I just broke up with my boyfriend and then I transmigrated into the world of "The Lost Tomb&quo

So they split into two groups and left the small town of Lancuo, heading towards the no-man's land following Chen Yunjin's route.

The wheels rolled over the last patch of sparse vegetation on the Gobi Desert gravel, plunging completely into the boundless sea of ​​sand. The sun poured down relentlessly, baking the undulating dunes until they were scorching hot. The air distorted and warped in the heat, making the distant scenery appear like a mirage. The wind whipped up fine sand, which rustled against the car windows like countless tiny insects gnawing at them.

To be honest, even Bear Grylls couldn't escape the uninhabited areas of the desert and Gobi, because it's all sand, boundless and monotonous enough to devour any sense of direction. There are no road signs, no landmarks, only the unchanging outlines of sand dunes slowly moving and changing. The old off-road vehicle struggles forward on the soft sand, the engine emitting a dull roar, each climb accompanied by the tires spinning wildly and kicking up clouds of yellow sand.

The convoy resembled a few clumsy beetles, leaving brief and distorted marks on the vast golden canvas, which were then smoothed out by the wind and sand.

Wu Xie chose Ling Xiao's car, but because of his presence, the atmosphere inside was even more suffocating than the sweltering heat outside. Wu Xie wanted to speak several times, but when his gaze fell on Ling Xiao's straight but cold profile in the front seat, he swallowed his words back.

He couldn't help but glance at Xie Yuhua again. The other person had her eyes closed, resting, and her long eyelashes cast a small shadow under her eyes, making it impossible to tell her emotions. Wu Xie also knew that they didn't want to answer questions about Chen Yunjin. Although Ling Xiao hadn't affected him, he hadn't forgiven him either.

Wu Xie felt a little embarrassed, so he opened a bottle of water and took a sip. Unexpectedly, this sip broke the peace.

"Drink water sparingly," Ling Xiao suddenly said, his voice calm and even. "For the journey ahead, water is life."

Hearing the sound, Xie Yuhua opened her eyes. Wu Xie subconsciously gripped the water bottle in his hand, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Ling Xiao..."

"I'm a vengeful person, that's for sure. You've known me for a while now, but for certain reasons, I will retaliate, though not against you for now. In fact, you've been used as a pawn. I won't do anything to you. As for Chen Yunjin, she brought it on herself. She was the one who went to my lab before. It all started because she and Wu Sansheng didn't trust me. They tried to trick me into going in, but it didn't work. This time, she's pretending to be Dingzhu Zhuoma's daughter-in-law. Guess what her purpose is?"

"But using me comes at a price, and I think they're prepared for that. Is there anything else you want to ask?" Ling Xiao told Wu Xie all this.

Wu Xie was speechless for a moment, and could only say sorry.

"Haven't I apologized enough? If you know you're sorry, then do less of it in the future."

Perhaps he was deliberately going against them; the atmosphere had just eased when Ling Xiao suddenly made a sharp turn.

The sandstorm came faster than expected.

One moment it was a distorted, sweltering heatwave; the next, a murky, endless yellow wall surged up from the horizon. It roared, rolling in with an all-consuming force, instantly obliterating the dim sun. The wind howled, whipping up sand and gravel like a hail of bullets, lashing the car with a chilling crackling sound. Visibility vanished in seconds; only the churning, despairing yellow light remained outside the window.

“Sandstorm! Find the leeward side!” Xie Yuhua urgently said this into the walkie-talkie. His voice cut through the wind noise, calm yet urgent.

The wheels spun violently on the soft sand, and the vehicle swung sideways, coming to a stop precariously on the leeward side of a relatively high sand dune. The other vehicles struggled to move closer, like a few small boats desperately trying to huddle together in a raging storm. The doors were almost impossible to open due to the wind, and the men struggled to get out. The sand immediately filled their mouths and noses, making breathing incredibly difficult. They wrapped their headscarves tightly around their mouths and noses, put on goggles, and groped their way to tie the vehicles together as much as possible with ropes. They then took out heavy sand anchors and hammered them into the sand, trying to stabilize their temporary shelter.

The sandstorm, like countless frantic hands, tore at their clothes, trying to drag them into the heart of the chaos. Wu Xie felt the sand beneath his feet shifting; he gripped the car door handle tightly, his body almost lifted off the ground by the wind. He struggled to turn his head towards Ling Xiao's direction.

Ling Xiao and Xie Yuhua, their backs to the heart of the sandstorm, were working together to brace a heavy equipment crate against the back of the vehicle's wheel. Ling Xiao's movements remained steady and calm, but his upright back appeared even more hardened by the raging sandstorm, as if it were an extension of the sandstorm itself. There was no sign of any obstruction on his face, as if the raging sandstorm had automatically created an invisible barrier around him.

"Look over there!" one of Ah Ning's men shouted hoarsely, his voice torn apart by the wind.

Following the direction the man pointed, on the edge of the churning sandstorm, a blurry figure was moving with difficulty, seemingly trying to break away from the convoy and stagger towards the deeper part—it was Chen Yunjin! She had broken away from the group at some point, braving the almost tearing wind, and was moving with a clear goal towards the core area of ​​the sandstorm, which was also in the direction of Tamutuo, where the sandstorm was more intense.

"She's gone mad!" Wu Xie cried out, instinctively trying to rush out.