Screeech—!
The mad run suddenly came to a sudden stop. Human feet couldn’t possibly make such sounds, but in this moment, when everyone brakes like cars before accident, Yan Mo felt like he really heard that screech.
Suddenly, the sparse grasses as tall as the calves was gone and replaced by a wide expanse of desert in front of them. Beyond the sand, he can make out spots of green, but not many.
Lie walked in front. He didn’t dare to rush, using his spear as a probe, he inserted the weapon into the sand carefully until he found a solid path. Only then did he step on the sand surface.
Everyone else followed on the path of Lie’s footprints, making a line and advancing forward.
This time, Yuan Zhan and Yan Mo fell to the very back of the group.
Yan Mo couldn’t bother with how painfully Zhan’s shoulder was digging into his stomach. He raised his head to look at the hardback dragon family of three.
They’re in the middle of fighting over the bag, tearing it apart. The meat inside spilled out, and the young hardback dragon successfully snatched the first bite.
But the young hardback dragon ate while moving its big limbs over to their group. It probably thought that as long as it followed this little two-legs monster, there would be unending stream of food put into its mouth.
Yuan Zhan stepped on the footprint left by Bing.
The young hardback dragon behind them was going to catch up soon, his running made the earth shake, thump, thump!
Suddenly! hardback dragon dad who was originally fighting over the torn bag with his wife saw where their son was heading. He let out a piercing “Aangg——!” and rushed with urgency towards his son. He used his body to knock the young hardback dragon to a side.
“Ang, Ang?” The young hardback dragon was dizzy from being bumped into. BAM! He fell on his butt. His hind legs struggled several times, he sat on his butt for some time before he managed to stand up again.
hardback dragon dad made an angry roar at the two-legged monster just one and half metres away from them. “Angg———!!”
“Pooh—!”
Yan Mo wiped his face. His face was showered from the giant beast’s stinky saliva, it stank so much it was lethal.
They were only separated by a few steps, close enough he could feel the heat of the giant’s puffing breath. But the beast kept walking back and forth on the edge of the border between grassy soil and sandy desert, but not chasing into the desert area at all.
Although the danger behind them had let up for now, what’s ahead of them was not much better from their previous predicament.
“Don’t move, don’t even flinch.” Yuan Zhan rebuked him, sounding more grave than he had ever been.
Yan Mo froze up. Evidently his move of wiping his face had affected the young man.
What’s wrong? Why is he being so grim?
Yan Mo looked down, carefully taking in surroundings. He discovered that from the grassland to where they’re standing right now the twelve of them, nine if you don’t count the slaves being carried by their masters, have only left a single track of footprints.
The most astonishing part was that the footprints were not in pairs but a single feet row. didn’t this mean the road they’re walking on at this moment… was only safe within small space of a foot?!
What’s so different between this and walking on a tightrope? There’s also three people walking on this tightrope whilst carrying heavy load!
After realising this Yan Mo didn’t dare to move again, even for a bit.
“Ang, ang angg!” The hardback dragon was still shouting over there, as if venting about how sly and nasty these two-legs are.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Po cba atja tf tjv yffc tfgf klat tlr ojatfg lc atf qjra jcv rjk tlr vjv’r teuf ybvs rkjiibkfv ys atf rjcv klat tlr bkc fsfr, tf kbeiv cfnfg tjnf uefrrfv tbk afgglyif atlr rjcv ijcv mjc yf!
Ktf akb-ifur wluta yf jyif ab kjix bc la, yea atfgf’r cb kjs atfs mbeiv klat atflg ybvs kfluta. Vb vfrqlmjyif!
The hot humid air and stink of sweat, mixed with that particular stench of animal hide, enveloped them both. The sweat on them flowed down as if it was a small river.
Both Yuan Zhan and Yan Mo felt miserable.
They normally don’t wear that much fur during daytime. But now they wish they could tear this thick and stuffy fur off of themselves and throw it away.
Thump! Thump! The hardback dragon stomped behind them, probably out of anger.
That didn’t affect the sand much but it did shake them a bit.
This tremor was nothing if they were in some normal safe situation, but for these people treading on tightrope it’s the same as a massive earthquake.
Someone in front of them lost their balance because of the tremor and stepped slightly off of the safe area. He yelped out of fear but quickly used his spear to make himself upright again. It was Que Ya.
The whole team stopped, only after Que Ya made another step could the group continue to advance.
To safely reach the end of a road only as wide as a foot you had to be careful to keep your balance and keep a steady walk. But after stopping abruptly everyone found it difficult to be steady like before!
“Don’t move!” In front of them, Bing suddenly shouted in anger.
