Commanding Wind and Cloud

"Qian Jin, let’s go." Duren Burg wrapped his arms around Qian Jin’s neck and moved in the opposite direction. He said, "Let’s go and find the stuff that we are after."

Zence Matten looked in the direction of the Ancient Desert Sea and got nervous again. He thought, "This could be a clear trap. Are we going to encounter lethal danger inside the Ancient Desert Sea? What would the danger come from?"

...

"Danger? It will come from the least expected place. Sixth Brother is living backward. He should know that he is walking into a trap, but he is not stopping. Did he forget that he is a noble prince? His life is different from those other people’s."

"Hey, this kid wants to be the greatest emperor. Is he dreaming too much?"

Under the moonlight, a young man who was also wearing a white robe and looked 70 percent similar to Zence Matten fanned himself with a folding hand and looked at the sky as he said lightly, "Friendship? Humph!"

"Third Brother..."

"Fourth Brother, I know what you want to say. We have the same father, but there is the only throne..."

The Fourth Prince, who looked valiant sighed and didn’t say anything. He thought, "This trap is too vicious. I wonder when Third Brother figured out these pieces of information."

"Qian Jin? Although I never saw you, I have more information on you compared with anyone else. Half shield?" The Third Prince smiled confidently and thought, "Perhaps that legend about hidden treasures recorded on the shield is true, but..."

The Ancient Desert Sea was a place that no changes would take place in millions of years. Even if tens of millions of years passed by, one couldn’t tell the passage of time by just looking at this place.

This desert was forever vast and peaceful. Even if millions of soldiers came here, the troop would look tiny and fragile compared to it.

When Qian Jin walked into the Ancient Desert Sea, the sun was already below the horizon, and many stars and the moon occupied the sky.

Although many veteran soldiers could understand complicated land maps and sea maps, very few could comprehend star maps.

However, Qian Jin was one of the few people in the world that understood star maps. There were a ton of books in the library of the Qian Family, and Qian Jin read many of them when he was little. Therefore, he came across a vast amount of knowledge regarding star maps.

"Judging from the star map, the location is deeper into the Ancient Desert Sea." Qian Jin lowered his hand and looked at the half shield in his hand while recalling the map on the half shield that was now inside his body. He looked up at the sky and said, "The Ancient Desert Sea is different from other places. We need to be careful."

Everyone didn’t say anything and observed carefully. Although the outer edge of the Ancient Desert Sea was known as the safe zone, no one knew when a powerful demon beast living deeper in the desert would suddenly appear on the outer edge. If the team ran into such a demon beast, it would be troublesome.

"There shouldn’t be anything in the area." After looking into the distance for a while, Duren Burg broke the silence and said, "I don’t detect any danger."

Night vision! It was one of the unique abilities that Duren Burg got after awakening his bloodline. This ability seemed useless at other times, but it was invaluable at this moment.

The Ancient Desert Sea was cold during the night.

Zence Matten tightened the rug that he wrapped around himself to block winds and flying sand. As he slightly shrunk his body, he thought, "Did my brain stop working? How come I came to this dangerous place with my future officials? Ay! It is hard being a proper emperor! I have to worry about the lives of my future officials!"

Zence Matten tried to explain the situation and felt better.

"A herd of snakes!"

After traveling for about five kilometers, the group finally encountered the first group of ’assassins’ in the desert.

Under the nightly sky, thousands of snakes that were as thick as human wrists crawled toward the group. Their green eyes emitted cold glints, and their bodies ground against the sand and created a series of chilly, ear-piercing noises.

"No need to worry!" Duren Burg walked over directly, and the snakes instantly sped up and charged toward him, wanting to devour this delicious meal.

"Bloodline battle form! Open!"

The hydra bloodline battle form was instantly opened. Hydras were the emperors among snakes.

Duren Burg’s giant warrior soul appeared, and it looked down at the sand snakes as if they were lowly subjects in front of a royal.

The snakes that were charging at Duren Burg froze and the world suddenly turned quiet. The sand snakes charging at the foremost turned their bodies and twitched, dying on the spot as their gallbladders broke due to fear.

"This feeling is great!" Duren Burg turned around and looked at Cech Flet as he said, "Little Cech, even though you have that saint item, you don’t look as dashing as me, huh?"

