The Tibetan mastiff leans slightly at night, its thick claws constantly scratching the ground.

It shifted slightly, its yellow-brown eyes like a shining gem in the dim light, and barked in a low voice.

Sven Heding slept lightly, looked at the Tibetan mastiff's eyes in the dark, and just patted its head gently: "Mica, rest well, good boy." ”

He knew the Tibetan mastiff, and Mica was much sharper in the middle of the night than during the day.

Mica likes things underground, and the uneasiness she showed just now must have been something she had discovered.

As if nothing had happened, Sven Hedin continued to hide in the quilt and press the head of the Tibetan mastiff, signaling it to stop calling again.

The weather was gloomy and unrefreshing.

Uncle Bayi, who got up to get water, ran back to July's tent in a panic and woke up July.

It took a long time for July to understand that they had no water source.

Ning Yun picked up the empty bucket and shook it twice, a few drops of water that had not yet evaporated rolled into the sand, and more than ten barrels of barreled mineral water were dumped in the middle of the night.

"Who is so lacking in virtue, emptying all the water, what do you eat and drink!" Ning Yun lost his mind for a while, but he didn't understand that everyone in the camp didn't have to live on this drinking water, and who would waste water resources.

The angry scolding woke everyone in the camp, Zhang Chen and Zhang Xi crawled out of the tent with sleepy eyes, Sven Heding led his black-haired Tibetan mastiff, and Fan Cheng impatiently climbed out of the sleeping bag.

July frowned, carefully observing the traces of the crime scene.

The lock in the trunk was not damaged, and it was not broken by force.

More than a dozen buckets of water were certainly poured into the sand on the spot, and there were traces of water washing on the ground, although it had been completely air-dried.

After two minutes of observation, the people of the camp had gathered, staring at the empty buckets with solemn faces, which meant that they would be completely cut off from water for the rest of the day.

The morning breeze is still a monotonous sound, and people's hearts are like the desolate scenery on the Gobi Desert.

Sven Heding said with a slightly regretful expression: "You really shouldn't store water like this, the most important thing for an experienced traveler in the desert is to take care of the water. ”

At this point, he beckoned to Spencer, "Fetch some ice for our friends." ”

Zhang Yishan stared at Sven Heding in surprise, thinking uncertainly about the "ice cube" in his mouth, as an old explorer, Sven Heding's rich experience played a role in saving the team at this time.

He chose to enter the arid Gobi Desert in winter, and after experiencing the lack of water, he would choose to freeze the water on several expeditions in the future, and use thermal insulation equipment to make water storage bladders, and the heaviest baggage on the camels of his group was water.

Fan Cheng didn't understand what the foreigner was talking about, until Spencer smashed a bag of heavy ice cubes in front of everyone, "Aren't you short of water?" Where did so many ice cubes come from. He remembered that when he saw the caravan yesterday, Spencer was still yelling and saying that his mouth was dry.

"We do have a severe shortage of water, and the planned drinking water needs to support our monthly consumption, but there is not much ice left, we only have two bags of ice for a total of 40 litres, so we have to use it sparingly. ”

July was stunned for a while, as if she didn't pay attention to what a few people said, and the footprints on the sand were messy, and there was a special mark that caught her eye.

A sun-shaped marker appears within five meters of the vehicle.

"Does the sun-shaped mark have anything to do with the tomb of the sun?" July hadn't seen the structure of the Sun Tomb with his own eyes, but had heard that its surface was like a sun.

Spencer held his large pipe in his hand, and rolled the tobacco leaves in a repetitive stuffing motion, "The wind is loud in the night, and it must be the people of the camp who shine your water." Ever since humans were able to use tools, I have never heard of any other creature with a similar IQ capable of performing such complex movements. ”

Indeed, opening the trunk is a huge undertaking.

The opening of the bottled water is filled with pull rings, and it is hard to believe that some mischievous monkey could have done it.

July was silent for a while before he spoke, "Mr. Sven Heding, thank you for the ice. In return, we'll give half of the food to your team. ”

July got up and straightened his waist slightly, paused again and continued: "From today onwards, I'm afraid we will have to say goodbye here, and we will go to the Sun Tomb." ”

Sven Hedin was wearing the suit he wore yesterday, with a sunny smile on his face, "Miss July, we are an expedition team, we have a lot of experience to help you, and we are willing to go anywhere for you." Please believe in our sincerity and beautiful friendship. ”

"If you want to find out who drained your water, Mica is a good helper. Its nose is sensitive, and it can help you find the troublemaker. Sven Hedin took the chain of the Tibetan mastiff, and Mica obediently half-crouched on the sand, carrying both forelimbs, his eyes determined and loyal.

