After Lian Li finished speaking, he felt as though he hadn’t explained it clearly enough, so he decided to demonstrate it through action.
Keeping the hand holding the lotus at a fixed angle relative to his body, he used his other hand to pull Yun Huizhou up.
Once standing, he adjusted the angle slightly so they could both continue to see the red bead and the red thread inside the lotus. Then, with a slight shift of his feet, he rotated his body, keeping his upper torso and hands as steady as possible.
Seeing this, Yun Huizhou understood his intention and turned along with him, looking at the lotus once more.
Then, the two of them witnessed a magical scene.
The red thread extending from the red bead at the center of the lotus slowly retracted into the bead. Then, the red bead extended a new red thread from a different direction, which climbed onto another petal.
Yun Huizhou took a deep breath and said, “The petal with the red thread has changed, but the direction has not.”
Previously, they had been sitting with their backs to the sand dune, and the red thread had been clinging to the petal on the right.
Now that they had turned so the sand dune was on their left, the red thread had climbed onto the petal pointing toward their chests.
In other words, even though the people and the lotus had changed orientation, the red thread would only extend toward one fixed direction.
Lian Li spoke with a hint of excitement, “Yun Huizhou, do you think the direction this red thread is pointing is where the supreme treasure is located?”
Yun Huizhou looked at Lian Li and said seriously, “It is very likely. From now on, we will head in the direction indicated by the red thread.”
Lian Li nodded excitedly. “This way, we aren’t like headless flies anymore.”
Now that he had a goal, Lian Li felt a surge of spirit and wanted to set off immediately, but Yun Huizhou pulled him back.
“Look, the red bead and the red thread are starting to fade.”
Hearing this, Lian Li hurried to look down. He found that the red bead, which had been as crimson as a drop of fresh blood, was beginning to lose its color. The extended red thread was also slowly fading rather than retracting as it had when they changed directions.
Neither of them spoke, staring intently at the lotus. They memorized every detail clearly before the color on the flower’s core vanished completely.
After a short while, the color inside the transparent lotus disappeared entirely. The temperature slowly receded, and it returned to its previous cool-to-the-touch state.
Lian Li calculated the time; from the moment he noticed it heating up until it returned to normal, it had been about fifteen minutes.
He tucked the transparent lotus back into his robes and said to Yun Huizhou, “I wonder if this is a one-time hint or if it will remind us at fixed intervals.”
Yun Huizhou thought for a moment and replied, “There are still a few days until the end of May. This lotus has provided us with a general direction, but we don’t know how far we have to travel in that direction. I hope it wasn’t a one-time thing. Identifying directions in the desert is quite difficult; I’m afraid we might veer off course without realizing it.”
Lian Li remained optimistic. He said, “In any case, it’s much better than knowing nothing at all. Perhaps as we walk, we’ll suddenly see a unique landmark in the desert, and the supreme treasure will happen to be right there. Let’s hurry and set off.”
Yun Huizhou gave a soft “Mhm,” but then pulled Lian Li back down to sit behind the sand dune. He said, “It’s too hot right now. Let’s rest for a while.”
He reached out to touch Lian Li’s forehead, then lightly tapped the dark circles under Lian Li’s eyes. “There’s no rush for this moment. Recover your spirit first. That way, if any accidents occur, we’ll be better prepared to handle them.”
Lian Li looked up at the sky. The sun was like a giant ball of fire, scorching the desert.
He felt that Yun Huizhou was right. Although his internal energy made him feel like a temperature-regulating air conditioner, there was no need to travel under the high noon sun. After all, the heat was real, and the pain from his occasionally exposed skin being baked by the sun was also real. He had to be careful of sunburn.
***
After Island Master Nan separated from the two, he rode his camel aimlessly through the desert.
He wasn’t worried about the lack of water or food at all. A camel might take several days to find the next water source, but he didn’t need to wait.
He only needed to find assassins or horse bandits and directly seize their water and food.
Of course, Island Master Nan was still very “kind.” He wouldn’t take everything; he only took enough for his own consumption.
If the other party happened to have very little left, he couldn’t be bothered with that and would simply take it all.
Regardless, there were so many assassin groups who had ways of contacting each other, and the horse bandits were even more numerous and familiar with the desert. They also had their own communication methods; none of them would truly die of thirst inside.
However, every time he robbed an assassin group, he struck even more ruthlessly.
Whether they could leave his presence alive depended on their own abilities. He was too lazy to kill them all; he needed them to constantly know his location.
In truth, while he seemed to be wandering aimlessly, from a broader perspective, he still had a general direction.
This direction was one he had set himself. In any case, as long as he could stay far away from Lian Li and Yun Huizhou, it was fine.
He knew that the people from that assassin organization were still death-defyingly monitoring his movements. This allowed him to judge that their Transcendent experts had not yet arrived.
They needed to use his movements to judge where the treasure they sought was located.
As the time drew nearer, a mysterious sensation faintly appeared within him, causing his brow to furrow slightly.
Being able to feel this proved that his current location was within the range covered by the supreme treasure.
The more powerful a treasure was, the wider this range of influence would be.
As the time for the treasure’s emergence approached, his knowledge would shift from a general direction to a relatively accurate position.
He didn’t know how powerful this supreme treasure was, so he couldn’t judge how large the coverage area was. Regardless, the further away he was, the better—ideally moving toward the exit of the desert.
The Transcendent experts summoned by those assassins would definitely look for him first based on the location provided by the assassins.
As long as he headed toward the exit of the desert and moved out of the treasure’s range, he could intercept the arriving Transcendent experts and lead them in another direction.
He lightly patted the camel’s hump, and the camel changed direction, continuing its toil.
As the sun was about to set, Lian Li once again felt the transparent lotus in his robes begin to grow hot.
With his previous experience, he used a cloth to wrap the transparent lotus this time as he took it out, rotating it slightly to find the angle where he could see the red bead and the red thread.
Seeing his movements, Yun Huizhou jumped from his own camel onto the back of Lian Li’s camel.
He sat behind Lian Li, resting his chin on Lian Li’s shoulder, focusing on the transparent lotus along with him.
