A group of people were fleeing through the desert.
“Faster, just a bit faster!”
“Keep up, don’t fall behind!”
“They are coming after us!!” Someone shrieked in panic.
Ahhh!
Soon after, there was a blood-curdling screech.
The people at the rear end of the group could not help but look back, they then saw their comrade being pinned to the ground by a green lizard. The lizard opened its large mouth and directly bit the man’s head.
While this green lizard was eating, another one ran ahead.
The lizard erupted with astonishing speed and knocked down two people at the back of the group in the blink of an eye.
“Nooo!” One of them shouted, his heart was full of horror, but his face showed a fierce expression.
At this moment of life and death, he reached out and pulled down his comrade.
His comrade was yanked down to the ground and found it hard to get back up, he opened his mouth and wanted to curse but was pounced upon by the lizard and could only let out a wretched scream as he was killed.
The scream made the survivors’ hearts tighten.
A young girl glanced at the scene behind her, she clenched her teeth, opened a potion from her bag, and scattered it into the sky behind her.
This potion was like fine powder, but after it was scattered into the air, it suddenly turned into a dense green smoke.
“Hold your breath!” The girl loudly warned, this was Zi Di.
The survivors seemed familiar with this green smoke as they immediately held their breath and made their way through the smoke.
The pursuing green lizards inhaled the smoke into their nose and lungs as they respired normally.
As a result, shortly afterwards, some green lizards shrieked, some fell into panic in the green smoke, some fled erratically, the entire group of pursuing lizards fell into complete disarray.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, the surviving exploration team members successfully widened the distance between them and the lizards.
“Faster, run faster!”
“We must succeed.”
“Lord Zi Di is truly formidable thanks to her potions!”
“Is there any more, quickly scatter some more.”
Everyone was shouting and screaming as the joy from escaping desperate straits flooded everyone’s hearts.(1)
“How could you do that?! Just now, I saw you kill your fellow comrade.” Bai Ya’s question seemed especially ear piercing amongst the cheers.
The man he denounced seemed ashamed at first, however, he quickly turned irate and cursed: “Fuck off, mind your own business!”
“You!” Bai Ya was shocked and at a loss for words.
The denounced person was raging, his former friendly temperament had completely vanished and he seemed like a different person.
“Okay, right now we are still not out of the danger zone. Everything that happens here will be for Lord Zhen Jin to arbitrate!” An old man opened his mouth to stabilize the group.
This was Cang Xu.
Meanwhile, to the northeast of the survivors was a sand dune.
Two heads protruded out from the top of the sand dune, their complexions were similar, these were the brothers Lan Zao and Huang Zao.
“Older brother, I found them!” Huang Zao was very excited but soon restrained himself. “They are being chased by green lizards.”
“Sure enough, there they are.” Lan Zao nodded. “Eh? Why don’t I see Lord Zhen Jin.”
“I fear he is still separated and hasn’t met up with them yet. We also had found pink marks on these lizards and followed their trail to find them here.” Huang Zao guessed.
It turned out, when the exploration team was teleported, they immediately encountered a sandstorm.
Zi Di relied on her potions to rapidly melt a tunnel through the sand and helped many exploration team members.
The tunnel was not sturdy and collapsed as the sandstorm raged, however, it unexpectedly connected to another cave.
In order to survive, everyone had no choice but to enter the cave.
They found that the desert underground cave did not form naturally, it had been created by the green lizards.
The exploration team members were not unfamiliar with these green lizards, they had a bitter encounter with them the last time they were teleported to the desert.
The place that Zi Di and the others entered through was the most important place in the underground lair for the lizards——the nursery.
The nursery had many lizard eggs and special female lizards guarding over them.
After both sides met, they immediately fought each other.
There were only two female lizards, and under the effects of Zi Di’s potion, they were quickly killed by the exploration team. However, this commotion alerted the other green lizards who swiftly carried out their vengeful attack on the exploration team.
Fortunately, the nursery entry tunnel was very narrow, allowing everyone to entrench themselves.
The green lizards were endless, and the exploration team began to suffer casualties.
Through dissection, Cang Xu found that the green lizards did not go into oestrus very often, each female lizard only laid one egg at a time. The cave had many lizard eggs, it was natural to conclude that the scope of the lizard group outside was very large.
It was without a doubt that they couldn’t leave this place by simply holding the fort stubbornly.
After realizing this point, everyone started to plan how to break out of the enclosure.
During that period, Zi Di had splashed a pink potion onto the lizards and hoped it would serve as a signal.
As for the present, the group had already broken out of the enclosure and had temporarily escaped from the pursuing lizards.
“Lets go and meet up with them.” Lan Zao said, getting up to leave.
But at that moment, his younger brother, Huang Zao, grabbed onto his arm: “No, older brother, you need to see this!”
Lan Zao followed where Huang Zao’s finger pointed and saw the many green lizards blocking the path ahead of Zi Di and Cang Xu.
However, Zi Di and Cang Xu did not know of this, for there was a sand dune blocking their field of view.
As outsiders who could see things clearer, Lan Zao and Huang Zao found what the real situation of the conflict was. (2)
“Not good, they are going to be surrounded by lizards. They will surely run into a dead end if they keep going down that way. We must quickly warn them!” Lan Zao’s expression changed drastically.
