Chapter 33: Red Sand Crimson Sea Blood Ants

  Liu Yi walked forward on the sandy ground, his feet feeling extremely soft, somewhat like walking forward on flour.

  Their surroundings were, as usual, rocks shaped like devils, which had been identified by Professor Zhou Tao as extremely hard granite. The environment in Death Valley was so harsh that the constant gentle breeze, like a knife, cut through the granite over the long years, making it as soft as a pancake. With just one touch of your hand, it would crumble and fall off in large chunks.

  It's just that the sun is fine now, the temperature is suitable, and everyone doesn't feel the bad weather, but the dead silence here still makes everyone nervous.

  It wasn't long after the crowd left that they turned around the small hill that had previously blocked their view, and in front of them was still a boundless red sandy ocean, which might not be reached by evening.

  It was clear that on this red desert, Xiao Ke and the Tibetan antelope did not have any familiar beast friends appearing, so they could only rely on their own two feet to measure out the remaining distance.

  Malacca looked ahead and sighed, saying: "If only that little guy had a batch of camel friends!"

  "Everyone, let's make an effort and try to get through this red desert before darkness falls!" Professor Zhou Tao stood up straight with his cane and said loudly: "There are huge secrets waiting for us ahead, come on!"

  Everyone saw that the elderly Professor Zhou Tao was majestic and unmatched, so the young people couldn't show weakness, and they quickened their pace.

  Speeding up again, they walked for about an hour or so, when suddenly the little Tibetan antelope in front stopped and bleated twice. It shook off the khorkhoi on its back and refused to move forward no matter how it was coaxed or intimidated.

  Lu Zonghan looked at Xiao Ke's strange expression and then at the calm red desert in front of him, "Could there be another danger ahead?"

  Liu Yi frowned and said, "It should be, it seems that Xiaoke still doesn't believe in our strength. If it were Keke Mu who brought him here, he wouldn't have retreated like this. This guy really knows how to look down on people!"

  Kekesi's hands were on her hips, scolding the little Tibetan antelope: "Are you going or not? If you don't go, there won't be any dinner!"

  Liu Yi was speechless about Keke Xi's performance. If they didn't cross the desert before nightfall, it seemed that Xiaoke would really go hungry and have to taste some sand instead of having dinner.

  Professor Zhou Tao guessed: "Isn't there some kind of marching ant in this desert?"

  Lu Zonghan said: "This is not easy to say! If there really are ants, they should be long-term native inhabitants of this place. Otherwise, the little ones would not have stopped advancing in this area!"

  Malacca interrupted, "My mother's coming, you guys said it with such conviction, it can't be true, right? If there really are ants, they're probably carnivorous ants. With so many corpses in the black swamp, that's enough to feed them!"

  Malacca has always been a place of bad luck, whatever is said will happen. Liu Yi, who was careful, discovered an abnormal situation 200 meters ahead in the desert. He pointed to the slowly floating red sand in the distance and said: "Look, could it be ants?"

  Everyone looked forward, only to see the floating red sandy land in front of them slowly bulging up, and then spreading out in all directions like ripples on water with it as the center. The sand within a radius of several hundred meters began to move.

  Liu Yi took out his binoculars and looked ahead, only to see that the ground was covered with a dense layer of red, worm-like creatures. He exclaimed in shock: "Blood-colored ants!"

  Everyone was startled when they heard Liu Yi say this.

  All that can be seen are the red ants and the red desert merging into one. If they hadn't discovered something was amiss beforehand, walking into this red ant's territory would definitely result in being gnawed to smithereens.

  These red ants have heads much larger than ordinary ants, about the size of a small thumb nail.

  "Where are we going!" Malacca threw down the telescope, shouted loudly, and poured out the last bottle of industrial ethanol that was left, shouting: "Are we fighting or running?"

  "Idiot, knit a sweater, hurry up and run!" Lu Zonghan said as he turned around and ran away.

  Malacca held a bottle of liquor and shouted loudly, followed closely by the little Tibetan antelope, which also jumped up and down as it chased after the two fleeing men.

  It turned out that Korksi didn't run away, but careful Liu Yi found that this guy's legs were trembling, obviously scared out of his wits. In his heart, he sighed: "This future great monk from Keke Village still needs to be tempered a thousand times!"

  Liu Yi took a step forward, picked up Kexi and was about to join the fleeing crowd when he suddenly discovered that the blood-colored ant army in front of him was not moving towards them, but instead climbing up the mountain wall on their right side.

  Professor Zhou Tao also discovered this anomaly and turned his head to shout: "Everyone come back!"

  Several fleeing people stopped and turned their heads to look back, only to see a vast army of blood-red ants marching swiftly, making rustling sounds as they crawled on the ground.

