Only a soft, arid wind blew as the two men stared at each other. Both remained silent, yet the tension was palpable. Qin Yun could see the young man's nails dig into his palm, almost drawing blood, if not for the fact that they couldn't penetrate his bronze skin.

  The man finally relented only after a long, drawn-out moment. His gaze lowered as he sighed deeply. The tension crumbled almost instantly as a slight smile flashed on Qin Yun's lips.

  “How can I possibly find them...” the man lamented, shoulders lowered in defeat. “Even if I somehow manage to, what can I do about it?”

  He glanced to the side, watching the remains of all he had known, being eyed by the numerous scavengers slowly circling in the sky. In fact, both men could feel they were slowly encircled by the desert's wildlife, awaiting the opportunity to snatch their immobile prey. Yet, they seemed more vigilant of each other than they were of Qin Yun. Still, a sparkle appeared in Qin Yun's eyes as a thought rose in his mind.

  I can use this!

  “What if I give you that opportunity,” Qin Yun said.

  Yet, to the young man, Qin Yun's words felt much too cold to be likened to a blaze of hope in the darkness. His eyes couldn't help but narrow as he looked upon him, distrust apparent in them.

  “Why should I believe you, Avaad?” the man said, derision clear in his tone. "Your people are not to be trusted. More than once, we have been deceived by your honeyed words."

  “Avaad?” Qin Yun repeated, slightly intrigued. “What does that mean?”

  The man scoffed and refused to answer. Instead, his gaze remained fixed on the neatly lined cadavers littered on the desert sand, sorrow twisting his facial features. Qin Yun didn't push further, letting the silence work its wonders as he simply listened to the melody of the blowing winds. Merely a few moments later, the silence was broken as the man turned to face Qin Yun once again.

  "It means 'servant' or 'slave'. This is what my people call you, as this is the name you deserve."

  “Really?” Qin Yun replied, slightly taken aback. He couldn’t help but wonder how an entire race of people could be reduced to such a word. “How did that come to be?”

  The young man shook his head as he sat on the sand, feeling the lingering heat of the day rise back from the ground. He looked toward the horizon, watching the moon slowly rise into the night sky.

  “What's wrong with calling you slaves when you all serve a false god?" the young man replied emotionlessly. Somehow, all the aversion he displayed to Qin Yun's presence had evaporated, and all that remained was resignation as if he had given up.

  “False god?” Qin Yun said, slightly puzzled.

  While cults were a dime a dozen in the Western Regions, none were stupid enough to declare themselves as God, not with their pitiful strength. The world itself wouldn’t tolerate their existence, as it alone ruled supreme over all.

  Qin Yun’s eyes widened slightly as he finally realized what the young man meant, yet this came as a slight shock. Did these people truly believed that all individuals on the other side of the Great Barrier were merely slaves of the Heavenly Dao? Even Qin Yun, with his intimate knowledge of the one ruling above, found this to be a bit of a stretch.

  “Isn’t that hypocritical of you,” Qin Yun jabbed back. “Don’t you worship the Grey Corruption? How can that possibly be better than acquiescing to the whims of the world itself?”

  “Some of you call us barbarians, but we aren’t stupid,” the young man scoffed. “We know what you call the 'Grey Corruption' is no god. We simply worship it for the strength it grants us. While some of the older generations may have lost themselves in the power it provides, We know better than to entrust our future to it. Still, if this is necessary to gain back what has been stolen from us, it is worth the cost."

  Qin Yun slowly ruminated what he had been told. While he always knew that one couldn't distill an entire people down to one ideology, he had to admit that he had thought of these people too simply. He believed that these Outsiders were merely misled by the promise of a better life, and had sold themselves in the service of this foreign entity.

  While most of it was true, it seemed there was more to the story. And yet, Qin Yun couldn't bring himself to care. He had his own problems to deal with, and so little time. He couldn't help but imagine Jingfei eagerly awaiting his return to the Immortal Phoenix Sect, diligently seeking to rise to her former height alongside Feng Xia and her master. He had promised her not to tarry for too long. Yet, this trip hinted at taking much longer than he first anticipated.

  “Do you not care to leave their deaths unavenged?” Qin Yun finally said, yet the young man only scoffed.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "You wish for me to turn against my own people. Do you really think I am that stupid?" His eyes glowed with such intensity that they almost seemed ablaze, yet there was such frost in his tone that Qin Yun nearly felt a shiver pass through him. "Their wounds were clearly made using our own weapons."

  “Then why attack me?” Qin Yun retorted back.

  "The only good Avaad is a dead Avaad," he replied nonchalantly. "What do you do if you find a scorpion in your home? You kill it, of course."

  Qin Yun couldn't help but laugh at this dry response, yet had no reply. After all, the young man was utterly right. He couldn't help but find this logic flawless. No wonder these people were able to survive for so long in this environment.

  “So be it,” Qin Yun sighed, resigned as he turned around to leave.

  The young man’s eyes couldn’t help but narrow slightly, a small amount of killing intent hidden deep within. And yet, he reigned in it, only to ask some questions.

