We rode up to the top of the hill and the rain began to fall again.

Scattered and scattered, it seemed that someone stood on the dark clouds and raised his hand to scatter a handful of fine sand, which hit the branches and leaves of the mountain forest. The rain in the mountains is always silent, but it is often followed by the sound of the wind like crying, so that the quiet rain in the evening turns into a hateful existence in the blink of an eye, and beats the earth violently. Then I saw lightning and thunder in the dark clouds, and the torrential rain of early summer in the Western Regions poured down again.

Under the mountain, the fire went straight to the sky, a cottage composed of forty or fifty wooden houses was being devoured like a mad fire, the fire head was so big that it was six or seven feet high, like a bunch of fire snakes roaring in the sky, as if to burn everything in the cottage. On the edge of the cottage, there is a small field, the field is surrounded by hundreds of spiked wooden stakes, and on the top of each wooden stake are pierced with bloody corpses, the blood flows down the stakes from the stakes, and the blood flows down the ground and sticks in the dirt to form a pool of blood, even if we are so far away, we can smell the foul smell of blood. Around the wooden stake, one or two corpses could be seen falling to the ground from time to time, probably bitten by Gu worms, and the corpses were being dragged by several wild wolves.

At this time, Yang Chong rode a fast horse and seemed to rush up from the hillside on the left. As soon as he came to us, he bowed his head and hugged me on his horse, and said, "Dart, as you said, there is indeed a wizard's cave on the mountainside here." ”

I was still looking down the hill and said slowly, "Did you find anything inside?"

Yang Chong said: "I've seen it all, there is no one, there is nothing in the cave except for some herbs." ”

"What about Brother Baili and Senior Jiang?"

Yang Chong continued: "The two of them are in the cave, and Senior Jiang said that it is rare to have a good place to sleep, let us all go over......"

I nodded, beside me, He Yun suddenly leaned his head over, lowered his voice and said, "Darthead, if you stay in this place, will it not be safe?"

I didn't speak, just shook the reins on my horse, my eyes still on the hill. Although the rainstorm is coming, the fire in the cottage still has no sign of abating, but is burning more and more, the wind blows, the fire head swings wildly, reflecting the shadows of the trees around the cottage, like a group of tall ghosts around the cottage in the fire pit playing and playing.

Escaping Kunlun Mountain, we have been on the road for ten days. I thought. In total, we have seen no less than ten times in the ten days of this kind of massacre, only in northern Tibet. When I think back to the continuous travel in the past few days, I can't help but feel a trembling heart.

Starting from the northeastern part of Kunlun Mountain, it took us less than two days to get out of the Kunlun Mountains and enter the Kekeli West Mountain in the northern part of Tubo, the Kekeli West Mountain is far less dangerous than the Kunlun Mountain Range, and the terrain is relatively flat, but we still walked for four days before crossing and arrived in Golmud on the seventh day, until today we have crossed the northern part of Tubo, Dulan, Xinghai, and Luqu places, and it is not far from Minzhou. The four major forces of the Tubo kingdom are divided into various places under the rule of the four kings, namely the Lhasa royal family in the south, the Ali royal family in the west, the Yaze royal family in the southwest border, and the Yalong Juea royal family in the north. That's where we're now.

The Yalong Jue'a royal system has little power, among which the three medium-sized tribes of Juesuo, Shanji and Dezhen are the leaders, and they are divided into northern Tibet, although the tribes under their three tribes are not as many as the other three forces, but they occupy a very large territory in Tibet, occupying almost one-third of the land of the entire Tibet. But it is also based on this remoteness, so I will choose to return to the Central Plains through the northern part of Tubo, now I am the number one enemy in the eyes of the Seven Great Sects, if I return to the Central Plains and then return to Yazhou through the original road in the middle of Tubo as before, it is difficult to predict whether I will meet the people of the Seven Great Sects, if it really happens, it will inevitably be another trouble at that time, and they will not say that they will be affected by the hundred miles, but it will harm them even more, and if you can quietly return to the Central Plains with the help of the remote terrain of Tubo and go safely, this is the best thing.

