The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#818 - Refraction of light

The main reason Lu Jing refused the Pora Heaven was because the bronze statue was just a strange object accidentally produced by the blood sacrifices of those Pora Sect fellows.

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

But it's not like they couldn't find the bead without it.

Lu Jing believed that since that being had left behind the star map tens of thousands of years ago, it meant that 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 go so far as to be so mad as to fill it with human lives.

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

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

After Lu Jing finished speaking, he planned to put the Pora Heaven back into the box, and even considered finding a place to dig a hole and bury it, anyway, this guy was unwilling to cooperate, and keeping it didn't feel very useful anymore.

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

But just as he was walking towards the Pora 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 people brought quite a few camels with them on this deep dive into White Dragon Lake, there was a surplus, and recently they had also consumed some dry food and drinking water, so more camels were freed up.

Lu Jing wasn't an extreme animal rights activist either, giving Pora 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."

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

Lu Jing then asked Stone to pick the oldest camel and lead it to 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.

Pora Heaven brought its face closer, as if smelling something delicious.

Afterwards, the camel put its head on the ground, Pora Heaven stretched out a foot and stepped on the camel's head, it only used a little force, and the camel's skull was crushed.

Blood and brain matter splattered everywhere.

A hint of greed flashed across Pora Heaven's face, and it squatted down, sucking up the remaining things in the skull.

This eerie and terrifying 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 that was being cracked open, but him, he felt even colder in his heart, and quietly took two steps back, away from the bronze statue.

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

As he said this, he glanced at Stone intentionally or unintentionally, and grinned at the latter, before turning his head back to Lu Jing, "The reason why the direction keeps changing is because the location of the thing you're looking for is not fixed."

"Huh?"

"Don't underestimate that snail, even I don't want to provoke it," Pora Heaven said, "Of course, that's because I'm just a wisp of divine thought descending into this bronze statue, if my main body was here, hehe…"

Lu Jing didn't want to listen to him bragging, and directly interrupted him, "Are you making fun of us? We've already changed direction several times these days, how can a snail's footwork be so good?"

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

After saying that, without Lu Jing having to drive it away, it obediently sat back in the box.

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

After saying that, the bronze statue lay down in the box.

… … … …

Although Lu Jing didn't completely trust Pora Heaven, the latter's words still made everyone in the team's spirits lift.

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

They were indeed getting closer to the goal.

It was just that when 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 Pora Heaven had mentioned.

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

Because the time left for the nine people was getting less and less.

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

Compared to when they first entered White Dragon Lake, everyone's faces and skin had been tanned a lot, and even the two boxes of sunscreen powder that Wen Xiaochuan brought were almost empty.

However, the latter didn't clamor to go back, but learned from Stone and wrapped two more circles of black cloth under her veiled hat, only revealing a pair of watery eyes.

As for the camels in the team, only nine were left after being eaten by Pora Heaven.

Since about ten days ago, it couldn't provide any useful information anymore, only repeating that it was very close, but it couldn't say an accurate number for how close it was.

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 just then, 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 he quickly thought of something, his face changed and said, "This… This is the Ghost Market."

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

"What Ghost Market?" Lu Jing asked.

"I… I'm not sure, it's just that 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 or touch them, the older generation calls this the Ghost Market."

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

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

Speaking of which, this kind of thing does appear in the desert, so it's not too strange.

Lu Jing didn't join Stone's kowtowing ranks, but he thought of another thing.

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

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