Seeking High and Low Only to Find It Effortlessly

The next day.

When the morning sun rose at the far edge of the desert, with nothing to block its rays, the whole golden world instantly turned into a furnace. Actually, calling it a furnace doesn't even do justice to the desert's climate—the heat and dryness were so intense it felt suffocating, and every breath was like swallowing a fireball, making your lungs burn with each inhale.

Ivy Shen kept breathing in that relentless heat, her whole body feeling like it was on fire. Eventually, even in her half-conscious state, she frowned and forced her eyes open. The first thing she saw was the blazing sun and endless yellow sand stretching as far as she could see.

A second later, Ivy managed to adjust herself, slowly sat up, and looked around. One glance told her that everyone had been blown all over the place, toppled and scattered nearby. She counted heads—luckily, nobody was missing.

At that moment, Ivy stood up and started walking over to them, just about to reach out and call for the others.

Right then, everyone suddenly started coughing one after another, slowly waking up. Seeing them all sit up, Ivy finally felt a little relieved—well, except for the one person who always managed to drag the group down.

Colin Kerr glanced at Clara Night beside him and quickly reached out to pull her up. Just then, Aiden started to wake too. When he saw Colin helping Clara, he rushed over, "Miss, Miss, wake up!" he called, immediately grabbing a waterskin to help her drink.

"Where are we?" Clara Night brushed the sand off herself, looked out at the endless desert, and couldn't help frowning.

Ivy Shen didn’t answer right away. She looked around instead. Last night, a massive sandstorm had hit so fast that even with their martial arts, nobody could move. They were all swept up and blown away—and after that, everything was a blur.

She hadn’t expected that storm to dump them in a place where you couldn’t even tell which way was which.

"Wife, are you alright? Are you hurt?" Butterfly Rogue rushed to Ivy Shen's side, looking worried.

Ivy shook her head and looked at everyone. "Are you guys okay?"

Everyone quickly nodded to show they were fine.

"Ahhh—!" Clara Night, who had just woken up, let out a scream loud enough to shake the sky. Last night's sandstorm must've scared her half to death.

"Miss, it's okay, we're all fine now," Aiden quickly steadied the screaming Clara and tried to calm her down.

"We're doomed, we're doomed! We flew, we actually flew! That was so scary, so scary!" Clara yelled, clearly still out of it from last night.

Seeing this, Aiden hurried to reassure her. "Don't be scared, it's over now, it's all over. We're fine, really." He handed her the waterskin again. "Drink some water."

Clara didn't refuse—she just gulped down water as fast as she could.

"Xin'er, what do we do now? I think we're lost!" Nina Xu came over to Ivy's side, glancing around. There was nothing in sight, not even the camels. With no idea which way to go, what now?

Ivy stayed calm as ever. "No clue. From here on out, it's all a gamble."

"What? What do you mean you don't know? You don't know which way to go?" After drinking the water Aiden handed her, Clara Night was feeling much better. She darted over to Ivy and demanded loudly, "What is this woman trying to do—kill us all?"

"I told you ages ago: stepping into the desert means putting your life on the line. And now you want to complain? Isn't that a bit ridiculous?" Ivy shot Clara a sarcastic look. She was already annoyed—could this woman just shut up for once?

Clara choked on Ivy's words, but the thought of dying made her whine anyway. "How was I supposed to know you were serious? If I knew it would be like this, I never would've come!" She huffed, "I don't care, I don't want to die, I want to go home!"

"Qingqing, knock it off," Adrian Night came over and scolded her for causing trouble.

"Brother, she's trying to kill us, kill us all!" Clara suddenly ran over to the group of husbands and tried to stir things up. "See? This is the woman you all like—she wants you to die here, right here!"

"Whatever." Lucian Vane just shrugged calmly at Clara's attempt to stir the pot.

"Huh?" Clara blinked, totally confused by his response.

"If we get to die with Xin'er, that's a blessing earned over several lifetimes. What do we have to complain about?" Lucian Vane smiled at everyone, and the whole group smiled right back.

Clara glared, "You're all crazy. Totally crazy!"

"Enough." Adrian Night grabbed her arm and scolded, "I warned you this place was dangerous and told you not to come. You insisted. What's the point of whining now? Aiden, keep an eye on her. No more nonsense."

Aiden quickly grabbed Clara's sleeve, "Miss, enough! Everyone's already annoyed!"

Clara angrily yanked her hand away and plopped herself down in the sand, fuming. She'd already cursed Ivy a thousand times in her head.

"All our food's gone, and the only thing left is the water you’re carrying. So take care of it," Ivy told everyone. She let them drink a little, then started heading forward.

Everyone took off their coats, carried them in hand, and followed Ivy onward.

Nobody knew how long they'd been walking. By the end, even Ivy felt exhausted, and Clara, bringing up the rear, was basically being dragged along by Aiden.

