Xia Xianlong pointed to the holes in the ground and said, "Inferring from the number and distribution of these holes, the other party is using a small cone-shaped tent. These tents are very light and easy to carry, but the space is small and can only accommodate 1-2 people. ”

Wang Xiaotian was puzzled and asked, "What does this mean?"

Xia Xianlong said: "There are traces of eighteen tents here. In other words, even if a tent is counted for two people, it should be thirty-six people. Add to that the two or three people who take turns on the night shift, and the maximum number of people is not more than forty. ”

"The people of the Canaanite Federation visiting delegation, in addition to the head of the Kabal delegation, there are fifteen people. If the people who stayed here were the ones who had taken them, it can be inferred that their number would be twenty-one to twenty-five. ”

"The members of the Canaanite delegation are not all ordinary people. At least half of them are Force cultivators of level 5 or above. This force is not weak, but the other party can easily subdue them. This shows that the other side is stronger. ”

Wang Xiaotian asked, "How do you know that it is easily subdued?"

Xia Xianlong rolled his eyes, "If there has been a conflict, there will definitely be injured." There is no blood stained here. Where the tent was, there was no sign of struggle. ”

Wang Xiaotian said: "Your inference is not accurate. First of all, more than 20 days have passed since the incident of the mission. Even if there are injured people, they should be better. ”

"Secondly, those who were arrested during this time, if they want to escape, basically use the same means. Either they have escaped or they have resigned themselves to their fate. ”

Xia Xianlong was just about to speak, when he suddenly heard Hua Ziyu shouting, "Come here." ”

Xia Xianlong quickly stood up, and the two walked quickly to the pond. Hua Ziyu and Kabal were standing there.

Hua Ziyu stopped them from approaching the pond, and then pointed to a fist-sized stone that was not in the water at the edge of the pond, "Look, there's something there." ”

The soil at the edge of the pond has been soaked all year round and is very soft, and it is easy for people to slip and fall into the water when they stand there. In order to facilitate the use of water, there is a platform made of stones at intervals at the edge of the pond where people can stand on it.

This stone, which is not in the water, is one of the cornerstones of the stone platform, and people can touch it by squatting on the platform by simply lowering their bodies and stretching out their arms.

Wang Xiaotian followed the direction he pointed and saw that under this stone, something was shining. He asked, "Professor, do you want to take it out and take a closer look?"

Hua Ziyu shook her head and said, "Don't move yet, I've already asked Lu Yusheng to call Tang San." ”

After a while, Tang San trotted all the way over, panting and standing in front of Hua Ziyu.

"Tang San, look at that thing. Hua Ziyu pointed it out to Tang San again.

Tang San looked at it for a while, didn't see it clearly, rubbed his eyes again and looked at it carefully for a long time, and said, "Your Excellency, are you asking the villain to look at the thing under the stone?"

Hua Ziyu shook her head and said, "Not only to look at that thing, but I also want you to confirm whether that woman was washing fruit in that place?"

Tang San looked left and right, there were several stone platforms around for human use, thought about it carefully, and said hesitantly: "The villain is not sure, it is probably in that position." ”

Hua Ziyu walked over, squatted on the stone platform, reached under the stone, and carefully took out the shiny thing.

It was a small, golden comma-shaped thing, the size of the first segment of the index finger. It has a metal chain attached to the tail of the comma, and a hook at the front of the chain.

Hua Ziyu put this thing in the palm of her hand and handed it to Cabal, "Professor Cabal, do you know this thing?"

Kabal took it, looked at it carefully, and said, "This is a gold earring worn by a woman. This style is called Pelis, and it is very popular in our Canaanite Federation. ”

Hua Ziyu asked Tang San again, "Do you remember that the woman who was washing the fruit at that time was wearing such earrings?"

Tang San thought about it, shook his head with an embarrassed face, and said, "I really can't remember the little one." ”

Hua Ziyu asked Wang Xiaotian and Xia Xianlong again, "What do you think?"

Wang Xiaotian thought for a while and said, "Professor Hua, from the time Tang San came here to fetch water, there has been at least five days in between, could it be that the wave of people has already left, and another group of people have come in the middle, and this thing was left by them?"

Hua Ziyu was stunned and asked, "Why do you think so?"

Wang Xiaotian analyzed: "Mr. Kabal said at the time that the place where the robbers and sandstorms were encountered was in the Great Wilderness. It's at least hundreds of miles away from the Great Wilderness. If all the people in the delegation fall into the hands of the robbers, and they want to extort money, they can simply stay in their lair and send someone to deliver a letter of extortion. Why go to the trouble of being here?"

Hua Ziyu pondered for a moment, nodded and said, "What you said makes sense. Any other speculations?"

