Love and passion, cutting up the wasteland

Depression lagoon.

This originally refers to a large area, which is no less than the Shem grassland in terms of area, and is second only to the vast Skeleton Wasteland.

On this continent surrounded by barren sand, there is a rare area full of depression lakes. The small places are just small pools, while the larger and deeper ones can be called lakes, which are large enough for boats.

However, unlike the vitality of the swamp, the land here is desertified, such as the excavated river state, and the water level is changeable. Although the climate is relatively humid, it has not been able to breed much vegetation vitality-more importantly, in the sun, the surface of some lakes and pools has colorful colors and oil flowing.

Although the crude oil reserves of the depression lagoon have been dried up for a long time, the heavy industrial production in the past has left permanent traces in this area of ​​water.

These thousands of pools.

Not all of them are naturally formed.

Shi Cha stood on the sand and looked out - deep in the Thousand Lakes, in the center of the land, was the former oil-producing and refining platform, now belonging to the town base of the Southern Technology Hunters.

"It's different from the last time I came." He set up the tent with his palm, not knowing where to start.

"How about finding some drifters to lead the way." Su Cheng suggested.

Although drifters are attached to the Central Lake Town, most of them still have to go out to make a living. They go in and out quite frequently and should know the path.

Shi Cha shook his head and pointed:

"Look."

In the distance, there was a team of drifters wading through the water, but Su Cheng looked closely and saw that as the sun shone directly down, their skin was covered with a hint of metallic color.

The light and shadow changed, and the colors were colorful, but in the eyes of several people, they were all a little scared.

"The drifters want to return to the city as soon as possible, so they don't care about choosing a route... This little bit of pollution is nothing to them, they have long been accustomed to it." Shi Cha said, "But there is no need for us to wade into this 'muddy water'."

Besides, there are guests.

Beside a pool, the gray-black bone wolf cautiously reached the water surface, and then snorted at the smell in it, and almost slipped into it.

Mountain dogs have strong tracking ability and multiple senses, which are inconvenient.

But Xiaogu did not fall into the water. It just slipped two steps and was caught by the chain on its back. The other end was firmly held in the hands of a young man in a long coat.

The two teams have merged together.

Beside Lu Meng, Bo looked at the lake where she played in the water when she was a child, and the drifters trekking in it from afar-remembering that when she was a child, the old workers warned the children which pools were suitable for swimming and which ones were not to be touched.

Some special pollutants did not float on the water, but sank deep into the center of the pool. You had to walk halfway and stir it up before you could see the clues.

At this time, it was too late.

After a heavy rain, the secret passage broke and changed its course... The original poison pool was replaced with clear water, and the original clear lake was full of poison again. It was a common thing for them to change each other.

It can be said that how to distinguish them is a compulsory course for every technology hunter who came from Lake Town later. Even so, if the top ones are not very skilled, they will occasionally make mistakes, resulting in a high probability of various incurable skin diseases.

"It seems that we can only wait for the hunters in Lake Town to come out to guide us." Shi Cha sighed, "If I had known earlier, I would have stayed at the skeleton post for a few more days, and there would be no need to be so anxious..."

There were still caravans gathering around.

With technology hunters in charge, the depression lagoon is indeed a relatively safe area nearby. Whether it is for local trade consumption or as a transit station, it has attracted countless teams to come.

Shi Cha and his team are not outliers.

After circling the water, these teams did not easily go into the lake to wade, obviously holding the same idea.

However, they had to wait until the technology hunters took the initiative to go out of the lake and guide them together.

Then the time would not be fixed.

If they were lucky, someone might come in the afternoon; if they were unlucky, the city might not remember this matter for ten days or half a month.

Therefore, Su Cheng also knew that his master's words were just angry words. What if he missed the person who came to guide him after staying at the post station for a few days?

Besides.

Now their progress was not entirely determined by themselves.

Just when the two of them had almost made up their minds and stopped discussing, a guard suddenly walked out of the caravan behind them and announced:

"The Grand Leader wants us to go into the water now."

