?998 Solid Earth Alex walked through the shifting sands, barely able to step up and down dunes without cascading along the sand itself. It had been hours since he had started walking, but he was making very little progress because of how hard it was to walk. He thought of flying, but with what little Qi he had, he needed to save it for if he was ever injured. In a place with no Qi, he needed to save as much as he could. Night had fallen by now and the silver moon hung high in the sky. Yet, he saw no path that would lead anywhere, no color than the silver sands that could tell him which direction was the best to go in. So, he simply kept walking south. The night had grown cold, far colder than he would've ever imagined a place such as this to ever grow. As far as he remembered, the Forbidden Fields never got remotely as close. But then, they were also affected by the Yang tree, so that might have been the reason for the warmth there. A few hours before dawn, around 2 or 3 am in the night, Alex finally arrived on land where his feet did not simply sink. He arrived at a land where the grounds were deserted and crusty as if they hadn't seen water in centuries, but they weren't sandy. As such, now he could walk more easily. He could even run if he wanted to. Alex increased his pace and went further along. Then, another few hours later, right before dawn approached, he heard something and stopped. A rattling sound came from not far away. Alex immediately spread his spiritual sense and noticed a rattling snake, one whose body had the same thickness as Alex's torso. It was about 300 meters away from him and had absolutely no cultivation base at all. So, Alex didn't really find it necessary to worry about it. The snake seemed to have noticed him as well and slid in his direction. Alex was trying to ignore it, but he found it hard to as the snake came in his direction. He sighed at the trouble, but before he could think anything else, the snake's speed increased tremendously as it lunged toward him. Scarlet flew away at once and Alex ducked at the last second and got back up to look at the snake with wide eyes. "So fast," he thought. "How is it so fast with no culti--" His words stopped in his mouth as he remembered the beasts back in the Forbidden Fields that had the incredible physical capability. "Wait, is this one like that too?" he thought. The snake turned around and came for him again, but by now, Alex had Midnight in his hand. The sword got twice as large and Alex swung it right in between the snake's mouth horizontally. The sword cut halfway into the snake's mouth and tore along the side of its body. Blood and gut poured out of it, dousing Alex in it all. Alex's entire body was fully covered in it, making Scarlet who was flying far away not want to come near him. In the end, she disappeared into her beast space, not wanting to stay anywhere around Alex at the moment. Alex put away Midnight and wiped his face with his hands. Fortunately, the snake's blood didn't spell as bad, or he would be vomiting non-stop. He used the tiniest bit of Qi and used blood manipulation to throw away all the blood from him. Then he looked at the dead snake nearly 10 meters wide and flayed open on one side. "How strong was this beast again?" he wondered. It was hard to quantify physical strength in terms of cultivation base when there was none to compare it with. All Alex could say was that the beast was in the True realms at most and forget about it. "Well, at least I found something to cover myself with," he thought. He brought out Midnight again and started cutting open the beasts. He wasn't the best at it, but he wasn't that bad at the task either. In the 10 years, he had been forced to remain under house arrest by the madman, he had spent his time doing various different things. One of those things was butchering beasts he had killed back in the Demonic forest. It was partially to use their body parts as ingredients for pills, but it was also partially to turn them into materials for sword handles and such. In particular, he had found himself to be pretty good at separating just the skin of the beast to use the leader for various purposes. One such purpose was now to make himself a pants and a simple shirt. Even as the sun rose on the horizon, Alex sat by the dead snake and butchered it until he had its skin, bones, and tendons separated. Everything else he just threw into his storage ring. He turned a patch of skin into the shape of a shirt and wore it. He had used a few splinters of bones and tendons to tie it all up to hold it all together. He did the same with his pants too which just happened to be barely enough to cover his shin. Bones and tendons held it together as well. It felt awkward to wear the skin of a just dead beast, but what other choice did he have? It was also uncomfortable to weak since the leather didn't just lay on his skin like a normal robe would and instead fought with him to stay on top. Still, it didn't come off even when Alex jumped around, so he knew it was good enough for now. "I should get proper cloth once I find civilization again," he thought. Once done, he left the area and started walking north again. There were mountains in this region too, but they were all barren and easy to climb up and down as opposed to sand dunes, so Alex was very fast in his walking. About halfway through the day, Scarlet knocked on his head and pointed to the side. By now, she was out again and standing on top of Alex's shoulders again. Alex looked towards the side she pointed at and saw something in the distance. At first, he thought it was just some cactus or desert bushes that he had come to see. However, when he really looked, he realized that the thing in the distance was moving, and it was massive. He slowly pulled out at midnight, getting ready to fight. However, when he saw what it really was, he stopped. "Wait, those are carriages," he said when he noticed them. Finally, he had found some semblance of civilization. He quickly put away his sword and started running in their direction. Scarlet disappeared into her beast's space when she realized he was going in the humans' direction. Alex arrived close to the carriage and a few people immediately got out in front of the carriage. They were all broad-shouldered men that looked very strong and wearing nothing but a pair of pants. They wore necklaces, bracelets and armlets made up of beast bones and had skin that was very brown. They were so incredibly tanned that Alex thought for a moment that they were just clad in black blood. "Move out of the way or we will kill you!" they shouted as they held large bone spears in their hands. Alex raised his hands to show that he was harmless. "I don't mean any harm. I am lost and was hoping to ride your carriage and maybe borrow a few clothes." The men suddenly dropped their aggressiveness, and Alex was happy to see that they weren't muscle brained. However, then he heard the main person speak. "Heh, look at his skin, so fair. Relax brothers, it's just a weak little kid," one of the men at the front said. "Yeah, he reminds me of myself when I first came to this place," another one said. "Kid, get out of the way. Go back to your tribe and don't run in front of our carriage again. Next time, we will kill you," they said and turned around to return. "Brothers, wait. I'm not someone from any tribe. I'm just a wanderer who has lost his ways. Can you please let me come with you?" Alex said. "A herd leaves behind the weak, and you expect us to add one to ours?" the man asked. "Can I at least follow you?" Alex asked. "Don't try, kid. We don't need another useless mouth to feed," the man said. "I can be of use. I can do anything," Alex said. The man however just waved Alex away. "Yeah, go be of use to some other tribe. Our Stepstones tribe has no need for you," he said. Alex's patience was coming to an end at this point. He had been respectful for a while, but now he was heavily siding on using his fists at the moment. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖 The carriage had arrived close to them at this point and the one at the front suddenly stopped. Alex and the others stopped what they were talking about and looked towards the carriage. The door to the carriage opened and a woman with well-defined muscles walked out with heavily tanned skin just like the others. She stepped up to the 3 buffed men while casting a curious glance toward Alex. "Who is this young brother? And What's does he want?" she asked.