Chapter 1008: All the Way West (Part I)
Let Wei Mingcheng arrange the plane, take the military transport plane, from the capital is not able to go directly to Lop Nur, because there is no airport in that deserted place, so a few people can only take the plane to Hami, in a military airport in Hami, there are already two off-road vehicles parked there.
Counting Boss Yuanjie and Zhang Wen, Fang Yi had a total of five people on this trip, Wei Mingcheng became the team leader, and took Zhang Wen and Si Yuanjie into a car, while Fang Yi and Bai Chuxia drove another car to follow.
Lop Nur is in the west of Hami, as long as all the way to the west will not be wrong, at the beginning of the car is high-speed, this is in April and May, along the way is an endless prairie, the sky is blue looks refreshing.
"It's beautiful. Bai Chuxia was also the first time to come to the west, and he was immediately attracted by the scenery in front of him, opened the car window, and Bai Chuxia took out a camera to take pictures.
"It's really beautiful, I asked Brother Wei to drive a little slower. Fang Yi smiled and nodded, and shouted Wei Mingcheng with the walkie-talkie in the car, the highway here is different from the capital, basically there are not a few cars, even if it is parked on the side of the road, it is estimated that there is no problem.
"The scenery here is not very good, and you don't know what the scenery is until you get to the front. Wei Mingcheng's voice came from the walkie-talkie, he had been to the territory, to be precise, Wei Mingcheng had even been to Lop Nur, so Wei Mingcheng was very familiar with the terrain here.
"Wait a minute, you will follow me and show you what a miracle of nature is. Wei Mingcheng slowed down a bit, but was clearly unimpressed by the scenery he could see now.
When the car drove for more than 100 kilometers, the surroundings became a little barren, and the yellow sand was everywhere in sight, and there were many buildings on both sides of the highway that looked like some years but had long been abandoned, all of which had been surrounded by yellow sand.
"Brother Wei, are you talking about watching the desert?"
Fang Yi chatted with Wei Mingcheng without a ride, but Fang Yi had never been to the desert, and the scene of yellow sand all over the ground in front of him did make him feel a little shocked, and the yellow sand that could not be seen at a glance seemed to be connected with the sky, making it impossible to tell where the sky was and where the earth was.
"Let's go, get off the highway!"
When he came to a high-speed exit, Wei Mingcheng turned off the highway in a dozen directions, and drove for about twenty kilometers, after passing a place that looked like a toll booth, Peng Bin stopped the car, and what appeared in front of Fang Yi and Bai Chuxia was a very strange building complex.
It is said that it is a building complex, because Fang Yi found that these landscapes covered with yellow sand with various images have many traces of man-made, but they seem to be naturally formed, because there are more obvious traces of weathering in those landscapes, even Fang Yi is a little uncertain.
"Brother Wei, what kind of place is this?" Fang Yi jumped out of the car, looked back at the place behind him, and said, "What kind of scenic spot is this, right? Why didn't we buy a ticket just now?"
There aren't a lot of people here, but there are some tourists, but most of their cars are parked outside and they have to pay a fee before they can drive in.
"In the past, there was no charge here, but it is estimated that it was only recently made, so our car naturally does not need to pay. ”
Wei Mingcheng pouted, driving a car with a military license plate has such a little benefit, basically you can travel unhindered where you encounter a fee.
Pointing to the buildings in front of him, Wei Mingcheng said: "This was originally the place where the ancient Silk Road must pass, but for thousands of years, I don't know what happened, this place was covered by yellow sand, and the original village was relocated to other places, completely deserted. ”
"Brother, this is the Devil's City, right?" Bai Chuxia's geographical knowledge knows more than Fang Yi, but Wei Mingcheng can blind Fang Yi, but he can't blind her.
"Yes, it's the Devil's Town, the locals say that there are devils here, especially when night falls, you will hear the outrageous howl of ghosts and wolves, why don't we stay here for a day and experience it?"
Wei Mingcheng knew that the secret realm didn't open so early, and they didn't need to rush over too much in advance, so they were ready to take Fang Yi and Bai Chuxia to have a good time on the way, there were many unique scenery and landscapes in the territory that could not be seen elsewhere.
Seeing Wei Mingcheng's mysterious expression when he spoke, Fang Yi couldn't help laughing, walked to the front of those strangely shaped landscapes, and said, "That ghost crying wolf howl, it's not that the wind blows through these places and comes out of those holes. ”
In terms of landscape alone, the Devil's City is indeed as its name suggests, because in front of Fang Yi's eyes, there are many landscapes that resemble castles, halls, pagodas, monuments, people, birds and beasts, and in the distance, there are all kinds of dazzling steep cliffs, as well as colorful agate in the mixed rock gravel.
