Inside the car.

"Young shopkeeper, do you have the confidence to go to Phoenix Village this time?" Tang Can and Zhou Tao sat in the same car, sorting out their equipment and asking Zhou Tao.

Zhou Tao played with the silver pistol given by Zhao Chunxiang in his hand.

"Sure? No, but I have confidence, now we don't know much about the situation over there, the boat will naturally go straight to the bridge, everything will wait until Phoenix Village, and we will solve all the problems one by one. Zhou Tao inserted the pistol back into his waist, and the light in his eyes was extremely firm.

"I trust you, less shopkeeper." Tang Can is very confident in Zhou Tao.

Hearing Tang Can call him a shopkeeper, Zhou Tao was also very helpless, during which he told Tang Can many times that he could call him Brother Zhou or Brother Tao, but that kid didn't want to, and in the end he had no choice but to let him go.

Three off-road vehicles galloped all the way.

A day later, three dusty cars were parked at the foot of Xishan Mountain in Jincheng.

The door opened, and a man with a mustache stood outside.

"Young shopkeeper, we have arrived in Xishan, and the road cars behind us can't go up, so we can only rely on us to go up." The mustachioed man said respectfully to Zhou Tao.

This mustache's name is Tang Ming, and he is also a member of the Tang family, and he is from the same family as Tang Can.

Zhou Tao got out of the car and said to Tang Ming: "Then it's hard for the brothers and me to walk up the mountain, Tang Ming, you go and greet the brothers." ”

Looking at the reckless forest on the mountain, Zhou Tao took the lead and walked up.

This should be one of the countless branches of the Qinling Mountains.

The Qinling Mountains are distributed in the shape of a bee's waist, and several mountain ranges are divided into two wings on the east and west wings. Mountains and basins are alternately arranged, and there are many rivers that cut deep into the mountains. The 800-mile Qinchuan River has been a place of famous cultural relics and historic sites since ancient times.

Especially on the northern slope, there are many imperial tombs. The tombs of other dignitaries and wealthy gentry are countless, so it has been a place where tomb robbery has been rampant since ancient times.

The Phoenix Village we went to this time is located on a branch vein on the northern slope of the Qinling Mountains.

Seeing Zhou Tao looking up the mountain, Tang Can walked over: "Young shopkeeper, according to the information provided by Mingtang before, from here, about thirty miles up, you will arrive at a local village, and it is said that the people of this village are the remnants who moved out of Phoenix Village.

If we want to go to Phoenix Village, our first stop must be to go to that village, where we may be able to get some information about Phoenix Village. “

Zhou Tao nodded: "Okay, then let's go to that village first." ”

Walking in the bushes, countless sharp weeds and branches on his body, making a swishing sound, Zhou Tao was physically strong, and he was not afraid of these, but the others couldn't stand it and pulled down their sleeves one after another.

Although Zhou Tao was not afraid of these shrubs, Zhou Tao still pulled out the broken knife and kept beating in the bushes, as the old saying goes, the grass scares the snake, this is the truth, like this kind of forest, poisonous snakes are everywhere, knocking on the surrounding bushes can scare the snake away, so as to avoid being bitten by the poisonous snake suddenly.

After walking for about an hour, Zhou Tao's ears moved, his body squatted, and he hurriedly made a gesture to make everyone stop.

"What's wrong? Less shopkeepers. Tang Can walked over, squatted down beside Zhou Tao, and asked softly.

Zhou Tao made a shushing gesture and continued to listen.

After a while, Zhou Tao said to Tang Can: "About five hundred meters in front of us, there is a group of people, about six people, I heard these people chatting and said, their purpose this time should be the same as ours, they are also coming to Phoenix Village." “

Tang Can also tilted his ears, but he didn't hear any sound, and couldn't help but ask with some doubts: "Why didn't I hear anything, those people also went to Phoenix Village?" Could it be that our purpose is the same, to deal with the strange things in Phoenix Village? ”

Zhou Tao shook his head and said softly: "My hearing is relatively sensitive, but what is the purpose of those people, this is not very clear, it is too far away, and I can't hear too clearly." ”

"Shall we catch up and ask? After all, Phoenix Village is too dangerous there, and if these people are tourists, it may be dangerous. Tang Can asked softly.

Zhou Tao thought about it, but still shook his head and said, "It's not a rush now, let's follow them first and take a look to see what they do." ”

"That's okay, everything is arranged by the shopkeeper." Tang Can nodded.

"Those people have moved, let's hurry up and follow, Tang Can, you and the brothers in the back say, the movements are quieter, don't let the gang in front notice." After Zhou Tao finished speaking, he got up and continued to walk forward, while Tang Can went to the back to convey Zhou Tao's order.

After following the gang for a while, Zhou Tao found that the route of the gang was the same as their first stop, which was also to the village that was rumored to be the remnants of Phoenix Village.

After following these people and walking for more than an hour, Zhou Tao saw several small tiled houses in the distance, and at the same time saw a few old men basking in the sun at the entrance of the village, and those people had already entered the village.

