White Bone Monkey King

Behind the stone gate is a long corridor.

If a living person enters, the airflow will bring up dust, and people can only move forward by covering their mouths and noses.

When people walk in a depressing space, they feel that even the timeline has been stretched infinitely, as if it will never come to an end and becomes more and more depressing as they go.

I don’t know how long I walked, but the light of the torch suddenly swayed slightly.

Noticing the slight change in the torch in his hand, Jin An paused.

Mr. Yiyun: "What's wrong?"

Jin An thought: "There seemed to be a breeze blowing just now. This place should be connected to the outside world."

His guess was correct. When they reached the end, they saw an underground palace complex half buried by yellow sand. There was a new gap in the palace complex blown out by explosives, and the dark night starry sky on the ground could be directly seen.

This is where the wind from outside blows in.

When they climbed out of the cave along the yellow sand slope, they suddenly appeared on the Gobi desert, with the Desert Ear behind them.

"Why are we back on the ground again?"

At this time, Ayimaimaiti carried the earless Abbas on his back, and others also came out, staring blankly at the vast world of yellow sand in front of them.

"The underground building just now should be the shrine where the high priest of the Wu'er clan and the priests live. These priests claim to be extraordinary and are the envoys who walk in the world on behalf of the gods. There must be a special passage to the God's Ear Heaven. They should enter the tiankeng through the temple to hold various sacrifices and major celebrations." Jin An looked up at the dark sky and expressed his conjecture.

Such an explanation does make sense, so no one refutes Jin An.

"These Wu'er clan like to live underground and build their houses and shrines underground. Why did I suddenly think of an idiom called digging one's own grave? If I hadn't known in advance that this was the ruins of the Wu'er clan, I would have been there just now when I was at the shrine. I thought I was entering a huge mausoleum, but these Wuer clan actually built such a large palace complex underground."

After Jin An said this in surprise, he looked in the direction of the camp in Desert Ear: "Let's go back to the camp first. Our trip to the sinkhole will take a long time, and it will be dawn soon."

These Wuer clans regard the Desert Ear Tiankeng as a god. There are no buildings in the Desert Ear. The Wuer clan's buildings are all built around the Tiankeng. The closer to the Desert Ear, the higher the status.

The sinkhole in Desert Ear is huge, and they still have a long way to go if they want to return to the temporary camp in Desert Ear.

On the way back, Mr. Yiyun frowned slightly, thinking about things.

"Master Yiyun, do you have something to say?" Jin An looked at Master Yiyun strangely.

Mr. Yiyun: "Have you ever felt that the sudden madness of Abbas and the others, leading us to discover the Yin-Yang Twin Road, the Tiankeng Temple, the Stone Gate, and the Wuer Temple...these things were all set up by the veterans who had escaped. It's a trap used to deliberately delay time, disrupt our vision, keep us busy from head to toe, and have no free time to think about flaws, so that we can't chase them immediately?"

When Jin An heard this, his face was stern: "These veterans have a lot of secrets. We still haven't figured out what the people of Laughing Corpse Manor want to do with the corpse oil that they spent several generations refining."

"Actually, their next whereabouts are not difficult to guess." Jin An smiled slightly, with calmness and confidence on his face.

Mr. Yiyun became interested: "Oh? How do you say this?"

The two of them were talking as they walked on the Gobi desert in the cold winter wind. Ayimaimaiti and the others followed them obediently, but secretly they all listened to the conversation between the two in front.

Jin An: "I didn't notice corpse oil on those veterans along the way. It was probably because the Laughing Corpse Village caught fire so suddenly a few days ago, and they were unable to go down to the ancient tomb under the dry well to take out the corpse oil... …”

"...So, their next whereabouts are not difficult to guess."

"One, maybe they are going back to Laughing Corpse Manor to retrieve the corpse oil that is very important to them, and then use the corpse oil to plot something we don't know about."

"Second, perhaps because they were concerned about the safety of their companions, they did not rush back to the Laughing Corpse Manor to retrieve the corpse oil. Instead, they went directly to chase those people from the northern grassland, intending to save them until all the thirteen brothers were here. Then we went back to Laughing Corpse Manor to retrieve the body oil. Seeing that we were not in a hurry to save people, they deliberately diverted us and went on their own to save people. This is not impossible."

"These two probabilities are half and half."

"The safest way to catch them is to go back to Laughing Corpse Manor and wait quietly. No matter what the possibility is, they will definitely go back to Laughing Corpse Manor to get the corpse oil in the end."

