Quickly finishing off those rookies cost literally nothing but as Midas’ flew off - under the veil of the ceasely soaring golden grains that toar everything within apart - she couldn’t help but happily hiss at the gains. While those stupid cultivators by themselves meant absolutely nothing to her, what they had was far from useless for her in her current situation.

First benefit was the wide array of drugs/poisons the group had - one may question if she was alright swallowing all those ‘unsavoury liquids and powders’ but the answer was clear. She couldn’t be happier! Which {Heavenly Beast} don’t have their own little quirks? Even a {Spirit Beast} often has various treasures making up their bodies (their own [Bloodline Dharma Treasures]).

Like how dragons have their scales, [Dragon Arcane Gland] and so on.

Only makes sense that a superior race like the [Golden Eulogy Amphiptere] would have even better scales, glands and so on~! Her venom gland allows her to store an endless list of different concoctions (each stored separately and can be used independently) as well as replenish them at the same rate as her own venom. She also is able to slowly improve the quality with the natural properties of her [Golden Eulogy Qi]. Of course, she also could completely understand how they are made as well but that is an additional affect that she didn’t even expect herself~!

<Huh… Perhapss it iss bekausse of my eye marking ass it did have some meaning in my passt life? I have heard that there were two forms of Eyess of Horuss so perhapss thiss eye grants me inkreassed affinity with sertain typess of information?

Either way thesse will kome in quite handy shashashasha~!>

Some of them clearly got their character across to her (mostly those not for battle) such as one which heightened senses and increased the horni while lowering a sense of self. This would come in quite useful for achieving her ‘reward’ as well as gaining an edge on the market; [Golden Eulogy Amphiptere] already were one big walking aphrodisiac so with this added ability, if used subtly, anyone could become a customer~!

<I’ll be sswimming/sslithering in ssemen in no time shashashasha~!>

<| Initializing <Query>{Weren’t you a straight man less than half a year ago?} |>

<Three monthss are a long time to adapt oh goddess of mine~!>

<| Initializing <Response>{You didn’t even know you were a woman till today.} |>

<Progress waitss for no man sso being a woman is more konvient anyway~!>

Oh, some of them were useful for combat like a simple paralysis poison and a normal poison. Also she now had a corrosive option for when she wasn’t dealing with organic matter. Obviously these idiots weren’t that good at making poison so she would need to purify it quite a bit as the best was on the second idiot at grade 5. Even that wasn’t Purple Rank and the purity was 30%!

As for the second benefit; amazing as she is she can’t do anything if she wasn’t even sure where she was.

Asking Akaibu for help was possible but that would cost and the less costs Midas had to spend on things like that the more she could spend on things that matter; like pretty gems and expensive clothing! Reading the memories of the fools was as easy as breathing for a [Golden Eulogy Amphiptere] of a higher cultivation so she managed to get the basic geography of the desert. Obviously there weren’t many waypoints to tell where you actually were compared to the cities and such… But that was actually perfect for her own future plans.

According to the fools they were close to the centre of this desert continent but this also meant it could be considered the weakest area of the desert in both stability and cultivation level of the {Mortal Races}. The reason was simple: water was rare. That being said it wasn’t as if it were a poor area; many resources were plentiful such as gems, rare metals and even certain beasts that can be worth quite a bit. Unfortunately for the {Mortal Races} these beasts were also very dangerous and had a lot of deadly venom. To add insult to injury a lot of these venomous beasts also happened to be swarm beasts as well as often being covered in natural armour.

In other words this desert needs to be carefully navigated or you’d receive invites to stay permanently… A lot of venomous, plentiful and rapidly reproducing invites. It wasn’t easy for the weak to move around while the strong wanted as little to do with the centre as they could. Only merchants and those guarding them dared reach into the centre to claim the spoils while the truly impressive figures preferred to seek spoils from the seas and beyond them. It just wasn’t worth the trouble to go into the desert as the expenses for safety as stronger figures also gained the attention of stronger/more venomous beasts in this desert. This meant it was always a threat unless someone could find some safe path through… Thus they hadn’t so only merchants as well as their guards entered these lands. Their cultivation wasn’t high in the grand scheme of things but for independent cultivators they were prominent.

