Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The lights of the expedition team’s car disappeared, and Zhang Zian waved to the elfins. “Let’s get moving too.”
“Why all the nonsense? Stop talking! Are you deliberately going against me?” Fina snarled in anger.
“Meow! Meow! He did it on purpose! You can do anything to me!” Snowy Lionet finally caught the opportunity and screamed its side of the story as soon as it got the chance.
“Calm down. The situation is not as serious as you think.” Zhang Zian picked up the sleepy Richard from the driver’s seat and threw it to the back. When the elfins had gotten on, he put on his seat belt and started the car.
“The situation is not serious? There were two explosions. How serious must it be before it is actually serious?” His attitude made Fina even angrier.
Zhang Zian said, “At first I thought that Peter Lee had gotten what he wanted. However, when I heard the second explosion, I was relieved.”
“Why?” Fina asked.
His words succeeded in making her curious. However, if he couldn’t make a convincing statement, he might have to pay for his failure.
It was dangerous to drive a car at night in the desert. This was especially true when in such a complicated environment. Zhang Zian stared at the road ahead and analyzed it in an orderly way. “Let’s visit the pyramid, as you know it better than me. The pyramid is made up of full boulders. It’s very strong and not easy to blast through.
“Besides, I think that even if Peter Lee is brave, he is unlikely to be using high-performance military explosives. He is probably using some better-quality earth-based explosives. He likely had to mix it on site for it to be activated—the use of earth-based explosives to blast holes is not something that can be done easily with two tries.”
The giant granite built into the pyramid was thick and strong. Without modern blasting and cutting tools, it was very inefficient to break through the wall, especially with only earth-based explosives.
Zhang Zian could already imagine what Peter Lee and his team were currently doing.
According to his analysis, Peter Lee must have learned about the structure of the pyramid through the visit to the Great Pyramid. The location of the pirate hole in the Great Pyramid had also become an important reference. It was likely that the chosen location of their heist was similar.
They would have placed the explosives on the selected boulder, detonated them, and manually cleaned up the broken gravel for further blasting.
As they went in deeper, with every explosion, the ceiling and the wall needed to be carefully checked to prevent sudden collapse. This could bury them alive. If necessary, they needed to be reinforced with wood or brackets.
These meticulous and complex tasks should not be taken lightly.
“If I’m guessing correctly, there will be a third, fourth, or even more explosions. Even if they work all night, they may not be able to blow out a passageway by morning. Let’s hurry now, or we might be too late,” he concluded.
“Are you sure?” Fina asked.
Zhang Zian replied, “I have a lot of confidence, but unless I see it with my own eyes, who can be 100% sure?”
“Hmph! All flashy talk from the stinky man!” Snowy Lionet replied with great disappointment.
Fina finally calmed down a bit. She agreed that there was some truth to what he said. Besides, she was a somewhat reasonable cat.
Due to its remoteness, her pyramid was certainly not as large as the Great Pyramid. The stone was not as heavy, but it was still very strong. This was because the construction process was more advanced than it was for the Great Pyramid. After all, the Great Pyramid had been built more than 2,500 years ago.
She could only console herself. What had been blown up had already been blown up. Even if they flew over right now, the exterior damage was already done. If her stone throne was not damaged, that would be a blessing. If they could arrive in the nick of time, they could think of a way to seal the passage—the easiest way was to blow it up again, destroying the supporting beams of the passageway.
Driving around dense, hive-like dunes, especially at night when it was pitch-dark, it was easy to get lost and confused.
The tire tracks left by Peter Lee and his team were difficult to discover. After all, they had left in the morning. Zhang Zian had to stop frequently to let Famous find their route using his sense of smell. It was safer then to follow their route.
Sure enough, after they’d driven for about an hour, there was a third explosion. It might have been because they were closer to the blast, but the shockwaves were stronger than before.
Along the way, the car’s lights often shone on some small animals, including sand cats. They were not shocked by the lights, but they were shocked by the high-frequency noise and vibration that accompanied the explosion.
Every explosion slammed into Fina’s heart like a hammer. She was very anxious and couldn’t wait to reach her destination so she could make those people pay dearly.
“Come on, just a little faster! Just a little faster!” she kept urging.
Zhang Zian was already driving very quickly, and he really could not speed up any more.
“Do calm down! There is no prize for being fast!” Old Time Tea advised. “It would be bad if we went so fast that the car tipped over.”
“Why would that happen? The ground here is flatter and more solid than the desert outside…” Fina had not finished her sentence when the car suddenly trembled.
Old Time Tea, Fina, and Vladimir reacted quickly. At the moment of the tremor, they had already used their claws to grip the seatbelts to stabilize their bodies. Fina even had time to spare to help Snowy Lionet.
Galaxy was shocked and fluttered in the air. He used his limbs to do a somersault on the roof of the car before returning to his seat. Famous, being a regular user of safety belts, was not affected.
The unlucky one was Richard. It had woken up, but as it was pitch-black, he could not see clearly. He slammed into the roof of the car. After falling down, he had a small bump on his big head…
“Hey! What happened? Do you know how to drive? I’ve had enough!” Richard complained, wrapping his arms around his head.
It was a big tremor. Zhang Zian was worried that perhaps the chassis or suspension was damaged. He hurried to stop the car and check.
He took a flashlight and inspected the car. The chassis and suspension did not seem to be a big problem. After all, the ground was sand and not tarmac. Such bumps were unlikely to kill.
Earlier, he had indeed been careless. This was because the tracks here were more obvious. He had simply been following the track and had not truly been paying attention. He stood up and shone the light down the road he had just driven.
A number of deep tire tracks were printed on the sand’s surface, along with those that he had left behind. The rest were from Peter Lee and his team.
A slightly sunken sand pit lay between the tracks. However, as its color merged with the rest of the landscape, he had not noticed it earlier and simply driven over it.
Yet, how could there be a sand pit here?