"Taoist Master Jin'an's analysis makes sense." Master Yiyun nodded thoughtfully.

The wind and sand at night were very strong. Jin An raised his hands to cover his face tightly to prevent the sand from being blown away and eating a mouthful of sand: "However, the method of waiting for the rabbit I mentioned has one biggest drawback."

Mr. Yiyun: "Is it too much of a waste of time?"

Jin An smiled: "That's what's good about talking to smart people. It's clear in just one point. Yes, our trip to Laughing Corpse Manor is too time-consuming."

"And there is no guarantee that we will be able to defend those veterans in a short time."

"If those veterans rescue people first and then return to Laughing Corpse Manor, or if they die in the desert forever without being rescued, we will never be able to defend them. Although this method can give the greatest chance of defending those veterans, the timeline is stretched. If it’s too long, there’s a small chance of failure.”

"So I think it's better for us to continue on the road to find Baizu. We will definitely run into those people from the northern grasslands. Finding these people is equivalent to finding those veterans who escaped."

Mr. Yiyun carefully thought about the feasibility of this matter, and finally nodded slightly: "This is actually a good suggestion.

Talking about walking, the group walked more than ten miles at night before reaching the desert ear camp.

Lord Yan and the mountain guard who entered the stone gate first were already in the camp.

Those who were fascinated by the veterans and kept wandering in circles have been exorcised by the monks and are now sitting on the side with ugly faces. Even Jin An and the others only raised their eyelids when they came back. People asked Jin'an and the others to come back safely.

Except Chibber.

"Young Master, Taoist Priest Jin'an, you are back. I only saw Yan Kuan and the others coming back just now, but not you, Young Master, but I'm worried about you. I just want you to come back safely. I want you to come back safely." Qi Bo led the sheep and The camel came with a happy face.

At this time, Ayimaimaiti and the others wanted to shamelessly continue to come over, but were driven away by Jin An. He had something to talk about next. These people could not be trusted yet and could not stay around to eavesdrop.

"Old Sadiq, Ilham, you were near the shed when the veterans of Laughing Corpse Village escaped. Did you see what happened?" Jin An asked Santou directly in front of Mr. Yiyun and Qi Bo. camel.

When Jin An asked, Old Sadiq immediately said with exaggerated grievance: "Taoist Jin An, there are too many devils in the desert, it is safest to be with you! After we were awakened by the screams, we were still a little bit brainy at that time. I was confused and didn't wake up completely. I seemed to see the old soldier with a disfigured face. I don't know what he did to the bonfire, and the bonfire suddenly turned into a ghostly green color like a will-o'-the-wisp."

"At that time, we just took one look and were fascinated. We kept walking in the dark desert alone, looking for everyone we were separated from. If Qibo hadn't arrived later and rescued us in time, we would have kept walking in circles. Go down."

Ilham and little Sahaf on the side also nodded, saying that the scene they saw when they hit the wall was the same as that of old Sadiq.

Jin An pondered: "Did those veterans not kill anyone before escaping? Didn't they do anything to the camels?"

The three camels shook their heads and said that the veterans only took away the camels they had raised and did not touch other people's camels. They were probably worried that touching other people's camels would make a noise and attract the attention of masters such as Jin An and Yan Kuan, so Only take away the camels they have raised.

As for why the veterans didn't kill anyone before escaping, it's actually easy to understand. It's important to escape at this time, and it's not appropriate to make extraneous matters. If they kill all the people, Master Yan will be furious and will not follow the earless Abbas into the sinkhole. Instead, they launched a relentless pursuit of them. I'm afraid it would be difficult for them to escape tonight.

Watching Jin An talking to himself with the three camels, Master Yiyun and Qibo did not have any expressions on their faces. On the contrary, they shocked old Sadiq and young Sahaf. Sure enough, both of them understood what they were talking about. human dialogue.

At this time, Qi Bo spoke: "Sir, before you return, Master Yan and his people have already discussed tomorrow's itinerary. They plan to continue deep into the desert basin along the dry ancient river to search for Baizu. ."

After listening to Qi Bo's words, Mr. Yiyun subconsciously looked at Jin An: "As expected by Taoist Master Jin An, you have made every move of everyone here right."

Jin An: "This result is not surprising at all. After all, Mr. Yan doesn't look like a fool. There are many of them, and every step is carefully thought out and they see further than us."

