Continuing to walk forward, Mo Fan would deliberately turn back to check on Mu Ningxue for almost every 100 metres. He would make sure that he did not stray too far.
It had to be said that this desert maze was indeed quite strange. Turning back every 100 metres, he would find that his original target was in a different place. There were several times when Mo Fan felt that Mu Ningxue should be directly behind him, but there was a very big way out. It felt like Mu Ningxue was always moving parallel to him.
In fact, Mu Ningxue had not moved at all. She was standing on that sand dune, releasing a bamboo hat-like whirlpool every once in a while to tell him where she was. As the distance between them grew further and further, Mo Fan could no longer see Mu Ningxue's figure. Only the bamboo hat-like whirlpool in the air told Mo Fan that she was still there.
Unknowingly, Mo Fan had already walked a kilometre. Facing the endless red sand around him, he suddenly felt a sense of confusion.
Other than the blue sky, everything else around him was hard to distinguish. Mo Fan even felt like he had walked back to the sand dune where Mu Ningxue was, because the sand dune in front of him was too similar. If not for the bamboo hat-like whirlpool telling Mo Fan that she had always been there, Mo Fan would really have thought that he had walked in a big circle.
It was no wonder that many people would lose their way because of this. Without any flags, coordinates, or points of reference, it was equivalent to entering a pure darkness.
The yellow of the desert, the endless sand of the desert, the undulating hills of the desert, these were all repeated endlessly. When the surrounding scenery was always like this, it was no different from escaping into a pitch-black darkness. One would completely lose their way, not even knowing if they were walking in a circle or in a straight line.
Most terrifyingly, the communication devices in the area were disrupted. Mo Fan's communication device had stopped working when he was around five hundred meters away. If the members of the team did not come up with a plan on how to contact each other, they would never be able to find each other again.
Mo Fan estimated the distance and then searched within a kilometre with Mu Ningxue as the center.
After walking for about half an hour, Mo Fan finally found something other than the yellow sand.
It was a sand fox that was timidly passing by him. Mo Fan looked at the place where the sand fox had just passed and found a light green thing buried in the sand.
Mo Fan walked over and swept away the top layer of sand. Then, he pulled out a light green tent from the sand.
The tent seemed to have been badly blown by the wind, and some water bags and dried food that hunters often used when they went out were scattered around. It seemed that someone had stayed here not long ago.
Of course, it was also possible that these things were blown here by the strong sandstorm. In fact, the camp of those people was actually a long way from here.
However, now at least he could be sure that the group of African students was in this area. They had lost contact about a day and a half ago. If they had some brains, he hoped that they had not gone far.
"Only this broken tent. There are no other clues. Alas, I hope this can be considered as a report. Otherwise, when the real rescue team comes, they won't even see a broken tent." Mo Fan picked up the green tent and propped it up with tent poles, barely making it into a green flag.
After making the mark, Mo Fan headed back. To Mo Fan's dismay, he initially thought Mu Ningxue was at his six o 'clock, but the wind that was blowing her hat was at his twelve o' clock. It was a hundred and eighty degrees off from where he was supposed to be. It was absolutely ridiculous. If he had followed his instincts, he would have gone in the opposite direction.
After returning to Mu Ningxue, Mu Ningxue looked at Mo Fan and said, "This desert maze is a bit strange."
"It's not just strange, it's almost crazy. I have such a good sense of direction, but I can't even lock onto the correct position," said Mo Fan.
"Let's go back to Jiang Shaoxu first," said Mu Ningxue.
Jiang Shaoxu was maintaining his signal. Once they reached Mu Ningxue's location, they would be able to see Jiang Shaoxu's signal, which was a kilometer away.
They would be able to see Jiang Shaoxu after finding Jiang Yu.
As a matter of fact, in Mo Fan's eyes, their positions were like chess pieces scattered across a chessboard. They did not look like a long line at all. However, it turned out that they were indeed … They were in a straight line!
"Let's go, we'll be able to see Nan Jue once we reach Zhao Manyan's location. To be honest, I don't want to stay in this place for a second longer. I keep feeling like Jiang Yu is constantly changing his position, "said Zhao Manyan.
"I have the same feeling too, but none of us have moved," said Jiang Shaoxu with a nod.
"Why isn't Nan Jue sending a signal yet? Didn't we agree to send a signal every five minutes?" said Jiang Yu.
