Sandstorm

At last, the wind and sand began to die down. As the group's leader, Hu Bayi worried that Professor Chen and the other scholars wouldn't be able to withstand the constant jolting, so he had Fatty stop An Liman.

The old man knew the camels were close to their limit after running nonstop. Out of concern for them, he had the lead camel stop.

At last, everyone could catch their breath.

As soon as Ye Yixin climbed down from her camel, she dropped to one knee, pulled off her face covering, and began coughing violently. Her heart seemed to bounce with every cough. Unable to go on, she collapsed onto the ground. She gazed at the dim sky, still full of blowing sand, and tears welled in her eyes. She felt she was about to die—to perish in this desolate desert and become a pile of bones.

"Xiao Ye, drink some water and take it easy." Hu Ming pulled Ye Yixin up and let her lean against him. He felt rather helpless. Once again, it was his turn to look after a girl. Well, he'd play the gallant hero for once.

He gave Ye Yixin a few sips of water. Seeing that she was still very weak, Hu Ming knew she probably wouldn't make it through the dangers ahead in her current state.

"Big Brother Hu Ming, will the wind and sand stop?"

The wind had weakened, and visibility was much better than before. But Ye Yixin could see that, despite the lull, the wind and sand showed no sign of stopping. Her little face grew even paler.

"Big Brother Hu Ming, do you think I'll die here?" Ye Yixin, weakly leaning against Hu Ming, was constantly afraid she would die. She spoke so softly that he could barely hear her. Fortunately, his hearing was far sharper than an ordinary person's.

"I don't know whether you'll die, but a real sandstorm is coming—and it'll be a black sandstorm. You definitely won't be able to handle it. Here, just ride with me on one camel." Hu Ming looked down at the girl in his arms, feeling a little exasperated. If she was afraid of dying, why had she come all the way out here?

Still, Hu Ming had chosen a strong camel, and it was a male.

"Mm." Ye Yixin nodded, feeling at least a little safer.

"Professor Chen, have some water." Professor Chen was kneeling on the ground, coughing violently until his face turned blue. Hu Bayi handed him some water, thinking that the old man really was dead weight in the desert. Fine, he'd look after him.

Hu Bayi glanced at Hu Ming enviously. Look at Mingzi—he got to take care of a pretty girl. He pulled her into his arms, and she leaned against him, growing dependent on him. It was practically a match made in heaven.

Then he looked at the Fatty. That hopeless fatty was busy cursing An Liman.

No wonder guys like us were still virgins. There was a reason for it.

Yang Xueli was in excellent shape. Since her father was an explorer, she had often trained outdoors with him from a young age. After learning the truth about her birth, she had trained even harder.

So a few hours of jolting meant nothing to her. She was still perfectly capable of checking the supplies and asking Sa Dipeng and the others how they were doing.

But that left Hu Bayi a little disappointed. If only she were like Ye Yixin; then Hu Bayi could have pulled her into his arms too.

As for An Liman, he was practically a living map of the desert. He was as comfortable there as he was at home. After the bumpy stretch of road, he wasn't even out of breath or breaking a sweat. After exchanging a few words with the Fatty, he went to check his camels, inspecting each one carefully.

Whoosh—

The light wind and sand began to shift, then suddenly stopped altogether, catching everyone off guard.

But in the next instant, everyone burst into laughter. The wind and sand had finally stopped. It looked like they were in the clear, and smiles spread across their faces. Only An Liman and Hu Ming looked troubled.

They both turned toward the eastern horizon. The blood-red dawn clouds hadn't faded; they had grown even larger and redder, as if they were bleeding.

"Run! The wind messenger has really come. Hu Da is angry!" An Liman was utterly terrified, his voice shaking uncontrollably.

"Don't just stand there! Get on the camels, and hold on tight!" Hu Ming couldn't help feeling exasperated as he watched everyone stare dumbly at An Liman running toward the camels without realizing they needed to move. At his urging, Yang Xueli, the Fatty, Sa Dipeng, and the others hurried onto their camels.

"Professor Chen, quick!" Hu Bayi helped Professor Chen onto a camel, then rushed over to his own and swung up onto its back. By then, An Liman had dashed over to the lead camel and climbed aboard. Ignoring everyone behind him, he urged the camel into a gallop.

The whole camel caravan went mad, galloping after the lead camel as if their lives depended on it.

Whoosh, whoosh—

A wail like the cries of ghosts rose up. A sandstorm blotted out the sky as it bore down on them, and the whole world darkened in an instant, like the end of the world. An overwhelming fear seized them.

In the face of nature, everything seemed so insignificant, utterly powerless to resist.

Smack! Smack!

The sandstorm hadn't even reached them yet, but its force was already whipping up countless grains of sand and hurling them through the air. They pelted everyone like tiny stones, stinging painfully.

Everyone clung tightly to the camel humps, burying their heads against them to shield themselves from the wind and sand.

Panic spread through the group. They had no idea whether they could survive this. The camels beneath them ran for their lives, nearly throwing them off again and again.

At last, they could no longer see anything more than two meters away. The first wave of the sandstorm had caught up with them. It was still relatively weak, yet everyone was on the verge of being swept off their camels and hurled into the air.

This was terrifying. If the main sandstorm hit, they really would be swept away, and death would be the only outcome.

Hu Ming squeezed his legs around the camel and held Ye Yixin tightly in his arms.