Early morning, somewhere in the desert.

When the first ray of dawn cleared the darkness on the horizon, a monster, wrapped tightly in clothes and thick cloth, moved in the shelter under a huge rock and climbed up awkwardly.

But it doesn't wake up naturally.

In the darkness, the "monster" stretched out its thick limbs, yawned tiredly, pulled out its head and face from the thick cloth, and took a deep breath.

Its daybreak.

This young man wrapped in clothes stretched his hand out of the huge rock in a hazy state.

A gust of cold wind immediately blew through his palms, making him shiver.

It's so cold.

Thales, who had wrapped himself tightly, shivered and shook his whole body, rubbed his hands, and touched the fire next to him that he had finally built with flint and dead branches last night, but it was extinguished at some point.

He shook his head with lingering fear.

Next time, I won't be able to spend the night on such a high sand dune. The wind is too strong, even if there are rocks to shelter from the wind.

Under the bright sky, the prince thought so, leaning on the rock behind him in a daze.

He looked at the endless desert wilderness from a distance, and it took him thirty seconds to wake up completely from his daze.

During Thales's six-year study career in Longxiao City, almost every bachelor who had the honor to go to the Palace of Heroes to teach two prominent students described the desert as "heat" and "exposure"

, or words like that.

The fact is: it's deadly hot here only half the time.

The other half of the time its nights are cold enough to store ice, or freeze to death in a Thales.

Oh shit.

Thales tightened his body and thought with some complaint: They must have all heard about it.

It’s a shame that people from the north can’t enter the desert.

Thales sighed with emotion, raised his sight, and took in a panoramic view of the small canyon under the giant rock and the long sand dunes not far away.

Nature is the most wonderful painter: under the red skyline, the rolling sand dunes are colored golden, with elegant and smooth curves, like the back of a beautiful woman lying lazily on her side, giving people an indescribable sense of tenderness.

However, only Thales himself knew what ruthless truth lay beneath this breathtaking scenery.

As the sun rose, the coldness of the night gradually disappeared, and there were still a few hours left before the scorching heat of noon. This was his precious time on the road.

Thales opened his bag and checked his inventory.

A piece of dry cheese and two pieces of bread.

as well as……

The last bag of water.

He sighed.

Thales rubbed his dry lips, suppressed his slight hunger, and stuffed the cheese back into his bag.

He took out the little bread left and chewed it silently in the quiet morning to replenish the energy he needed in the morning. Before finding the next water source, he could not eat more, which would make the water in his body deplete faster.

.

When he thought of this, the pressure in Thales's heart suddenly increased.

Thales got up, dug a sand pit not far from the camp, uncovered a piece of his linen cloth, and took out a few stones from inside. Fortunately, he found that the lower parts of the stones were cold and wet.

The prince treated them like lovers, happily opening his mouth and sucking on the moist taste. It was a bit strange, but he could get some moisture from them without consuming precious water, so why not do it.

But water scarcity is not the only threat.

Thales tested the surrounding temperature, silently took off his clothes to keep out the cold overnight, tied up his luggage, reached into the fire with only the last remaining warmth, and blackened the upper half of his face, especially the eye sockets, with charcoal.

.

You know, when Thales found himself dazzled after walking in the boundless desert for a day, the panic in his heart almost burst out of his chest.

Until he remembered this method. It is said that hunters in the Northland in the extreme cold occasionally use this method to avoid snow blindness that may result from patrolling in the vast white snow for too long. But Thales dared to use this method for three days.

My experience in the desert swears: this trick is equally effective in the desert.

Thales finished applying carbon black, then unfolded the piece of linen that collected water, tied it on the top of his head, and tied his hair and temples tightly. Although Thales didn't feel how hot it was in the desert, even everyone

Everyone told him that the biggest threat in the desert is the heat, but wearing a turban, whether it is sunshade or moisturizing and windproof, should help to some extent.

From leggings to cuffs, he carefully checked his outfit: he took out the piece of black cloth given to him by Yara, used it as a mask to cover his mouth and nose, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed, picked up his luggage and time crossbow, and grabbed two

Using the branch as a walking stick, I confirmed that the direction of the rising sun was to my left.

Hope everything goes well today.

Let me find the source of water...

or assistance.

After finishing preparations, the prince, who had just wrapped himself up into a surprise gift, thought so, took a deep breath, and walked out of the shelter.

