Xiao Yilan woke up from a mess, only to feel that his mouth was dry, and he subconsciously opened his mouth to ask for water, but no one responded.

"Are you awake?"

Xiao Yilan opened his eyes, but there was darkness in front of him. He squinted, and when he got used to the darkness, he gradually saw the figure next to him. It was Li Zheng.

"Where is this?" asked Xiao Yilan.

Li Zheng sighed in the dark: "It should be our accomplice who followed the man before who arrested us, and this should be the cage we saw at that time." ”

"It's all in their hands, we can still live?" Xiao Yilan shuddered.

"I don't think they killed us, maybe they still cared about your identity, if it weren't for that, I'm afraid we would have been dead in the wilderness long ago. Li Zheng hesitated for a moment, but still said,

Xiao Yilan lowered his head, and after a while, he said: "I'm really stupid, why did I join in this excitement at that time!" His voice was a little urn-like, very annoyed, and the whole person was trembling slightly, as if he was suppressing himself not to cry. Li Zheng almost blurted out the sentence "I knew I wouldn't have come with you", and suddenly remembered the appearance of Xiao Yilan when he said, "They don't look good, let's go see what they do", a joke, actually became a prophecy, and he couldn't help but sigh again.

But he still didn't say anything, just comforted Xiao Yilan, "Second Young Master, don't worry, they haven't killed us yet, and they don't have the courage to do so, maybe they'll release us when they will!"

As he spoke, as if to distract Xiao Yilan, he pointed into the darkness: "Show you something new, what do you think it is?"

Xiao Yilan struggled to sit up, squinting his eyes in the direction of Li Zheng's finger, through the faint light shining through the black cloth, he gradually saw the outline in the darkness, and his somewhat weak body suddenly shrank back unconsciously.

Two very burly "people" leaned against the other corner. It may not be accurate to say that they are "people", they only have the appearance of human bodies, and the outlines of their bodies can be faintly seen in the dark: a head that is too large for humans, and long limbs, which look extremely incongruous, Xiao Yilan estimates that if they stand up, they will be about seven feet. They now sit in corners in a position similar to "sitting", with several chains on their bodies that lock their limbs in place.

But the weirdest thing is that there is not a trace of flesh on their bodies, but they are made of countless thick strips that are twisted and twisted, and they look like the branches of a tree are twisted together. The parts that should be part of the skin are all covered by these twisted branches, like human veins, and the limbs are also composed of several branches twisted into a twisted shape. It is these twisted branches that make up their bodies. It's just that on the head, like two dark gems embedded in it, bright and transparent, obviously their eyes, and there is a cracked slit underneath, which should be the mouth.

Xiao Yilan was startled at first, but saw that these two "tree people" didn't seem to move, they just blinked and looked at themselves, and they were still tied with heavy iron chains, which seemed lifeless. Xiao Yilan also gradually relaxed and looked at them with some curiosity. He remembered that the muffled roar he had heard that day must have been made by this creature.

"What do you guess these things are?" asked Li Zheng next to him.

"Tree spirit?" Xiao Yilan's mood calmed down, a little uncertain, "I heard from Mr. before that there is a species that resembles a tree living in the vast forests of southern Xinjiang, with facial features and limbs like human beings. The inhabitants of southern Xinjiang call them 'spirits of the ancient trees'. ”

Li Zheng frowned: "Living in southern Xinjiang, how could they appear here? Could it be that this group of people came from thousands of miles away from southern Xinjiang to capture them? They are very valuable?"

Xiao Yilan shook his head: "I haven't heard that there is anything valuable on the tree spirit, so it can't be used as firewood." ”

Li Zheng burst out laughing, Xiao Yilan felt a little proud in his heart, and continued: "And legend has it that although the tree spirits are slow, they are much stronger than humans, and there are even rumors that they can control mountains, rivers, grass and trees, and the vast forest is where they live. It stands to reason that such an iron cage and chain will not be able to trap them. Listening to Xiao Yilan's words, Li Zheng showed a thoughtful expression.

"This group of people seems to have some special means to deal with the dryads, so that the dryads are temporarily powerless to resist and not die immediately. He wanted to say that this should be a confidential matter, but he was bumped into by the two of them, and the future of the two of them is really uncertain.

Xiao Yilan also thought of this, and his heart was upset, and he suddenly beat the cage hard, making a dull sound.

