Although it was already afternoon, as long as the sun had not set, the desert would be unbearably hot.
Zhang Zian witnessed his own urine stains stay on the stone for less than ten seconds before almost evaporating.
Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly noticed something moving in the shadows beside the rock from the corner of his eye.
What was that?
He squatted down with curiosity, but the stone gap was short and narrow. The light outside was strong, but the light inside was extremely dark. Unless he got down on all fours, it would be difficult to see what was inside.
Of course, there was another way, which was to lift the stone.
Zhang Zian looked at the stone that had just been stained by his own urine. He really could not bring himself to do it, and his curiosity was not that great.
In the end, he simply stretched out his foot and kicked the stone. He wanted to see if he could scare the thing hidden under the stone out.
He used a lot of strength in this kick, and even the bones in his leg hurt from the recoil.
As he was grinning and gasping for air, a small black animal jumped out from under the stone. Although it was small, it crawled very quickly and rushed towards him.
Zhang Zian did not even see what animal it was. He hesitated for a moment whether he should retreat or directly raise his foot to kill it. His heart suddenly had a warning, and his body flashed backwards!
At the same time, a cold light shot in from the side, accurately nailing the small animal to death in the soil.
It was a tactical dagger, and the small animal that was nailed to death was a black scorpion.
Although this dagger was obviously aimed at the scorpion, and even if Zhang Zian did not dodge, it would not hurt him. However, it still made him break out in a cold sweat.
The dagger almost cut the body of the scorpion, but the scorpion's vitality was quite tenacious. In its dying struggle, it bent the barb on its tail and tried to attack the dagger.
Zhang Zian turned to look in the direction where the dagger had flown from and saw Peter and Nabari slowly walking in this direction, with Salem following behind. Peter held an empty scabbard in his hand, proving that he had thrown the dagger.
"Brother, be careful. The scorpions in the desert are very poisonous. If you are accidentally stung, we can only turn around and send you back immediately. I don't know if we can make it in time." Peter walked to the side and bent down to pull out the dagger. The scorpion was still struggling on the dagger.
Zhang Zian frowned, thinking that Peter Lee had actually brought a dagger into the desert.
Carrying a dagger for self-defense was a very legitimate reason. After all, there were some dangerous animals in the desert, and it was possible to encounter terrorists hiding in the desert. Besides, there were many other uses for the dagger, but it still made people feel that it was very dangerous. The key was that they didn't inform Zhang Zian and Wei Kang in advance.
On the other hand, on his and Wei Kang's side, no one had thought of bringing any self-defense weapons, but it was too late for regrets now.
Nabari was not surprised that Peter was carrying a dagger, because the Bedouins would also bring a dagger or a knife to defend themselves in the desert. Nabari had a knife, but he didn't take it out in the car.
"Jeff, are you okay?" Salem also ran over and asked with concern.
"I'm fine. I'm fine." Zhang Zian nodded.
"It's an Egyptian pillar-tailed scorpion. Although it's small, it has a bad temper and is very fierce." Nabari recognized the species of the scorpion at a glance.
Peter Lee rubbed the scorpion off his dagger with the sole of his boot.
"Thank you." Zhang Zian felt awkward in his heart, but he still had to thank him.
In fact, even if Peter Lee hadn't made a move, the scorpion wouldn't have been able to hurt Zhang Zian. After all, he was wearing desert combat boots, so it was unlikely that the stinger would have easily pierced him. It would have been trampled to death before it got close.
"Oh, we're all partners in the same team. It's only right to help each other. Why are you being so polite?" Peter Lee took out a tissue, wiped the dagger clean, and put it back into the scabbard.
Zhang Zian didn't see that Peter Lee had such good skills. He carefully recalled the scene just now. Peter Lee's knife, whether it was strength or accuracy, was excellent. One had to know that the scorpion was quite small, and it was moving fast. It wasn't easy to stab it with a knife. At least, Zhang Zian knew that he couldn't do it.
"You guys are here …"
Zhang Zian thought to himself, You guys aren't here to pee together, are you? You're so good that you're peeing in the same pot?
Peter Lee glanced at Nabari. "Nabari is looking for the way. I've long heard about the magic of the Bedouins, so I'm following out of curiosity."
Nabari walked among the rocks, seemingly walking aimlessly. From time to time, he would reach out and touch the stones, as if he was retrieving his past memories from touching them.
These stones looked the same to Zhang Zian and the others. They didn't know how Nabari could distinguish them.
After a while, Nabari pointed in a direction. "Go that way."
That direction was no different from the other directions. There was no ready-made road on the rugged ground.
They had been heading south before, but now they were heading west.
"Uncle Nabari …" Salem couldn't help but ask. If Nabari didn't speak, then he wouldn't be able to learn anything useful.
"Mark." Nabari patted the stone.
At this time, they noticed that there was a very vague mark on the side of the stone, pointing in the direction that Nabari had pointed.
This mark was very old and hidden, like some kind of writing. It had been worn away by the desert's wind and was about to disappear.
In fact, the answer was that simple. Nabari had found the way because he had found the mark, but if he hadn't known that there was a mark in this area, he wouldn't have been able to find it.
Nabari looked back at Salem and said, "This is a mark left by our people a long time ago. Thousands of years ago, people smuggled lion skin, ivory, spices, gold, and ostrich eggs from the Kufra Oasis in Libya. Through the Siwa Oasis or the Dakhla Oasis, they were transported to the other side of the Mediterranean Sea or to major cities in ancient Egypt. After our people came, we relied on our familiarity with the desert and got a share of the loot. "
Zhang Zian and Peter Lee were very surprised. Nabari was actually leading them on an ancient smuggling road.
Whether it was ancient or modern, smuggling was a felony. After all, the way to make a lot of money was written in the criminal law. Especially in ancient times, smuggling was equivalent to putting the pharaoh's money into your own pocket. Once caught, you would definitely be beheaded.
The ancient Egyptian pharaohs didn't want the gold of the treasury to go to waste, but their actual control was limited. Basically, it was limited to the black land on both sides of the Nile River. The wider red land was far outside the pharaohs' sphere of influence. Therefore, even though the pharaohs knew that there was a secret smuggling road, they could only watch.
A smuggling road that had been tested by time was at least more reliable than blindly rushing in the desert.
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