Wang Xiaotian nodded and said, "Yes." Excluding the possibility that those people were captured by the robbers, there are two more possibilities. First, the members of the delegation have indeed dispersed, and are now scattered all over the country, and although they are still alive, they are in a difficult situation. This situation is the most dangerous. ”

Kabal nodded repeatedly, "That's right. I think that's how they should all be. They need our help. ”

Hua Ziyu comforted: "Professor Cabal rest assured, we will definitely find a way to find them." Xiaotian, you continue to talk about the second possibility. ”

Wang Xiaotian said: "The first possibility I mentioned just now is that those robbers will not take the hostages of the visiting group and approach the Eastern Chu Kingdom. Because they must also be afraid that they will encounter the army of the Eastern Chu State and wipe them out. So, it doesn't matter if those who appear in this oasis should be the first possible robbers. ”

"The second possibility is that some of the members of the delegation were caught by unknown people, but they did not catch the target person. So they keep appearing in the desert, looking for the whereabouts of the target person. If this is the case, it is not surprising that those people are present in this oasis. ”

"The third possibility is what I just said, these people Tang San saw have nothing to do with the incident with the visiting group. They are here for other purposes. If that's the case, we're wasting precious time to continue tracking down here. ”

Hua Ziyu thought for a moment and asked Xia Xianlong, "You found the location of Professor Kabal, how far away is it?" ”

Xia Xianlong thought for a while and said, "At least more than two hundred miles." ”

Hua Ziyu took out the map from her arms, unfolded it, and put it in front of Xia Xianlong's eyes, "You point to the approximate location." ”

Xia Xianlong looked for a moment, pointed to the northwest of the Sand Bird Oasis and said, "Probably here." ”

Hua Ziyu looked at the location Xia Xianlong was pointing to, estimated for a moment, and asked, "Is there a place where you can stay within a day's journey around that?"

Xia Xianlong thought for a while and said, "A hundred miles to the west, there is a supply point of our firm. Other places, I don't know. There has been a great wilderness, a dangerous bush, and few caravans have ventured into unknown roads except for their own familiar roads. ”

Tang San suddenly leaned over, twisted his eyebrows and looked at the map, after looking at it for a while, he pointed to the north of the place Xia Xianlong just said, and said, "This is the place where our caravans often stay. ”

Hua Ziyu glanced at the location of Tang Sanzhi's finger, which said "Tianjie Market".

Hua Ziyu asked, "What is the place of Tianjie Market?"

Tang San said: "I really don't know the little ones

。 The little ones each time just took the caravan and went there to rest, replenishing some water and food by the way. Not far from Tianjie Market, there is a place called Black Market, where it is said that everything is available. As long as you have money, no matter how bizarre it is, you can buy it there. ”

Hua Ziyu's eyes suddenly lit up and asked, "Is there really such a god?"

Tang San scratched his head embarrassedly, "I can't tell this little one." There are not a few people in the small pockets, and I don't have the qualifications to enter the black market. ”

Hua Ziyu asked Xia Xianlong, "Do you know this place?"

Xia Xianlong nodded and said, "I've heard of it." However, our trading firm is all serious business, and has nothing to do with the black market. I heard that the merchants of the black market are indeed powerful, and someone once used an astronomical sum of money to buy a complete large mecha of the old era in the black market. ”

Hua Ziyu thought for a while and said, "If we go there, can we find some clues?"

Xia Xianlong was noncommittal, and turned his head to look at Wang Xiaotian.

Wang Xiaotian was surprised, "What do you think I'm doing?"

Xia Xianlong said: "Teammates are used for pits." No, do you think you can find a clue?"

Wang Xiaotian couldn't help but complain, "You guy with no lower limit, you tell the truth, do you think you will be so stupid and fall for you?"

Xia Xianlong smiled slightly awkwardly. He doesn't have a door on his lips, and he says whatever he thinks in his head. Somehow just now, my brain slipped out of my mouth for a while. Now that he says anything, Wang Xiaotian will not pick up.

However, Hua Ziyu asked Wang Xiaotian, "Xiaotian, do you think you can go?"

Wang Xiaotian was so depressed that he wanted to vomit blood. Do you still need to ask about this? The black market is clearly a trap for black to eat black. Otherwise, how could you get so many strange things? When you go there to find clues, don't you take the initiative to stretch out the bamboo pole and say to people with a smile on your face, "Please knock it?"

Hua Ziyu saw that Wang Xiaotian didn't react, so she asked again, "Xiaotian, what do you say?"

Seeing that Hua Ziyu caught himself and didn't let go, Wang Xiaotian could only say helplessly: "Although I don't have much hope for finding clues in the black market, however, the ancients said well, there are dates and no dates to hit three shots." Anyway, we don't have anything now, and other clues are easy to follow, so it's not a bad thing to go. ”

Hua Ziyu thought for a while and said, "What Xiaotian said is right. ”

When Wang Xiaotian heard this, he felt that he was going to carry the black pot for others again. Because he is keenly aware that if important things are delayed in the future because of this decision, because of Hua Ziyu's sentence "Xiaotian is right", Hua Ziyu can easily get rid of responsibility, and he will definitely be burdened with a big black cauldron.

Wang Xiaotian hurriedly said, "No, no. That's just what I said casually. Or Professor Hua is the one who takes the idea. ”

Hua Ziyu nodded and said, "That's right." I decided to go to the black market and see if I could find some clues. ”

Cabal asked, "So, the people who appeared in this oasis, can you still find out?"

Hua Ziyu said: "Of course you have to check." These people have come all the way and brought at least one woman here, what are they doing here? Kashgar is going on, but there is no record of them entering Kashgar. Where did they go? Why are they so confused?"

"If the answers to these questions cannot be found, it cannot be ruled out that they are linked to the disappearance of the people of the mission. Don't forget, Xiao Tian once analyzed a possibility just now, that is, the gang of robbers did not catch the target person, they were looking for that person everywhere. ”

"The records of Kashgar's entry into the city have been checked, and since the accident of the visiting delegation, no one of unknown origin has entered. If that target doesn't enter Kashgar, and there is no place to stay except for the oasis occupied by the enemy, where do you think they will go?"