<Not like they kould threaten me though, they would jusst be like krunchy treatss… Well I don’t aktually chew as a ssnake but I sertainly sswallow shashashasha~!>

There were plenty of cities within these wild lands but most of the time it was filled with mediocre cultivators and mortals for one simple reason - anyone who had some power would rather seek out stability than the ever changing sands of the {Central Cities}. This was because for the {Mortal Races} water was a fundamental requirement for survival. Nearer to the edge the more regular rain was while at the coast… Well there was plenty of water and it wasn't difficult to make it drinkable if you knew what you were doing; this led to a system where weaker powers were relegated to the boundless but deadly lands while the strong all huddled up on the outer rim (simply called {Outerim}). And, when a lot of strong factions get pushed into a confined space, conflict is sure to follow so disputes over land and thus resources within are as common as the golden grains that gained the continent its name.

Alternatively the central cities weren’t exactly shining beacons of justice either as they tended to be filled with crime and the darkness of mankind but in far less civilized manner than their stronger brethren. It’s harder to not find a jaded prostitute or greedy slavers in these places.

This leads to the strange situation where the {Outerim} of the continent (where water is plentiful) almost ignores the {Central Cities} which are rich in resources. Very few are willing to make the journey to the {Central Cities} (while not being the aforementioned merchants) so the maps are unreliable and thus the groups need to be few in number so as to avoid being bogged down. As such, the outer rim simply continue to fight over resources.

Meanwhile the inner area despite having relatively low cultivation somehow is rich in resources - this can also be attributed to the lack of techniques leading to them being unable to cross the gap to Foundation Formation. Afterall, anyone worth their salt can see that the inside is a fat lamb that can be farmed but is an unsafe environment to grow (if one grows to quickly inside it will be unlikely they could leave and even possibly bring danger to those around them as they gain the hungry eyes of the beasts). This leads to the talented individuals simply leaving for ‘brighter horizons’ where they will be safer and less fearful some beast will suddenly feel that ‘the sheep has fattened up enough’.

When at the edge of the continent why would they go back to face that?

Even if they didn’t like the atmosphere on the rim it wasn’t that hard to cross to a more peaceful continent as exporting and importing were very important to the {Outerim}. Catching a boat after achieving a decent cultivation was as simple as having money and or being strong enough to act as a decent guard. So why would an expert remain on this shithole?

While airships existed and could greatly lessen the dangers due to not being as easy to detect... Airships were difficult to obtain even on the large sects on the wealthy/stable continents nevermind those on this {Golden Dust Continent}. Where would they find the experts to build or maintain the things; not even mentioning the resources… Though resources weren’t an issue for the {Central Cities}.

But how could Midas not see how easy it was to manipulate the situation? The main crux of the situation was the transportation of water & other vital supplies across the dangerous desert as well as areas where one could simply gain some time to think about these dangerous treks through the desert. Although travel between cities wasn't as difficult as journeying between the {Outerim} and {Central Cities} even though that was a matter of constant life and death; in such a situation it only makes sense that mistakes would be more common. Even the hardiest of merchants need to take weeks if not months before setting out again.

Of course, as a {Heavenly Beast} how could Midas not ordain these poor mortals with a solution… For a price~!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

It didn’t take long for Midas to arrive in the middle of nowhere or specifically in the middle of the {Central Cities}. In other words she has traveled to the centre of {Central Cities} which is also in the centre of {Outerim} due to {Outerim} having a holo centre - all this being summed up as being the centre of {Golden Dust Continent}.

What she did here was… Dig a hole.

She didn’t just make a hole in the sand but also put up a ‘simple barrier’ similar to what her scales could produce. Obviously this was because it was indeed based on the barrier her scales activate - she could easily tell how the barrier was made so adapting the principle was easy enough. Though it was still a costly high level barrier technique. It’s purpose was to prevent the wind inside from kicking up a huff, informing the person with the spiritual ownership of the barrier of anything happening within and preventing someone from bombarding the area within.

The last one was actually the easiest to develop thanks to it being the exact thing the original did; though with the added benefits it could easily claim to be a Divine Ranked barrier technique!

After doing that she dug the hole she had to do something with the golden sands - this was the most difficult thing she had to do.

<Huh I need to think of a good way to make thiss area sstand out; but what is the best way to make ssomething sstand out in a land where everything lookss the exakt ssame… Well oppossite yellow is purple but purple is dangerouss in nature so it wouldn’t be good… Red and blue would be good and my water is obvioussly blue but I kan’t jusst…

Fukk it, kloudss. Now what to do with the ssand… Maybe I sshould jusst kompound it all with a little water and plant some nisse plantss around. Sslowly sspread it out ass I dig; make a nisse little foresst for the hatchlingss to sslither around. Perhapss a nisse orchid with actual grass though kan’t be too klosse as we need a nice sshore. Of koursse, needss to be densse enough to block ssight.>

And so she got to work.