Chapter 141: Deadly Beauty

Ye Feng looked around, searching for cover, but all he saw was sand.
“That thing is coming toward us. We must find a place to hide!” Ye Feng said to the others.
“It’s just an ordinary sandstorm. It’s deadly to ordinary people, but it poses no threat at all to us. There’s no need to avoid it!” A man with a hooked nose glanced at Ye Feng disdainfully, then stepped forward and rushed toward the towering storm, determined to disperse it with his own strength.
Ye Feng narrowed his eyes slightly. He felt something wasn’t right.
The man with the hooked nose quickly entered the storm’s range. Hidden by the colorful dust, Ye Feng and the others barely saw his figure swallowed by the storm. Yet the storm continued moving toward them, as if it had just consumed an insignificant ant.
Frowning, Ye Feng took out an energy detector and placed it on his nose. There were no signs of life within the storm’s range. “He’s dead! That thing is dangerous. We must leave this place.”
“How do you know he’s dead?” A man with a short beard on his upper lip stared in shock, still fixated on the storm sweeping toward them.
“I just know. If you don’t want to die, follow me!” Ye Feng didn’t bother explaining further and dashed off in another direction.
Pei Hong, Wudao, and Kongxu naturally trusted Ye Feng. Seeing him leave, they immediately followed without hesitation.
When the others saw the three of them follow Ye Feng, although many didn’t fully understand what made this young man special, they still decided to go with them. After all, Wudao and Kongxu had an excellent reputation in Earth’s cultivation community.
The bearded man glanced back at the storm once more, seeing no trace of the man with the hooked nose. Then he gave Ye Feng, who was running at the front, a meaningful look before following suit.
Ye Feng led everyone in a frantic run in one direction. After about an hour, the storm finally disappeared behind them. And they finally arrived in a place that was somewhat different.

Although it was still a desert ahead, those white flowers over a meter tall, shaped like lilies, stood tall there like cacti in Earth’s deserts. There was one such white flower every few dozen meters, as if someone had randomly placed them there.

Ye Feng frowned upon seeing this scene. His detector showed nothing here. After all, his detector could even detect the presence of plants. Yet these white flowers appeared on the detector as if they were stones, showing no reaction at all.

“What beautiful flowers!” A blond woman reached out toward the nearest flower…

“Stop!” Ye Feng tried to stop her, but her fingers had already touched the petals.

Everyone heard Ye Feng shouting at the woman but saw nothing unusual, so they looked at him curiously. Even the woman gave him a disdainful look.

Ye Feng thought to himself, “Could it be that I’m too sensitive…”

Just then, a white dot suddenly appeared on the detector. Ye Feng looked up in the direction of the dot—it was the white flower that the woman had touched earlier.

Before he could react, the root of the white flower suddenly stretched out, and dozens of white petals instantly wrapped around the blond woman before sinking into the ground and disappearing.

Everyone present witnessed this clearly, but everything happened so suddenly that they didn’t have time to react.

Ye Feng carefully walked to where the flower had been. In the pit the size of a bowl, everything was pitch black and bottomless. The thing that had eaten the blond girl had already fled.

Everyone became anxious. Due to carelessness, they had only come here for over an hour and already lost two teammates, putting heavy pressure on everyone present.

“As you said, there are many such brutal predators in this desolate place. Although we don’t need food or water, we can still die if attacked! We must find an inhabited area as soon as possible!” Wudao stepped beside Ye Feng. “Did that elder leave anything useful behind?”

“I’ll look for it!” Ye Feng pretended to place his hand on the ring before closing his eyes. In fact, that ring wasn’t a storage ring at all—it was an invisibility ring he had purchased earlier. He had adjusted its setting so that invisibility would only take effect when rotated more than 45 degrees. Wearing it on his finger was merely to conceal the secret of the Virtual Realm, making others think it was a storage ring.

Meanwhile, his mental energy had already penetrated into the first layer of the Virtual Realm:

“Universal Direction Identifier: Can determine the direction of any planet under any conditions, unaffected by any energy or signal interference. It can indicate the eight directions—north, south, east, west, southeast, northeast, southwest, and northwest.”

“Virtual Realm Energy Cost for Level 1: 800 points.”

Although this equaled over eight hundred thousand dollars in US terms, Ye Feng didn’t think the price was exorbitant at the moment. After all, in such a situation, those 800 points of Level 1 energy could very well save many people from death threats—including himself. If 800 points of Level 1 energy could save his own life, he would do it without hesitation. After deciding to purchase it, Ye Feng checked his remaining Level 1 energy: 21,943 points.

“Fortunately, this thing isn’t too expensive. Otherwise, I’d have to use Level 2 energy to exchange for Level 1 energy!” Ye Feng joked as he took out the watch-like Universal Direction Identifier from the Virtual Realm. He also remembered the small object he had put into a container and stored in a locker, so he retrieved that container as well.

Looking at the small creature still sleeping inside the container, it seemed slightly larger and its fur more vibrant. Satisfied, Ye Feng took it out of the container, carefully placed it in his jacket pocket, and then returned the container to the locker in the Virtual Realm.

After reading the instructions for using the Universal Direction Identifier, Ye Feng chose language mode and began adjusting it step by step according to the manual.

Before activation, the dial of the identifier had no text on it. After selecting language mode, Chinese characters indicating the eight directions finally appeared above the dial.

Ye Feng knew it was time to choose the direction he wanted to go to. He pointed the pointer at the scale marked “north” and pressed the button on the side of the dial.

Once activated, the dial of the identifier began to rotate slowly. After nearly ten seconds of rotation, it finally stopped, indicating that the scales for the eight different directions no longer changed.

Ye Feng realized that the direction he was facing was southeast. He turned his body slightly until it was aligned with the direction indicated by the pointer, then turned his head and waved at the group. “This direction is north!”
“Did you find it?” Wudao was the first to arrive beside Ye Feng.
Ye Feng handed his left hand, which wore a direction identifier, to Wudao. “I searched for a long time before finally finding it!”
“This side must be south, right?” Wudao asked, looking at the dial on Ye Feng’s hand. “This compass points in that direction.”
“This isn’t a compass; it’s a direction identifier. Their working principles are different. A compass identifies direction based on the planet’s magnetic field, while this one uses a more advanced theory that allows it to function unaffected by magnetic fields or other energies. Moreover, I set it so that when the pointer points north, that direction is indeed north!” Ye Feng explained helplessly. He hadn’t read the detailed explanations in the manual; he had only glanced through it briefly and couldn’t fully understand how it worked.
“What a great thing! Since we’ve identified the direction, we can set off now!” After hearing this, Wudao didn’t ask any further questions. Instead, he waved at the group. “We’ve found north! Let’s all follow!”