"Sigh—" Lou Fei’Er let out a long sigh and looked up at the endless desert, "At this pace, we’ll never make it out. This desert is probably...very, very large."
Jin Yue took a bottle of water from her backpack, drank a few sips, and then put it back in the backpack: "Yeah, if we’re at the center of the desert, walking definitely won’t get us out in this lifeti."
Now that Earth’s surface area has expanded a hundredfold, the desert is unimaginably vast, making it impossible to traverse solely by walking.
That’s why the three of them took a short break here without rushing forward.
"Around here, aside from these strange plants, there’s not even a place to shield from the sun." Lou Fei’Er stood in the shade of a thick twisted tree, fanning herself with her hand. "If this continues, we’ll probably die of dehydration..."
Her whole body was soaked in sweat, and her hair stuck to her forehead.
Exposed to the blazing sunlight for so long, her gaze began to blur sowhat.
Shi Wanyun squatted on the ground, grabbing a handful of sand and gravel.
The sand and gravel, heated by the intense sunlight, were scalding hot.
The sand wasn’t fine but extrely coarse, with small stones mixed in. Compared to the fine sand at the seaside, these sands are completely unsuitable for walking barefoot without getting scratched.
Shi Wanyun rubbed the sand in her palm and then let it slip from her hand. She turned to the other two and said, "The water resources I have can sustain us three for a long ti, at least for a few months, so we’re not going to die of thirst...unless we’re trapped in this desert for months."
"Don’t say such scary things!" Lou Fei’Er looked at the endless desert, then rolled her eyes slightly and sighed again.
She had lost her confidence too.
The scenery around was monotonous. The three won had been walking for over three hours, yet nothing had changed.
If they hadn’t been using the sun and ti to orient themselves, she would have thought they were walking in circles for these two hours.
Jin Yue reached out to touch the twisted, eerie dead tree: "Don’t worry too much. Maybe we can find an oasis nearby."
From the twisted gaps, the sa insects crawled out again.
"This tree is probably alive," Jin Yue speculated. "At least it indicates this place isn’t completely desolate and dry. Perhaps there’s an underground stream; otherwise, these plants and the insects coexisting with them couldn’t survive. Maybe there’s an oasis nearby."
Lou Fei’Er looked at the tree: "The root systems of desert plants can reach hundreds of ters underground to extract water. Who knows how deep these unusual plants can go? Hundreds or maybe even over a thousand ters?"
"Dig down," Shi Wanyun grabbed another handful of sand and gravel, speaking softly, "Perhaps it’s worth a try."
"...Huh?" Lou Fei’Er looked at her wide-eyed, "What do you an? Dig down? Why?"
Jin Yue also looked at her in confusion.
"Don’t forget, our goal now is to find a place where I can draw the Teleportation Array Pattern," Shi Wanyun said, clapping the hand that had gripped the sandstone, and stood up.
She had tried drawing on the desert sand earlier but couldn’t succeed at all.
The sand was too loose. Any exertion would scatter it, and even the wind would blow it away.
Moreover, the sunlight was too harsh, burning the skin of the three won, and the blood used for drawing the pattern would evaporate in ten seconds.
Therefore, the Teleportation Array Pattern couldn’t be successfully drawn.
Their long trek was in search of a flat ground where the sunlight wouldn’t cause the blood to evaporate.
If they could draw the Teleportation Array Pattern successfully, they could return.
The key was the flat surface, as the sunlight factor would not be a problem at night.
But after walking this far, they hadn’t seen any such conditions.
"No way... this is a desert, not soil." Lou Fei’Er looked down and stomped on the sand, "In this type of terrain, can we dig a hole? We can’t dig, can we? Once a shovelful is removed, it’s just going to be filled by the surrounding sand and gravel."
"The sand and gravel near the plant are rougher and tighter; maybe we could try it. Underneath the sand... it might be less loose, right?"
"Then let’s give it a try!"
Continuing to walk wasn’t a solution. The three won were forced to try this seemingly far-fetched and foolish action.
The result...
They barely succeeded.
The sand and gravel close to the plants, although relatively compact, still had the properties of sand, with a certain degree of fluidity.
The three won had to expand the digging range, gradually forming a funnel-shaped pit, reaching a depth of two ters.
"Ah, the sand and gravel below have beco sowhat hard!" Lou Fei’Er exclaid in surprise after digging a shovelful.
The three won imdiately dug further.
They gradually discovered that the sand and gravel under the plants were very tight, while further from the plants, even at the sa depth, remained loose.
Shi Wanyun dug out the compact sand and gravel, noticing so...dense tiny holes on the surface.
"...It seems these compact sand and gravel are the work of those insects," Shi Wanyun frowned.
"This really seems to be those insects’ nest." Lou Fei’Er squatted down to take a closer look, "We’ve dug up their lair. They might co out and go crazy on us..."
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