306: Chapter 306 Searching for Traces in the Desert, A Sandstorm Approaches!

The flying shuttle skimmed over the rolling sand dunes.

The ruins of Qitian Temple No. 01 slowly emerged from the depths of the sand sea, rising above the horizon.

Thanks to the hand-drawn map provided by the people from the Silver-White Train, the precise location of every temple was clearly marked, making exploration simple and full of fun.

Lin Xiao leaned against the railing of Shuttle No. 1, watching the battle reports constantly refreshing in the chat channel.

The remnants guarding the No. 03 and No. 07 Ruins, upon hearing that their Astral Express had been attacked, immediately took their men to begin exploring the ruins, likely not wanting the supplies to fall into other hands.

Or perhaps, they were trying to snatch a batch of supplies amidst the chaos, grabbing as much as they could...

It was just a pity that they had the life to grab it, but not the life to spend it.

When Chen Pingan slashed open the outer wall of the ruins, the group at the No. 03 Ruins was scrambling to pull supplies out of the earthen jars, not even having time to raise their guns.

A tornado, carrying sand and debris, exploded from where the blade struck, and Chen Pingan used Moonwalk to burst through the gap into the interior of the ruins.

The light of the horizontal blade flashed in the dim corridor for less than ten seconds.

By the time Fang Yuan arrived with reinforcements on foot, only gurgling, blood-soaked corpses remained inside.

On the other side, Liu Bi chose the most traditional method.

He didn't use any schemes or tactics; he led over fifty people and charged directly through the main entrance of the No. 07 Ruins.

Half of the fifty-plus people were low-level passengers who had just been eliminated from the Rift Space, wearing mismatched Tier 3 gear, with weapons ranging from swords and guns to clubs—a motley collection of everything imaginable.

But the only thing they had in common was the green light glowing in their eyes.

Lin Xiao had made it very clear before setting off: everything found in the ruins belonged to the explorers.

If they found valuable materials, they could keep them for themselves or sell them to the Astral Express bank in exchange for stardust.

Consequently, when this ragtag army, which couldn't even pass the fifth floor in the Rift Space, charged into the main hall of the ruins, the combat power they unleashed terrified the defenders so much they couldn't hold their guns.

Several people threw down their weapons and knelt to beg for mercy.

But Sergei took them out one by one with a single punch, killing them on the spot.

"Not bad."

Lin Xiao browsed the videos, pictures, and text battle reports in the chat channel, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

The combat power of these low-level passengers was vastly different compared to the captains, but at this moment, their fighting spirit was higher than ever.

After all, in a world where profit was paramount, no one would turn their back on money.

Lin Xiao had now reached the vicinity of Qitian Temple No. 01.

Since there were only two hand-drawn maps captured earlier.

He could only rely on the Marauders Map feature of the treasure map and the curious item [recording pointer] to repeatedly compare routes, taking a long detour before locking onto the exact location.

Fortunately, the flying shuttle was fast enough, and the high-altitude view expanded the search range several times over, so not too much time was wasted.

The structure of No. 01 was much the same as the others.

The remnants of the Silver-White Train guarding this place were completely outmatched.

Lin Xiao led Fan Sinian and the others to quickly clear the area, then entered the ruins to explore.

The inner hall was remarkably well-preserved; the earthen jars and wooden chests in the corridor stone chambers didn't even have traces of being opened.

"Brother Lin, this place is untouched territory!"

Fan Sinian observed the surrounding environment, his shield strapped to his back, his eyes already beginning to gleam.

"What are you excited about? It's not like you're the one who's going to open it."

Zhou Jun followed slowly, vines slowly writhing around his wrist.

It looked like he was maintaining a state of high alert, fearing there might be ambushes in the dark.

"Old Fan, with your luck, you'd probably fail at opening even an earthen jar. Don't waste your effort; just follow behind us and pick up the scraps."

"Hey, Xiao Jun, is your mouth as thorny as your vines? Why do you have to be so prickly when you speak?"

"I don't know if it's thorny, but I'm definitely better at opening jars than you."

During the time the two were bickering, Lin Xiao had already equipped the treasure hunting lucky star set and headed straight for the nearest stone chamber.

He didn't waste time checking them one by one; instead, he directly activated the set's detection feature. All containers with exploration value in his field of vision were outlined by a faint golden light.

