From a bird's-eye view, it looks like a white lotus flower blooming in the desert. The raised part is an artificial sand dune that has been weathered and burned over the years, turning into a nest-like empty shell. The recessed part is filled with the bones of groups of remnants and animals that used to die here. Instead of burying the bones in the ground, they were all exposed to the air, and countless skeletons were superimposed on top of each other, which was shocking.

It is the center of the sea of sand and the furthest part of the desert from the five cities, and is once a large mud swamp known as the Traveler's Grave. After the Foehn appeared, it became what it is today.

When everyone heard the maiden say that the foehn was coming, they were all shocked. The airship had sailed to the edge of the Bone Field, and the dark clouds overhead were so low that they seemed to reach out and touch, and lightning swept through them from time to time. On both sides of the road were tangled bones, some of them wearing gray robes like theirs. Several of the remnants pressed their faces against the wall and looked out, and although the wind was raging, it was clearly not a foehn, because the clothes were still flying in the wind and had not been burned to ashes. I think this girl is too ignorant, and she thinks the wind is a foehn wind, and she has a false alarm. They turned around and tried to make a joke about her, but before they could speak, a violent impact knocked the airship on its side.

The people in the airship turned on their backs, and the sky whirled, and everyone squeezed to one side. Before everyone could come back to their senses, the airship was hit again, and this time it threw the airship into a towering sand dune, and rolled several times before stopping.

The airship's hatch had been slammed open, and the people inside were in a mess, all in shock. The chair was smashed quite a bit, and Scarface kicked away a chair that was pressing him, and the impact was so violent that he spat out the blood that had been shaken out, and stood up and staggered out of the hatch.

The inside of the dunes was quite large, and the light was dim, and through the hole that had been knocked open, black flames could be seen whistling outside. Fortunately, the foehn wind did not blow in through the gap, only the scorching air flow actually permeated the sand dunes, making it difficult to breathe.

One by one, the surviving remnants crawled out of the open hatch, first a few cowering men, then the thief, and after a while, the boy and the maiden also came out of the hatch. Scarface had regained a few points of strength, and he groped his way to the cab.

If you want to survive in such a place, in addition to having excellent mental and physical fitness, weapons are also indispensable. The door to the wheelhouse also opened, and one of the guards was thrown out of the cabin, his armor charred and blackened, lying motionless in the sand. Scarface walks over and finds the key to the electromagnetic handcuffs he has hanging from his waist, opens his own handcuffs, and picks up his weapon, Light MP9, which is an automatic weapon that uses sunlight to charge and fire high temperatures without reloading. Scarface recognized the use of the weapon, and was secretly rejoicing, but there was an electronic sound from the cockpit. He didn't want to shoot several times in that direction, don't look at his five big and three thick, but his marksmanship was extremely accurate, and without aiming in advance, each shot hit the buzzing intercom device on the helmets of several guards who woke up one after another. The cavern reverberated with the loud roar of the Foehn as it passed, and if it weren't for his ears, he would never have heard such a faint sound.

The cab was the first to be hit by the foehn, so it was also the most damaged. However, Blackbeard remained awake, only to be stuck in the back by the two team members who came over him, and he saw through the gap that one of the remnants outside the cabin was actually picking up their weapons, and he was the most dangerous person on the list. I was about to stop it, but I was noticed by the other party first.

"If you don't want to die, just give Lao Tzu some points!" Scarface yelled at the three stunned guards on the spot. He had no intention of killing them, and now the situation was very delicate, and the foehn outside the dunes was more of an opportunity for him than a disaster. Compared with being abandoned in this wasteland and having nothing to rely on, the weapons and other materials in his hand have become the capital for him to survive at this moment, and he has to use any bit of resources. "A few of you, go over and unload their weapons, and untie the rest of them by the way." He tossed the key to the men who had been huddled around him and commanded.

The men seemed to be his minions, nodded to Krum, took the key and opened his own handcuffs, leaving one to uncuff the remaining remnants, and the rest walked into the cockpit without saying a word, and looted all the weapons, including a dagger that Blackbeard hid in his boots.

