“Yeah. It’s the fate that led us to meet each other in this vast desert. Why not take this opportunity to make new friends?”
The person sitting in the front passenger seat turned around to look at Fang Qiu.
“Well…”
Fang Qiu gave a wry smile and said in a sad tone, “It’s not that I don’t want to take the mask off. It’s just that I’m too ugly. I’ve been feeling self-abased since I was a child because of this face of mine. That’s why I always wear a mask.”
At those words, all the people in the vehicle set eyes on Fang Qiu.
“Brother, you can’t joke about this. Your body is a gift given to you by your parents, so is your face,” said the young man sitting next to Fang Qiu.
Fang Qiu fell silent.
Upon taking a closer look, they found that there was faint sadness in his eyes that was partly hidden and partly visible.
At Fang Qiu’s reaction, no one dared to pursue the subject. The driver quickly changed the topic and the chat continued. No one ever mentioned the matter of asking Fang Qiu to take off his mask again.
Fang Qiu secretly let out a sigh of relief.
“Bro, we’re heading for the forest ahead. It is said that the shadow of that giant black scorpion that appeared in the sandstorm was in that area. Where is your destination? Do you want us to take you there?” inquired the driver.
“Thanks, but no need. Just pull up there,” Fang Qiu said.
“Alright.”
The driver nodded and said, “You’re alone. Don’t go into the depths of the desert. Stay with us, and you will have enough food and water, and be safe and sound.”
The car raced fast all the way.
After about an hour’s drive, they were finally reaching their destination.
In the cars, everyone was smiling and looking expectant.
But at this point, Fang Qiu started frowning.
“Pull up!” Fang Qiu shouted abruptly.
“Huh?”
Those in the car were stunned and all turned to look at Fang Qiu.
“Pull up now!” Fang Qiu demanded again.
“Screech!”
Because they were in the desert, the driver stepped on the brake, and the car slid a little forward and then slowly came to a halt.
“Bro, what’s wrong?” the driver asked Fang Qiu.
“Quick, tell the cars behind to pull up as well,” said Fang Qiu with a serious look.
At his words, the people in the car were even more confused.
“Close the skylight.”
Without hesitation, Fang Qiu stood up and grabbed the wireless intercom in the driver’s seat. He turned it on and shouted directly, “All the cars, pull up and shut the skylight and windows right now!”
After that, he immediately closed the first car’s skylight and windows, opened the door, and jumped out.
The driver opened the car window, stuck out his head, and asked, “Hey, bro, what do you mean by that?”
Fang Qiu ignored him.
Instead, he looked into the distance with his brows knitted.
At this moment, those in the other two vehicles were about to get out of the cars to inquire about the situation. But Fang Qiu turned around, waved his hand at them, and quickly got in the first car.
He took the walkie-talkie and said to everyone in the car as well as the walkie-talkie, “Don’t get off the car. Anyone who is scared, close your eyes and try to stay calm!”
In everyone’s eyes, what Fang Qiu just said and did was utterly strange.
It puzzled all of them!
“Why? What’s going on?”
From the walkie-talkie came the questions of the people in the other two cars.
Right at this moment, after Fang Qiu finished his words, a black wave actually appeared in the forest of haloxylon ammondendron in the distance!
Taking a closer look at the black wave, Fang Qiu found that it turned out to be tons of densely-packed scorpions and venomous insects.
Those scorpions and venomous insects were rushing wildly toward the cars like a sea wave!
It looked like they were running away from something and they were all extremely panic-stricken.
Of course, only Fang Qiu noticed that. In the eyes of the others in the cars, this was simply a terrible tide of bugs!
“What the f*ck!”
The driver was astounded.
“Oh my God!”
“What the hell is that?”
“Ah… I’m suffering from trypophobia!”
Sharp screams and flustered voices came from the other end of the walkie-talkie.
“Run!”
“Hurry up and start the car!”
“Start the car and ran away!”
Panic roars sounded not only in the car that Fang Qiu was taking but also in the other two cars behind, judging by the voices from the walkie-talkie.
“Don’t move!”
Fang Qiu held the walkie-talkie and bellowed brusquely, “Don’t move. Nobody can outrun them even with the car.”
No one dared to start the engine anymore.
Each of them just stared blankly at the front. Those who were scared covered their eyes in horror and were too terrified to open their eyes.
At this time, the tide of bugs had arrived!
“Rustle, rustle, rustle…”
The rustling sound of insects moving was enough to make one’s bones go numb.
The tide of bugs was about to reach them.
Fang Qiu narrowed his eyes and quietly released his aura.
Shortly after, an amazing scene unfolded before their eyes.
As Fang Qiu’s aura shrouded the cars, the sickly-dotted scorpions and venomous insects suddenly parted into two groups, which passed by the three cars from the left and right sides respectively. No insect climbed up to the cars.
At this sight, everyone was flabbergasted, but no one dared to speak.
They were afraid that once they spoke, they would attract the flood of insects into the cars.
It was not until 10 whole minutes later that the densely-packed scorpions and venomous insects completely disappeared in front of everyone.
“Phew…”
After the tide of bugs passed by, all the people in the cars breathed sighs of relief.
They felt drained as if they had just survived a disaster because they had been too nervous, even though they didn’t even move an inch.
“Creak.”