Zhou Tao and others also followed into the village.

It may be that this is relatively close to Phoenix Village, and Phoenix Village is going to build a tourist resort, so there are hotels for tourists to rest in this village, although it is only a few tile houses that are relatively missing, but for the village deep in the mountains, it is still relatively rare.

At this time, it was already evening, the sky was gradually darkening, and the group of people that Zhou Tao had been following walked into the only hotel in the village.

Zhou Tao thought about it and decided to stay in this hotel at night, first, he wanted to know what the purpose of those people entering Phoenix Village was, and second, the brothers followed the mountain road for a day, and they were already tired, so it was also a good choice to take this place to rest for a night.

Walking into the courtyard, the group of six had already sat down at a table in the courtyard.

Seeing someone coming in, these six people looked at the gate of the courtyard together, and when they saw that there were ten people in Zhou Tao's party, these people immediately tensed their muscles and became vigilant.

Passing by the table where these six people were sitting, Zhou Tao's nose twitched slightly, and he smelled a strong earthy smell on these people.

Zhou Tao's heart moved, and he already had a guess about the identities of these people.

Zhou Tao was silent, walked past those people, and sat down at a table not far away.

Zhou Tao and his party of ten people sat down at three tables, while Tang Can and Tang Ming sat next to Zhou Tao.

This trip, Zhao Chunxiang asked him to protect Zhou Tao's safety.

A half-aged about forty years old walked over, looked at Zhou Tao and his party of ten people, was very happy, and said with a smile on her face and a thick local accent: "What are you all eating?" “

Zhou Tao smiled and said, "Just give us some of your characteristics here, enough for ten of us to eat, and then arrange three rooms for us, and we will spend the night here tonight." “

"Okay, you guys wait, the food will be ready soon." The proprietress turned around and went to arrange for them.

The six people who entered this courtyard before, after Zhou Tao and the others came in, were not talking, they were just eating their own.

Zhou Tao secretly observed these people.

Among these six people, there is an old man who is slightly older, who should be in his sixties, and there are five people left, four of whom are men in their mid-thirties, and one should be about the same age as Zhou Tao.

All six of them were dressed in sportswear, dressed as tourists.

Tang Can also observed the six people for a while, and then whispered in Zhou Tao's ear: "Young shopkeeper, are these six people really just tourists?" ”

Zhou Tao shook his head slightly, and said in a voice that could only be heard by the two of them: "They are not tourists, they are sand diggers, and when I just passed by them, I smelled a strong earthy smell.

Only people who have been underground for a long time have that kind of smell, and if you look closely at their palms, they all have thick calluses on their mouths, which is also one of the characteristics of sand diggers. “

Tang Can's eyes froze, he didn't expect these people to be tomb robbers, the sand digger in Zhou Tao's mouth is the name of the tomb robber.

Tang Can still wanted to say something to Zhou Tao, but Zhou Tao suddenly made a silent gesture to him.

From Zhou Tao's line of sight, Tang Can saw the sixty-year-old man at the table walking towards them.

After the old man sat down at Zhou Tao's table, he knocked the cigarette pouch in his hand on his feet, and said in the dialect of Jincheng: "Little doll, you came to this ravine and ravine, are you here to turn over the mountains?" ”

Tang Can didn't understand what it meant, and turned his head to look at Zhou Tao.

Turning Lingzi is actually the meaning of inverted bucket tomb robbery, which is the black language of tomb robbers here in Jincheng.

Zhou Tao pretended not to understand and made a blank expression.

"Uncle, what do you mean by that? We were in a tour group and heard that something strange was happening here, so we came here for an adventure. ”

The old man stared at Zhou Tao for a while, showed a mouthful of yellow teeth, smiled at Zhou Tao and said, "Little baby, there are a lot of jackals, tigers and leopards in this deep mountain and old forest, you have to be careful." “

"Thank you for the reminder." Zhou Tao pretended to be grateful and said.

The old man put the cigarette pouch in his mouth and took a puff, then turned back to their table.

After the old man sat down, one of the middle-aged men in his forties asked, "Eighth Master, what are those boys coming from?" Isn't it also here to climb the ridge? Is it not in conflict with us on this trip? ”

The old man took a puff of his cigarette pouch and said, "Don't worry, it's just a bunch of cucumbers, don't worry about them." ”

After listening to their conversation, Tang Can asked Zhou Tao: "What does this cucumber mean?" ”

Zhou Tao said lightly: "This cucumber is a black word cut among the tomb robbers in the northwest, which means a fledgling stunned green." ”

"Oh!"

Tang Can, the kid, showed a sudden look, and looked at Zhou Tao with a look of adoration: "Young shopkeeper, you know a lot." '

Zhou Tao waved his hand: "This is all from me and my grandfather, it's all a small way,"

"It turned out to be the old man, no wonder, although the hall master of Mingtang was the old shopkeeper before, but the actual person in charge was your grandfather, the old man can be said to be a hundred Xiaosheng in the rivers and lakes, and there is nothing that his old man doesn't know."