What followed was a highly efficient harvest.

Tungsten ingots and Sand-Condensing Crystals from the earthen jars, skill books and furniture recipes from the wooden chests, equipment blueprints hidden inside stone caskets...

Every item, under the blessing of the treasure hunting lucky star, yielded quality far exceeding the standard drop rates.

In less than half an hour, the core area of the No. 01 Ruins was completely emptied.

Lin Xiao climbed onto the high platform and retrieved the stone slab stored in the stone pedestal.

At the same time, the crystal ball of the recording pointer vibrated slightly. After storing the magnetic field parameters, the pointer turned to point in the next direction.

The next few hours.

Lin Xiao led his men to clear the ruins of Qi Tian Temple No. 02.

Chen Pingan and Liu Bi also finished up, having explored the last two ruins, No. 08 and No. 09, and transferred the four collected stone slabs over via trade.

Of the nine stone slabs, eight were now in hand.

Once these stone slabs were pieced together, they would become the key to the Cloud Kingdom.

But one was still missing. The reason for this was that the one from the No. 06 Ruins could no longer be retrieved.

More than ten minutes ago, Lin Xiao had specifically piloted the flying shuttle over to take a look.

But that place was just a ruin melted by energy projectiles.

The dome had completely collapsed, and the stone pedestal hidden inside the high platform had completely fused with the surrounding stone bricks.

This thing was impervious to blades and axes, but it had no resistance against the energy cannons of a ship's artillery.

Now one stone slab was missing.

Then he would have to go back and consult Yimu to see where else such key items could be found.

Furthermore, the most critical thing was that the patterns on each stone slab were different, and Xiao Tian couldn't just construct them directly.

After thinking it over, Lin Xiao signaled Ruan Li to change the direction of the flying shuttle.

If they couldn't go to the Cloud Kingdom, wasn't there another place waiting to be excavated?

That's right.

The Desert Temple!

That ultimate target marked on the treasure map!

Now that the Silver-White Train had been heavily damaged and couldn't make a comeback in the short term, exploration would be much safer.

The flying shuttle turned, flying toward the direction marked on the treasure map.

Fan Sinian sat in the cabin seat, clutching his shield, his legs shaking uncontrollably.

The smile on his face hadn't faded since just now:

"The place marked on the treasure map must be much better than those broken jars in the Qitian Temple ruins. Who knows, we might dig up a whole set of Tier 5 equipment!

Once I put that gear on, Chen Pingan, Old Liu, Yuaner... they'll definitely be green with envy!

Especially that kid Fang Yuan, and also, Xu Shan and CPUs Kongzhen who didn't go out to explore this time. If I wear a full Tier 5 set and stand in front of them, hehehe..."

"Is there a possibility," Zhou Jun leaned against the other side of the railing, vines lazily winding and unwinding between his fingers, his tone unhurried, "that the places hiding great treasures are the most dangerous? The temple isn't a self-service supermarket. Have you ever seen a treasure just sitting at the front door waiting to be picked up?"

"Is there a possibility," Fan Sinian crossed his arms and stood beside Lin Xiao, his chin held high, "that with Brother Lin here, we don't need to exert any effort at all? We might even hinder Brother Lin's performance by going up there... Don't you think so, Brother Lin?"

Zhou Jun rolled his eyes at this guy, turned his head to look at the scenery, and couldn't be bothered to retort.

And Lin Xiao, standing at the bow of the ship, helplessly shook his head.

He didn't have the time to participate in this bickering.

He was constantly operating the steering wheel that was pulsing slightly under his palm, his eyes fixed on the marker point on the treasure map that was gradually getting closer.

As the distance grew shorter, the originally calm desert beneath the flying shuttle suddenly changed.

An indescribable sense of oppression permeated the air, as if the entire expanse of sand was trembling slightly.

On the horizon in the far distance, a layer of black shadow appeared, stretching from the left side all the way to the right, like a wall spanning between heaven and earth.

"What is that?" Fan Sinian was the first to notice the abnormality, leaning over the railing, squinting his eyes to look hard into the distance.

Zhou Jun raised the military binoculars he had just captured, scanned the distance for a few seconds, and his expression immediately turned from curious to grave.

"Holy... is that... a sandstorm?"