Cech Flet pulled out his sword and was about to stab Duren Burg, showing displeasure toward the nickname, Little Cech.

[TL Note: Little Cech also sounds like concubine in Chinese.]

"Alright, you guys are done. Go away!" Duren Burg waved his hand at the herd of snakes. Without looking at Qian Jin and others, and sand snakes all turned around and disappeared into the night.

On the way, the group encountered several herds of demon beasts. The snake-type demon beasts were all sent away by Duren Burg, and other individual demon beasts were all killed by the powerful members of the team regardless of their strength level.

One day, two days...

The team didn’t dare to move too fast in the desert; they move forward with caution, paying close attention to everything in the area. They rested during the day and referred to the stars in the sky and the star map to move at night.

With a bestial roar, a giant beast that was more than three meters tall slowly fell onto the golden-colored sand reluctantly. Then, the corpse of the giant beast landed on the ground, and grains of sand were sent flying in all directions behind Cech Flet.

Duren Burg looked at the power that the saint item had, and he was envious. The demon beasts here were no longer on the same level as those at the outer edge of the desert. The members in the team couldn’t scare away demon beasts without fighting anymore, and these demon beasts’ aggressiveness and wildness all increased.

Qian Jin squatted beside the demon beast that Cech Flet just killed and carefully observed its forehead. A grey light was slowly disappearing from its forehead.

"Undead... undead again."

Seeing the undead heraldry on the demon beast’s forehead, Qian Jin gasped and felt chilly. The cold wind in the night appeared to be even more chilled, and Qian Jin felt like his lungs were going to freeze.

"Undead? Comrade, what are you talking about?" Duren Burg walked over and looked at the demon beast that had died. "It feels like we have seen this heraldry before."

Zence Matten also got close to look at the heraldry on this demon beast’s forehead. He thought to himself, "Undead creatures are only mythical creatures in the tales of traveling poets. They don’t exist in reality. How come..."

With a sharp saber in hand, Qian Jin carved out the complete metal heraldry from the demon beast’s forehead. The blood around the grey heraldry made it seem even chiller, it felt like demons who were sleeping in the depths of the earth gradually woke up.

"Undead creatures really exist."

Qian Jin’s voice wasn’t loud, but the chilly wind didn’t seem that cold anymore. At least compared to what Qian Jin said, the chilly wind felt warm as if the temperature in the area dropped by dozens of degrees.

Zence Matten felt the goosebumps appearing on his skin, and he asked, "Undead? Do they exist? What do you mean?"

"Undead creatures really exist..." Qian Jin repeated this fact again, and he glanced at his peers while he said, "I didn’t plan to tell you, just in case that you might get curious and anxious. In fact, you guys have even seen it before, but you didn’t know back then."

Duren Burg suddenly recalled Qian Jin’s battle before the Demon King. When Qian Jin battled the iron-arm mantis bloodline warrior, similar grey light flashed on that warrior’s forehead, and Duren Burg thought that it was a unique technology that demons developed.

"There are undead creatures in this desert." Qian Jin’s voice turned grim as he said, "Undead creatures aren’t living beings, but they are also not dead people. They are unique existences after combining mystic potions and runes. They are mutated creatures who are pursuing immortality and want to become the gods of the stars."

People felt like the temperature in the area dropped again; this was their first time hearing such a thing.

"Interesting. This young man is smart." The Third Prince lay on a rocking chair and looked at the stars in the sky. Meanwhile, a golden horn sounded by his ear, transmitting Qian Jin and others’ conversation.

Detectaphone! A type of magic conductor.

A confident smile appeared on the Third Prince’s face as he thought, "Sixth Brother likes bringing Iron everywhere with him, but he doesn’t know that Iron has a detectaphone on him. I used great effort to place it inside his body. It seems like it is all worth it. This Qian Jin actually also knows about the undead, but he never mentioned it..."

"Third Brother, undead is..."

"A type of terrifying and powerful existence." The Third Prince closed his eyes as his body slightly trembled, and he didn’t look at the 500 elite soldiers who were fully armored behind him. "I learned about them by accident. Potentially, their threat to our empire might be greater than demons, but... we don’t have enough forces to deal with them. If I report this to Royal Father and move the troops, those damn demons will attack at this moment..." the Third Prince sighed and shifted his focus back onto the golden horn.