Battle Through the Heavens, Reborn as Xiao Yan's Sister

Chapter 82 Bandits and the Mysterious Woman

"The Golden Qi and Fire Qi have been fully cultivated..."

On a sand dune,
Xiao Yue slowly opened her eyes. It had been more than ten days since she entered this harsh desert. Thanks to the rich fire attribute energy here and the insights she gained from the thunderstorm that night, she had already perfected her fire aura.

The Innate Realm has five levels, each corresponding to one of the five internal organs: Lung (metal), Liver (wood), Kidney (water), Heart (fire), and Spleen (earth). By cultivating each organ to perfection, one can achieve the ancient term "Five Qi Returning to the Origin," at which point one can ascend to the next step in her deductions!
Xiao Yue got up and continued her journey. She hadn't been moving very fast these past few days, deliberately slowing down her pace. So, after more than ten days, she had only traveled a little over a hundred miles, which was nothing compared to the vast, boundless desert and Gobi.

Above the clear sky,
The enormous sun hung high in the sky, like a giant fireball constantly releasing flames. The scorching sunlight was cast upon the golden desert, baking the tiny grains of sand until they were as red-hot as iron filings.

The intense heat seeped from the ground, evaporating the space and making it appear somewhat distorted and illusory.

en route,

Xiao Yue encountered a father and daughter who had been buried in the sand by a black desert sandstorm.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

A middle-aged man dressed in rags was pulled out of the sand by Xiao Yue with one hand. After he came out, he was panting heavily, coughing and spitting out the sand in his mouth. He looked at Xiao Yue with gratitude.

Xiao Yue tossed him a bag of water.
"Thank you!"

Upon seeing this, the middle-aged man licked his dry lips, swallowed, opened the water bag, and instead of drinking immediately, carefully fed it to the young girl he had been holding in his arms.

The little girl was pale and had cracked lips, clearly having been dehydrated for a long time, but her eyes revealed a tenacious vitality as she held the water bag and drank in small sips.

"Cough cough cough~"

Seeing the little girl choking, the middle-aged man gently patted her back to help her catch her breath.

"Father, drink..."

After the little girl finished drinking, she handed the water bag to her father. At this point, the middle-aged man took a few sips of water himself, then carefully twisted the water bag shut, intending to return it to Xiao Yue.

In this desert, every drop of water is a precious source of life.

He dared not entertain the thought of forcibly taking it.

Because he had just witnessed the water bag being taken out of Xiao Yue's storage ring. Even the lowest-grade ten-cubic-meter storage ring is a mysterious item involving space, costing tens of thousands of gold coins. It is not something that ordinary people can possess; at the very least, one needs the cultivation of a Great Dou Master to have such abundant wealth.

Xiao Yue shook her head slightly, not taking the water bag, indicating that the other party should accept it. Then she pointed to the right, indicating that they could follow their own footsteps and perhaps find an oasis there.

Seeing Xiao Yue turn and leave without any hesitation, the man was slightly taken aback, then hurriedly reminded her:
"Young lady, there is danger ahead!"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Yue slowed her pace slightly.

The middle-aged man continued, "These past few days, those small snake-people tribes deep in the mountains have gone mad for some reason, starting to frantically drive us humans away. Many people from the stone village town ahead have already been expelled, and everyone is desperately fleeing the famine."

"The snake people are somewhat better; they've only been driving out humans lately and don't seem to want to start a war with the empire. But those 'sand bandits' who took advantage of the situation to kick us while we're down are truly cruel! They're the worst of the worst!"

The middle-aged man spoke with some resentment.
His wife was raped and killed by those desert bandits. The most terrifying thing in the desert is not the snake people or monsters, but the desert bandits who are also human!
Those bandits had no fixed abode, plundering everywhere, killing and seizing villages at will, bullying women, and committing almost every kind of evil! They were more ferocious than other races and knew better how to torment their own human kind.

"Sister, there are bad guys ahead. Grandpa, Grandma, and Mom were all killed by them," the little girl said in her childish voice. She was too young to understand what death meant. All she knew was that the bandits were terrifying and that she would never see her mother again.

Xiao Yue's eyes flickered upon hearing this.
She nodded slightly, then continued forward in silence.

Watching her figure gradually disappear into the distance, the middle-aged man sighed, knowing that further persuasion would be useless. He could only pray silently in his heart, then hugged his daughter and slowly left, following the footprints left by Xiao Yue.

Although the young silver-haired woman didn't look very old, the aura she exuded was not to be underestimated. So... she should be alright.

……

...

And the other side

at this time,

On a small sand dune in the desert,
A bewitching figure stood there, dressed in a luxurious and expensive purple brocade robe that hugged her voluptuous and curvaceous figure, exuding a seductive allure. Her long, narrow, pale purple eyes were naturally captivating as they languidly swirled around.

And on the distant horizon,

Suddenly, seven or eight riders appeared, moving at an extremely fast speed, like a whirlwind, stirring up clouds of dust.

This was a group of bandits riding camels and horses, galloping in from afar. Each of them possessed the strength of a Fighting Master, wearing tattered leather armor and dirty turbans, revealing pairs of fierce eyes. They held scimitars and bows and arrows, exuding an aura of bloodlust and greed.

The bandit leader was a burly man with a face full of scars, and a cruel smile on his lips.

"Hey pretty girl up ahead, come with us and make sure you're well taken care of, then you'll live the high life!"

"Xu~"

The other bandits joined in the laughter.

They all rode their horses and circled around the mysterious woman.

The woman in purple remained standing quietly on the sand dune, her expression unchanged by the few ants before her. Sunlight shone on her delicate face, outlining an eerie silhouette. Her long eyelashes trembled slightly, revealing a languid gaze.

"Hehe, you..."

The bandit leader hadn't finished speaking when
next moment,
His vision began to spin upwards, and his eyes fell upon a headless body, blood spurting from its severed neck, as it collapsed from its saddle.

'What's going on? That... seems to be my body, but... where's my head?' These were the other person's last thoughts, followed by a wave of darkness that engulfed everything.

The head fell to the ground and rolled onto the sand. Everything happened in the blink of an eye, and the remaining bandits were stunned.

"Hey!"

Xiao Yue's bloodshot eyes were icy cold.

Strands of innate sword energy swirled around her, and with a wave of her hand, she tore another bandit into pieces.

The other bandits were terrified by this sudden turn of events and had no intention of avenging their companions. They all turned their horses around and tried to escape this terrifying place.

However, Xiao Yue had no intention of letting them go. Like a silver lightning bolt piercing the silence of the desert, her gaze was as cold as that of a death god.

"Oh!"

Several muffled thuds rang out as the bandits, along with their horses, were blasted into pieces by an invisible force. Their bloody remains were scattered across the sand, and a strong stench of blood filled the air.

The languid, noble woman in the distance still stood quietly on the sand dune, seemingly unsurprised by anything.

in contrast,

She seemed to have anticipated all of this, and even had a playful smile on her face.

(End of this chapter)