Chapter 495: World Border Journey (9)

As the sun sets, the afterglow slowly falls. The earth is completely covered with yellow sand, with no signs of life. Only the whistling sound of the wind and sand lingers in the ears.

As her jade feet in high-top sandals sank into the fine sand, Ling Jingsi looked up, gazing at the boundless desert in front of her that brought her an endless sense of loneliness and desolation, and she breathed a sigh of relief unconsciously.

There's still no place to stay here.
She wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, her beautiful face unable to hide her fatigue.

Starting from the Great Wall, they had unknowingly gone deep into the desert for a day. However, no matter how they walked, they could not find a place to temporarily rest for the night. All they had was yellow sand that was as grippy as a quagmire when stepped on, and an endless horizon outlined by the contours of the sand dunes.

The nights in the desert are windy and sandy, and the temperature difference between day and night is extremely large. If they cannot find a suitable place to spend the night as soon as possible, I am afraid they will have a hard time getting through the night.

Perhaps it was because he had stayed in the comfort zone of the Great Wall for too many years, so Ling Jingsi, who was born and raised in the desert, had forgotten the vastness of the desert.

Let’s look for it again.

唦妦
Suddenly, Ling Jingsi, who had originally planned to walk a little further forward to see if she would give up, felt her feet go empty. Then the sand around her began to flow inexplicably, and the speed was getting faster and faster!

"Eh?"

Ling Jingsi didn't even have time to react, as she saw a row of giant sharp teeth suddenly "grow" out from five meters away with her as the center. Immediately afterwards, the air in the range seemed to be sucked out and fell into a huge vacuum state. Then, an unprecedentedly powerful suction force instantly locked the tiny foreign woman from underground!

Boom!

The next second, a giant desert crocodile lurking in the sand suddenly leaped straight up into the air like a fish leaping out of the water, and quickly closed its huge mouth with a diameter of 5 meters!

The violent vibration that broke out from the ground penetrated the earth, and the sand was stirred up and scattered. In an instant, the wind and sand filled the sky!
"Think quietly!!"

A desperate cry came from a companion farther away, it was Leah.

The teammates who were searching for a habitat farther away only saw Ling Jingsi's delicate figure from afar, and she was instantly swallowed by the giant crocodile that jumped up from the depths of the desert!
Whoosh-bang!
Almost at the same moment, a swift crimson shadow streaked across the sky and slammed into the fat belly of the desert crocodile like a comet.

Following an earth-shattering howl, several equally swift and fierce figures quickly followed. In the blink of an eye, the desert monster that was as powerful as the canyon tyrant was "killed on the ground" before it could even chew and taste the prey in its mouth.

at the same time--

咵！
In the flashing blue light, Wang Yao held Ling Jingsi horizontally and landed safely on a sand dune farther away.
From the dormant demon species breaking out of the sand, to Wang Yao instantly rescuing the endangered Ling Jingsi, to Hua Mulan and many other Great Wall heroes rushing forward and focusing their fire to kill the demon species in seconds, the entire process took place within just 3 seconds!
The soldiers, with sadness and despair still written on their faces, stared in amazement at the several powerful figures standing high above the huge corpse of the desert crocodile. Then they looked at the even more unpredictable Wang Yao in the distance. Having just experienced great joy and great sorrow, they could not help but burst into tears.

This overwhelming sense of security makes people so damn happy!
The lineup of eight heroes is definitely not a joke. What is a mere demon? In this situation, no matter which soldier sees it, he can't help but want to say to the sky and the earth with great passion: Who else? !

Oh, yes, it’s that arrogant!

"Thank you, thank you." Ling Jingsi, with a pale face, showed a little bird-like posture for the first time and curled up in Wang Yao's arms. The fear in her eyes, which were a little blurry from fear, had not completely faded away.

