Dare to shirk responsibility? This adorable little one will tear down your military district!

"Since you want to play, then we'll play a big game with you."

Ya Ya squatted in the sandpit, her two chubby little hands pressed firmly against the scorching yellow sand.

The scarred man above roared at the top of his lungs, and dozens of bandits gritted their teeth and pulled the triggers of their homemade guns.

"Bang bang bang—"

The inferior black powder exploded, creating a cloud of thick smoke. Large plumes of iron filings rained down like a storm.

Gu Changfeng shoved Lin Wanrou down beneath him, his broad back forming a wall in front of her. Thirty elite soldiers, armed with semi-automatic rifles, prepared to return fire.

At this critical juncture, a sudden change occurred.

Beneath the feet of dozens of skinny horses galloping wildly, the yellow sand suddenly churned violently like boiling water.

Before the bandits could react, thick, brown, withered vines emerged directly from the sand. These vines were covered with half-inch-long, hard, black thorns, resembling venomous snakes burrowing from the ground.

The withered vines coiled close to the ground, tightly binding the legs of the tall horses. The black thorns on them pierced directly into the horse's flesh.

Dozens of thin horses let out mournful cries, their forelegs buckled, and their massive bodies fell straight forward.

Scarface, who was running in the lead, had no time to stop. His horse got caught on four or five thorny vines. The horse crashed onto the sand with a loud thud, and Scarface was thrown off like a kite with a broken string, landing hard on his stomach with a mouthful of sand.

The bandits behind fared even worse. One fell, and the rest crashed in a chain reaction. Dozens of men tumbled from their horses like dumplings being dropped into boiling water, rolling haphazardly on the scorching sand dunes. Their homemade muskets all went off, the iron pellets missing Gu Changfeng and his men, instead blasting their own men into screams and howls.

Gu Changfeng lay prone behind cover when he heard something amiss from the other side. He peeked out and was utterly astonished.

On the opposite sandbank, horses and bandits were tumbling around, entangled in vines. The withered brown vines seemed to have eyes; whenever a bandit tried to get up, the vines would climb up their ankles, pricking them and making them howl in pain.

"What the hell is this?" Platoon Leader Li stared dumbfounded, gun in hand. In the heart of the desert, where hasn't a blade of grass grown for centuries, where did all these bizarre vines come from?

Gu Changfeng caught a glimpse of Ya Ya squatting at his feet, her little face flushed red. A fine layer of sweat beaded on the girl's forehead, and her hands were still pressed into the sand, not moving.

Gu Changfeng understood everything; his little darling had pulled another trick.

He tucked his Type 54 pistol into his waistband, straightened up, and ordered, "Platoon Leader Li, take your men and disarm them. Anyone who dares to move, smash their mouths with the butts of your rifles."

"Yes!" Thirty elite soldiers, bayonets at the ready, charged up the sand dune.

The bandits were dazed and confused, their bodies riddled with bloody holes from the black thorns of the vines, and they were long since incapacitated. The elite soldiers rushed forward, kicking away the homemade guns and curved knives from their hands, and pressed the muzzles of their guns directly to their foreheads.

Ya Ya slowly withdrew her hand from the sand. The restless energy beneath the ground subsided. After completing their task, the clinging withered vines quickly dried up, turning into ordinary withered tree roots scattered on the sand.

She patted the sand off her hands, took out a White Rabbit candy from her tactical vest, popped it into her mouth, and ran up the sand dune with her short legs.

"Hey, Ya Ya, slow down!" Lin Wanrou was so anxious from behind that she tried to pull her back but couldn't.

Gu Changfeng strode over, scooped Ya Ya up in his arms, and pinched her chubby cheek: "You little rascal, how come you're so bold?"

"Dad, I'm going to collect the toll!" Ya Ya smacked her lips, sucking on her milk candy, and pointed at the scarred face that Platoon Leader Li was stepping on. "He just said he was going to use my tongue as a drinking snack."

Upon hearing this, Gu Changfeng's face darkened instantly. He carried his daughter to Scarface.

Scarface had broken two of his front teeth, his mouth full of blood. The eerie vine had terrified him. Looking at the smiling little girl in Gu Changfeng's arms, he felt like he'd seen a living devil.

