Tony walked alone through the desert, his exposed arms covered in bloodstains that had already been dried by the scorching sun.
He took off his already-tattered jacket and covered his head with it to prevent heatstroke, but the blazing sun and the extreme heat radiating from the desert surface had already left him severely dehydrated.
Thirst, weakness, dizziness, blurred vision…
Tony wanted to lie down and rest…
But he couldn’t.
Yadan and Ethan were still waiting for him.
Pull yourself together!
Keep walking…
“Pu!”
Tony collapsed.
He lay face-down on the ground…
So tired.
Was that wind?
That breeze felt so comfortable~
A sound?
The sound of rotors!
Tony struggled to prop himself up with his hands.
He looked around, but there was nothing!
An illusion?
Could it be an illusion?
No!
On the horizon of the desert within Tony’s field of vision, two helicopters came roaring toward him.
Tony waved both arms and let out a hoarse roar with the last bit of strength he had!
He laughed wildly!
At that moment, every cell in his body seemed to burst back to life!
The helicopters stopped and descended in front of Tony.
Before they had even fully landed, several figures had hurriedly jumped out.
A familiar figure.
Rhode!
Colonel Rhode ran over to Tony with several soldiers.
Seeing Tony kneeling in the desert, Rhode rushed forward, patted him on the shoulder, and said, “Buddy, have fun?”
Tony smiled and shook his head, tears sliding from the corners of his eyes.
Rhode immediately became flustered.
Even the words he had originally wanted to say suddenly escaped him…
This was the first time he had ever seen Tony cry.
He was Tony Stark!
The great, one-of-a-kind Tony Stark…
How could he cry?
Rhode could only kneel halfway in front of Tony and pat him on the shoulder.
“Next time… you have to come with me… okay?”
Tony calmed his agitated emotions a little.
Gripping Rhode’s hand, he said, “Go back. Take me back!”
“Okay, Tony. I’ll take you back. We’re going home.” Rhode looked at Tony and repeatedly reassured him.
“No, not home. Go to that cave! That mountain cave! The place where the explosion happened!”
Tony pointed toward the direction from which he had escaped.
Rhode looked at Tony, who was clearly agitated.
Although he didn’t understand why, he still nodded.
The two helicopters returned to the bomb-ravaged cave.
On the way back, Tony kept staring out the window and drinking water.
He was afraid.
Afraid that Yadan and Ethan were already dead.
When they arrived back at the cave, he didn’t let anyone help him.
He searched through every corpse by himself.
Not them.
Not them.
Not them!
Thank God!
Neither Yadan nor Ethan was there!
They weren’t here.
That was the best possible outcome.
Just then, a soldier ran over to Rhode and reported, “Sir, we found tire tracks beneath that hillside. Someone should have driven away from here after the explosion.”
Rhode said to Tony, “Tony, perhaps your friends already left.”
Tony nodded somewhat dazedly.
As long as they had left.
As long as they had left!
Rhode walked over to Tony.
Seeing his friend’s condition, he pulled him into a hug and patted his back.
“We’re going home. Home!”
Tony nodded in Rhode’s arms…
It was time to go home.
As long as Tony could confirm that Yadan and Ethan weren’t dead, he could finally relax.
Yadan had already demonstrated enough miraculous abilities.
Although Tony couldn’t understand those things yet, he believed in Yadan.
He believed that as long as he remained somewhere conspicuous, Yadan would definitely be able to find him with Ethan.
Afterward, Tony boarded the helicopter and returned to New York.
He still had some things to deal with.
Very important things.
…
“My passion! It’s like a fire, burning up the entire desert~ desert~ desert~”
“Yadan, can you stop singing? I want to sleep.”
“Could my beautiful singing voice still not help you fall asleep? Oh no, Ethan, your standards are too high.”
Good heavens!
Ethan helplessly shook his head.
Who knew what the hell Yadan was singing?
A language he couldn’t understand, a tune he couldn’t understand, and, most importantly, that horribly off-key voice of his.
It was practically a life-threatening curse.
Thanks to Yadan’s mastery of Chinese, accumulated over countless years, even he himself sometimes had no idea what he was singing.
At this moment, Yadan and Ethan were driving a “borrowed” jeep, wearing clothes they had “picked up,” with a pile of unwanted firearms lying in the back seat.
They had already been driving through the desert for an entire day.
And Yadan had been singing for that entire day as well.
It seemed that the unusual spell had unlocked some kind of hidden special attribute within him…
Perhaps the God of Karaoke?
Ethan, sitting in the passenger seat, was not only suffering from the torment of the noise, but also had to turn around from time to time to look at Yadan.