Walking a few steps forward, there are petrified wood, fresh plant fossils with fresh branches and leaves everywhere on the ground, and this should be a vast sea in ancient times, a small stone that Fang Yi picked up casually was actually a fossil of a sea-born fish, but Fang Yi had never seen the appearance of that fish.
"Thousands of years ago, it might have been a bustling town. Bai Chuxia followed Fang Yi and said, "These remnants of the wall have been preserved, but the people who lived here before are probably long gone." ”
"It's just a toothpick, and the years of existence are probably longer than human life. ”
After hearing Bai Chuxia's words, Fang Yi couldn't help laughing, although the current human technology is very advanced, but the human race itself is extremely weak, compared to the ancient times that Fang Yi knew, the disappearance of the aura of heaven and earth also made the human race itself stop evolving.
"How about it? Shall we go around the ground?"
Wei Mingcheng said eagerly, the last time he came here, due to the tight time, he did not enter the depths of the Devil's City, the entire Devil's City covers an area of about 400 square kilometers, listening to the local tour guide, the scenery inside is even more shocking.
"No, there's nothing in this place. Fang Yi shook his head when he heard this, he couldn't feel any aura here, but it was extremely barren, and that feeling of dead silence made Fang Yi very uncomfortable.
"Well, I was going to take you on an adventure. Wei Mingcheng shrugged his shoulders, he didn't learn anything else when he went to Europe this time, but he learned the shrugging posture of Westerners.
"Brother Wei, don't be nervous, with that thing on you, there will be no problem on this trip to the secret realm. ”
Fang Yi looked at Wei Mingcheng and laughed, he couldn't see anything from the side, but Fang Yi could feel that Wei Mingcheng was a little uneasy about the place he was about to go, but he didn't react to Si Yuanjie and Bai Chuxia, who didn't know much about the secret realm.
"I'm not nervous, I just feel that the time is not so urgent, we can play all the way. ”
Being told by Fang Yi that he was in his heart, Wei Mingcheng also blushed rarely, and hurriedly explained to himself: "After this devil city, there is still a poplar forest to see, and then there will be no other landscape, you will definitely feel very boring at that time." ”
"It's okay, let's go over and wait early. Fang Yi waved his hand and said, "Get in the car, in case the secret realm opens in advance, let's go in early, so as to save you a lot of trouble with those people behind." ”
As far as Fang Yi is concerned, as long as it has nothing to do with cultivation, his current interest is not very great, if this devil city is the site of a cultivator, Fang Yi will definitely have the intention of exploring, but the naturally formed landscape, Fang Yi is interest is not a dime.
Turning back to the highway, Wei Mingcheng took Fang Yi and the others to continue driving in the direction of Lop Nur, and when passing through a poplar forest, Wei Mingcheng stopped the car again, but this time Fang Yi took the initiative to ask for it.
The land where the poplar forest grows looks very delicate, but stepping on it is like stepping on a cement slab, which is very hard, in Wei Mingcheng's words, this is because of the high salinity.
Fang Yi casually picked up a severed limb of a poplar, the thickness of his fingers was a dead branch, and the ground was also very hard, without a trace of water in it.
And some of the dead poplar trees, although there are no branches and leaves on them, are still standing, Fang Yi can clearly feel a sense of vitality from the dead poplar rhizomes, maybe at a certain moment, these dead poplars can grow again.
"To live without dying for a thousand years, to die without falling for a thousand years, and to be immortal for a thousand years, this poplar really deserves its name. ”
Fang Yi's stay in the poplar forest was much longer than the time he stayed in Devil's City, and he also dug up the rhizome of a dead poplar forest and examined it for a long time, and finally threw the stem in the trunk of the off-road vehicle.
No one knew why Fang Yi made these moves, with Zhang Wen, an outsider beside him, Wei Mingcheng didn't ask much, only Fang Yi himself knew that the place where these poplar forests lived actually contained a trace of extremely thin aura, and these auras were condensed in the rhizomes of poplar trees.
Just as the reason for the disappearance of the aura of heaven and earth is no longer traceable, Fang Yi can't answer why the rhizome of the poplar tree has such a thin aura, perhaps this is also the reason why the poplar can not die for a thousand years, not fall for a thousand years, and be immortal for a thousand years.
"Master once said that Xinjiang and Tibet are the most mysterious, and I will go to Tibet in the future. Fang Yi remembered some of the words that the old Taoist priest had said when he was a child.
At that time, the old Taoist priest often had to go out for a period of time in a year, and he would come back in three or five days in a short time, and it would take a month or two to return to the mountain in a long time, and it was only during that time that he returned to the mountain that the old Taoist priest said something to Fang Yi that he didn't understand at all.
