Ye Qingqing was the first to act.
With a flick of her left hand, a vine shot out and anchored itself to the rock wall. Another vine from her right hand wrapped around Shen Li. As the vines contracted, the two of them raced toward the cliff face.
The others immediately sprinted toward the rock wall as well.
The storm was already almost upon them. After securing Shen Li to the rock wall, Ye Qingqing quickly tied herself to him with a rope, freeing her hands to pull in the people behind them.
Her vines had limited reach. There was no way she could hold everyone at once.
The first person behind her was Baza, whom Gu Ziyan had practically thrown over.
Directly behind Baza came Gu Ziyan and Xu Yi.
The moment they lined up one after another, the hurricane-force winds stretched them into a taut human chain.
Further behind, Xu Dayou, Mu Ting, and Sheng Xia struggled forward against the fierce gale.
Fortunately, Xu Dayou’s large frame blocked most of the wind, allowing the two women behind him to advance step by step.
At last, Xu Dayou grabbed Xu Yi’s hand.
Without hesitation, he immediately reached back to grab the person behind him.
He had assumed it was Sheng Xia.
But when he turned around, he found himself holding Mu Ting instead.
His expression instantly became complicated.
Seeing that Mu Ting stood frozen and made no effort to reach for Sheng Xia, a terrible feeling rose in his heart.
Unable to hold back any longer, Xu Dayou roared,
“Mu Ting! Hurry and grab Sheng Xia!”
Before his words had even finished, an even more violent gust crashed into them.
Only then did Mu Ting seem to wake from a dream, slowly lifting her arm in an insincere attempt to help.
Sheng Xia put every ounce of strength into stretching her arm toward her.
Yet at the crucial moment, Mu Ting appeared unable to hold on.
The arm that should have remained extended suddenly trembled and dropped ever so slightly.
Their fingertips brushed past each other.
A distance of barely one centimeter.
That tiny movement widened the gap just enough.
Sheng Xia had missed her chance.
When she caught the malicious smile curling at the corner of Mu Ting’s lips, her face changed dramatically.
“Oh no. I’m done for.”
Was fate forcing her back onto the original plotline?
Betrayed by her own teammate and then killed off?
Murphy’s Law, I’m not done with you!
There was no time to think.
The moment her feet left the ground, a terrifying sense of weightlessness swept over her.
Weighing less than a hundred pounds, Sheng Xia was instantly lifted into the air by the raging storm.
Gu Ziyan’s eyes nearly split apart as he shouted,
“Sheng Xia!”
He watched helplessly as she spun upward like a kite with its string severed.
Within only a breath or two, her figure vanished completely into the rolling wall of sand.
The squad members had never expected such a disaster to occur in the blink of an eye.
Their hearts filled with panic and anxiety, but there was nothing they could do.
Seeing Gu Ziyan’s eyes turning red as he neared the brink of losing control, Xu Yi endured the wind and sand, tightly grabbed his hand, and shouted,
“Ziyan! Calm down! Control your energy! Pull the heat back!”
Gu Ziyan’s eyes flickered violently before finally settling.
A few minutes later, when the wind weakened slightly, the group worked together and managed to shelter beneath the rock wall.
The sandstorm lasted a full two hours.
When it finally ended, the dark clouds dispersed, revealing a sky filled with bright stars and moonlight.
The desert returned to silence.
Only then did Shen Li, who had been continuously using his soil abilities to stabilize the rock formation, collapse onto the sand from exhaustion.
His soil elemental energy was nearly depleted.
Gu Ziyan immediately handed him a handful of crystals to help him recover.
The team remained silent. There was no joy at having survived the disaster.
Everyone except Mu Ting was worried sick about Sheng Xia.
Ye Qingqing immediately opened her communicator and tried contacting her.
There was no response.
The others tried as well, with identical results.
Every call vanished into silence.
No answer came back.
One by one, they sent messages, hoping she would receive them and reply.
Several minutes passed.
Not a single response arrived.
Looking at Mu Ting, who wore an innocent expression and appeared entirely unconcerned, Ye Qingqing suddenly exploded.
She strode over in a few quick steps and slapped Mu Ting hard across the face.
“You bitch! How could you abandon your teammate at a moment like that?”
As she shouted, she slapped her again.
One slap wasn’t enough to vent her anger.
Mu Ting’s cheeks immediately swelled, blood appearing at the corner of her mouth. She looked utterly miserable.
Covering her face, tears streaming down her cheeks, she protested weakly.
“I didn’t! I… I just held my arm out for too long and didn’t have any strength left. I never thought this would happen!”
That explanation only made Ye Qingqing even angrier.
A surge of rage shot straight to her head, making her want to throw Mu Ting into a horde of mutated beasts and let her fend for herself.
“Slap! Slap!”
Two more vicious slaps landed.
Only after Mu Ting’s face had swollen beyond recognition did Ye Qingqing finally stop.
“Hmph. Don’t pull that innocent white lotus act with me. I’m not buying it. Stop insulting our intelligence and treating us like idiots.”
Ye Qingqing’s ferocious display left the squad speechless.
No one had expected the smiling and cheerful Miss Ye to possess such overwhelming dominance.
As men, they couldn’t hit a woman very well.
Watching those slaps land had been deeply satisfying.
A teammate was someone you could trust with your back.
Abandoning a teammate during a crisis was one of the most despicable actions imaginable.
