"Not good, two squads have been attacked by desert antmen. I'm taking Squad 1 to support them. Pudding, you wait here with Squad 2 for us!"
Upon receiving the distress signal, Jiang Yuan's expression shifted, but his thoughts remained clear. He didn't choose to send everyone for support, instead leaving Hamster Pudding's squad behind to prevent losing their way on the return trip.
"Okay. Be careful."
Hamster Pudding glanced at Jiang Yuan, her eyes filled with worry.
"Let's move!"
Jiang Yuan nodded at Hamster Pudding, said a few words to the members of Squad 1, and then they all turned around, heading toward the coordinates that Squads 7 and 8 had posted in the team channel.
Squads 7 and 8 had set out westward. After about ten minutes of travel, Jiang Yuan spotted the members of Squads 7 and 8 surrounded by over a thousand desert antmen.
"Summon Dragon Beard Tiger!"
Muttering to himself, Jiang Yuan released two thousand Dragon Beard Tigers and charged forward.
"Ding! Congratulations on defeating the monster Desert Antman. You have gained experience points!"
A series of notification sounds rang out as Jiang Yuan slaughtered all the desert antmen besieging Squads 7 and 8. Walking up to them, he found that all ten members of these two squads were in terrible condition.
Except for two assassin players who had used their stealth skills at the critical moment to avoid the antmen's bites, the other eight had all been hit, and two warrior players had even fallen unconscious.
Jiang Yuan, along with the four members of his squad and the two assassins, dragged and pulled the eight injured players back to the resting spot where Wen Ding Cang Sheng and Ding Ye were. Then he contacted Hamster Pudding, whom he had left behind, asking her to send her coordinates so they could return.
Soon, Hamster Pudding responded, and her coordinates appeared in the chat channel.
"Rest easy here, all of you. We'll come back as soon as we find the antidote!"
Jiang Yuan comforted the injured members of Squads 7 and 8, then patted the shoulders of his brothers Wen Ding Cang Sheng and Ding Ye, gave them some instructions, and led Squad 1 to rendezvous with Hamster Pudding.
"Squads 7 and 8 have been taken to a safe location. All other squads, report immediately if you spot any desert antmen!"
"Squads 3 and 4, received!"
"Squads 5 and 6, received!"
"Squads 9 and 10, received!"
On the way back, Jiang Yuan warned the three squads searching in the east, south, and north directions through the team channel, and quickly received their replies.
Jiang Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, indicating that they were still safe for now.
"What kind of crappy quest is this? No hints at all, and now we've lost two squads."
On the way back, Hua Qian Gu, the leader of the Hundred Flowers Guild, kept complaining about the newly triggered main quest. He was originally supposed to be in Squad 2, but Jiang Yuan had temporarily swapped him with Hamster Pudding.
"I didn't expect to run into all this right after arriving at Yumen Pass. Sigh, what a bad start!"
Jiang Yuan replied, his expression helpless.
Following the coordinates back to where they had been, Jiang Yuan froze on the spot, feeling as if he had fallen into an ice cave!
The spot where Hamster Pudding's Squad 2 should have been was now completely empty—all five members of the squad were gone without a trace!
"Pudding, where are you?"
Jiang Yuan tried calling out in the team channel, but no one from Squad 2 responded!
"All other squad leaders, has anyone seen Squad 2? Report immediately!"
This time, Jiang Yuan practically shouted into the team channel. Hearing his roar, the other squad leaders began responding one by one.
"Squads 3 and 4 haven't seen them!"
"Squads 5 and 6 haven't seen them either!"
"Not here either. We're Squads 9 and 10!"
Listening to the messages from the squad leaders, Jiang Yuan felt utterly lost and slumped to the ground.
Hamster Pudding was missing!
"Pudding, where are you?"
"Pudding!"
At that moment, the Dragon Beard Tigers Jiang Yuan had summoned vanished, and he even forgot to summon new ones. He just ran wildly through the desert like a madman, shouting Hamster Pudding's name at the top of his lungs!
"Captain, wait for us!"
Seeing Jiang Yuan suddenly acting like he had lost his mind, the four teammates in his squad quickly mounted their rides and chased after him.
"Thud!"
Because the sand under his feet offered no solid footing, Jiang Yuan's legs gave way after running for a short while, and he fell to his knees.
"Pudding... Pudding... Don't scare me!"
Jiang Yuan's mind was in turmoil, and he kept muttering Hamster Pudding's name, his eyes vacant and his demeanor utterly dejected.
"Captain, don't worry. Maybe the boss and the others moved ahead. Let's keep searching further!"
Chuang Shi Xiao Xuan Feng in the squad saw Jiang Yuan's panicked state and quickly tried to comfort him.
"Report, Captain! Squads 9 and 10 have found the location of the bitter thorns!"
Just then, good news came through the team channel.
"Forget about the bitter thorns for now. Everyone, drop everything and search for the members of Squad 2!"
Jiang Yuan said in the team channel, his voice losing its earlier vigor and becoming very low.
"But the boss and the others are waiting for the antidote!"
Both Squads 9 and 10 were from the Wen Ding Guild. Hearing Jiang Yuan tell them to abandon the bitter thorns they had worked so hard to find, they immediately argued back in the team channel.
"Do as I say!"
Jiang Yuan shouted at the leaders of Squads 9 and 10, but instead of obeying his orders, the two squad leaders started cursing.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Why should we listen to you?"
"What does your Chuang Shi squad's disappearance have to do with us in Wen Ding? Go find them yourselves if you want. We're going to save the boss!"
"Ding! Player Jiang Yuan has disbanded the team!"
A notification sound rang out, and Jiang Yuan, in his highly unstable emotional state, made a move that shocked everyone in the team!
"Let's go. Find Pudding with me."
Disbanding the joint team of the Tian Bo Fu and Han Jiang Cheng alliances, Jiang Yuan re-formed a party with Chuang Shi Xiao Xuan Feng, Chuang Shi Xiao Yun, Chuang Shi Yong Ge, and Hua Qian Gu, then slowly stood up.
"Brother Jiang Yuan, why did you suddenly disband the team?"
"Yuanzi, what are you doing?"
Wen Ding Cang Sheng and Ding Ye, who were resting, suddenly saw the team disbanded and sent messages to Jiang Yuan, but he blocked them all!
"Pudding, where are you?"
Jiang Yuan led his four teammates galloping across the endless desert, searching everywhere for traces of Hamster Pudding.
Whenever he encountered members of the Han Jiang Cheng alliance, Jiang Yuan would actively invite them into his party. But when he saw teams from Tian Bo Fu, he wouldn't even glance at them, speeding past them without a second thought.
What drove Jiang Yuan to despair was that he had circled through all four directions—east, south, west, and north—and returned to the starting point, yet he still hadn't found a single person from Hamster Pudding's squad!