Su Xuan also felt his throat was burning, took a small sip of water, and thought to himself, "Oh my, it’s really hard to crawl out of this desert."

When the team stopped, everyone else was too lazy to climb down and just fell off the camels, collapsing to the ground. It was too exhausting. None of them expected it to be this grueling to traverse the desert region.

Their throats felt as if they’d eaten chili peppers, feeling extremely uncomfortable.

"Damn this weather, so hot during the day and so cold at night!"

Brother Meng came over to Su Xuan at this moment and whispered.

"Strange, something’s not right, something’s wrong."

At this time, Bu Daming quickly spoke up, saying this while taking a sheepskin map from the camel and starting to look at it. Su Xuan also came over. Seeing it was a hand-drawn map, Su Xuan guessed it was the essence of Bu Daming’s experience over the past ten years, and he was quite impressed by it.

One should know that drawing maps in the desert is extremely challenging due to the lack of fixed shapes and reference points, but this elderly man managed to do it, proving he was a true expert. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

"Old man, what’s wrong?"

Su Xuan quickly asked, hearing what the old man said, it seemed something unexpected had happened!

"Something’s wrong, it seems we’ve taken the wrong path. It looks like someone tampered with our route, and now we’re completely off track. Young brother, come over here, see, we were originally at this location, and according to the situation at that time, we should have followed this road straight down. But at this point, we took the wrong turn, and now we’re at least fifty kilometers away from the main road!"

Bu Daming quickly said.

Su Xuan furrowed his brow, looking at the map, which showed a branch-like fork in the road. One branch continued downwards where there was a water source, but the path they were currently on led deeper into the expanding desert. This was troublesome; he hadn’t expected to stray so far.

"What do we do now?"

Su Xuan looked at the map, thought for a moment, and then said.

"Brother Bu, see if we can cut through here. If we go down this path, the distance should be much shorter. We should be able to easily return to the main road."

"That’s not possible. Young brother, you’ve traveled in the desert, you know this. In places like this, everything looks the same around you, and a compass is merely a reference. If we take this path, I’ve never walked it before. I don’t know where it leads, and during the journey, we’re also very likely to take the wrong path!" Bu Daming quickly explained, and Su Xuan took a deep breath, knowing Bu Daming was right and wasn’t speaking recklessly.

"So you’re saying we have to detour and go back?"

Su Xuan knew that over the years, Bu Daming had discovered a unique path in the desert, and perhaps only he knew it, which gave him confidence. But since it’s the windy season, during this season, the original path might not be recognizable, and they might have been tampered with by someone earlier, which brought them to this totally unfamiliar place. Because they entered unknown territory, he had to backtrack to find the path he was familiar with.

"Yes, that’s what it means, otherwise I won’t be able to confidently lead you all out of here!"

Su Xuan looked at the time, it was almost five o’clock, in the desert, it would quickly get dark, and the temperature would drop tremendously.

"Everyone, rest here for ten minutes. After ten minutes, we’ll retrace our steps!"

Su Xuan shouted loudly.

"This..."

For a moment, everyone murmured complaints. It was hard not to complain. After having walked for over three hours, some people’s butts had gone numb, and they hadn’t expected to turn back.

"Young brother, what’s happened!"

Looking at Su Xuan, Huo Qiyin quickly asked. They all thought they were close to the destination, but didn’t expect to have to detour back.

"We got lost, have to backtrack, everyone eat something and replenish your energy."

Su Xuan said, although he didn’t want to backtrack either, there was no other way. Some paths needed to be retraced. If they were to follow that small path through the map, maybe it could merge with the mainland, but it could also lead them to a point of no return.

Marching in the desert is strange; if you walk for a long time, you won’t recognize the return path. Bu Daming decided to return now because it hadn’t been too long, and he was confident he could recognize it.

"Boss, come over here!"

At this time, Brother Meng stood on a sand dune and called out to Su Xuan, who was curious and quickly made his way up.

"What’s up?"

Su Xuan looked at him, curious about what this guy was up to.

"Boss, look at this!"

Brother Meng spoke while handing Su Xuan a lump of something black and sticky. Su Xuan furrowed his brow and told Brother Meng to throw it on the ground.

"It’s wolf dung, where did this come from!"

"Right here! Boss, this stuff is still fresh, meaning there’s a high chance a pack of wolves is nearby!"

Brother Meng quickly said.

"Looks like we’re in trouble!"

Su Xuan furrowed his brow. He knew better than anyone that desert wolf packs were more terrifying than jungle wolves. Maybe it’s survival of the fittest or the result of purification, but these creatures in the desert are incredibly fierce. Of course, that’s not the most important thing. The real problem is that in the desert, there are no cover or big trees, making it particularly awkward when encountering a wolf pack.

If there are only a few wolves, Su Xuan certainly wouldn’t be afraid, but if there are many, then it’s a real problem since there are so many people and no good cover available.

"Big brother, do you think these things might be nearby!"

"They must be close. They’re waiting for the right time. Once night falls, they’ll attack. Luckily, you found this!"

Su Xuan had a bad feeling. At night, even if he discovered the Wolf King in such a place, it would be very difficult to kill it, which was different from the situation at Wolf Fang Mountain.

"So what now, there’s only half an hour left before sunset. Once it sets, it’ll be troublesome."

Su Xuan took out his binoculars and surveyed the surroundings. It was just sand dunes beyond sand dunes, with no sign of ancient buildings. This was a real problem; with virtually no defense, Su Xuan was naturally not afraid, but he couldn’t bear the thought of watching these people feed the wolves one by one. He couldn’t bring himself to be that ruthless.