Shao Xuan had decided to go to the desert but the Yanjiao people would not let Shao Xuan go alone. Plus, they were there to recruit people.
If the target was someone else, Yanjiao would not care so much. However, this was the Gongjia family. Especially the Yanjiao people from the other side of the sea. When they heard about the Gongjia family, their eyes lit up as if there was a mountain of treasure. They would not let go of this opportunity, especially when they had discovered a new type of metal. They needed people in this field to speed up their improvement.
After experiencing the benefits of the new bronze, Yanjiao people valued excellent tools even more.
According to Gongjia Heng's letter, there should be about ten people coming. Perhaps only one or two of them were important while the rest were apprentices. However, Yanjiao did not mind. These apprentices were still apprentices of the Gongjia family and had much more experience than Yanjiao craftsmen.
When Guigou, Ao and the rest heard the news, they all had the same decision. Take them, take them all! Take as many as you can!
As for whether they could be trusted … they would bring them back first. If they were not trustworthy, then don't blame Yanjiao for being ruthless.
It was not good to bring too many people to the desert. Too many people would make them a big target and it would not be a good place to hide. They were only there to recruit people, not to join the war. Plus, Yanjiao could not afford to send too many people.
In the end, Shao Xuan decided to bring a hundred people. These people were carefully selected. Duo Kang wanted to join but Ta wanted to go too. According to the old rules, one of the two team leaders had to stay in the territory. The last time Duo Kang went out to sea, because it was about the people from Taihe, Ta and the others didn't know them, so he didn't have any objections. But this time, Duo Kang and the others didn't know the people they were going to pick up. Since everyone wasn't familiar with the people they were going to pick up, Ta had something to say.
In the end, Duo Kang stayed in the territory while Ta went to the desert.
It wasn't going to be an easy task this time. One of them was the legendary monsters in the desert. Even though Rock Hill City's main target was the seaside, no one knew how many of them were eyeing other parts of the desert. Secondly, Shao Xuan knew that other than the threat of Rock Hill City, there were other uncertainties.
Why did he say that?
If Gongjia Heng could ask Su Li to deliver the letter, why didn't he ask Su Li to deliver the person directly? After all, the Chang Le's had long-winged birds that could fly long distances. Perhaps the Chang Le's had their own safer flight route. If the Chang Le's could help, there wouldn't be so much trouble.
However, the reality was that Heng did not do that. Or rather, Heng wanted to but the Changle's did not agree. Based on Heng's letter, they could guess the reason behind this.
The Changle's were unwilling to help because they did not want to cause trouble. There were other people on the other side of the sea who were also keeping an eye on the target. After all, he was a Gongjia member. If Yanjiao wanted to recruit him, why didn't the others? The people on the other side were even more aware of the Gongjia family's capabilities. Other than that, there might be people who wanted to kill him. Although the new king had agreed to banish the target, who knew if there were other orders behind the scenes?
Delivering the letter would not attract attention but transporting the person would be a huge target. The Chang Le's did not want to cause trouble.
They set off from Yanjiao towards the desert. The closer they got to the desert, the more they felt a deathly stillness. Back then, the desert was called a dead land but there were still traces of human activity near the edge of the desert. Small to medium sized tribes like the Rain tribe lived there. Now, the Rain tribe had moved away. Perhaps the other tribes had left too. Perhaps they had disappeared for other reasons. Anyway, when they came here again, they had not even set foot in the desert.
"The weather here is still so bad," said Tuo.
Years ago, when Shao Xuan, Tuo and Lei Di came here and rested at the Rain tribe, they had also encountered sand and dust storms. Now that they were here, it seemed to be worse.
"If this continues, the desertification will worsen and the desert will expand faster." Shao Xuan pointed at the ground beneath his feet. "This wasn't like this before. Although there were no forests, at least there were some weeds. Now, there are only sand and rocks."
"The place where the Rain tribe used to live has all turned into sand." Lei remembered the first time he came to the desert. "The Rain tribe's decision to move was the right one."
After the Rain tribe left, the weather became drier. Without the Rain tribe, there was less rain.
During the disaster, much of the desert disappeared. If this continued, it might not be as big as before in a thousand years but it would definitely be much bigger than the desert now.
Shao Xuan left fifty people outside the desert while he brought the remaining fifty into the desert. They had four spiritual rain stones. The Rain tribe would not trade them away. Even though the people of the Rain tribe no longer needed the stones to collect water, the stones were symbolic to the Rain tribe. Especially after the migration, it was difficult to find any more spiritual rain stones. The ones in their hands were even more precious.
Now, there were four spiritual rain stones. One of them was given to Shao Xuan by Yanjiao and the other three were rented from the Rain tribe by Yanjiao. For this, they even paid some materials as the rental fee. This was for the sake of Yanjiao. After all, the Rain tribe was now on Yanjiao's side. If it were someone else, the Rain tribe would never lend out their spiritual rain stones, let alone three.
He kept one for each of the fifty people outside the desert. Outside the desert, the weather was better than inside the desert. The rain stones could gather water droplets more efficiently too. However, once they entered the desert, the rain stones would not gather water droplets as quickly. That was why Shao Xuan brought three rain stones. He kept one for himself and gave the other two to Ta and Xiang Chen. They were divided into three teams. If they split up, they would be responsible for the water supply for their subordinates.
The dry and hot wind mixed with sand and dust hit their faces. It was not comfortable for people who were used to the wet forest.
Shao Xuan and the others covered their mouths and noses with cloth and walked forward on the sand.
Today's weather was not good. Not long after entering the desert, there was a sandstorm. Shao Xuan found a place to rest for a while. When the sandstorm stopped, he opened the cylinder and took out the small oval ball. He twisted it open.
The thumb-sized flying insect that was curled up into a ball moved its legs after a short while. Then, the pair of membranous wings that were tightly wrapped around its body also loosened. It stretched its body and flapped its wings, flipping its body over. Its two long antennae were propped up and swayed.
Perhaps it had just woken up or it was not used to the desert environment. After the insect flipped over, it rested in the oval ball for a while. Then, it used its developed upper jaw to scrape the inner wall of the oval ball.
"So the food is here." Shao Xuan picked up the other half of the oval ball. There was indeed some waxy material on the inner wall. When Heng locked the insect inside, he must have thought of the possibility of this happening.
After eating and waking up, the insect used its forelimbs to flick its antennae and flapped its wings to fly.
"Follow it!" said Shao Xuan.
The insect did not linger in the same spot. Instead, it flew in one direction. This meant it could find its target here.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
