Dreaming for 10,000 years

Chapter 368 Arrival
The scorching sun poured down like molten gold, baking the entire desert into a distorted and steaming mess. Heat waves rolled across the surface, and the distant sand dunes twisted and turned eerily in the mirage, like a group of dancing yellow giants.

Eighteen-year-old Lu Xiaofeng staggered between the sand dunes. His deerskin boots were already burned through, and every step he took with his bare feet felt like stepping on a red-hot anvil. Blisters on the soles of his feet burst and reappeared, leaving bloodstains on the sand.

Fine beads of blood seeped from his chapped lips, his swollen tongue filled his mouth, and every breath carried the metallic taste of blood.

"Where am I?" He looked around blankly, his dry eyeballs making a soft rubbing sound as they moved. All he could see were rolling sand dunes, writhing like living things in the heat.

Last night's experience is still etched in my memory. As the sun set, the desert instantly transformed from a furnace into an icebox.

The biting cold seeped into his bones, forcing him to bury himself in the sand, relying on his thick body for warmth. Unexpectedly, a sandstorm struck in the middle of the night, nearly burying him alive. Fine sand still lingers in his hair and ears, falling softly with each step.

Lu Xiaofeng looked back and saw that his footprints had been wiped away by the wind and sand in the blink of an eye, as if the desert was eager to erase all traces of life.

He tried desperately to recall how he had come to this land of death, but the memory slipped through his fingers like sand.

My last memories were a blur, I couldn't recall them no matter how hard I tried, and then I woke up lying on the scorching sand.

"Am I going to die here?" The thought made him tremble all over, and the sweat that had just seeped out evaporated, forming a fine layer of salt crystals on his skin.

He was walking mechanically when he suddenly tripped over a piece of dry bone. It was the skeleton of an unknown animal, blindingly white in the blazing sun, its empty eye sockets seeming to mock his futile efforts.

Just as consciousness was about to fade, a strange color suddenly leaped into the horizon!
It's an oasis!
Sea buckthorn trees stubbornly take root in the yellow sand, their orange-red berries resembling tiny life-saving lanterns. Even more incredibly, the outlines of several mud-brick houses are faintly visible among the trees, with real smoke rising from their chimneys, and the aroma of cooking seems to waft through the air.

"There's hope!" The chubby boy managed a roar from his parched throat, his lips splitting and bleeding again. He scrambled forward, oblivious to the sand filling his collar.

At that moment, he had only one thought in his mind: no matter where he was, as long as he could have a sip of water, it would be worth dying immediately.

The oasis was larger than he had imagined. Several mud-brick houses surrounded a small courtyard, the walls of which were covered with drought-resistant vines. Lu Xiaofeng staggered to the front of the widest house and knocked loudly on the mottled wooden door.

"Is anyone home?" His voice sounded like it was being squeezed out of a red-hot iron pipe. "I'm just passing by, could I please have a bowl of water?"

The door creaked open.

A man dressed in a plain white robe stood inside the door. He was about thirty years old and had a thin face. What was most striking about him were his hands, which were as smooth and warm as jade. His ten fingers were long and slender, and his nails were neatly trimmed and gleamed like pearls in the sunlight.

The man was Shi Fei.

Shi Fei looked the chubby boy, covered in sand and with a pockmarked face, up and down, then stepped aside to make way for him: "Come in."

He pointed to the watermelon on the stone table in the courtyard: "Help yourself."

Lu Xiaofeng stared blankly at the table and rushed over. The watermelon was a vibrant green, glossy, with water droplets clinging to its surface. It was icy cold to the touch—a frozen watermelon!

He thanked him, then gently snapped the watermelon open with a crisp "crack," revealing its bright red flesh. Sweet juice dripped through his fingers, and he, disregarding his appearance, buried his head and began to wolf it down.

The sweet juice moistened his parched throat, and the cool flesh soothed his burning stomach. After finishing a watermelon, Lu Xiaofeng breathed a sigh of relief, finally feeling alive again.

There is nothing in this world more blissful than eating an ice-cold watermelon when you are on the verge of dying of thirst.

"Thank you, benefactor!" Lu Xiaofeng bowed respectfully. "I am Lu Xiaofeng, a martial arts practitioner. May I ask where this place is?"

As he spoke, his gaze discreetly swept across the courtyard. Several unfinished stone sculptures lay piled in the corner, but the man's hands were spotless, without a speck of stone, clearly indicating he was no ordinary stonemason. The desert, the man in white—everything about them seemed shrouded in mystery.

Could the person before us be a hidden master in the martial arts world?
"Hmm? You're Lu Xiaofeng?" Shi Fei raised an eyebrow and looked him over carefully again: "Not really."

Wasn't Lu Xiaofeng supposed to be handsome and dashing with four eyebrows? How come he looks like this chubby little guy?
This doesn't look like it at all...

Lu Xiaofeng was taken aback: "Have you seen me before?" He had just started his journey in the martial arts world and had not yet made a name for himself.

"That's true!" Shi Fei chuckled. "Who says Lu Xiaofeng can't look like this? This is the desert."

“I know it’s a desert,” Lu Xiaofeng wiped his mouth, “but where in the Central Plains is there such a vast desert? I’ve never heard of one in the martial arts world.”

"Did you suddenly come here?" Shi Fei suddenly asked.

Lu Xiaofeng nodded.

"Can't you remember how you got here?"

Lu Xiaofeng nodded again.

Shi Fei dusted off his sleeves: "Because this is a dream."

"A dream?" Lu Xiaofeng's eyes widened. He tried to recall, his last memory possibly revolving around a jar of wine. If this wasn't a joke...
"Then how should I leave?" he asked anxiously.

"Wait."

"wait?"

"You'll wake up when you do," Shi Fei said calmly, as if discussing the weather.

Lu Xiaofeng gazed at the boundless sea of ​​sand beyond the oasis formed by sea buckthorn and saxaul, and couldn't help but shiver. He never wanted to experience that hellish ordeal again.

"Really, all we have to do is wait?" His voice was strained.

The man pointed to the stone bench in the corner of the courtyard: "Everyone before us did it this way. I suppose you did too!"

Lu Xiaofeng was skeptical. It wasn't that he was suspicious, but rather that the claim was utterly absurd. However, he had no other choice at the moment.

"However," the man changed the subject, "I don't keep idle people here. I can give you water and food, but you have to work."

"What kind of work?" Lu Xiaofeng became alert.

What kind of work can one do in this desert? Is it some kind of risk-free business?
The man pointed into the distance: "Plant trees, plant grass, and fill this entire desert with trees!"

Lu Xiaofeng looked in the direction he was pointing; the yellow sand stretched endlessly. He thought the man in front of him must be crazy.

But after eating the food Shi Fei casually took out of the black bag, he changed his mind. It's just work, it's just planting grass, right?
Just do it!
Boiled sliced ​​pork, Sichuan peppercorn chicken, twice-cooked pork—so delicious!

(End of this chapter)