Gloria looked around and said, “The people here look rather fierce. We have yet to meet that Demya fellow David told us about. Could he be in his room sleeping?”Adrian smiled and said to Gloria softly, “Actually, I’ve already noticed Demya from the start.”“Huh?”Gloria was startled. She hastily scanned their surroundings again and said in puzzlement, “You already noticed him? Where is he? Why haven’t I noticed yet?”Adrian grabbed a spoon. “Watch.” He tossed the spoon toward a corner where a person dressed in black and donning a black cap was sitting and eating quietly.As luck would have it, the spoon hit the person on the head. Their cap slipped, and the person’s long, dark hair became undone and tumbled down their shoulders.“What in the world…” Gloria mumbled. Adrian asked, “Recognize Demya now?”Gloria smiled and nodded.A pair of almond-shaped eyes glared at Adrian from the corner. An exquisite beauty walked up to them in rage while gathering her unraveled hair. She s
Adrian, Gloria, and Mya left the hotel after having their fill. Mya had secured an off-road SUV. The three of them hopped in and drove into the desert.Not long after they left, more than a hundred cars arrived at the inn and encircled it. People poured out of the cars brandishing weapons, each one more ferocious than the next. An angry-looking middle-aged man got out of the car and walked into the inn with a dozen of his underlings.The Steedten innkeeper immediately walked out to welcome them. “You’re finally here, Mr. Orrick.”The middle-aged man was named Orrick Doyle, and he was an important member of Black Mamba. He queried with a nonchalant expression, “Steedten, where’s the Navien who killed my brother?”He then raised his voice and roared, “I’m going to cut him up into a thousand pieces!” The Steedten answered, “They had a meal then headed out into the desert. They left just a few minutes ago. You might catch up to them if you go after them now.”Upon hearing this, Orri
An agonizing scream came through the walkie-talkie. The one who had spoken earlier had been killed. Orrick roared again, “Continue to go after them! Whoever dares to speak another word otherwise will be killed!”He had lost his mind, and the pursuit continued.Mya chuckled upon seeing the cars continuing to chase their SUV. “These morons are quite something. Come chase me the whole night. I promise to keep you company and give you a fun time.” She drove at a leisurely pace, but would instantly accelerate to leave them behind as soon as they caught up.Orrick grew restless and impatient upon seeing they were about to catch up to Adrian. None of his underlings had the courage to bring up stopping the chase. The fleet formed by hundreds of cars chased after Adrian’s SUV for one whole night. When dawn broke the next day, the desert darkness had faded and the blazing hot sun roasted the ground. The yellow sand spanned as far as the eye could see, and it was difficult to distinguish a
A few thousand of Orrick’s underlings had gotten separated in the desert. Moreover, they did not have food or water with them. By the time it was noon, when the sun was at its hottest, they would meet their end. Orrick felt more crestfallen than anybody else and was shaking inside. It was a great mistake he had made in a moment of weakness. Had he not chased Adrian through the desert, he would be lying in an air-conditioned room and having a good time with a few women right now. However, he was now in a desert that stretched as far as the eye could see. Very few people walked out of here alive.***The sun was blazing down on the Uduma Desert. Adrian carried Gloria on his back and walked across the yellow sand. Mya walked ahead, constantly checking their coordinates. They had discarded their SUV and could only leave the desert on foot.She held up a pair of binoculars and scanned their surroundings. “We managed to throw off Black Mamba. They won’t live for long and will die out
Mya screamed a few times and ran down the sand dune before leaping and clinging to Adrian. “What’s going on?” Adrian asked in puzzlement when he caught her.“There are so many dead people over there!” said Mya with her eyes shut as she pointed behind her. Adrian put Mya down upon hearing her remark and hiked up the sand dune. “Go check on Gloria.”Mya passed the binoculars to Adrian and made her way to Gloria.Adrian arrived at the top of the sand dune and looked at the ground below. He found more than forty corpses lying on the other side of the sand dune. These corpses were either lying on top of the yellow sand or half buried. Some corpses had already been sun-dried into human jerky, and their expressions were horrendous. He made his way to one of the corpses and looked it up and down.Mya walked to the top of the sand dune with Gloria, who asked, “What’s going on?”Adrian said, “It’s our people.”“What?”Gloria and Mya were astonished upon hearing Adrian’s words. They ha
At this point, Adrian felt puzzled. How did Mya not notice that when she observed this place with her binoculars earlier? He looked at Mya and asked, “How did you not notice that earlier? Am I remembering things wrong too?”Adrian did not recall seeing the lake or the farmhouse when he was looking around earlier either. It was like they had shown up out of nowhere. “I checked in that direction earlier but there was no sign of a lake or a house. Are we hallucinating?” Mya rubbed her eyes. It was common for people to experience hallucinations in the desert. But judging by their current situation, they were not weakened to the extent of hallucinating yet.Adrian and Gloria exchanged glances. He did not put too much thought into the situation and checked the corpses for a while. He then stood up and bowed toward these corpses, saying, “Seniors of Wyvern Peak, I’m in a rush today and time is of the essence. I’m sorry I can’t take you out of this place for now. I’ll send people to retr
Mya said, “Those men are from Black Mamba.”Adrian beckoned at them and said, “Let’s follow them and find out the situation over there.”“Okay,” Mya answered.The trio quickly headed for the lake, staying behind Black Mamba at all times. They walked for roughly an hour but they still had yet to reach the lake. In fact, it did not look like they were getting any closer. There was no change in the distance. Black Mamba’s initially excited members were exhausted after running for an hour. A few people had already collapsed under the blazing sun. It was clear that they were not to survive until they reached the lake.“Let’s not walk anymore.” Adrian stopped because he could sense that the situation was off. If there really was a lake, they would have reached it in half an hour in view of the distance. If the distance was that far, they would not be able to see the lake at all. It was a lake and not a mountain after all. If it was a mountain, one could see it from afar, but this w
Adrian sat on a dune and pondered deeply. He had to figure out the lake, or it would be difficult for them to walk out of the desert. He considered every possibility to eliminate all the possible occurrences.About ten minutes later, Adrian opened his eyes and said to Gloria and Mya, “Close our eyes. We’ll try walking with our eyes closed.”“Walk with our eyes closed?” Mya was stunned. Was walking closed-eyed through a desert not akin to a headless chicken?Adrian beckoned and said, “We might be able to walk out of the desert with our eyes closed.”He did not explain further and placed Gloria on his back. He then grabbed Mya’s hand and said, “Close your eyes and don’t speak, just walk. When I tell you to open your eyes, open them.”The two women followed his instructions. Adrian started to walk forward, with one hand pulling Mya along and Gloria on his back. The three of them walked in the direction of the lake with their eyes shut. There was no concern of hitting something in