Judging from the tone and expression of Sven Heding's words, he seemed to know some kind of inside story.

Now that the matter has happened, no matter how much it is investigated, it will inevitably be irreversible.

Mica's behavior is also somewhat abnormal, the word lie only exists in human society, and the IQ of the Tibetan mastiff is equivalent to that of a human child.

It is unable to make a sound, behaves slightly agitated, and its eyes flicker.

"There's nothing to trace, so let's just get over it." July already knew that this mastiff was not ordinary, there was a breed of dog specially trained for the excavation of ancient tombs, and the mastiff was the most suitable dog breed. A more sophisticated Gu master can even breed a dog breed similar to a soul class, shuttling between the underground tombs without hindrance, "I once had a cat, and it will be very energetic at night. ”

Sure enough, Sven Heding stopped speaking.

The facial expression was particularly embarrassed, and his face became very pale, and Sven Heding was clearly concealing: "Hehe, I don't like cats very much." They are all too delicate, or dogs are more loyal. He was so frightened that he even looked into July's eyes, consciously or unconsciously, but then he was embarrassed to say anything.

The caravan travels no slower than the off-road vehicles on the Gobi, and the vehicles need to slow down in the sand to avoid getting stuck in the bunkers.

Uncle Bayi had a shadow of the camel team in his heart, and looked at the road ahead silently with this steering wheel, "It's weird, it's weird!" ”

July was obviously very sensitive, and asked suspiciously, "Uncle Bayi, what are you saying that is too strange?" ”

Bayi was stunned, and then said in a deep voice: "You know, in the desert Gobi of Lop Nur, there have been all kinds of strange things. They are still carrying a coffin and running around, do you say that the mad is not a madman? ”

Ning Yun was depressed because of the "empty bucket incident" in the morning, and leaned against the car window with his head drooped, and when he heard Bayi's words, his eyes suddenly became figure, and his body stopped.

She patted Uncle Bayi's back seat, and her tone was a little excited, "Tell me quickly, what's the weird thing?" ”

"It's not a weird thing, it's just the stories I heard from the old men in the village when I was a child. A hundred years ago, there was a foreigner from England who was called something. He went to Loulan to conduct large-scale archaeology, dug out a large number of cultural relics from the soil, and even more bizarre was to dig up two Loulan male skulls. ”

"It's called Stein, an English archaeologist and explorer." Zhang Yishan, as a guide, sat in the passenger seat.

"It seems to be called this, it's been a bit long, and I've forgotten it." Bayi reminisced as he spoke, "Later, there was a legend that the Guloulan people were all white-skinned Europeans, because those two skulls were not of our yellow race. When they picked up those two skulls, something big happened. ”

Bayi vigorously twisted the reverse plate to avoid a sand pit, and then put his hand out of the window and gestured for the car behind to dodge, "The two skulls are unusual, I heard that when they were first unearthed, the color of the bones was dark green, and there was a thin layer of yellow hair on them, just like human hair. ”

Ning Yun took a breath of cold air, and the closed car window was covered with a layer of water mist.

As the story progressed, his expression became tense little by little.

The color luster of the skull is a manifestation of the poisoning of the corpse before death, and it can be said that Qiyue is an absolute authoritative expert in using Gu, how could he not understand this truth, Rao is still listening with great interest.

"The moment the skull was unearthed, it was like coming to life, and it bit the neck of the excavators, and immediately poisoned several hired workers. Those foreigners are all paid to hire locals to dig graves, and the hired workers are also boneless things, helping them to do these immoral things, and they will suffer retribution in the first place. ”

Due to an emergency, several excavators died in Stein's archaeological team, and no one dared to take on the work no matter how much they paid, and the excavation was stopped.

Surprisingly, two were brought back to the UK, where they were tested by a scientific institute and found to be of two European males. Individuals involved in the expedition and subsequent exposure to the skull died after a year of skin ulceration, reportedly possessed by an unknown fungus that erodes and destroys skin cells.

"The origin of the smoke soul originated at that time, no one had ever seen such a thing, and everything it saw was eaten by it. Since then, the locals have been more reluctant to white-skinned foreigners, and even if they occasionally meet them on the Gobi, they will stay away. Bayi glanced in the rearview mirror at the caravan following the SUV and pursed his lips in disbelief.

There are many versions of the legend of the Smoke Soul, and Bayi says that they originated from white Europeans, and the two skulls unearthed are the best proof of this, they will not die, even if only the skulls remain, they will still survive in some special way in the world. Bayi couldn't tell the form of the smoke spirit, maybe it was a ghost, maybe it was a disease-causing germ. Because of the Stein incident, the locals are especially wary of the strange white-skinned race.

What's more, it was still a European on a camel caravan, and Bayi was always hostile.