I passed the night uneventfully, and once the sun rose, I knew where to go. The black sands were vast, sure, but they were still generally to the west of the frontier. Right now, any village would do for me. Just a checkpoint of rations would.

And so, east I went.

On and on, and on again. I didn’t run or sprint, simply walk, preserving every ounce of power. I needed it to flee from scorions if any found me, or to hunt down my meals. My left leg was still weak, too, so I only dared run when it was pumped full of golden power.

But slowly, step by step, I was making my way across the wasteland.

When travelling with the whole group we went a lot faster, so I never even realized it, but on my own it was stunning just how empty the wasteland was. So incredibly devoid of life.

I kept vigilant as best as I could nevertheless. While it may be mostly empty, the things that did live here could and would kill me. So I needed to see them first. See if I might escape.

Trudging along, bit by bit, I had to sidestep multiple times. Scorions, buried in the sand to avoid the heat of the sun. It beat down on me, but I used my Qi to shield it away. Was it wasteful? Yes. This would have been far easier to just take with my body, usually.

But not when I was without water. The only things I’d drank were puddles of brack underground, and I was not expecting to find much sustenance other than what I killed above. I could not afford even a drop of sweat, and so, the sun had to be dealt with.

In fact, my mirror Qi proved almost perfect for it. Wisps of the reflective material above my head, and it shielded me from quite a bit of the light. I could even make the underside non-reflective, with a little bit of control, which created a cool-ish patch of shade.

I managed to avoid any of the creatures of the wastes. Mostly it was scorions, but there were occasional, more powerful beasts. And a few smaller ones, too, lizards attempting to eat my toes. Not ones worth mentioning.

Then it turned to night again, and I refused to sleep.

That would have been a true death sentence. Camping in the sands without watch. I scoffed at the idea. No, I was not interested in getting eaten. If something like the rats happened with a bigger creature, I was dead.

So, instead, I trudged on. Dune after dune I crossed, the endless sea of grey in front of me, until, as it was bound to happen, I stumbled across a patch of chitin.

I didn’t even hesitate as I ran.

The golden glow was muted around my body, my mind focused on keeping it inside. I didn’t want to attract any more attention as my feet fell heavily onto the sand. I was picking up speed soon, my legs moving like an oiled machine, the left held together by a web of Qi.

And then I heard a roar behind me.

It was loud enough to almost throw me forward. I hadn’t realized how otherwise quiet things had been. The cave only had the rats, and up here, there was just the quiet wind. This was nothing like that.

The thing’s roar shook my brain; it felt like it had reached right into my skull and jostled me around. The world grew hazy in front of my eyes. Shit. A Qi attack, for sure. What was that? Spirit? Sound?

I tried not to think about it too much as I focused on running even faster. My entire existence was my legs, wisps of Qi flooding them, the gold and silver wrapping around each other to make my body function.

Luckily, the scorion had just woken up. Its roars faded behind me, as I crested another dune, then a second. I slowed again, making sure to not brake too suddenly. Eventually, I was back to walking, then fully stopped.

Everything hurt again. I was decidedly not supposed to be running right now. Yet I had done so anyway. I took a few seconds to stand still and breathe, to calm my nerves, and feel out my Qi. Not much of it left.

I grimaced. There were no krigs hovering above me right now, the greedy birds having learnt their lesson. Smarter than I gave them credit for, apparently.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Regardless, I kept moving. One foot in front of the other. I was less vigilant now, despite it being night, simply because I no longer had the capacity to spare. I was running on fumes, and I knew it.

I hardly even noticed the sky shift and the sun rise again as I walked. My feet were bloody. I could see thin streaks of red leak from the gaps in my shoes. But I moved further.

It was this or death, and I would keep fighting as long as I could. That would have to be enough.

And it was.

When the sun began setting on my second day of marching without sleep, I saw the edge of the wasteland appear behind a dune. Just a few hundred more steps, and there was green grass. I wanted to smile, but I didn’t have the strength for it. All I could do was put one leg in front of the other.

There was nothing left of use in my inventory. I’d eaten all the rations, drank every drop of liquid inside it. All I had was me and my spear. It had served me beyond well on this expedition, even if just as a walking stick. That was fine. I would have shattered some teeth or bitten off my tongue when taking that healing potion without it.