  A moment later, they climbed up a towering cliff on the right side, and then saw that the cliff was covered with blood-colored ants, as if it had been dyed with fresh blood. Then they saw the blood-colored ants pouring in from a crack at the top of the cliff, like a tide, at a speed similar to that of a pool bottom valve sucking water downwards.

  Malacca lifted the danger alert and said with a smile: "The glory of the Sun Mother envelops us, they were scared away, haha, haha..."

  Speaking carelessly, the listener has intention, Liu Yi's heart moved: "Ants move from low to high places, there must be a storm!"

  Professor Zhou Tao and Lu Zonghan both thought of this, their faces changed, and they shouted: "Hurry up and get through the place where the blood-colored ants live, find a place to hide, I'm afraid a huge storm is coming!"

  After hearing this, everyone ran wildly and barely passed through that terrifying ant-infested area in half an hour.

  Kekesi was trembling all over after seeing the blood-colored ants, and couldn't even walk, being carried on Liu Yi's shoulder as they rushed forward, muttering to himself:

  "Blood-colored vengeance ant... Blood-colored vengeance ant... It's all true, it's all true..."

  Liu Yi thought to himself, "Revenge? What revenge can an ant take?", as he looked around and then spotted a nearby cave entrance on the right side, so he called out to everyone to head towards that cave.

  As they rushed towards the cave, a strong wind suddenly rose out of nowhere, and a large amount of dark clouds suddenly gathered in the sky, instantly changing from bright sunshine to pitch-black darkness.

  All of this seemed to appear suddenly.

  "This weather is changing too fast!" Ma Liuji shouted as he climbed up the granite wind-eroded cave, then threw down a climbing rope and pulled everyone up one by one.

  Liu Yi entered the cave, turned around and looked out, only to see red sand dust blown up by the strong wind, flying in the air, as if countless blood was flowing back and forth in the air, it's too scary!

  The red sandstorm swept past the entrance of their cave, and some came to visit them. In a short while, the entrance and half a meter inside the cave were covered with red sand, and everyone had to retreat to the depths of the cave.

  Malacca pointed to a black residue on the wall of the cave and said, "Look, there's a remaining fire heap!"

  Liu Wei said: "It should be left by poachers who were ahead of us. I reckon they also encountered such a change in the weather!"

  He guessed correctly, the Ma family army before them indeed also passed through here, but they were not as lucky as Liu Yi and others, not only did they encounter a heavenly change, but many people were also bitten to death by red ants, and there was no residue left after being bitten, so everyone didn't see the corpses of the dead.

  They also left behind a large amount of yak dung and dry grass, which solved the trouble of Liu Yi and others having nothing to start a fire for warmth. The instant noodle packaging on the ground was piled up in a big heap, indicating that Ma Jiajun's group had stayed here for quite some time.

  ……

  The wind is getting stronger and stronger, the red sandstorm is like a devil, constantly changing into strange shapes in the air. The sky is rolling with thunder, black clouds are rubbing against each other, brewing lightning and heavy rain.

  Kirk had calmed down and was sitting silently in front of the fire heap inside the cave.

  Liu Yi asked: "On the road you kept talking about blood-colored revenge ants, are they referring to the red ants we encountered?"

  "You don't know the ferocity of this revenge ant, naturally you're not as afraid as I am. This thing is dozens of times more terrifying than the soul-eating insect we encountered, it's just that we were lucky and happened to encounter a violent storm, otherwise... Heh heh..." Korksi said with a cold smile, his facial expression somewhat unsightly, looking rather sinister in the light of the flames.

  Professor Zhou Tao said curiously: "It's normal for ants to be red, and there are many red ants on Changbai Mountain, which have high medicinal value. Generally, people with rheumatism will use them to make wine, but our group of ants is so big, it's a great wonder!"

  "Haha, still drinking wine!" Korksi sneered: "These blood-red ants are the 'vengeful spirits' transformed from the ancient Qiang tribe soldiers, guarding their ancient battlefield where they died, waiting for the appearance of enemies. As long as enemies appear, they will attack in swarms, eating away their brains and marrow, devouring their corpses, sending them to the 18th level of hell, never to be reborn!"

  He said this in a low and distant tone, and the crackling of the dry grass fire in front of them added to the eerie atmosphere.

  "My goodness, stop trying to scare people! I'm a Shandong man who has been through thick and thin!" Ma Liu Ka slapped his chest loudly.

  Professor Zhou Tao and Lu Zonghan stood by silently, waiting for Kekexi to continue.

  Liu Yi asked curiously: "So you mean that this red sand land was a battlefield a long time ago?"

  Kekesi suddenly became extremely agitated:

  "It's not just here, the White Bone Plains and Black Water Marshes we passed through before are also ancient battlegrounds! So the legends were true, all of this really existed in the past..."