This black cloth bat never moves near densely populated villages or towns, and its activity area is mostly in the Gobi tidal flats, desert mountains and forests far away from people, and during the day, they lurk in various postures and cannot be seen by living people.

As soon as night comes, they become active, especially when they are alive, and their sense of taste and smell quickly becomes very sensitive to the smell of their prey.

Afterwards, under the cover of night, these black cloth bats will follow the path of the living people in the air, flying slowly all the way, until the living people have rested, and they will not start moving.

After the traveler rests at night, these black cloth bats will fly directly to their faces, spread their wings to completely cover the faces of the living, and then the residual smell on the wings will directly make people faint, and the body will seem to be taking hemp boiling, between coma and consciousness.

At this time, they will use their sharp teeth to tear open the skin and skull bones directly, and start sucking the brain marrow of these living people, until the brain marrow is sucked dry, and they will not leave.

If a person is sucked dry of his brain marrow, he will basically die immediately, which also means that as long as the black cloth bat is found to be sucking the brain marrow, then most of the living person's life will not be saved.

Along the way, Xu Xiake followed the caravan to avoid the abandoned ancient city and dense jungle, and nothing strange happened, but when he was close to Dunhuang, he still encountered this strange creature.

At that time, the caravan was not far from Dunhuang, and when they saw that it was getting late, they found an open space to set up camp, getting closer and closer to the destination, so that the caravan's tense nerves relaxed, and many people began to light bonfires, drink and sing, and only gradually died down in the middle of the night.

Maybe it's the sound and the heat that draw something in the desert to them, and when they think they're safe, they're already being targeted by something dirty.

After midnight, when the lights were extinguished and most of the merchants began to rest, some black cloth bats began to sneak into the tents by the darkness of the night, covering the merchants' faces.

Their wings were filled with the smell of bewilderment, and they fell into a coma as soon as they were blindfolded, so fast that they didn't even have a chance to scream, and some of them died just like that, leaving their lives in the desert.

When someone in the caravan woke up the next day and found that the people around him had been dead for a long time, and even their brains were empty, they exclaimed in surprise, which frightened everyone.

After the caravan's leader-style statistics, there are about seven or eight merchants who were sucked clean of their brains by the black cloth bat this time, and they are all without exception, and the wounds are all concentrated in the center of the eyebrows, and it looks as if someone has torn a "ten" shaped gap to the center of the eyebrows, and the bone hole inside is clearly visible.

When the black cloth bats sucked their brains dry, not only did these people not feel pain, but they didn't even have fear, probably because the confusion aura worked, and they kept an inexplicable smile on their faces until they died, and it looked as if they were smiling to a good death.

This bloody wound was matched with a strange smile, and even if they didn't see the shadow of the black cloth bat, they knew that this wound was probably left by this kind of beast!

When Xu Xiake said this, his face seemed to be very taboo about this trip: "In short, although I followed the caravan to Dunhuang, there are indeed many strange things encountered along the way, if we go, we must be mentally prepared to meet many monsters." ”

"Even, encountering these situations in the Western Desert has made the fear caused to us even worse."

The little Taoist priest paused and continued to explain: "Starting from the Hexi Corridor, the great rivers and mountains we see basically do not exist, and the eyes are full of wasteland Gobi, rocky tidal flats, and boundless plateaus formed by soil erosion. ”

"The desert is more barren and desolate than we see, and when this desolation and desolation is boundless, of course danger will follow."

"People walking in this environment, will become extremely lonely and depressed, if there is a group of people to say, if you are traveling alone, it is easy to have problems when walking, not to mention the many strange things on the way, just from the loneliness of the heart, is enough to make people crazy."

Xu Xiake mentioned this and reminded: "It is precisely because of this that the caravans going to the west to do business often go together with dozens of people, in addition to taking care of each other, a large part of the reason is to alleviate the loneliness of being in the wasteland." ”

Song Siyuan pondered Xu Xiake's words carefully, and asked curiously with a curious look: "Don't mention anything else for the time being, the black cloth bat really has such a big appetite and can absorb people's brains?" With such a small size, combined with the wounds you mentioned, if you want to suck the brain spinal cord dry, it will probably take a long time, is it possible that no one will find them for such a long time? ”

Xu Xiake nodded: "I didn't believe it when I heard about it at the time, until I saw the corpses of these people, I didn't believe that there was indeed such a creature in the world, I had been meditating in the tent that night, and I didn't know much about all this, and when I woke up the next day, this thing appeared in the tent I was in." ”

"Later, the caravan buried their bones in the nearby villages, and when the people in the village saw this wound, they knew that they had been sucked dry by the black cloth bat, and the local villagers called this bat the black cloth bag, which means that when eating the human brain, it is like a black cloth bag on the head of a person."

