"Are you sure there's an oasis here?" Standing on a weathered, jagged rock, Rick scanned the distance, hoping to see the oasis Anna had mentioned.
"Should be around here..." Anna's voice wavered. She glanced nervously at Rick, voice trailing off. "The desert changes every day, so..."
"Maybe it's not far." Rick took a deep breath, a smile spreading across his face.
Seeing his expression, Lav exclaimed in delight, "You see the oasis?"
"No." Rick hopped off the rock. Noting Lav's disappointed look, he pointed to his nose with a laugh. "But I smell water."
"Your nose is that sharp?" Lav inhaled deeply like Rick, only to cough from the sandy air. "Liar, all I smell is sand."
"Hehe..." Rick affectionately ruffled Lav's hair, shouldering the chain again. "Aren't you getting on?"
"I'm better now—I can walk." Lav shook her head firmly. Her body had adapted to the harsh climate, improving significantly since the start.
"What about you?" Rick looked at Anna.
"Don't worry about me. My vitality's tougher than a scorpion's now." Anna flicked her right hand, a barbed stinger springing from her fingertip with a swish. This was her new ability. After fusing with the egg yesterday, she'd spent the night mastering her changes—now she wielded the stinger with ease.
"Then let's go. Mountains look close, but miles away. Who knows how long we'll walk." Rick sipped from his water pouch, energized, and dragged the creaking tricycle down the dune.
Lav and Anna walked beside him, even helping when they encountered sand pits. Their help was minimal, but every bit saved Rick energy. They traveled a lower-altitude path, the slope easing Rick's burden, though Lav and Anna still wondered why he insisted on towing the cart.
"Why drag this rickety cart? Lav and I can walk now. It only carries less than a kilo of rations—you don't need to haul a 100-kilo cart for that." Anna pushed the cart from behind, panting.
"I can sense we're close to the oasis. See those leather scraps on the cart? We can make water pouches from them. Then we'll haul hundreds of kilos of water, hahaha..."
"..." It seemed Rick was delirious from thirst. Haul hundreds of kilos of fresh water? Anna didn't buy it. The only explanation was that Rick had grown pathologically obsessed with water after enduring dehydration.
After crossing several towering dunes, they stood on a crest and finally saw the longed-for greenery and a dazzling blue lake.
"Look... water..." Rick trembled, his excitement sapping his strength.
"Yes! There's enough water to swim in!" Lav jumped for joy. Anna, who'd been pushing the cart, finally relaxed. On the way, she'd feared finding a dry riverbed, but thankfully, the legend held—there was a precious oasis at the heart of Tanzan Desert.
Learned from past mistakes, they didn't rush in. In the desert, water was precious, and water sources teemed with life. Rick wouldn't let Lav and Anna risk it until he scouted first. After a short rest, he entered alone.
The oasis, a circular expanse around the lake, spanned a kilometer. Inside, the clear scent of water overwhelmed Rick, nearly driving him to race for the lake, but he held back, hiding in the shrubs like a stalking beast.
After half an hour of silence, with only harmless insects crawling by, Rick found no danger. "Are there really no large insects nearby?"
Crawling from the shrubs, he saw no footprints, no insect droppings—nothing. The scene was as still as a painting. Bolder now, he walked toward the lake.
The sound of flowing water reached his ears, even frog croaks, which astonished him. Tender, defenseless amphibians were prime prey for large insects, nearly extinct on the continent. To find them here, in barren Tanzan Desert...
"Seems there aren't many insects around." Rick relaxed. If powerful combat insects lived here, the amphibians would've been hunted out. Any nearby insects couldn't be too dangerous—just needed caution.
He quickened his pace to the shore. Clear blue filled his vision. A plump fish leaped out, splashing back. On the shore, yellow-green frogs eyed him curiously, diving into the water on his approach, paddling clumsily away.
"Hahaha... Heaven really doesn't want me dead!—" Seeing this, what else did Rick have to hesitate about? He shouted and rushed to the knee-deep shallows, submerging his entire head in the water and gulping down the clear, sweet lake water.
He drank several liters in one go, only lifting his head from the water when his stomach felt ready to burst. Shaking his wet hair, Rick was overwhelmed by unprecedented coolness. Gazing at the picturesque beauty before him, he felt this moment was even better than paradise.
Swish!～～～ Suddenly, a rustle came from the nearby bushes. Rick instinctively rolled over, his arms flashing out into scythe-like insect limbs as he eyed the source of the sound warily.
Soon, a pair of huge curved horns pushed through the dense shrubs, and a brown, three-meter-tall ox-horned insect came into Rick's view. This suddenly appearing giant insect clearly noticed Rick too, but unlike ordinary wild insects, it merely glanced at him before losing interest, shaking its massive body, pushing through the shrubs, and trotting to the shallows to chew on the tender water plants.
"Huh? It's not wild." Rick immediately judged, for no matter what kind of insect, wild ones always remained vigilant toward humans. Only domesticated insects raised by humans from birth would not fear them.