"Sir, spare us! Grandpa, spare us! We were blind and didn't recognize your greatness, we've stumbled upon your sacred site!" Scarface knelt in the sand, kowtowing desperately. Desert dwellers are most superstitious, and to him, the suddenly sprouting vines were the wrath of the mountain god.

Ya Ya struggled to jump down from Gu Changfeng's arms. She walked up to Scarface and stretched out her chubby little hand.

"Bald old bastard, stop trying to get close to me. I just said, it's one hundred silver dollars per person. If you're short even one cent, I'll have my dad tie you all to the back of a camel and drag you to your deaths." Ya Ya spoke in a childish voice, but it had the air of a bandit leader.

Scarface didn't dare say no. He trembled as he reached into his robes and pulled out an greasy sheepskin bag.

"Young lady, we didn't bring much silver with us when we went out. This bag contains about twenty gold nuggets and loose silver, all of which are for you!"

Ya Ya grabbed the sheepskin bag, opened it, glanced inside, and curled her lip in disgust. The gold was of very low purity; she'd have to wash it in her spatial pool before she could use it. But even a mosquito's leg is still meat.

Without any hesitation, she stuffed the sheepskin bag into the pocket of her tactical vest.

"Bull egg!" Ya Ya shouted at the top of her lungs.

Niu Dan, who had been standing guard with a cast iron boning knife, immediately rushed over.

"Boss, should we bleed him?" Niu Dan stared at Scarface's neck, the tip of his knife twitching.

"Why bleed them? It's so dirty. Go and tear down all the water bags and food bags hanging on their saddles," Ya Ya ordered.

"Alright!" Niu Dan, like a nimble monkey, searched through the dead and live horses one by one, and soon piled up dozens of leather bags filled with water and dried meat.

In the desert, water is life. When Scarface saw his water bag confiscated, his face turned as white as paper: "Little miss, please leave us some water! Without water, we won't get out of this sand dune!"

"Why didn't you think of sparing us any lives when you were robbing us?" Gu Changfeng kicked the scarred man in the chest, knocking him to the ground. "Sparing your lives is already an act of mercy. Get lost!"

The bandits scrambled to their feet in a panic, abandoning even their half-dead horses, and helped each other flee in the direction they had come from. Whether they would make it out of the desert alive was up to fate.

Old Ma crawled out from under the camel's belly, looked at the withered vines scattered on the ground and the bandits who had run away, then looked at Ya Ya who was counting her spoils, and slapped himself twice hard, confirming that he wasn't dreaming. He now had utter awe and reverence for the Gu Changfeng family.

"Platoon Leader Li, put away the water bags and dry rations. Cut off the edible parts of the horse meat. We'll continue in five minutes." Gu Changfeng carried Ya Ya back onto the camel's back.

The group set off again. Thanks to the supplies seized from the bandits and the spiritual spring water that Ya Ya secretly fed them, the next two days went smoothly.

However, as one ventures deeper into the heart of the Taklamakan Desert, the climate becomes increasingly extreme.

The sandstorm grew stronger, obscuring the sun in the yellowish dust. Gu Changfeng held the half-finished sheepskin map given to him by headquarters, his brows furrowed in worry.

The remaining map doesn't even have any place names, only a few winding ancient river channels and a few sand dunes marked like ox horns.

"Old Ma, are the coordinates on the map correct?" Gu Changfeng asked the guide leading the way.

Old Ma wiped the sand off his face and shouted back, "Sir, the route is correct! Follow this dried-up Peacock River channel, and ahead should be the 'Devil's Mouth' shown on the map."

Niu Dan, sitting on the camel's back, suddenly twitched his nose. He keenly detected a strange smell mixed with the sand and dust. It wasn't the smell of sand, but rather the smell of old, decaying stone, with a faint hint of fishiness mixed in.

"Dad, there's something ahead!" Niu Dan pointed straight ahead.

Gu Changfeng raised his binoculars. At the end of the endless yellow sand, behind that huge sand dune, the outline of a dilapidated building suddenly appeared.

It was an ancient temple, mostly buried by sandstorms. The tall stone pillars were broken into several pieces, and only half of the roof was visible, carved with strange, incomprehensible patterns. Several desert carrion birds circled in mid-air, emitting piercing cries.