Tomb Raider: I Am Hu Bayi's Cousin

Chapter 55

Hu Ming burned the queen ant...

The numerous corpse ants seemed to have lost their leader, and they were all in chaos. Some retreated, while others were disoriented by the tear gas.

"Well done, Mingzi!" Hu Bayi praised Hu Ming upon his return.

"Are you alright?" Yang Xueli asked, unusually showing concern for Hu Ming.

"I'm fine. Let's hurry up and catch up with the main group. We'll use camels to get out of here as quickly as possible."

The tear gas is still effective, so the desert army ants may not dare to act recklessly yet. But once the tear gas wears off, they are very likely to rush forward.

"We really won't be able to leave then."

As he spoke, Hu Ming led Hu Bayi and Yang Xueli and quickly ran into the distance.

They ran as fast as they could, and after about three or four minutes, they finally caught up with Professor Chen and his group.

At this moment, Fatty Wang seemed to have a deep-seated hatred for An Liman, and he kept cursing him.

"Old man, why are you running away? Couldn't you have waited for us?"

"Are you planning to leave us alone again, abandoning us in this desert?" Fatty Wang said aggressively, like a villain.

“What nonsense are you spouting? Why would I stay put if I were in danger?” Anliman explained.

"Stop arguing, everyone hurry up and get on the camels, let's go!" Only then did the expedition team realize that Hu Ming and the others had caught up.

"Mingzi, how is the situation?" Fatty Wang asked.

"Hurry up, if I burn the queen ant, the desert army ants might still catch up," Hu Ming said.

The rest of the men quickly mounted their horses and tried to escape into the distance.

After nearly two hours of fleeing, the group finally escaped the encirclement of the desert army ants.

But at this moment, everyone got lost. They had been so focused on escaping that they hadn't paid any attention to their direction.

Furthermore, a significant amount of supplies were lost during the escape.

Moreover, due to Professor Chen and others' previous waste, drinking water is in severe shortage.

Fortunately, Hu Ming still had water in his space, but he didn't dare to take out too much at once. He only took out three kilograms of water to support these people for a few days.

Hu Bayi and Fatty were still quite wet, so Hu Ming didn't give them any more.

“Mingzi, actually those desert army ants from earlier didn’t look like normal ants to me; they looked more like farmed corpse ants.”

"Records of corpse ants can be found in ancient texts. Corpse ants are insects that guard graves; they are bred specifically to protect graves."

"So I guess there must be an ancient tomb in that ancient city ruin." Recalling everything that had just happened, Hu Bayi voiced his thoughts.

Upon hearing this, Hu Ming nodded and said, "Indeed, I just scattered some glutinous rice on them, and black smoke came out of their bodies. If I'm not mistaken, it should be corpse smoke!"

“Corpse ants? Why do I feel like desert army ants? I’ve seen these ants in foreign magazines before. They look similar, have extremely high formic acid content, and can eat people. In Africa, these ants can eat people,” Yang Xueli said after carefully choosing her words.

"They're probably corpse ants bred from desert army ants," Hu Bayi frowned and sighed softly upon hearing this.

"Let's not dwell on the ancient city ruins anymore. Even if there really are tombs in those ruins, do we have a way to get there? Let's find our way and a way out as quickly as possible. We lost a lot of water resources during our escape. If we don't find a water source soon, we'll run out of water in less than a day," Hao Aiguo said, somewhat frustrated.

In the desert, the most important resource is water. Without water, there is no life.

The three kilograms of water that Hu Ming had just given them were consumed by Professor Chen and his five disciples in less than two hours.

However, Hu Ming did not blame them too much.

After all, the deeper they went into the desert, the hotter it got. Midday was the hottest time, and walking on the desert felt like being in a steamer. So, starting from the fourth day of their journey into the Black Desert, they chose to rest between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The best time to travel is when it's just getting light in the morning. The group rides camels westward, and the desert scenery along the way is colorful, but no one finds it beautiful anymore.

Not only is water provided separately for each person, but each person also has a fixed amount of water to drink each day. If you want to drink more, sorry, if you drink too much this time, you must drink less next time. However, in the desert, each person must drink at least three kilograms of water a day, otherwise they will faint from dehydration in the desert and die.

So even Hao Aiguo and Professor Chen lost their initial fighting spirit.

It was midday, and the fiery red sun in the sky was baking the desert. You could see the desert looking like it was on fire, with ripples of heat rising from the sand.

It's incredibly hot.

"This damn desert is freezing cold at night and scorching hot during the day. Damn it, it's not worth it to suffer like this for $20,000, and I don't even know if I'll make it out alive."

The fat man stopped smoking; it was too hot. His lungs felt like they were on fire, and even breathing was difficult. Why would he smoke? He sat under the sunshade tent, wiping away sweat with his cloak. He was only wearing half-length pants and had his shirt off, but he was still sweating profusely.

Everyone was hot, sitting under the tent wiping away sweat, except for Hu Ming, who seemed more relaxed. He had the best physique among them and was able to withstand the heat.

Of course, there is also the most important reason, which is the "Marrow Cleansing Technique". In this scorching heat, the "Marrow Cleansing Technique" in Hu Ming's body involuntarily started to operate, absorbing a large amount of heat to temper Hu Ming's body, making his body stronger, and also generating a trace of internal energy in his body.

While everyone else was hiding in their tents, Hu Ming was sunbathing outside, enjoying the sun's nourishment. At first, Hu Ming felt as if his body was being bitten by thousands of ants, but after getting used to it, he actually felt very comfortable!

"Mingzi, our water bottles are all empty, not a single drop left," Hu Bayi said as he walked over and sat down next to Hu Ming, looking at him with envy.

Hu Bayi cursed inwardly: Damn it, why is this pretty boy getting whiter and whiter under this scorching sun?
"Hey, Lao Hu, I still have some water in my backpack, just a little bit. Go get it and share it with everyone, so we can drink it sparingly," Hu Ming said slowly, glancing at Hu Bayi. His sack contained nine large bottles, all filled with water.

But that's all the water they have; it can only last them a day and a half at most in the desert.

There were exactly nine people, and each person could get a bottle. This was prepared in advance by Hu Ming when he saw that Hu Bayi and the others had run out of water.

(End of this chapter)