The transition from the humid, bustling alleys of Peaceful Willow to the searing, silent expanse of the Ghost-Sands was not merely a change in geography; for Han Zhao, it was a spiritual homecoming.
The Ghost-Sands were a vast graveyard of empires, a place where the wind sang through the ribs of ancient leviathans and the sun bleached even the most stubborn memories into white dust. For most cultivators, this was a hellscape where spiritual energy was as scarce as water. For a man practicing the 'Nameless Longevity Script', it was a sanctuary of perfect, uninterrupted void.
"You really meant it," Su Lian said, wiping a thin layer of grit from her forehead. She looked back at the horizon, where the shimmering heat-haze swallowed the world they had left behind. "We are going to live in a place where the only thing to talk to is the sand."
Han Zhao didn't respond immediately. He was busy adjusting the harness of their "vessel."
They weren't walking. They were traveling on the back of a Stone-Humped Camel, a creature Han Zhao had "purchased" (and by purchased, he meant he had healed its shattered leg using a thread of optimized Qi) from a dying caravan. The camel was a massive, slow-moving beast with skin like cracked granite and eyes that seemed to have seen the beginning of time.
Han Zhao had spent the last three days transforming the camel's back into a mobile fortress of bureaucracy. He had built two wooden cabins—one for sleeping, one for the library—connected by a small platform.
[Task: Construct a 'Mobile Sanctuary'. Status: Complete.]
[System Integration: Camel is now part of the 'Social Invisibility' field.]
[Current Life Expectancy: 94 Years, 62 Days.]
"The sand doesn't ask for favors," Han Zhao finally said, leaning against the camel's neck. "The sand doesn't want to know if you're the chosen one. And most importantly, the sand doesn't have a 'Magistrate' who talks to 'Heroes' over wine."
He climbed up into the library cabin. It was small, cramped, and smelled of old ink and dry heat. He reached into a hidden compartment under his bed and pulled out the Azure Dragon Core.
The jade box was no longer black with archival ink; the desert sun had baked it into a dull, earthy brown. It looked like a common brick.
"System," Han Zhao whispered. "The environment is stable. The 'Noise' of humanity is gone. Begin the long-term extraction."
[Initiating 'Dragon-Marrow Siphon'...]
[Warning: This process will take 50 years to complete.]
[Benefit: Constant, passive drip of Pure Vitality. Estimated total Longevity Gain: +120 Years.]
Han Zhao felt a faint, rhythmic pulse beneath his feet. The camel grunted, a deep, resonant sound that vibrated through the wooden floor. The Dragon Core was now wired into the camel's own life force, and through the camel, into Han Zhao.
He wasn't just a librarian anymore. He was the center of a slow-moving, biological ecosystem of immortality.
Life in the Ghost-Sands settled into a rhythm that would have driven any other cultivator insane.
In the mornings, Han Zhao would sit on the camel's head as it plodded toward the next oasis, practicing the 'Void of Identity'. He reached a point where he could sit in the middle of a desert storm and the sand would simply refuse to touch him, as if the universe had forgotten he occupied that specific coordinate of space.
In the afternoons, he taught Su Lian.
She was no longer the sharp, aggressive Core Disciple of the Blue Cloud Sect. The desert had worn down her edges. Under Han Zhao's guidance, she had stopped practicing the "Cloud-Mist Sword" and started practicing 'The Breath of the Still Grain'.
"Why must I spend four hours a day watching a single drop of water evaporate?" she asked one evening, sitting by a small fire made of dried scrub-brush.
"Because," Han Zhao said, stirring a pot of thin cactus soup. "If you can understand the patience of water, you can understand how to outlast your enemies without ever drawing your sword. The Sect Leader is powerful because he consumes life. You will be powerful because you refuse to waste it."
[Target: Su Lian. Status: Developing 'Low-Key' Mindset.]
[Progress: 42%. (Still prone to occasional heroics).]
"I saw a smoke signal on the horizon today," she said, her voice turning serious. "Two peaks away. It was the 'Crimson Blade' signal. The war between the sects is spreading even here."