Ten days ago, I thought nothing more than that, only that I could return to the Central Plains safely as soon as possible, away from this chaotic land, but in fact, the return journey was far from as easy as I thought. After we left the Kunlun Mountains and entered the northern part of Tibet, we saw almost everywhere the tribes fighting each other for territory and the scattered and fleeing tribes, whether it was Golmud, Dulan, Xinghai and other places along the way, or the mountains and deep forests along the way, and the waterside on the grasslands, all of them were full of wars and disasters, as if the most remote northern part of Tibet was in chaos. In the past ten days, every day we can meet the tribes fighting for the territory, the tribes with similar strength are okay, the most defeated ones lose their territory, the tribes can still survive, the weaker tribes are far less lucky, often end up with a full body of execution, no one of the whole clan can survive, the most tragic thing is to be slaughtered, that is, even the livestock in the cottage will be slaughtered.

In order to avoid the battle of their tribe's territory, we also took a lot of detours, the terrain of the Western Regions is treacherous, and in early summer, when poisonous insects and mosquitoes breed, in addition to my injuries, there have been seven or eight brothers who have suffered from wind and cold in the past few days, and a few people have been bitten by poisonous insects, plus the rainy days in the past few days, the team of more than 100 people has long been exhausted, and it is a miracle that they can come here in ten days. However, if you rush to the Central Plains, I am afraid that most of the 100 or so people will fall ill.

I lowered my head and said, "He Yun, you immediately take a few brothers to patrol around this cottage, and we will rest here for one night tonight." ”

He Yun was still a little worried: "But Darthead, this place has just experienced a tribal territory war not long ago, if we rashly repair here, in case those tribesmen turn back to this place, I am afraid that ......"

Before he could finish speaking, I waved him off and said, "Don't worry, they won't send anyone to occupy this place in two days, and they won't come again tonight." "After that, I took the reins and rushed to the bottom of the mountain on the left, and behind me, Yang Chong, Li Shubai, Zhu Kui, Zhou Huairen, Zhang Han and nearly 100 brothers in the dart game hurriedly rode their horses to follow.

This hillside is not very big, the east and west are horizontal, the north is wide and the south is narrow, the north side is close to the cottage forty or fifty zhang distance is a broken slope, there is a cave at the bottom of the slope, when we rush to the bottom of the broken slope, the cave is lit up.

As soon as I arrived at the entrance of the cave, I heard Jiang Shun shouting in the cave: "Gu boy, this wizard's cave is quite spacious, even two hundred people can live there, hehe." ”

I jumped off my horse and walked towards the cave, and my eyes swept around the cave, only to see that this cave was indeed a bright cave, and the outer cave alone was twenty zhang square, and the top of the cave was more than three zhang high. The cave is excavated in an oval shape, the surrounding stone wall is polished a little rough, the pits are concave and convex, there is no other stone carved pier pillar in the middle except for a stone pillar that hangs down from the top to support, it is quite simple. Behind the outer cave are three smaller holes, which are also lit with fire, and from our position, we can also see that the three inner caves are more than ten zhang in size. With such a large cave, it is indeed not crowded to accommodate more than 100 of us.

A bonfire was burning on the side of the stone pillar in the center of the outer cave at this time, and Baili lowered his body to add firewood to the bonfire, and next to him, Jiang Shun sat cross-legged bare-chested, pulling his shirt and roasting by the fire. As soon as he saw us walk in, Baili smiled and said, "Brother Gu, come in and take a rest." ”

Jiang Shun also turned his head and shouted, "Come on, come on, come here, and dry all the clothes." ”

I nodded and said to Zhou Huairen beside me, "Uncle Zhou, let the brothers come in." ”

Zhou Bo responded, turned his head and shouted: "The brothers in the back come in quickly, the horses stay outside, and the important guys are all brought, Lao Liang and Yan'er, you will keep vigil tonight, and the tricks will be highlighted." ”

He shouted while stretching out in the back, the rainy days in the past few days have really tortured my brothers, and they all greeted each other with a smile when they heard Zhou Huairen call like this, and walked into the cave one after another.

