Jiang Fan thought for a moment and gathered everyone to discuss.
"I believe everyone has heard of the terrors of the pyramids. I want to emphasize one thing: it's not a legend!"
Jiang Fan's expression was solemn. He had been to Egypt.
Unlike Zhou Niannian, Jiang Fan certainly wouldn't follow the conventional route to visit the pyramids of Giza. He went directly to the sealed ones.
Naturally, he couldn't enter through official channels. Jiang Fan paid local guides a hefty sum to lead the way.
As a result, when these local guides heard Jiang Fan wanted to go to restricted areas, they were all terrified and refused to guide him.
To prove his point, they even led Jiang Fan to a cemetery, where newly buried bodies were visible.
These were people who, tempted by money, had entered sealed pyramids and had just died.
Jiang Fan, undeterred, used his medical knowledge to dissect a corpse. He discovered that the cause of death for all of them was sudden myocardial infarction.
These were all young, strong individuals. From a medical standpoint, their sudden deaths from heart attacks were inexplicable.
Only something as sinister as a certain notebook in a manga could cause such fatalities, with symptoms entirely consistent with sudden myocardial infarction.
Upon hearing Jiang Fan's account, Zhou Niannian trembled all over.
Yao nodded. Although he didn't know many legends from the human world, pyramids were a taboo even in the animal kingdom.
Wolf packs sometimes stumbled upon isolated pyramids in the wilderness.
At such times, the wolves would drag Yao away from the pyramids, not daring to approach within five li of them.
There were also wolves who, fearless of death, ventured alone into pyramids and were never seen again.
"And I don't know what their so-called spheres are!"
"Have you seen experiments with controlled nuclear fusion? The ignited tokamak device resembles a glowing sun, a sphere."
"If they ask us to bring this back, we'll either be burned to death or die from radiation."
Jiang Fan spoke word by word.
Hearing Jing Fan recount these things, Zhou Niannian's face turned pale.
"Then let's not go in!"
"We have to go in! I'm only telling you this so you can be vigilant and not approach the pyramids with the idea of sightseeing."
Jiang Fan sighed. They were currently trapped in this miraculous desert oasis.
Their only clue was the dinosaurs before them.
If they didn't venture forth, setting aside the question of whether they could escape the oasis, they would soon be overwhelmed and killed by the dinosaur pack.
Furthermore, Jiang Fan had been pondering Zhou Niannian's words.
Zhou Niannian had once compared the oasis to a safe checkpoint.
If there was a checkpoint, the entire secret realm might just be a game.
The oasis before them could also be a checkpoint, and not a safe one, but a combat checkpoint that was impossible to bypass.
If the entire secret realm was a trial game designed by the God of War Chi You to test them, then these dinosaurs could be treated as NPCs.
Jiang Fan was well-versed in RPGs. NPCs always gave missions that had to be completed.
If you wanted to bypass these missions to clear the game, you could only cheat with bugs, but cheating often led to encountering more bugs.
Currently, the only way to leave the desert seemed to be by accepting the dinosaurs' mission.
"I think, apart from finding the spheres for the dinosaurs, we have no other options!"
"Are you willing to go?"
Jiang Fan asked for everyone's opinion.
"Roar!"
Panda was the first to declare his stance. After all, only by moving forward could he find his master, Chi You.
Yao didn't speak, merely clenched his fists, indicating his agreement.
Daixiaomei whimpered and whined. She didn't want to remain a dinosaur forever.
Perhaps going to the pyramids could help her find a way to turn back into a human.
"Daixiaomei, you've grown dragon horns on your head!"
Zhou Niannian playfully scared Daixiaomei.
Startled, Daixiaomei instinctively touched her head, only to find no horns. She pouted.
Jiang Fan chuckled. Dinosaurs don't have dragon horns either.
"This is the only way. Daixiaomei, tell the dinosaurs we are willing to go!"
Daixiaomei nodded and whimpered, relaying Jiang Fan and the others' message to the dinosaurs.
"Let's prepare first!"
Jiang Fan asked Daixiaomei to tell the dinosaur herd that he needed some time to prepare food and water.
Daixiaomei chattered with the dinosaurs and then turned back to Jiang Fan with a helpless expression.
The dinosaurs said they didn't need them to prepare; they could prepare everything for them.
Jiang Fan nodded curiously, anticipating what these rough-and-tumble dinosaurs would bring them.
Large dinosaurs roared at the smaller ones, and soon, many small dinosaurs scattered.
Before long, small dinosaurs appeared, dropping some of the animals they had killed at Jiang Fan's feet.
"Foolish, we don't eat raw meat. Tell them we want jerky!"
Jiang Fan was speechless. Dinosaurs were indeed foolish.
Daixiaomei chirped at the dinosaurs again, and more dinosaurs set off.
After a while, the dinosaurs actually returned, carrying jerky.
Jiang Fan picked up a piece of jerky and tasted it. It tasted quite good.
He suddenly thought of something.
"This isn't dinosaur meat, is it!"
Without Daixiaomei needing to translate, Jiang Fan knew it was dinosaur meat. Alas, why must they prey on each other?
It was a rare treat to eat dinosaur meat. As the saying goes, dragon meat in heaven and donkey meat on earth, its taste was indeed excellent. Jiang Fan quickly packed away all the dinosaur meat.
Suddenly, Jiang Fan remembered a question.
"Speaking of which, where are those pyramids? The dinosaurs should know, right!"
Daixiaomei immediately relayed Jiang Fan's meaning to the dinosaurs.
She conveyed that they were all willing to go, but they didn't know where the pyramids were and asked if they could have a map.
After a brief discussion among several dinosaurs, a Triceratops suddenly lowered its tail towards Jiang Fan.
Daixiaomei was stunned, and everyone else was bewildered, not knowing what to make of it.
Did the Triceratops' tail have a map to the pyramids drawn on it?
But upon closer inspection, there was nothing.
Jiang Fan was the first to react. He took a deep breath and walked to the Triceratops' tail.
He patted the dinosaur's tail. The skin was very rough, feeling like giant rubber.
Even with scales, the scales were coarse.
However, their roughness was a good thing; overly smooth scales would be unsuitable for climbing.
Jiang Fan performed a somersault and skillfully climbed up the dinosaur's tail. With a few flips, he reached the dinosaur's back.
Then, Jiang Fan triumphantly called out to everyone.
"Let's go, these dinosaurs will take us to the pyramids!"
The viewers in the live stream were dumbfounded, taking a while to react.
After a long pause, the live stream erupted with a tidal wave of bullet comments.
"Holy crap, Jiang Shen is riding a dinosaur, how amazing!"
"Is this the legendary Dragon Rider Yin Zhiping!"
"Yin Zhiping was a fake Dragon Rider, Jiang Shen is the real one!"
"Wuwuwu, I've only ever ridden fake dinosaurs made of plush toys!"
"So envious, I want to ride a dinosaur too!"