Upon hearing Ya Qiaoxi's suggestion, Sun Hang suddenly thought of a way to deal with the sandstorm.

He could inject a substantial amount of life force into a Fungus Puppet and then have it run in another direction to lure the sandstorm away...

No, if the Fungus Puppet is too far from him, it won't last long before disintegrating on its own, and the life force injected into its body would dissipate...

Then he could only switch from automatic to manual — Sun Hang would use the ability of electromagnetic acceleration to lead the life-energized Fungus Puppet in another direction, and once he had distanced himself far enough, throw the puppet aside and accelerate in the opposite direction himself...

Upon thinking this, Sun Hang suddenly realized he might be overdoing it — he could just use himself as bait to lure the sandstorm away, since with the Electromagnetic Acceleration Field, the sandstorm would never catch up with him.

The only concern is losing direction in the Gobi Desert... The electromagnetic field of Kui Niu could accelerate Sun Hang to speeds comparable to supersonic fighters, making it extremely dangerous in this Gobi Desert where reliable reference points are hard to find; even a one-degree deviation in direction could be dangerous... With a bit of bad luck, one could end up deep in the wilderness like those Hunters who bought the wrong map, or worse, end up directly in the Surrendered Area.

The direction is the most critical issue.

Although the Hexi Corridor isn't part of the Surrendered Area, the Gobi Desert phenomena like sandstorms, combined with adverse weather, often disrupt satellite positioning and communication signals, causing signal outages for hours or even days. And ancient navigation tools like a compass rely entirely on the earth's magnetic field — Sun Hang had observed the compass on the car when setting out, and the thin magnetized needle wouldn't stop moving for even a moment.

This means that in the Hexi Corridor, the geomagnetic field is constantly changing, just like the terrain.

Sun Hang raised his head, looking through the crevices of towering stone columns, and gazed at the sun in the sky.

The sun and stars indeed serve as good reference points, but the problem is that when a sandstorm appears, the entire sky is shrouded in dust, making it impossible to see the sun, let alone use it as a reference.

"Phew... it's better to rely on oneself than others."

After thinking for a long time, Sun Hang decided to use his "wishful thinking" ability to determine the direction.

He placed a stone with a sharp end on the ground and silently wished for its point to indicate true north... a few seconds later, the stone began to tremble slightly, yet almost at the same time, Sun Hang dismissed this thought.

He realized that his psychic energy was being consumed at an astonishing rate — just moving the stone had depleted nearly a quarter of his blue gauge.

This might sound abstract, but in simpler terms — if the same amount of psychic energy was used for destructive behaviour, Sun Hang could instantly crush the 500-meter tall, steel-structured Siberian TV Tower into a massive lump of iron.

Sun Hang weighed the stone in his hand, roughly the size of a wireless earbud case, then imagined the Siberian TV Tower twisted by enormous force, causing him to shake his head.

This was somewhat ridiculous.

Could it be that a rule-based phenomenon exists in this Gobi Desert, with the rule being "Direction cannot be determined using Meme Ability"?

That seems a bit absurd, doesn't it?

Sun Hang tossed the stone away, and the flat, round stone rolled until it hit the bottom of a stone column with a slight sound and finally stopped.

"How long do we have to stay here?" Sun Hang asked Ya Qiaoxi.

"Until the sandstorm is far enough away, or completely dissipates," Ya Qiaoxi replied. "A few hours at the shortest, a few days at the longest."

Candle Dragon returned to the car and turned on the radio, but all that came through were harsh static noises.

"Dragon City has large equipment for monitoring strange phenomena like sandstorms and periodically indicates their whereabouts in the Gobi Desert, much like a weather forecast. Of course, it's not as precise as a weather forecast; it can't predict the formation of sandstorms, only detect and track those that have already appeared," Ya Qiaoxi said. "If we can establish contact with Dragon City, we might know the subsequent movement of that sandstorm."

"But the premise is being able to establish contact," Candle Dragon muttered, turning the frequency knob back and forth, but all that came through were static noises. "The sandstorm's meme interference causes strong electromagnetic field disturbances around us; I estimate it won't return to normal anytime soon."

"Since that's the case, let's eat first." Sun Hang took out a box from the car's trunk and placed it on the ground as a table, then set a portable stove on top of it.

Although compressed biscuits and other instant dry foods were available in the car, Sun Hang preferred to eat something hot when conditions allowed.

A few minutes later, the special aroma of heated oil began to spread among the stone forest.

"Consider this compensation," Sun Hang used his chopsticks to stab a piece of perfectly cooked luncheon meat, gently blew on it, and popped it into his mouth.