"Krum, our mission is only to send you to bury the bones, and now that the mission has been completed, we will not embarrass you." Blackbeard looked at Scarface, who was aiming at him with a weapon in hand, and said, "Spare my teammates." ”

"Less nonsense, it's not your turn to call the shots here." Krum said viciously, spitting again, "Is it a vacation to send us here?" Brothers," he said to his men, "handcuff them and carry them into the clearing." ”

"It turned out to be the famous 'heavy armored tank' Krum, and I have admired the name for a long time!" The thief greeted him from the side and said with a smile, "The younger brother's name is Zhuge Ming, and he is the younger brother of 'Thousand Hands Zhuge '. ”

In various cities, there are some underground forces who do not want to be in the company of the military, and there are many capable people among them. This "heavy armored tank" is one of them, he was originally a guard captain in the city of steam, because he violated military regulations and absconded to the city of glass, incognito in the streets. Because of his good strength and bright mind, he is quite famous among the underground forces in the City of Glass. This time, he will be captured as a remnant, all because a soldier from the Steam City accidentally recognized him when he passed by Liuli City.

"What 'Thousand Hands Zhuge 'is just a pickpocket leader." Krum snorted disdainfully, and said to the remnants who were standing aside and did not dare to speak, "You have also seen the situation outside, and no one wants to survive alone in this kind of place. Now we can only survive if we are united and in this together. ”

That Zhuge Ming was ridiculed by him, and his face was gloomy, but he still had to rely on him at the moment, so he had to smile and say: "Brother Krum is very right, we all listen to your orders!" ”

The rest of the remnants chimed in, and Krum nodded in satisfaction. He was slightly surprised to find that the young girl was not in the crowd. He pushed through the crowd and found that the two men had not left without permission, but were standing in the distance where the crack had just been opened by the airship, and they didn't care that they were still handcuffed, just observing the situation outside, and turning a deaf ear to the commotion here.

"How's it going, little brother, what's going on outside?" Krum asked with a smile as he walked over to them and handed the key to the electromagnetic handcuffs to Xia Yan.

Xia Yan turned his head and saw the weapon in his hand, he didn't seem to think anything was wrong, he took the key, uncuffed Qian Lan and himself, and smiled at him and said, "Not yet, just curious about the bones outside." ”

"Bones?" Krum also looked outside when he heard this, and the gap was filled with a strong current of heat, and he could only squint his eyes to see. Admittedly, it would not have been possible to see such a mountain of bones in normal times. The surface of the white bones of those Sensen was burned red, and when the wind blew it, it turned into a cloud of ashes and dissipated in the air current. However, he also saw a lot of white bones along the way, and he couldn't see the reason anymore, and looked at Xia Yan suspiciously.

"Don't you think it's strange?" Xia Yan said to him, "This cave can withstand the foehn wind, but there is not a single bone around. Instead, all the bones are on the outside of this cave. ”

"You're saying that under normal circumstances, the remnants should take refuge in this cave like we do." "But they're all dead outside, which means that either they didn't have time to enter the cave, or they ......."

"It's more dangerous inside this cave than outside." The girl who had been observing the foehn turned her head and answered.

Krum's face changed when he heard this, the last time the girl said that the foehn was coming, they were attacked by the foehn without warning. Now she said that it was dangerous here, and he naturally had to guard against it. Although he didn't know the details of these two people, he always felt that they were by no means simple.

"In my opinion, there is another possibility." Zhuge Ming followed over like a shadow, obviously eavesdropping on them. Krum glanced at him with disgust, but infighting was not good for stability right now. So he said in a deep voice: "Something to say! ”

"Yes, Brother Krum." Zhuge Ming nodded and said, "Little brother is foolish, the military nominally abandoned the remnants here and left them to fend for themselves, but in fact they all executed, so the bones are all outside, and they are arranged so neatly." He thought this was a very clever opinion, and after speaking, he glanced at several guards who were tied to the ground in electromagnetic handcuffs, and there was some playfulness in his eyes.

"You don't want to spew blood!" Blackbeard yelled at him angrily, apparently overhearing their conversation, "We're only going to send people here, and we're not going to do anything dirty about executing unarmed people!" ”

"Whether you did it or not, only you know." Zhuge Ming sneered.

