Those Classmates who Suddenly Disappeared-Chapter 122: Searching for Remains

At that moment, Gu Fan was intently pondering over one thing - the timing of when he stumbled upon three other teams. The first team was spotted because he was standing on a hill. Standing high, he could see far. And with a telescope, he discovered the first team.

Gu Fan remembered there were more than fifty people in that team. So, he pondered over how these fifty-some people came together. Had they also seen an online post about forming an exploration team to venture out to the Borderlands?

Such posts were rare. Gathering fifty people was indeed a difficult task — perhaps it was a societal group that was seriously venturing into the Borderlands.

The second team was discovered when Gu Fan suddenly turned around to run back and perform a feint attack.

So, Gu Fan wondered, had he not stood on that hill and had he not run back, would he have discovered the other two teams? Apparently not.

Why did the third team appear voluntarily after two teams had been discovered? Was it just a coincidence? Or was it to dispel Gu Fan’s doubts, making him believe that encountering other teams out there was not unusual.

"Difficult, difficult?" Gu Fan scratched his head, expressing he couldn’t figure it out. Maybe he was overthinking?

Now, after progressing for half a day, they saw nothing except the endless desert. If only they could look at a cactus or two.

"God, it’s so hot," Lu Yi whined while walking, sticking out her tongue. Her actions were a bit amusing, but no one laughed. Everyone was just enduring the scorching heat.

The intense heat made travelling difficult. Despite a whole day’s time, the team didn’t make much progress. They couldn’t march at night, not because of the danger the darkness might bring, but because the limited vision could cause them to miss important objectives.

The initial plan was to get a good sleep, recover, and then restart the journey. But Ouyang Jin woke everyone up as soon as dawn broke, urging them to set off before the day heated up and to complete the journey they didn’t finish the day before.

Even though they had replenished their water supply, they still had to remain crisis conscious. They needed to march as fast as possible, so as not to get trapped in the desert after running out of water.

A day passed after another. Gu Fan counted days and it was now the seventeenth day. They still hadn’t found any ruined buildings. Did they accidentally miss them, or was it just that they were behind in pace? Or were they going in the wrong direction?

"Nothing, nothing, damn!" Ouyang Jin urged on, scanning the surroundings with his telescope. According to ancient maps, if the oasis was the eastern lake of Qianye Country, there should have been ruins of buildings nearby. Ouyang referred repeatedly to his father’s notes, feeling that they should have arrived by now.

What to do? Two problems lay before them: The first was whether to continue to march forward, which may prove fruitless. The second was to start circling around for a detailed search to ensure they didn’t overlook their objective.

Everyone pondered for a long time without reaching a consensus. Some supported moving forward, some supported staying in place. They discussed back and forth and before they realized, it was midnight. So they settled on resting and would discuss it further the next day. Even Professor Luo thought they had really hit a snag this time; all their previous efforts might have gone in vain.

Gu Fan didn’t want to give up either. After overcoming so many difficulties and crises to get here, it was hard to accept that they had lost their way forward.

The wind grew stronger at night. Although it wasn’t a sandstorm, the power of the sand carried by the wind made it hard for Gu Fan, Du Jun, and Ouyang Jin, who were on night shift, to endure.

Ouyang Jin voiced out, "The sand is so heavy that all the animals must be hiding. There shouldn’t be any danger tonight, let’s end the shift and hide in our tents from the wind."

"Okay, we’ll do as you say." Du Jun responded and crawled back into the tent first.

Soon after, Gu Fan also returned to the tent, waking up Lu Yi, who groggily opened her eyes, yawned, and said, "What’s happening, is it time already? Give me a moment, I’ll be up in no time for the shift."

Gu Fan responded, "No need, it’s a sandstorm outside. We’re cancelling the night shift. You can go back to sleep." freёnovelkiss.com

"My God, it sounds quite severe out there," said Lu Yi, woken up by the howling wind outside and the heavy shaking of their tent. She was a bit scared.

"Don’t worry, we’ve reinforced our tent. This level of wind isn’t a problem. It’s actually keeping the dangerous animals away, so rest easy and go back to sleep." After saying that, Gu Fan lay down looking at ease and fell soundly asleep within five minutes.’

Lu Yi took a look and shook his head, "Come on, there’s really no problem?"

Lu Yi, not reassured, unzipped the tent to check outside. But the flying sand smacked him in the face, and he hurriedly retreated, now genuinely believing Gu Fan’s words. Who would venture out in this hellish weather?

