Your skills are excellent, and now I have them too.

Chapter 104 Mentally Insane

oooooooo! !

The off-road vehicle's engine roared loudly as it sped across the vast, sandy desert.

Lu Zhao was seated in the passenger seat, next to a sexy woman who was the only one who could subdue him immediately.

"Bitterness~"

He felt like he was Tang Sanzang (the monk in Journey to the West) right now.

Despite being entrusted with the important mission of obtaining Buddhist scriptures from the West, and with the Buddha's attention and the protection of the gods, he was still captured by demons.

"6

""

SUVs, beat-up sedans, and nice cars—the temporary convoy was getting further and further away from the county town, and it was moving very fast.

The desert here is not like the Taklamakan Desert. Although yellow sand is everywhere, the ground is not loose quicksand, but is composed of gravel, rocks and hard soil.

Lu Zhao was very familiar with this kind of terrain because when he watched American Western movies before he traveled through the world, most of the deserts in them looked like this.

In short, it's not a good thing for him, because hard ground makes driving easier, and even if Sui Chaoyu and the Radish Group could find him after driving this far, they might not be able to.

It's important to understand that in the Qin Dynasty's administrative divisions, a "zhou" was a "zhou," not a "zhou" (province).

Vientiane is slightly larger than the Asian continent, with only a dozen or so mega-city-sized prefectures, a few surrounding counties and villages, and the rest being barren desert and uninhabited areas.

As the convoy receded into the distance, Lu Zhao once again considered escaping, but the sexy woman noticed his presence several times when he locked onto her.

The biggest problem caused by the difference in their cultivation levels is that Lu Zhao cannot hide his murderous intent. This is something that the ambush techniques he has been trained in cannot solve. Unless he has a special skill for concealment, he will be extremely difficult to kill.

"What should I call you?"

Lu Zhao had no choice but to try to distract himself.

"You can just call me Red Willow, what about you?"

"...Sui Xiaoyi".

Lu Zhao is no match for this woman, and he doesn't know her background or her true identity.

Since the other party already knows that the two cars belong to the Luobo Group, and I can't hide my identity anyway, I might as well just say it directly.

"Red Willow, that's not your real name, is it?" he asked again.

"Yes, it's a desert plant."

"There are many plants in the desert, why aren't they called Cistanche deserticola, Calligonum mongolicum, or Alpaca palm?"

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"Are you looking for trouble?"

'

Hongliu glared at him menacingly.

"Just kidding."

Lu Zhao grinned, "However, there's something I don't understand, and I hope you can enlighten me. How exactly did you arrest the wrong person? I heard you whispering behind me, but I couldn't hear you clearly."

"5

""

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Upon hearing this, Hongliu became continuously angry and then remained silent.

Lu Zhao was overjoyed.

We've found her Achilles' heel: she gets angry whenever this failure is mentioned, though not by much, but it adds up.

Unexpectedly, Hongliu did not curse at the group of followers behind her. She took several deep breaths, her large chest heaving violently, and then gradually calmed down.

"We received intelligence that Zhao Xichuan would be returning on the same passenger ship as you. They said they couldn't intercept the Zhao family's car, but they happened to see your car parked on the roadside, with several people putting signs into the trunk, and one of them happened to say 'Second Young Master.' They conspired and then robbed the car."

"...Isn't this a bit too hasty?" Lu Zhao was convinced.

"Everyone makes mistakes," Hongliu said.

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But she didn't seem to think that way.

Even Lu Zhao, the victim, couldn't stand it anymore: "You can't be so protective of your own. If they make a mistake, you have to point it out. Otherwise, they'll make the same mistake again. You need to ensure the team keeps improving so that we can grow bigger and stronger and achieve even greater success."

"Mind your own business!"

Hongliu cursed and stepped on the gas, sending the SUV speeding far away.

Huh? No progress has been added?

Lu Zhao added fuel to the fire by advising, "Don't be angry, don't be angry. Getting angry is bad for your health. So what if they killed the driver? They're too lazy to even check his identity. As long as this is clarified, it can be corrected in the future."

