Pet King

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The light of the camp got farther and farther away. After he passed a small honeycomb-like sand dune, it finally disappeared.

Zhang Zian was worried that someone would get up in the middle of the night and see him leaving the camp. He had been walking barefoot in the dark. Now, he could finally use his flashlight, but even so, Fina’s footprints were difficult to spot.

Her stride was sometimes long, sometimes short. It was long when walking straight, but rather short when turning. Sometimes, she would jump to the side, as if avoiding something.

In general, her footprints coincided with Peter Lee’s squad car prints on the ground. This meant that they were all heading into the depths of the Devil’s Sea.

Zhang Zian judged that Fina had not gone far and decided not to drive. Driving would make it harder to track her and likely wake up the other members of the expedition team.

Fina might have been to the Devil’s Sea before, but 2,000 years had since passed, and it was now a strange place to her. Thus, she proceeded with caution and did not move too fast.

Famous walked in the front, and the other elfins fanned out to expand the search area.

He simply told the rest about Fina’s disappearance without giving too much detail. He also said that she had been behaving abnormally recently, including eating and drinking a lot. Perhaps she was storing fat in her body like a camel.

Old Time Tea sighed a little. “Fina is stubborn. What she wants to do, she will get done immediately.”

“That’s okay, but she should at least mention it to us and not leave quietly. Won’t her actions simply make us worry more about her?” asked Zhang Zian. His flashlight was shining only on his feet. The elfins didn’t need the lighting.

“I would definitely not sit around to wait for her. However, according to the Bedouin guide, the Devil’s Sea is a dangerous place. You will not want to be involved in the danger,” said Old Time Tea.

Old Time Tea seemed to be able to understand Fina’s train of thought very well. Everyone could picture Fina saying this. “This is my own business. What business do you have getting yourself involved?”

“It is dangerous… Yet how come I do not see any danger?” He used his flashlight to illuminate the surroundings. He couldn’t care less about Nabari’s warning.

At night, dead branches that struggled to come out of the ground were like ghosts’ claws scratching the landscape. Miniature whirlwinds whispered and blew, and dust that rolled up often got in his eyes. The scene reminded him of horror flicks he’d seen. If he had to walk through here alone, he would probably feel very afraid. However, with the elfins around and talking merrily, he did not feel that afraid.

Besides, Vladimir couldn’t wait for ghosts to come out so he could fight them.

He prayed hard that ghosts did not appear, for he would worry about his own safety if they did.

A sudden sound startled Zhang Zian. Everyone looked at him, as the sound seemed to have come from him.

He groped his body and touched the walkie-talkie at his waist. It seemed to be coming from the walkie-talkie.

Who was talking? The research team? Peter Lee’s team?

The latter was unlikely because it was reasonable to say that they had driven far away, out of the coverage of the walkie-talkie. This was, of course, unless they headed back to camp.

He took off the set off his waist and put it next to his ear.

He was not sure if he was far enough away from the camp and didn’t want to wake up the expedition team. Thus, he didn’t speak, just listened silently.

There was another sharp whistle.

This time the walkie-talkie was close to his ear. He heard it clearly. Although it was not high-pitched, the sound nevertheless stabbed his eardrum like a fine needle, and it hurt.

He hurriedly removed the walkie-talkie from his ear. The elfins stared at him, full of curiosity.

“It seems to be electromagnetic interference,” he said, but the elfins apparently did not understand.

“There may be metal mines nearby, like iron ore, copper, tin mines, et cetera,” he explained. “A lot of metals generate magnetic fields that interfere with radio signals. The noise is just informing us that the radio waves have been disrupted.”

The elfins seemed to get what he’d said.

During the day, Wei Kang had tried to contact Peter Lee with a satellite phone during the usual routine break time. He wanted to know if their team was in good condition. However, after trying several times, Wei Kang concluded that there was interference and decided to wait until tomorrow morning.

However, it seemed that the interference might not be coming from the dunes.

Zhang Zian grabbed a handful of sand from the ground and spread it on his palm. He noticed that there were many particles with a metallic yellow hue. This should be a dust-like unrefined copper powder.

He felt that the springs or underground rivers might have flowed through a copper mine before the oasis shrunk. Thus, the sand had a particularly high copper content.

Going a little further, the electromagnetic noise from the walkie-talkie got louder and more frequent. He could not stand it any longer. He simply turned off the walkie-talkie. In any case, it was difficult to talk properly through it.

It seemed that the expedition team was unlikely to be able to get in touch with Peter Lee’s team before they emerged from the Devil’s Sea.

“The smell of other animals,” Famous said and stopped.

“Oh? What animal?” Zhang Zian asked.

Famous sniffed carefully. “I don’t know. I haven’t smelled this scent before. It’s not a fox or a scorpion. There are a lot of them, and they just passed through here.”

“Are they following Fina?” asked Old Time Tea.

Famous was not sure. “Possibly. Their smells head in the same direction.”

Everyone was alert now. What animal was tracking Fina? Would they do bad things to her? Fina was a super-powerful elfin, but even she could not take on an entire group of wolves!

They went around a few more sand dunes, although, from a straight-line distance, they did not go far from the camp. By making detours, they had already walked several times more than if they had gone in a straight line.

Since he knew that there was a magnetic field, without Famous, Zhang Zian did not dare to go deep into the Devil’s Sea. This was because the field would also affect the compass and make it easy to get lost in the sand dunes. Even some animals that used the magnetic fields to get a sense of direction also got lost around the area.

Perhaps this was one of the reasons why the Bedouins called this the Devil’s Sea.

Famous suddenly stopped and raised his front leg, indicating that everyone should stop moving forward. He shook his head furiously.

Everyone knew what this meant. He’d found something. They kept quiet, took gentle steps, and eliminated all sounds.