Chapter 50: The Muddy Land of the Northern Desert

Tonight, the first half of the night is the third team's turn for night duty, and the second half is the fourth team's turn.
Wuren Tuoya, a powerful water mage from the second team, also a witch, had a nosebleed and felt dizzy this afternoon. However, she struggled to get up and cast water spells, feeling the water elements in the mud, helping the team find dry areas to set up tents. It's very cold now as soon as it gets dark, and sometimes it rains or fog rolls in at night, so tents are necessary. Jixiao didn't set up a tent, she is boiling brown sugar water. When she saw Wuren Tuoya and some team members having nosebleeds, she wanted to replenish their blood.
When Tang Zhi Ga came to find Ji Xiao, he saw this scene.
After helping Ji Xiao share the brown sugar water with the bleeding team members, he took her into the woods to discuss something with her.
After walking for a while and making sure that there was no one or any animals around, they stopped. Tang Zhiga asked Jixiao, "Have you been to this place before when playing games?"
Jixiao replied, "No. The game's storyline mostly takes place in the Central Plains, and that's where I have been mostly."
Tang Zhiga frowned and said, "If that's the case, why bother with this piece of land in Siberia?"
Ji Xiao thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps it's a dream? Manager Liu said Mi Yang wants to build a perfect world."
Tang Zhiga rubbed his brow and made no comment.
Ji Xiao added, "Perhaps Mi Yang has a great ambition to complete the entirety of Chinese history, using the territory of the Yuan Dynasty as a blueprint for the map. Unfortunately, the plot of 'Heaven and Earth Mystery' stops at the establishment of the Xia Dynasty."
Tang Zhiga said: "Maybe. But since the main plot is in the Central Plains, why are there still humans here?"
Ji Xiao thought for a moment and said: "The main plot is in the Central Plains, but there are also rich minor plots in other places. The initial login in the game is in the city where you are located. For example, I first logged into the game in Rong Cheng, so I was born in Rong Cheng in the game. One of my friends first logged into the game in a county town, so he was born in the county town in the game. After reaching the maximum level by completing tasks in the county town, he then went to the Central Plains to do the main plot missions."
Tang Zhiga said, "So when you first log in to the game in the border area, you will be born from the border?"
Ji Xiao said, "Yes. This game is particularly popular, and there are players from all provinces and cities across the country. Oh, by the way, there are also dedicated lifestyle players. Lifestyle players do not like to do storyline quests; they treat this game like their real life. There is a considerable number of people who play as tourism players because this game is so realistic. So, people who are poor in the real world but love to travel come to this game for budget travel."
Tang Zhiga asked: "Do you mean every small town has plot quests?"
Ji Xiao said: "Yes."
Tang Zhiga took out the "Book of Heaven" from his pocket and searched for information, but there was no relevant information. Tang Zhiga had to call Manager Liu, who took them both to the consciousness space.
Tang Zhigah transformed into Zhengerya and asked Manager Liu, "Why doesn't the game 'Heaven's Script' have the storyline of 'Heaven and Earth Xuan Huang'?"
Manager Liu replied, "Because the entire game world has changed, and the game storyline has collapsed."
Zheng Erya asked, "The environment in the north of the desert does not collapse, animals will revive after death, and plants will regrow after being cut. Therefore, the plot should not have collapsed."
Manager Liu shrugged his shoulders and said awkwardly, "When Mi Yang left, he also deleted the plot information."
A middle-aged professor named Zheng Erya emits an aura of low pressure at a prestigious university.
Manager Liu quickly says, "I remember some... Let me think... There's not much plot in the desolate North, also known as Siberia..." He glances at Professor Zheng and continues, "There are few people living near the Chinese border, even fewer players. Siberia is not part of Chinese territory, and the game 'Heaven and Earth Xuanhuang' is not accessible to Russia... Only players who can go to Siberia and wait for a long time... That's it! The pioneer mission!" Manager Liu's eyes light up and he quickly says, "The pioneer mission. In cities near the Chinese border, we can release pioneer missions. There are no NPCs in Siberia or Outer Mongolia, only animals and plants. However, we have set up prehistoric relic settlements there, including the Yue Lao Temple. When players discover these relics and stay in them for 72 hours, they can become the 'City Lord' there. They can build a city and name it."
Professor Zheng asks: "Is there a map with traces?"
Manager Liu says: "I am restoring the map."
Professor Zheng sighs again and says: "Prioritize restoring the map of the route we have taken."
Manager Liu promised busy.
Professor Zheng asked again, "Will eating wild animals be poisoned?"
Manager Liu said, "It depends on the animal. If real-world animals are poisonous, then game-world animals are also poisonous. We try to restore the real world as much as possible."
Professor Zheng said, "Saber-toothed tiger. Someone ate a saber-toothed tiger today and ended up with a nosebleed."
Manager Liu suddenly realized and said, "We have such a setting. In the real world, many diseases come from animals, don't they? For example, HIV comes from gorillas, SARS and coronavirus come from bats. So we have set all the wild animals in the game world to be 'poisonous' and make their meat difficult to eat. The meat of all feline animals is sour, the meat of all canine animals is bitter, and the larger the size of the animals, the more intense the 'fire-up' poison. The meat of saber-toothed tigers is sour and can cause nosebleeds. If you eat more, the fire-up will become more severe, and your eyes will become blurry..."
Professor Zheng rubs his forehead and asks, "Do you have an encyclopedia of animals and plants from Siberia? Post it on 'The Book of Heaven'."