Walking to the campfire, I sat down cross-legged, turned around and said, "Yang Chong, bring the map." ”

Behind him, Yang Chong replied, "Yes, darthead." He took the package from behind his back, took out a three-foot-long parchment map from it, spread it out and placed it on my lap.

I pulled up the map and said, "Where are we now?"

Hearing my words, Yang Chong, Zhu Kui, Li Shubai and Zhang Han squatted down behind me, Yang Chong stretched out his finger and dotted on the map, and said: "Darthead, we are here now, on the north bank of Taoshui, there are still a hundred miles away from Minzhou." ”

"Where is the Kufeng Bridge you said earlier?"

Yang Chong nodded on the map again and said, "Here, darthead, this is Kufeng Bridge." ”

I looked at the map. Among the several dart masters in the dart game, only Yang Chong has been to the Western Regions, this map was purchased from a trader when he traveled to the Western Regions in the early years, and the terrain on it is quite clear, and they were able to get from the Central Plains to Kunlun Mountain smoothly on this map. However, this map only has a detailed description of the entire territory from the Kunlun Mountains to the east of Tubo, but the rest of the Western Regions is not well documented, and most of the regions are only briefly named. I said, "How far is it from us, according to the map?"

Yang Chong groaned: "It seems that there should be forty miles away. ”

On the side, Li Shubai continued: "It's only forty miles, it's not that far, darthead, we can reach it in half a day on horseback, and once we enter the territory of Minzhou and go on the official road, we can reach Minzhou City in one day." ”

Zhang Han also immediately opened his mouth and said: "This is not easy to say, Brother Li, have you forgotten the natives we met before? Now the whole of Tubo is in chaos, and the natives of those tribes are biting everywhere as if they are crazy, and the distance of forty miles seems not far, who knows how many tribes are still hidden in it? In case of another battle for their territory, we will have to take a detour again." ”

At this time, Baili Tu had already finished adding firewood, patted the dust on his hands and said: "If you touch it, you will touch it, won't you just kill it?" When will you be able to go to the Central Plains?"

Before his words fell, Jiang Shun, who was drying his coat, suddenly said casually: "Their Gu worms are so vicious, they will festered all over their bodies when they get a little bit of it, you stupid man has killed it, and you brothers will all be bitten to death by insects." ”

Baili touched his head and said with a sneer: "What Senior Jiang said is true, that kind of thing can't be seen or touched, in case it gets touched, it's really annoying enough." ”

Seeing Baili disciples like this, Yang Chong and the others all let out a burst of laughter. Baili has always been not good at flattery, he has a strong temperament, and he has always acted arbitrarily when he is in the dart game, and sometimes he decides something, even I can't persuade him. However, it is also strange that since he joined us, his strong temperament has been much more restrained, and he has gotten closer to Jiang Shun in the past few days, and there is a lot of flattery on his body.

At this time, Zhu Kui, who had been silent, spoke: "That is the case, Darthead, according to what you see, what should we do?"

I turned my head and looked around the cave. At this time, more than 100 brothers in the dart game have entered the cave, and many of them have haggard faces in the mountains and fields for several days, and as soon as they enter the cave, they sit down against the wall, as if they do not want to move at all, and the brothers who have the wind and cold and the two people who have been bitten by poisonous insects are supported by several people to walk inward, and several of them are pale, and they are even more staggering and almost fall down when they walk. Although they made a lot of preparations when they came to the Western Regions this time, they didn't bring many herbs, and the herbs that could be used in the past few days were almost used on these people. However, our herbs did not have much effect, and their injuries did not improve even in the rainy days. If they take a long detour, I don't know if they can bear it, and I don't know if there will be any more people who will get injured and sick.

I thought for a while and said, "I don't think what Brother Baili said is unreasonable, it's a waste of time to go around in circles like this." ”

They were silent for a moment, and Zhu Kui hesitated: "Then we ......"

"Let the brothers rest tonight, the natives are natives after all, except for the things that can make some Gu worms and poison, they are not very powerful. With that, I paused and looked down at the campfire in front of me. A lot of firewood had been added to the bonfire before, and it was burning vigorously at this time, and the fire was jumping non-stop. I whispered, "If you encounter it again, you don't need to retreat, just kill it!"