The wind and sand suddenly came towards him, bringing with it the coldness of the night, making him squint.

There was a large sand dune in front of him. Thales carefully walked around its center, looking for a gentle slope that was far away but had a small slope. He tried to avoid the direction of the wind and crossed it diagonally. After crossing the dune and entering the desert on the first day, he went straight up and down stupidly.

, after climbing over two sand dunes, he was out of breath and his legs were numb. Now Thales finally learned his lesson.

"Huh...shua...shua..."

The wind and sand blew from his back, and the fine gravel hit the linen cloth beside his ears, making a rustling sound.

Thales relied on the strength of his cane to move forward step by step, detouring when encountering high slopes and crossing with caution when encountering gentle slopes.

The sun was gradually rising, and the cold desert was gradually getting warmer. He occasionally turned around and looked around, seeing only a patch of yellow sand, the only sound in his ears being the howling of the wind, and no trace of the birds or animals.

Even the plants were only low shrubs and deep-rooted willows, lying lifelessly on the sand.

In the vast sand dunes and vast desert that can be seen as far as the eye can see, Thales is still the only one.

Not to mention the human population.

Not even the bones of animals could at least remind him of the danger here, replacing boredom with fear.

Thales shook his head and tried to hum a little tune, thinking of some pleasant things. The prince who had been trapped in the high wall for six years had read many tourists' notes. He knew that in this extremely harsh environment, the most deadly

Instead, it is not the threat from the outside world, but the mental pressure caused by loneliness and panic.

Nothing can destroy a person more than isolation and loneliness.

This is Thales' fourth day in the desert.

He didn't know when he entered the desert.

It seems that there is no particularly clear boundary between Exeter's Qiyuan City and the famous desert, such as a boundary monument with the words "Exeter National Border" or "Walkers Stop".

In fact, after happily "breaking up" with the other two people, Thales rode on horseback for a day. The first thing he entered was a rocky desert that was almost the same as a rocky land, full of exposed rocks.

There, there are huge bedrocks everywhere, the terrain is occasionally undulating, and the view is extremely broad.

There were neither too many nor too few low shrubs, which deceived Thales's eyes into thinking that the great desert was not yet in front of him.

He had to keep walking. He tore open the meat in his mouth and said to himself that he should be able to find someone to help him at the junction.

Thanks to the silver shadow man's blessing, Thales, who was walking on the earth, could feel the direction: he was heading south. The slightly higher rock formations in the north gradually reached the end point. The vegetation began to decrease, the temperature brought by the sun slowly increased, and his lips became more and more beautiful day by day.

Do it in one day.

As the journey progressed, the bare bedrock in front of him was no longer covered with gravel, ranging from pot lids to fist-sized gravels. Fortunately, the quality of the Northland's war horseshoes saved Thales from the hardship of the trek.

However, after Thales passed a deserted and abandoned settlement on the road and shook his head in disappointment at an abandoned dry well, the strong war horses in the North showed an irresistible resistance to moving forward.

When the reins in his hands became increasingly difficult to control, the second prince, who was talking about geography knowledge along the way, suddenly realized:

Unknowingly, I entered a no man's land.

Half a day later, instead of wasting his energy on dragging a horse that was always trying to retreat, Thales reluctantly took the necessary supplies, let the horse go, broke off two thick branches, and whittled them into canes.

, one carries the luggage, and the other helps to walk, and move forward hard.

There was still hard rock under our feet, and the boundless Gobi desert was still in front of us, but the wind was getting stronger and the temperature was getting hotter.

As his footsteps accelerated, Thales frowned and realized that the gravel under his feet was getting smaller and smaller, and his steps on the ground were no longer crisp and clear.

Ten hours later at dusk, he raised his head after replenishing water stingily, and was surprised to find that whether he looked up or looked back, everything around him was covered with yellow sand.

Before we knew it, the great desert had arrived.

Thales stared blankly at everything in front of him and thought so.

The issue is……

What about the Secret Service’s coordinator?

Did he miss someone, or did he go the wrong way?

Looking back on his journey, Tails hesitated for a long time, but was at a loss, and finally decided to continue moving forward, following the direction in his memory, all the way to the southeast to find oasis and the supply line of the Star Army.

Before that, Griwal and Kurtz in Longxiao City seemed to have foreseen that he would not stop even if he escaped from the city, and had prepared a suitable outfit for the prince in advance, and Monty's two mounts obviously
To be continued...