When system cheat becomes rampant!
Chapter 739 - 542: Desert Island (4000 words)

In the wilderness beyond where desolate beasts roam, if Xiang Beifei heard human speech, he wouldn't necessarily consider the other party human, for there were creatures like the Meat-Winged Monster and the Ghost Mustache of Remnant Visage. However, he could clearly distinguish the lingering spirit waves of a human.

In this vast desert, the sudden voice of a person and the human spiritual power fluctuations were a long-missed feeling that surprised him greatly. Apart from his grandfather, it had been more than half a year since he last saw a real person.

"Let's go have a look," Xiang Beifei said.

He immediately stood up and shook Xiaohei and Erha, who were fast asleep next to him. Erha lay on its back with all four feet in the air, with Xiaohei lying on Erha's belly. Erha embraced Xiaohei with its hooves, a touching sight in their sleep.

Probably because Xiang Beifei provided such a comfortable sleeping environment, and there was no danger nearby, the two of them slept soundly. When shaken awake, they were still drowsily hugging each other.

Xiang Beifei then dragged the two creatures up and tossed them onto his shoulders. Youmong was always vigilant. While Xiang Beifei practiced, it quietly absorbed the spiritual power he emitted, and when Xiang Beifei finished his cultivation, it consciously crawled into his shirt pocket and then poked out its little head.

Xiang Beifei turned his head to look at the cactus. Whether it was because it had absorbed his spiritual power or not, the cactus had grown much more robust but seemed to have shrunk. Looking closely, he noticed the cactus was retracting into the ground.

"What are you afraid of?" Xiang Beifei asked the cactus in surprise.

The cactus couldn't speak; it paused, then shook its spikes as if it wanted to tell Xiang Beifei something, then it continued to burrow downwards as if in a hurry. In the blink of an eye, the cactus that was originally over ten meters high had retreated underground, leaving only a palm-sized bud tip visible.

Xiang Beifei looked at the other cacti and saw many of them also shrinking downwards in a hurry. The vast swaths of tall cactus groves nearly disappeared entirely.

There must be something wrong with the desert night; things might not be so simple.

Xiang Beifei packed up the pavilion made of breath soil, smoothed over any traces of their presence in the area, and then stealthily followed the direction of the voice.

After the two suns set, the temperature of the whole desert had dropped. There were now two moons in the sky, which had turned from red to pale white, as if they had faded. The two celestial objects in the sky were very strange; during the day, they blazed with scorching radiance, but at night they resembled two icy orbs, bringing bitter cold to the desert and raising a cool wind.

At this moment, the sound of a bell "dong, dong, dong" became louder and seemed very close. The ground vibrated more violently, and the spiritual power fluctuations were exceptionally distinct.

To avoid drawing attention, Xiang Beifei intentionally limited the range of his spiritual power while staying alert to his surroundings, always ready to flee at a moment's notice.

About ten minutes into flying, he saw a vast expanse of Gobi up ahead, reaching hundreds of meters high. The cracks in the Gobi were evident; it looked as if something had shattered half of it.

The bell's ringing came from behind the Gobi. Xiang Beifei leaped to the top of the Gobi peak and looked forward. Beyond the Gobi was an endless desert, but not far from the Gobi in the air was a huge stone gate built from large stone slabs.

The two stone slabs were very long, about thirty to forty meters, standing straight in the desert. Another stone slab lay horizontally across them, forming a towering door. This door had a chain attached with an ancient stone bell hanging from it.

The stone bell was enormous. It was roughly estimated to be about ten meters tall and three to four meters thick, with some carvings on it. It reflected the cold light under the moonlight from the two moons in the sky.

Dong! Dong! Dong!

The stone bell was gently swaying as if an invisible mallet was slowly striking it, sending a vast, ancient sound rolling forth.

"What is this?" Xiang Beifei said as he gazed at the stone bell. The bell emitted a strange aura, one that he couldn't quite identify. Because of this uncertainty, he didn't rashly approach.

The waves of the bell rolled out one after the other. When the sound spread, it seemed to lift a wave in the desert. The sand moved like the waves of the sea, rhythmically undulating with the bell's toll, continuously rolling onto the Gobi where Xiang Beifei was, hitting the rocks and then kicking up dust-like spray.

"Woof?"

Xiaohei yawned and stood on the rock, inquisitively asking.

"I haven't seen this before, just be careful," Xiang Beifei said cautiously as he landed, standing next to the rolling sand waves, noticing that the desert sands seemed to come alive, with each grain rolling.

"Quicksand," Xiang Beifei muttered as he grabbed a handful of sand. He glanced at the mound spirit; its direction didn't point here, meaning this wasn't his destination.

"Ao woo," Erha, curious about what quicksand was, poked his buttocks out and began to paw at the sand.

Xiaohei let out a mischievous bark and kicked Erha into the sand. Before Erha could lift its head, it was engulfed by the sand.

A moment later, Erha's paw-like tail swiftly rolled out from the quicksand, grabbing Xiaohei and then using the leverage to climb out.

"Ao ao ao!" Erha was not angry but rather excitedly yelling.

"What did you see under the sand?" Xiang Beifei asked.

Erha stood on the Gobi and stretched its tail back into the sand. Its tail was rather special, able to stretch very long. It burrowed underneath the sand for a while, as if fishing. After a while, its face lit up with joy, and then it quickly retracted its tail, clutching a rusty iron sword in its grasp.