Lian Li and Yun Huizhou traveled through the desert with even greater caution. At night, they no longer rested together; instead, they took turns keeping watch.
Lian Li pointed at his own dark circles and joked to Yun Huizhou, “Look at us. Without Master’s protection, we’ve ended up in such a pathetic state. Truly, a disciple with a Master is a treasure.”
In the mere three days since they had left Island Master Nan, Lian Li had become visibly more haggard.
However, his spirits remained quite high.
Yun Huizhou replied with a smile, “Don’t you think that looking like this makes us seem more like outsiders who have just entered the desert? When we were with Master, we were perhaps a bit too leisurely.”
It was currently noon, and the heat was intense.
Even Yun Huizhou found it somewhat unbearable, let alone Lian Li.
The two found a sand dune sheltered from the wind and stopped. Yun Huizhou took some dry rations from the camel’s back, broke them in half to share with Lian Li, and then handed over a water skin.
They were in luck; the camels they had brought in were quite reliable and seemed familiar with this desert. Yesterday, the animals had led them to a water source, allowing them to replenish their supplies thoroughly.
For today’s meal of dry rations, they could afford to be a bit extravagant and drink a little more water.
Setting down the water skin, Lian Li continued stuffing the dry rations into his mouth when he suddenly felt a wave of heat in his chest.
He didn’t pay it much mind, assuming it was simply caused by the extreme dryness and heat of the area.
Unexpectedly, his chest grew hotter and hotter, reaching the point of scalding. It burned so much that his chest began to ache.
He let out a sharp “Sss~” and quickly dropped his rations to pull at his clothes. The moment his hand touched his chest, he felt the heat against his palm, and through the fabric, he felt something hard.
This sensation made him suddenly remember—he was carrying the transparent lotus in his robes.
And now, the end of May was drawing closer and closer.
He hurriedly pulled open his clothes and reached in to grab the transparent lotus.
The moment he touched it, he instinctively jerked his hand back.
It really was a bit scalding.
After blowing gently on his fingers, he circulated his internal energy to wrap his palm and reached for it again.
His movements naturally caught Yun Huizhou’s attention. Yun Huizhou darted to his side, crouched down, and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Lian Li pulled out the transparent lotus, grimacing as he said, “This thing is heating up. The supreme treasure must be about to appear, or we’ve walked near it, so it’s reacting.”
Seeing Lian Li’s face contorted from the heat, Yun Huizhou reached out to take the transparent lotus from him.
The moment he touched it, the corner of his mouth twitched. It was actually this hot…
Without hesitation, he tore a piece of cloth from his person and held the glass-like lotus through the fabric.
“Look, there’s something inside the transparent lotus!” Lian Li said, pointing at it.
Yun Huizhou quickly lifted the cloth a bit, but he found that the lotus was still perfectly transparent without a single blemish. He couldn’t see any small red dot at all.
“Where? I don’t see anything.”
“Right here.” Lian Li pointed at the center of the flower. “Look, it’s not just a red dot anymore; red threads have already started to spread out.”
“Where?”
Yun Huizhou stared at the transparent lotus and found no change. He instinctively turned his wrist, changing the angle to look.
“Don’t move! It disappears if you move.”
As soon as Yun Huizhou’s hand moved, Lian Li shouted.
Then, Lian Li grabbed Yun Huizhou’s hand—the one holding the transparent lotus—and slowly rotated it. “Don’t move yet. You might need to find the right angle to see it. As soon as you moved just now, it vanished.”
Yun Huizhou relaxed his hand, allowing Lian Li to rotate it.
After a moment, Lian Li spoke again. “It’s this angle. I can see it from this position.”
He released Yun Huizhou’s hand and then carefully moved the transparent lotus into his own hand. Ensuring he kept it at the angle where he could see the red dot and red threads, he said to Yun Huizhou again, “Come over to my side. Look from here and see if you can see it.”
Yun Huizhou shifted his position to stand beside Lian Li, yet he still couldn’t see the red dot or the red threads.
If he weren’t certain that Lian Li usually didn’t joke about serious matters, he would have thought Lian Li was teasing him.
“Why are you standing so far away? Come here.” Lian Li used his other hand to pinch Yun Huizhou’s cheeks and pull him toward his own face. “Get closer. Lean your head over so it’s touching mine.”
Yun Huizhou followed Lian Li’s pull. Lian Li tilted his head to the side again, urging him to come even closer.
Yun Huizhou did not refuse. It was only when their cheeks were pressed against each other that Yun Huizhou finally saw the red dot and red threads Lian Li had mentioned.
In the center of the transparent lotus was a speck of bright red, looking like a drop of fresh blood had fallen upon it.
Though called a red dot, it looked more like a tiny red bead the size of a sesame seed.
From this red bead, a thread extended—infinitely thin yet intensely red—winding its way up onto a petal.
After Yun Huizhou saw it clearly, he said softly, “Then what does this mean? Is it just telling us that the supreme treasure is about to appear? But in this vast desert, where are we supposed to look? Do we have to wait until the moment the treasure appears and a phenomenon occurs?”
Lian Li also looked at the transparent lotus with a serious expression. In his scattered memories of the novel, there was nothing related to this transparent lotus.
But since this thing was a key item, it certainly couldn’t just serve the purpose of telling them the treasure was about to appear.
Could it be that they had accidentally wandered into the right area, causing this thing to react?
That didn’t seem right either; they had been stopped here for a while.
Especially him—he hadn’t moved from his spot since getting off the camel. If it were a matter of range, it should have reacted the moment he arrived at this position.
Instead, he had crouched there and finished half his meal before the thing suddenly started heating up.
So it should be a matter of time. Once it reached this time, the item began to react.
However, Martial Uncle Bei had already calculated the time. They basically knew roughly when the supreme treasure would emerge.
The biggest problem now was that they couldn’t find the location.
If they couldn’t find the place in advance to lie in wait and take the treasure the moment it appeared—and instead had to rush over after a phenomenon occurred—they would essentially have to rely on brute force to snatch it.
If this transparent lotus couldn’t help them find the location in advance, then it was quite useless.
After various thoughts circled in his mind, Lian Li suddenly spoke, “I have an idea I want to try.”
Yun Huizhou asked, “What idea?”
Lian Li pointed at the thin red thread on the lotus and said, “Let’s try changing direction.”
Yun Huizhou’s eyes revealed clear confusion. “Then won’t we lose sight of it?”
Lian Li realized he hadn’t expressed himself clearly and added, “What I mean is, we hold the lotus and then both we and the lotus turn together. I don’t mean just turning the lotus.”
