"Nothing, it just got caught on my pants," he explained.

"But I saw the mummified hand gripping your ankle," Tianmiao said softly.

"No, you saw wrong," Que Qiu immediately denied. "Don’t scare them at a time like this."

"Oh..." Tianmiao drew out her voice slightly, looking at Que Qiu with a half-smile.

Que Qiu said no more and continued walking forward.

Cheng Luo approached Tianmiao like a little quail, his voice trembling as he said, "Sister Tianmiao, I actually also saw the mummy holding the guide’s ankle just now."

"You saw wrong," Tianmiao smiled. "I was just teasing the guide. Didn’t expect to scare you instead." After speaking, Tianmiao squeezed Cheng Luo’s hand.

Cheng Luo blinked, suddenly enlightened: "Oh, that’s how it is. Sister Tianmiao, don’t joke like that. It’s really scary."

"Okay, I won’t anymore," Tianmiao agreed.

Que Qiu heard their conversation but said nothing. His feelings toward Tianmiao became even more complicated. Her actions completely bewildered him. What exactly were her intentions? He couldn’t see through her at all. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Kong Hou’s voice sounded in Tianmiao’s mind: "Haha, Master, this human is almost out of sorts because of you." Kong Hou, which had always been wrapped around Tianmiao’s wrist as a bracelet, couldn’t hold back. Seeing Que Qiu’s baffled expression made it want to sneer. Dong Xiao internally ridiculed that it was the master’s wicked hobby. So it’s better not to provoke the master. No, sometimes even if you don’t provoke the master, the master would still tease people. Alas, better to wish oneself luck.

Tianmiao gently flicked the bracelet, signaling this dragon child to be quiet.

The Black Death Road suddenly plunged into a terrifying silence, with Que Qiu at the front not issuing any other instructions, only pressing his lips and walking forward step by step.

"Rustle—Rustle—"

Something skittering rapidly across the desert became magnified in the extreme quiet.

Que Qiu raised his hand to halt the group’s steps, closing his eyes and straining to identify the direction from which the sound was approaching.

About twenty seconds later, he suddenly shouted with an authoritative tone, "Cover your eyes and follow me! Place your hand on the shoulders of the person in front, do not open your eyes, opening your eyes means death!"

The group immediately complied, placing hands on each other’s shoulders, led by Que Qiu at the front.

He swiftly took out an old bamboo tube from his backpack, pulled out the stopper, and emptied black powder before him, confirming that each person had stepped onto the black powder before saying, "The last person, do not panic, it’s just an illusion."

At the end, with a hand on the shoulder of the person in front, was senior Zhou Qiang, with a very peculiar expression, half-smiling and half-crying. Everyone else had their eyes closed, but only he not only had his eyes open, he was making eye contact with Que Qiu; and on the shoulder behind him rested... the arms of mummies, all lined up like them, hand on shoulder.

Que Qiu felt a cold sweat suddenly spread over his entire body. He adjusted his breath once more, bit his finger, and applied the blood on his eyelids, then opened his eyes again, before him the scene shifted.

It seemed to return thousands of years ago, to when the prosperous Irel Ancient Country was still open to outsiders, and this Black Death Road morphed into a stone road, the stone bricks building city towers not far away, with young soldiers patrolling back and forth on them, topless, their muscular and robust bodies exposed, wearing soldiers’ iron helmets on their heads, with white loose plumes adorning the helmets, the popular style of that time.

Que Qiu also closed his eyes, with a golden bell hanging on his right index finger.