When the fat man was digging a hole, he didn't expect that when he dug a piece, he didn't look like the black stone that should belong here.
"Black Stone Egg?"
Hao Aiguo, who was not asleep, came over curiously after hearing this, looking at Shi Tou and said, "This house should be a yamen or a conference hall. Half of the sand is buried. How big is this stone?"
Zhao Shucheng also came over and took a look, saying, "Follow the material, it should be Wujinshi."
Wang Kaixuan said, "No matter what he is, dig it out before talking about it."
After digging for a while, the stone slowly revealed, and it turned out to be a stone head.
"It's a head, this look is too ugly."
Hu Bayi said, "This seems to be an statue of a god dedicated to the temple."
After hearing this, An Liman walked over and saw the stone statue. He immediately said in panic: "Oh, don't move, don't move."
As he said that, he knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing to the statue of God to admit his mistakes.
"Don't worry about him, let's dig it out for it."
Hao Aiguo and Professor Chen discussed the stone statues and said, "Professor, this is very similar to the stone statues we saw in Qian Coffin Tombs in Xinjiang Province. They all have huge eyes that are different from ordinary people. This should be a giant-eyed stone statue, right?"
"It's not just that place, such giant-eyed stone statues have been found in Tianshan Mountains, Alatai, Hotan River Basin, and Mongolian grasslands..."
Zhao Shucheng was worried that the excavation of these people would alarm the desert marching ants, but now there is no trace of the ants, so he can't fabricate it out of thin air, so he can only let these people continue to dig. Fortunately, Zhao Shucheng knew that as long as the black sandstorm did not stop, these desert marching ants would not come out, so he would let them dig.
In the middle of the night, everyone else fell asleep, and Hu Bayi replaced Sadi Peng to watch the night. Shirley Yang couldn't sleep, so he came to Hu Bayi and watched the night with Hu Bayi while drinking.
Hu Bayi asked Shirley Yang why she was obsessed with finding a legendary Jingjue Ancient City, so that she would not be too obsessed with it and avoid the loss being worth it.
Unexpectedly, Shirley Yang told Hu Bayi that after her father disappeared, she always dreamed of a large dark cave with a coffin engraved with ghost cave texts. So she firmly believed that Jingjue Ancient City must exist, and she followed her father since she was a child. When she saw him studying the information of Jingjue Ancient City, she even discovered cultural relics in Jingjue Ancient City, and she must follow the path her father had walked.
While the two were chatting, Hu Bayi saw the huge-eyed stone statue's eyes moving, as if they were blinking just now.
This scared Hu Bayi. Is there really something mysterious here? Hu Bayi walked to the giant-eyed stone statue with concern, but found that it was not the blink of an eye, but a huge red ant lying on the eyes of the stone statue.
"Such a big ant?"
Zhao Shucheng was already very alert when he was sleeping. When he heard Hu Bayi's words, he immediately woke up and asked, "Old Hu, have you noticed anything?"
Hu Bayi said indifferently: "It's nothing, there is a big ant on this stone statue."
Zhao Shucheng suddenly sat up and said, "What, ant? Are you sure you saw the ant just now?"
"Yes, what's wrong?" Hu Bayi asked strangely when he saw Zhao Shucheng like this.
Zhao Shucheng said: "Okay, let everyone stop sleeping, pack up their things, and be ready to leave at any time."
Fatty Wang was not asleep. When he heard Zhao Shucheng say this, he said unhappily: "No, Mr. Zhao, this black sandstorm has not passed yet, why should we leave? Besides, aren't it just an ant? As for being so scared?"
Zhao Shucheng glared at the fat man and said to Shirley Yang on the side: "Sherley, you should know what the desert marching ants look like. Tell me, let Lao Hu hear if it's the same."
Shirley Yang became a little nervous when she heard this and said, "The desert marching ants are of two sizes, with a large body length of 5 to 6 mm, brown body and chestnut brown, and abdomen are lighter than chest; the small body length is 2.5 to 3 mm, dense yellow body, and no longitudinal groove in the middle of the forehead. You wouldn't say there are desert marching ants here, right? This is impossible, there is no way to support so many desert marching ants here."
