strictlysupreme Chapter 12 Mingsha Mountain
Chapter 12 Mingsha Mountain
After leaving the city.
Seeing that there was no sign of human habitation, the eldest disciple, Lu You, smiled slightly. He instructed the two to hold onto their small bundles tightly.
then……
He grabbed the back of their collars, one in each hand, as if lifting two chicks.
"Walk!"
Lu You let out a low shout.
Slightly bend over and push off the ground with both feet.
Liu Sheng felt a tremendous pulling force coming from his collar, his feet instantly leaving the ground, the wind whistling in his ears, and the sand dunes in front of him rapidly shrinking.
He instinctively cried out in surprise, but the sound was carried away by the wind as soon as it left his mouth.
"That's light-footed skill!"
Liu Sheng was inwardly amazed.
Upon closer inspection, he noticed something unusual.
This wasn't like the martial arts dramas I watched in my past life, where it was as light and agile as I imagined. Instead, it was all thanks to the senior brother's amazing jumping ability that he was able to leap into the air.
But when they land, their feet only leave a shallow pit in the sand.
Then, when they leaped again, it was another several meters away.
The alternating rises and falls, the resulting feeling of weightlessness, caused Liu Sheng's heartbeat to rise and fall accordingly.
The gray-yellow desert beneath my feet blurred into the distance, while the sand dunes in the distance gradually emerged, the entire field of vision surging and shifting like waves.
Then he looked at Ye Qi.
The latter clutched the small package tightly in his hand.
Perhaps because they were younger, they were so frightened that they dared not open their eyes and look down.
As Liu Sheng gradually adapted to this rhythm, his initial tension completely transformed into curiosity.
He shouted:
"Senior Brother, what kind of lightness skill is that?"
Lu opened his mouth slightly, and the two of them heard him clearly.
The sound seemed to be enveloped by something, entering my ears without any loss:
"This is not lightness skill, it's just a simple jump. A ninth-rank martial artist is at the skin-refining stage, and an eighth-rank martial artist is at the flesh-refining stage. Once you reach the eighth rank, your ordinary jumps will be much higher than those of ordinary people."
Upon hearing this...
Liu Sheng was truly shocked.
Senior Brother, who usually seems unassuming, is actually already an eighth-rank martial artist!
The martial arts of this world are far more powerful than he initially imagined. If a mere eighth-rank martial artist can achieve this, what about those higher up? Even first-rank?
Then, he quickly corrected his thinking.
What does it mean to be merely an eighth-rank martial artist?
Am I getting carried away?
Of course, this did not prevent his yearning for a higher level of martial arts from rising once again.
He was even eager to know what his innate constitution was.
Just as Liu Sheng was lost in thought and contemplating the future.
All three of them heard it; a strange sound came from afar.
At first, it was somewhat blurry, like the buzzing of a swarm of bees; then it gradually became clearer, turning into a chorus of string and wind instruments, resounding and lingering, echoing endlessly in the vast desert.
Even Ye Qi, who had been terrified, opened his eyes.
She shouted, "It's the Singing Sand Dunes!"
So, the Singing Sand Dunes got their name from this.
On a clear day, the wind blows the sands away.
If pedestrians are lucky, they might hear this heavenly sound.
Ye Qi grew up in the valley of Mingsha Mountain, so he was naturally very familiar with this kind of sound that he had been used to hearing since childhood.
Liu Sheng had never left the county town gates, so he had never experienced it.
"Seeing is believing!"
Lu kept walking, and before long, he had covered more than half the distance.
He keenly noticed that on the back of the sand dune beneath his feet, two people were looking towards the direction of the Desert Cave.
They look suspicious and have ill intentions.
Lu glared at them, and the two seemed to shrink back guiltily.
He glanced at the two junior brothers he was holding in his hands.
"Never mind, business is more important. I'll talk to Master about it later."
Lu You then accelerated, speeding towards the direction of the Desert Sea Cave.
Meanwhile, in the shadows behind the sand dunes below, two figures were still trembling.
"Diao Da, that's terrifying! What level of skill does that person need to be to do that? He's flying! Look, he's flying!"
"The Skin Polishing Realm is definitely out of the question; he's probably a legendary eighth-rank martial artist, at the Flesh Refining Realm!"
"We've come to the wrong place! How come everyone here is better than us?!"
It turns out that these two were Diao Da and Xiong Er from the Beggars' Sect.
