Chapter 1160 - 8: Powerful Dung Beetle Entry

Looking at the twisting beetle larvae, Chen Wen was truly unsure of how to start eating them.

Chen Wen couldn’t accept eating them raw without washing.

But cleaning these larvae using precious drinking water was even more unacceptable to Chen Wen; it was too wasteful!

Chen Wen regretted that he didn’t wash the larvae when he gave the camels water earlier—how perfect that would have been!

But there’s no medicine for regret; it was already too late.

After thinking for a while, Chen Wen put away the beetle larvae and came up with an idea.

He instructed the camel to stay put, then left alone, walking toward the distant sand dunes.

Soon, Chen Wen returned with some things.

They were dried plants and some camel dung.

Seeing the items Chen Wen brought, the camel instantly stood up excitedly, trying to reach for the plants Chen Wen brought back with its mouth.

"Don’t eat them, I still need these."

Chen Wen gently pushed the camel’s head away but couldn’t resist its pitiful look and ended up giving half to the camel.

"Forget it, it’s enough for what I need, your companion’s dung should burn for quite a while."

Chen Wen shook his head and used the dried plants and dung to build a mini campfire.

He took out his fire starter and knife, quickly lighting the fire, then skewered the beetle larvae on small sticks and placed them over the fire.

"Fire can clean the bugs just like water!"

Chen Wen muttered while turning the beetle larvae back and forth over the flame.

Actually, the surface of the larvae already looked clean, and after being scorched by the flames, those invisible bacteria and dirt were reduced to ashes.

Taking the burnt larvae off the stick, he peeled away the blackened layer of charred skin.

The aromatic, tender white larvae meat was exposed to the air.

"Smells pretty good!"

Chen Wen squinted his eyes, preparing himself mentally.

Even if it was a struggle to chew, he accepted it!

After eating the peeled larvae whole, Chen Wen showed a somewhat grim expression.

This was his first time making such an expression while eating.

"Ugh!"

Chen Wen shuddered and couldn’t help but say, "Compared to the texture and taste, this mental torment is even more unbearable!"

The camel beside him listened to Chen Wen’s complaints and turned its head to look at him.

Although it couldn’t understand Chen Wen’s words, the camel cooperatively made a sound.

Chen Wen looked at the camel chewing on dried plants and reached out to touch its head.

This guy wasn’t a special animal, but it had a lot of spirit.

It’s a pretty good beast to tame.

Two liters of water well spent!

After touching the camel’s head, the system reacted.

When Chen Wen opened the system, he couldn’t help but feel thrilled.

Though there were three entries, only one was a good one, but it was an entry Chen Wen really liked.

[Sun, Moon, and Stars Navigation (Gold): You can now determine your position and direction through the perception of polarized light from the sun, moon, and stars. Ps: Special entry, perception ability only works when your head, eyes, and face are oriented towards the light source]

This entry is amazing!

Sun, Moon, and Stars Navigation, using sunlight during the day, moonlight at night, and stars on moonless nights.

Chen Wen felt that with this entry, he couldn’t possibly get lost in the desert!

Besides, this is said to be the most powerful ability of the beetle.

Beetles generally roll dung balls in a straight line because in nature, conserving energy is crucial.

Thus, they use positioning to ensure they can push the dung balls straight forward.

In such times, they utilize the positions of the sun, moon, and even the galaxy to orient themselves; this precise navigation ability is extremely rare among insects.

Their ability to perceive polarized light from the sun, moon, and stars is due to a group of specialized tiny eyes on their compound eyes that sense polarized light.

These tiny eyes have a fixed arrangement, like a compass, able to convert the direction of polarized light into neural signals, transmitting it to the brain to determine the direction to push.

Now, Chen Wen had gained this ability.

Although he didn’t obtain the compound eye organs, he could now perceive polarized light and determine his position.

After acquiring the entry, Chen Wen attempted it immediately.

Soon, he experienced an odd sensation, allowing him to distinguish the four cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west.

Of course, he couldn’t perceive more detailed information, but this was sufficient.

Having acquired this entry, Chen Wen was decidedly pleased.

He grilled and ate one more of the remaining three larvae and drank some water before resting again.

The desert was lifeless during the day, with no prey available for hunting; outside the oasis, there was no food available, so Chen Wen didn’t intend to waste time and energy on meaningless activities.

He wanted to conserve his strength and energy for the night raid.

The oasis is a place where wealth in the desert gathers; this principle applies to both survivors and animals.

Therefore, Chen Wen planned to exert his energy at night and pull off a big heist at the oasis!

...

While Chen Wen was resting.

In the Fourth Oasis.

Nelson and Musa had already located the water source at the oasis.

Most of the water at the Fourth Oasis was in the northwest, a clear spring emerging from underground.

The spring formed a pool on the surface, around which the oasis gradually flourished.

But by July, when underground water fails to replenish, the pool will dry up, causing the oasis to fall into dormancy, only flourishing again when underground water resurfaces.

As Africans, Nelson and Musa knew how to maximize the utilization of these oases.

They fenced the pool and searched for hollow plant stems, extracting some of the water from the pool and storing it in water bags.

Meanwhile, Nelson started looking for edible plants around, while Musa cleared a nearby highland to plan for building a shelter.

Musa didn’t waste the leaves and roots cleared away.

He sorted out the plant leaves and roots suitable for making ropes and laid them under the sun to dry.

Once dried, he planned to process them into ropes.

Elsewhere in the oasis, Yoshikawa Feng and Darren were attempting to hunt.

But as Chen Wen predicted, no animals were active in the oasis during the day, leaving them to find only some beetles after searching for half a day.

Just like Chen Wen found.

These beetles made both men show troubled expressions.

However, Yoshikawa Feng, being a veteran survivor, had some unique insights.

He resolutely said, "Swallowing this with your eyes closed is actually not too different from beef; they are both high in protein and very helpful for our survival."

Darren nodded and reluctantly gathered the beetle larvae and a few adult beetles.

The two didn’t find any more food.

Yet Yoshikawa Feng made a discovery, saying, "There are many traces left by animals here, seeming to belong to small rodents like mice; when we get back, I’ll make some traps and set them where traces are frequent; perhaps tomorrow we’ll have proper food."

Darren nodded and, surprisingly, agreed to assist Yoshikawa Feng: "What materials do you need, I’ll help you gather them."