Transmigrating Into a Fantasy World: Signing in During Pregnancy, Reaching the Summit with My Childhood Sweetheart

129: Chapter 129: Lone Smoke in the Desert and the Mirage CityThe Northwest Great Desert was vastly different from the extreme cold and deathly silence of the Northern Plains’ Ice Sea; this was a kingdom of scorching heat and dryness.

Boundless yellow sands rolled with heatwaves under the blazing sun, like a golden furnace. Violent winds whipped up grit, forming dusty sandstorms that connected heaven and earth, roaring and rampaging across the wilderness like giant beasts. The Spiritual Qi here was thin and violent, mixed with scorching fire baleful energy and heavy earth energy. Ordinary Cultivators not only found it difficult to replenish their spiritual power here but also had to constantly consume their cultivation to resist the erosion of the intense heat and sandstorms.

Nangong Xuan and Su Muxue braved the whistling winds, speeding through the sky at a height of ten thousand feet. Below them were endless sand dunes, like frozen golden waves, without a single trace of life’s green—only eternal deathly silence and vastness.

”What a harsh environment.” Su Muxue propped up a Taiyin Star Power shield. Its cold radiance isolated the scorching sand and wind, but the cost of maintaining the shield was significantly higher than in ordinary places. ”The Spiritual Qi is thin and chaotic. If not for our Golden Core Stage cultivation, it would likely be difficult to travel here for long.”

Nangong Xuan nodded. His Nirvana Dao Rhyme was better suited for this environment; it was impervious to all techniques and returned violent energy to the ”Void,” resulting in relatively lower consumption. In his hand, he held the chaos star core, which was sealed layer by layer with Nirvana Dao Rhyme and residual profound ice. The cracks on the ice layer of the star Core’s surface had increased again, and the chaotic pulse from within faintly transmitted through the Seal, making one feel uneasy.

Time was their greatest enemy.

According to the records in that damaged Jade Slip and the scattered news gathered earlier in Shuofeng City, the ancient Ancient Kingdom of Loulan was roughly located deep within the Northwest Great Desert, in an area known as the ”Sea of Death.” That was the Core of the sandstorms, where the environment was even more brutal, and strange phenomena of space-time distortion often occurred. Countless Cultivators and Mortals searching for the ruins of the ancient kingdom had become lost within it, never to be heard from again.

The two followed the vague direction and flew for several days. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but yellow sand. Divine Sense was also greatly interfered with here; the strange power contained in the wind and sand could distort Perception, making it difficult to investigate too far.

Just as the worry between Su Muxue’s brows grew deeper, the scene ahead suddenly changed.

Where the sky and earth met, amidst the dusty sandstorm, a continuous stretch of towering shadows actually appeared! Those shadows gradually became clear, revealing a magnificent ancient city! The glazed tile roofs reflected brilliant colors under the (seemingly) shining sun, and the tall city walls stood majestically. One could even see bustling figures and fluttering flags inside the city!

”A city?” Su Muxue was startled and subconsciously slowed down. ”How could there be such a magnificent city deep in this desert?”

Nangong Xuan’s gaze sharpened, and he said in a deep voice, ”Something’s not right. Look closely; the light and shadows are illusory, the edges are blurred, and there’s an unreal sense of detachment from the surrounding space. Moreover, its architectural style is neither contemporary nor from the recent past; it’s much more ancient and vast.”

”Is it a mirage?” Su Muxue realized. She had heard that in the desert, due to light refraction and Spiritual Qi distortion, scenes from distant places were often projected here, forming illusory mirages.

”It might not be a simple mirage.” Nangong Xuan stared at the magnificent phantom city, Nirvana Dao Rhyme flowing in his eyes as he tried to see through the falsehood. ”This scene contains a trace of extremely faint yet very real... spatial fluctuations and the aura of ages. What it projects might be the reflection of an ancient city that truly exists but is located in a different spatial or temporal fragment!”

Just as his voice fell, a soft and balanced light suddenly flashed at the top of the tallest tower in the center of that phantom city! That light displayed a peculiar chaotic color, as if it simultaneously contained the two extreme opposites yet perfectly unified powers of life and death, light and darkness!

Although it was only a fleeting flash, Nangong Xuan and Su Muxue simultaneously felt the sealed chaos star core in their possession give a violent jolt!

The trace of ”the dark side” Origin that had been suppressed seemed to stir, and Lin Mo’s weak yet tenacious consciousness also transmitted an extremely faint desire and guidance!

”The twin glazed lamp?!” The two spoke in unison, a realization dawning in their hearts!

The light flashing in that phantom city had an aura so similar to the sacred object described in the Jade Slip, which could balance life and death and purify evil! What this mirage projected was very likely the annihilated ancient Ancient Kingdom of Loulan! And the sacred object might still be in the city!

”Follow it! This mirage isn’t fixed; it’s moving!” Nangong Xuan noticed that the phantom city’s image was slowly drifting along with the sandstorm.

The two immediately activated their escape lights, following closely behind that massive mirage. The phantom city appeared and disappeared in the wind and sand, like a ghost guiding the way.