Su Cheng and Shi Cha looked at each other - the Grand Leader in the other's mouth was the code name of the mysterious leader. The merchants who joined the Merchant Guild had various organizational forms, so there was nothing strange about such a title.

But, was he so anxious?

Or did he not understand the harm of pool water pollution?

Su Cheng himself was fine. With their level of strength, they were already immune to most of the pollutants on this continent, so it wouldn't cause any damage.

But the leader Shi Cha turned pale... He was just an ordinary person.

He used to be a nobleman.

Although he had been a merchant for a few times, Shi Cha was very careful to avoid such damage that would leave permanent lesions. After all, he cherished his life.

"Do you want to talk to the adults again about this depression lagoon..." Seeing the guard turning around to leave, he hurriedly stepped forward and grabbed the other's clothes, and was about to explain the pros and cons, but was gently thrown away.

The other party's movements were not big.

But it seemed to be slippery and could not be caught. It was obvious that he was very skillful in using his strength and had good strength.

"Whenever the Grand Commander said, we will go down." The guard paused, then comforted him, "It will be fine. Look, I can't swim, but I dare to go into the water. What do you have to worry about..."

Then he left.

Shi Cha's face became paler.

It is a bit exaggerated to say that they can't swim at all, but these transformed warriors of the Ash Cult are inconvenient to paddle because of their prosthetic limbs.

If they were replaced by skeletons, they could dive directly into the water and walk on the bottom of the pool like Soto did in the past...but they still need to breathe after all.

The flesh is such an inconvenient thing.

"Fix your body to the pack animal you belong to," Lu Meng ordered, "Don't leave your companions more than two meters away to prevent them from getting separated; but don't get too close, otherwise it will interfere with the other party's movements..."

Everyone may have different water skills, but these animals are born to swim.

Even if they have been raised in Shandi since childhood.

The ability to swim is also engraved in DNA.

The shepherd merchants of the Shandi tribe are more rudimentary than other merchants in terms of equipment, but they can travel around because of the livestock they raise and their ability to tame animals. With such a large number of high-quality pack animals, they can not only carry weight but also travel. There are few terrains on the continent that can be obstacles.

Nowadays, every ember warrior can have at least two camels to tow in turn, and they have empty water bags if they can't float.

As for Lu Meng.

He doesn't need to drag Xiao Gu. As the king of the swamp, it would be a bit humorous if he still drowned in the water.

His current [swimming] skills, because he has not been deliberately trained, are only second to the leaders of the water tribe like Yingren, or anti-slavery like Bo who grew up by the water and has good swimming skills.

After Lu Meng finished the arrangement, he looked at Bo beside him: "Can we set off at this time?"

"Yes." The woman nodded, "Since we have seen it, we can't just ignore it..."

"You lead the way, you have the final say." Lu Meng interrupted her explanation, and looked up at the sky. In his vision comparable to military eyepieces, he saw dark clouds approaching in the distance, "And it's good for us to set off early."

"Okay, then I won't be polite."

On the side.

"Oh." Someone sucked his teeth, looked up at the lake inadvertently, and then laughed, "Is there anyone so impatient?"

In the eyes of these traveling merchants.

A well-organized caravan, just arrived here, has not been carefully considered, and has not waited like them, just lined up and walked into the water one after another.

"They are new here, right?"

"Looks like a noble caravan..."

"They are just pretending, they are so reckless like drifters."

Indeed, there are dozens of caravans of all sizes stationed on this long lake beach, but except for those drifters, no one has dared to wade in the water before.

Now, this caravan, which is already the best among them, suddenly went into the water, naturally attracting everyone's attention.

However, in addition to the spectators, some of the leaders of the merchants also had some ideas.

-Such caravans should have their own rules or find some paths.

You know, some of them have been waiting for the technology hunters to lead the way on this shore for half a month, and they are almost finished with the supplies they brought.

The depression lagoon was originally a supply point in the planned route. Now they can neither move forward nor return to the middle...If the hunters from the lake town don't come again, I'm afraid they will have to wade through the water even with the complex terrain and sewage.