According to the old Taoist priest, now that the inheritance in the world is severed, there may still be inheritance in Tibet and Xinjiang, but it is too ethereal to find, Fang Yi heard it inexplicably at the time, but now he can understand that the master should have been to these places in order to find the ancient inheritance.
That night, Fang Yi and the others lived outside this poplar forest, Wei Mingcheng Si Yuanjie and Zhang Wen were crammed into one car, and Fang Yi lived in another car with Bai Chuxia.
At night, the temperature that was originally more than 20 degrees above zero dropped sharply to minus seven or eight degrees, if it weren't for Wei Mingcheng's experience to prepare several thick quilts in the car, I'm afraid that except for Fang Yi, the rest of the people would be frostbitten.
Early the next morning, Fang Yi didn't delay any longer, urging Wei Mingcheng to drive directly to the location on the left side of the map, and there was no highway at this time.
Before getting off the highway, they refueled for the last time before turning onto the national highway, the road conditions of the national highway are not known how many times worse than before, but the driving is fine, sitting next to it is like riding a roller coaster up and down.
Bai Chuxia couldn't stand that kind of bumps, and had already changed positions with Fang Yi, unlike Bai Chuxia, who had been buzzed before, Fang Yi's butt seemed to grow on the seat, no matter how the car was undulating and bumping, he didn't see Fang Yi's body shake.
Now they have entered the Great Gobi Desert, and they can walk a few hundred kilometers further to enter the boundary of Lop Nur, but the environment here is already very bad, and on the salt crust of white flowers on both sides of the road, there are clumps of sea buckthorn and red willows, which is the only plant that Fang Yi and others can see.
After driving more than 100 kilometers to the west, a thick dark cloud appeared above the car, and when the car drove into the range of the dark clouds, the raindrops with the size of beans suddenly crackled down, and the temperature dropped sharply by more than ten degrees.
However, after more than half an hour, the car drove out of the dark clouds, and the sunlight sprinkled in the eyes made Fang Yi feel extremely unreal, and he could see from the reversing mirror that only a few dozen meters behind him, the raindrops were still smashing on the ground.
"Even if it's not the Gobi Desert, it's not very suitable for human habitation. ”
Fang Yi was talking to Bai Chuxia while looking at the scene outside, driving in this environment, the whole person was groggy and groggy, with Fang Yi talking to her, Bai Chuxia could also be more energetic.
"Lop Nur is even worse than the environment here, and the whole thing is no man's land. "Bai Chuxia's current physique is already many times better than before, if he came here before cultivating, Bai Chuxia would have vomited out a long time ago.
When the evening came, Fang Yi and the others watched a beautiful sunset, followed by the boundless night, there would be a few wolf howls from time to time in the distance, in the words of Wei Mingcheng, this is already on the edge of Lop Nur, and then go deeper, it is the real Lop Nur.
On the edge of Lop Nur, there is a small town with only a few dozen households, fortunately there is a gas station in the town, and the next day Wei Mingcheng filled up the two cars, and there were two spare fuel tanks in the cars, and the oil in them had not been used.
Outside of this town, the scene along the way is really uninhabited, barrenness is the main feature here, except for the occasional sea buckthorn and some cacti, this desert is lifeless.
Naturally, there are no roads, and the cars are driving in the desert, which is more difficult to drive in the desert than the difficult national highways.
Fortunately, the two cars arranged by Wei Mingcheng were modified, and Wei Mingcheng had experience, so he adjusted the tire pressure before entering the sand, but when he passed a sand dune, Bai Chuxia's car still stopped on the sand dune and couldn't drive.
When I got out of the car, half of the wheels of the off-road vehicle were stuck in the sand pit, and I saw the wheels turn when I added the accelerator, but the car did not move at all, but this situation naturally did not make it difficult for Fang Yi and others, even Wei Mingcheng Si Yuanjie and others could pull the car out with one hand.
Stop and go along the way, it is really too many times that the car is stuck in the sand, the car is easy to turn over if it is fast, and it is easy to fall into it if it is slow, and it takes a whole day to walk two or three hundred kilometers, Wei Mingcheng did not let everyone live in the car this time, but made a fire with military fuel, and then set up a few tents around.
According to Wei Mingcheng, the direction they are moving now is the location of the ancient city of Loulan, if they are lucky, they may be able to meet some expeditions on the road, ordinary people will never set foot here, because this is already the Sea of Death - Lop Nur.
In this place, there is no gas station, so you can't use fuel uncontrollably like before, and try not to turn on the air conditioner if you can, otherwise if you run out of fuel, walking in the desert will definitely be a desperate thing.
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