When he saw the oasis and the village in the oasis, Wu Neng breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It seems that we don't have to sleep on the sand tonight." ”

Shi Cheng's eyes were also a lot more relaxed, he looked at the oasis in front of him, and said to Wu Neng beside him: "The scale of this oasis is not small, and the degree of desertification near that village is relatively light, we may be able to find an official road near the village." When the time comes, we'll see if we can buy a carriage in the village, so that we can get on the road with less trouble. ”

Tie Mian, who was standing behind Shi Cheng's left, didn't speak until he heard Shi Cheng's words, as if he remembered something. A piece of parchment pulled out from a secret place in the storage bag around his waist and stared at a spot on the paper in thought.

Wu Neng noticed Tie Mian's actions, leaned over curiously, and asked, "What are you looking at?" ”

Shi Cheng also noticed the parchment on Tie Mian's hand, so he slanted his eyes and looked at it, and asked with some surprise, "Such a detailed map was drawn!" Where did you get that from? ”

"Take it." Iron Mask's answer was brief, "From the tent of a garrison." I don't want to get lost here. At this point, he stretched out his hand and pointed to a place on the map and said, "We are not far from Xieyang Road." ”

"If the error in this graph is not large, it should be." Shi Cheng looked at the map and nodded as he said, "It seems that the commander of that garrison has been unlucky. ”

After staring at the map for a while, Shi Cheng said to Wu Neng and Tie Mian, "If the orientation of this oasis drawn on the map is not wrong. At this point, he raised his head, pointed in the northeast direction, and continued: "Walk about six miles over there, and you can go up to the Xiyang Road. In the evening, we can stay at the nearest Cloud Hill City and check out the news by the way. ”

"Then it's decided, the sun is about to set, let's hurry into the village, I'm not as good as the two of you, this day down, I feel like my body is about to fall apart." Wu Neng said.

After Tie Mian put away the parchment, the three of them still headed by Shi Cheng and walked towards the village not far away.

When the three of them were about to walk to the entrance of the village, Shi Cheng suddenly said "um" and stopped.

"What's wrong, Old Shi?" Wu Neng looked at Shi Cheng a little strangely.

"The village seems a little too quiet...... Maybe I'm too careful, but I always feel that something is wrong. Shi Cheng said with some seriousness, and his eyes were slightly vigilant.

"Lao Shi, don't scare me." Although Wu Neng was young, after all, he had also walked on the rivers and lakes for a few years, and he had seen Shi Cheng's power as early as in Redwood City, so he looked at the village carefully, and his heart began to feel uneasy. The iron mask beside Wu Neng didn't say anything, but his hand was already on the hilt of the sword, and the whole person was ready to go.

Shi Cheng said in a low voice: "Follow me, don't get separated." ”

He pulled out the branch from his waist and stretched out his feet and stepped softly into the village.

There was silence in the village, and the strange feeling in Wu Neng's heart was getting heavier and heavier, and now the sun had not completely set, but there was no one in the village path. He followed Shi Cheng closely, he and Shi Cheng didn't actually have any trust in each other, but he had just experienced a life-and-death crisis in the morning, but at this time, he always felt that the man standing in front of him was like his brother, who could bring him a sense of security.

Shi Cheng walked to a closed door, knocked on the door, and asked, "Is there anyone?" He asked several times, but no one in the room answered.

Seeing this, Shi Cheng made a spell mark with his left hand, protecting himself and the two people behind him, and the branch in his right hand waved out, like a soft silk cloth, and gently patted it on the door. The wooden door that had been slapped by the "silk cloth" shook slightly, and then turned into pieces of sawdust in Wu Neng's stunned gaze, and fell silently on the ground.

Iron Mask looked at the small pile of sawdust on the ground, slightly distracted, and a flash of surprise flashed in his eyes, but he quickly returned to normal.

Shi Cheng stepped through the door, cautiously observed the surroundings, and after confirming that there was no danger, he put the branch across his chest and walked cautiously towards the house.

Walking to the door of the house, Shi Cheng raised his hand and knocked on the door, but there was still no response from the house. He turned his head and gestured to Iron Mask, motioning for him to guard the door. Tie Mian understood and nodded, Shi Cheng immediately pushed open the door and entered the house first, while Wu Neng followed closely behind Shi Cheng.

