White Bone Monkey King

At this time, the sky outside was just getting bright, not too hot yet, with a hint of chill from last night.

After the bearded man led the people out of the sunken ship, he first counted the number of camels twice, and saw that there were no less camels. Apart from being a little restless, there was no other condition, so he led the people to climb on the ship.

This sunken ship has been stranded in the desert for a long time. The hull is covered with thick mud and sand. In addition, the overturned hull has a large slope. It is not easy for people to climb up. The bearded men hold daggers in both hands and plan to climb up. Climb up with the help of these daggers.

However, even with the help of these daggers, facing such a steep slope, if one is not careful, there is still a risk of falling from a height and causing serious injuries.

After Big Beard and the others were ready to board the ship, they looked at Jin An: "Taoist Master Jin An, you are weak and not as agile as the rest of us. Why don't you just wait in the river bed for our notification and don't follow us up?" "

"I'm afraid I won't be able to take care of you when everyone gets on the ship. If something bad happens to you again, I, the bearded man, will be a broken man and I won't be able to take you to your destination alive."

Although the bearded man doesn't speak nicely, he has an upright character and his starting point is for Jin'an's safety.

Jin An: "Don't worry, Big Beard, I know what to do and I won't act carelessly."

Big Beard knew that he could not stop Jin An, so he reluctantly agreed to Jin An boarding the ship with them.

Although this ship is difficult to climb, it is for ordinary people. The people brought out by Big Beard are all the most skilled masters in the caravan, so they all boarded the ship smoothly in the end.

Because the sunken ship was overturned and stranded at the bottom of the river bed, it was not the sampan that faced the sky, but the side of the ship on the other side.

The side of the ship facing the sky was buried under the wind and sand all year round, and was covered with thicker yellow sand. The wooden boards became fragile after being exposed to the sun, and dark holes were formed in several places by the heavy sand.

Everyone searched around and found no foreign objects on the side of the ship. Someone asked: "Could it have fallen into those ship holes or into the hull?"

Everyone thought this was reasonable and began to look at the dark ship holes one by one. However, the search was not smooth because the sun had not yet fully come out and the view inside the ship was not good. People lay on the edge of the holes and looked in. Looking around, there is nothing but black and black.

Let alone looking for the things that fell in last night, even how deep inside the hull was was a little blurry.

After a little discussion, Big Beard decided that he would take the lead and go down the rope to have a look in person, and let others continue to stay on top and hold on to the rope. Don't let him die in the hands of the sand bandits or the desert, and die first in the hands of his own pigs. In the hands of teammates.

The others, who were still a little worried at first, were immediately amused by the bearded man's humorous words, and the initially depressing atmosphere became much more relaxed.

In fact, Jin An originally wanted to go down with Big Beard, but Big Beard disagreed. Since entering the Western Region, this man in the desert has been protecting Jin An's safety.

In his earlier words to Jin An: "God trusts us desert people, so he allows us to walk on his body and gives us water and desert camels. But if you don't keep your trust in the desert, you will suffer. Until God abandons and punishes me, what awaits my big beard next is either lack of water or storms, and my soul will be buried under the sand forever without seeing the sun. Since I, the big beard, have accepted your money, I will definitely take you to your destination. land."

…

Next, the bearded man held a torch and began to search for the boat holes one by one.

At the third boat hole, Big Beard finally made a discovery. He exclaimed, as if he was frightened by something unexpected.

"Boss, are you okay?"

"What do you see down there, Bearded?"

Several people lay at the entrance of the boat and shouted nervously downwards. Among the people brought up by Big Beard, there were both people from his own caravan and other caravan masters.

But before these people could finish shouting, wow, someone was already rushing into the boat cave before their eyes flashed.

"Taoist Master Jin An, why did you come down here too!" The bearded man holding a torch looked at Jin An in surprise.

At this time, other people who were guarding outside also came down one after another, leaving only two or three people outside guarding the rope.

The environment inside the hull was that more than half of the space was filled with sand. There was also a hole in the hull, and the remaining sand poured out of the hole to the next layer.

It looks like someone once searched the entire sunken ship inside and out, trying to find the goods in the sunken ship. The side of the ship is usually a warehouse for storing goods, but it seems that they didn't find what they wanted. look.

Because there are no traces of cargo being stored inside the ship. There are no traces of moving or moving, nor are there signs of heavy objects being piled in the same place all year round.

As soon as everyone got off the boat, they were startled by a dead body on the ground. The interior of the ship was dark and it was very unlucky to see a dead person suddenly.

