Chapter 77: Mirage

  Seven days later! Sweltering and windless!

  Under the scorching sun like a furnace, the sand grains on the sandy ground were burned by the sun to a boiling state. If there was a fresh raw egg at this moment, it would be buried in these boiling sand grains and cooked through in less than ten minutes.

  Tall and short, endless dunes stretch out in everyone's line of sight, like thousands of giant dragons lying horizontally on the dunes, buried.

  After walking for seven days in the desert, the four people's water bags were gradually decreasing, and the dried meat they carried was only left with the last piece. At this moment, due to the harsh environment, water and food faced a huge crisis.

  If a person is in the desert without water, it means death is not far away!

  Li Ling wiped the sweat from his forehead, raised his head and gazed out at the endless desert. It was so dry and the environment was so harsh, with no water and few living organisms to be seen. Moreover, this region was prone to sandstorms, making life truly unbearable.

  Quietly holding a withered branch, he took two steps forward and suddenly felt his legs go soft and his head spin, then fainted to the ground.

  "Quiet miss." After discovering, Mandala slightly moved, hurriedly bent down and pressed the lower part of An's nose with her fingers to wake her up.

  A faint hum, a mouthful of air, severe headache, slowly regaining consciousness, but with dull eyes and blurry mind, clearly due to extreme lack of food and water intake for many days, resulting in shock.

  "Today's temperature is over 40 degrees, and with not enough water or food, Anjing's physical condition is the weakest among us. If this continues, I'm afraid Anjing won't be able to hold on." Xiao Yuan took off his cowboy hat and fanned himself vigorously as he analyzed their current situation.

  Li Ling squatted down, took out his own water bag from his waist, opened the plug of the water bag, and gently brought it to Anjing's dry mouth. He first moistened his lips, then slowly poured in the water, afraid that a single drop would spill outside. Now, water was more precious than gold; losing one drop meant having none at all.

  After being nourished by the water, Anjing gradually became more awake and her eyes gathered a lot of attention. Looking at Li Ling's concerned gaze, she smiled slightly and said: "I'm fine, this is your water, you keep it for yourself." Anjing slowly raised her hand to gently push away the water bag, very softly, as if afraid of spilling it.

  "I'm fine, I'm a martial artist, my physique is good, I don't need water to survive, you should know that many cultivators can go without food and water for half a year when they're in seclusion! I'm like that!" Li Ling's eyes were very gentle, his hand lightly stroking the quiet forehead, smoothing out the quiet hair, which was also a bit dry.

  "Hmph...!" An quietly couldn't help but laugh, but it stimulated the nerve of the trachea and started coughing. Changing his tone: "What you said isn't a cultivator of martial arts, it's a cultivator of true essence!"

  "Ah, a cultivator of the Truth, what he says quietly is what it is." Li Lingqiang smiled.

  Xiao Yuan let out a faint sigh, his brow furrowed for the past three days. Three days ago, he discovered that several oases in the desert had disappeared, buried by the merciless sand. As a result, the four people who couldn't find an oasis were now in such a state of dehydration.

  "What to do?" Xiao Yuan tapped his forehead with his fingers, and his eyebrows furrowed even tighter. He looked at Anjing and forced a smile: "Wait until tonight, I'll definitely find water, everyone can rest assured."

  "I believe Uncle Xiao," An Jing said softly.

  "En..." Xiao Yuan smiled and nodded, raising his head to gaze out at the sand dunes in this area, carefully observing them.

  "A vast expanse of sea appeared in front!!" Mandala's eyes sparkled with a hint of surprise, and her face also showed a rare expression of excitement, revealing her longing for water.

  Li Ling was also startled, how could there be a sea in the desert? He raised his head and gazed into the distance, looking towards the back of his body, and sighed softly: "That's a mirage!"

  "Mirage!" Mandala gazed out at the blue ocean, so clear and visible, so real, with its waves and seagulls, yet it was just a fleeting shadow, a mirage.

  "The mirage often appears in the desert, sometimes giving people who cross the desert a wrong direction hint, causing those who walk in the desert to never get out of the desert." Xiao Yuan looked calmly at the mirage! Perhaps, having seen it many times, he had also become calmer.

  "Considering the desert and the extreme temperature difference, can we collect some dew?" Li Ling had also lived in some small deserts before, but they all came with water collectors. But now there aren't any, because no one expected that camels would get lost afterwards.

  "No container, can't collect water! I can only rely on my own experience to dig for underground water and hope to succeed." Xiao Yuan carefully observed every inch of the sandy ground, then pinched up a handful of sand and sniffed it at the tip of his nose.

  "All the way north! I'll find underground water before nightfall!" Xiao Yuan's eyebrows furrowed even tighter, apparently pushing himself to his limits.

  Anjing gradually recovered some physical strength, but still felt a bit weak, after all, the sun was too poisonous and the temperature was too high!

  "Let me carry you." Li Ling grasped Anjing's hand, turned around, and had his back to Anjing.

  "It's all right," An Jing shook her head quietly and said.

  "Alright, don't resist anymore." Li Ling didn't care whether An Jing was willing or not, and directly placed An Jing's hands on his own shoulders, hooking his hands under An Jing's legs and carrying her on his back.

  Her quiet nose twitched, her eyes slightly moist with emotion, lying calmly on Li Ling's shoulder, feeling the sense of security and protection that Li Ling brought.

  "Mirage! How great it would be if it were real!" Anjing gazed quietly at the mirage that was gradually disappearing into the air, and spoke those words with boundless longing.

  "It will be true, as long as we believe it, it must be possible!" Li Ling tightened the quiet behind her back and encouraged.

  "Ah... it must be true, it's definitely true." An quietly rested her head on Li Ling's sturdy shoulder.

  Night falls, and Xiao Yuan squats down every ten steps to grab a handful of sand and sniff it by his nose to test the moisture in the sand.

  However, most of the sand's dryness almost sealed off his nose. Xiao Yuan was also constantly sneezing because of this.

  "Uncle Xiao..." Quietly watching Xiao Yuan making an effort to find water sources for everyone, her heart ached slightly.

  "I'm fine, trust me, Uncle Xiao. We'll find the underground water soon, and then we can drink to our heart's content." Xiao Yuan said with a optimistic smile.

  Li Ling's eyebrows furrowed at this moment.

  "Jun Zhi, you also felt it." Mandala came to Li Ling's side and whispered.

  "Ah, they finally couldn't bear it." Li Ling smiled coldly. He could sense that about ten miles behind him, there were two people closely following.