Chapter 146 Venturing into the Great Desert

The lake water itself was a living spring. Both of them, parched for a long time, found the water ice-cold and sweet upon touching their lips, drinking greedily as if tasting sweet dew after a long drought. Afterward, they filled their leather water skins, set up their tents, built a fire to boil tea, and ate dried meat while sipping the hot beverage.

Having replenished their water and food, the two lay down in the tent to enjoy the shade, easing the bone-deep scorching heat of the past few days. Young Tuerqi asked Old Tuerqi, "Where is this place? Do you know?"

Old Tuerqi let out a satisfied burp and said, "I have no idea. I've been lost ever since the sandstorm. Besides, an oasis this large—if I had ever seen it before, I would certainly have left an impression. But right now, I don't feel any sense of familiarity; everything here is completely foreign. We certainly haven't been here before."

"What should we do now then? Although there is food and water here, staying here forever is not a solution," Young Tuerqi said, struggling to keep his drowsy eyes open. Only now did his tense nerves of the past few days relax slightly. Yet, it was precisely this sliver of relaxation that caused him to lose all control over his eyelids. Before Old Tuerqi could reply, his words trailed off incoherently as he drifted into a deep sleep.

Around midnight, Young Tuerqi was jolted awake by the crackling sound of the campfire outside the tent. Opening his eyes, he saw that Old Tuerqi was not on the opposite sleeping platform. He immediately flipped over and sat up, grabbed the saber hidden under his pillow, and walked on tiptoe to the tent entrance, carefully parting a small gap in the flap to peer outside.

What met his gaze was a bloodshot eyeball. Without any psychological preparation, Young Tuerqi screamed out in terror. His hand loosened slightly, and the saber dropped straight to the ground with a crisp sound. Frightened out of his wits, Young Tuerqi landed squarely on his bottom, his heart pounding wildly.

At that moment, the owner of the eyeball laughed heartily outside the tent, lifted the curtain, pulled Young Tuerqi up from the ground, and said, "Good reaction and good handling, but your composure is still lacking. You still need plenty of training."

Seeing that the eyeball which had frightened him so badly belonged to Old Tuerqi, Young Tuerqi let out a sigh of relief. When he tried to stand back up, he realized with a start that his legs had turned to jelly from fear. Unwilling to lose face in front of Old Tuerqi, he remained sitting on the ground and put on a mature facade, coughing, "Ahem, why aren't you sleeping at this hour? What were you doing outside?"

Old Tuerqi chuckled inwardly, but wore a sincere expression on his face as he said, "At dusk, I heard the howling of wolves. They must have come to this oasis for water as well. To scare off those beasts, I went out to tend the bonfire and made dinner by the way. Do you want to come out and have some?"

"Wolves? Doesn't that mean we are actually close to getting out of the desert?" Young Tuerqi caught the implication in Old Tuerqi's words.

"Yes, I think so too. Come on, I went and speared a few lake fish just now, and they are roasted to perfection. Come out and eat something, and let's travel by night to save some water," Old Tuerqi said.

Young Tuerqi nodded, let Old Tuerqi pull him up from the ground, and went outside the tent. Sitting by the campfire, he ate the tender roasted fish while listening to Old Tuerqi impart knowledge about desert survival and share stories from his own personal experiences.

After finishing dinner, the two packed their belongings, climbed back onto the backs of their camels, and resumed their journey. Relying on his exquisite desert survival skills and rich experience, Old Tuerqi finally led them out of the Tulun Wastelands. At that time, Young Tuerqi only vaguely remembered that as they emerged from the wastelands, a bright moon hung over a massive mountain ahead. Two peaks covered in pristine snow looked like a pair of slender, delicate hands lifting the white moon. It was then that Old Tuerqi told him:

"We Tuerqi people tend to name mountains, lakes, and oases based on what is easy to remember. So from today on, you must remember that the oasis that saved our lives is called Wolf Howl Oasis, and these two mountains are called Moon-Holding Mountains."

Snapping back from the long-sealed memories, Tuerqi turned his head abruptly to look at the mountain range behind him. Among the rolling peaks, he finally found the two great mountains from his childhood memories. The Moon-Holding Mountains of back then had transformed into the Sun-Holding Mountains in the daylight. Calculating the date, this was not the dry season in the desert; many of the oases in his memory should still be able to supply water for the massive army, provided it was used sparingly just to stay alive. Consuming too much would dry up the water sources, reducing the survival chances of future travelers who might inadvertently wander into the desert.

Although the Tulun Wastelands were a shifting desert where the terrain and landscape changed daily with the blowing winds, these oases distributed throughout the wastelands were firmly anchored to the ground like iron stakes, remaining completely unchanged for thousands of years. The route map in Tuerqi's mind was strung together using all the known oases as key nodes. After all, the most crucial aspect of traveling through the desert was the replenishment of water sources, which was the very significance of the oases.

Chai Huaixing agreed with this perspective. Since ancient times, the Chinese had always strived to find a harmonious state of unity between man and nature, and thus they had never practiced the total depletion of any resource. Therefore, Chai Huaixing fully endorsed Tuerqi's words.

"I once traveled with a caravan to the Kingdom of Khotan. Their army has always focused its deployment on the grasslands facing south to guard against enemies. Although Khotan backs onto the Tulun Wastelands, it has zero defense in the direction of the wastelands. From this perspective, I support General Chai's decision to lead the army across the Tulun Wastelands and directly strike the rear of the Kingdom of Khotan," Tuerqi nodded and said.

"However, the movement of a large army cannot be separated from water sources. I know some oases on the southern edge of the Tulun Wastelands that can barely supply the army, but for at least half the journey, the troops will only receive a bare minimum water ration—just enough to keep everyone from dying of thirst. This will be the ultimate test of whether General Chai's army can maintain strict discipline. If strict military discipline can be maintained, then I am confident I can lead you to the rear of the Khotanese and allow you to accomplish the feat of launching a surprise attack on Khotan City. But if, at the critical moment, someone harbors selfish motives and tries to hog a little extra water, then the ultimate fate of this army will likely be no different from that of those merchants."

Tuerqi detailed the mutual slaughter among caravan members—something he had witnessed countless times in the desert—so that Chai Huaixing could weigh the pros and cons and decide the army's next course of action.