This kind of life-and-death moment where she could only helplessly face death was something she had never experienced before, even in the Battle of the Clouds. The stinking, hot breath of the giant crocodile and its terrifying mouth like the abyss seemed to still be before her eyes. At the same time, as she leaned against the warm chest of the man beside her, she unconsciously felt an unprecedented sense of security rising quietly in her heart.

That giant crocodile was actually a high-level demon species in the desert. Its scientific name was the desert giant banana crocodile. It usually liked to hide in the desert. Under normal circumstances, no matter whether it was a person or an animal, as long as they stepped into its trap, it would basically bite them accurately. But today it was unlucky to encounter such a terrible team, so that its body had not even landed on the ground, and it spent the rest of its life here inexplicably.

From another perspective, if given a choice, the giant desert banana crocodile would rather fall asleep accidentally than bite Ling Jingsi.

Wang Yao did not say anything. He just watched the other four soldiers rush over and put Ling Jingsi down in his arms.

Five people gathered together, some to comfort others, some to help check if the wounds were infected, and exclamations from the crowd could be heard from time to time.

"Thank goodness Lord Wang Yao is here!"

"General Hua and General Su are also very brave!"

"Poor giant banana crocodile."

Now that the crisis was resolved, the soldiers began to feel pity for the demon.

Hua Mulan had no time to pay attention to the joys and sorrows of these soldiers. She walked straight to Wang Yao and said lazily, "It's so annoying every time I come to the desert. I don't want to go on! Why don't we just dig a pit nearby as a temporary resting point tonight?"

Throughout the whole day, the one who actually complained of being tired the most was the hero Hua Mulan.

Baili Shouyao couldn't help but complain: "Then I'll build a monument for you? It'll say that the hero Mulan was so stupid that she dug a hole and buried herself. Her death was not worth it?"

Boom!
Hua Mulan punched the talkative wolfhound rudely, knocking it to the ground on the sand, while the smaller wolfhound rushed over and cried in pain.

"Mulan, hold on a little longer, maybe there will be a town ahead." Su Lie was calm and composed along the way, just like a big brother, as if he would always have his pillar to support the sky. "Brother Su, next time you come to the desert, don't carry your big pillar, change it to an iron box!" Hua Mulan excitedly said an idea that she thought was very nice: "Anyway, it's used to hit people, so it won't make much difference. At least it can hold some tents, food, drinks, etc. What do you think?"

Well, facing this colleague who was not sure whether he was naive or really out of his mind, even the most stable Su Lie walked away in silence.
At this time.

"The corpse of this demon can be used as a temporary shelter." Wang Yao suddenly suggested from the side.

The giant crocodile has a body length of an incredible 20 meters and a height of 3 meters. If its head and tail are bent inward 45 degrees, and a fire is built in the middle for the night, at least it will have no problem blocking the wind and sand.

It seems, yes.
Everyone subconsciously looked at the demon corpse that looked like a small hill, and then nodded in agreement unconsciously.

Night slowly falls.

The temperature in the desert is high during the day, but as night falls, the scorching temperature slowly drops. The current breeze is the most comfortable, not too stuffy, nor too cold.

As the lowest-level members of the team, the soldier Liya, the Zhang brothers, and Ling Feng naturally took on the task of collecting firewood in the surrounding areas.

In a sense, apart from the obvious obligations, the fact that they are responsible for the food and daily life of a group of heroes in exchange for 100% safety along the way is already a very cost-effective deal, so they seem to work very hard and enjoy it.

Soon, a huge bonfire slowly rose up under the busy work of the soldiers. At this moment, the warm and bright firelight illuminated this small space. From the dark distance, everyone seemed to be covered in an orange-yellow energy shield, which made people feel a little warm and safe.

As the 'team chef', Baili Shouyue arranged for his brother Xuan Ce to find a thin stone slab nearby for grilling meat, while he began to prepare the ingredients. The ingredients were naturally the tenderloin of the poor desert giant crocodile. Fortunately, the desert giant crocodile was an edible demon species, otherwise everyone would probably have to go hungry tonight.

