Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 574 - 44 Oasis

Chapter 574: Chapter 44 Oasis

Chu Baichuan and Dantai Zongqi retreated a beat too late, and gravity suddenly descended, pressing on every inch of skin, driving them to the ground. Even the flow of air stagnated, and it felt like they were deep underwater where every breath was tremendously difficult. A sense of suffocation began to attack their brains.

Chu Baichuan felt a deep sense of defeat as he watched Tang Zheng singlehandedly face off against two giant scorpions, who were not getting the better of him. Tang Zheng was beating them to a pulp, and the pride he had initially felt from clearing the field was now shattered. He felt that even if he used his full firepower, he probably wouldn’t be able to beat Tang Zheng. The gravity suppression was extremely irritating, almost making Tang Zheng invincible in close combat. To defeat him, they could only resort to long-range attacks.

Tang Zheng knew that he couldn’t kill both scorpions at once. After successfully knocking down the two giant scorpions, he targeted the one on the left as his main focus. He immediately thrust his Terminator into its mouthparts, and after inserting it, started firing. The six rotating gun barrels maintained a continuous muzzle flame, with a series of bullets shot inside.

The giant pharaoh scorpion’s belly swelled up instantaneously, and then burst with a bang. The sound of fleshy ruptures was heard, and bullets glowing with a faint green light darted out from inside its body, hitting the floor, turning its internal organs and rear half into a bloody mess.

Meanwhile, Tang Zheng’s right hand was not idle. He pulled the trigger of the Demon Slaying Holy Flame targeting the tail sting of the other scorpion. The buckshot, engulfed in flames, exploded upon impact, sending pieces of flesh and fluid flying everywhere.

The severed giant pharaoh scorpion screeched, swinging its claws and even opening its mouthparts to bite Tang Zheng. The scorpion on the right was still struggling and writhing, but had lost its power to attack.

"Die." Faced with the incoming pincer, Tang Zheng didn’t dodge. Shifting his weight onto his left leg, he swung his right leg fiercely, landing a solid kick on the head of the giant pharaoh scorpion. Its terrifying mouth instantly deformed and the whole body was sent flying. Green fluid splattered everywhere.

Tang Zheng pulled out the Terminator, aiming at the airborne pharaoh scorpion and attacked with full force. With six rounds of barrage fired at it, it resembled a torn sponge, body parts continuously being trimmed off by the bullets, failing to even land and was shot directly into the air.

Each second, a large amount of bullet casings were being thrown out, hitting the car walls and the floor, making a clanging sound. In no time, a thick layer of copper shell was piled up beneath Tang Zheng’s feet.

"Full-bore backup ammo box is really awesome," Amid the whirring noise, the rotating gun barrels gradually slowed down. Only the muzzle was still emitting a faint smoke. Tang Zheng glanced back, "Dantai and Chu Baichuan will come with me to clear out the remnants. The rest of you stay ten meters behind to protect Aima."

The other wrapped head servants, seeing things were not going their way, all ran away to plan for their next assassination. The parasitized passengers, who lost control from their host, began to go mad, attacking anyone indiscriminately, even turning on each other.

Faced with these snacks worth a few points, Tang Zheng didn’t really care and gave the opportunity to the others while he provided cover.

"Thank you." Ai Yixin was not polite. She held her rifle and fired while expressing her thanks. She knew that it was not easy for her to kill a few monsters while pregnant. So, she grabbed whatever opportunity she could get.

Lin Weiguo and the two other men also felt ashamed to compete with a woman for kills. The newbies watched enviously but without any orders from Tang Zheng, they dare not attack on their own.

"Sister Manli, you go ahead too!" Tang Zheng glanced over Chen Hong and the others and sighed inwardly. In his view, these newbies wouldn’t survive the return. Asking them to kill scorpions was a waste.

"No contribution, no gain. If your performance satisfies me, I will ensure you have at least two hundred basic points." Said Tang Zheng. He didn’t wish to be hated, the comforting words were indeed necessary.

"Where’s the driver? He’s probably dead too, right?" Pang Meiqin suddenly yelled, running towards the driver’s cabin. As expected, the driver was also a host. Otherwise, with so much chaos, he would’ve reported to the railway department long ago.

"Gather all passengers in the last carriage. I’m going to erase their memories." Tang Zheng wasn’t worried about any accidents occurring with the train since Pang Meiqin was there.

Chen Hong was the most active. Using the gun to drive the surviving passengers, who were intentionally walking slowly and grumbling, she hit them with the butt of her gun, thereby improving efficiency.

Having resolved the passenger issues, with only about fifty kilometers remaining to Aswan, to avoid further troubles, Tang Zheng instructed Pang Meiqin to stop the train. Everybody jumped off and proceeded on foot.

After spending a night in the wilderness, the following morning, the group arrived in Aswan, an ancient city and one of the driest locations in the world. Although it barely received any rainfall for several years, as a tourist destination and trade center, it was still remarkably prosperous.

Having had a simple lunch, everyone checked into a four-star hotel for some rest. Meanwhile, Tang Zheng, carrying a million U.S. dollars – a contribution from Jasons, went out to purchase expedition supplies, hire a tour guide, and locate a large tour group.

