The harsh desert seemed to stretch endlessly, with unbearably high temperatures during the day.
As night fell, the temperature would suddenly drop, becoming bitterly cold.
After entering the Bitter Sea Restricted Area, Mo Wangchen continued walking straight ahead; here, his Cultivation wasn’t suppressed, nor did he feel his lifespan draining.
Beyond the desert, there was nothing else.
He didn’t know how long he had walked nor where he was headed, just relentlessly pushing forward.
A month had passed...
Within the Bitter Sea Restricted Area, where there was neither hunger nor fatigue, Mo Wangchen had been trekking on foot for a month and felt spirited throughout.
He didn’t know how far he had walked; even during the first half-month since he had entered, Mo Wangchen used to keep track of the days and nights he spent there, but now, he had stopped counting.
Even though there was no sense of hunger or fatigue, after more than a month, Mo Wangchen began to feel increasingly distracted and lonely.
Until, two months had passed since he entered the Bitter Sea Restricted Area.
In the barren desert, everywhere was the same sandy soil, which might even give Mo Wangchen the illusion that despite merely walking straight ahead, he was actually wandering in the same place.
Two months seemed like the entire world had left him alone, a tremendous sense of loneliness sprouting in his heart.
Although there was no fatigue, now he felt powerless in his heart, not wanting to continue any further.
Suddenly, an inn appeared ahead of him, marking the first strange occurrence Mo Wangchen had encountered since entering the Bitter Sea Restricted Area.
How could there possibly be an inn inside the Restricted Zone?
Even more absurd, there were a few figures moving about the inn; people walked out from the inn, didn’t go far, then gradually faded and disappeared from view, as if they were getting further away.
Mo Wangchen frowned, his first reaction being that the inn and the people moving about were merely illusions.
He didn’t leave but instead walked into the inn.
Long subjected to the intense heat of the sun, the moment Mo Wangchen entered the inn, the cool sensation hit him, causing his vision to darken slightly before it eventually cleared.
At the same time, he suddenly realized that he was starting to feel hungry—something that hadn’t happened in two months.
"Young man, are you here to eat or to stay?"
Approaching him were a man and a woman, both middle-aged, likely a couple, wearing welcoming smiles, exuding warmth as the inn’s owners.
It seemed their warmth was a habit formed from years of serving guests.
"Can you see me?" Mo Wangchen paused, then frowned.
This was all supposed to be just an illusion...
The middle-aged couple exchanged glances, then looked back at Mo Wangchen, their faces filled with confusion.
Mo Wangchen felt everything was too strange, but now, the sudden surge of hunger left him feeling weak.
He inadvertently blurted it out, but soon realized something. He did not know whether the Gold Coins he carried could be used here.
The middle-aged couple exchanged a glance, seemingly perceiving Mo Wangchen’s difficulty. The middle-aged woman smiled and said, "Have a seat first. I’ll go fry up some of my specialty dishes—it’s on me."
After speaking, she glanced at the middle-aged man, signaling him to keep Mo Wangchen company before she turned and left.
"Where do you come from, young man?" The middle-aged man invited Mo Wangchen to sit and asked with a smile.
Mo Wangchen looked around. At that moment, there were a few people eating in the guesthouse, "I come from..."
He hesitated, unsure how to explain it to the man. The events occurring here were too strange; guesthouses should not exist in the Bitter Sea Restricted Area!
Seeing Mo Wangchen falter, the middle-aged man did not think too much about it. He smiled, "My surname is Zhao, you can call me Brother Zhao."
"Brother Zhao, how long have you been running this guesthouse here?" asked Mo Wangchen.
Zhao Kang paused, then said, "For many years now, your aunt and I came here when we were young..."
While he spoke, Mo Wangchen projected his Perception and found that both Zhao Kang and the people eating in the guesthouse had no cultivation whatsoever.
They were ordinary mortals!
This made Mo Wangchen even more curious. The Bitter Sea Restricted Area had seen countless people lost within it since ancient times, with only the Divine Buddha Fan Cang having emerged from it thirty thousand years ago.
How could this restricted zone possibly have ordinary mortals?
After a while, the middle-aged woman brought up two plates of appetizing dishes. Seeing the food in front of him, Mo Wangchen felt hungrier than he ever had before.
Under the gaze of the middle-aged couple, Mo Wangchen started eating without any care for appearances.
He didn’t know how much time had passed while devouring his meal, after which Mo Wangchen felt full and the sense of weakness disappeared.
"Are you full?" the middle-aged woman asked with a smile.
Mo Wangchen nodded and politely responded, "Thank you."
At that time, a table of guests nearby had already paid and left. The middle-aged woman went to collect the money, and then the two guests walked towards the door. They had not gone far from the guesthouse before their figures faded, giving a sense of them moving further and further away, yet Mo Wangchen was certain that they had only taken a few steps before vanishing into thin air.
After a long while, Mo Wangchen finally shifted his gaze and looked at Zhao Kang, "Those two people disappeared, where did they go?"
Zhao Kang was startled, a puzzled look on his face, "Are you talking about the two who just paid and left?"
Zhao Kang looked even more baffled and glanced outside the door, "Aren’t they right there under the tree outside, still not having left?"
Hearing this, Mo Wangchen frowned and looked outside again, but he saw neither the tree Zhao Kang mentioned nor the figures of the two people.
"Could it be that what I see is different from what others see..."
Thinking this, he felt the situation becoming stranger. How could the Bitter Sea Restricted Area possibly have living people, let alone ordinary mortals without any cultivation?
Yet, everything happening before his eyes seemed too real, and yet not like an illusion...