Shock, fear, a sense of absurdity... Complex emotions boiled within the five like scalding water. They huddled in the shadow of the rocks, momentarily at a loss.
"Huo Xiao... It really is General Huo Xiao... We... we've gone back to the Ming Dynasty?" Xiao Liu's voice was tearful, his young face filled with terror and helplessness.
"The Jiajing era... it said on the epitaph..." Xiao Wang was also pale, his teeth chattering. "Are we... witnessing history? Or... have we become part of it?"
Chen Feng was relatively calmer, but his eyes held an unprecedented gravity. "Captain, the immediate priority is survival. Our water, food, medicine—almost all lost in the tomb. In this era, the desert is absolute death. We must find water and a food source quickly." He licked his parched lips, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.
Qin Yuan forced himself to detach from the immense shock. As the leader, he had to be the anchor. "Chen Feng is right. Survive first. Then we can figure out what happened, and... find a way back." He took a deep breath of the scorching air. "Huo Xiao mentioned wolves earlier, meaning there might be water or prey nearby, but it also means danger. We must use our modern knowledge advantage."
He quickly assigned tasks:
1. Observation: He and Su Wan would continue observing the beacon and encampment's activities, especially Huo Xiao's patterns, the soldiers' range, and any water supply transport.
2. Environmental Recon: Chen Feng, with Xiao Liu, would move cautiously towards dune areas away from the encampment, ensuring concealment, using geological knowledge and observing plant signs (even the most drought-resistant desert plants) to locate possible underground water or an oasis direction. Note any signs of danger (wolf scat, snake tracks).
3. Rest & Preparation: Xiao Wang would stay put, collecting anything potentially useful nearby: tough dry grass stems (for weaving rope), sharp stone flakes (simple tools), dry camel thorn (for fire starting). Also, inventory their remaining possessions: a few multi-tool knives, lighters, a small amount of emergency compressed biscuits (in inside pockets), empty canteens, headlamps (unknown charge), Su Wan's compass (useless), Chen Feng's broken instrument, and... Qin Yuan pulled a small, high-strength alloy archaeological probe from an inside pocket.
Time passed slowly in anxious waiting and cautious movement. The sun beat down, the desert temperature soaring. The rocks they hid behind grew searing to the touch. The feeling of thirst grew stronger, their throats burning.
Su Wan peered through rock crevices, staring intently at the lone beacon and the encampment below. The camp was small, its adobe walls low and dilapidated, offering limited defense. Soldiers moved in and out, most looking malnourished and somewhat lethargic, their equipment patchy. She saw soldiers carrying half a wind-dried carcass of some unknown animal, and others drawing murky water from a seemingly deep well with effort. The scarcity of supplies was visible.
"Captain, look, the General." Su Wan whispered.
Huo Xiao emerged again from a slightly larger adobe building (likely his command post). He had removed his armor, wearing only a faded blue military jacket, but his imposing aura was undiminished. He walked to the well, didn't draw water first, but crouched to examine the injured leg of a young soldier sitting on the ground, moaning. The soldier's calf had a nasty wound, seemingly from a beast, already festering.
Huo Xiao frowned deeply, issuing orders to someone nearby. Soon, an elderly man with graying hair, dressed like a physician, hurried over with some pounded herbs. Huo Xiao stood watching until the treatment was finished. He patted the young soldier's shoulder, pulled a blackish, cake-like thing from his robe, and pressed it into the soldier's hand. The soldier excitedly kowtowed repeatedly.
This scene made Su Wan's heart tremble. It was far removed from the image of a stern, aloof general she had imagined. The epitaph's praise of "loyalty and bravery piercing the sun, awe shaking the western frontiers" seemed to have a more concrete footnote. But then, she saw the deep worry and heaviness hidden in Huo Xiao's eyes as he looked towards the distant desert, and her heart clenched again. The predicament he faced was probably far more severe than the soldiers' injuries and lack of supplies.
"He... is a good general." Su Wan said softly, with a trace of imperceptible respect.
Qin Yuan nodded silently, having also noticed Huo Xiao's actions. "But his situation is bad. Low soldier morale, poor equipment, difficult supply. That cavalry unit earlier must be his main force. Too few men." The archaeological desire to investigate historical figures was fully awakened by this "living history," but the realistic pressure of survival was more urgent.
Just then, Chen Feng and Xiao Liu returned, crawling back, their expressions extremely grim.
"Captain!" Chen Feng's voice held a note of despair. "The situation is bad! We followed what might have been a dry riverbed for about a kilometer. No sign of water anywhere. Sparse, withered desert plants. Worse..." He paused, pointing back the way they came. "We found this."
He opened his palm. In it were several fresh, moist, dark brown pellets—wolf scat! And not just in one place!
"Wolf pack! Possibly a large one! Active in the area between us and the encampment!" Xiao Liu's voice was full of fear. "They... they might have caught our scent!"
As if to confirm his words, a long, piercing howl, full of hunger, pierced the blazing air, clearly reaching the five's ears!
Then a second, a third... Wolf howls rose one after another from different directions, forming a faint encirclement!
Cold sweat instantly soaked through the backs of Qin Yuan and the others. With modern equipment, a wolf pack might not be feared. But here, they were virtually unarmed (except for a few small knives), hungry and thirsty, facing a pack of the desert's most cunning and hungry predators. It was almost certain death!
"Dammit!" Qin Yuan cursed under his breath, his mind racing. Hiding here meant death once discovered. Charging towards Huo Xiao's encampment? In their strange clothes, unable to communicate, what would they be taken for? Spies? Sorcerers? They'd likely be shot full of arrows before getting near the wall!
The wolf howls grew closer, more frequent. In the air, they could almost smell the distinctive rank, bestial odor.
The shadow of despair, like rapidly falling night, enveloped the five lost souls from the future. The shock of time travel hadn't subsided, yet death's fangs were already at their throats!