The moon was bright among countless stars, and the cold wind carried the sand and dust, weathering the sandstone isolated in the desert and uncannily carving out strange-shaped sculptures one after another.
A girl wearing a veil was sitting lazily on the edge of the cliff with her legs crossed, facing the desert which was glowing blue due to the moon. A jade bell engraved with the words 'All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix' was gently swaying in her fingers.
Jingle~~ jingle~~~
The sound of the bell was light and pleasing to the ears, but it seemed out of place in the harsh and arid environment of this place.
Si Xuanji rubbed her feet with her left hand and sighed as her yin and yang pupils silently reflected the light of the spirit sword at the other end of the sandy slope from time to time. "Sigh--"
---Grrr!!!
The next moment, a giant insect like a centipede broke through the sand on the ground and jumped into the air.
On its back, a green-emerald sword was firmly stuck, and a little girl with long lavender hair was clenching the sword, shouting in a panic, "Mom!!! Help!!!"
Si Xuanji looked at the girl hanging by the sand dragon with an indifferent expression and ignored her. She looked up at the bright moon in the sky and squinted her eyes.
A small black spot loomed in the night sky.
Seeing it, Si Xuanji raised her right hand, and a parrot with a golden crest swooped down from the sky and landed on her hand.
"What happened at the Sword Sect?"
The parrot opened its beak and pronounced, "Both eggs are gone!! Both eggs are gone!!"
?
A hint of surprise showed in Si Xuanji's yin and yang eyes, her eyebrows raised slightly, and then she snorted out a laugh. "Pfft -- Young Master Ye really defies the heavens. Not only did he finish that Yun Kunwu, but he also chopped off the old geezer? This is something that I didn't expect, but now Taixu's wish is fulfilled."
---"Mother!!!"
Xiao Yunluo's cry for help came again in the distance. After hearing it, the golden-crowned parrot glanced in the direction and said, "It's painful losing a beloved daughter!! So painful losing a beloved daughter!!"
"Not yet."
Si Xuanji sighed as she glanced in the direction of her daughter. She raised her hands, and with her left and right index fingers and thumbs, framed the sand dragon that jumped into the air and blew out a gentle breath.
The dragon's figure instantly froze in mid-air.
In the next moment, its tens of feet long body spun dozens of times, twisted, broke into two pieces in the middle, and fell into the sand below.
Boom---
The sand dragon's body collided with the ground, scattering sand and dust hundreds of feet into the air.
Xiao Yunluo poked her head out of the sand with an embarrassed look and spat out the sand in her mouth. "Bah, bah, bah--"
She looked at the sand dragon that had been suddenly broken into two parts not far away, and she breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that it was her mother who took action. However, she soon became nervous again.
At this moment, a small hand grabbed her by the nape and pulled her out of the sand like lifting a cat.
"Really, why mess with something you can't solve yourself?"
Xiao Yunluo pouted and looked at Si Xuanji, who was half a head shorter than herself, with an aggrieved look. "Mom, how would I know? You didn't tell me that this was the nest of the sand dragon. I've never been to the Central Region..."
Si Xuanji frowned and corrected her. "Call me sister. I told you when we left that I am accompanying you to the Central Region as your sister, remember? If you call me wrong next time, I will spank you."
"Oh... okay."
Xiao Yunluo lowered her head and responded, but she was confused. Why would she be her sister?
"Then, Sister Xuanji..."
Si Xuanji changed her expression, narrowed her eyes with a smile, and asked, "What is it? Sister..."
"Why are you my sister?"
"To seduce your Daddy!! Seduce you..."
Si Xuanji reached out, pinching the beak of the parrot that was standing on her shoulder, and smiled.
"I sound and look much younger like this, don't I? Hee hee -- you, my big sister, must protect me well outside."
Xiao Yunluo was speechless. She looked at the parrot and asked, "Is it sick?"
"Eh?"
"It feels like the parrot keeps saying some strange things lately, and I can't understand them."
"Is that so?" Si Xuanji turned her head to look at the parrot and gently poked its feathers with her finger. "Parrot, are you sick?"
"No, no, not sick!!"
Si Xuanji smiled and repeated. "The parrot says it's not sick."
Xiao Yunluo had the feeling that the parrot seemed to be afraid of her mother, but she didn't dare to say anything, and she only nodded her head in response. "Where are we going next? Which direction is Jade Pass?"
"Read the map, look at the stars. The Young Lady of the Black Star Sect is lost. It would be bad if word spread about it."
"Oh..."
Xiao Yunluo pouted and looked at the sand dragon not far away with a helpless look on her face. She took out the map and compared it with the stars in the sky, found the direction, and started walking.
After crossing a sand dune, there were more sand dunes ahead.
She was a little tired. Looking around, she couldn't find anything that could give her a reference. All she could see was the next dune and the sand that was illuminated by the moonlight in a bleakly white.
"Sister Xuanji, why can't we fly with our swords?"
"In the Central Region, other than the Emperor and a handful of people who can use their swords, any other cultivators will be treated as criminal cultivators as long as they fly. The Central Region is at the intersection between the other four regions, so there are all kinds of people here. Forbidding flying is also a convenient motive when arresting people. For traveling between towns, there are caravans."
Xiao Yunluo looked at her mother's bare feet on the sand and asked, "Can you get some horse then? Isn't it uncomfortable to step on the sand?"
"Well..." Si Xuanji paused for a moment, then with a slight movement, she jumped on Xiao Yunluo's back and latched onto her. "If you care about your little sister so much, then carry me on your back."
"..."
Xiao Yunluo wanted to slap her mouth. Why did she ask this instead of minding her own business?! But now, she could only endure it.
At this time, a string of bells came from the other side of the dune.
Ding ding---
The ringing was slightly low, sounding like a camel bell.
Startled, Xiao Yunluo paused, then quickly ran up the sand dune with Si Xuanji on her back and looked down.
A caravan pulling several carts of spiritual ore was moving down below, escorted by more than a dozen cultivators in the middle stage of the Foundation Building and two in the Core Formation stage, who seemed to be guards.
She quickly waved and shouted, "Wait!"
Swish---
Probably afraid that Xiao Yunluo was a robber, the cultivators in the Foundation Building stage in the caravan looked at her nervously. However, when they saw Xiao Yunluo's current light-colored dress, they looked confused.
The leader, a cultivator in the Core Formation stage, came forward and asked, "Fellow cultivator, may I ask why you are here?"
"Well..." Xiao Yunluo cupped her hands and replied, "I am a cultivator from the Black Star Sect in the Western Region... and this is my sister. We wanted to go to the Jade Pass, but we got lost on the way. I wonder if we could go with you, Seniors? Of course, we will pay you."
The Core Formation cultivator briefly glanced at Xiao Yunluo and Si Xuanji. One was in the late stage and the other in the early stage of the Foundation Building. He agreed. "It's fine if you can give me spirit stones."
"Many thanks!"