Chapter 970 - 38: Hostages

Desert Sea, Sandboat Outpost.

Following the signal from the communication equipment, Sun Hang and the others smoothly found the sandboat outpost floating above the Desert Sea. However, before they could board the sandboat, they saw a long bone spear erected on the platform of the sandboat outpost from hundreds of meters away, and at the top of the spear, there was a head strung up with dried blood.

"Damn it!" Mr. Wang cursed softly, "This is something those barbarians would do!"

"That's the captain of the advance team," Candle Dragon said in a deep voice, "Scanning in progress... Scan complete, no signs of life detected within the sandboat outpost."

"Should we go over?" Bai Lingqiu asked.

"Be careful, it might be a trap from those barbarians. I'll fly up and take a look." Mr. Wang was about to unfold his wings when Sun Hang pressed down on his shoulder, "If you use the mimetic power of the Black Dragon now, Nephthys won't be able to suppress your aura, and it will attract the Sinking Sand Giant Worm."

"Tch, then what do you suggest?" Mr. Wang frowned.

"You all wait here, I'll go over and take a look." After saying this, Sun Hang headed straight towards the sandboat outpost alone.

The ambush that others worried about did not exist. After attacking the sandboat outpost, the Desert Sea remnants seemed to have left this place. Judging from the traces on site, it had likely been more than ten days since the attack occurred.

Inside the outpost, there were bloodstains everywhere, and all sorts of devices and containers were in disarray. Obviously, after the attack, the Desert Sea remnants had conducted a thorough looting, taking almost everything they could, stopping just short of burning the place down completely.

But they didn't burn the place down, perhaps as a demonstration to us... Sun Hang thought as he looked at the head hanging on the spear tip.

No bodies were left in the sandboat outpost, and the body of the advance team's captain was also not there. For the Desert Sea remnants, bodies are also a valuable resource. In the resource-scarce Desert Sea, nothing is wasted.

"Not finding bodies is also a good thing." Others had also climbed aboard the sandboat outpost by now. Candle Dragon walked over to Sun Hang and said, "At the very least... it implies that there might still be survivors from the advance team."

"Being captured by those barbarians might be worse than death," Bai Lingqiu murmured softly as he stared at the bloodstains on the walls and floor.

By this time, Cheng Ming had already lowered the spear. Candle Dragon walked briskly over, picked up the head, and his expression changed slightly.

"What is it?" Bai Lingqiu asked hurriedly upon seeing Candle Dragon's change in expression.

"There's a hole in the back of his head, and the brain has been completely removed," Candle Dragon said, "I don't know what purpose taking the brain serves for the Desert Sea remnants?"

"Maybe some priest likes to boil brains in soup, maybe it's a religious act, or maybe it's intended to intimidate the other members of the advance team and us," Sun Hang said, "Of course, there's another possibility we can't rule out."

"What possibility?" Mr. Wang asked.

"The Desert Sea remnants have mastered some technology that allows them to extract memories from the dead's brains," Sun Hang said as he looked at Nuer, "Do you have any leads?"

"I don't know..." Nuer shook his head, "In disputes between settlements, captured enemies are transformed into cursed ones... We would never dig out an enemy's brain and then hang the skull out to dry... that's too... too..."

Sun Hang: "Too what?"

"Too wasteful... we wouldn't completely kill someone unless we had no other choice," Nuer said, "A cursed one, who can continuously provide various things, is worth much more than a corpse that will just rot and stink soon."

"Can you tell which settlement attacked the sandboat outpost?" Sun Hang asked again.

Nuer shook his head once more.

At this moment, Zuo Jun walked out from the surveillance room of the outpost, holding a bloodstained iron box.

The surface of the iron box was dented with hard objects, but the overall deformation wasn't too severe, and the contents inside remained intact.

"This is the data storage core of the outpost," Candle Dragon's eyes lit up.

All the surveillance cameras within the outpost had been smashed. The Desert Sea remnants might not know what surveillance cameras are, but the priests, who possess knowledge of the old civilization, are aware. All electronic devices in the outpost that could be taken were taken, and those that couldn't were smashed into pieces, except for this data storage core, which was preserved due to simple camouflage.

Presumably, the Desert Sea remnants didn't know how to use tools like screwdrivers and couldn't remove this iron box embedded in the wall, so they merely cut the cables connected to the box and hammered it a few times to 'destroy' it, not realizing that the storage core inside remained unaffected—this thing was built to the 'black box' standards used in airplanes, capable of preserving data even if dropped from tens of thousands of meters high.

Candle Dragon immediately used the key he brought to open the iron box, took out the storage core inside, and pulled a data cable from his wrist-bound communication terminal, plugging it into the slot on the side of the storage core.

Even though wireless transmission technology was widespread in this era, wired connections were still the safest and most reliable means for handling crucial data.

A large amount of data was extracted from the storage core, and Candle Dragon quickly scanned the screen until a key piece of information appeared, causing him to pause his rapid reading.

This was a contact record—on the third day after Sun Hang's departure, the advance team had direct contact with the Desert Sea remnants. However, surprisingly, it was not the advance team that found the Desert Sea remnants' settlement, but rather the Desert Sea remnants who found them.

The initial contact was fairly amicable, and the Desert Sea remnants showed no signs of aggression. The advance team even gifted some less important life supplies to the Desert Sea remnants to strengthen their friendship... Everything seemed to be developing towards a harmonious and friendly relationship.

The advance team researchers even proposed drawing a tube of blood from the Desert Sea remnants for analysis, which the remnants did not refuse... until the sixth day of contact when over a dozen Desert Sea remnants boarded the outpost on three sandboats.

Because nearly half of these Desert Sea remnants were familiar faces, including two who had volunteered to give blood, the advance team was not on guard against this "visit"... But just as they were warmly welcoming these "friends" with whom communication was still somewhat difficult, the other side suddenly launched an attack!

This wasn't a record documented by advance team members; in fact, by that time, they didn't have the chance to write any records—the footage was captured by the surveillance cameras in the outpost, and before the cameras were smashed, Sun Hang and his team clearly saw that at least four people from the advance team were still alive.

Before the video abruptly ended, these four individuals had not been killed by the Desert Sea remnants.

"It seems they likely have our people as hostages," Candle Dragon said in a deep voice.