Versatile Mage (Web Novel)
chapter-1003

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

Continuing forward, Mo Fan purposely turned around to confirm Mu Ningxue’s position every time he walked a hundred meters forward, just so he did not stray too much from the initial path.

He had to admit that the illusion was rather spooky. Every time he turned around, he would notice that he was no longer walking in a straight line. Even when he strongly believed that Mu Ningxue was right behind him, he still ended up straying away from the line. It felt like Mu Ningxue was actually moving as he walked!.

However, Mu Ningxue had been standing still atop the sand dune all along. After a certain time, Mu Ningxue would cast a tornado resembling a cloak above her to tell everyone where she was. As Mo Fan moved further away, he could no longer see her. Only the tornado in the air showed she was still standing in the same spot.

Without Mo Fan realizing it, he had walked a kilometer away. He felt lost somehow when he looked at the unending sand with a hint of redness.

Apart from the blue sky, it was fairly impossible to differentiate their surroundings, to the extent that Mo Fan thought he was walking back toward the sand dune that Mu Ningxue was standing on, as it just looked too similar. If it wasn’t for the tornado signaling him that she was still at the same spot, Mo Fan would simply think that he had been walking in circles.

No wonder so many people had gotten lost in the desert. Without using flags, pinpoints, or references, it was like walking in complete darkness!

The yellow sand, unending land, and sand dunes kept on repeating. When the scenery around a person always remained the same, it was no different than walking in complete darkness where the person could not even see their own fingers when reaching their hands forward. Everyone would surely get lost without knowing if they were still walking in a straight line, or in circles.

Most terrifyingly, their com links had strong interference, too. They had stopped working when Mo Fan was only five hundred meters away. If the group had not decided to cast spells as signals in advance, they would most likely have lost sight of one another.

Mo Fan estimated the distance and started searching around while staying within a kilometer of Mu Ningxue.

After more than half an hour, he finally discovered something other than yellow sand.

It was a sand fox, passing by timidly. Mo Fan immediately searched the direction it came from, and found a faint, green object buried under the sand.

Mo Fan went closer and swept the sand away from the object. He ended up dragging a pale green tent from the sand.

The tent was severely damaged. It seemed like the wind had torn it into pieces. There were also water packs and dried food scattered across the place. It seemed like someone had stayed here recently.

That being said, there was also a chance that the powerful sandstorm had swept these things here when the missing team’s camp was actually a long distance away.

Either way, they had at least confirmed that the African team was somewhere in the area. They had lost contact for around a day and a half, so if the missing team still had any brains, they would not travel too far away.

“It seems like the tent is the only clue here, there isn’t anything else. (Sigh), hopefully it’s enough to turn in the job. Otherwise, the rescue team won’t even find the tent when they arrive,” Mo Fan picked up the tent and raised it up with sticks to turn it into a green flag.

After Mo Fan was done setting it up, he started making his way back. To Mo Fan’s great astonishment, he initially thought Mu Ningxue was on his six, but the tornado surprisingly appeared in his twelve. The difference was a hundred and eighty degrees! That was simply too ridiculous. If he simply followed his instincts, he would be walking in the completely opposite direction!

After regrouping with Mu Ningxue, the girl looked at Mo Fan and said, “Something’s strange about this illusion.”

“It’s not only strange, it’s about to drive me mad. I couldn’t tell the right direction even once, even though I usually have a strong sense of direction!” Mo Fan swore.

“Let’s head back to Jiang Shaoxu is,” Mu Ningxue said.

Jiang Shaoxu had not stopped releasing the signal. They were able to see Jiang Shaoxu’s Light Spell around a kilometer away from Mu Ningxue’s position.

After they regrouped with Jiang Shaoxu, they were able to see Jiang Yu’s signal.

As a matter of fact, to Mo Fan’s eyes, their positions were like chess pieces zigzagging across the board, but they were actually maintaining a straight line since they came in.

“Come, when we reach where Zhao Manyan we should be able to see Nanyu. To be honest, I don’t even want to stay a second more in this strange place. I keep feeling like Zhao Manyan’s position never stops shifting,” Jiang Yu said.

“I have the same feeling too, even though we are all standing at the same spots,” Jiang Shaoxu agreed with a nod.

“Why isn’t Nanyu sending a signal yet? Didn’t we agree to send out a signal every five minutes?” Jiang Yu wondered.

The group had regrouped with Zhao Manyan for more than five minutes. Normally, they should be seeing a signal from Nanyu by now, yet they still did not see anything from the person who should still be staying outside of the boundaries.