Han Zhao sighed. He looked at the fire. In the embers, his system projected a map of the surrounding five hundred miles.
[Detected: 14 Scout Parties in the vicinity.]
[Cause: The 'Cursed Tomb' in Peaceful Willow was a decoy. The 'True Ancestor's Vault' is rumored to be located in the Ghost-Sands.]
"Of course it is," Han Zhao muttered. "The 'True Ancestor.' Always an ancestor. Can't they just stay dead?"
"They're looking for the Vault, Han Zhao. If they find it, the Ghost-Sands will become a battlefield."
Han Zhao stood up and walked to the Stone-Humped Camel. He patted its rocky side.
"Then we change the map," he said.
"What?"
"System," Han Zhao commanded. "Use the 'False Path Manipulation' at 100% output. Infuse the Azure Dragon Core's energy into the local Ley-Lines. I want every mirage in this desert to look like a 'Hidden Vault' to anyone with a cultivation base above the Foundation stage."
[Task: Grand Mirage Projection initiated.]
[Cost: 1 Year of Longevity.]
[Effect: The Ghost-Sands will become a labyrinth of 'Golden Opportunities' that lead to nowhere.]
Han Zhao felt a pang of pain at the loss of a year, but it was a necessary investment. He watched as his shadow stretched out across the dunes, thin threads of dark Qi sinking into the sand.
By morning, the desert had changed. To the naked eye, it was still a sea of dunes. but to the spiritual senses of the scout parties, the horizon was suddenly crowded with "Ancient Ruins," "Celestial Lights," and "Forbidden Pagodas."
While the "Heroes" and "Villains" of the cultivation world began to chase ghosts in circles, Han Zhao steered his camel in the opposite direction—toward the most desolate, bone-dry valley in the center of the wastes.
Three months later, Han Zhao was sitting in his library cabin, cleaning a scroll he'd found in a lizard's burrow.
[Current Life Expectancy: 93 Years, 210 Days.]
[Status: 'Ghost of the Dunes'.]
He looked at his hands. They were tan, calloused, and looked remarkably ordinary. He felt a deep, profound sense of peace. He had successfully turned an entire province into a wild goose chase, saved Su Lian from a life of violent ambition, and increased his life expectancy by nearly twenty years since he had first transmigrated.
A small chime rang. It was the "Alarm Thread" he'd placed a mile around the camel.
He looked through the window. A single figure was staggering through the sand toward them. It wasn't a scout or a hero. It was an old man, dressed in rags, carrying nothing but a broken flute.
[System Scan Initiated...]
[Target: Unknown. Status: Dying.]
[Note: Target has no Qi. He is a 'Mortal' in the truest sense.]
Han Zhao hesitated. His instinct told him to keep moving. But his "Record-Keeper" heart, the part of him that valued the stories of the forgotten, made him pause.
"Su Lian," he called out. "Prepare some water. We have a guest who doesn't have a sword."
As the old man collapsed in the shade of the camel, Han Zhao realized that even in the deepest desert, one cannot truly escape the world. One can only choose how much of it to let in.
"Thank you..." the old man wheezed as Su Lian pressed a cup to his lips. "I thought... I thought I was the only one left who knew this path."
Han Zhao's eyes sharpened. "What path?"
The old man looked at Han Zhao, and for a second, his clouded eyes seemed to pierce through the 'Social Invisibility'.
"The path of the one who stays behind," the old man whispered. "The one who writes the names of the fallen after the gods have finished their war."
Han Zhao felt a chill that had nothing to do with the desert night.
[New Quest: The Last Chronicler.]
[Objective: Protect the 'Mortal Records' from the coming 'Heavenly Purge'.]
[Reward: True Immortality (Fragment).]
Han Zhao looked at the horizon. The mirages he had created were still flickering in the distance, drawing the powerful away. But here, in the shadow of a stone camel, the real story was beginning.
"Su Lian," Han Zhao said, his voice cold and steady. "Move the books. We're going to need more room. It seems our library is about to become a sanctuary for more than just scrolls."
[Current Life Expectancy: 93 Years, 211 Days.]
The record of immortality was no longer just a diary. It was becoming a shield.