CHAPTER 897: CHAPTER 986: THE FISH IS POISONOUS—WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY SO EARLIER, WAAA

In fact, his feeling wasn’t wrong; someone was deliberately making everything go smoothly for them.

The traps were already set up, just waiting for them to walk into them—how could it not be smooth? To ensure their journey was smooth, the obstacles on the road were even removed in advance.

So, while Mama Has was still feeling something was amiss, the group finally reached their destination in the desert.

At this moment, Mama Has was still completely unaware that they were already trapped.

The desert, as it’s called, is vast and endless, all covered in yellow sand.

There’s not much else in the Middle East, just a lot of deserts.

Looking out, there are endless deserts and sand dunes.

The road is hard to walk on, and it burns your feet.

Mama Has enthusiastically introduced, "You people from Huaxia don’t have many deserts, right? Before the apocalypse, the surface temperature could reach 70 degrees Celsius. Now, even without sunlight, it’s still over 50 degrees, with a perceived temperature of around 30 degrees."

Jing Shu smiled slightly, quite coincidentally, there are not many other things around Wu City either, just deserts. The surface temperature of Bull Demon King’s Flame Mountain can also reach 70 degrees.

Of course, referring to the surface temperature, not the perceived temperature.

Old Zhou nodded and laughed, "At this temperature, you could boil dumplings."

Yang Yang added, "Pretty much, the dumplings can go into the pot."

Jing Shu said, "Just wait a bit, the water hasn’t boiled yet."

Mama Has: "..." Although he could understand each word, the meaning altogether was quite lost on him.

However, when fish did appear swimming in the desert, Mama Has was truly shocked.

The area they arrived at was a large pit. Mama Has said it used to be a lake. Lakes in the desert are extremely rare, making this a habitat for various animals around.

Animal world wars often occurred for the sake of this water source.

"But after the apocalypse, the lake disappeared during those dry years. Later, it got flooded by rain, followed by an earthquake—the desert is no longer the desert it used to be, and it’s very dangerous now, especially without any positioning."

"Honestly, our people haven’t explored this desert for a long time, and as for fish swimming in the desert, I’ve never heard of such a thing—it must be a hoax—" While Mama Has was still speaking, Jing Shu tugged at his sleeve.

She then directed him to look at the former lake, now just a large pit in the desert.

Mama Has was shocked as he looked at the place: "Damn, there really are fish in the desert, but can they really be considered fish?"

These things look about 80% like fish, with fins and tails, and even the head resembles a fish. Yet they also resemble scavengers, as they’ve grown four small legs and can glide freely in the desert. Plus, they have hourglass-shaped mouths that can hold a lot of sand.

Jing Shu squinted, "They look black all over, like Dark Creatures, and I wonder if they can be eaten. They look quite disgusting."

As soon as the topic of whether or not they could be eaten was brought up, the eyes of the people around lit up.

Finding edible food in the apocalypse is extremely valuable.

Without Jing Shu saying anything, someone quickly dug out dozens of strange fish from the sand.

The strange fish had quite strong fighting abilities; when they opened their large mouths, they chomped on anything in sight, making a clanging sound on iron rods that made one’s teeth ache just hearing it.

Mama Has was dumbfounded as he pondered the rarity of fish in the desert; meanwhile, the Huaxia Business Group had already caught the fish and used more than a dozen cooking methods on site.

They deep-fried them, braised them, steamed them, made sashimi, and even went so far as to mince them into fish balls.

Before long, a table of strange fish dishes was served.

Mama Has: Ah?

"Come, have a taste." Old Zhou picked up a piece of braised strange fish first.

In a proper tasting session, professionals should test for toxins, extract samples, and analyze the protein nutritional content.

But clearly this wasn’t the time to fuss over such procedures, so they skipped the steps and directly cooked the fish.

Mama Has tasted the deep-fried and braised fish, smacking his lips, nodding, with eyes lighting up, "This meat is quite tasty."

Jing Shu’s mouth twitched slightly; the sauce her chef had concocted could make even shoe soles delicious.

However—

"The fish is quite average." Jing Shu stopped after a couple of bites, "The main issue is the meat’s not great; the chef just said there was so much sand in it he had to remove it grain by grain during preparation."

Old Zhou nodded, "There’s always sand in the fish balls, grinding against the teeth."

The others eating didn’t seem to mind much, swallowing whatever they could; the fish meat prepared by the chefs truly was delicious.

Yang Yang wore a peculiar expression, "There’s one more major problem—"

Mama Has thought it was no big deal, so he asked, "What’s the problem? Here, as long as it’s edible, it counts as food. We don’t mind eating sand."

However, before he finished speaking, his complexion turned purple-black, and his lips swelled up like sausages, "Mmm?"

Then, his body went stiff.

Yang Yang continued, "The biggest issue is that the fish is poisonous with Dark Energy."

Mama Has: "..." Why didn’t you say so earlier!!

Old Zhou called for the accompanying doctor, and after an extensive treatment, Mama Has recovered everywhere except his mouth, which remained like a sausage, making it very difficult to speak, and he kept shaking his head like a rattle:

"This fish can’t be eaten anymore, can’t be eaten again, it’s really toxic. But why didn’t any of you get poisoned?"

Ahem!

Cough!

Everyone blinked, indeed, why not?

Yang Yang also coughed, contemplating how to explain. The Dark Energy in the fish acts like poison to ordinary people, but to those with some abilities, it’s harmless.

Jing Shu said, "That’s because in Huaxia, we eat things like this with poison all the time; we’ve become immune. Don’t you know? We Huaxia people eat everything."

"Oh, I see." Mama Has dispelled his doubts, while the others breathed a sigh of relief, thinking they couldn’t possibly tell Mama Has that they were all New Humans of the apocalypse, right? Otherwise, the dumplings would not be wrapped!

So, Mama Has could only enviously watch as the Huaxia Business Group finished their sumptuous fish feast, while these Huaxia people went back to the desert pit to catch many more of these fish.

Mama Has thought to himself, "The young lady’s had her fun, it’s time to head back?" Just at this moment, mutations arose as the sandpit exploded, and countless such strange fish crawled out—