Fang Qiu got off the car.
The other people in the three cars also jumped off.
They came up to Fang Qiu with shaky legs and gawked at him.
“Bro, who on earth are you?” the driver of the first car asked.
“How did you know in advance that these scorpions and poisonous insects would come?”
“Why did those scorpions and venomous insects bypass the cars?”
They posed questions one after another.
At this moment, a person with an unusual train of thought approached Fang Qiu and studied him from head to toe. Then, he asked, “Are you the main character in the Time Raiders the Lost Tomb? How come you look so much like him?”
“I’m just an ordinary person,” Fang Qiu insisted.
“No way!”
“Nah, if you were an ordinary person, how could those poisonous insects bypass us without hurting anyone?”
“It’s you who found out about the scorpions and poisonous Insects. It’s also you who forbade us to escape by driving. Ordinary people would have done that already. And in the face of so many scorpions and poisonous insects, you were still so composed. You are definitely not an ordinary person!”
Everyone voiced their opinion. No one believed that Fang Qiu was an ordinary person.
They even encircled Fang Qiu and measured him up while talking.
“You can go back now.”
Having suddenly become an animal in the zoo, Fang Qiu felt quite uncomfortable. Helplessly, he hastily said, “The place ahead is not where you can go. What you saw just now is only the tip of an iceberg. It will be more terrible if you go in, and you will die if you are not careful.”
That was true.
Fang Qiu had already sensed that there was a battle between skilled experts in the forest ahead. Maybe one of them was the legendary giant scorpion, and the other one was likely to be the one who had come to take the Earth Treasure.
Ordinary people would be blasted to the air or even be blasted to death when they were within a certain range of the battlefield, let alone go in there.
“I’m not leaving.”
At Fang Qiu’s persuasion, the driver of the first car immediately jumped off and declared, “Among all the people that I’ve met in my life, you are the one who’s most likely to possess supernatural power. I’m dead sure to follow your steps.”
“Yes, we won’t leave.”
“We’re not afraid as long as you’re here.”
“You’ll always protect us, won’t you?”
With the strong suspicion that Fang Qiu was a supernatural power holder, these supernatural power enthusiasts certainly would not leave.
At this moment—
“Swoosh…”
A gust of wind swept over.
This group of people didn’t feel anything, but when Fang Qiu sensed this wind, his face became solemn in an instant.
“It’s too late.”
Fang Qiu glanced at this group of people speechlessly and said, “A sandstorm is coming!”
Upon hearing that news, the expressions of the crowd changed dramatically in an instant.
Sure enough, not long after Fang Qiu announced that news, a gale suddenly came to them from the front.
Everyone looked in that direction.
In the forest of haloxylon ammondendron ahead of them, there was suddenly a gust of wind, sweeping the yellow sand in the forest into the sky. Like a tsunami, it rushed towards them.
It was so overwhelming that it blotted out the sky and the earth.
In the twinkling of an eye, the desert, which was originally spacious and bright, suddenly darkened as if the end of the world had descended. It caused everyone to panic.
Right at this moment, when the sandstorm was just about to attack the cars, Fang Qiu didn’t hesitate and stamped his right foot!
“Thump!”
The internal Qi burst out from his foot and directly seeped into the ground.
With a stir of his mighty mental power, Fang Qiu manipulated the internal Qi that had penetrated the ground. He made it shoot to the sky along with tons of the sand in the earth, directly casting a sand wall in front of him.
The wall was shaped like a palm.
The moment the wall was conjured, it cupped itself into a loose grip and landed on the ground upside-down, completely enveloping the group of people and separating them from the sandstorm.
At this scene, everyone was stupefied.
They were shocked!
Deeply, unprecedentedly shocked!
“It’s real. Supernatural power really exists!”
“Goodness, you can actually control sand with your power?!”
“Amazing!”
“I can’t believe I saw it. I really saw the supernatural power with my own eyes. So, are you a Sand Man?”
For a while, this group of fans of supernatural power all shouted excitedly.
Nonetheless, Fang Qiu disregarded their shouts.
Instead, he headed forward on his own. A hole immediately appeared on the sand wall in front of him. Although no sand was in the hole, there was an energy layer preventing the sandstorm from blowing its way in.
The crowd also sped forward.
Through the hole about the size of a head in front of them, they immediately saw what was going on on the other side.
Although the sandstorm was in bloom, because it was not far away, everyone managed to see that in the middle of the sandstorm, there was a huge scorpion. And next to the huge scorpion was another person moving at light speed, just like the Flash on TV. He was so fast that they could only see a blur of his image.
It seemed that the man was fighting with the gigantic scorpion!
What Fang Qiu had observed was different from that of this group of ordinary people.
He could easily see the moving trajectory of that man, the real face of the giant scorpion, as well as the strikes they launched.
“An eighth-class Martial Superior with two opened meridians!”
With just one glance, Fang Qiu learned about the strength of that person.
At this level of strength, he could do everything except for flying.
As for the giant scorpion, Fang Qiu noted that the tornado incurring the sandstorm was actually generated by the giant scorpion.
He saw that the scorpion kept diving into the ground. Then, it opened its mouth and started roaring. At once, a whirlwind would burst out directly from the ground. These whirlwinds overlapped and formed a tornado, which resulted in a sandstorm!