Chapter 350 349: Desolate Realm

"Grandpa, what is that?"

On a sand dune in the endless expanse, a little girl with a medicine basket on her back looked up, gazing at the sea of stars that filled the sky. The two small buns in her hair were already higher than her grandfather's stooped back, but her big eyes were still bright and innocent.

Following the direction of her slender finger, her grandfather straightened his deeply hunched back. His eyes, creased with wrinkles like canyons, narrowed. Reflected in his murky pupils was a streak of gold light, like a bolt of silk, cutting across the night sky.

If time could turn back to the age of legends, he might have told Ni'Er that it was a supreme expert of the Human Race, flying back from the heavens, about to bring hope to all of the Desert Human Clan.

If time could turn back to the dawn of the era, he might have said it was one of the Treasures of Heaven and Earth, lost somewhere in the universe, that had fallen to their Desolate Realm by some accident.

But time had marched on to the present. The glory of the Human Race, once recorded in the history books, was long buried beneath the yellow sands. In this world, the Treasures of Heaven and Earth belonged to the Alien Race, and all of the Human Race were slaves and servants.

So, he told Ni'Er, "That's a shooting star you can wish on. It can grant you one wish. You only get to see one once in a hundred million years. Because today is the three-hundredth year since Ni'Er was born, we were lucky enough to see it..."

"Really, Grandpa?" Ni'Er's eyes widened. Against the backdrop of the endless yellow sand, her hair was like willow branches dried in the sun, her skin like a sanded slab of yellow earth. Only her eyes were clear and bright, as clean as lake water. "Can it grant any wish, no matter how big?"

"Any wish."

"I want Grandpa and me to have our own oasis, so we won't have to look for strange ores for those ugly freaks anymore—"

"Haha, of course..." The grandfather smiled, brushing a strand of hair from Ni'Er's eyelashes. "It will come true one day."

'Will it?'

'Heaven only knows...'

"Huh?" Suddenly, Ni'Er grew excited, jumping up and down, still unwilling to lower her pointing finger. "Grandpa, Grandpa! It looks like the shooting star is landing not far from us!"

"What?" The grandfather looked up abruptly, his eyes wide. "It's coming right for us! We have to run!"

"???"

Ni'Er froze for a moment. Before she could get another look at the shooting star, her grandfather had seized her left wrist. His bony arm seemed to possess the strength of a desert scorpion as he dragged her, desperately running down the sand dune, trying to find a sloping rock face that would hide them from view.

She had never seen her frail, hunched grandfather run so fast. His two thin legs pumped for dear life, his face caked with windblown sand. With every gust, his clothes and robes filled with grit.

This wasn't the first time they had fled like this. They did the same whenever they saw spaceships flying overhead. The very large ships didn't matter; after all, compared to such colossal flying machines, she and her grandfather were just grains of sand.

But the smaller ships were different. They might be hiding Desolate Realm Robbers who would steal anything they saw. Grandpa often worried she would be snatched away for being too cute... those were his exact words.

Fortunately, just below them was a sloped rock face with a spot that blocked the wind, and her grandfather pulled her into its cover.

But...

WHOOSH—

The sound of wind tore through the sky, and a rumbling like thunder echoed across the entire dune. A high-speed object seemed to be plummeting from above, about to crash into the rock face right over their heads.

The terrifying whistling sound grew louder as it approached, making her grandfather's already weak heart pound wildly. THUMP, THUMP, THUMP. He gritted his teeth, his lips trembling. "Shh~ Don't say a word."

"Okay."

Responding softly, Ni'Er hugged her small body and curled into a ball, leaning against her trembling grandfather. He was always like this, shaking whenever a spaceship landed nearby.

'But isn't this a shooting star landing?'

'Why is Grandpa still trembling...?'

After a moment of thought, her eyes brightened with understanding. She murmured to herself, 'Grandpa must be terrified of anything that comes from the sky, no matter what it is.'

But her mom, dad, and grandma didn't seem to be afraid of the sky. Grandpa had said that when she was very little, they flew up into the sky and went to another world.

In that world, you could touch the stars directly. They danced about like fireflies in an oasis, and countless fireflies strung together would transform into the silky, flowing waters of the Milky Way. It was so magical...

BOOM—

Finally, a massive explosion shattered her wandering thoughts. The sandy ground for several miles around trembled, and some areas of shifting sand collapsed. She could hear the strange sound of sand grinding against sand, like a reversed river of sand contracting.

A sandstorm that blotted out the sky swept in from the distance. A WHOOSH of wind nearly knocked her bony grandfather over, but he braced his hands against the rock wall, shielding her from the worst of the gale.

She blinked twice and coughed a few times, clearing the sand from her eyes and the grit from her mouth. Squinting through the haze, she couldn't see the starry sky or the horizon. The dust cloud kicked up by the impact was too thick; the ground had jumped beneath her heels just a moment ago.

"Cough, cough." Unable to bear it, her grandfather spat out a mouthful of sand to the side. He waved a hand in front of his face to clear the swirling dust but didn't dare make any more noise. "Shh~"

"Grandpa... I think there's someone in the sandstorm."

Ni'Er spoke again, her slender finger locking onto a figure like a compass needle. Her voice was so soft that only her grandfather, who was shielding her, could hear.

"A person?"

That one word held so much meaning that her grandfather froze when he heard it. His memory told him that Ni'Er didn't lie.

It also told him that a person should have nothing to do with flying.

The sky was a forbidden zone for humans. The place they walked the most was the sand. Without permission from the Alien Race masters, they couldn't even set foot on a soil-covered oasis.

Of course, being able to walk on the sand wasn't so bad. Many couldn't even leave the oases. They wore shackles on their feet, and no matter how much strength they possessed, they couldn't step beyond those cramped confines...

All sorts of thoughts spread through the grandfather's mind. He cautiously peered in the direction Ni'Er was pointing. Indeed, a shadow was walking out from within the storm. The wind was just too strong and the sand too thick to make out its silhouette clearly.

However, its frame wasn't large. It was quite possible it was only the size of a member of the Human Race. Its build was even slender compared to the Alien Race masters, not at all bloated.

He seemed to be a living, breathing member of the Human Race, yet he stood like an iron tower. Every step he took in the heart of the sandstorm created a subtle wind field that repelled the yellow sand.

As he walked forward step by step, the yellow sand retreated step by step.

No matter how the sandstorm raged or how his clothes billowed, his body was as straight as a spear, and his steps were as steady as a mountain. He possessed an aura that the Human Race of the Desolate Realm lacked.

Wait... why is he walking right toward us?!