In the middle of the vast desert, purple Dou Qi glittered around El, resembling the expanse of stars in the night sky.
The energy not only served as protection from the heat, but also absorbed the natural Dou Qi around him.
After a while of floating in the air, El finally decided to get down and continue the journey on foot. The reason was simple, to train and strengthen his control over his Dou Qi.
The previous battle was still fresh in his memory. Back then, although still in the realm of Dou Shi, he had experienced a significant increase in Dou Qi control as well as STR, VIT, and AGI.
Then, how would his strength be if he reached Da Dou Shi?
That thought made El's spirit burn, almost impatient to reach that realm.
That was why he decided to cultivate more diligently, rather than just controlling the Dou Qi in his body.
The higher the realm El reached, the finer his control over the Dou Qi would be.
With this understanding, El was confident that if he focused on improving the INT attribute in the future, he wouldn't face many difficulties.
Not long into the walk, El saw someone lying on the sand. Curiosity made him immediately step closer.
Upon arrival, El bent down to check on the condition of the man, a man around 20 years old who was still breathing.
However, something didn't feel right.
The faint scent wafting from the man's body revealed everything. There was a whiff of ill-will and lies. Clearly, this was a charade, a prepared trap.
"Robbers, huh?" murmured El with a faint smile. "I haven't robbed robbers in a long time. Robbing them... Some how... so much fun!"
Deftly, El changed her expression to one of panic, as if completely fooled. His face now reflected the innocence of a naive youth who was easily deceived.
Not only that, El deliberately concealed most of the Dou Qi in his body with the Selfless State technique, making him look like a weak practitioner in the middle Dou Zhe realm.
El slapped the young man's cheek a few times lightly. "Hey, are you okay? Wake up..."
"Ugh..." The young man groaned, feeling his cheek sting from the slap. Slowly, he opened his eyes, then began to act out. "Stop it... I... It's okay..."
"Nonsense," El said firmly, patting the young man's face again until it turned red. "You were unconscious just now, how could you be okay?"
The hard slap from El made the young man widen his eyes, wincing in pain in his mind. However, the young man still seemed to want to keep up his act as a victim.
"Forget me..." The young man tried to sound weak and desperate. "Please help my group... Bandits..."
El pretended to look shaken. "Really?" he asked seriously. "Where are they?"
With trembling hands, the young man pointed in a direction in the distance.
El followed the indicated direction, pretending to look at him attentively.
After a few seconds, El nodded. "Alright, I'll help them," he said firmly before hurrying away, leaving the young man alone.
As soon as he saw El leave, the young man grinned slyly. Deftly, he reached into his clothes and took out a small black whistle. Without hesitation, he blew it.
No sound could be heard by human ears, but the birds in the distance suddenly flew away in panic.
The whistle was clearly a secret signal to his comrades.
"Hehehe, easy prey," muttered the young man with a sharp grin, his eyes flashing with pleasure.
Arriving at the location in question, El only saw a vast expanse of sand with several abandoned horse-drawn carriages.
But there were no horses pulling them, and some of the wagons looked destroyed, the wood scattered around.
However, El's nose caught something more than just a deserted scene. The scent of blood wafted faintly, mixing with the odor of sweat and metal.
El could also sense the presence of several people hiding, some behind the sand, others inside the carriage.
Soon, the sound of sardonic laughter echoed. A man stepped out of one of the carriages with a sly grin, followed by several of his colleagues who appeared from various places around.
That wasn't the only one. From under the sand, several others crawled out like snakes waiting for the right moment to ambush.
They were all dressed in black with cloth covering their faces, leaving only their eyes staring at El like predators who had found easy prey.
"Hahaha!" One of the robbers laughed out loud, his voice full of mockery. "Surrender all your treasures, and I'll give you a quick death!"
El smiled faintly, unfazed by the threat. "Ji suggests you surrender your treasures," he said casually. "I can give you a quick death."
The robbers were silent for a moment before erupting in laughter. They assumed El was either crazy or too stupid to understand the situation. However, before their laughter could die down...
BOOM!
El disappeared in an instant and appeared in front of one of the robbers, his fist slamming hard into the man's chest. His body was flung away, hitting the sand with a loud thud.
In the same motion, El pulled out White Fire from within the Sky Poison Pearl. The sword floated in the air, spinning rapidly with perfect control.
In an instant, the blade shot out, forming a deadly silvery-white path.
SWOOSH!
The robbers' heads fell off one by one, blood spraying profusely across the sand that was once golden, now turning a deep red.
Silence fell, El gazed at the scene around him with a flat expression. He stretched out his hand, catching the White Fire that returned to his grasp.
"Forget it," he muttered, sighing softly. "It's easier to kill you right away, I'm in a bit of a hurry anyway."
After confirming that no one was alive, El began to search the robbers' lifeless bodies.
After all, this was the goal from the beginning, to rob the robbers. To El, this was a completely natural course of action.
After a while of searching, the results were quite decent. El obtained two low-level space storage rings. In total, he obtained 30,000 silver coins, 5,000 gold coins, as well as 5 Rank 2 Magic Cores and 1 Rank 3 Magic Core.
Without wasting any time, El burned the robbers' corpses, eliminated the trail, then boarded White Fire to continue traveling across the desert.
However, just as he was about to leave, the young man who had previously trapped him appeared. His face was deathly pale, his eyes widened in disbelief at the sight of blood around him.
His legs gave out, body fell to his knees on the sand, trembling with fear. "A... What happened?"
As a token of gratitude for leading him to the "gold field", El decided to let the young man live.
Casually, El threw a bag of gold coins at the young man.
"Don't become a robber again if you don't want to end up like them," El said in a flat tone, his eyes looking intently at the young man who was still trembling with fear.
Without waiting for a reply, El controlled White Fire, then darted away, leaving the young man alone in the middle of the desolate desert.