“Wait.” Huang Zao blocked him again.
“What are you doing?” Lan Zao glared. “Saving people is important!”
But Huang Zao said: “Don’t bring that up, older brother. These people are screwed. Look again!”
Lan Zao looked again and his face turned pale. He found that not only were there many lizards in front of the exploration group. There were also many lizards flanking them from both the right and left.
“Even so…” Lan Zao was trembling and gritting his teeth when Huang Zao interrupted.
“Lord Zhen Jin is not here, they are only relying on Ms. Zi Di’s potions to struggle on. There is no hope for their survival. Don’t be foolish, older brother. Even if we add ourselves, we would only throw away our lives.” Huang Zao looked indifferent.
He continued to ask: “What are they to you? Is it worth it for you to throw away your life for them?”
“But we are currently slaves, and haven’t we already discussed that we would follow Lord Zhen Jin together?” Lan Zao hesitantly said.
Huang Zao looked gloomy: “Slave…I don’t want to be a slave. Before, I had no choice but to become one.”
“Besides, we still do not know where Lord Zhen Jin is. Since he is not here, he will not know what has happened here. The reason why we want to follow Lord Zhen Jin, wasn’t it for a good future? Throwing our lives away like this is not part of our plan.”
“But…” Lan Zao wavered. “I must at least warn them.”
“Don’t do that.” Huang Zao shook his head. “It is too late! They are already surrounded. If you open your mouth, they will discover us and will ask for our assistance. At that time, will we go or not?”
“If we go, then we will throw away our lives. If we don’t go, we will definitely be hated by them. Perhaps they might have some method to record this matter. In the future, Lord Zhen Jin might find their remains and likely find out the secret that we did not rescue them. That would be terrible for us.”
Lan Zao did not reply, he only looked at the distant exploration team members, their faces were still full of joy and they were unaware that they were trapped.
Lan Zao’s brows wrinkled deeper still, his hands subconsciously grasped the sand, and his fists clenched firmly.
Seeing Lan Zao like this, Huang Zao’s heart thumped.
He understood his older brother well.
Thus, Huang Zao said quietly: “Do you want me to die! Older brother.”
“What?” Lan Zao stared blankly.
“I know that these people have helped you, even Lord Zhen Jin and Ms. Zi Di have saved my life. You don’t want to owe them and want to repay their kindness. You must be pondering whether you should leave me alone and assist them by yourself!”
Huang Zao’s words jabbed at Lan Zao’s heart.
Lan Zao really was thinking this.
But Huang Zao continued to speak: “If you go, you will most certainly die! If you were to leave me behind alone, how can I survive in this desert alone? Besides, how could I just watch you throw away your life helplessly? You are indeed my brother! If you go, I will definitely follow behind. If you die, I will also lose my life.”
“Younger brother…” Lan Zao clenched his teeth and glared at Huang Zao.
“Older Brother!” Huang Zao matched his glare and did not show weakness. “Have you forgotten the words that you said to our dying mother? You swore to look after me for a lifetime. You swore that even if you were to die, you would die before I do. Right now, if you go out and help them, you will be the one that kills me!”
“Yes, I swore. From childhood till adulthood, I have always looked out for you, no? But you are already an adult, you are a seasoned sailor, you even have bronze level strength now…”
“So what? In the spider forest, Wasn’t I still abandoned by you!” Huang Zao ruthlessly interrupted Lan Zao.
“I thought you were dead back then!!” Lan Zao roared quietly, his face had seemingly turned red from anger.
Huang Zao sneered: “Perhaps my death was good for you, no? After all, you are the one who killed our father in the first place. If I die, then who would know your secret? You would be free!”
“No! How could you think like that?!” Lan Zao painfully and lowly howled, his face twisted and veins protruded out from his forehead.
Huang Zao suddenly raised his voice: “Then let’s leave! We will both leave this place together and escape this wretched island together. You should prove yourself through your actions.”
Huang Zao’s words were like an icy lance that pierced into the deepest parts of Lan Zao’s heart.
The robust man half-knelt on the ground, he unwaveringly looked at his younger brother like a statue for a moment.
The brothers looked at each other face to face for a few breaths until the movements of the green lizards disturbed them.
Huang Zao saw that several of the green lizards were quickly approaching the sand dunes where they were located, and he impatiently urged: “Run, if we don’t leave now, we won’t ever be able to leave.”
He immediately got up and pulled Lan Zao with him.
He failed to pull up Lan Zao at first, but after trying two more times, he finally pulled up Lan Zao, ran down the sand dunes, and escaped the area.
During that last moment of the retreat, Lan Zao turned around to survey the distant area, he saw that the exploration team had discovered their situation, they were standing still and obviously in a panic.
He sighed deeply in his heart, then lowered his head and escaped shoulder to shoulder with Huang Zao.
Notes
Cue the Benny Hill music cause we got another chase scene on our hands. Looks like the two brothers are going on a side quest and have decided to abandon the main plotline right before the MC arrives on scene. It's funny that Zhen Jin complained about his relatively peaceful hike while the rest of the team is being chased by vengeful lizards.
Translation Notes