The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#842 - Refraction of light

The main reason Lu Jing rejected Poluo Heaven was because the bronze statue was merely a strange object accidentally created by those Poluo Sect fellows during a blood sacrifice.

The reason he brought it along was to add another layer of insurance to this trip to White Dragon Lake.

But it wasn't as if they couldn't find the bead without it.

Lu Jing believed that since that being left behind the star map tens of thousands of years ago, it meant there was a way to find the bead using the star map, it just might take more effort.

In the current situation, Lu Jing certainly hoped to find the bead as soon as possible, but he wouldn't be so insane as to fill the gap with human lives.

Hearing his answer, Stone also breathed a sigh of relief.

In a short period, he felt like he had been pulled out of the water, his back was soaked, and the nights in the Gobi Desert were quite cold, especially when the cold wind blew, making Stone shiver uncontrollably.

After Lu Jing finished speaking, he planned to put Poluo Heaven back into the box, even considering finding a place to dig a hole and bury it, since this guy was unwilling to cooperate, keeping him around didn't seem very useful.

On the contrary, it could easily disrupt the harmonious atmosphere within the team.

But just as he walked towards Poluo Heaven, he heard the bronze statue sigh and compromise, "Then give me a camel... Give me a camel and I'll tell you what I know."

Lu Jing stopped in his tracks upon hearing this.

The nine of them brought quite a few camels when they ventured deep into White Dragon Lake, there were extras, and recently they had consumed some dry food and water, so some camels were freed up.

Lu Jing wasn't an extreme animal rights activist, giving Poluo Heaven a camel as a sacrifice wasn't out of the question.

"You better provide me with something useful," Lu Jing said, "Otherwise, I'll make you spit out as much as you eat later."

Poluo Heaven blinked its only remaining eye and smiled, "Don't worry, I definitely won't let you down."

Lu Jing then had Stone select the oldest camel and lead it in front of the bronze statue.

Although the bronze statue no longer had arms, as its gaze fell on the old camel, the latter seemed to sense its fate and let out a mournful cry.

Then it knelt on the ground.

Fresh blood flowed continuously from its nose, mouth, and eyes.

Poluo Heaven brought its face close, as if sniffing something delicious.

After that, the camel put its head on the ground, Poluo Heaven stretched out a foot and stepped on the camel's head, with just a light force, the camel's skull was crushed.

Blood and brains splattered everywhere.

A greedy look flashed across Poluo Heaven's face, and it squatted down, sucking up the remaining bits from the skull.

This eerie and strange scene made Stone feel nauseous.

Especially when he thought that if Lu Jing hadn't objected just now, it wouldn't have been the camel who had its head cracked open, but him, his heart felt even colder, and he quietly took two steps back, away from the bronze statue.

After enjoying the feast, Poluo Heaven stood up again and let out a satisfied groan, "Too bad, this sacrifice is still a bit lacking, not as good as the taste of humans, but when you're out and about, you can't be too picky."

As it spoke, it intentionally or unintentionally glanced at Stone, and even grinned at the latter, before turning its head back to Lu Jing, "The reason the direction keeps changing is because the position of what you're looking for is not fixed."

"Huh?"

"That thing is on a living creature," Poluo Heaven said.

"What living creature?"

"I don't know what it is exactly, but from the appearance, it should be a snail," the bronze statue said, sounding a bit uncertain.

"Snail?"

"Don't underestimate that snail, even I don't want to provoke it," Poluo Heaven said, "Of course, that's because I'm just a wisp of divine thought residing in this bronze statue, if my main body were here, hehe..."

Lu Jing didn't want to listen to its boasting and interrupted it directly, "Are you making fun of us? We've already changed directions several times these days, how can a snail have such good footwork?"

"Oh, that thing does move quite fast under the sand, you'll naturally know when you see it," Poluo Heaven said.

After speaking, without Lu Jing needing to drive it away, it obediently sat back in the box.

"Also, let me tell you another good news, I can feel that we are getting closer and closer to that bead."

After speaking, the bronze statue lay down in the box.

...\n...\n...

Although Lu Jing didn't completely trust Poluo Heaven, the latter's words still made everyone in the team feel a surge of excitement.

Because it meant that their previous efforts had not been in vain.

They were indeed getting closer to their goal.

However, even after the group of nine wandered in this Gobi Desert for another month, they still hadn't found the bead, nor had they seen the snail that Poluo Heaven spoke of.

Even Kui, who was always calm, couldn't help but feel a little agitated.

Because the time left for the nine of them was getting shorter and shorter.

"We're just going around in circles," the girl said, "And we've already circled at least three times."

Lu Jing didn't have any good ideas either, so he could only continue on his way according to Professor Xu's stargazing results.

Seeing that it was almost evening, it was another fruitless day.

Lu Jing also stopped practicing the Imperial Sword Technique and planned to get off the camel to make a fire and cook.

But at this moment, a turbulent river suddenly appeared in front of him.

Lu Jing asked Stone, who was walking in front, "Is there a river in White Dragon Lake?"

The expression on Stone's face was also a little dazed, but soon he thought of something, his face changed and he said, "This... this is the Ghost Market."

As he spoke, he knelt down and began to kowtow towards the river.

"What Ghost Market?" Lu Jing asked.

"I... I'm not sure, but sometimes when we lead teams through White Dragon Lake, we will see some things here that shouldn't exist in this world, but we can never get close to them, nor can we touch them, the older generation calls this the Ghost Market."

Stone said fearfully, "When you encounter the Ghost Market, you must not keep staring at it, you must quickly lower your head and pray."

Hearing him say this, a word flashed through Lu Jing's mind, mirage?

Speaking of which, mirages do appear in the desert, so it's not too strange.

Lu Jing didn't join Stone's kowtowing, but he thought of something else.

Mirages are also related to the refraction of light, could this be related to the bead they were looking for?

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