Soon, along with the smell of fireworks, the tempting aroma of meat began to spread. From time to time, Shen Mengxi rode on Dunshan to come over and take away a piece of half-cooked meat when the Baili brothers were not paying attention, and then quickly ran away.

After all, it was a half-demon with strong digestive ability, so eating it would not necessarily cause diarrhea, so Baili Shouyao didn't pay much attention to it, but occasionally ordered the little wolfhound to drive it away.

On the other side, Hua Mulan was taking a nap in the corner, while Kai was sitting beside her, wiping his magic blade and chatting with Su Lie in a random manner.

As for Ling Jingsi, after helping Baili Shouyue for a while, Wang Yao called her to a dark sand dune a little further away.

"Lord Wang Yao, what's wrong?"

In the puzzled eyes of the woman, the next second, she watched the taciturn man in front of her suddenly produce a bunch of intermediate equipment that shone with an alluring light like gold out of thin air as if by magic, and there was even some high-level equipment that Ling Jingsi had never seen before.

That’s right, advanced equipment!
Cloud Piercing Bow: "This bow is for the crossbowman to adjust the bow."

Thunder Blade*2: "Give these two weapons to Zhang Yang and Ling Feng."

The Blazing Ruler: "You change this, the Elemental Staff is for Leah."

There are also five sets of resurrection armor: "Take off the Guardian Armor I gave you last night and throw it away. Wear this one. It can save your life at the critical moment, but remember to tell them not to show it to anyone."

Adhering to the principle of always being on guard against others, Wang Yao still did not choose to give all the high-level equipment at once, but only took out some intermediate equipment that was relatively suitable for the soldier team.

After all, this was only the first day in the Cloud Desert, and they had already encountered no less than ten attacks from demons, especially the last one from the giant banana crocodile in the desert. Facing this level of advanced demon, if Wang Yao and Hua Mulan had not acted in time, the team would have been wiped out in an instant, so Wang Yao gave each of them a piece of Sage's Protection in the end.

"At present, these equipments are enough to increase your survival rate by 30%. I don't know how far we will have to go. Even I can't always take care of you."

As Wang Yao spoke, he began to explain to Ling Jingsi the properties and functions of each piece of equipment. His expression remained as indifferent as ever, as if these rare equipment, which were enough to be exchanged for tens of thousands of gold coins, were just some dispensable decorations to him.

In fact, no one could understand why Wang Yao would be so dedicated to just a few soldiers.

In fact, on the one hand, Wang Yao worked his way up from the bottom of the society as a soldier in his early years. He was well aware of the sufferings of the soldiers, so his noble spirit of caring for every soldier almost became his behavioral label later on, and this was also the reason why most of the soldiers in Sanfendi were willing to follow him wholeheartedly.

Secondly, it is true that there is also a factor that Ling Jingsi happens to be very similar to Maomao, otherwise it would not have attracted Wang Yao's attention now. However, the most important thing is the guilt that has lingered in Wang Yao's heart for many years.
If he had the funds and ability he has now, he would have bought a resurrection armor for each of Maomao, Shiliang Xiaoye and the others, even if it would expose the existence of the equipment too early and cause them to be killed. At least they would not all die in vain on the Wei highlands, and he would not have completely lost his companions who he had been with day and night overnight.
So for Wang Yao, his current behavior is actually more of a way to make up for past regrets.

However, to outsiders who are not in the know, this does not seem to be the case.

"Um, um, Lord Wang Yao"

Ling Jingsi suddenly stopped Wang Yao, who had been talking to himself the entire time. Her voice was nervous and timid, and her breathing inexplicably became hurried.

But at some point, the fair and smooth face of the beautiful foreign woman beside him had been quietly covered with a stunning blush. At the same time, the pair of watery eyes that stared at Wang Yao in a daze seemed to be filled with shyness and panic: "You have always been like this. Such meticulous care, is it really for that... me?"

(End of this chapter)