He really wasn’t sure whether Yadan could see the road clearly through that mass of flying facial hair.
Fortunately, this was the desert.
There wasn’t much around for him to crash into.
“Ethan, is this really the right direction? How come we still haven’t gotten out of the desert after driving for so long?” Yadan asked in confusion.
Why hadn’t they encountered a single person along the way?
Ethan took out the map, looked at it, and said irritably, “If you could drive straight in a single direction, we’d have been out of here ages ago!”
“Uh, hehe.”
Yadan laughed awkwardly.
Perhaps because they had finally escaped that place, Yadan had been extremely excited along the way.
On top of that, the constant contact between his body and the energy in the air was producing a reaction, causing his body to once again become filled with strength.
Under the combined effects of his mental and physical state, Yadan had spent the entire journey driving around aimlessly while singing.
Fortunately, the vehicle had plenty of fuel.
“Ethan, pass me a cup of water.”
Ethan picked up the water container and was about to hand it to Yadan when he felt that it was unusually light.
He opened it.
It was already empty.
Ethan shook his head, picked up the container, and turned to look at the back seat.
There, above the pile of firearms, a ball of water was continuously spinning and condensing in midair.
It seemed to be growing larger little by little.
Ethan took the container and pushed its opening into the water ball.
The entire ball of water immediately flowed into it through the opening.
Ethan handed the container, now more than half full, to Yadan.
Yadan shook it, took a sip, and said, “I worked on that for so long and this is all I got? This desert is a little short on water. We need to replenish the supply.”
Ethan leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.
“Just drive properly. Once we get out of the desert, you can have as much water as you want! And stop singing! There won’t be any water later, so let me sleep for a while first.”
With that, Ethan fell asleep.
Yadan finally shut his mouth as well.
After all, being thirsty was a very difficult thing to endure.
But what had just happened was pretty amazing, right?
A ball of water floating in the air.
A ball of water in the middle of the desert.
At first, Ethan had been unable to believe it.
After all, this was practically the power of a god.
A miracle!
When they were escaping from the cave, Ethan had been too focused on escaping and too nervous to pay much attention.
Even if he had seen something, he hadn’t really had the time to think about it.
But after leaving the cave, Yadan had repeatedly conjured flames and balls of water while they were in the vehicle.
That shocked Ethan.
Later, Yadan explained to Ethan that he was actually a mage.
After being imprisoned in the cave, he had lost his powers and had only recently recovered them.
A mage?
For Ethan, a scientist, such a thing was simply inconceivable.
But Ethan believed Yadan.
He trusted Yadan completely.
After a day, he gradually became accustomed to such miraculous things.
“Hehe, Ethan.”
Yadan called Ethan’s name while reaching over and nudging him as he slept in his seat.
“What is it?”
Ethan rubbed his eyes, put on his glasses, and asked.
“Look ahead! Isn’t that a town?”
Ethan immediately became alert as well.
In the pitch-black desert at night, a small town filled with lights appeared on the distant horizon.
Yadan and Ethan looked at each other.
Both of their eyes were filled with joy.
Yadan immediately floored the accelerator and sped toward it, the wheels kicking up countless grains of sand.
…
In front of the town’s bar, Yadan sat in the driver’s seat, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
Every now and then, he even patted Ethan on the chest.
“Ethan, are you ready?” Yadan asked excitedly.
A flame called fighting spirit burned in his eyes.
Fighting spirit for drinking?
Ethan looked at Yadan helplessly.
He didn’t know how this guy had managed to do it.
Did he have a built-in navigation system or something?
The moment they entered the town, he had gone straight to the location of the bar.
“Yadan, we don’t have any money.”
“Don’t we still have this?”
Yadan turned around and picked up a rifle from the back seat.
“Hey, hey, hey, Yadan, we can’t do that! We’re not like those guys!” Ethan hurriedly scolded him.
Yadan rolled his eyes at him.
Through the thick mass of hair, he rolled his eyes at Ethan…
More importantly, although Ethan couldn’t actually see Yadan’s eyes, he could somehow feel it.
Perhaps this was what they called a meeting of minds?
“I mean, we take the guns inside and trade them for drinks. That’s okay, right?”
Yadan picked up two rifles, tossed one to Ethan, and got out of the vehicle.
Ethan remained in the passenger seat, holding the gun in his hands as he hesitantly watched Yadan’s back.
“Hurry up, Ethan. Come on!”
Yadan turned around and waved to Ethan.
Ethan shook his head, got out of the vehicle, and followed him.
After narrowly surviving a disaster, they deserved to drink until they were thoroughly drunk.
(End of Chapter)