There is a hill on the outskirts of the capital, called Hunting Mountain. It is said that there used to be several mountain peaks in the area, and it was the hunting ground of the ancient royal family. After the founding of the Dragon Kingdom, several nearby mountains were leveled and turned into wide roads. However, for unknown reasons, the government has never mined the mountain, so the hill has largely remained its original appearance to this day. The greenery is verdant. Everywhere is full of life.

Every morning and dusk, the mountainside of this hunting patrol mountain is full of human figures. These are tourists or couples who come to hang out, or elderly people who come to exercise and do tai chi, and it is common to see groups of people gathering together to talk about the world or talk about family life. This hunting mountain has also become a favorite place for people in the vicinity.

It's just that there is a forest on the south side of the Hunting Patrol Mountain, which covers a large area and is not allowed to be entered by ordinary people, and it is classified as a forbidden area by the government. Because where is the military training base, but except for the soldiers who stand guard outside. It is rare to see other soldiers throughout the year. But no one who comes here will be surprised, because they know that the base was originally empty. On the south side of the mountain, there is the densest forest in the entire mountain. It is also the only place that has not been opened and still retains its original appearance. Every year, troops come here to stay for half a month to a month, mainly for wilderness survival training. Other than that, this military training base is not usually visited by anyone at all.

Although there are no people at the base in normal times, the soldiers guarding here are still very loyal, guarding the place 24 hours a day, and no one is allowed to enter it. People in the neighborhood know that this is the base, and they are usually guarded, so they have little interest in coming here. And spies and spies sent by other countries certainly don't have any interest in an empty base. So the base has been quiet for so many years.

But no one knows. In fact, there is a hole in this base.

A military jeep drove up the mountain along the mountain road. All the way straight towards the military training base. When the car just drove to the guard box at the entrance of the base, it was immediately stopped. Immediately, several soldiers in military uniforms, armed with loaded guns and ammunition, ran up and surrounded the car. One of the captain-like men gave a military salute to the occupants of the car. Then stand outside and don't say a word. Just staring at the people in the car.

There were only three people in the car, and the driver was a middle-aged man. Sit up straight. A discerning person can tell at a glance that he is a formally trained soldier. Sitting in the passenger seat was an old man, whose head was messed up by the wind when he was going up the mountain just now, and he looked messy. Blank eyes. I always like to squint when I look at things, and I have a rosacea. The clothes he was wearing, although barely clean, were still terrible, and he had a somewhat yellow vest inside. A white-washed old-fashioned tunic, and that's it. And the old man seemed to be very fond of drinking, and standing outside the car, you could smell a strong smell of alcohol coming from his nose.

There was only one young man sitting in the back row. He looked like a civilian, wearing a black athleisure outfit and a pair of pale brown sunglasses. The first impression will never be associated with the kind of person who loves to fight and puts on a fierce face.

The squad leader's gaze scanned the faces of the three of them carefully before resting on the old man's body. The old man wiped his eyes and muttered quietly. And casually handed out a paper card from the car window. The team leader didn't even look at it after taking it, but immediately turned around and walked into the sentry box. It wasn't until a few minutes later that he came out of the booth and returned to the car, saluted the old man, and handed the paper card with both hands. When the old man took the paper card. The large iron gate of the base in front of it also automatically moved towards both sides at the same time.

The car pulled into the gate and continued to drive forward. From the beginning to the end, there was no contact or conversation between the people in the car and the soldiers standing guard. It's as if they've been cut off from the world for so long that they can't even speak.

In the car, the drunkard shook the paper card in his hand and said: "This official document looks like a very ordinary entry and exit document on the surface, but in fact it is a very high technology. There is a very sophisticated encryption program in it, and people who don't know can't copy it at all, and even if you get it, you can't find out where its password is. ”

Chu Yuan, who had been sitting silently in the back seat, let out a faint "oh". That's the response.

The drunkard chuckled. He didn't mind Chu Yuan's indifferent attitude, turned his head to look at the scenery outside the window, and seemed to be caught in some old memories.

The car stopped and stopped, passing three more sentry posts in a row, and each drunkard would ask them to check the paper card and official documents in their hands. But strangely, the drunkard never said a word to any of the soldiers here from beginning to end.

The jeep eventually came to a halt inside the training base building, which was deserted, with no one to be seen except for the four outposts and three outposts that had passed along the way.

The drunkard patted the driver on the shoulder and said, "Wait for me here." ”

The driver nodded. And don't speak.

The drunkard opened the door and stretched out a pair of thin legs, and shook his head at Chu Yuan and said, "Follow me." ”

Chu Yuan also got out of the car and walked forward behind the drunkard. The two of them circled to the rear of the base and followed a hidden and rugged mountain road halfway up the mountain.

The two of them walked a short distance one after the other, and the drunkard asked as he walked, "What's the matter?"

Chu Yuan, who was following him, said lightly: "From getting off the bus to here." There are already two secret sentinels. ”

The drunkard smiled faintly, as if he had known that it would be like this, and asked without looking back, "How do you know?"

"Intuition. Chu Yuan looked around with his eyes. said: "The third sentry. ”

The drunkard bypassed the pile of thorns in front of him and sighed, "You are really a natural warrior. ”

"Warrior?" Chu Yuan didn't stop at his feet, and said, "I'm not a warrior." ”

The drunkard pursed his lips and did not speak, and was silent for a long time before he said, "Can you promise me one thing?"

"What?"

