"We're here! We're finally here!"
Jiang Xiu, however, made a serious face. This was no sculpture but rather the corpse of a God, a dead body and wasn't made of Gold. It was also different from the Gold Divinities he had heard of. Jiang Xiu concluded that whoever that person was, his body was broken after he was transformed into gold.
"Q-Quickly! Let's go over there…"
Xie Ting had said that there's water at the ancient city.
Right now, a cup of water was worth more than a mountain of gold or silver.
Du-Du-Du!!!
Bullets swept past the desert followed by gunshots, leaving holes on the ground. Everyone stopped rigid in their tracks. Meng Fei raised his gun and said, "Lady Xie, you still haven't told us where the entrance to the city is."
"I also don't know…" Xie Ting replied.
"Are you trying to deceive me?"
Meng Fei raised his gun with the intentions to shoot someone.
Xie Ting shouted in alarm, "Don't kill anyone here! We'll get cursed…"
But the bullet had already been shot.