"This dead man's body is not covered with yellow sand, and his body is cleaner than the hull of the ship. It should be the sound we heard falling onto the ship last night." The bearded man also just came down, and he used the scabbard of the scimitar in his hand. He stabbed the dead man on the ground, and then turned the dead man over on his back.

The dead man's face was distorted, his face was filled with fear, and his mouth was opened wide. It looked like a person who had been greatly frightened and opened his mouth to scream in fear.

"This, this is Hamuti! How could he die here!" Someone shouted in surprise.

When the man called out the name Hamuti, the boat suddenly became noisy, and everyone showed expressions of disbelief and surprise.

Only Jin An does not recognize the dead people on the ground.

"Do you all know this person?"

Soon, Jin An learned the identity of the deceased through Big Beard. This Hamuti was from another larger caravan. He was somewhat notorious for selling his wife and daughter for his greed for money and gambling. Hamuti's caravan has more camels than Dabeard, and the caravan is larger than Dabeard. It has many thugs and camels, and it dares a caravan to cross the desert to do business.

The bearded man continued: "Hamuti's caravan set out twenty days earlier than us. It stands to reason that they would have gone deep into the desert long ago. It is impossible for us to catch up with them. Why would they appear near the sunken ship?"

Jin An pondered: "Either they have been wandering near the sunken ship, looking for something, and are not in a hurry to move forward. Or they have been chased by something for more than ten days, and have been running back until they passed the sunken ship last night."

At this time, someone wanted to lean over and touch Hamuti's body, but was stopped by another person: "This Hamuti died in a strange way, you just touch his body like this, you will die!"

"If he was bitten to death by a poisonous snake in the desert or stung by a poisonous scorpion in the desert, there would probably be poisonous snakes and poisonous scorpions hiding in his clothes!"

The man who was pulled felt a chill on the back of his neck and subconsciously stayed away from the body.

Jin An, on the other hand, was unmoved and boldly approached the dead man and observed: "The death condition of Hamuti looked like he was frightened to death. His face was ferocious, his expression was twisted with fear, his mouth was wide open, and both sides of his mouth were open. The protruding eyes are very consistent with the symptoms of people being frightened to death after seeing something scary."

It's okay if Jin An didn't say this. When he said this, everyone looked around suspiciously, wondering in their hearts, what kind of scary thing could scare a desert man to death?

The panicked voices last night, the fleeing camels, and the corpse of Hamuti this morning have begun to cast a shadow over this supposedly ordinary caravan. Is there something terrible waiting for them in front of them? ?

Next, Jin An took out a yellow talisman and stuck it on Hamuti's body.

That is a plague-repelling talisman.

If Hamuti really had any venomous snakes or insects hidden in his body, he would definitely be frightened away by the plague-repelling talisman.

But the plague-repelling talisman didn't respond.

It shows that Hamuti died very cleanly.

His series of operations stunned the people from the Western Regions present. It was not until Jin An put away the yellow talisman and began to search for the dead that they realized. By the time they wanted to say anything to stop it, it was already too late. Jin An Ann was already touching the body.

"The person has already developed partial rigor mortis. The person has been dead for at least an hour. The low temperature at night in the desert will delay the onset of rigor mortis. Hamuti's real time of death should be more than three hours. Look at the floating sand on the ground. There were no signs of struggle with hands or feet, indicating that the person was frightened to death before falling into the hole in the boat..."

Jin An finally concluded: "This Hamuti must have been frightened to death on the back of a camel. He lost his balance in an instant and fell off the camel's back. In the end, it happened to hit the river bed and the ship sank."

Ever since he saw the dead person, Jin An's expression was unusually calm and calm, especially Jin An's familiarity with the dead person, which all surprised these Westerners.

"Taoist Master Jin'an, are you a monk from Kangding State?"

"No one is a Taoist priest. I heard that Taoist priests are the guardians of Yizhuang in some places in Kangding Kingdom."

These people looked at Jin An and discussed in a hurry.

At this time, Jin An had already inspected the body and stood up again. He smiled and explained that he was neither a widower nor the body keeper of Yizhuang, but he did not want to explain more on this issue, so he changed the topic: "What if? Muti was really frightened to death and fell off the back of a camel. Were there other people who were frightened to death on their escape route last night?"

"Should we send a few people to ride camels and look for him along the way?" Jin An finally looked at the bearded man.

At this time, the people who had been guarding the entrance of the cave outside nervously shouted to the people below: "Exit, what's going on down there? Why don't you come up? Are you okay?"