  “Now that I am no use to you, why won’t you kill me? Aren’t you afraid I might reveal your existence to others?”

  “Do you think seeking death will alleviate your guilt?” Qin Yun replied without bothering to turn around. “Cowards like you don’t deserve to die from my hands. You can let the desert take you if you really wish for it. You aren’t worthy.”

  Whether in anger or shame, the man suddenly rose to his feet, snatching a nearby bone sword as he rushed Qin Yun's position. Hearing his loud footsteps digging deep into the sand and feeling the man's killing intent clearly on his back, Qin Yun spun on his heels as his black crystal sword appeared in his hands, ready to strike.

  The sword created an arc in the air as it struck the bone sword, just as the man performed a downward slash using all his strength. As the two swords collided, the bone sword rang, filling the night air with sound, and then shattered soon after.

  Sharpened bone shards scattered as the sword was destroyed, only for some to strike Qin Yun's chest. They shredded his outer robes yet couldn't penetrate his skin as golden symbols suddenly appeared.

  The explosion propelled both of them apart. Qin Yun slid along the fine sand until he finally came to a stop a short distance away. His patience grew thin, uninterested in allowing this to devolve further as a slight murderous intent appeared in his eyes, only to fizzle out soon after as he noticed a look of surprise plastered on the man’s face.

  What bewildered him was that the man wasn't looking at him but at the ground where he stood a moment ago. A small pouch rested on the desert sand, and a cryptic symbol rested on it, one that Qin Yun didn't recognize, except that it had been given by the bronze-skinned lady back at the Frontier.

  "Why do you have this?" the man asked, his voice shaking slightly, almost as if he could believe his own eyes.

  Qin Yun remained silent, simultaneously interested in this unusual reaction, but also exasperated. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder if the symbol held some significance.

  “It was a gift. Why do you care?” Qin Yun replied dryly.

  "That's impossible!" the young man exclaimed, rushing to the pouch only to lift it closer to his eyes.

  Yet, his pupils grew wider once he took a closer look, only for a frown to appear as he looked again in Qin Yun's direction.

  “What’s your relationship with the princess?”

  Princess? Is that Nalia’s title? I expected her to have some status, but this...

  “Princess?” Qin Yun questioned, maintaining the distance. “I didn’t expect your people’s governance system to be a monarchy.”

  "It's not," the man replied, his eyes still glued to the symbol on the pouch. "No word in your language correctly defines what she is. Princess is the closest. She's the main tribe's chieftain's fourth daughter. It was declared that she was dead, killed by Avaads in their endless greed and depravity. How did an item depicting her symbol come into your possession?"

  His eyes seemed filled with even more hostility as if this item's origins were more important than the numerous corpses laid to the side.

  “Dead?” Qin Yun muttered, unsurprised at the revelation as Nalia had hinted as such. “She seemed very much alive when she gave me this.”

  "She gave... Alive?" The man's pupil dilated, but then tears threatened to fall from his eyes. He collapsed on his knees as he clutched the small pouch before bringing it to his face. "Her scent... She's alive."

  Hot tears fell, yet they couldn't quench the ground's thirst. And yet, precious water fell without end. The young man who shed tears of blood in his anger was now overwhelmed by relief, so much so that he seemed to completely ignore Qin Yun's presence, too immersed in the lingering scent attached to the small pouch.

  Taken aback, Qin Yun didn't know how to react. Killing this man would be simple, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. The fact that the bone sword had to break at that exact moment and the flying shard flew the path to liberate the pouch, only for someone to recognize the symbol to be present, lingered in Qin Yun's mind. He could scarcely believe coincidences could explain all of it.

  Did she give me this map expecting this?

  Qin Yun's eyes narrowed, feeling this conclusion was less far-fetched than it first seemed. In the old Qin clan's library, Qin Yun had found many books pertaining to divination, yet most claimed that no entity could be all-seeing as one always superseded the rest. As long as it remained, no individuals could truly predict the future. And yet, something strangely similar had just happened. There were too many coincidences overlapping for Qin Yun to deny outside involvement.

  Finally, after a moment that seemed like an eternity, the young man stopped sobbing, almost as if all his tears had dried. He now looked at Qin Yun with something akin to respect, which Qin Yun couldn't help but find unnerving.

  “What is it?” he stammered, completely taken aback by this young man’s violent mood swings.

  “You wanted me to take revenge?” the young man finally asked. “While I don’t know your reasons for wishing me to do this, I’ll go along with it. Consider it done.”

  “Why the sudden change of heart?” Qin Yun replied, slightly suspicious.

  “She wouldn’t give you her symbol without reason. Your actions must somehow be part of her plan. Therefore, I should help you."

  “Why would you think so?”

  Qin Yun grew more suspicious as he saw how forthcoming the young man had become. All his animosity was gone, replaced with a slight hint of respect, as if the mere ownership of this small pouch could change a man's outlook.

  “In your language, she would be called a seer," the young man said, a slight trace of awe laced within. "She is able to peer through the veil and see the future. I refused to believe her gift would allow her to die, and it seems I was proven right."

  "So it is as I thought..." Qin Yun muttered, slightly shaken by this revelation.