The reason Mu Ting had never fit into their team was because she had never truly trusted any of them.
Sheng Xia, on the other hand, had always been sincere.
She genuinely treated them as friends and teammates.
That was why everyone got along so well with her.
Now, with Sheng Xia’s fate unknown, the group fell silent once more.
In the quiet night, only Mu Ting’s sobbing could be heard.
The Ye family was far too powerful.
Mu Ting didn’t dare retaliate against Ye Qingqing and could only endure it silently.
As long as that annoying Sheng Xia disappeared from the squad, what did a few slaps matter?
After giving Shen Li the crystals, Gu Ziyan sat motionless like a statue.
A fierce internal battle raged within him.
He knew Ye Qingqing was hitting Mu Ting.
He simply didn’t care to stop her.
If not for Mu Ting’s identity, he would have liked nothing more than to beat her senseless and then roast her over flames for forty-nine days to vent his anger.
He had watched Sheng Xia get swept away by the storm and had been powerless to stop it.
He was useless. Once again, he had lost her.
Gu Ziyan clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug deep into his palms.
Xu Yi had been closely observing every change in his expression.
Seeing signs that he was about to lose control again, Xu Yi gently tugged at his sleeve and asked in a calm voice,
“Ziyan, what do we do now? Do we search for Sheng Xia, or continue toward the dimensional rift?”
His question was like a stone dropped into a still lake.
Ripples spread through the entire group.
Everyone perked up their ears, waiting for Gu Ziyan’s decision.
They all knew that Sheng Xia was Gu Ziyan’s high school classmate of three years.
He had personally invited her to join this mission.
Strictly speaking, she wasn’t even an official member of the Langya Squad.
But now that something like this has happened, what should they do?
The mission itself was urgent and critically important.
All they knew was that they absolutely had to go.
As for what actually existed inside the seven-colored dimensional rift, none of them knew.
Gu Ziyan was tormented.
On one side was Sheng Xia. On the other was the mission.
And that mission was of extraordinary importance.
It involved confidential information belonging to the Huaxia Federation.
He could not abandon it halfway through.
His fists tightened again and again before finally loosening weakly.
The others heard his hoarse voice.
“Uncle Baza, please check the route. We’ll continue toward the dimensional rift. Everyone else, organize the supplies immediately and report remaining inventory.”
Ye Qingqing opened her mouth as if to object.
In the end, she lowered her eyes and said nothing.
The squad quickly inventoried their resources and resumed their journey.
The supplies inside Sheng Xia’s spatial storage were merely Gu Ziyan’s emergency reserves.
Each member still carried enough food and water for twenty days.
Without the camels, their travel speed would slow considerably, but their endurance would increase depending on the situation.
They had only been traveling for two days.
Turning back was impossible.
Continuing toward their destination was the correct choice.
If Sheng Xia was alive, she would undoubtedly head there to meet up with them.
Looking up at the clear night sky, Gu Ziyan walked forward with heavy steps.
Sheng Xia. You must stay alive.
Sheng Xia was awakened by a stream of incomprehensible chatter ringing in her ears.
Fluent American English mixed with Jinbao’s constant squeaking, making her head ache.
Wait! Wasn’t she supposed to have been blown into the sky by the storm?
Why were there foreigners here?
Had she somehow arrived in heaven?
Were these voices God’s?
She struggled to open her eyes.
Why did her eyelids feel so heavy?
After enormous effort, she managed to crack them open slightly and finally saw her surroundings.
A night had passed.
It was now early morning, and faint light filled the sky.
Several blond, blue-eyed foreigners surrounded her, arguing animatedly about something.
Jinbao stood protectively beside her, baring his teeth at them.
The moment he saw her eyes open, he became overjoyed and immediately burrowed toward her chest, clearly asking for a hug.
The foreigners, meanwhile, looked utterly shocked.
Sheng Xia wanted to lift her hand and hold Jinbao.
Only then did she discover she couldn’t move at all.
The foreigners spoke far too quickly. Her head felt dizzy, and she couldn’t understand a single word.
Something was clearly wrong with her body.
Oddly enough, she felt no pain.
Yet none of her limbs obeyed her commands. The only thing she knew was that she was lying face-down.
Face-down in the full crawling-on-all-fours position.
Suddenly, a handsome face enlarged before her eyes.
Even someone accustomed to Gu Ziyan’s breathtaking appearance had to admit this man was exceptionally attractive.
A true feast for the eyes.
He appeared to be of mixed Chinese and American heritage. His short hair was brown, and his eyes were a rare golden color.
His skin was remarkably fair.
Only his thin lips, which should have been rosy, were now cracked and dry from prolonged dehydration.
His lips parted as he spoke.
To Sheng Xia’s surprise, he was speaking Huaxian.
“Miss, are you alright?”
Sheng Xia nodded. Even that simple movement felt extremely difficult.
She tried to speak, only to discover that her throat was painfully dry and sore, while her mouth carried the strong taste of blood.
Her gaze suddenly shifted to Jinbao.
He seemed to have lost a great deal of weight.
His once-brilliant golden fur appeared noticeably dull.
Jinbao…
Could this girl have fallen so hard that she’d become dazed?
Seeing no response from her, the handsome man spoke again.
“Miss, all four of your limbs may be fractured, and you may also have internal injuries. Are your family or friends nearby?”