It had been five minutes since they arrived at Zhao Manyan's location. Normally, Nan Jue should have sent a signal by now, but Nan Jue, which was outside the maze, did not respond at all.
"Speaking of which, it's already been ten minutes …" murmured Zhao Manyan.
He was only saying it casually. After all, he was only a kilometer away from the maze. Even without Nan Jue, he could easily find his way out of the maze. However, Nan Jue did not send a signal as they had agreed. It was quite worrying!
The group continued to wait at Zhao Manyan's location. However, after fifteen minutes, Nan Jue still did not respond!
"Could she have fallen asleep?"
"Nan Jue wouldn't make such a naive mistake. Something must have happened to her!" said Mo Fan confidently.
Nan Jue and Ai Jiangtu were both from the military. They were very strict with the rules. Since they had agreed to send a signal every five minutes, they would not miss half a second of the time.
Since there was no signal for fifteen minutes, it was very likely that she was in some kind of trouble!
"Let's hurry over and take a look. Even though we're only at the outskirts of the Sahara Desert, there's still something terrifying here," said Jiang Shaoxu.
The group nodded and immediately headed in Nan Jue's direction.
After running for around four hundred meters, Mo Fan realized that Jiang Shaoxu was still standing in the same spot. Mo Fan was utterly confused. He turned around and yelled at Jiang Shaoxu, "What are you doing here? Let's go!"
"Look ahead, do you see yellow sand, or red sand?" Jiang Shaoxu transmitted his voice to the group with Psychic Voice.
The group finally noticed the color of the sand after Jiang Shaoxu's reminder.
Mo Fan glanced ahead and saw a flat, sandy ground ahead, like a peaceful lake under the golden and orange-red rays of the setting sun. Further ahead was a hill. Mo Fan vaguely remembered that they had passed by this hill when they were traveling from Jiang Yu's position to Zhao Manyan's position!
"Yellow sand … holy crap, we're heading in the wrong direction!" yelled Jiang Yu.
"You're right, this is the direction. I remember Nan Jue is in this direction. I even remembered it when we sent the signal last time," said Zhao Manyan confidently.
"Fly to a higher place and take a look," said Mo Fan.
Zhao Manyan summoned his Wing Magical Equipment and flew to a higher place. When he looked down at the sandy ground, Zhao Manyan felt a chill running down his spine when he saw the yellow sand!
He could already see a few kilometers ahead from his current height, yet where was the Nan Jue?
Not only was he unable to see the Nan Jue, the most terrifying thing was that the sand within a few kilometers was completely red!
Zhao Manyan had not moved from his position. He was at most a kilometer away from the Nan Jue, which was outside the maze. Normally, there should be a way out of the maze, but there was no way out now!
Zhao Manyan's expression changed as he landed from the sky.
"The Nan Jue is gone …" said Zhao Manyan.
Before the others could panic, Zhao Manting added, "I'm looking down from above. The area within a few kilometers of us is covered in red sand. We are completely trapped in the desert!"
Everyone's heart sank after hearing Zhao Manyan's words. Jiang Yu summoned the Night Rakshasa in disbelief and asked her to identify the direction.
In the end, the Night Rakshasa returned empty-handed!
"Then … then where are we now?"
"We're lost. If the people outside the maze don't point us in a certain direction, we won't be able to find the exit. It's not like we can just pick a direction to get out of the maze. As long as there aren't any obvious directions, we're bound to get lost," said Mu Ningxue.
"This place? Is it really that weird!? "
"That's enough, I'm getting goosebumps."
Mofan turned around and glanced at Jiang Shaoxu's position.
Jiang Shaoxu did not move. Luckily, Jiang Shaoxu had purposely stayed where Zhao Manyan was when the others went to look for the Nan Jue. In other words, Jiang Shaoxu's position should be the closest to the entrance and exit of the maze. As long as they went back there, they would not go too deep into the maze.
The scariest thing about getting lost was that even if they were moving forward, they would not be able to tell if they were moving backward. However, when they realized that they were moving in the wrong direction, they would not be able to find their way back to a more reliable spot. The difference would only grow bigger …
The group quickly went back to Jiang Shaoxu's position. Their faces were filled with indescribable panic and uneasiness.
First of all, where did Nanyu go? Why didn't she stay outside to guide the team? They were all lined up like a long dragon. If the dragon tail disappeared, they would be trapped in the desert maze!
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