Hu Bayi looked embarrassed when he heard this. After all, although the ant he saw just now was not measured in detail, it was about one centimeter after just looking.
"Is it possible that it is just an ordinary ant, just a little bigger?" Hu Bayi said.
"Impossible. The largest ants in the world include giant ants, red fire ants, bullet ants, marching ants, Argentine ants, big-toothed ants, etc. However, the ants distributed in our country, except for the foreign red fire ants, marching ants and four-section big-headed ants, there are no ants of similar size to this type."
As Zhao Shucheng said, he began to wake up the others and said, "As soon as you wake up, the black sandstorm is about to pass, we are ready to leave."
"No, it's just some ants. Is it as for such a fuss?" the fat man said unhappily.
After hearing this, the others looked at Zhao Shucheng with some dissatisfaction, thinking that Zhao Shucheng was a little frightened, after all, there was nothing scary about ants.
Yang Xueli said with a look of ugly expression: "This is not an ordinary ants, but a desert marching ants. If the desert marching ants are alarmed, all the animals blocking their roads will be their prey. Moreover, the desert marching ants are very large in scale, hundreds of millions, and they will be gnawed into bones a little slower."
Speaking of this, Shirley Yang suddenly looked even more ugly, and he looked at Zhao Shucheng and said, "So at night, when you saw the bone Ye Yixin was holding, you already guessed it was a desert marching ant?"
Zhao Shucheng shook his head and said, "I'm just guessing. After all, no one knows whether they are still here. But now it seems that we are a little unlucky and have moved directly into the nest of the desert marching ants."
An Liman had already woken up at this time. Hearing the conversation between Zhao Shucheng and the others, and knowing that it was very dangerous here, he immediately packed up his own things and prepared to ride a camel away.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content later! Others heard Zhao Shucheng and Yang Xueli describe the desert marching ants as dangerous, so they quickly packed up their things and left.
Professor Chen said with some concern: "But there are black sandstorms outside now. If we go out like this, even if we avoid the desert marching ants, it will be difficult to move inside the black sandstorm, right?"
Zhao Shucheng said: "No, since the desert marching ants have begun to appear, it means that they have sensed in advance that the black sandstorm is about to stop and are ready to go out for food. It is just right to walk now. After all, we humans and camels are of great weight, and the black sandstorm cannot sweep us away. Instead, the desert marching ants, if they get outside now, they will be directly taken away by the wind."
"But if all the desert marching ants are dispatched after the black sandstorm really ends, it will not be so easy for us to escape."
As he said that, Zhao Shucheng began to help others pack up his things. He left the shelter in the whistling wind outside and prepared to ride a camel away.
When An Liman saw everyone coming out, he said, "The black sandstorm will stop in a while. We can get on the road now, but it is still windy and the speed may not be very fast."
"Uncle An Liman, it doesn't matter whether it's fast or not. What's important is that we can leave here safely, at least stay away from the ant nest, so that they can't catch up with us in a short time."
The others were somewhat hesitant. After all, the desert marching ant was only based on Hu Bayi's oral statements, and the others had not seen it at all. Maybe Hu Bayi was misunderstood?
At this moment, the black sandstorm seemed to have been pressed to the end button, and the sky gradually began to brighten.
Just as everyone was hesitating whether they were about to leave, they saw that at the door of the shelter where they were before, the place where the yellow sand was originally covered with a layer of red red, as if it was stained with blood.
Moreover, not only here, but also in other places, sandbags were raising from the sand, and then bursting, and countless ants emerged from the ground.
Seeing this, An Liman knew that he would not leave, so he could not leave, so he rode a camel and prepared to escape.
Wang Kaixuan said: "Old man, you want to run again. If you run again, I will shoot."
An Liman looked at Wang Kaixuan and said, "If you don't run away, you can't run away. Look, you've eaten up all of them."
Everyone looked in the direction An Liman pointed, and saw the animals hiding in the ruins before fleeing out, hundreds of yellow sheep, camels, sand wolves, gerbils, etc. running around in the ruins. Some animals ran a little slower and were directly covered by desert marching ants. After a while, when the ant colony dispersed, only piles of bones were left.
