"Alright, let's drink to our hearts' content tonight."
Wang Dazhu went back into the house and took out the only two jars of rice wine left. His wife, Dongmei, prepared some snacks to go with the wine.
The two clinked glasses and chatted about their old times in Anyang, but there was a distance between them, and they could never go back to the way things were before.
Li Boyang left around midnight, and Wang Dazhu saw him off.
Looking at Li Boyang's confident face, he suddenly felt a sense of estrangement. Perhaps the other man was no longer on his side. He walked on the ground, while the other man began to fly in the sky. (For the latest chapters, please follow WeChat ID: rdww444)
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Chapter 71 Battle in the Desert (Part 1)
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The sky was filled with yellow sand, which was accompanied by a scorching wind. The boundless desert looked magnificent and majestic.
A camel caravan is slowly making its way through the sandstorm.
"Zhao Wu, are we on the right track? Are we almost at the oasis?"
The sandstorm blowing from the winning side seemed to encounter resistance as it approached Zuoqiu Leshan's body, and it all fell to the ground.
Distinguishing directions in the vast desert is no easy task. Even with tools to indicate the direction, you can only ensure that you don't go astray in the general direction.
The group in the desert was naturally an escort team from the Dongyang Sect. They rested for two days in the capital of Donghua Kingdom. In the early morning of the third day, Zhou Tong decided to set off under the cover of night and travel overnight to leave Donghua Kingdom.
"It shouldn't be far. I'll go look for it."
Zhao Wu pulled on the camel's reins and left the group alone. He wanted to find the oasis they had come from, where the group would rest.
The caravan arrived empty, but on the return journey, each camel was pulling a large box behind it, totaling dozens of boxes. Unlike when they arrived, Zuoqiu Leshan was now accompanied by people who made up a third of the total group.
It should be noted that when Zuoqiu Leshan arrived, he was accompanied by only a handful of people.
The journey has been relatively smooth. The group has already crossed the border of Donghua Kingdom and has not encountered any danger yet. The group's vigilance is not as high as it was at the start of the trip.
Li Boyang had a blade of grass dangling from his mouth, and his camel seemed listless as it followed the escort team.
Something was wrong; Zhao Wu had been gone for almost twenty minutes and hadn't returned.
"Li Boyang, Huang Sanchu, you two go and investigate again. The rest of you, stay alert."
Zuoqiu Leshan also noticed this and directly called out the names of the two people.
Li Boyang cursed under his breath. If there was real danger, wasn't this just adding fuel to the fire? But he still followed orders and, with a flick of the reins, broke away from the group with another person.
The biting hot wind whipped up sand, obscuring the sky and making visibility extremely poor. Even with Li Boyang's eyesight, he couldn't see anything more than ten meters away.
Even so, five minutes later, Li Boyang still found the oasis.
The oasis was very peaceful. The sandstorm was blocked by the poplar trees, and the clear lake rippled. Animals were drinking water on the lakeside. Everything seemed calm and peaceful.
Li Boyang pulled on the reins to stop the camel from moving forward. Something was wrong. He had come from the direction Zhao Wu was coming from. If that was the case, there was no reason why Zhao Wu hadn't discovered the oasis.
Moreover, given that the oasis was so close to the group, why didn't Zhao Wu return, and why was there no sign of him in the oasis?
Sensing danger, he turned his camel around and chose to leave directly. Soon, Li Boyang returned to the escort team.
“Deacon Zhou, the oasis is just ahead, but I suggest we bypass it and go straight back.”
Li Boyang did not report to Zuoqiu Leshan, but instead went to Zhou Tong and explained the situation to him.
Zhou Tong frowned and said, "Didn't you find any clues at all?"
Seeing Li Boyang shake his head, Zhou Tong turned to Zuoqiu Leshan and said, "I suggest we take a detour and give up on entering the oasis."
Just then, Huang Sanchu returned. He went in a different direction than Li Boyang, and shook his head at everyone, indicating that he had not found anything, but he also did not encounter any unusual situations.
Zuoqiu Leshan considered it for a moment and said, "Let's take a detour, or we shouldn't take the risk."
The top leaders of the two teams reached an agreement: Zhao Wu has been gone for half an hour and hasn't returned yet; something must have happened to him.
The group left the oasis and moved forward slowly.
As night slowly fell, under the dark moonlight, bonfires were lit.
The scorching heat turned into freezing temperatures in an instant.
Li Boyang leaned against the camel and took a sip of water. That's how the desert is; you experience summer by day and winter by night. Fortunately, the group were all skilled in martial arts, so they could endure it.
A rustling sound reached my ears.
Those were scorpions and venomous snakes moving about in the desert, startling the camels and making them uneasy.
The escort team's rest area was sprinkled with insect repellent, which was enough to deter these poisonous insects from daring to test the law. However, the camel caravan's fear of poisonous creatures was also in their nature.
Time passed slowly, and Li Boyang closed his eyes to rest quietly, as did most of the others.
It will take about seven days to get back to the Dongyang Sect, and then this mission will be complete.
Thump! Thump!
Sitting by the campfire, Zuoqiu Leshan's ears twitched slightly, and he suddenly shouted:
"Be on guard, there is an enemy."