It's strange.

Although the wetland area of ​​the depression lagoon is large, most of the waters are not connected together and are scattered and messy, which makes it impossible for the ships in the lake town to sail continuously. Only in the area near the core are there platform pontoons connected - this is also the reason why the technology hunters do not frequently go out to pick up people.

In essence, they are just forced to go out when they are on a mission, and then point out the way they have swam to the waiting caravan.

But the problem is.

Recently, it seems that there are very few teams of lake town hunters going out to perform tasks.

This leads to a backlog of caravans here.

Now that they see a noble caravan rushing into the water, although they will not follow immediately, they are also happy to see it happen and wait and see cautiously.

If the other party steps into the poison pool.

At least one wrong answer can be ruled out.

"Grandpa... I want to vomit." A skinny little girl, lying on the back of a white-haired old man, said weakly.

That's what she said.

She couldn't help but retching a few times, but only a few drops of clear water leaked out.

"It's okay, kid... hold your breath." The old man said distressedly, and then tried his best to lift the little girl a little higher to get her out of the water, "It will be over soon."

This group of people were the drifters that Shi Cha had seen wading in the water on the shore before.

Drifters are a large group on this continent. They are not refugees who have just lost their homes, nor are they nomads who live by the water and grass, nor are they adventurers with clear goals like technology hunters and bounty hunters... Their way of life is to drift on the land for generations, occasionally relying on a stronghold or a regime, but soon scattered.

Because the time that each place can last may not be as long as their own life.

Hamt once mixed in among them.

Drifters like Tang Darui, who have sharp vision, good luck, and own some small businesses, are already the best-off among them. Even so, this boss does not expect to run the business of the Skeleton Station for a lifetime, but earns every season.

As for others.

Life is even more difficult.

Unlike the caravans that come to trade, these drifters have no savings, and they can't wait for the arrival of technology hunters, so they can only swim across the water.

The old man treads water while trying to lift his granddaughter out of the water, but her feet are still immersed in the oil that just emerged, wrapped in a black layer.

Just smelling the pungent smell of chemicals.

You know it's not a good thing.

The old man also blames himself: he has been traveling to the depression lagoon for many years, but after all, he is old and can't help but make mistakes due to a moment of dazzle. As the leader, he actually led a group of people into this hidden poison pool.

This granddaughter was also miserable. They drifted and depended on the depression lagoon. Her father, who was also his son, met a local female drifter and gave birth to her. However, the good times did not last long. His son died in a beast disaster in the bone wasteland. When his daughter-in-law entrusted his granddaughter to him, her neck and below were all corroded and ulcerated, and the pollution penetrated into her bones. In the end, she could not even feed her mother's first mouthful of milk...

The old man also thought about taking his granddaughter away from the depression lagoon.

But he knew that if he left here, the outside world would be even more dangerous, and she might not survive this year.

Now there are some lesions.

As long as he is lucky. It doesn't break out.

That's an acceptable price.

The old man's hands were suddenly empty.

I saw a man with a similarly haggard face behind him, swimming in front of him, taking the little girl in his hand, and lifting her higher.

He lifted her completely out of the water.

"Uncle Li, don't blame yourself." The man said while swimming, "Swimming over as soon as possible is the serious matter."

The old man glanced behind him.

There was another group of people following, with dark dirt floating around them.

"Yeah." He nodded vigorously.

The old man sped up his limbs underwater, swung with all his strength, surpassed the man holding his granddaughter, and swam towards the shore as hard as he could.

This time, there was much less dirt floating.

Finally, a group of drifters successfully landed on the shore, but their expressions did not relax - right in front of everyone, there were countless large and small pools and lakes with calm and clear surfaces in the distance, blocking the way.

If they wanted to follow the winding temporary sand embankment, not to mention that it was not stable enough, the route alone was like a maze. After going around in a circle, they might not even be able to survive until the next high tide broke the embankment.

A drifter looked around for a while, chose the direction of a lake, and was about to step down carefully.

Swish!

A long arrow fell from the sky and suddenly pierced in front of them.