"What if...... I mean, if you leave the Dragon Soul in the future, you have to promise me that you can't go against the country. ”

Chu Yuan stopped and looked at the drunkard's somewhat thin back. Asked, "Why did I leave Dragon Soul?"

At this time, the drunkard was stopped by a pile of thorn bushes. It's just that this pile of thorn bushes is relatively wide, and if you want to get around, you have to walk a long way. And there is no trace of anyone cutting through thorns here. The drunkard gently pushed his hands forward, and there seemed to be two gentle streams of water flowing between his fingers. Silently shoved the thorn bushes to both sides. Revealing a path that is not too wide. The drunkard continued to walk, saying as he went, "Sometimes fate is not in our own hands. The events of the world often unfold beyond our expectations. What will happen in the future, no one knows. ”

Chu Yuan easily followed the drunkard and walked in. Said lightly: "Very profound. ”

The drunkard smiled faintly. "I just don't want to see us on opposite sides in the future," he said. With that, the drunkard continued on his way. And Chu Yuan stopped. silently looked at the drunkard's thin back.

The drunkard walked a few steps, turned around and said, "What are you doing in a daze? There is no sentry ahead. But the road is not easy to walk. ”

Chu Yuan caught up and said, "You are very strange today. ”

"Oh?" the drunkard rubbed his rosacea and smiled bitterly, "It may be that people are old and long-winded." Forget it, I won't say anything, let's go quickly. ”

The two of them sped forward through the thorn bushes, and the drunkard was right, there would be no more dark whistles if they continued here. It could be to avoid attracting ideas, or it could be that they didn't want the soldiers stationed here to show anything. Although there is no clear whistle. But the road ahead is getting harder and harder, full of thorny bushes, and if you are not careful, you can easily cut through your clothes and even your skin. The further he went, the more cautious the drunkard became, and he no longer had the casual appearance of doing things in the past, and he was cautious with every step. Even Chu Yuan showed a cautious expression, because he recognized that this area of thorn bushes was different from the thorn bushes he had walked before. These thorns are a rare poisonous thorn that generally only grows in tropical jungles, and I don't know why there are such poisonous thorns here. People who are pierced by these poisonous thorns will have local redness and swelling of the skin, and the wound will be numb and itchy for several days. Moreover, this poisonous thorn will flow a white juice, and if this juice is refined, it can produce a very powerful anesthetic. As for the effect of anesthetic, it depends on what formula it is paired with, adding a specific toxin and only dissolving a few drops into water for people to drink, which can kill more than a dozen people in an instant. To live is to refine anesthetic, which can paralyze the whole body and lie in bed for several days without moving.

At this time, both of them are moving forward cautiously, although this poisonous thorn is not enough to kill people, but it is not so fun to be stabbed. When entering this area, the drunkard originally wanted to remind Chu Yuan. But when I saw his solemn expression, I knew that I didn't need to say anything more. And Chu Yuan was also careful to avoid poisonous thorns along the way. He didn't even think about it, he had never touched these herbs in his memory, but why he knew about such poisonous thorns.

The deeper you go, the more difficult the trail becomes. In this unopened primeval forest, you can still see some traces of wild beasts from time to time, and the most of them are wild boars.

The two walked for another ten minutes or so, and suddenly a small village appeared in front of them. It's just that there is no figure in the village, and from a distance, the rock wall of this village by the mountain and forest stands tall, the red soil is thick, as if the fire has burned, the broken wall is ruined, the dead vines and old trees, and the desolate scene is everywhere.

The drunkard stopped and said, "It's here." ”

"Oh. ”

The drunkard glanced back at Chu Yuan. "The place of slumber is this ancient village. ”

"What about the people here?"

The drunkard shook his head and said, "Maybe it was moved." Or maybe it's dead. We don't know either. The village has been vacant for five hundred years. ”

The two walked into the village. The architecture of the ancient village is still maintained, with wooden beams and grass roofs, and there is no intact house as far as the eye can see, and almost all the wooden houses have collapsed and destroyed. This ancient village is not big, there are only a dozen wooden houses in total, most of which collapsed because they fell into disrepair, but Chu Yuan can still notice that the wooden beams of three of the wooden houses are broken from them, and they should have been broken by brute force.

The collapsed houses were all covered with dust, rubble, and desolation.

The drunkard led Chu Yuan to a stop in front of a ruin, which was also a collapsed wooden house. After 500 years of wind and rain and insect infestation, these thick wooden beams have long since dried up, and they can be broken lightly with a little force. The ruins were built against the rock wall of the mountain, so most of them leaned against the rock wall. Weeds growing from the rocks are tangled with dead grass and dead wood, and it is impossible to distinguish whether they are ruins or weeds. The corner of Chu Yuan's current ruins clinging to the rock wall is very different from the surrounding environment, and there is a thick layer of dust and sand in other places, but there is only a little dust and sand, obviously someone has just come to this place recently, and has played with this place.

Just as Chu Yuan was paying attention there, the drunkard also walked over, stretched out his hand to pull aside the messy dead branches and weeds, and the ground under the weeds revealed a hole, and under the hole was a staircase made of simple dirt, which led all the way to the dark space below.

Chu Yuan stepped forward to take a look, and the drunkard explained, "Below is the cellar, where the people who used to live here dug out to store food. As he spoke, he took out two palm-sized flashlights from his pocket, handed one to Chu Yuan, and then lit the flashlight himself and walked down first. Chu Yuan also pressed the switch of the flashlight and followed closely.