Cao Hui and Qiu Rui were both carrying jets, and their beards and feet were not very neat, so they had to call Zhao Xuan to drive.

Instead of driving an off-road vehicle, several people got into the pickup truck, and Cao Hui and Qiu Rui were sitting in the cargo bed.

Zhao Xuan drove the car and quickly crossed the ant colony and went around to the rear.

Before Cao Hui and Qiu Rui got out of the car, the white insect once again felt the danger and directed the colony to turn again.

Song Shaofeng and the others in the back followed the ant colony unhurriedly, ready to attack at any time.

It turns out that in the face of technology, the power of the body is so small.

Zhao Xuan drove the car and kept going around to the front of the ant colony, and gradually, the ant colony was forced to no way back by Zhao Xuan and Song Shaofeng.

Whatever direction it moves, it's within their range.

The white insects on the ant colony, constantly writhing their bodies, seemed very uneasy.

In the end, the ant colony gave up escaping and rushed towards Song Shaofeng and the others.

The distance of dozens of meters seems not far, but it has become a moat.

Several high-intensity light cantons, plus car headlights, illuminate the position of the ant colony clearly.

And under the crossfire of the four flamethrowers, thousands of ants, none of them could walk the last few tens of meters.

Unfortunately, in the end, I couldn't catch a single one alive.

The ants did not flee alone, they all gathered together, and under the huge pillar of fire of the flamethrower, there was really no way to leave a small number of ants for them to catch alive.

After solving the ants, Zhao Xuan and the others took down a few empty sorting boxes from the pickup truck, preparing to collect some ant remains for study.

Before, their materials were all packed in sorting boxes, but now there are fewer materials, and the empty sorting boxes are just used to hold ants.

Most of the ants have been ignited by the fuel and burned into a pile of charcoal, but many ants have died from the heat of the flames, leaving a relatively complete corpse.

Zhao Xuan searched for a mass of carbonized ants for research and gradually walked to the center of the colony.

The white bugs have been charred brown by the flamethrower.

However, when attacking before, Zhao Xuan clearly saw that the ants used their bodies to wrap the white insects inside and enclose them into a round ball.

Although in the end, the white bugs still did not escape the fate of death, but the corpse was completely preserved.

Zhao Xuan walked closer and swept away the ants that were piled up around the white insects and almost turned into charcoal, which was the first time to observe the white insects up close.

This insect looks similar to the larvae of other insects such as caterpillars, but it is much larger, and has short legs on the front half, but it does not seem to be able to support its body at all.

The difference compared to those larvae is that it has a huge head.

The head, which occupies a third of the length of the body, appears to be fatter than the body, and has two thick antennae on the head.

Although this white bug seems to be very important to the ant colony, it is definitely not what the queen ant looks like.

The others also walked to the center and looked at the white bug.

"It's not like an ant queen." Zhao Xuan saw everyone gathered around, pointed to the insects in front of him, and asked, "Then where did they grow?" ”

Zhang Yuan speculated: "Maybe the queen ant has been burned to death in the sand city. ”

Song Shaofeng squatted down, carefully checked the white insects, and confirmed that they were dead, before taking a sorting box and signaling to help.

"Put it away first, and then we'll talk about it after checking Shacheng tomorrow."

Everyone carefully carried the burnt yellow insects into the sorting box.

Especially those tentacles and the like, who knows if they will break when you touch them.

The large organizer is barely enough to fit this bug.

The desert climate is dry, so you don't have to worry about rotting for the time being.

With the addition of this white bug, everyone packed three large boxes of things.

Hand in hand with each other and carried back to the car, seven people, plus all kinds of equipment and wreckage, a large cart full.

It was still Zhao Xuan who drove, pulling a large cart of things and returning to the camp.

After rearranging the equipment, replenishing the flamethrower, piling the boxes aside and sealing them, and arranging the personnel on duty again, everyone continued to rest.

Nothing happened to me next, but after such a fuss in the middle of the night, no one slept well, and the next morning, everyone yawned a little.

However, the work still had to be done, and after packing up the camp quickly, everyone drove straight to the sand city, which had been burned to the ground.

Lin Ling and Qiu Rui carried flamethrowers on their backs, responsible for guarding against sporadic ants, while the others, holding tools, were ready to see if they could try to dig an anthill.

Zhao Xuan entered Shacheng, but he could no longer see what he looked like in the telescope before.

The entire sand city was black, and there were hardly any more earthen pillars that could stand, and they were all brought to the ground by the huge explosion and the fire that followed.

In some places, the sand is even melted by the high temperature and turned into crystal clear glass.

The glowing glass and the blackened sand are intertwined, which is what the sand city looks like now.

As for the ants, not a single one could be seen, and they had long since been burned to ashes in the fire.

The group searched around the ruins, and finally found an anthill exit that could still be seen in shape.

"Try?"

Zhang Yuan stuck the sapper shovel on the ground and pointed to the hole in front of him.

"Let's try it, and we'll head back after lunch." Hu Ziming nodded.