Yang Wei didn’t dare to move before but at this time his fear won over. After all, he had just escaped from a mortal danger. He couldn’t even bother about what master or slave status difference, his legs unconsciously clamped tighter around Bing’s waist.
Bing’s body staggered.
He wanted to use his spear to regain his balance but Yang Wei on his back noticed that he was losing his balance. He got so scared he raised himself higher on Bing’s body and hugged him even tighter.
His centre of gravity was abruptly changed. Bing struggled to regain his balance but there seemed to be no understanding between him and Yang Wei. Yang Wei’s movement made Bing who was just a bit unsteady stagger harder and eventually unable to find his footing. Their bodies tilted to the left.
Puhtt! At the last moment before he completely met the ground, as his body was falling, Bing stabbed his spear into the sand. His free hand was dug deep into the small walkable part of the sand.
Yang Wei panicked and screamed. Their bodies were already half-buried in the quicksand.
Yang Wei’s hold on Bing’s neck was almost coking. He was even climbing Yuan Bing to get back to the narrow path.
Being choked, Bing’s face flushed with anger. his neck veins bulged, his arms muscles strained from the effort, his whole body was struggling for this last chance to live.
He so wanted to strangle Yang Wei but his hands were currently both occupied.
Yuan Zhan who’s after Bing in line planted his feet firmly to the ground, trying to not let himself be affected by the situation before him.
Yan Mo’s entire body felt stiff by now. His taut muscles were hurting and twitching.
When he lowered his head he could see Yuan Zhan’s legs were slightly bent. The legs in front and back were separated a certain distance so that he could stand steadily. The young man’s muscles were as hard as rocks but Yan Mo can see that his legs were already very strained and tired.
In front of them Bing and his slave were still struggling to get up. Bing sharply realised as he kept pulling that something’s wrong and stopped his movements, but Yang Wei whose face was now full of tears wouldn’t stop his struggling.
Yan Mo was carried over Yuan Zhan’s shoulder, when he leaned back down and lowered his head he could also see the two people in front.
Yuan Zhan was reaching his limit. Yan Mo can tell from the slight tremor of his legs.
He had to get rid of the trouble in front first!
Unfortunately, Yuan Zhan couldn’t move right now. otherwise he would’ve already taken care of the obstacle in front of them.
Make them sacrifice themselves… obviously that’d be impossible. Any human being would want to survive. Even if there’s a small possibility they would never give up.
Yan Mo cynically thought, after finding out they can’t be saved, who could guarantee that Bing and Yang Wei would not pull down Yuan Zhan and him to die with them. If they wanted to safely pass through these two, he had to think of a way to pacify them.
“Don’t move.” Yan Mo talked quietly, he didn’t even dare to move his face muscle too much.
At first, Yang Wei who was trying to climb on top of Bing to get out of the quicksand didn’t catch Yan Mo’s voice.
“Yang Wei, listen to me. Don’t move. If you keep moving you and your master will die.” Yan Mo spoke again.
Yuan Zhan heard him but didn’t tell him to shut up.
“Yang Wei! Calm down!” Yan Mo made a low shout.
Yang Wei finally heard Yan Mo’s shouting. He turned to Yan Mo, the timid man had eyes full of panic, fear and despair.
“I won’t let you die. Trust me. I have a way to save you.”
Bing also heard Yan Mo’s words. He actually didn’t believe this little slave, but the situation he’s in couldn’t get any worse. That’s why he didn’t try to prove his words wrong. He now just wanted to save more of his strength in order to not be swallowed down by the sand.
“Listen, Yang Wei, the more you struggle the faster you’ll sink. If you don’t move, you’ll feel that the suction below you is lesser. Try it.”
Yang Wei’s tears wetted his face as his wild movements slowly became smaller.
“Yes. Just like that. Don’t be scared, both of you don’t move, I’ll think of a way to get you out of there.” Yan Mo wanted to give Yang Wei a self-confident smile to assure him, pity that his upside down red face lacked persuasiveness. He could only try his utmost to affect Yang Wei’s state of mind with his voice. “I saved you once, I can save you again. Trust me!”
Yang Wei’s mouth hanged open. Submitting to the young boy, he begged Yan Mo, “Save me…”
“Trust me. I can save you both!”
The rest of the group had gotten out of the desert. Everyone had stopped, they’re watching the four people still on sand anxiously from a safer land. No one dared to make a loud noise, afraid of startling them. Que Ya’s face was full of self-blame. If it wasn’t for him surprising them when he made the wrong step the people behind him wouldn’t be forced to stop suddenly.
Yan Mo estimated the distance between them and the safe ground by using Lie’s group’s feet as reference. He didn’t know how wide the sandy terrain was, but the hardback dragon didn’t chase after them from the sides, so the desert must be quite wide. Fortunately it’s not very long to cross, they’ve walked through half of it, there’s about twenty-thirty metres from them to Lie’s group.
