Chapter Eighty-four: Persistence of Faith

  Li Ling walked up to the female ninja's corpse, which had turned into a pool of blood, and gazed at the dark liquid. He let out a soft sigh and said, "This is a potent toxin that corrodes corpses. I didn't expect it, but the ninja's awareness was actually this high. We've only just entered the desert, yet we've already undergone two waves of battles without warning. The road ahead will be even more arduous."

  "The unknown danger is indeed very high!" Mandrake gazed calmly at the pool of corpses, his expression serene as he conducted a calm analysis of the current situation.

  "Well, judging from the current situation, no one will make a move before we reach the ancient tomb. Or, perhaps there are already large numbers of people lying in ambush within the tomb, waiting for us to walk into their trap." Li Ling glanced up at the starry night sky and suddenly realized that they were now in the heart of the desert.

  "This won't do, the location of the ancient tomb is only known to me and Uncle Xiao. If we don't lead the way, no one will be able to find that ancient tomb." Anjing said.

  "That's good." Li Ling said.

  "General Li, I've had a question for you all along." Mandala came to Li Ling's back, slightly lowered her head and looked at Li Ling's back very calmly.

  "What's wrong?" Li Ling turned around and looked at Mandala.

  "In the military, in the institute, to be honest, my abilities aren't considered very strong, so why did you choose to bring me out?" Mandala didn't know how to express her emotions at this moment, and could only quicken her speech a bit.

  Li Ling did not answer immediately, but hesitated.

  Man Tuo Luo wasn't in a hurry for an answer, but quietly waited for Li Ling's response!

  "Because you're special!" Li Ling thought for a moment before giving an abstract answer.

  "Perhaps Li Ling feels that there is a special conviction in you." An Jing said quietly, having appeared from beside him at some unknown time.

  "Faith?" Mandala said.

  "Insistence on something is a kind of faith. The only driving force for human survival is to rely on faith." She explained with a quiet smile.

  Mandala gazed at the quiet coat wrapped around her severed arm, lost in thought, and murmured: "Could my conviction be..."

  But Man Tuo Luo didn't say it out loud.

  The next day, early in the morning. Golden sunlight poured down on this emerald oasis, and although there were few trees, many birds flew out from among them.

  Although there are not many flying birds, they have added a lot of vitality to this place.

  "I fished all night and threw them on the grass, only to find out this morning that they were all stolen by the birds nearby." Xiao Yuan said with a headache and a series of yawns.

  Li Ling came to Xiao Yuan's side and sat down, looking at the fishing hook: "It's on the hook."

  Xiao Yuan suddenly woke up with a start, and in his haste, he pulled out a palm-sized crucian carp, which was thrown to one side, still flailing about.

  "How's the quiet?" Xiao Yuan said as he removed the carp from the fishhook.

  "Last night, I had a nightmare all night, and I was sweating cold throughout the night. The whole person was like being in extreme fear." Li Ling said with a hint of heartache in his eyes.

  "Yes, Anjing has been like this since she was a child. Every one to two weeks, she would have a nightmare, and the realism of the nightmare is as high as 90%." Xiao Yuan continued to cast the fishing hook with earthworms into the water.

  "En..." Li Ling looked at the rippling lake surface and nodded.

  "So, you should take care of yourself and be more quiet." Xiao Yuan patted Li Ling's shoulder.

  Li Ling didn't say anything, but instead continued to gaze quietly at the lake surface.

  "I will put an end to these quiet, baseless nightmares." Li Ling fell onto the grass, gazing at the white clouds and blue sky, savoring the peace of this moment.

  A gentle breeze blows by, and for a moment, I am speechless.

  After a day of food accumulation, in the evening, everyone sat together, roasting the dozen or so crucian carp caught during the day, completely turning these crucian carp into dried fish.

  "15 dried carp, 9 bags of water!" Xiao Yuqing counted these meager resources.

  "If it's just for two people, how long can these last?" Li Ling asked, looking at the dried fish and water bags laid out in front of him.

  "These can last for ten days." Xiao Yuan said with full confidence.

  "Does Uncle Xiao have confidence in finding the next oasis within ten days?" Li Ling looked at Xiao Yuan and continued to ask.

  "I can try my best, but the deeper we go into the desert, the more dangers we'll encounter, such as sandstorms and quicksand." said Xiao Yuan.

  Li Ling was not afraid of sandstorms and quicksand, what he feared most was the shortage of food and water, because once these two things were in short supply, it meant that An Jing and Xiao Yuan, these two ordinary people, would die from thirst and hunger.

  "That's settled then, we'll set off tomorrow morning," said Li Ling.

  "Come with me for a moment," Li Ling said quietly to An Jing.

  She nodded quietly and followed Li Ling to a more peaceful grove.

  "Quiet, what did you dream of last night?" Li Ling asked, facing Quiet.

  The quiet mention of last night's dream made his eyes suddenly terrified, as if recalling an extremely frightening thing.

  "It was a dark world, where there was nothing, absolutely nothing. There were only countless pairs of green eyes staring at me, looking at me as if I was food. They stared at me, and I kept running, kept running, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't escape the darkness." Anjing said, hugging her head in extreme terror.

  "Alright, don't recall it anymore." Li Ling removed his hand from An Qi's head and comforted her.

  "There was a dark cave, an endless black cave, where eerie sounds echoed at all times, and the ground was littered with skeletons, making one's heart tremble. The silence seemed to be unable to stop recalling the memories, and cold sweat dripped down."

  "Alright, look at me, don't think about it anymore." Li Ling held Anjing's head in her hands, making her eyes focus on hers.

  "Look at me, my eyes now only have one thing, it's to completely cure the quiet nightmare syndrome and return to a normal life. So, we're all working hard to find every place that appears in your dreams, hoping to find a clue. So, Quiet, don't worry anymore." Li Ling looked at Quiet with focused eyes.

  Quietly and carefully sizing up Li Ling's eyes and pupils, in those pure black eyes, reflecting one's own shadow, so peaceful and calm.

  "En... I understand." She nodded quietly.

  "So, let's quietly take us to the ancient tomb, and only quietness knows the correct direction." Li Ling said.

  "En, I understand. We've both been there once before, so we won't get lost. However, the ancient tomb is from 100,000 years ago, and what kind of danger lies within, no one knows." Anjing finally calmed down and said.

  "I'm thinking of things from a hundred thousand years ago, and the answer can only be known by going deep into that ancient tomb." Li Ling said with his eyes half-closed in quiet contemplation.