I have to get lucky right away.

Chapter 658 The Western Paradise is Approaching
The off-road vehicle sped up again, but this time the surrounding environment was no longer a vast sea of ​​sand, but rather a green, rocky Gobi desert with occasional glimpses of it.

Inside the car, Chen Xuan, unusually, didn't stare out the window in a daze. Instead, he held a map and studied it carefully, clicking his tongue as he looked at it.

"Tsk, a map is so much better! We should have bought one a long time ago!"

Hearing Chen Xuan's words, Feng Xue, who was driving, couldn't help but scoff: "Easy for you to say. Do you think this is still Dongda University? You can just find a bookstore and buy a map here? Haven't you noticed that we..."

"Didn't we come across many bookstores along the way?"

Hearing Feng Xue say this, Chen Xuan was a little surprised. He looked down at the map, seemingly incredulous.

Seeing him like this, Feng Xue could only sigh:

"What are you doing now?"

"Look at the map."

"No, I'm asking what you've been doing for the past six months?"

“To seek the scriptures… no, to change one’s fate!” Chen Xuan thought for a moment and gave an answer.

“Yeah, then why don’t you think about why those people in the city who had lost all hope of survival didn’t change their fate?” Feng Xue shrugged, looking speechless.

“Because we are weak…” Chen Xuan said, which earned him a flick on the forehead from Feng Xue.

"If people can't even survive, they'll still take a gamble, even if it's just for their children, right?"

"..." Chen Xuan really wanted to say that the people who gambled were definitely not in the city anymore, but due to Feng Xue's intimidation, he obediently waited for the answer.

Feng Xue sighed and replied:

“We’ve traveled to so many places, you should understand the current situation where those with higher destinies in these Western Regions treat those with lower destinies as expendable resources. But destiny changes depending on your life circumstances. So how can you ensure that you and your descendants will always be in a position of power, and that those with lower destinies will always be just expendable resources?”

"Knowledge blockade?" Chen Xuan immediately thought of this, but Feng Xue shook her head and said:
"Destiny needs public recognition. If we lock away myths, legends, stories, novels, and the like, then a country's destiny will quickly fall to a very weak level. Unfortunately, the legendary stories of various countries all have one thing in common: adventure. The weak grow through adventure and eventually become heroes, challenging the strong. This is the commonality of legends and the royal path for destiny advancement. So, how can we prevent those who are destined to fail from taking the royal path, becoming strong, and ultimately dethroning themselves?"

"Maps make it impossible to take risks!"

Chen Xuan wasn't really stupid. Now that things had been said to this extent, he naturally understood the logic. Dongda was fine; it was a vast and resource-rich area, with each city capable of supporting a large population. Even just moving around the vicinity of a city was enough to change one's destiny.

However, in desert regions like this, a city can only support a limited population, so people have to venture out. But deserts, these forbidden zones for life, are deadly for ordinary people. By simply blocking the map, the possibility of advancing one's destiny can be directly cut off. As for someone who manages to carve out a path in the vast sea of ​​sand... people with that kind of luck are born with a high-level destiny!

Thinking of this, Chen Xuan felt a little heavy-hearted. As the saying goes, the further you are from home, the more you miss home. Now that he has been away for almost a year, he also misses Chang'an, the city he used to want to escape.

Just as Chen Xuan was feeling sentimental, Feng Xue suddenly changed the subject, saying, "Besides, even if you have a map, you still need to know how to read it! Landmarks in the desert change very quickly; a strong wind can completely alter them. You have the map now, but can you lead the way? If you could, you wouldn't have been captured and forced to be a bandit!"

"What 'bandit'? How dare you slander me out of thin air!" Chen Xuan's face flushed red instantly, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. He retorted loudly, "I was kidnapped! I was just checking the cabinet in the hotel, who knew there was such a big hole in it, and a huge bird grabbed me and snatched me away! Whoosh! Whoosh, you know? Before I could even react, I was up in the sky. I didn't dare to hit the bird. By the time I realized what was happening, I was already being forced into the wedding ceremony!"

"Then they're married, aren't they?" Feng Xue rolled her eyes, and Chen Xuan's voice rose even louder:

"What marriage! Who acknowledged it? I'm a student from Dongda University! We didn't register, we didn't report it, it's not even a de facto marriage, how can we be married!"

He seemed to think that wasn't enough, and added, "Besides! This time I wasn't saved by you! I opened the door and came back on my own! Yes, opened the door! I've read that fairy tale, 'The Man Who Never Laughed,' I came back on my own! I opened the door and came back the very night I was arrested!"

"Ah, right, right, right!" Feng Xue laughed even harder as she looked at Chen Xuan's eagerness to prove his "innocence": "Yes, yes, by the way, when did you open the door? How was the Queen's taste? Was it...?"

"No!" Chen Xuan shouted through gritted teeth. Seeing that he was really getting angry, Feng Xue waved her hand. Although Chen Xuan had come back on his own this time, he had been watching from that "little world".

"Speaking of which, this emotional system can actually carve out such a large small space in the cabinet, and there's more than one. It seems like the Heavenly Pot Bag can be retired... Hmm, I'll keep it, it'll be good to store a bunch of stones and use the Mount Tai Spell!"

Feng Xue recalled that in the city before, almost every hotel room had such a cabinet, and she couldn't help but click her tongue in amazement. How to put it, in terms of pure combat power, this thing could only be at the bottom of the system that Feng Xue had mastered, but in terms of functionality, she could always find some inexplicable ways to use it.

As Feng Xue stopped teasing, the car fell silent for a moment, with only the roar of the engine and the rustling of the wheels over the gravel.

After a while, Chen Xuan's expression suddenly became strange, as if he was conflicted and somewhat confused. Finally, as if resigned to his fate, he turned to Feng Xue for help:
"Big brother, where are we... approximately now?"

Upon hearing this, Feng Xue almost lost her composure, barely suppressing the urge to retort, "I told you you couldn't understand!" She glanced at the map, then pointed to a spot near the right side and said:

"We've probably reached this point. Hmm, let me see... If we drive another twenty miles, we should be able to see the city soon."

Upon hearing the word "city," Chen Xuan felt a chill run down his spine, and his lips drooped: "Huh? We're going into the city again?"

He now has a bit of PTSD about crowded places; he always feels that nothing good will come of going into them.

Feng Xue couldn't help but laugh at his cowardly appearance, but this time he didn't tease her anymore. Instead, he pointed to the edge of the map, where several wavy lines represented the sea... cough, water areas—

"Don't look at me like that. Do you see this? We're not far from the 'Western Paradise'."

Upon hearing this, Chen Xuan abruptly raised his head, staring intently at the wavy lines along the edge of the map, then looked at Feng Xuedao:

"you sure?"

"What else? The previous Zhelan was the Kingdom of Biqu, and that inn cabinet was either the Jade Rabbit's Marriage Proposal or a bottomless pit. Now that we've come this far, even if it's the original story, there aren't many more difficulties ahead. Let's visit a few more cities and overcome all the tribulations we need to overcome, so we don't have to fall into the Tongtian River again after entering the Western Paradise."

(End of this chapter)