Coincidentally, Daojun’s Four Ocean Gourd was hidden in Five Palm Mountain, where the Water God Cult was based. Lin Jin couldn’t resist linking them both together.
“Could the Four Ocean Gourd have been seized by this cult?” Lin Jin muttered to himself, heart sinking a little.
The Water God Cult had control over Arid Continent’s sole water source. Besides the Four Ocean Gourd, there weren’t any natural sources of water on Arid Continent, so these two must be related somehow.
As he thought about the possibilities, the dusty wind around them blew harder. Everyone found it difficult to keep their eyes open.
As if he had realized something was going on, the boss’ expression grew frightened.
“M-my good man, the yellow wind monster is coming. We have to hide at once before it’s too late,” pleaded the boss with tears in his eyes.
Lin Jin snapped out of his thoughts and observed their surroundings. He noticed the strange phenomenon too.
Strong gusts of wind were blowing sand their way. Although the air from earlier wasn’t still, it was merely a breeze compared to this.
Something was wrong.
The sandy gust carried traces of a monster’s aura.
Lin Jin recognized it as a monster’s spell and by the looks of it, it wasn’t a weak monster.
The boss seemed to know what was going on, so Lin Jin asked him about it. After that, he cast a minor spell that erected an invisible barrier that was twenty meters in diameter, shielding them from the sand attack.
Upon seeing this, the boss and his men were bright enough to realize they had encountered an expert.
They all prostrated before Lin Jin and answered all his queries.
Their village was once called Bull Village. Although Arid Continent was desolated, by relying on the minimal water supply from the oasis, a dozen or so families in this village were able to live relatively carefree lives.
However, human civilization on Arid Continent was on a steady decline, giving way to increasingly frequent monster attacks. Bull Village had been able to withstand these attacks in the past because of their old village chief. The village chief had a mysterious spell that allowed him to stop monsters from invading their village. However, after the chief passed away, Bull Village lost its support and immediately collapsed.
They couldn’t possibly stop the monster who would return every few days to hunt for human prey.
A fine village like theirs could only resort to robbing innocent travelers to survive. It was indeed a tragic situation.
Lin Jin found this story a little suspicious. The boss and his men were clearly normal people. Forget powerful monsters, even smaller monsters with a bit of tact could kill them all. These men shouldn’t have been able to live this long.
The fact that they managed to survive this long made the story sound very strange.
After asking them about it, Lin Jin understood why.
“The yellow wind monster is the strongest of them all. If it’s here, the other monsters would steer clear of its path. It comes once every month and would always take one person away. Our village used to have more than fifty people, but after two years since the start of its attacks, only less than half remain.”
As he spoke, the boss started crying.
However, in Lin Jin’s eyes, the man was just putting on a show.
“I didn’t know that Arid Continent was in such a mess.” Although the boss wasn’t exactly a good person, he was just trying to survive so Lin Jin couldn’t judge him. He could only say that Arid Continent was perilous and their civilian lives weren’t worth anything. The world is so unpredictable.
However, since he ran into this situation, if Lin Jin were to leave right now, one person among this group would surely find himself in harm’s way. Also, the boss mentioned there were still about twenty of them, but right now, Lin Jin only counted eleven.
After asking them about it, he learned that the women and children were hiding in an underground cave nearby.
As for the elderly, they were the first to be taken away. They had willingly sacrificed themselves for the sake of protecting the young.
At that moment, Lin Jin sensed the monster’s aura growing denser. He deliberately concealed his aura to present himself as a normal person.
Lin Jin didn’t want to scare the yellow wind monster away.
The fact that Arid Continent had so many monsters piqued his curiosity. Also, as Curator, he had formulated a plan to improve Curator’s capabilities before he arrived here.
However, this plan was quite ambitious and Lin Jin knew it couldn’t be completed in one day. Still, it required the first step.
The people of Bull Village were quite pitiful. They were bandits, no doubt, but they were forced into living this way due to their surrounding circumstances. In other words, Lin Jin didn’t blame them. Arid Continent had tons of villages like Bull Village. If everyone lived without knowing if they could see the light of tomorrow and only survived at the expense of others, Arid Continent would quite literally be hell on earth.
Since he was here and would soon take away the Four Ocean Gourd, Lin Jin had to help Daojun fulfill his death wish by helping Arid Continent prosper.
The gust grew stronger and the sands denser. To their surprise, not a single grain of sand was found within a ten-meter radius around Lin Jin. Everyone watched on with awe and grew increasingly impressed by his skill.
Suddenly, strange laughter could be heard within the gust before a tall human silhouette started getting nearer.
As if looking through a blurred mirror, that human silhouette got closer and scoffed. “Where did this spellcaster come from? How dare you show off before me and even set up a barrier. Break!”
Having said that, the human silhouette smacked the barrier Lin Jin had erected.
The enemy sounded confident. However, his attempt to break down the barrier was met with a blow to his over-inflated ego.
Smack!
There was a loud noise. The human silhouette smacked Lin Jin’s barrier but received a hit in return, causing him to almost fall flat on his back.
That thing was no fool.
He had utilized more than eighty percent of his strength, but there wasn’t even a single crack on the invisible wall. This proved just how much more powerful the spellcaster was compared to him.
Hence, the human silhouette immediately escaped after failing.
It was a pity that Lin Jin wouldn’t let him off the hook that easily.
Lin Jin’s body vanished, and he materialized outside the barrier, blocking off the human silhouette.
He now had a clearer view of the man’s appearance. Tall and lean, he did seem rather well-built but he had a pair of beast claws and a beast head. Now, he didn’t look that human anymore.
Lin Jin had encountered beings like this one before. He must have issues with mastering the skill of Transfiguration, or his method was flawed.
No doubt, this must the yellow wind monster the boss had mentioned.
Judging by his half-human features, this must be a weasel beast. To Lin Jin’s surprise, he was quite adorable, especially with that wagging tail behind him. That part exuded dense monster energy so he must have cultivated a specialized spell for this.
The monster was startled by Lin Jin. However, as a monster, his ferocity exceeded reason.
“You must have a death wish!”
The weasel swept his tail and a wind blast swept up the sand. Hidden in the grains of sand were sharp aural blades that went straight for Lin Jin.
Lin Jin did not evade the attack.
He didn’t have to. He had cultivated the Five Element Armor to raise his defensive ability, and while this monster seemed ferocious, its actual rank and strength were far inferior compared to Lin Jin. Even if Lin Jin stood still, the weasel would still find it impossible to penetrate his armor.
Sure enough, the instant the wind blades came in contact with Lin Jin, they shattered like glass hitting a boulder.
