Chapter 1249: Undecided
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
While Peter Lee and Wei Kang talked, Zhang Zian looked at the map once again. According to the modern map, the area of the so-called Devil’s Sea was not huge. In addition, the shape reflected on the ancient map suggested that it was a piece of land or a valley. If Peter Lee was right, it would take only two days to get in and get out.
The expedition team could then use these two days to find the traces of the original Egyptian cat on the periphery of the Devil’s Sea.
That sounded good. But… This also meant that the two groups would be temporarily separated.
The expedition team was somewhat undecided on whether this was the correct course of action to take. Most of the trip up until now had depended heavily on Peter Lee and his team. They were like a child who needed a babysitter to take care of them. It was not Peter Lee’s team that needed the expedition team, but the expedition team that needed Peter Lee.
If nothing happened after Peter Lee’s team went deep into the sea of the devil, that would be excellent. However, if something did go wrong… The expedition team could only depend on themselves to leave the desert.
After a few days of getting along, he learned a lot about Peter Lee’s team members. They always liked to talk about mysticism when they were resting. Besides that, they were excellent individuals and more reliable than Wei Kang’s four pupils. Observing this made him very jealous of the team Peter Lee had a.s.sembled.
If the expedition team tried to leave the desert on their own, it may prove to be highly difficult.
Wei Kang had already accepted Peter Lee’s proposal. Nabari wanted to add to his thoughts, but Peter Lee mentioned it first. “Mr. Nabari, if you are afraid to enter the Devil’s Sea, it doesn’t matter. You can stay outside and wait for us to come out.”
Nabari was obviously disturbed by what he had said. He raised his voice and said, “I can’t bear to see your team walking into death! You simply don’t know how scary the Devil’s Sea is!”
In the eyes of Wei Kang and Peter Lee, Nabari’s world view was very narrow. He had never seen the world. When he claimed that the Devil’s Sea was a scary place, they did not really take him seriously.
“Mr. Peter Lee, what if you didn’t come out of the Devil’s Sea as planned?” Zhang Zian suddenly asked the question, point-blank.
Peter Lee answered lightly, “What dangers do you think we will encounter there? Perhaps…the actual devil?”
His team laughed at his comments.
“I mean, we have to consider this possibility,” Zhang Zian said matter-of-factly. “We have limited supplies. The expedition team can’t wait outside indefinitely. There must be a time limit.”
Peter Lee discussed with his team members and showed three fingers. “Three days. You will wait for us for three days. If we haven’t come out after seventy-two hours, you should leave first.”
Along the way, although Peter Lee’s team had also suffered bouts of low morale, they had never had doubts about the goal they were seeking to achieve. Even when Nabari described the Devil’s Sea as terrible, they merely laughed it off.
Nabari tried his best to persuade them, but both Wei Kang and Peter Lee had already made up their minds. However, Wei Kang’s pupils were uneasy. If possible, they would rather return home now to what they were used to. They had already had enough of this desert, where unfortunate things happened.
Zhang Zian was one who was most uneasy. On the one hand, he would prefer to stay with the expedition team, as this was the safer option. On the other hand, he had also considered following Peter Lee into the Devil’s Sea.
He stole a glance at Fina, only to see it squinting. Its eyes gazed in the direction of the Devil’s Sea.
Even if he did choose to stay outside, it seemed that Fina would go in anyway. On that note, he would certainly not be able to take it with Fina risking her life inside.
In addition, the problem of the cat G.o.d statue that was sitting in his car had not been resolved. If there was an undiscovered pyramid in the Devil’s Sea, it would be a good place to house the statue.
Helping Peter Lee might actually be a way of helping themselves. This was because to safely leave the desert, the expedition team would have to rely on Peter Lee.
Based on estimates made on the map, it took about one and a half days to reach the Devil’s Sea. Zhang Zian would have that amount of time to decide on his course of action.
Nabari saw that they had already made up their minds. He sighed and gave up trying to persuade them otherwise. He muttered a few words to G.o.d.
After lunch, at about 3 p.m., the intensity of the sun had decreased. The team decided to continue moving ahead.
The closer they were to their destination, the closer they were to returning home. Although nothing else seemed to have changed, most people’s moods were relatively buoyant.
At the request of Peter Lee, Nabari led the team to deviate from the ancient road and go into the depths of the unknown desert.
From now on, even Nabari would not be sure what was in front of him. He had started walking on the ancient road with his father a few decades ago. However, with this new path, he had little experience. In addition, the path may constantly change in as little as a few days.
Time pa.s.sed slowly, and in the summer heat, the sun slowly set. The sky soon turned from bright to dark, indicating that it was the evening.
Nabari, who was at the front, stopped his car and spoke to Zhang Zian through the intercom. There was another tall sand dune in front of him. He asked him to get out and use the drone to check the situation.
The other team members heard the conversation and stopped as well. They got out of their cars to stretch. They gathered together to talk and laugh, and some talked with great interest about the Devil’s Sea.
It was getting late. They were likely to camp just after scaling this sand dune. Also, with the high temperature subsiding, everyone’s mood lightened a little. It was much like getting off work on a Friday evening.
Zhang Zian manipulated the drone to take off. He had done this many times, and it had become a routine. With each additional time he successfully completed the task, more people had seen it and therefore lost interest.
Nekhbet flew over the sand ridge and first gave a 360-degree panoramic view of the terrain. It then transmitted the image to the remote control’s screen in real time so that Zhang Zian could roughly estimate which side had lower terrain. According to his experience, the side with a lower height also had gentler slopes.
The evening light was not very good. The place where the sun was s.h.i.+ning was still relatively bright, but the places that had no light were very dark. To make matters worse, the contrast between light and dark was very strong.
The sunset from the west had too much influence on the line of sight. Zhang Zian fine-tuned the height and shooting angle of Nekhbet to minimize the interference of the sunset.
Halfway through the 360-degree panoramic view of the landscape, something suddenly flashed on the screen of the remote control. When Zhang Zian looked again, the flash did not happen.
“Strange. What was that?”
He used his joystick and manipulated Nekhbet to turn back in the opposite direction.
There was another flash.
There was no mistake this time. Something was flas.h.i.+ng in the distance on the back of the sand ridge.
He let Nekhbet hover in the same place and aimed the camera in that direction. He then adjusted the focus and enlarged the picture.
A blurred black dot appeared in the picture. Alas, it was too dark. Even if the focal length had been pulled to the farthest, it would still be impossible to make out what it was.