So except for Lin Ling and Qiu Rui, who continued to be in charge of guarding, the rest of the people began to dig pits in turn.

It should be that Shacheng was leveled when the city was built, and after digging dozens of centimeters down, there was no sand, but solid ground.

It's no wonder that ant colonies choose to nest here.

Although the oasis is also land, it is too close to the water source, and it is a little deeper to prevent water seepage, but this is just right.

Without the help of machinery, Zhao Xuan's digging speed was incomparable to that of ants, and it took almost two hours to dig out more than ten meters.

No valuable clues were found, but dozens of intact ant carcasses were found.

Zhang Yuan threw away the shovel in his hand and said angrily: "Millions of ants have been digging for a day, a few of us, this has to be dug to the next life!" ”

"Didn't you say try it?" Zhao Xuan reminded.

"Isn't it okay if the master smokes for a while?" Zhang Yuan gently pumped his mouth.

Hu Ziming also realized that they couldn't clean up the ground at all, and when someone brought it up, he naturally wouldn't object.

"Stop digging, rest." After Hu Ziming finished speaking, he turned his head and asked Song Shaofeng: "Can the camera transmit?" ”

Song Shaofeng shook his head and said, "No, you have to come and get it manually." ”

"Put two of them, and I'll bring someone again next month." Hu Ziming nodded and began to discuss the location with Song Shaofeng.

In two locations that are not easily eroded by wind and sand, the infrared-triggered camera was placed, and the locator was strapped to the camera, and everyone was ready to leave.

Before getting into the car, Zhang Yuan glanced at Shacheng with a sigh and sighed: "It's a pity." ”

Zhao Xuan started the car and asked, "What's the pity?" ”

"This sand city, to say the least, is two thousand years old, I don't know how many cultural relics have been burned by us."

"I can't imagine that you are fat-headed and big-eared, and you are so sentimental." Zhao Xuan didn't feel deeply about the loss of cultural relics, and since he had to deal with the abnormality, it was naturally impossible to be perfect.

"Who's fat-headed and big-eared?" Zhang Yuan said angrily: "How many times have I said it, the master is full of energy!" Do muscles understand? ”

"Huh? Isn't the point about cultural relics? ”

"It's all burned, how else can it be dropped?"

The convoy drove in the desert for another two days, and it was not until the third day that it was back on the road.

Walking and stopping in the desert for five or six days, in fact, the distance in a straight line is only more than 200 kilometers.

After walking nearly 200 kilometers along the desert road, several people rushed to another Taixian county in the afternoon of the third day.

Taixian County is on the other side of the desert, located at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, and Ruoxian County when their plane landed was at the northern foot of the Kunlun Mountains.

In ancient times, this was the north and south lines of the Silk Road to the Western Regions.

Now that there is a desert road, the two lines are connected.

Further west, the Tien Shan and Kunlun Mountains meet in the Pamir Plateau, and beyond the Kunlun Pass, is Central Asia.

However, at this time, Zhao Xuan and the others were not interested in this, and they stayed in the desert for a week, and the first thing they did when they returned to the civilized world was naturally - to take a bath.

After taking a comfortable shower in the hotel, Qiu Rui and Hu Ziming went to the hospital for a check-up, and the others could finally have a good rest.

After Zhao Xuan took a shower and shaved his beard carefully, he found that he in the mirror, compared with before he came, he didn't tan at all.

Looking at the little black fat man lying on the bed playing with his mobile phone, Zhao Xuan was really speechless.

Why does the body have to be special even when it comes to tanning?

At dinnertime, everyone finally ate their normal meal instead of mushy dry food.

After eating, Hu Ziming held a small meeting at the dinner table to arrange the next things.

Normally, Zhao Xuan's work is over, and the rest of the finishing touches can be handed over to Hu Ziming and their group.

However, the bureau sent a new message two days ago, and since they were still in the desert, they did not rush to contact them, but returned to the county seat today to inform them.

The route of the ant colony has been found, and it is in the northeast of Ruoxian County, where they set out, which is also a desert, and the ant colony suddenly appeared in this desert.

According to satellite maps, a little earlier, there was no trace at all.

The ant colony first appeared more than ten days ago, two days before the team disappeared.

Then he went all the way to the west, coincidentally ran into the crossing team, and then continued west, crossed the road, and went all the way to the location of Shacheng.

As if he knew the route, he only stopped at two or three water sources on the way, and there were almost no detours along the route.

Now that they had found the location where they first appeared, they naturally needed to probe it again.

Zhao Xuan looked at the map sent by the bureau, and the map marked the location and time of the black shadow on each satellite photo.

This black shadow is like an experienced army, under the command of the general, in the most concise route, from east to west, taking an almost straight road map.

With a clear goal, I went to the location where Sand City was located.

Zhao Xuan flipped through the more detailed satellite photos one by one.

Every four hours, satellites fly over the desert, and after deducting the nighttime photos, there are about three or four photos a day.

At the end, Zhao Xuan stared wordlessly at the terrain in the photo, resembling a C-shaped opening to the left, or like an ear.

Lop.