Domesticated insects—those raised like livestock, with ox-horned insects being the most common, just like the one Anna used to pull her cargo cart when she was a lizard hunter.
But why was a domesticated insect here? With this curiosity, Rick approached closer. Carefully observing all parts of the ox-horned insect, he found obvious breaks in its hind legs and clear cracks in its back carapace.
Such wounds caused by blunt objects definitely weren't inflicted by other insects. Rick judged it must have been one of the victims of the recent sandstorm, only lucky enough to be blown here but injured in the fall.
"I was right to keep that rickety cart." Rick smiled happily. Without disturbing the giant insect, he slowly retreated into the bushes. Now, he had to tell Lav and Anna this good news.
"What? You saw a domesticated ox-horned insect?" Anna's eyes widened in surprise at Rick's news.
"Yep, I think it was blown here by the sandstorm. It has injuries on its back and legs. I wasn't sure if we could heal it, so I came to discuss—should we kill it for meat, or nurse it back to health to pull the cart?" Midway through, Rick gently patted Lav, who was choking on the water he'd brought back. "Drink slowly. There's plenty of water—no one's competing with you."
"I don't want to walk anymore. I can heal it." Lav wiped the water from her corner of her mouth after catching her breath, speaking with certainty.
"But I don't know how to train insects." Rick shrugged. "Anna, can you do it?"
"Piece of cake." Anna flashed her bright canine teeth, yanking the whip hanging from her belt. "Watch me."
The three dragged the cart to the small round lake, and the ox-horned insect sensibly didn't wander far, still peacefully chewing water plants in the shallows.
"Oh! Such a huge one—this isn't an ordinary ox-horned insect. It's a carefully selected high-quality domesticated insect; it could fetch a good price in Benning Town." The moment Anna saw the injured insect, her eyes lit up.
"Are you sure you can handle it? No need for my help?" Rick compared their sizes, asking hesitantly.
"Hmph, underestimating me! I'm the best lizard hunter in Tanzan Desert—handling an ox-horned insect is a breeze."
Upset at being belittled, Anna unfastened her red leather whip and strode toward the insect. Sensing the hostility emanating from Anna, the ox-horned insect turned its head, glaring angrily at her and growling deeply.
Not far away, Lav hid behind Rick, nervously grabbing his corner of his clothes. "Ri... Rick... That big guy is so huge, can Anna really do it?"
"Not sure." Rick was actually worried about Anna too, but kept his face calm. "Worst case, we slaughter it for meat. I'm tired of chewing dry rations anyway—some meat would be nice."
Crack!
As he spoke, a whip crack sounded from Anna's direction. Rick hurried to look and saw Anna nimbly wielding the whip, lashing at a spot near the base of the ox-horned insect's horns with varying force. The seemingly burly creature fell to its knees in pain after just a few lashes, obediently prostrating before Anna.
"Wh—what? That's it?" Rick gaped in astonishment, not expecting Anna to subdue the giant with just a few lashes.
"Skill, this is skill! The base of its horns is the most vulnerable part of its body. A few light lashes there, and it'll submit obediently." Anna proudly flashed a charming smile, flipping onto the ox-horned insect's back in a series of valiant movements that left Rick stunned.
Next to him, seeing Rick's reaction, Lav's long-absent jealousy welled up again. She stepped forward to block Rick's view, pointing at Anna and shouting: "It's still injured! How can you ride it? Get down— it will hurt."
"Hmph! Brat!"
Reluctantly, Anna jumped off the ox-horned insect, clapping her hands. "My task is done. The rest is up to you."
With that, she swaggered into the bushes and ducked into the cart's tent.
Lav stuck out her tongue at Anna's back, then pulled Rick to the ox-horned insect's side. To be honest, although the giant was now as docile as a kitten, the little girl was still afraid to stay beside it alone. While she was an insect expert, she usually dealt with insect eggs—she'd never treated such a huge creature before.
Circling the ox-horned insect three times, Lav felt utterly at a loss. Seeing her dilemma, Rick tried: "If you can't treat it, then... we should kill it." He even licked his lips as he spoke.
"You want to eat it! It's so pitiful and you still want to eat it!" Lav exclaimed in surprise, her young lady's super empathy evidently flaring up again.
"Seeing Lav's expression, how could Rick dare to say anything more? He could only heave a sigh. "Fine, we won't eat it. Then take your time to treat it, I'll watch from the side."
"Don't talk, let me think!"
Lav indeed had no experience treating adult insects, but under her grandfather's coercion, she had read widely, including many books on treating injured insects. Coupled with her astonishing memory, it didn't take long for her to fish out the information she needed from her stored knowledge.
"So it's actually quite simple." Lav touched the cold carapace of the giant ox-horned insect with some trepidation, saying to Rick, "I need some soapwort, earth potatoes, and wisteria sap."
"What are these things for?" Rick was taken aback. The plants Lav mentioned were all common, used as raw materials for daily necessities.
"I can't explain it to a layman like you. Just go get them." Lav waved her hand impatiently.