"The language specialization is really formidable." Walking down the street, hearing Arabic, crude English and French drifting into his ears, Tang Zheng couldn’t help but sigh. The situation of an ethnicity without its own language was quite dismal. However, the Egyptians were truly impressive. Their environment required them to master at least three languages. Tang Zheng, after acquiring the Book of the Undead, had already mastered Ancient Egyptian, even more proficient than some well-experienced Egyptologists. However, if he were to communicate with others, he would definitely be considered a lunatic. Standing outside a travel agency, listening to the tour guide promoting tours in fluent Mandarin, Tang Zheng was moved to tears.

"Do you think you can learn a foreign language well in a classroom? Survival pressure is the best teacher. If you don’t learn, you won’t have food, and you’ll starve." Pang Meiqin, who was once able to speak three foreign languages fluently as a flight attendant, proudly walked behind Tang Zheng.

Yu Manli nodded. This tour guide had attracted many tourists because she could speak Chinese.

"Never mind, I don’t feel good about letting our compatriots be cannon fodder." Tang Zheng circled half a round and finally chose to join a tour group composed entirely of French people.

After Tang Zheng spent a fortune renting a big bus, he saw that there was still some time left, so he visited a few souvenir shops to prepare gifts for An Xiuru.

When Tang Zheng came back at dinner time with a bunch of bags, not only the newbies, but even Chu Baichuan and others admired him greatly, thinking that only someone as bold and talented as him would dare to go out for leisure at such a risky time.

"This is a unique scene from decades later, enjoyed by only us out of 7 billion people. Perhaps this is the only benefit of the Trojan Horse Game." Lu Fan, who had recovered, was looking at products Tang Zheng brought back, picked a crystal hair accessory, and waved it at him.

Tang Zheng nodded, and Little Lolita happily put it away and continued looking through the rest of the items.

The next morning, the team took the big bus to the gathering point of the tour group. Seeing their bus, the tour guide who had an unhappy expression on her face came to talk, believing that they had disrupted the order of the group.

The tour guide went on and on, finally proposing that twenty passengers be split onto this bus. This way, the original rented car could be saved, which was her ultimate goal.

"Agreed." Tang Zheng couldn’t wait to have a few more cannon fodder aboard.

The endless yellow sand outside the window made people feel drowsy, the scenery was just some stone ruins. Lu Fan couldn’t understand why people liked to travel all the way out here. Apart from disappointment, she could not find any other feelings about it.

The other passengers were lacklustre, resting and saving energy to visit the temple later. However, when a lush green line entered their sight, they all shouted in surprise.

"This used to be an ancient Egyptian quarry, it was desolate four months ago. But recently we don’t know what happened, plants emerged from one place after another, forming this oasis, stretching all the way to the Abu Simbel Temple." The tour guide, holding a microphone, introduced the origin of the oasis loudly, "This is a miracle, and you’re lucky to witness it."

It was a lush forest of date palms resembling palm trees, interspersed with shrubs of various heights. To Tang Zheng, it looked like an area full of danger.

"Alright, please get off the bus, gather around me, we’re going into the oasis. It takes forty minutes to walk to the temple." The tour guide waved her small flag and called for everyone, "Please don’t run about. If you get lost, although it won’t endanger your life, you will have to compensate the tour group a portion of money for the time spent looking for you."

This was a trail made by cutting down trees, almost a meter wide, so it wasn’t too tiring to walk. A hundred meters ahead of the tour group, you could vaguely see another group of tourists.

Passengers made a loose formation, walking and chatting about various things. They enjoyed the sensation of traversing the jungle, sheltered from the harsh sunlight, enjoying the breeze and the cool moist air. They were in high spirits, constantly taking photos.

The survivors of the Trojan Squad, however, silently followed behind, their eyes wide open, constantly on the lookout. Without any surprises, dried corpses would jump out from the jungle and try to kill them at any moment.

"Is nothing going to happen?" The old soldier was apparently wishful thinking. Just as he finished speaking, hundreds of thumb-sized blow darts, with the rustling of the oasis plants in the breeze serving as cover, were silently fired.

"Cover your heads." Tang Zheng caught a glimpse of a dark glow and quickly reminded others.

The newbies reflexively covered their heads. The tourists were puzzled and were about to turn around to take a look when they felt a pain in their bodies and instantly lost their strength, falling to the ground.

The poison arrows were all painted green, making them hard to detect, but they could not penetrate the protective clothing. However, Chen Jiarong, who had originally chosen firearms, was unlucky. The poison arrows pierced his clothes, pierced his skin, and the anesthetic potion paralyzed him instantly.

The howl of the monsters echoed through the oasis, with the fast running sound indicating they were rushing. Just in a few seconds, a group of over one-meter-tall dwarf monsters rushed out with curved knives, pouncing towards Tang Zheng and others.

There were too many of them, causing some to even rush towards the fallen tourists, grabbing their ankles and dragging them into the oasis. These would all be tributes to their queen. (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian.com to vote for it. Your support is my greatest motivation.)