Mitchell carried some firewood over and said, “I’ll move a rock to block the entrance. If the cold air doesn’t enter, the room won’t become cold.”


  With firewood burning in the room, it grew even warmer. However, the smoke wouldn’t drift out easily, making Bai Qingqing constantly cough.

  Thinking that she had caught a cold, Mitchell made the fire even bigger.

  Although Bai Qingqing continued ignoring him, her expression eased a lot. Now that the air in the room was warm, Bai Qingqing took An’an out from the animal skin and crouched next to the fire to warm them both up.

  In his head, Mitchell said to the black crystal, “Your method indeed works.”
……

  It had been five days since Bai Qingqing started staying here. With the connection with her mates cut off, Parker and Curtis were just haphazardly searching like headless chickens. As the original passageway of the underground palace had been destroyed, all leads had been cut off, making it difficult for them to proceed.

  Thankfully, Winston managed to retrieve Chris’s soul crystal from the village rushing back and forth without sleeping a wink for several days.

  However, the oasis wasn’t a place where he could enter at a whim. Unable to sense the presence of his mate, Winston went a few rounds around the Flame City but couldn’t find any traces of the oasis, losing his way at the peripheral.

  On the scorching hot walls of Flame City stood a tall and well-built human figure completely stationary like a stone statue. Only his mid-length black hair danced gracefully amid the blistering wind and sand.

  Muir kept a tight watch on the white tiger who passed by once again, and finally leaped down from the wall.

  He had long sensed that something was amiss and was about to probe deeper when he ran into the white tiger who looked extremely fatigued but was forcing himself to carry on searching. Now, he could finally be sure.

  Something must have happened to Bai Qingqing.

  Linking it to the fact that the scorpion king had not appeared for several days, he understood that Bai Qingqing must have been abducted by the scorpion king.

  His original plans were to search by himself. But if the white tiger continued running, death was the only fate that awaited him. Hence, there was no harm in bringing him along.

  When Winston heard the commotion, he warily turned his head. When he saw that it was Muir, his expression slightly relaxed.

  Muir went straight to the point. “Where’s Bai Qingqing?”


  Winston didn’t disguise himself either, his front limbs standing upright as he transformed into a human.

  It had only been five days, but he had grown so thin. One could no longer see the original color of his silver eyes, for they were now covered with blood vessels and appeared a blood-red patch.

  He resembled a wild animal who had been starved for half a month and was putting up a desperate fight for a mouthful of food.

  “In the oasis, held captive by the scorpion tribe. I’m unable to find the way into the oasis,” Winston said urgently. There was a necklace hung around his neck, the one which caused Bai Qingqing to have those nightmares, the one with Chris’s soul crystal which Saint Zachary was desperately searching for.

  Muir glanced at the transparent crystal on Winston’s neck and instantly understood. He said “Follow me”, then turned around and led the way.

  Winston hesitated for a moment, before transforming into a tiger and followed behind him.

  Quicksand rivers were all around Flame City. Winston would always avoid them, whereas Muir would always dash straight for the quicksand river, even decisively jumping into it.

  Winston paused for a moment before realization dawned on him.

  The quicksand could lead into the depths of Flame City. That would mean that one could enter the depths of the oasis through the quicksand. It was muddleheaded of him to not have thought of this.

  With the quicksand being a barrier of the oasis, by constantly avoiding the quicksand, it was inevitable for him to go the wrong way. Without Curtis’s keen senses in finding water sources, he was simply searching haphazardly. It would be a miracle if he actually managed to find the oasis.

  As they entered the quicksand river, Muir grabbed Winston’s claw and led him into an empty passageway.

  Winston sized up his surroundings and lowered his head to sniff, before transforming into a human and saying, “Curtis and Parker were here. Let’s meet up with them first.”


  As Winston spoke, he urgently walked in that direction. Muir, however, halted in his footsteps, cast a glance at him, before walking in another direction.