Since that night, Lai San has joined the Mingsha Gang.
They were both very confused.
For some reason, Gou Xiong began to become suspicious of the two people beside him.
They even transferred several experts directly from the Beggars' Sect headquarters in Shazhou City to take over their positions.
They even kicked the two of them to the bandits' side, claiming it was to support their allies.
Regardless, the three of them risked their lives for the Beggars' Sect, doing everything from swindling and extortion to cheating and blackmailing, working hard without complaint and never complaining about the difficulties.
Moreover, his Dog-Beating Stick Technique had reached perfection, while Diao Da was even a ninth-rank martial artist, having achieved minor success in the Skin-Polishing Realm.
They are all considered prominent figures in Crescent Moon County.
Were we just abandoned like that?
"Why don't you trust us?! Just because the three of us are sworn brothers?"
Whenever he thinks about this, Xiong Er is indignant.
Just because his sworn brother defected to the enemy, such a trivial matter, he and Diao Da actually suffered such unfair treatment.
What's even more infuriating is...
In the Great Fan Dynasty, the strong were respected.
The people Gou Xiong invited were all members of the Beggars' Sect of Shazhou City with a base strength of five to six bags, and their strength was at least at the ninth rank.
It's not surprising that he immediately overpowered him.
And these were bandits whom I had never even heard of.
The weakest among them was actually a Rank 9 Lesser Master.
Diao Da was very puzzled. How could they possibly afford to learn martial arts and use medicine if they only robbed these small caravans and slaughtered a village every day? They probably wouldn't even have enough meat to eat.
Why are you sitting here even when you're losing money?
But doubts were useless; since they were the two with the lowest cultivation levels in the Beggars' Sect, they were sent to keep an eye on them.
The bandit leader, Tong Shisan, ordered his men to keep a close watch on the direction of the Desert Caves.
If there's even the slightest disturbance, go back and report.
"I'm not leaving!"
Diao Da admits that he is inferior in strength.
But he insisted on preserving his last vestige of dignity as a martial artist.
Xiong Er seemed too frightened to stay in the same spot, so the two of them moved to the back of the sand dune, lay down, and continued to keep watching.
……
sunset.
Lu You, Liu Sheng, and Ye Qi finally arrived at the Desert Sea Cave.
Looking at the entrance, there is a nine-story building with eight pillars and double eaves, with red upturned corners. Hundreds of caves on both sides are like a honeycomb, spreading out horizontally and stretching endlessly.
Liu Sheng was amazed.
What shocked them even more was...
More than two hundred elite soldiers were stationed and patrolling in front of the main gate, in the cave passage, and even on the cliff top.
Two battle flags fluttered gently in the wind atop the cliff.
Looking at the pattern on the flag, the outermost edge is starburst, the middle is a crescent moon, and the innermost is a bright sun.
The soldiers were clearly seasoned veterans, full of vigor and vitality.
They were all dressed in mountain-patterned armor, with countless "mountain"-shaped armor plates made of refined iron, each plate interlocking with the next.
He wore a breastplate, animal-head arm guards, a golden robe, a horizontal sword at his waist, a horse spear in his hand, and a powerful bow with arrows on his back.
They moved in rows and columns, their armor plates clanging like metal striking stone, and their brows held an air of impending doom.
In the afterglow of the setting sun, they shone like divine warriors.
"They're the rebels!"
Ye Qi's father was a member of the rebel army, so he recognized him at a glance.
He also mentioned that he had come here with his father two years ago.
Then, in a cave, he touched a suit of armor, and immediately fainted.
The father assumed he was asleep and took him back.
After some time, he pestered his father to teach him some military martial arts, and he practiced for a while.
Later, his father saw that he was indeed a good candidate for martial arts, so he sent him to the martial arts school.
Hearing this, Liu Sheng began to suspect that either his innate wisdom or his martial arts proficiency might be related to the time Ye Qi knocked him unconscious.
It wasn't just from hearing Ye Qi's words that I made unfounded guesses; more importantly, it was only after arriving at the Mo Hai Cave that I realized what was happening.
His panel then reacted:
Name: Liu Sheng
Age: 16
[External Training Method: Bajiquan (216/5000 Minor Success)]
[Internal Training Method: None]
[Unknown: None (Unlocked when Inner Strength reaches the Skin Polishing Realm)]