Ten days later. The Inner Earth World.

The sky above seemed to be veiled by a gray shroud. The heavy clouds were like solidified blocks of lead, hanging oppressively overhead.

The rolling sand dunes, deprived of sunlight, had lost their once-golden hue, now appearing dull and lifeless.

Against the backdrop of the overcast sky, the waves of sand took on a grim, grayish-brown color. A cold wind howled, made even more biting and bone-chilling by the lack of sunlight.

Suddenly, the sand on the corner of a dune loosened and slid away as a monstrous scorpion, nearly half the height of a man, quietly emerged.

Its shell was a dark, murky black, almost blending into the desert in the dim light.

After it appeared, it waved its two giant pincers in the air, seemingly wary of its surroundings.

Once it confirmed there was no danger, it moved off to one side.

Over there lay the weathered and rotting half-corpse of a strange creature. The skeleton resembled that of a gecko, only magnified several times in size.

And beside the corpse, a lean Young Man was hiding quietly inside a slightly raised mound of sand.

His body was buried in the sand, with only a pair of grimy eyes exposed, nervously watching the scorpion’s every move.

The rotting half-corpse emitted a pungent, bloody stench. The smell permeated the air like an invisible thread, slowly luring the scorpion closer.

Seeing the scorpion follow the scent and draw near, the Young Man’s heart leaped into his throat.

He gripped a sharp Dagger tightly, lying in wait for the perfect moment.

Fortunately, the creature didn’t seem to notice him, its attention completely captivated by the corpse.

Soon, when the scorpion was close enough, the Young Man gritted his teeth and leaped from the sand mound, his Dagger striking like lightning toward the scorpion’s head.

The scorpion’s head housed its main nerve center, and the poison sac connected to it was where it stored its venom.

This connecting joint was relatively fragile. A powerful blow could easily damage its nervous system and rupture the poison sac.

If the poison sac ruptured, the scorpion could even be harmed by its own venom.

Attacking this spot could quickly neutralize the scorpion, robbing it of its Ability to move and attack.

The Young Man clearly knew where his target’s weak point was.

However, the next moment, just as the Dagger was about to hit its mark, the scorpion suddenly vanished.

The move was so abrupt that he missed completely, plunging headfirst into a nearby sand dune.

At the same time, the sound of something tearing through the air came from behind him.

’This is bad!’

The Young Man’s expression changed drastically as he rolled away on the spot.

As he looked up, he saw the scorpion’s tail whipping through the air toward him.

He thrust his Dagger out abruptly.

CLANG!

A sound like metal striking stone rang out.

The immense force sent the skinny Young Man staggering. The Dagger in his hand, which had been fashioned from some kind of animal bone, was knocked from his grasp and flew several meters away, landing stuck in the sand.

HISS...

A searing pain shot up his arm. The Young Man’s face paled as he looked down and saw a gruesome wound, the flesh torn open.

The blood flowing from the gash wasn’t Crimson, but was already turning black. After only a second or two, the pain faded, and a numbness spread across half of his body.

He was clearly poisoned.

The Young Man didn’t have time to think.

SWOOSH!

Just then, the scorpion’s tail, which had been knocked aside, struck again.

He tried to dodge, but found that half of his body was already numb and wouldn’t obey his commands.

Realizing this, the lean Young Man’s face went ashen. He could already picture the scorpion’s tail piercing through him.

However, several seconds passed, and the scene he imagined never came to pass.

Looking closely, he saw that the scorpion’s tail had stopped less than half a meter in front of him. A large hole had appeared in the scorpion’s head.

A pale yellow fluid oozed from the shattered wound, slowly seeping into the sand.

The next moment, the scorpion’s corpse vanished without a trace.

"What is this place, and where is the nearest Human Race city?"

A voice spoke.

Nearby, a figure carrying a Long Saber on his back had appeared at some unknown time.

The Young Man’s eyes went vacant.

"This is the Cangmo Realm, the Desolate Hill District. The nearest settlement is twenty li from here..."

Soon, Hu Qi had obtained a general understanding of the area.

At the same time, Hu Qi was surveying his surroundings.

In the distance, the outlines of the sand dunes blurred, gradually merging with the gray sky, making it difficult to distinguish the horizon.

A few tenacious desert plants trembled in the wind, showing little Vitality and looking utterly desolate.

This place was an area within the Cangmo Realm, close to its central region.

Compared to the Dense Forest Realm where he had last descended, the environment of the Cangmo Realm was the complete opposite extreme.

The Cangmo Realm’s environment was extremely harsh, unlike an ordinary surface desert.

Here, the desert’s lack of sunlight meant the temperature remained near freezing year-round.

In such conditions, it was inevitable that those at the bottom of society would face food shortages.

The only silver lining was that although the Cangmo Realm was mostly desert, it was not without food sources, including lizards, snakes, gerbils, camels, and so on.

Moreover, since most of these creatures were Exotic Beasts, they were enormous, and their meat was extremely nutritious.

Unfortunately, while Exotic Beast Meat was good, it was also exceptionally difficult to hunt.

The Young Man before him was a case in point.

Take this scorpion, for example. It had a massive body and incredibly potent venom.

In just a short while, the Young Man’s eyes had become sunken, and his lips had turned a purplish-blue. He clearly had one foot in the grave.

’Oh, well. It’s your lucky day, running into me!’

At this moment, Hu Qi’s gaze flickered. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

A thought seemed to cross his mind.

He reached out, pointing a finger, and a streak of red light shot into the Young Man’s body.

The Young Man’s withered complexion, which had looked seconds away from death by poison, rapidly improved, a healthy flush returning to his face.

After that, Hu Qi paid him no more mind.

He turned and left, heading toward the human settlement the Young Man had pointed out.

A few seconds later, the Young Man, still standing in the same spot, blinked, the vacant look in his eyes fading away.

"I... What was I just doing?"

His memory stopped at the moment he had been wounded by the scorpion and was about to die. He knew nothing of what came after.

But now, there was no sign of the scorpion anywhere.

He checked his body and was shocked to find that the wound on his arm was gone.

As if remembering something, he walked over and picked up the White Bone Dagger stuck in the ground. He saw a distinct new nick in the blade.

This proved that what he had experienced earlier was not an illusion.

Furthermore, as he moved, he discovered he was full of energy. His strength and speed seemed to be far greater than before.

At the same time, some images and unfamiliar information appeared in his mind.

It seemed to be a Dharma Gate for strengthening and tempering the body.

Realizing this, the Young Man was overcome with a mixture of shock and joy.

Although he didn’t know why this had happened to him, it was undoubtedly a good thing. The increase in his strength and speed meant that hunting for food would be much easier from now on.

...

What happened to the Young Man was merely something Hu Qi had done on a whim.

He didn’t care how far the Young Man could go with the Secret Martial Artist Cultivation Technique he had been given.

He gazed out at the endless desert beneath his feet.

With Hu Qi’s current Power of the Heart, he could easily cover a radius of four to five hundred kilometers.

Searching for anything would be simple.

However, doing so might alert the local Food Master, so Hu Qi restricted it to a radius of ten kilometers.

This distance might seem far, but with Hu Qi’s current speed, it was little different from being right next to him.

Before long, he found the human settlement.

It was a vast space located about thirty meters underground.

Within it, sprawling city buildings and human figures could be faintly seen.

Thanks to the unique geography of the Cangmo Realm, the humans here generally lived near oases or underground.

These places had Fire Springs, which allowed people to survive.