Chapter 229 An Almost Identical Oasis, Astonishment!
"Wait a moment, let's confirm this again."
Jiang Fan panted, thinking he needed to question his three teammates carefully.
"You all think this should be the oasis we entered back then, right?"
"It should be, even if it's not that exact oasis, it's identical to the one we encountered," Zhou Niannian said hesitantly.
Yao and Dai Xiaomei also nodded in agreement, confirming it was the oasis they had seen before.
Even the daring Jiang Fan's face turned pale.
If he were the only one who was mistaken, he could attribute it to being overly sensitive. But now, with so many people looking and all confirming it was the same oasis, it was unlikely that so many people could be wrong.
However, the oasis they had seen before was supposed to be in a cave with dinosaurs. Why would it appear here? Could it be that time and space here were in disarray, shifting randomly?
"Wait, wait, wait, I remember our previous oasis was destroyed by the Death Flies," Zhou Niannian said, trembling. She still remembered the scene of the Death Flies swarming in. It was a catastrophic sight. The Death Flies had not only slaughtered all the creatures in the oasis but had also not spared the vegetation. Large areas of green plants had their sap drained by the Death Flies, withering and dying. And wasn't all the river water poured into the passage after they had struggled to remove the plug at the riverbed? Yet, why was the river still clear to the bottom now? Could it just be a very similar-looking oasis?
"Hold on, the Death Flies won't still be lurking around here, will they?" Dai Xiaomei shivered at the thought of the Death Flies. The experience of being chased by the Death Flies last time was like a nightmare for Dai Xiaomei, and she still saw it in her dreams often.
"That's unlikely. If there were Death Flies here, the entire oasis would have been stripped clean by now," Zhou Niannian analyzed calmly.
"Let's go in!" After thinking for a long time, Jiang Fan took a deep breath and said. No matter how deep the fear was, or how mysterious the oasis was, they had come this far and needed to go in and investigate.
With a heightened sense of caution, everyone followed Jiang Fan into the oasis. They approached the riverbank. Upon reaching it, they didn't immediately draw water but first surveyed the surroundings.
"Haha, I remember there were some fun Green Bristle Lizards here, who even escaped with us later. They should be gone now, right?" Zhou Niannian immediately thought of their former companions. One of them had even escaped into the snow mountain and frozen into an ice sculpture. Jiang Fan had even put it in his backpack to warm it up. Unfortunately, Jiang Fan's backpack was lost in an avalanche later, and the Green Bristle Lizard's whereabouts were unknown.
"Look at that..." Dai Xiaomei's face showed fear as she spoke to Zhou Niannian. Zhou Niannian's face turned pale as she looked. They saw several Green Bristle Lizards leisurely fishing there.
"Haha, they look exactly like the ones we knew!" Zhou Niannian tried to console herself. These must be identical to the ones she knew. After all, these green reptilian creatures all looked the same. They certainly weren't the ones they knew.
Unexpectedly, as soon as the Green Bristle Lizards saw Zhou Niannian and Jiang Fan, they immediately jumped into the water and swam towards them. After coming ashore, they affectionately rubbed against Jiang Fan's trouser legs. Then, they stood on their hind legs and hissed at Jiang Fan, saying something unknown. The Green Bristle Lizards then made paddling motions. They seemed very familiar with Jiang Fan. Weren't these the Green Bristle Lizards they knew?
Zhou Niannian curiously asked Jiang Fan, "What are they trying to say?"
Jiang Fan gave a wry smile. "I guess they're saying they're the Green Bristle Lizards who paddled with us."
As soon as he finished speaking, the Green Bristle Lizards nodded in unison, indicating that Jiang Fan was correct. One Green Bristle Lizard jumped into Jiang Fan's backpack and mimicked shivering all over. The other Green Bristle Lizards also mimicked shivering. Then, they all made stiff movements. Following that, they all surprisingly made the sleeping gesture of basketball superstar Curry.
A thought struck Jiang Fan, and he asked the Green Bristle Lizard in his backpack, "Were you the one who froze in the snow mountain and I picked you up into my backpack?" The Green Bristle Lizard nodded repeatedly. Jiang Fan then asked the others, "Could it be that you all went into the snow mountain, froze there, then woke up and all returned here?" The Green Bristle Lizards nodded together.
Jiang Fan's hair stood on end. What was going on? The Green Bristle Lizards who had adventured with them had inexplicably returned here. And all the other animals in the oasis had also come back to life. Flying in the sky were agile birds, and swimming in the water were plump fish. Jiang Fan's gaze fell on the center of the riverbank. Indeed, the chain in the center was still there. If they dived down, they would know what was at the other end of the chain.
The Green Bristle Lizards also dived down with Jiang Fan. As expected, there was a large plug at the other end of the chain. However, Jiang Fan remembered that the original plug had rust marks, but this plug was gleaming silver and looked brand new. Jiang Fan and the Green Bristle Lizards tried their best, but the plug didn't budge. The rusty plug could be moved slightly, but this one was completely stuck. Jiang Fan didn't want the plug to move either. He imagined that if the plug moved, they would be sucked into the river. Once in the river, they would enter the ice house, then begin climbing the snow mountain. After the snow mountain came the desert, and then they would find an oasis in the desert again. Wouldn't this be an endless cycle?
Jiang Fan swam ashore, panting. This time, it wasn't much of a physical exertion, but mostly due to fright. The Green Bristle Lizards were also very scared and huddled close to Jiang Fan. Jiang Fan stroked their heads while pondering what to do.
Suddenly, Dai Xiaomei screamed from the shore. Jiang Fan was startled, thinking Dai Xiaomei was in trouble, and rushed over. Upon arriving, he found that Dai Xiaomei was unharmed, only her face was pale with fear. It turned out that Dai Xiaomei, unwilling to wait, had searched the shore while Jiang Fan was underwater. She had discovered traces of a campfire. Dai Xiaomei looked closely and realized these were not traces of their recent activities, but there were also pig-rabbit bones. Some of the bite marks on the pig-rabbit bones belonged to humans, and some to pandas. Dai Xiaomei compared the bite marks on the bones with her own, which matched perfectly, and she couldn't help but shout.