Chapter Eighty-Four: Returning to the Desert

At night, Lu Sheng handed over a third-tier source pearl and successfully secured a place to stay. He set up a small tent on an open patch of ground and passed the night there. Of course, he was able to sleep soundly because he had summoned a fifth-tier goblin to stand guard inside the tent. Although it felt rather odd to sleep under the watchful gaze of a goblin, this wasn’t his true body—he simply needed to withdraw his consciousness. If any danger arose, the goblin could alert Lu Sheng through their mental connection.

The next day, after purchasing a fresh newspaper, Lu Sheng left the camp. Riding his White Cloud Horse, he scanned the latest news as he made his way back toward the Returning Sands Desert.

At the top of the newspaper, a circle of golden reward notices stood out strikingly—clearly breaking the rules of the Dolun News Agency. Lu Sheng wondered how the advertiser had managed it. Was it simply a matter of offering a hefty sum?

“The Lord of Severed Sea City is willing to exchange five fifth-tier spirit fruits for any item capable of upgrading a Life Card to green quality or higher.”

The message was succinct: seeking items that elevate card quality. Such things were exceedingly rare, even for five fifth-tier spirit fruits.

The quality of one’s Life Card was crucial, setting the ceiling for a person’s growth. White and green Life Cards had been proven to cap at fifth-tier completion. To reach sixth-tier, one’s Life Card had to be upgraded to blue quality. Before the sixth tier, advancement only affected physical strength; unless a Life Card was of a higher quality and carried its own law power, that was the limit. From the sixth tier onward, everyone began to access the power of laws, able to affect the environment around them. By the seventh tier, a strong individual could even wipe out a settlement of a thousand with a wave of their hand.

…

At the edge of the yellow desert, man and horse stepped from green grass into the sands. Even in the desert, the White Cloud Horse seemed unaffected—its hooves didn’t sink, moving over the sand as easily as any solid ground.

Lu Sheng nodded, satisfied. Reaching the fifth tier had indeed made a difference. With a thought, two robust fifth-tier goblins appeared at his side, while he remained atop the White Cloud Horse. The horse made travel easier and allowed for a rapid retreat if danger arose; the Scarecrow Doppelganger simply didn’t have enough power.

Once here, Lu Sheng slowed his pace and began searching for traces of monsters. Although any creature in the desert might drop Returning Sand, there was one type guaranteed to do so: the Desert Giant.

Desert Giants were entirely composed of sand. When they burrowed into the dunes, they were nearly impossible to spot—but they still needed to hunt for food. Unusually, they required meat, and all the monsters of the desert formed their diet.

The only chance to find a Desert Giant was while it was seeking food. Of course, other monsters in the desert could also drop Returning Sand, but not with certainty.

As Lu Sheng traversed the desert, the endless expanse of yellow sand dulled his sense of direction. After crossing a dune, he saw ahead a stretch of rugged, rocky terrain—the true habitat of numerous monsters. In the open sands, even if there were monsters, they mostly hid underground, making them extremely difficult to find.

Lu Sheng wasn’t alone in entering the Returning Sands Desert; from his vantage, he could see several teams hunting monsters among the rocks.

The monsters here were massive, with pairs of pale yellow pincers resembling iron hammers. These scorpions inhabited the rocky terrain, the most common beasts of the Returning Sands Desert.

Lu Sheng galloped over, chose an unoccupied spot, and began directing his goblins to hunt these creatures—known as Sand Scorpions. Sand Scorpions were typically third-tier, pale yellow in color, and favored hiding in gaps between rocks.

Traveling on horseback became inconvenient here, so Lu Sheng stowed the White Cloud Horse and summoned five goblins to his side. A True-Eye Moth appeared as well, providing a wider field of vision. Lu Sheng quickly located several Sand Scorpions lurking beneath rocks. He used stones to flush them out, letting the goblins crush them with a single blow.

Third-tier Sand Scorpions stood no chance against fifth-tier goblins. A third-tier source pearl materialized atop each scorpion’s corpse. It was a decent haul, but not what Lu Sheng was after—he needed Returning Sand.

An hour slipped by. In that time, Lu Sheng slew a great number of Sand Scorpions and collected a variety of drops, but not a single grain of Returning Sand. Most of the loot was third-tier source pearls, along with some basic function cards—nothing of great value. Only one card stood out:

“Skill Enhancement Card”

Quality: White

Function: Can enhance the skill of a white-quality monster

Unfortunately, it couldn’t upgrade quality; otherwise, he’d have considered using it on the Space-Time Ant.

For cards that weren’t Life Cards, he could only raise their tier, but this card had no tier and could only be used on white-quality monsters. He wondered for a moment—could the Stone-Throwing Goblin be further improved?

He tried using the card on the Stone-Throwing Goblin again, but it failed.

It seemed such cards could only be used once on the same monster.

So, Lu Sheng designated one goblin as his personal bodyguard and used the Skill Enhancement Card on it. The card could only be used on skills, not on evolution skills; otherwise, he’d have tried enhancing the latter.

After enhancement, the goblin’s skill changed as well.

[Goblin]

Quality: White

Tier: Early Fifth Tier

Skill: Powerful Double Strike

Evolution Skill: Berserk

The original Powerful Strike had become Powerful Double Strike.

Lu Sheng had the goblin demonstrate on a boulder. The first blow left a web of cracks; the second shattered the entire rock. Both attacks landed within a second.

Speed and strength—Lu Sheng was quite satisfied.

“From now on, you’ll be called Green Power. Stay by my side and protect me.”

“As you command, master.”

Monsters that had evolved could speak, though they usually remained silent unless necessary.

…

In a seven-man squad, one member spoke up, “Boss, I just spotted a fat sheep. He’s actually raising those worthless goblins as his minions, and at quite a high tier, too.”

“How can you be sure he’s a sheep and not a wolf?”

“Well… we can test him. Didn’t we find a nest of Sand Wolves? We can lure him over there and see what he’s made of.”

“Alright, if he really raised that many goblins as fighters, he must be sitting on a pile of resources. Worth investigating.”

“Then I’ll take care of leading him over. You set up the traps—if we decide to make a move, we finish him then and there. Lone travelers are usually fourth-tier at most; even if he’s fifth-tier, we’ll see to it he never leaves.”