Fortunately, there is a fat bear between us and the Odan group that acts as a moderator, otherwise the relationship between the two sides would have deteriorated further.

Since there were only me, Nangong Han and Zheng Tian in the car, there was no need to scruple to speak, so I asked Nangong Han about Uncle Dao's situation, but this guy was very caught and didn't reveal a word to me.

We started from Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, got on the S303 and S308 provincial highways, passed through Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Haixi Mongolian Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and other places, and finally drove to the hinterland of Xinjiang after a total of more than 2,000 kilometers of driving.

The last place where there was activity before we entered Lop Nur was Xishi Town, a small town on the western border. After Xishi Town, there is a vast and boundless no-man's land, so we made the final supply of food and water here.

Through my communication with Fat Bear, I learned that it was in this town that Elan Lin had left the team, and that their first expedition had been in the Lop Nur Desert for a month, but since there was no exact map, no formal exploration had been conducted. Later, the people of the Odan group somehow learned that there was a complete map of the route of the ancient city of Luoli hidden in Heizhugou, so they hired a fat bear to get the map, and sent us to join the first expedition team.

This town is a remote area, very underdeveloped, and the supplies that can be provided to us in it are not abundant, but basically they are the most suitable for desert terrain. What is even more gratifying to us is that you can also buy camels known as the "ship of the desert" here, and the camels that can persist in resisting the invasion of wind and sand for a long time without eating or drinking are much better than cars without land.

The owner of these camels is a white-bearded old man named Urati, and we handed over the matter of the price to the shrewd fat bear, who thought that he would take advantage of it, but the old man was also very philistine, and he knew that we had a little money on us when he was ready to go, so the price was doubled, and the two of them came and went and cut the price for half a day, and the fat bear could not take advantage of it, and the old man still insisted on selling it at double the market price, and told us that he had a reason for selling it like this.

I asked him curiously what kind of reason he had, but he smiled back and said that he could only tell me after he bought it.

I thought to myself what kind of reason this was, and I didn't want to entangle with him at the moment, but Professor Wu waved his hand, agreed directly, and asked his assistant John to take a box of cash from the car.

It seems that Odan and his gang are indeed wealthy, so it's no wonder they don't take people very seriously.

After paying the money, Professor Wu asked the old man Urati: "Now I can talk about your reasoning." ”

After Ulati finished counting the banknotes, he nodded with a smile and said, "The reason is that someone left a letter for Ulla to submit to you." ”

Letter? We didn't have the word "receiving" written on our faces, how did this old man know that the letter was for us?

Just when he was puzzled, Professor Wu had already opened the letter and browsed it, and after reading a few lines, he smiled slightly: "It's Ganfeng them." ”

I patted Ailanlin and asked her who Gan Feng was, Ailanlin didn't look at me, her eyes were glued to the letter, and she replied casually: "The leader of the first expedition." ”

After reading the letter, Professor Wu calmed down and asked Urat: "Old man, how do you know that we are the recipients?" ”

Urati's eyes narrowed and said: "In our place, we haven't seen an outsider for half a year, and your dress is too conspicuous." ”

This old man already knows who we are, so if we don't buy his camel, won't he be ready to give us the letter?

At this time, Professor Wu said, "Old man, do you know where Lop Nur is locked up at night? My companion wrote that they were waiting for us at that place. ”

Urati nodded: "This place is closed at night, of course Urati knows, Urati has grown up in this desert since he was a child, and there is no place here that Urati does not know." ”

Elanlyn then asked, "Then would you like to be our guide?" ”

At this time, Urat rubbed his gray goatee with his fingers, rolled his eyes and said, "It's okay to be a guide, but Urati needs to be paid." ”

"As long as you find them, we will immediately give you 100,000 yuan, and we will never break our promise." Professor Wu cut the railroad to the fore.

"Oh! God willing, Urati is willing to be your guide. As soon as the old man heard that he had so much money, he immediately agreed.

The fat bear whispered: "Damn, this old man only recognizes money." ”

Since we are all entering Lop Nur for the first time, we don't know much about the situation here (although Ailanlin has been here, but she left the team before she went deep into the hinterland of Lop Nur) and those rumors and legends on the Internet cannot be taken seriously, what we need to know is the real situation in the local area, so we asked Urati about Lop Nur, so that we can be mentally prepared in advance.

The biggest challenge we told us is that there is almost no fresh water in Lop Nur, there are frequent sandstorms, and then there are some strange poisonous creatures in the desert.

"Is it a big insect that is three or four meters tall and has more than a dozen hands?" Zheng Tian heard the poisonous creatures, and said in fear while gesturing.

"O God! I haven't seen such a bug like Urati alive so big. The poisonous creatures that Urati is talking about are some venomous snakes and venomous lizards. The white-bearded old man shook his head and said.

"That's good, as long as it doesn't look too scary, then we can still accept it." Zheng Tian said with a sigh of relief.

I said in my heart, can you kid accept a ball? The poisonous snakes and venomous lizards in the desert can kill people in an instant, and their horror level is no weaker than those so-called big guys.

Urati later told us that the pass was located at a fork in the road, and that there was a river and a black poplar forest where we met, and that we must not wander around there, especially the poplar forest, which we must never enter. When we asked him why, he told him a strange thing that he had experienced.

It was about six years ago, and a few travelers traveled through Lop Nur on foot, and they found Urati in Xishi Town, hoping that he could lead them across the desert as a guide, and because of the good reward given, Urati agreed after some consideration.

The first week of the march did not encounter any major incidents, at most some small sandstorms, and in the end, there were no dangers. But in the second week, as they traversed the eerie poplar forest at the fork of the road, the people in the group began to become a little unusual, and the people suddenly and inexplicably fought over the water and food when there was still plenty of water, as if they had lost their minds.

In the days that followed, the team disappeared one after another, and in the end, only Urati, the captain, and a girl remained.

The emotional control of the three of them is relatively stable, but the sobriety is more terrifying, because they can sense the real fear, the more the three of them walk, the more they feel that this poplar forest growing on the desert is like a maze, how can they not get out, and gradually, they also found that some trees in this poplar forest seem to have the outline of a human face, and if you look closely, it looks a bit like those missing team members.