Manager Liu remains silent.
Professor Zheng ponders, "Has it been deleted by Mi Yang?"
Manager Liu nodded.
Ji Xiaoxin secretly complained: Mi Yang is a jack of all trades, wherever needed.
Manager Liu said confidently: "I will post the current status of animal population in Siberia in the real world on 'The Book of Heaven'."
It was Professor Zheng's turn to nod silently.
Ji Xiao asked, "Manager Liu, will there be major developments in Siberia?"
Manager Liu said, "It's possible in the future. The detailed plot depends on the company's documentation. However, to my knowledge, it hasn't reached that point yet. The documentation also depends on the interests of the gamers."
Princess Xiaoxiao asked, "Is the Siberian terrain in the game completely based on the real world?"
Manager Liu said, "No, it's not possible. It's not part of our country's territory, so unmanned drones aren't allowed to explore there. Siberia and Outer Mongolia are designed based on publicly available geographical information from both countries. Some ambiguous areas are our own speculation."
Ji Xiao nodded, "I don't have any other questions."
Both of them looked at Zheng Er Ya.
Zheng Er Ya said, "I don't have any other questions either. Let's go back."
Tang Zhi Ga and Ji Xiao returned to the game world and slept peacefully at night. The next day, they hit the road as usual.
After entering June, the temperature rises quickly, bringing trouble to the joint exploration team. The swamp melts, there are numerous ditches, and rivers block the way. "Siberia" comes from the Mongolian word "Xiboer", which means muddy land.
The progress of the earth mage's excavation work has slowed down. How can we change the terrain permanently so that there is no regrowth of plants and animals? The answer is to dig up the top 5 meters of the surface. The exploration team is not a group of road builders, they only need to clear a path for the team to safely pass through. Digging holes and taking soil samples is a complete alteration that cannot be restored. When the Tang family shovel or the excavation pole is taken out, a long tree branch will be cut and inserted into the hole, which serves as a marker.
When the road turns into a swamp, earth mages need to use a lot of mana to control the earth element, causing the earth to gather in one place and squeeze out the water content. However, mana is limited, and a team of earth mages is not enough to complete this arduous task. Tang Zhiga had to make another adjustment and transformed the "workers" into one earth mage, one water mage, and one wood mage. The water mage controls the water, making it separate; the earth mage controls the earth, forming a road; the wood mage controls the grass stems or tree stems, stabilizing the hard-gathered mud.
Actually, it is to let water mages and wood mages share some of the work of earth mages.
When encountering rivers and ditches, we cut down trees to build bridges. If the river is wide, we have to make wooden rafts for the horses to sit on. Both people and dogs can swim, but they can't carry luggage.
As the temperature rises, animals become more active. The large animals are not scary, the exploration team is full of tough guys.
What's really scary is mosquitoes.
This is the first time Ji Xiao has seen such giant mosquitoes, about the size of a little finger. There are so many of them that when they fly, they block out the sun. Their mouthparts are very long - even if you wear clothes, their mouthparts can pierce through the fabric and into the skin. And, they are also poisonous! After being bitten by them, large red welts will appear.
A scholar from the Tang family exclaimed that the mosquitoes in Sichuan are no match for those in the north. The scholar from the Tang family thought that since the north is so cold, there shouldn't be many mosquitoes, so he didn't prepare mosquito-repellent incense.
The goddess Ma Bian was also surprised to say that there are a lot of mosquitoes by Lake Baikal, but they are not as fierce as those in Siberia!
The fire mage finally has a place to shine. However, there are not many fire mages in the adventure team, mainly used as cooks to cook food. The most powerful fire mage is Agula. When the wood mage detects a large number of mosquitoes in the water ahead, he controls the vegetation to shake, and the mosquitoes fly up in alarm. Then the fire mage casts a firewall spell: crackling sounds, the world finally becomes quiet.
However, Firewall Art is very mana-consuming and is basically only used for cleaning before setting up camp. Moreover, its duration is not long, and after a while, other mosquitoes come over.
Tang Zhiga asked the scholars to study the local plants. The scholars finally found a plant that looks a lot like Artemisia annua, called Artemisia argyi. It belongs to the same family as Artemisia annua, but its medicinal properties are not as strong. But it's better than nothing. Rubbing the juice of crushed Artemisia argyi leaves on mosquito bites can relieve itching and reduce swelling. The scholars cut down Artemisia argyi, boiled it, and then applied it all over their bodies to repel mosquitoes. However, after a while, the smell faded and the mosquitoes still came. So, every once in a while, they had to spray some on themselves. Everyone's clothes became dark and greasy. The horses and dogs were also bitten badly by mosquitoes, and they were also sprayed with the liquid from boiled Artemisia argyi leaves to repel mosquitoes. Moreover, the horses and dogs had long fur, and after being sprayed with the medicinal water, their fur became tangled, which made them very uncomfortable.
Tang family scholars began to make mosquito incense. They collected Artemisia annua, dried it in the sun. Because they were in a hurry, they hung the leaves on the horse to dry. After drying, they rubbed and squeezed the leaves, then ignited them with fire spells. The burning incense could effectively repel mosquitoes.
Yixiao thought she would make a black strip mosquito repellent, but found that the thing she squeezed out was strange, with leaves and stems. She comforted herself that it was a bit ugly, but as long as it was effective, it was fine.
The disadvantage is that it is not fire-resistant. Ji Xiao missed the planes in the real world that sprayed pesticides.