The people from the archaeological team had seen the power of desert marching ants and knew that they should not stay here for a long time, so they quickly followed An Liman on a camel to escape.
Thanks to Zhao Shucheng's early awakening, everyone left the temporary camp early, and finally no one fell behind or was approached by desert marching ants.
However, because they were escaping, everyone couldn't tell the direction at all for a while. After slowing down, they could no longer tell where they were now and how far away they were from the Xiye Ancient City they had planned to go to.
Seeing that everyone was tired, Hu Bayi said to An Liman: "Old man, everyone is tired, let's stop and rest for a while!"
After everyone got off the camels, they needed to replenish water and ate food, and had a good rest.
However, Zhao Shucheng saw that the water source that had been carried in the desert before, after being consumed by everyone and the evaporated by the scorching sun, was less than one-third of the previous one. If there was still no place to replenish water sources, everyone would not be able to find Jingjue Ancient City, even if they went back.
Zhao Shucheng saw An Liman thinking about An Liman and said, "Uncle An Liman, you have seen it too. We don't have much drinking water. If we can't find a place to replenish water, we may not even have enough water to return from the original route. At that time, we can only kill the camel to get water."
After hearing this, An Liman shook his head, took out the map, pointed to it and said, "We have gone in the opposite direction. If we want to go to the original water collection site, it will take three days. But our current water can last at most two days."
Hu Bayi also came to Zhao Shucheng to discuss the next journey with An Liman. He heard this and asked: "You said you ran away just now?"
"Yes, I was already deviating from the direction when I was avoiding the black sandstorm yesterday. Today I ran around again, and it was just the opposite direction."
Hu Bayi hesitated after hearing this and asked, "Uncle An Liman, we can still use water for two days. If we set out from here to return to the place where we encountered a black sandstorm yesterday and then find the water source, how long will it take."
An Liman said: "It takes one day to follow the original route, but now we cannot determine the specific location, and I can't say how much time it will take."
As he said that, An Liman drew a circle on the map and said, "We are in this area now, and I can't say the specific location. If it is here, we can find the water source in two days, but if it is here, it will take three days. If it is elsewhere, it will be even more uncertain how long it will take."
Zhao Shucheng looked at the map and said, "Then this river is only one day away from our range. What if we could find water in the past?"
"I can't say that, I have to go and see it. After all, it's the wind season now, and the sand dunes will change. Maybe it's some, maybe it's buried by the sand, or even rivers change paths, which are common."
At this time, the others in the archaeological team also knew about the water shortage. When An Liman said this, they became a little worried. Some suggested returning directly, some hoped to try it at the previous water intake point, and some even suggested that they start saving water now, but some were worried that Professor Chen could not hold on.
Professor Chen told others not to worry about themselves, even if they don’t drink water for three days, there would be no trouble.
Hu Bayi heard this and said, "Professor Chen, you underestimate the danger of survival in the desert. In the desert, if you don't drink water for a day, you will be in danger of life."
Zhao Shucheng nodded and said, "Yes, Professor Chen, this desert is different from other places. The desert is hot during the day, and the evaporation of water in the human body every day is more than one liter, which does not count the other excretions of the human body. If the amount of sweating is larger, more water needs to be replenished. If the water cannot be replenished in time, you will eventually face the risk of dehydration, or even the body temperature is unbalanced, and the human organs will eventually stop working."
"What's even more dangerous is that the temperature in the desert is even as high as 37 or 8 degrees at noon, which will undoubtedly cause heatstroke, not replenish water in time, and even make people feel unconscious."
After Zhao Shucheng said that, he looked at An Liman and said, "Uncle An Liman, you are a living map of the desert. The water source in the desert has long been in your mind. Our situation is very dangerous now. Return according to the original route, and you need to help us find the nearest water source."
An Liman hesitated for a moment and agreed. Just as the group was riding on the camel, An Liman looked at the surrounding terrain and became more and more familiar with it.
Chapter completed!