"Enough!" Krum interrupted their argument, and he looked around the cave, but nothing out of the ordinary was there. He said to the crowd, "Anyway, this is not a good place, and everyone has to take it one step at a time." Then he added, "This place is not suitable for a long time, and it is imperative that the airship be repaired as soon as possible." As soon as the foehn has passed, you must leave immediately, otherwise you will die at the hands of the burners sooner or later. As for the maintenance of the airship," he said, glancing at Blackbeard, "it's up to you, and it's up to you to use it as a bargaining chip for your life." ”

"Even if we fix the airship, where will you escape?" Blackbeard said quietly, "You are all wanted criminals in the kingdom, and you will be caught again when you go back." ”

"You don't have to worry about it, we have our own place to go. But I'll be right ahead, if you dare to do anything to the airship, don't blame me for being ruthless. Krum said with a sneer, waving to a few of his men, "Let them repair the airship, and if anyone dares to resist, they will be executed on the spot." Then he said to the rest of the people, "The rest of us will find a place to rest first, and as soon as the wind stops, we will take everyone out of this hellish place." ”

The remnants were granted amnesty, and although the heat in the cave was unbearable, they happily found a flat place a little far from the gap and sat on the ground. The air here is not as hot, and the ground is full of soft sand, which is perfect for resting. Blackbeard and the other guards were unhandcuffed, he glared at Krum and the others, and without saying anything more, he led his men to overhaul the airship.

Zhuge Ming patted the dust off a stone flatteringly, beckoned Krum to sit down, and asked softly in a hurry: "I don't know what Brother Krum's plan is, I'm afraid that the current situation is really as the bearded man said, and we have nowhere to hide." ”

Krum didn't want to pay more attention to him, but he saw that several of the nearby remnants were waiting for him to answer, and he knew that they would not be at ease if he didn't give them some news. So he simply sat down, and looked at the boy and girl who were still standing in the crack in the distance.

Qianlan was listening to the surging foehn outside, and after a while, she shook her head at Xia Yan and whispered, "There is no sign of the burning clan. ”

Xia Yan sighed slightly, and said to himself: "Doesn't it have anything to do with this wind......

Zhuge over there couldn't help but be a little curious when he saw that Krum attached so much importance to the two young boys. He also stared at the two of them, and asked Krum, "Do you want me to call them over for Big Brother Krum?" ”

"No need," said Krum, waving his hand as he came back to his senses, to a few of the remnants around him, "have you heard of a rebel army of remnants?" ”

Those people were stunned when they heard this, "Rebels? ”

"That's right," Krum said, nodding, "I expected the day when I would become a remnant, so I've been secretly gathering information about the rebels. ”

Krum told the crowd that since he fled the Steam City, he had been on the run while asking about the desert rebels, leaving a way out for himself. He thought that if someone could survive the bones, then he should be able to. The key is that the possibility of a person surviving is very small, and a team must be found. That rebel army can survive in the desert, there must be some special way, as long as he finds them, he can jump out of the ghost gate.

But even the army could not find any trace of the rebels, and it was not easy for him to find them. On one occasion he heard a traveler from the Wasteland City inadvertently complain that there was a hole in the protective glasses at the edge of the Wasteland City, through which foehn winds sometimes poured in. Although the power is small, it is still a hidden danger, and the government has been slow to repair it, which is really worrying. Hearing this, Krum's mind flashed, and he opened the map and found that the Buried Bone Plains could walk more than a hundred kilometers to the southeast to reach the border of the Wasteland City. So he suddenly felt that it was unrealistic to survive outside the protective goggles after all, and that rebel army was probably going to the wasteland city. If there is transportation, it can be reached in half an hour after a distance of more than 100 kilometers. But even if they could enter the desert city, how could they live in it without being discovered? You must know that the identities of these remnants are interconnected by the five major cities, that is, no matter which city you are a resident of, after becoming a remnant, you will be excluded from the protective glasses.

Krum had a bold idea in his heart, he knew when he was the captain of the guard in the city of steam, and after settling down a little over the years, the conflicts between the cities began to rub again. Several other city lords all thought that the current Queen of Liuli could not afford to take the position of king, and if it weren't for the fear of Master Sinan and the elite of the "Liuli and Cat" guild, they might have taken her place long ago. On the one hand, their hearts are full of resentment towards other cities, and they will inevitably serve the wasteland city; On the other hand, they can gather information about other cities from the remnants.

All of this is just Krum's speculation so far, but he thinks he's 60% sure. As long as they reach the wasteland city, they will definitely find a way to survive.

His reasoning was the Tao, and the remnants were all overjoyed when they heard it, thinking that this time they were finally saved.

Zhuge Ming gave a thumbs up and praised Krum: "Brother Krum is really far-sighted and far-sighted, and my generation admires him so much." ”

Krum ignored him, he looked at the dimming light around him, looked at the guards busy in the cockpit and said to himself, "I wonder how long it will take for this airship to be repaired?" ”

Zhuge Ming was about to stand up and ask, when a piercing laugh suddenly rang out around them.