“Speaking of which, it had actually been ten minutes…” Zhao Manyan murmured.

He was speaking indifferently, since they were at most a kilometer away from the boundaries of the desert. Even without Nanyu’s signal, he assumed they would be able to walk out of the desert on their own. That being said, it was still worrying that Nanyu did not stick to the plan!

Everyone waited at Zhao Manyan’s position… yet even after fifteen minutes, there was still nothing coming from Nanyu!

“Maybe she fell asleep?”

“Nanyu would never commit such a rookie mistake; something must have happened to her!” Mo Fan said confidently.

Both Nanyu and Ai Jiangtu were from the military. They were very strict when it came to discipline. If they agreed to send out a signal every five minutes, they would send out the signal right on time, not even a second late!

However, she had not sent a signal for more than fifteen minutes, meaning that she must be in some kind of trouble!

“Let’s hurry up and leave. Even though we’re only at the outer part of Sahara Desert, there is still some terrifying existence around here!” Jiang Shaoxu said.

The group nodded and immediately headed in the direction Nanyu was supposed to be.

After they went around four hundred meters forward, Mo Fan discovered that Jiang Shaoxu was standing still in her spot. He was utterly confused by it. He turned his head to Jiang Shaoxu and yelled, “What are you doing there? Let’s go!”

“Look ahead, did you see yellow sand or sand with a hint of redness?” Jiang Shaoxu whispered into everyone’s ears with Psychic Voice.

The others only noticed the color of the sand after Jiang Shaoxu’s reminder.

Mo Fan glanced ahead and discovered a flat land like a calm lake being shone upon by the golden, orange-red sun. As he glanced further into the distance, he saw a sand dune, one that he clearly remembered he had passed by when they were moving toward Zhao Manyan from Jiang Yu’s position!

“Yellow sand… damn it, we went in the wrong direction!” Jiang Yu exclaimed.

“It can’t be, I clearly remember this is the right way to where Nanyu was. I specifically took note of it when she last sent out the signal,” Zhao Manyan said confidently.

“Try flying into the sky and take a look,” Mo Fan said.

Zhao Manyan summoned his magic wings and flew into the sky. However, when he glanced down from the height, he immediately felt an icy chill running down his spine!

He was able to see a few kilometers into the distance at his height, yet there was no sign of Nanyu anywhere!

Not only did he fail to see Nanyu, he was utterly terrified when he discovered that all the sand within a few kilometers had a hint of redness to it!

He had never moved away from his spot. He was at most a kilometer away from Nanyu, thus it totally made sense that they could easily leave the desert by going in the right direction. However, such a direction no longer existed!

Zhao Manyan had a pale face as he came back to the group.

“Nanyu is missing…” Zhao Manyan said.

Before everyone started to panic, Zhao Manyan added, “When I was looking down from the sky, the sand within a few kilometers from us has the same redness. We are completely stuck in the middle of the illusion!”

Everyone’s heart sank when they heard Zhao Manyan’s words. Jiang Yu immediately summoned Night Rakshasa as he was finding it hard to believe. The Night Rakshasa was fairly good at identifying the right direction. She should be able to lend them a hand.

In the end, even the Night Rakshasa failed to discern the right way!

“So…where the heck are we?”

“We are lost. Once we lost contact with the person outside the boundaries, there’s no way we can find the way out. It’s not about picking the right direction that will bring us out. We’ll still lose our way without something to guide us,” Mu Ningxue said.

“Can this place be any more spooky?”

“Stop it, my skin is already crawling with goosebumps.”

Mo Fan turned around and glanced at where Jiang Shaoxu was.

Jiang Shaoxu did not move. She had purposely stayed behind where Zhao Manyan was when the others went to look for Nanyu. In other words, where Jiang Shaoxu was standing should be the closest to the exit. If they could go to where she was, it would prevent them from venturing deeper into the desert.

The scariest thing about getting lost was, even when you picked a direction, you could not tell if you were heading in the right direction. However, if the direction you took was wrong, it was impossible for you to return to the previous spot, thus getting more lost than you already were…

Everyone hurried over to where Jiang Shaoxu was. Everyone had a worried and uneasy look from being unable to understand what was going on.

First, they had no idea where Nanyu went. Why didn’t she stay outside to guide them with the signal? They had agreed to maintain a straight line. If the person at the very back went missing, it simply meant the whole group would be lost in the illusion.

Second, what were they supposed to do now? Should they pick a direction and try their luck, or just stay where they were?