Unknown Knight

Everyone was probably very hungry, and the food they had collected after working hard for half a day was eaten up in just a few minutes. Even the coconuts that Bestur had picked were only a few left.

Axe has watched a lot of videos of people going to the sea in the original world, and he thought that he could just find a few puddles on the beach and the seafood in them would be enough to feed everyone. He even saved the extra food for when he returned, but he was severely slapped in the face by reality. It seems that it is not realistic to get enough food in the wild here, and he has to find a way to get it from nearby residential areas.

After the meal, everyone took a short rest and then set out under the scorching sun. Fortunately, Bestur climbed a tree and cut a coconut leaf for each person. Everyone held it on their heads, which served as a good sun protection and prevented them from getting heatstroke.

They moved along the coastline and had to reach the gathering place of local residents before sunset, or find a new beach to collect food for dinner, otherwise they would starve at night with only a few remaining coconuts.

After walking for about three hours, the group came to a river bend with a dry riverbed. This was a seasonal river in the dry season. Looking at the traces of scouring at the estuary, it seemed that there was a short rainy season here every year. Only when there was a lot of rainfall in a short period of time could the accumulated rainwater form a flood peak, and such a large river bend would be washed out on the sandy land without vegetation.

Aix climbed to a high ground next to the river bend and looked out. He found that this seasonal river had five or six crescent-shaped areas with lush vegetation, like oases, in the winding turns formed by the terrain inland. Apparently, there was still water in these places.

Where there is water, there are conditions for survival. Maybe there will be a gathering place for local people there. Aix decided to find a place to rest in this river bend tonight, and then explore further along the river tomorrow.

Ever since Nana unlocked the long-distance scanning mode, Aix has been happily experimenting with this function, scanning all kinds of vegetation, minerals, small animals, etc.

Look, everyone stopped to camp, and after setting up the tents, they consciously scattered around the river bend, some collecting firewood, some looking for food. When everyone was busy and happy, only he held the nano core machine in both hands, tinkering with it like a treasure, sweeping it everywhere, wandering around like a young man who had nothing to do and went out for a picnic. If it weren't for his status, someone would have pointed at his nose and scolded him.

But he was not tinkering around. When he came to the center of the dry riverbed, he scanned and found that there were a lot of living things hidden in the mud below. He hurriedly called everyone to come and dig it up, and they found that they were lungfish dormant in the mud.

This lungfish generally lives in rivers in arid areas. The harsh environment has forced them to evolve a special ability. Whenever drought comes, they will dive into the mud at the bottom of the river and hibernate for a long time without food or water. They will not wake up again to recuperate until the next rainy season comes.

Aix had seen a popular science program introducing lungfish in his original world, so he looked for it with a give-it-a-give attitude, and unexpectedly he actually found a similar lungfish.

The lungfish here are big and meaty, each weighing more than 20 kilograms. This head has obviously not been harmed by humans, so it is a bargain for Aix and others.

In order not to destroy the fragile ecology here, Aix asked everyone to catch only five and then seal the excavated silt.

After cleaning the lungfish, everyone had a delicious grilled fish meal, which was the most decent meal they had had in recent days.

The next day, Aix and others searched upstream along the riverbed to see if they could find any local settlements.

Sure enough, when they followed the riverbed to the third crescent-shaped oasis, they saw two tents set up in the bushes by the river. Judging from the shape of the tents, Afanti judged that they should be nomads living scattered in the desert.

According to Afanti, these nomads scattered in the desert call themselves Bedouins, which means herdsmen from the depths of the desert. They are brave and good at fighting, and make a living by herding goats and camels. Some powerful ones also herd Sarande horses.

Everyone came to the outside of the tent carefully. Afanti had been selling goods outside for many years and had come into contact with these Bedouins. He knew some simple Bedouin language, so he led the way and shouted a few times towards the larger tent.

Then there was a commotion in the tent, and then three angry Bedouins rushed out, holding scimitars in their hands, roaring and looking ferocious. It was obvious that they had not expected that outsiders would come to their territory, and they overreacted for a moment.

However, when they saw clearly that Aix and others were holding weapons, their momentum immediately weakened. The leader was an elderly man. After communicating with Afanti for a few words, his expression eased a lot. He looked at everyone carefully again, and then reluctantly invited Aix and others to go into the tent to rest. However, the three of them kept their hands on their scimitars and remained vigilant against Aix and others.

After sitting down in the tent, which was no more than 20 square meters in size and getting used to the strong smell of mutton and sweat in the tent, Aix could see the owner of the place clearly.

This is a Bedouin family. Living in the tent are three adult Bedouin men, five masked adult women, and four half-grown children, three girls and one boy.

After Afanti found out, everyone knew that the old man was the head of the family, the two young men were his sons, three of the five masked women were the old man's wives, the other two were the wives of his two sons, and the remaining four half-grown children were also the old man's children.

When Afanti translated Aix's words to the old man and told him the purpose of their visit: they just wanted to buy some supplies and camels from him, the old man's expression eased, but he immediately shook his head and told Afanti that their family was not rich, and the camel only had three humps and could not be sold, but they could sell them some goats as food.

After thinking about it, Aix felt relieved. Camels were important assets of desert families and essential means of production. They would not be easily sold unless it was absolutely necessary. In addition, there were ten people in their group and they wanted to buy twenty camels. This huge wealth really scared the old man and he didn't dare to sell even one to them.

There was no other way, so Aix had to ask him if there was a larger settlement nearby, preferably one that would allow them to buy twenty camels at once.

After hearing this, the old man glanced at Aix and others, and after a little hesitation, he told Afanti that if he wanted to buy twenty camels at one time, he would have to go to the city of Zion, two hundred miles away.