"So tired!" Clara whined, sounding super weak. She felt like she was about to shrivel up, and her waterskin was already bone dry—but even so, she still had no energy left.

"I never imagined nature could be this intense. This place is really something," Nina Xu said, awed by the desert's ever-changing landscape. It was her first time seeing such a place, and its wild shifts had her totally stunned.

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"Xin'er, look—what's that?" Lucian Vane suddenly spotted loads of yellow shapes far off in the distance. Sure, the desert was yellow, but those things were actually moving, so they definitely weren’t just sand!

"Poplar trees?" Ivy murmured. Even from far away, she could recognize them—she was super familiar with poplars and really admired them as a species.

"Looks like a whole forest," Adrian Night said as he walked forward with Ivy Shen.

"It's beautiful!" Liam Willow was completely awestruck. After everything that had happened in the past two days, he'd grown stronger instead of scared. The closer they got to the poplars, the prettier they looked—like a painting in the desert, so stunning it took his breath away.

"Yeah," Eli Crane nodded, fully agreeing with Liam Willow. He clearly wasn't bothered by their current situation.

"Poplars—what are those?" Caleb Miles came over to Ivy, asking. By now, the husbands were all dusty and their handsome faces looked a mess, but they were still holding up.

"Poplars are incredibly resilient plants. They can live for a thousand years without dying, stand for a thousand years after death, and remain unrotted for another thousand even if they fall."

"Wow, that's amazing!" Butterfly Rogue said, full of admiration.

As they walked, the poplar grove got closer and closer. Nina Xu couldn't help asking, "Do these plants not need water?"

"Of course they do. I bet where they grow used to be a riverbed," Ivy replied. Seeing confusion, she added, "A riverbed means a river used to flow here."

"So if we chop down a poplar and dig under its roots, we'll find water?" Aiden asked excitedly, as if he could already see a big river below.

"Dream on," Ivy shot him a look. "Even if you dig five feet, you probably won't find water. Poplar roots are massive—dozens or even hundreds of times bigger than the tree itself. They burrow deep under the desert, and because the temperature swings are so huge, tiny drops of water hide in the sand. The roots do everything they can to soak up those droplets and keep the tree alive."

"Wife, you're amazing—how do you know so much?" Liam Willow was full of admiration. Even as a well-read scholar, he couldn’t explain half of what was happening here.

"Haha, we've struck gold!" Butterfly Rogue laughed. He'd been the worst injured by the wolves last night, but today he was bouncing around as if nothing had happened. As long as she was by his side, nothing else mattered.

"They're so tough. Compared to them, we seem tiny!" Eli Crane couldn't help but say. He was amazed by how resilient these plants were, how much they wanted to live.

Ivy nodded. "In the desert, water is everything for poplars. They have to keep their needs as low as possible—every effort is for survival." She looked at everyone. "So we have to do the same. As long as we're breathing, we keep fighting to survive!"

"Yeah," everyone nodded, getting Ivy's point. Each of them held onto the belief that they had to survive—there was still so much left to do.

By now, everyone had followed Ivy into the poplar grove. But as soon as they stepped in, their brows furrowed and they grew alert.

The next second, a figure flashed through the poplar grove—moving fast.

"Someone's there—after them!" Ivy called out, dashing ahead. Adrian Night, Lucian Vane, Ethan Chu, and Eli Crane followed. Butterfly Rogue wanted to join, but Caleb Miles held him back. "Your wound isn't healed yet, don't move!" With that, he led Butterfly Rogue and the rest after the others.

"Mercy!" Ivy lashed a rope around the man's waist, sending him crashing to the ground, howling in pain.

"Who are you?" Ivy approached, wary. The man had only a scrap of cloth covering his upper body and another hiding his lower half—everything else was exposed. Ivy couldn't help but be cautious with such a bizarre getup.

"Miss, mercy, please!" the man begged Ivy Shen for his life.

Now that Ivy was closer, she could see the man was around fifty or sixty, looking rather old and worn.

"Who are you? What are you sneaking around for?" Adrian Night pointed his sword at the man's chest, interrogating him coldly.

"Mercy, hero, mercy! I just wanted to see if any camel caravans were passing by. If so, I hoped to buy a camel—to send my child away," the old man said, head bowed in sorrow.

"Send your child away? Where to? Isn't that your child?" Lucian Vane asked, glancing around, but saw no sign of any child.

"Of course he's mine—my own flesh and blood. But if I don't send him away, in three days he'll be sacrificed to the gods!" With that, the old man broke down crying.

"Sacrifice? What kind of sacrifice?" Liam Willow and the others came over. Butterfly Rogue pressed for details.

"Left to starve and bake alive under the scorching sun!" The old man's words shocked everyone, and he couldn't help sobbing in pain.

"Where are you from, that you'd have such a cruel ritual?" Caleb Miles asked, frowning.

The old man wiped his tears and answered sadly, "I'm from Flame Valley."

"What?!" Everyone gasped in shock at his answer.