Helpless, Rick puckered his lips in reluctance, got up, and ducked into the thicket to search for those plants.
As he passed the tent on the cart, Rick casually glanced inside and found Anna wasn't there, but left behind was the canvas cloak she had always wrapped around herself.
"Huh? Where did she run off to again?" Rick muttered, but didn't dwell on it, focusing on bending over to look for the plants Lav needed.
Earth potatoes were easy to find. This sweet potato-like plant had a stouter root and stronger starch viscosity, almost comparable to glue, usually used to make paste. Yanking hard along the stem of the earth potato, the large root hidden in the soil was immediately pulled out. Rick counted carefully and found its growth was unexpectedly good—just one plant had seven tubers, each weighing about a kilogram.
"I really don't know what Lav wants these for. Is she planning to make paste?" Rick complained as he took off his clothes, wrapped up these large earth potatoes, and went to look for wisteria.
Wisteria was a parasitic vine that coiled around low trees. Rick could understand why Lav wanted this plant. The Insect Association's hunter manual also stated that wisteria sap had hemostatic effects and was a natural emergency medicine.
Compared to earth potatoes, wisteria was much harder to find. Rick rummaged through the thicket thoroughly before finding two plants.
The remaining one was soapwort, used to make soap, an aquatic plant.
Since it was an aquatic plant, it must be found by the water. Rick carried a large bundle of things to the water's edge and used a stick to part the dense water grass in the shallows to check.
"There's none here. Maybe I should look in deeper waters."
Rick rolled up his pants and waded deeper. When he reached waist-deep water, Rick finally saw the large-leafed plant floating halfway in the water. Overjoyed, he reached out to pluck it.
"Huh?"
Rick felt he had grabbed something, but from the slippery texture, it definitely wasn't soapwort. Curious, he rubbed the thing in his palm. It was smooth, soft, and felt good.
Just as Rick was curious to peer underwater, he suddenly noticed the water flow stir. Looking down, he saw a large patch of red surging up from below.
This scared Rick half to death. He let out a shout and was about to run when a pair of fair, smooth arms climbed onto his shoulders. Then, with a splash, Anna leaped out of the water like a mermaid, sitting cross-legged on him. Her fiery red hair fluttered, and crystal-clear water droplets scattered in all directions.
Then, their eyes met.
Gulp.
Rick swallowed hard, his gaze slowly moving down. He saw Anna's fair, plump chest pressing against his, creating a thrilling cleavage. Further down, her long, sexy legs coiled around his waist like an octopus. As the water rippled, Rick couldn't help but feel the intense pleasure of skin-to-skin contact.
"Um... I... You..." Rick's face turned so red it seemed to be on fire, babbling incoherently.
Compared to Rick, Anna was far bolder. She didn't care about being naked at all, instead fixing her teasing gaze on Rick's evasive eyes.
"You want to run after groping me?"
"Um... I didn't mean to..." Rick whispered an explanation, his body stiff as a zombie, not daring to move an inch.
"Then why did you come here?" Anna leaned close, breathing softly into his ear.
Rick went limp from Anna's sultry tone. He struggled slightly and mumbled, "I... I came to pick soapwort. Lav needs it."
"Soapwort, huh? You really know how to choose a spot. I finally found this patch of soapwort to take a bath, and you just had to come pick it now—you did it on purpose!" Anna pouted, shooting him a coquettish glare.
Rick had no idea Anna was teasing him. Flustered, his face turned red as he waved his hands. "I swear, I definitely didn't come here to peek! It's a misunderstanding, a huge misunderstanding!"
"You really didn't know?"
"Nope."
"Then if you had known, would you have come?"
"Eh?"
Rick hadn't expected Anna to ask that, at a loss for words.
Just as Rick awkwardly wondered why Anna would ask such a question, a large cobblestone flew from the shore and "whacked" into the back of his head. He staggered, clutching Anna and plunging into the water.
The lake water was crystal clear. Rick twisted to stand, but Anna forcefully turned his face and, under his astonished gaze, gently kissed his cheek.
Before Rick could react, Anna kicked her long legs, swimming away gracefully like a white fish, leaving Rick stunned—he didn't even notice water flooding into his nose.
After a while, the pain of suffocation jolted Rick awake underwater.
"Cough cough..."
He burst from the water, gasping, and looked toward where the stone had come from. Lav stood there, glaring furiously, her face dark enough to scare anyone.
By then, Anna had swum to shore. Unabashed, she pushed off with both hands, leaping onto the bank naked, then fished her leather undergarments from the grass and put them on.
Lav shot Anna a jealous look and yelled at Rick, "What were you two doing just now?"
"Nothing... we did nothing?"
"Nothing? Then why were you hugging? What's that on your face?"
"Huh?" Rick touched his face, finding a red smudge on his palm—lipstick, it seemed.
"Lipstick!" Rick trembled, recalling Anna's kiss underwater.
"I'm screwed—there's no way to explain this now..." Rick sighed, pressing his forehead.