He looked at the footprints they left, it looked like a fairly straight line.
Yan Mo was going to make a gamble. By chance, Yuan Zhan who was carrying him had the same thought as him, they said almost at the same time, ““Rush out in one go!””
Yes! Yan Mo laid down his trickeries on Bing and Yang Wei again, “Don’t move around. If I make it out, you guys will have a chance, but if I die here we can only die together.”
Bing replied hoarsely. “…Don’t worry, I won’t move. Hurry up and go.”
If it wasn’t for this little slave he wouldn’t have gone back to save Yang Wei. He also wouldn’t be in this predicament now. But the situation was already like this. No matter if the little slave was lying to them or leaving them to death it was still better to let them pass through. If they get out safe, they’ll know if they were lying or not about saving them. At least that way there’s some hope for them to survive.
After he stopped struggling, Yang Wei found out that the power of sand suction was not as terrifying as before. He even moved to grab onto the firmer part of the land to lessen the burden on his master.
No one stopped him from doing so.
Yan Mo also told him how to slowly get away from Bing’s body and lie on his stomach on the narrow road.
In fact, Yang Wei now could get up from Bing and get out from the desert, but his legs have turned soft from fear and one of them was even twisted, making it difficult for him to walk. He could only lie on his stomach on the road, unable to struggle out.
Bing was also unable to move. He had sunken too deep; the sand suction was too strong. He couldn’t get out of the sand by himself. He could feel that the solid land he grabbed was turning a little loose, as if it was going to give away. At this time, he pulled out his spear and actually laid it horizontally on the ground, making it easier for Yuan Zhan and his slave to walk through.
Yan Mo finally could relax seeing their attitude, he asked Yuan Zhan. “Are you ready?”
Yuan Zhan breathed in and out gently, slightly leaning his body forward and concentrating all his strength on his two legs.
Yan Mo warned the two people again, “relax, don’t move.”
Bing and Yang Wei’s body might not be entirely relaxed, but they tried their best to stay still.
Now’s the time! Yan Mo shouted lowly, “Ah Zhan, now!”
Yuan Zhan pulled out his spear, lowered his upper body that had the young boy closer to the ground, eyes on that straight line of footprints. His body shot out like arrow from a bow, rushing out of the desert in one bout!
Yang Wei screamed when Yuan Zhan stepped on him. One of Bing’s hand was also stepped on.
When Yuan Zhan reached the end of the desert carrying Yan Mo into the rest of the group, everyone cheered.
Yuan Zhan put down Yan Mo. Immediately feeling his legs turning soft. But this guy cared too much for his face, simply using his spear to support himself to stand.
Yan Mo didn’t care about saving face or whatnot. He directly flopped unto the sturdy sandy ground, panting heavily. As he relaxed his body he immediately felt all of his muscles were aching so much.
It’ll definitely ache more tomorrow. Yan Mo lied down for a bit, then sat up without a word and started massaging his leg muscles.
Cao Ting made her way to him. She learned from his movements and helped massage his other leg without saying anything. Yan Mo realised that something had happened to her left leg. No wonder Diao also had to carry her out of the desert.
“What about Bing and Yang Wei?” Meng stared blankly at the two people still in the quicksand.
Yuan Zhan’s eyes flipped open. His tone was clearly annoyed. “This idiot said he had an idea!”
And so Yan Mo was once again the focus of everyone’s attention.
Hey that’s just a makeshift plan when I said that… Yan Mo felt speechless about the idiot master’s inability to coordinate with him.
Do these primitive people not know about little ‘white lie’? What are you looking at me for? That brat said I can do something about it, then I’m suddenly able to do that thing?
But in all actuality, he couldn’t not have a solution.
Ignoring other people in danger will add him 10 scum points. Under the situation where he had said he’ll save them, then doesn’t save them, a callous trick that gave people hope before abandoning them… isn’t that more odious? God knows how much scum points that damn guide will give him.
No other way. He had to at least give it a try, even if it’s just for show.
Yan Mo took off his fur coat. He finally can take them off!
“Take off the straw ropes on your bodies. Take off the furs from the slaves too, keep your armour on.”
It’s always the quicksand (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
The little dino felt cute (๑´•.̫ • `๑)
cute until it wants to eat you (●´ω｀●)
Can i get a baby dino?😍
Aiyoh, I seem to have developed a fetish on a several hundred novel that has a lot of adventure, ba. I mean, it makes your heart racing! It makes you feel alive!! ʕ•ε•ʔ
yea! I like exploring and adventure too~
OwO, thank you for your great effort in translating. This humble one prostrates out of reverence. To more adventure, ba. ヾ(≧▽≦*)o