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Under his "persuasion," the red willow began to heat up.

"Actually, there are many things in the car that can prove ownership. There's the vehicle registration certificate in the drawer, showing which company it's registered under. You can tell just by looking at it. I'll have to remind them next time."

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"Moreover, when they picked me up at the passenger port, they neither used any code words nor chatted with me for more than a few words. If they hadn't even called my name, I would have known they had made a mistake."

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"That's enough!"

The tamarisk has turned completely red and warm. "They're out of their minds!"

Lu Zhao: "Damn, why didn't you say so earlier?"

Hongliu sensed his sarcasm and sighed, saying, "I mean, their brains are diseased."

"Um?"

Lu Zhao was very curious, but he still seized the opportunity to ask, "Then you still dare to let them do the work?"

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"I think six brains combined should be enough to handle it!"

Hongliu got angry again, "And there's no one else! I can't get away! Zhao Zhechuan is the best opportunity; if I miss it, it'll be gone forever!"

After adding another update, Lu Zhao was satisfied and then asked, "What's wrong with their brains?"

Hongliu glanced at him, thought for a moment, and thought to herself: He won't release the person until things are settled, so I might as well say it, so as to save him from making me angry.

"They were originally refugees from the desert."

She then explained the whole story.

More than 90% of Vientiane Island is desert, an uninhabited area, but an uninhabited area is not truly uninhabited.

Those who escaped crime, those who were exiled, those who offended powerful figures, those who went into seclusion, and those who fled gathered in the desert, forming refugee settlements.

Conditions were very harsh; only by sticking together could one have a chance to survive, and even then, survival was not guaranteed.

The six mentally ill people weren't always sick; they lived in a settlement called Sand Group.

This is a settlement that has been established for over ten years. In the desert, it can be considered quite established; it's practically a family of refugees, because normal settlements often don't last long, lasting from a few months to a few years, before collapsing due to various disasters...

Collapse due to conflict or epidemic.

Migrants are like cattle and horses, living wherever there is water and grass, except that the water and grass are other settlements. They constantly merge and disband, repeating the cycle, and they all get used to this kind of life.

In contrast, Shazituan, which has persisted for more than a decade, is like a paradise, with a constant influx of new migrants and a slow overall population growth.

Until one day, a contagious disease called stone skin disease appeared in the sand group. People who contract this disease will have skin that becomes as rough as stone and suffer from unbearable pain. If they do not take medicine, they will suffer from the disease for life, which will greatly affect their quality of life.

The scariest thing is that this disease is asymptomatic in its early stages, but it is still contagious.

The refugees lived in the desert, where the population density was extremely high, so soon more than 80-90% of the sand horde were infected.

"Actually, this is a disease of poverty."

Hongliu said, "Even if stone skin disease appears in the city, it will not spread, because as long as you drink enough water, ensure nutrition, and reduce sun exposure, you can recover slowly without taking much medicine, and it is even very difficult to get infected."

However, such conditions are unavailable in the desert; water and food are scarce. The only option is to use painkillers, along with some crushed anti-inflammatory herbs applied to the skin, but the effect is very poor.

"Later, someone heard that the Zhao family's Pudu Pharmaceutical had developed a medicine that could completely cure the stone skin disease, so they desperately raised money, or rather, valuable things, and sent their strongest martial artist into the city to buy the medicine."

Hongliu gripped the steering wheel, staring ahead. "We've spent all our money, bought the medicine, and cured the illness, but then people started dying. At first, it was just headaches, then fever and coma. The longest they survived was three months, but those who took the medicine eventually died."

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"What's most infuriating is that the unscrupulous drug dealer said that even healthy people could take the medicine to prevent infection, so everyone in the entire Sand Group, regardless of whether they were infected or not, took the medicine!"

In the end, only the six of them, all at the Steel Bone Realm, survived, but they were left with aftereffects—their mental state would fluctuate.