There was a noise outside the cage, and after a while, the darkness was opened, and the light penetrated, shaking Xiao Yilan and Li Zheng unable to open their eyes.

"Yo, our boy is awake!" came an unpleasant voice outside, which sounded a bit like the cry of a duck. Then Xiao Yilan saw the face with a black blindfold clearly.

"Where are you going to take us?" Although he was a little scared, Li Zheng was the first to speak.

"Hell!" the one-eyed man grinned, his voice still unpleasant.

"We're going to ...... If there is anything bad, the Chengji Mansion will not let you go!" Xiao Yilan stubbornly puffed up his chest, but his body was still trembling slightly uncontrollably, and cold sweat broke out on his back, and as soon as the threatening words were spoken, the effect was half discounted.

"Hehe, the kid is so timid, but his tone is quite big, I don't know how much weight your Chengji King has in front of King Yama!" he deliberately made a fierce expression to scare Xiao Yilan, obviously not caring about his threat.

Li Zheng frowned, and asked again, "What are you doing catching tree spirits?"

The one-eyed man's mocking expression suddenly disappeared, and his eyes became fierce. He didn't speak, glared at the two of them, and led the horse away. Suddenly the surroundings were plunged into darkness again.

"It seems that their purpose in catching these two dryads is much more complicated than selling them for money. Li Zheng said softly.

Xiao Yilan sat on the ground a little depressed. There was silence all around, except for the sound of rolling wheels and the faint sound of horses' hooves outside the black cloth.

Suddenly, he seemed to hear something strange. The voice was so subtle that it seemed to be inaudible, but Xiao Yilan heard it very clearly. It was like the crisp sound of a shell shattering, like a chicken cub breaking out of its shell.

Xiao Yilan reacted and untied the rope he had been wearing around his neck, on which an emerald green bead was strung together. He remembered that he had bought it at the Benhai City Market that day, and he had always worn it as a trinket on his body. If it hadn't made a noise, he would have forgotten that he still had such a thing on him.

The jade bead was still emerald green, but now with the sound of breaking the shell, if you look closely, there is a little glimmer in the center of it, if it weren't for the darkness, Xiao Yilan would be difficult to find.

Xiao Yilan also noticed that when he took out the jade-like beads, the two lifeless tree spirits who had been squatting on the side suddenly became a little excited. Their eyes widened, their mouths opened and closed like cracks, but instead of the muffled roar they heard that day, there was a faint "squeak".

Li Zheng looked at the beads in Xiao Yilan's hand with some curiosity, and then looked at the tree spirit with strange behavior, with an inexplicable expression. The voice of the dryad sounded to him just a few individual syllables, completely intelligible.

And Xiao Yilan listened to this seemingly chaotic voice, and he was also at a loss. Suddenly, he caught a flash of light in the midst of the chaos. He carried the jade bead and walked slowly towards the tree spirit.

Li Zheng looked at the scene in front of him, and his jaw seemed to fall off in surprise: as Xiao Yilan slowly approached the tree spirit, the two tree spirits also emitted a faint light on their bodies, just like the light on the jade bead, sometimes bright and sometimes dark like breathing. Xiao Yilan felt that the jade bead in his hand had an urge to be attracted to fly towards the tree spirit, and unconsciously took two steps forward. The tree spirit suddenly moved, which frightened Xiao Yilan into retreating, and the chains that were originally wrapped around them were suddenly tightened, making a "gurgling" sound, which was still harsh in the silent space.

The sound of horses' hooves outside was approaching, Xiao Yilan hurriedly withdrew the jade bead, stuffed it into his pocket, and at the same time turned over and retreated to the previous corner, and the abnormality on the tree spirit disappeared. The black cloth was lifted, and it was still the one-eyed man, who looked inside, and when he found that everything was the same, he scolded and put down the black cloth that had been lifted. His scolding faded away, and then it was barely audible.

Li Zheng stepped forward and asked, "What is this?"

"I don't know. Xiao Yilan shook his head, but he couldn't hide the excitement on his face, "I think this thing may still be useful." ”

"What the hell is this?"

Xiao Yilan took a deep breath, looked at Li Zheng, and then looked at the tree spirit, took out the jade bead from his pocket, carried the rope, stretched out his arm in the direction of the tree spirit, and the faint light appeared again, and made a "shhh" gesture to the tree spirit.

The dryads didn't make any more sounds, but there was a sudden glimmer of light in their cloudy eyes.