Young Master Yiyun: "Taoist Master Jin'an is too self-effacing."

…

…

There was no communication between several people all night.

The next day.

At dawn, the camel team, which had been resupplied with water, took advantage of the cool weather and started on the road early in the morning.

Perhaps there were still many secrets hidden in the Desert Ear sinkhole, but the food they carried did not allow them to waste time on unimportant side issues.

The deeper secrets of this sinkhole can only be explored again when we have the opportunity in the future.

The three parties hurried on together, but no one paid attention to anyone along the way. Until three o'clock in the morning, Ayimaimaiti, who was at the end of the team, screamed. It was Abbas the Earless who woke up.

Abbas, who had been in trouble all night, finally regained his clarity after being exposed to the scorching sun for half a day in the desert. He hugged his broken leg and his head covered with a thick, blood-stained cloth, and screamed in pain.

Seeing Abbas recover, others gathered around him. After calming Abbas's mood, they began to ask what happened last night?

Why did the three people who went out to relieve themselves suddenly went crazy and suddenly appeared at the sinkhole, and in the end two died and one died!

Although Abbas cut off both ears by self-mutilation, he did not completely lose his hearing and become deaf. However, his hearing was greatly affected and he could not hear sounds that were too far away. However, close conversations were still no problem.

Too many things happened last night, and Abbas was still emotionally unstable. He couldn't give a clue at the moment. He only vaguely remembered that someone called the three of them from behind, and he couldn't remember anything that happened next. Until the severe pain when his ears were cut off temporarily woke him up, and he found himself standing beside the sinkhole inexplicably. The scream was his, but he only woke up for a moment before being possessed by the evil again, and he couldn't remember what happened next. .

Now, just thinking about the memory of last night gave him a splitting headache.

Hearing this, Jin An and Mr. Yiyun looked at each other. This symptom was a bit like a soul shouting, and a person has a headache after waking up, which is also similar to the sequelae of a person's soul being injured.

People whose souls are shouted at are most likely to be shocked and traumatized. But according to Abbas, the place where they went to relieve themselves last night was still far away from the tiankeng. The person who shouted at them should not be from the Ear of Gods tiankeng. The legend of the mysterious voice...

Since it's not coming from the sinkhole, it's man-made. Do those veterans still know how to call out their souls?

Unexpectedly, these old men who have one foot in the coffin are hiding so deeply.

Seeing that no important clues could be obtained from Abbas, and that Abbas would have a huge headache just recalling his memories, Ayimaimaiti finally protected Abbas and prevented Yan Kuan and others from questioning Abbas about this matter. It's finally come to an end.

In the next three or four days, the three parties continued to move along the ancient river to the desert basin.

I don’t know how vast this Yadan landform is. After walking for so many days, standing on a high place and looking at the end of the sky, I still see boundless mountains and forests of earth and rocks.

With such a large area of ​​Yadan landform, this basin was once a giant lake or ocean. Later, the sea turned into mulberry fields, exposing riverbeds and ditches, and the majestic and magnificent Yadan landform emerged today.

Although there are no veterans of Laughing Corpse Village to lead the way, there are still clues to find Baizu. No matter how different their civilizations are, these desert countries have had one unified feature for thousands of years, and that is that they are built along rivers.

This ancient river originates from the deepest part of the desert basin, and flows through Baizu, Wuershi, and Guchi Kingdoms along the way. Just follow the ancient river and you can find some clues about Baizu.

On the contrary, the weather is getting more and more extreme, the heat is becoming more and more unbearable, and the water consumption rate is accelerating. It is no different from the Taishang Laojun who was kicked over while walking in the Flame Mountain of the Eight Diagrams Furnace. Everyone is wrapping themselves tightly. Tightly apply to prevent skin from being burned.

With the scorching sun above our heads, the camel team walked for two more days in the Gobi desert. On this day, boom!

Several big explosions rang out over the calm desert, and the camels were frightened. Several people were caught off guard and were almost knocked off their humps and fell to the ground.

"The explosion came from over there!"

There was explosive sand and dust in the northwest sky, rising into the sky. No need to remind everyone, everyone saw the strangeness in the northwest sky.

The team was refreshed, and after quickly calming down the camels, they began to wave their whips to drive the camels toward the northwest.

The people still appearing in the depths of the desert at this time are either the people from the northern grasslands or the veterans of Laughing Corpse Manor. No matter which force they belong to, they are definitely looking for Baizu!