Chapter 1712: An Oasis Appears

I had thought to tame one of these sacred beasts, like the ones I encountered in the jungle before, and have it lead me to an oasis. I never expected it to be so fragile—a casual sword strike, instead of serving as a warning, actually blew it up...

Once it turned into grains of sand, even I couldn't restore it.

“This spirituality... is too weak!”

Rubbing his brow, he looked speechless.

He had thought these two big fellows, like sacred beasts of the same level, would be hard to fight, but unexpectedly, they were so easy to kill.

Their spirituality was far weaker than the treasures he had awakened.

“Can you... find a way to lure a few more?”

Looking embarrassed, Zhang Xuan turned to them.

After all the trouble luring them, they died without yielding any information... Next time, I must be more careful.

“Alright!”

Everyone nodded.

This time, a cultivator took out a gourd and, instead of drinking, threw it out directly.

The water flowed into the desert, also seeming to burn into white mist, but unfortunately, no sand giants came.

“It seems they need to drink water...”

After waiting for a while with no effect, Zhang Xuan said.

“Hmm!” The man nodded helplessly, took out another water gourd, tilted his head, and took a few gulps.

The water, instead of quenching his thirst, made him thirstier; his whole body felt like it was smoking. Suppressing the dizziness in his head, he threw the gourd out again.

Gurgle, gurgle!

The water flowed into the desert, and sure enough, as before, two more sand giants came running over.

Like the previous ones, they were at the initial stage of the Immortal Realm and equally low in intelligence.

Taking a deep breath, Zhang Xuan approached again. This time, he dared not use too much force, merely trapping the latter.

The two sand giants attacked continuously but could not break through his true energy.

“Soul search!”

Instead of attacking, Zhang Xuan used his soul power.

Having read all the books from the Jiang family, his soul had been cultivated to the level of true understanding. Coupled with the inheritance of the Soul Witch, techniques like soul search were no longer unfamiliar to him.

However, such methods were against the natural order and were rarely used.

These sand giants before him were different from normal life forms, so searching them would do no harm.

Whoosh!

His soul entered the sand, as if entering a pitch-black night, where he vaguely saw a flame the size of a bean shining in the deepest part.

“This is... the method of awakening?”

He frowned.

Earlier, he had felt these sand giants were somewhat dull, but he never expected them to be objects awakened by an awakener!

No wonder they were weak. Awakened objects, even if their level was high, had much lower combat power than cultivators of the same level.

It was like Wang Ying back then; she had awakened the entire Master Teacher Hall, but her combat power was still limited.

“No... these are ordinary sand grains... To awaken ordinary sand grains and give them the strength of the initial stage of the Immortal Realm...”

He suddenly froze.

Although these sand giants were stupid, their strength was undeniable; otherwise, they couldn't have beaten these dozen people so badly.

Earlier, he had killed several in a row, and after their spirituality was extinguished, the giants turned into ordinary sand... That is to say, in this desert, something was awakening ordinary sand grains, even giving them the strength of the Immortal Realm after awakening!

That was too terrifying!

Even now, his art of spirit awakening was unmatched in the world, and the president of the Spirit Awakeners' Guild was his student... at most, he could only awaken treasures that already had form; without form, even success was impossible, let alone granting them the strength of a Great Sage.

"Bang!"

Lost in thought, the power of his soul had no sense of weight, and the candle-like spirituality instantly shattered. The two sand giants turned back into sand and fell to the ground.

He stepped forward to examine them and found they were indeed ordinary sand. Zhang Xuan looked around and narrowed his eyes.

It was just as he had guessed.

Since these things had been awakened, the awakener must know the location of the entrance.

Once found, it would be equivalent to finding the exit of this world.

But... how could he find the awakener?

"The direction from which the sand giants appeared should be where the awakener is!"

After a moment's thought, Zhang Xuan understood.

When he awakened spirits, he needed to touch the item being awakened. Although he didn't know if this fellow did the same, the direction from which the sand giants appeared must be related.

"Everyone, follow me!"

With that thought, he hesitated no longer and led the group swiftly toward the direction from which the giants had emerged.

After walking for over ten minutes, they stopped.

The surroundings were no different from before—the same expanse of yellow sand.

"Let's attract them again..."

After circling around and finding no clues, Zhang Xuan continued to instruct.

Hearing this, everyone's mouths twitched, and their faces turned bitter.

You have spirit liquid but won't give it to us, and you make us drink water...

If we drink too much, we'll really die of thirst.

Though frustrated, they knew that only by following this man could they escape this godforsaken place. Without further complaint, someone repeated the previous steps.

Soon, two sand giants approached from another direction.

The aura of these two giants was clearly stronger than the previous ones. Although they were also at the early stage of the Immortal Realm, their combat power had increased, and their intelligence seemed higher.

Knowing they couldn't be tamed, Zhang Xuan casually killed them and led the group onward in the direction from which the sand giants had come.

After another ten minutes of walking, he had someone repeat the process.

More sand giants appeared, this time possessing combat power at the middle stage of the Immortal Realm.

"It seems the closer we get to the awakener, the stronger the sand giants become..."

Confirming his guess, Zhang Xuan's eyes lit up.

They continued forward, and whenever they couldn't determine the direction, he had someone use the previous method.

After more than a dozen repetitions, the sand giants' strength had reached the late stage of the Immortal Realm.

But at this level, it seemed they had reached their limit and could no longer increase.

"Over ten minutes ago, they were at this strength; now it's the same. If we connect these two points in a straight line... the awakener should be at the perpendicular direction from the midpoint of this line!"

A flash of insight.

Awakening uses the soul as a medium. As such, as long as the awakener doesn't move, the soul radiates outward in a circle. If the sand giants awakened at two locations have the same strength, it means the power given is equal, and the awakener's distance to these two locations should also be equal.

If the awakener is the center of a circle, the midpoint of any chord (non-diameter) of the circle, when connected to the center, is perpendicular to that chord!

In other words, by searching along the perpendicular direction from the midpoint of the line connecting these two points, he would surely find this fellow!

"Let's go!"

Determining the position in his mind, Zhang Xuan arrived at the midpoint and quickly rushed forward.

After an unknown amount of time, just as everyone was on the verge of collapse, their mouths parched beyond endurance, a voice suddenly rang out.

"Look, there's an oasis ahead..."

Zhang Xuan hurriedly looked forward and indeed saw a patch of green bamboo standing in the distance, bright and eye-catching.