Seeing that they were relieved, Wang Yuanqi decided to seize this opportunity, pretending to explain mysteriously: "Buddhism comes from the West, and the word Milan comes from the Sanskrit word "Mount Meru". ”

The term Mount Meru is a Brahmanical term, which was later quoted by Buddhists in Sanskrit, and is often used as the legend of Mount Meru or the sacred mountain of Sumeru, which is active in Buddhist stories.

It is rumored that Mount Meru is the only place where the gods dwell in this heaven and earth, tens of thousands of meters high, tens of thousands of meters wide, and tens of thousands of meters below the water surface, shaped like a golden mountain as high as the sky, is the center of the universe, and is also the center of the sun, moon and stars, the island is surrounded by the Aral Sea, the sea is centered on Mount Meru, scattered four continents, eight small continents, living all living beings, three realms and six paths.

At that time, when the Buddhists from the West came to the Central Plains to preach the scriptures, they saw at a glance that there was a huge oasis in the center of the Mirandze, and the unique terrain here was almost exactly the same as the Buddha's Mount Meru, and these monks thought that it was the miracle of the Buddha's arrival, so they came to the oasis island and began to build a Buddhist temple here.

Since then, the four directions of the oasis have erected the Miran Great Stupa, and these monks have stayed here, practicing and preaching here, making Mirlanze become the Buddhist mandala city of Buddhist cultivators in the Western Regions.

Speaking of this, Wang Yuanqi continued: "Think about it, this matter is estimated that even Keli doesn't know, but I know what he doesn't know, this can always prove that I have an understanding of the allusions to the Thousand Buddha Caves, you can rest assured to take me, since Milan is a Buddhist mandala, it must be useful to me." ”

Song Siyuan looked at Yue Guanchao: "It's better to bring Wang Daoist with you, the other identity of Secret Lan City is the Dharma Mandala, bring him and we can also better understand the Secret Lan City during the ancient Shanshan civilization, how about it?" ”

Yue Guanchao nodded: "Since you have said so, then do as you say, I think it's not good for us all to go into the desert, seeing that the second uncle and the old grandson are old, let them stay at the inn, in case something happens to us, we can also let them think of a way outside." ”

In the next two days, Nayi's condition gradually improved, and Keli joined them in the Thousand Buddha Cave as promised.

At this moment, except for the old Yuetou and the old grandson who stayed behind, everyone else gathered in front of the Thousand Buddha Cave, which changed from the depression and desertion of the past and became lively.

Behind Keli, more than a dozen camels could be seen standing in groups on the sand, constantly crooking their mouths and chewing on the contents of their appetites, exhaling hot air from their nostrils and muffling out a few muffled animal roars as they regurgitated.

Yue Guanchao saw these dozen batches of strong camels, and said excitedly: "Yes, Keli, we also want to rent camels these days, but as soon as these people heard that we were going to Sha'er City, they wouldn't let us rent them." ”

Keli touched the camels' heads and fed the thorny ball cactus in his hand into their mouths: "Sha'er City is the devil's ear, let alone camels, even the living may not be able to come back alive, these camel shops are all businessmen, it is impossible to rent out so many camels and go to Sha'er City to die." ”

"These camels I am looking for are not from camel merchants, but from some of my Orion friends, and when we come back from Sha'er City, I will return them."

When Keli spoke, he looked at the people, in addition to Yue Guanchao and Song Siyuan, there were also Yue Erpao, Xu Xiake, and Wang Daoshi, they were a group of seven or eight people, and these camels could also be evenly distributed.

Everything was in order, only the east wind was owed, and everyone rode out of the Thousand Buddha Cave on camels and rushed to the northwest of Sha'er City.

……

Ding Lingdang, camel bells rippling, barren mountains towering, sand dunes rugged.

A group of people ride on camels, like ants and insects, like a black gossamer slowly walking between the sand dunes, the yellow sand in the distance is long, and the sand and the sky are linked, so that people can't distinguish the boundary between heaven and earth, and the nearby sand dunes are even more undulating and rugged.

As they walked, they were inevitably blown by the dry and hot wind in the wasteland, as if they had entered a steamer, and in the case of high temperature and low humidity, they were covered in sweat like rain, and even if most of their mouths and noses were covered, they could smell the rich sand and soil of the desert.

The smell of sand in the wasteland is even more pungent than that of the Loess Plateau, and the dry bones of decayed animals can be seen everywhere, which makes the smell even more unpleasant.

Between breaths, the heat has dried their throats, so that people will inevitably have dry mouths and sore bones, and at this time they can only desperately cover the cloth on their mouths to lose a little less moisture in their throats.

They didn't expect that only a few dozen miles out of the Dunhuang Oasis, the surrounding area has been restored to rough and desolate, all they see is a long stretch of yellow sand, bare sand dunes, or else it is the wind erosion wasteland, waste land and decadent city, only to see the sky is desolate, the ground is yellow, and there is no trace of greenery here.

The further they went northwest, the more they could feel that they were approaching death and approaching the Devil's Sea, and it was no wonder that the people nearby were reluctant to go to the desert at all—knowing that there would be no return, who could move forward calmly!

"Moo~~~"

After walking for a long time, the camels finally couldn't stand it, they raised their heads and mooed, and they were no longer willing to rush forward, some camels even landed on the ground with their front hooves, and threw people directly off the hump, which also made other camels follow suit, throwing people to the ground, and constantly stepping in place.

Kryan got up from the ground and patted the sand off his body, he half-crouched down and pressed his head to the camels, not knowing what he muttered to the camels, which finally stopped howling and calmed down a little.

Keli touched the camel's head: "Sha'er City is located in the dry old road near Tarim, the closest to Dunhuang is also three hundred miles, they walk for a day, barely able to walk halfway, no matter what, two days are absolutely not able to run, these camels are also mortal wombs, walking and hurrying at most half a day to rest and eat forage, let's go to the nearby abandoned ancient city to rest and rest first, and wait for the camels to be fed water and drink plants before leaving." ”

With that, Keli led the camel and hurried to the abandoned ancient city in front of them.

The area of this ancient city is not large, the city wall has been weathered and collapsed, only a small part of the broken wall remains, into the city, most of the houses have been decayed, only the low wall has not collapsed.

They found the corner of the wall that could keep the wind out, and laid down all the camels, and then Keli took out the clay pot, poured the water bladder from the hump into the clay pot, and at the same time took out a lot of dry green hay mixed with beans and dried sweet potatoes.

These camels were already hungry and thirsty after a long journey, and when they saw that there was water in the pot, they gathered around it, stretched out their tongues and licked the water, and at the same time, they began to chew on straw.

Everyone opened the kettle on their waists, raised their heads and continued to water their throats, which were already thirsty, and the heat on their bodies was finally relieved by a meal of cold water.

Seeing that Yue Ercang was about to pour water to wash his face, Keli hurriedly stopped him: "The water in the desert is very precious, it's best not to waste it so much." ”

"I can cool my face by washing it, how can this be called a waste." Yue Ercang questioned.