I don't know where this laughter came from, it was like the grinding of teeth when someone was sleeping, and it was like the coughing of an old man, and it was clearly audible through the roaring foehn outside. Remembering the saying that the cave was more dangerous than the outside, the remnants couldn't help but gather and slowly retreat deeper into the cave.

Krum raised his hand to stop the panicked crowd, listening carefully to where the laughter came from. The laughter didn't stop, it still rang out rhythmically. The cave was already dark, and the ground was full of soft grains of sand, and the laughter seemed to come from all directions, real, but nowhere to be found.

Everyone was silent, when suddenly one of the remnants in the middle of the crowd let out a short exclamation and disappeared into thin air. When everyone heard the sound and went to look, there was no longer half a figure in that place. Even the closest people to him couldn't see how he disappeared.

What can make a person disappear into thin air? The first thing that came to Krum's mind was the legendary spatial magic of the Glass City, which pulled people from one dimension to another. Could it be that there are such masters hidden among these people? He thought to himself as another remnant disappeared before everyone's eyes.

"Underground." Someone reminded everyone, and everyone looked at their feet, only to see that where the person disappeared just now, the sand grains were twisting into a regular circle. It was as if something was flowing inside, and there were not just two of them, but several of them swirling in the sand around them, huddled in the middle. Two mentally poor remnants were frightened and panicked to escape from the encirclement of these strange sand circles, but disappeared into thin air after only a few steps. More and more shrill laughter rang out at the same time, and the ears of people tingled when they heard it.

"Don't act rashly, everyone!" Krum was also frightened by the strange circles in front of him, but after all, he was a person who had been through the wind and waves, and understood that it was not magic, but something was at work underground.

But a few minions with guns couldn't hold back, and opened fire at the strange circle. For a moment, gunshots, strange laughter, and shouts were chaotic in the empty cavern. Several large brown tentacles rose from those circles, each covered in rough suckers that hissed in the air, and it seemed that this was the source of the strange laugh.

"Is it the Burners?" Zhuge Ming hurriedly retreated, lest he be swept away by the tentacles.

"It's not the Burners, it's the Sand Sea Monster 'Octopus'. It used to be a desert pest," Krum finally recognized at the sight of the tentacles, "hiding at the bottom of the deep sea of sand, sucking lost travelers and animals into the sand with suction cups to devour flesh and blood." This monster should have been extinct when the Foehn appeared more than ten years ago, but I didn't expect there to be a living one here! ”

The guards who were repairing the airship on the side also heard the noise and quickly jumped out of the cockpit. One of the sharp-eyed guards pointed to more tentacles emerging from the sand not far away, and said, "More than one!" ”。

"It seems that this cave has become their shelter, no wonder there is not a single corpse of the remnants here." Krum dodged the sweeping tentacles as he spoke, seeing that Blackbeard had taken the opportunity to pick up the dagger that had been captured by his men. He snorted coldly when he remembered something, "I see, the military is so ruthless." I'm afraid that these caves are deliberately used by you to keep these monsters in captivity, saying that you don't execute the remnants, but you are using octopus and foehn to kill people! ”

"It's useless to talk too much, you and I should let go of our grievances first and find a way to get out is the best policy." Blackbeard had murderous intent in his eyes, and used his dagger to slash off a tentacle in front of him.

More tentacles attacked Krum, Zhuge Ming and others, and Krum saw that there was no way to retreat, so he simply turned his heart sideways and said in a deep voice: "That's it, anyway, my life can be regarded as picking up." Give it a go now! After saying that, he actually raised his arms and took the attack of the three tentacles. The fourth tentacle slashed down at him with lightning speed.

"Brother Krum, I'm here to help you!" Zhuge Ming snatched the light energy gun in the hand of the frightened minions on the side, and swept wildly at those tentacles. When he turned to look at Krum, he was so frightened that he almost dropped the gun in his hand to the ground.

"Ah, I can't see that your kid is quite righteous." I saw that half of Krum's face had been torn off by the tentacles of the octopus, revealing the blood-red muscles inside, and in the middle of those muscles, there were some metal wires connected to them, which were flashing faintly with electric light at the moment. He didn't feel the pain, and with a wave of his arms, he tore off the two tentacles in his hand violently, splashing a burst of yellow juice.

"So you're a cyborg!" Zhuge Ming exclaimed in surprise.