Getting lost in my thoughts was good and bad, I noted distantly. The grass was beginning to come closer, and monsters rarely went to the edges of these biomes. It let me ignore the pain and push on with single-minded focus.

But of course, it made me liable for ambushes. Not that I thought it mattered. A fly might be able to kill me now, not to mention some beast with Qi.

Nothing like that happened.

For once, I got lucky, my feet meeting grass. The stalks were alive. Green. They went up to the middle of my thighs.

I plucked some out and shoved them into my mouth.

Simply chewing on them felt wonderful. It was gross, and tasted bad, but it curbed my appetite, if only a little. They held tiny amounts of water in them, too, which mixed with spit in my mouth. I smiled. A tired, tiny motion, barely a twitch of my lips, but I knew what it was at heart.

Then I marched on, through fields of green, now.

My master, the old fox he was, had beaten some knowledge on plants into me. “It’ll save your life someday,” he’d said. He was right. I saw a tree. Unassuming, only with leaves, but I recognized it dimly.

Something about it spoke to me, and then I remembered. Its leaves had a habit of fruiting. You wouldn’t see it from far away, but get closer, and you could make it out. Some of the leaves were almost a centimeter thick, seedy capsules surrounded by succulent flesh trapped inside.

I ripped off a half dozen and chewed them. They tasted good. Some of the best food I had ever eaten. The juices from the fruit spilled in my mouth, and I almost cried. But I held back, and simply ate more.

It was an adult tree, with thousands of leaves. Many of them were budding, filled with tiny little fruits. I stuffed so many of the leaves in my mouth; at the moment I really didn’t feel like counting. But I remember that by the end, for the first time in weeks, I felt full.

After that, I collapsed down in a heap next to the tree, leaning against the bark. My eyes felt so heavy. The fatigue was nestled in very nicely in all my bones, and now that I felt even remotely safer, it refused to leave.

Before falling asleep, I had the mental capacity to set up the slightest Qi barrier around myself. Barely above a thin sheet of paper, but it should, hopefully, keep the moles away. Then I passed out.

- - -

The barrier did, indeed, keep the moles away. I don’t know how long I slept, but by the time I woke up, it was the middle of the day again, the sun hanging high in the sky. It was lilac, here, the air composed of different elements. It was also very pretty, though it took some time to get used to.

Well, not that the colour on the other side was even slightly pleasant. The sky hadn’t been blue in a long fucking time. All grey, covered in smog and floating pieces of dust. Most people would wear masks outside.

I shook my head again, then focused, pushing my weary body off the floor. Now that I’d rested for a day, my muscles had gotten time to realize that they were not feeling so good. Every step ached with soreness and blisters on my feet, but I pushed on. At least I was still more than covered, the rats had mostly only gnawed through the thinner pieces of armor at my legs and shoulders.

Step after agonising step, I moved across the dirt road. My Qi hadn’t replenished a drop since I kept up the barrier overnight, but that was fine, too. I shut it down now, and cycled my energy to replenish it with each breath.

Of course, that didn’t quite work for the mirror Qi. Only for my golden core. Since the breathing technique was part of my cultivation path and couldn’t exactly be used for the mirror Qi. I’d need to find another path, one suited for the mirror Qi. But that could wait until I was back among civilization.

For now, I worried much more about getting one foot in front of the other. The glass shifting beneath my skin helped support me, but it felt almost stiff after the night’s rest. At least it was beginning to grow more fluid again as time went on.

I would’ve sighed at my situation if I’d had the air for it. But for now, all I could do was keep walking, using my spear as a crutch.

At least with a little bit of food in my stomach, I didn’t feel quite as tired anymore. I’d eaten once more at a checkpoint along the way. It didn’t have a gateway, sadly, but it did include a map of the area, which let me know where the nearest city was. Which is exactly where I made my journey to.

After a gruelling eternity of miserable steps, the walls finally came into view. The bricks were so familiar, just seeing them almost drove a tear to my eye. Safety was finally within reach again.

By the time I realized I was falling, I couldn’t catch myself anymore.