Chapter 167 - 152: The Southern Rift Valley
Qin Ziwu exclaimed in surprise, "Whoa, there are actually bugs in here!"
"The Gobi Desert is hot and dry. Inside these weeds, it’s not only shady, but it’s also free transportation. Sometimes you’ll find lizards or rodents in there too. So if you come across one and want to mess with it, you have to be careful. It’s very likely that venomous creatures like spiders or centipedes are hiding inside."
Wang Yun withdrew his Long Spear, letting the wind blow the tumbleweed along.
More than an hour passed quietly as the group traveled south, discussing as they went.
The group arrived at the edge of the Great Rift Valley.
"So steep."
Here, it was as if the Gobi Desert had been split in two.
Ochre-red rock walls flanked both sides, their faces as sheer as if cut by a knife and chisel. Weathered boulders were scattered across the valley floor.
At the base of the cliff face, there was a muddy puddle.
"There’s water here!" Yuan Ming’s spirits lifted.
’Where there’s water, there are animals.’
But right now, the area around the puddle at the bottom was empty, with no sign of animal life.
"We can get down over there." Qin Ziwen scanned the area and found a gentle slope to their left that they could descend.
It took them a dozen or so minutes of walking in a roundabout way to reach the slope. As they headed down, the cliff walls blocked the sun, and it felt a bit cooler.
Down at the bottom of the rift valley, the temperature was nearly ten degrees lower than on the surface.
The Beaked Eagle seemed to love this environment and landed on the ground.
It turned its head, surveying its surroundings.
Suddenly, the Beaked Eagle stared at a specific spot and let out a sharp cry!
Then it flapped its wings and flew over!
It stopped in front of a crevice in the rocks.
Qin Ziwen followed it and peered deep into the crevice, spotting a snake.
It wasn’t a cobra, nor was it a rattlesnake.
It wasn’t very long, only about a meter, with a light, sandy-yellow base color and covered in irregular brown patches. Hidden in the rock crevice, it blended in well with its surroundings.
Wang Yun walked over, got a clear look, and said, "Captain, that’s an adult sand boa."
"A boa? So it’s non-venomous then." Qin Ziwen found it a bit strange that this little creature, only a meter long, could be called a boa.
Hearing it was non-venomous, the group crowded around to get a look at the sand boa.
Seeing so many people, the sand boa coiled up even tighter, its body pressed firmly into the depths of the rock crevice.
Wang Yun nodded. "Yes, sand boas don’t get very big. Some reptile enthusiasts even keep them as pets precisely because they’re non-venomous and small."
"I’ll do it," Deng Guang volunteered.
He took out a stick and started prodding deep into the crevice.
After being poked several times, the sand boa let out a hissing warning, then curled its body into a ball and hid its head inside its coils.
Qin Ziwen looked away and continued toward the muddy puddle ahead.
Up ahead, you could see that around the accumulated puddle, there was some mud, and in that mud were numerous animal tracks.
Du Yu and Yang Cunshen went forward to investigate, then returned to report.
"Captain, most of the tracks here are from small animals—scorpions, lizards, gerbils, boas. There are a few kinds I don’t recognize. But the tracks here are a bit messy, and some of the hoof prints are quite large, like a cow’s."
"But cows should be rare in a place this dry." Du Yu frowned. It’s hard to describe something you’ve never seen before.
His previous hunting grounds were mostly forests and plains; he didn’t know much about the Gobi Desert environment.
"They could be from camels," said Wang Yun. "Camel tracks look a lot like cow tracks."
"Camels... I suppose that’s possible." Du Yu pointed east. "Judging by the tracks, they’re a day or two old. The animals were headed that way."
’East, huh?’ Qin Ziwen thought back to the video the Beaked Eagle had recorded yesterday.
From that high-altitude view, there seemed to be a herd of animals, their color similar to the Gobi Desert landscape, emerging from the Great Rift Valley.
At first, he had thought they were Giant Hyenas, but now it seemed they could have been camels.
’If they were Giant Hyenas, they should have left tracks nearby.’
Just then, a patter of countless footsteps echoed from a bend in the rift valley up ahead.
’Sounds like... chickens?’
"Be careful," Qin Ziwen said, raising his weapon.
The men behind him moved up to flank him, raising their weapons to form a spear wall.
Finally, the uninvited guests around the bend revealed themselves.
It was a flock of small dinosaurs, only about 1.2 or 1.3 meters long.
They were covered in a layer of short down, predominantly a mix of yellow, brown, and red. Their heads were small, and they had two forelimbs, each ending in a peculiar, single claw, like a pair of small scimitars hanging on their chests.
Their bodies were slender, a standard "skinny hound" build. A long, thin tail, making up half their body length, swayed back and forth as they ran.
Beside him, Li Yue said with curiosity, "Why do they kind of look like chickens?"
Qin Ziwu smacked his lips. "To me, these things look like ostriches that went on a diet and got a pipe stuck in their butt."
"These are Single Claw Dragons—true dinosaurs." Wang Yun’s eyes gleamed with excitement. The Winged Dragon they saw yesterday wasn’t a dinosaur, and the Giant Hyenas weren’t dinosaurs either; they were just other extinct creatures.
But this, right in front of them, was a real, living dinosaur!
After countless millennia, they had met on this land.
Yuan Ming’s eyes lit up. "I wonder if they’re tasty. I’ve never eaten dinosaur before."
After rounding the bend, the flock of Single Claw Dragons immediately stopped, warily sizing up the creatures before them.
The humans had never seen them, and they had never seen humans.
Both sides were assessing the other’s combat capabilities.
A few of the Single Claw Dragons slowly moved forward and lowered their heads to drink.
Every water source in this part of the Gobi Desert was precious. They had come here to rehydrate, and with the puddle right in front of them, they were unwilling to give it up.
"Who cares if they’re tasty or not? Let’s kill a couple and take them back to try. Watch me solo a dinosaur."
Qin Ziwen handed his Steel Fork to his brother, then took down his Compound Bow, nocking an arrow.
"WHOOSH—"
The arrow flew.
With no time to dodge, one of the Single Claw Dragons was pinned directly to the ground.
"Go!"
Qin Ziwen waved his arm.
The group charged forward.
"SKRAW! SKRAW! SKRAW!"
The flock of Single Claw Dragons scattered like an exploding firework, fleeing in all directions.
But the surrounding cliffs were steep. A few of them nearly slammed into the walls before hastily changing direction and fleeing back the way they came.
They were incredibly fast runners. With their long legs, they sprinted wildly, the fastest among them vanishing in an instant.
The slower ones trailed behind.
However, the geography of the rift valley prevented them from scattering completely, forcing them to sprint along a single path.
This gave Qin Ziwen and his group a clear route for pursuit.
They just had to follow the valley and conserve their energy; sooner or later, they would catch up.
’Creatures like this, with long legs built for running, are usually sprinters. The only two-legged long-distance champion I’ve ever heard of is the ostrich. I refuse to believe that these Single Claw Dragons can be both fast and have long-lasting stamina. It’s time to show these little dinosaurs the incredible endurance of an upright ape!’
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