Meanwhile, despite the harsh conditions, Leng Le sat in her tent, eating instant noodles and listening to the howling wind. She checked her phone occasionally, feeling reassured as long as the red dot representing Gu Fan remained unmoved.

"Kid, I don’t believe you’d still keep stirring trouble in this terrible weather," Leng Le woke up three times because of the noise of the wind and sand. Waking up made her hungry, and being hungry meant eating. She didn’t care how much weight she had put-on. She also didn’t believe she could gain weight under these daunting conditions.

However, Leng Le admired Gu Fan, who managed to survive the incident with the man-eating ants and the mutant fish attack at the oasis. He seemed to have as many lives as a cat. However, it seemed that if things kept going this way, nine lives wouldn’t be enough.

The incident that Gu Fan and his team encountered at the oasis, Leng Le observed from a distance with a telescope. She broke out in a cold sweat for them, not understanding why they kept running into obstacles.

As a team leader herself, Leng Le had never encountered significant issues with her team. She found it odd, even suspecting that there might be something wrong with Gu Fan’s character.

"Could it be like stepping on landmines? Those who walk in front would have tripped all the mines, so those who follow won’t have to worry," Leng Le shook her head. She didn’t think this could be the case. She figured it might have to do with Gu Fan’s character, or perhaps some unseen power was hindering Gu Fan’s progress yet not causing them harm.

Leng Le soon dismissed this idea, thinking she was overthinking. Suddenly, her phone rang, snapping her back to reality. She quickly checked her phone. It was an email from the boss, with only four words: "Be careful!"

She couldn’t help but complain, "Why are there only four words? What if there was one more word? Would it cost a piece of meat?"

There was another thing that Leng Le was concerned about. She discovered that other teams were following Gu Fan, especially the one they ran into at the oasis. To understand the origin of that team, Leng Le sent people to track them stealthily. But, days had passed, and the dispatched people had not returned, she feared...

"What a nice strategy you have. With so many people, if you left at once, you’d draw attention. So you chose to leave in batches. You must have several teams," Leng Le thought. This time, her enemies weren’t just Gu Fan and the hostile environment, but also that group of people. One mistake, and she wouldn’t be the one laughing at the end.

In this big game, with the situation complex, Leng Le naturally wanted to be the winner. However, as she moved forward, she became less certain. Because her questions were piling up; how did Gu Fan’s team overcome such adversity and crises? The more they did, the harder Leng Le felt they would be to deal with. Also, Gu Fan’s team seemed to have a clear direction. They appeared to know some clues. But how did they find them?

Although Leng Le didn’t want to admit it, she had to concede that Gu Fan’s team was formidable. But no matter how powerful they were, they still had to lead the way obediently.

As for how many teams those people had, Leng Le didn’t want to exhaust herself by eliminating seven or eight teams only to face defeat when the next team emerged. So, without knowing the number of the enemy’s teams, how to figure out the right timing to strike remained the question.

Everything was in calculation. Leng Le was calculating, and knew the other party was as well. There were three sides to this game. Perhaps, only Gu Fan didn’t know yet.

"Forget it, I won’t think about it anymore. I’m curious to see if you, Gu Fan, can really find the ancient Qianye Country," Leng Le sighed, ready to lie down again. This time she prayed not to be woken up by the wind and sand again.

After the heavy wind of the night, the next morning was quiet. Lu Yi was the first to rise. Squinting his eyes and yawning, he stretched languidly. When he got a clear view of his surroundings, he froze, dumbfounded.

With a sudden shout, he proclaimed, "Everyone get up, quick, look, it’s a miracle, a miracle."

Everyone was awakened by Lu Yi’s shouts, and one after another ran out of the tent. They were about to complain about Lu Yi’s screaming, but when they saw the surroundings, they were left speechless, finding it hard to believe.

Su Hui, Lin Xi, and Qin Jia, being women, they had to dress themselves before coming out. They too, were stupefied, unable to believe what they were seeing.

Yes, there were ruins surrounding Gu Fan’s camp. Pillars, houses, damaged city walls. All these were self-explanatory.

Ouyang Jin finally regained his composure and was overjoyed, "Long live, my god, we were camping in these ruins last night. What we were desperately looking for is right under our feet."

Gu Fan couldn’t help but sigh, "My god, the big wind last night blew away the sand, revealing these ruins. It seems our luck has finally turned."

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