At the mention of this, the little Taoist priest's eyes lit up: "According to the words of the local villagers, the black cloth bag is specially used to forage at night, and if a person sleeps on his back to the sky, it is very likely that the black cloth bag will be directly covered on his face. ”

"These black cloth bags have accumulated a liquid under the wings for many years, which will make people dizzy and fall into a half-dreaming state after inhalation, many times people do not know how to resist, but they don't feel the black cloth bags on their faces at all, and as the smell under the wings gets deeper and deeper, they can't wake up."

"Being lying on the head with a black cloth bag does not mean that you will die." Xu Xiake changed his words and continued: "If you can find the black cloth pocket, these things are still very easy to deal with, this kind of thing can kill people, not because they think they are cruel, but they just take advantage of the weakness of people when they sleep." ”

He paused, as if he remembered something, and his eyes were empty: "When he was in the village, one of those villagers was attacked by the black cloth bag when he was sleeping in the wild, and it was impossible for him to live, but fortunately, his companions quickly found him and killed the black cloth bag, which barely saved his life." ”

"It's just that when this person was found, the center of his eyebrows had been bitten open by a black cloth bag, and his brain marrow had been sucked some, which was equivalent to a head injury.

Xu Xiake said this, and returned to seriousness: "When I went to Dunhuang, I encountered too many strange situations with the caravan, if you want to go, I don't recommend taking my old path." ”

Song Siyuan nodded: "I thought the northwest would be very desolate and rude, but I didn't expect that these strange and strange things were more strange than those in Han Land." ”

Yue Qingshan smoked a dry cigarette, frowned and said: "The northwest is just desolate, it doesn't mean that these places are peaceful, from these abandoned cities, it can also be seen that this place has been war-torn, and at the same time, because of the proximity to the desert and desert, many things far away from people will be active, and it is not strange that there will be such a monster as a black cloth bag, I am afraid that there will be many strange monsters we encounter at that time." ”

"This time, the big guys cheered up, walked in unfamiliar places, and it was normal to spend more effort."

Song Siyuan picked up the railway access map, studied it for a moment and said: "It's okay to take the train from our location, there are not many railway routes in the northwest region, the nearest railway line from the Hexi Corridor, that is, Lancheng, Gansu, my suggestion is that we take the train to Lancheng and get off, and then rent a local freight car to go through the Hexi Corridor and finally arrive at Dunhuang City." ”

"Hey!"

Xu Xiake obviously sighed, and Song Siyuan asked, "What's wrong?" Do you have any other way? ”

The little Taoist priest teased: "There is no way, but there is a situation where I have to warn you first, I think you have no concept of the backwardness of the northwest region." ”

Xu Xiake coughed a few times and cleared his throat: "The Xijing we have seen has been built because it is a preparatory capital, and it looks quite decent. ”

"Don't say it's a desert town like Dunhuang, it's Lancheng with a railway, it just looks decent, in fact, there are no modern buildings in it, it's no different from the last years of the previous dynasty, dilapidated and backward, what kind of trucks you are talking about, the people have never seen it at all."

The little Taoist priest raised his eyebrows and asked, "Do you know what their daily means of transportation are?" ”

"Carriage?" Song Siyuan guessed.

"Donkey cart!" Xu Xiake raised his eyebrows: "What other mule carts, ox carts, anyway, even horses are rare objects here, they belong to high-grade livestock, they use mules and donkeys the most, and poor families rely on sheepskin rafts to cross the river, and they can't even sit on a boat." ”

"Think about it, what the overall backwardness of the Northwest has become."

He paused and said categorically: "After we arrive in Lancheng, I suggest that we either rent a horse caravan and go forward, or we can only continue to enter the Hexi Corridor with the caravan. ”

Song Siyuan estimated the distance of the Hexi Corridor and shook his head: "We could have reached Lanzhou by train as soon as possible, if we continued to turn into a carriage, the time wasted would have been wasted by taking the train, and I will see if I can find other ways, at least, find a car that can drink gasoline, this horse-drawn donkey is driving, not to mention the slow speed along the way, and it is possible to get sick." ”