To the surprise of Shi and Wu, there were no traps in the house, and there was no ambush. But a room with furniture, and even cold food on the dining table, was empty.

Wu Neng looked at the sky outside that had darkened, and said to Shi Cheng: "Shi Cheng, you said that the sun has already set, why is there no one in this room." ”

Shi Cheng didn't immediately answer Wu Neng's doubts, he thought for a while and said, "Let's go, take a look from house to house." ”

The three of them lit a fire and walked the whole village. Every time they opened the door of a house, the hearts of the three of them sank. Because they found that the whole village was empty, the three of them searched every corner, but they didn't find a single villager. In the silence of the night, the deserted village exuded a thick eerie inside and out.

"Could it be that the whole village has gone out and fled the famine? There are many barren lands in the western part of the Western Desert Country, and the situation of the Southern Wilderness seems to be very bad this year, so it is normal for a famine to occur. Wu Neng's face was full of exhaustion, there were too many things he encountered today.

"Before jumping to conclusions, use your brain to think about what you've seen and think about the details." Shi Cheng's voice was calm, "Most of the houses are messy, but many daily necessities have not been taken away, and there are even some eaten foods on the dining tables in many rooms. This is clearly not what you would see in a deserted village. I prefer that the whole village had some sudden situation while eating, and the whole village had to leave. ”

"Is it a bandit?" Wu Neng wondered.

"There was no blood in the house." Although Tie Mian's answer was brief, Shi Cheng and Wu Neng both understood what he meant.

"Maybe it's some kind of bandit with very unusual methods?" Wu Neng still insisted on his opinion, and he said to Shi Cheng, "Shi Cheng, do you remember what the people in the caravan told us about the death of ghosts when we just left Redwood City? That vain ghost village can make many caravans disappear from the world on the Xieyang Road, and if this is true, they may also be able to make the people of a village disappear from the world. ”

Shi Cheng thought for a while, and said to the two in front of him: "There are still too few clues at the moment. In this case, let's find a house on the side of this uninhabited village tonight, and the three of us will take turns to keep vigil, and tomorrow we will set off for a nearby city to report the affairs of this village to the local government, and maybe we will have the opportunity to get help from the local government when investigating the affairs of Xieyang Road. ”

Seeing that the other two had no objections, Shi Cheng, Tie Mian and Wu Neng briefly discussed, and the three of them finally decided that Tie Mian would come to the vigil first. Wu Neng was really tired, and at his strong request, Shi Cheng agreed to his request to be the last one to guard.

The three of them lived in the same farmhouse they had seen when they first entered the village. After a brief dinner, Wu Neng quickly fell asleep, Tie Mian packed up his things, and went straight out of the door with his long sword, sitting on a big stone outside the door. He was like a stone sculpture, and if anyone pushed open the door of the small courtyard at this time, they would definitely think that the iron mask and the stone under him were one. There seemed to be nothing in his eyes but the deep night sky.

I don't know how long it took, the door behind Iron Mask was pushed open again, and Shi Cheng walked out of the house.

"You didn't sleep?" Iron Mask asked lightly, "It shouldn't be time for a shift change yet." ”

"Whether we sleep at night or not doesn't matter to us cultivators." Shi Cheng said calmly, without a trace of tiredness in his voice.

He stared at Tie Mian for a while before continuing: "Especially with a person who has so many things hidden in his heart, I think instead of sleeping, it is better to talk with him for a while and discuss life." ”

"You and I don't trust each other right now, so why bother?" There was still no emotion in Iron Mask's voice.

"Trust is something that needs to be cultivated, isn't it?" Shi Cheng grinned, "Let me tell you something, in fact, I have known Lao Wu for a short time, but after a few drinks and a few chats, we quickly got acquainted, how about it, do you want to talk for a while?" ”

Iron Mask's body finally moved, he turned his head and sneered at Shi Cheng.

"Don't lie to me, there is no trust between the two of you, at least you don't trust that Wu Neng." Iron Mask said, "When you fought those giant apes in the morning, your true qi could have stopped all three giant apes, but you didn't. ”

The smile on Shi Cheng's face disappeared, and Iron Mask didn't seem to see Shi Cheng's expression, and said to himself: "I think, you deliberately let that giant ape attack that Wu Neng, just to force his hole cards out." ”