After chasing for an unknown amount of time, the surrounding sandstorm became even more violent, and the grit crackled as it struck their protective spiritual light. Suddenly, the mirage image leading the way ahead began to distort and shake violently, flickering as if the signal were unstable.

Immediately after, an irresistible and massive spatial suction force suddenly came from a seemingly ordinary sand dune beneath the mirage!

”Watch out!” Nangong Xuan only had time to give a warning before the two were pulled by that force, falling straight down toward the sand dune!

The scene before them spun, and space seemed to be folded and torn. A feeling of intense dizziness hit them; even with their Golden Core Stage cultivation and Divine Soul strength, they found it difficult to resist.

An unknown amount of time passed—perhaps a moment, perhaps a long while.

When the two suddenly regained their senses and stabilized themselves, they found themselves in a completely different world.

Above their heads was no longer the scorching sun and dusty sandstorm, but a murky, dark yellow sky filled with ancient dust. There was no sun, no stars—only an eternal, dim haze. Beneath their feet were hard black stone slabs covered in thick dust, stretching all the way to the horizon.

Before them were the... ruins of a city so massive it was beyond imagination.

Broken city walls lay in ruins, massive fractured stone pillars stood like the skeletons of giants, and uniquely styled palaces and temples were reduced to rubble. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust—deathly silent, empty, with no sense of time flowing, as if it had been forgotten here since ancient times.

The air was filled with an indescribable aura of antiquity and sadness. Spiritual Qi was almost nonexistent, replaced by a stagnant, strange energy mixed with a faint Concept of life-death Reincarnation.

They had actually been pulled by that spatial suction directly into the source projected by the mirage—the true ruins of the ancient Ancient Kingdom of Loulan, annihilated deep within space and time!

”This... is Loulan?” Su Muxue looked around, shocked by these deathly silent and grand ruins.

Nangong Xuan immediately checked the chaos star core in his possession. He saw that the profound ice on the surface of the star Core was melting at a speed visible to the naked eye! It wasn’t because of high temperature, but because the strange, balanced life-death Reincarnation energy of this place was neutralizing the extreme freezing power of the Xuanming True Water!

”Not good! The energy here is accelerating the melting of the ice Seal!” Nangong Xuan’s expression changed, and he immediately strengthened the Seal of the Nirvana Dao Rhyme, trying to slow down the process.

But the effect seemed limited. The environment here was special, and that stagnant Reincarnation energy was pervasive.

The ice layer crackled, and more and more cracks appeared.

”We must find the twin glazed lamp as quickly as possible!” Nangong Xuan said in a deep voice, his sharp gaze scanning the endless ruins. ”Lin Mo’s Perception and the previous guidance from the mirage are both pointing toward the center!”

The two dared not delay and turned into two streaks of light, flying low over the ruins toward the site of the tallest broken tower in the center of the city.

Within the ruins, it was terrifyingly quiet. Only the sound of the wind whistling through the rubble sounded like a dirge for a fallen kingdom.

During their flight, they saw some heart-wrenching scenes: many streets and squares were scattered with large numbers of human skeletons. Some were in positions of running and struggling, some were huddled together, as if they had all died at the moment the apocalypse descended. Their flesh had rotted away, leaving only white bones to remain for eternity. Some skeletons still had fragments of wind-eroded and tattered clothing hanging on them, which were completely different from the northern attire they had seen in Shuofeng City.

Had this ancient city suffered some kind of catastrophe in an instant?

The closer they got to the central area, the denser that stagnant Reincarnation energy became. They even began to see some illusory, blurred figures repeating their pre-death actions among the ruins, like time shadows branded in this place, silently recounting fragments of the past.

Finally, the massive central tower ruins appeared before them.

It was also in ruins, with its upper half collapsed, but the base remained magnificent. At the bottom of the tower, a huge entrance made of black boulders leading underground was clearly visible. The entrance was shrouded in a thin light curtain that rippled like water, displaying a peculiar chaotic color, originating from the same source as the light seen in the mirage earlier!

On both sides of the entrance stood two massive stone statues, long since weathered and blurred. One could barely make out that they were a man and a woman with compassionate expressions, their hands held out as if jointly guarding something. At the feet of the statues, several ancient characters were carved.

Su Muxue identified them for a moment and said softly, ”...Life... Death... Reincarnation... Other Shore... Gatekeepers...”

Meanwhile, the chaos star core in their possession vibrated more and more violently, and the ice layer was about to shatter completely! The turbulence of that trace of ”the dark side” Origin and the struggle of Lin Mo’s consciousness had both reached their peak!

Hope was right before them, but a crisis was also about to erupt!

Nangong Xuan and Su Muxue looked at each other, both seeing the determination in the other’s eyes.

Without the slightest hesitation, the two simultaneously turned into streaks of light and charged into that chaotic light curtain, vanishing within it instantly.

Just after they entered, near the tower ruins, a skeleton clad in ancient armor lying on the ground suddenly had a faint, eerie blue light flicker without warning in its empty eye sockets—a light that was incompatible with the surrounding Reincarnation energy.

That light was cold and greedy, quietly locking onto the disappearing entrance.