…

…

When everyone returned to the ground, the rest of the caravan also learned what had happened. Big Beard asked everyone to feed the camels hay and water. He took advantage of this time to take people up to the desert outside the river bed to search. Those people in Hamuti fled for their lives last night. Did they leave any clues along the way?

Whatever Hamuti's people encountered in front of them would most likely be encountered by them, so Big Beard wanted to investigate what exactly Hamuti's people encountered in front, so that the entire caravan was exhausted. He can scare a living person to death by running away for his life.

Then, the bearded man got on the camel, and took a few good camel riders with him, went up the slope of the river bed, and disappeared in the direction in which Hamuti's people came.

The sun rose quickly in the desert, and it was already dark soon. The fierce sun of the new day continued to bake the people and camels in the desert.

At this time, on the shipwreck side of the river bed, the caravan had already fed the camels and prepared breakfast. After waiting for a quarter of an hour, the bearded men did not arrive.

There was uneasiness in the team.

After waiting for about another quarter of an hour, dust appeared on the cloudless desert. It was the bearded man who brought the people back. Every one of them was there, and everyone came back safely.

As soon as Big Beard came back, he hurriedly summoned the leaders of several caravans to speed up the journey and strive to reach Yueqiang Kingdom within three days.

Hearing that he had to speed up his journey, the young man with premature hair, Keremu, was surprised and said: "From six or seven days to three days, we can reach Yueqiang Kingdom. This is twice as fast as the original speed. It is necessary for us to do this." Are you in a hurry? Did you discover anything?"

Some people also expressed their dissatisfaction and complained: "In such a hurry, not only the bumps are unbearable for people, but also the camels can't stand it."

The bearded man said solemnly: "We searched all the way, but we didn't find any clues. We couldn't find any other dead people. We couldn't find the camel tracks of those people in Hamuti. If the wind and sand hadn't wiped out all the traces last night, It’s just that someone deliberately erased all traces before us at dawn, not wanting us to find the truth.”

"Because on my way back, I once felt someone was following us!"

Big Beard's last words made everyone present startled.

The bearded man continued to say with a serious look: "We went back several times to look but found nothing. I'm not sure if it was an illusion. Now I can only pray to the gods not to let the sand pirates target us."

"So I want to hurry up and get to Yueqiang Country as soon as possible to find someone to find out if anything special happened in the desert. There was such a big commotion in the desert last night. Someone must know some information."

This was the reason why Big Beard and the others came back late. It was not easy to find the person they were following in the vast desert.

The news brought by the bearded man was really not good news. Next, the caravan urged the camels and began to hurriedly set off on the road.

As for Hamuti's body, just find a sand pit and bury it, which is considered the most benevolent thing.

After getting back on the road, the caravan was no longer as relaxed as it was before yesterday. It was said that it was rushing, but it was more like running away and escaping for its life.

Dust billows in the dry riverbed, and camels rush through the desert carrying people, goods, and water.

In the next two days, the caravan traveled smoothly and encountered no accidents.

Even the several waves of people sent out by Big Beard every day to conduct reconnaissance extended to a mile away, no one was found to be following them.

Even Jin An, who has keen senses and is always paying attention to the goings-on around him, did not feel the malicious intent of being spied on.

If someone was really spying on him maliciously and following them, they would definitely notice it because of the four-times-sealed Five Thunder Evil-Slaying Talisman on his body.

The two consecutive days went unexpectedly smoothly. Seeing that they would be able to reach Yueqiang Kingdom tomorrow, the caravan gradually began to relax its vigilance, thinking that the bearded man was too nervous.

On this day, the place they chose to spend the night was still on the river bed. This ancient river bed was very long, and they still hadn't walked out after traveling for so many days.

However, when the river bed reached this point, it was already very shallow and no longer as deep as before. There were more than a dozen tents pitched in the river bed.

There was a crackling sound, and a dozen tents were surrounding a bonfire in the center. The night was dark, and people were falling asleep one after another from exhaustion.

The cumulus clouds tonight are so thick that not even the moonlight can be seen. The desert is very dark and quiet at night, with only the sound of caravans resting and snoring and the sound of bonfires burning.

Big Beard was one of the few people who didn't sleep. He always felt uneasy tonight. Danger often comes from the last moment when you let down your vigilance. He will arrive in Yueqiang Country tomorrow, and he doesn't want to have any accidents on the last day. This time he took the initiative to guard the night.