Strange Records of Xijing

Pei Jingxing vaguely heard cries for help coming from outside. He suddenly remembered what old man Aya'an said when he was in the oasis while he was half asleep.He got up cautiously, picked up the horizontal knife in his hand, and used his other hand to tear open a gap in the curtain of the tent, only to see a figure gradually going away, and by the light of the fire, he could vaguely see the figure of Zhao Shimin.

Pei Jingxing listened attentively, and did not hear any strange footsteps or shouts, but instead heard a crackling sound, as if countless sharp teeth were gnawing on something.

He opened the curtain of the tent and went out to have a look, only to find that one of the camels they had tied aside had been almost completely boned.The other three camels were far away, but this was not a problem for the mice. Some of the mice had already run off the camel's skeleton and rushed towards the other three "foodies".

The camel wanted to run, but it was tied by the rope, so it could only shake its hooves uncomfortably and twist its body, trying to demonstrate to the mice.

Pei Jingxing made a decisive decision, turned back to the tent first, patted the other three people awake one by one, then led them outside the tent, and kicked away the fire that was used to keep warm as a warning.

Countless flaming branches flew towards the mice. The mice were afraid of fire, and the fur of these mice was very flammable. If a little flame fell on them, they would immediately start burning. For a while, the mice fled in all directions, not daring to approach .

"Let's go!" Pei Jingxing cut off the camel's reins with a knife, grabbed the camel's hump with one hand, and embraced Su Yan with the other. After that, he pushed Su Yan onto the camel's back first, then he turned over and stood firmly. Falling behind Su Yan.

Gao Zekai and old man A Ya'an followed suit, cut off the reins of the remaining two camels one after another, and escaped with Pei Jingxing!

Fortunately, these camels were well-trained. Although they were flustered, they did not make a crazy move of throwing the people on their backs, but ran forward with all their hooves.

The mice noticed the escape of the "food", and chased after them unwillingly.All of a sudden, countless mice surged up from the bottom of the desert, like a black wave on the yellow sand, chasing Pei Jingxing and the others closely.

Camels walk steadily in the desert and have good endurance, but they are not the fastest.Obviously, although the rats chasing after them were small in size, they were faster than the camels. After a while, these rats were about to catch up.

"Fire!" Pei Jingxing shouted, "Burn it with fire!"

The weather in the desert is hot, and they only brought a few fire pockets. Where can they find fire at this time?

I saw Gao Zekai free one hand, pulled out the mahogany sword on his back, muttered something in his mouth, then waved his hand back, and a fire dragon sprang out from the tip of the sword!

At first, the fire dragon was only as thick as a thumb, but when it landed behind everyone, it was the size of a wrist. As soon as the fire dragon landed, there was a loud noise, and it flew straight into the sky, turning into a wall of fire!

The mouse that rushed to the front never slowed down, rushed into the wall of fire one after another, and then rushed out of the wall with flames all over, chasing after it.

But after all, it couldn't go too far. Gradually, there were fewer and fewer mice behind everyone.As the sun slowly rises over the edge of the desert, the fright is finally over.

After running all the way, everyone stopped in place to rectify.Gao Zekai took out the map and confirmed with the old man Aya'an where they were at this time - the accident happened suddenly just now, and they couldn't care less about finding the right direction.Now I finally got rid of those terrible rats, and I don't know how far they are from the original route, so I must quickly re-plan the route.

In the desert, one shouldn't carry heavy things, but Pei Jingxing's ancestral dragon head and tiger tooth spear followed into the desert.Fortunately, he never took the gun off the camel before going to sleep, and it is still by his side now.It's just that other things are missing.

Just because one camel was devoured by the rats, a quarter of its supplies had been consumed. In addition, the clean water and food taken from the camel before going to bed, as well as the supplies dropped during the bumpy journey, seven Adding up seven or eight, they have lost one-third of their supplies.

Not only things are lost, but also one person is missing.

Because Pei Jingxing was the first one among the four to discover the danger, Gao Zekai asked him, "Where's Zhao Shimin?"

"I heard a cry for help outside, and when I got up to look, he had already run away." Pei Jingxing wiped his chapped lips with clean water, and replied, "He was running in our direction, but there was no traffic along the way." see him."

"The desert is so big, and it was dark at that time, so it was easy to get lost." Aya'an old man interjected, "He ran out alone? Didn't bring any luggage?"

Pei Jingxing shook his head: "It was dark at that time, and the distance was far away, so I couldn't see very clearly."

"I hope he has some clean water with him anyway," the old man Aya'an sighed, "If there is no clean water in the desert, it is impossible to survive."

"What should we do now?" Su Yan asked, "Do you want to find someone?"

Pei Jingxing and the old man A Ya'an looked at Gao Zekai at the same time. The latter frowned, remained silent for a long time, and gritted his teeth: "The desert is so big, and we have been running for so long. Finding someone now is like finding a needle in a haystack. And the matter of that person cannot be delayed." We must set off immediately and enter the Holy Land as soon as possible."

In fact, what Gao Zekai didn't say was that Zhao Shimin was keeping watch at that time, but he only cared about running for his own life, regardless of their life or death.If it wasn't for Pei Jingxing's vigilance, it's hard to say whether the four of them are dead or alive.

That being the case, why did they bother to find Zhao Shimin?

With the help of the direction of the sun and the experience of the old man Aya'an, everyone finally determined the direction to move forward.After redistributing supplies, especially the amount of clean water, the four started their journey again.

"Old man, what was that mouse-like thing just now?"

"I don't know. I only know that a long time ago, probably in my grandfather's generation, someone saw this kind of thing in the desert. When they escaped, there were only bones left in their hands and left leg. Everyone cares. This one is called Kakalima, which means eat everything."

"The name is appropriate," Gao Zekai said, remembering the monsters that were covered in fire and chasing them, "These monsters are easy to catch fire, and they should usually be hidden underground."

Su Yan felt the sunlight on his skin getting hotter, and then said: "After nightfall, the temperature dropped sharply, and these monsters took the opportunity to come out of the ground to look for food."

"We were unlucky yesterday, and we happened to meet this group of monsters." Pei Jingxing made the final conclusion, "There are not many caravans that actually entered the desert, and most of them are not too far away from the countries of the Western Regions, so this kind of monsters hurt people. It’s something that no one knows about.”

It's just that this is only the speculation of Su Yan and others after all. They don't know exactly what this monster called Kakalima is and what its living habits are.But no one wants to encounter this small but greedy monster again.

After walking like this for two days, although they encountered many difficulties, the group of four finally arrived at the destination shown on the map.

It was spring now, and there was already a small stream of water in one of the rivers.Pei Jingxing took out a piece of handkerchief, soaked it and handed it to Su Yan: "Wipe it."

Su Yan was also polite, and after taking it, he rubbed it on his face indiscriminately, and his cat's face was finally cleaned up a lot.

However, there is still a dirty mark on the nose.

Pei Jingxing suppressed his laughter, washed the veil again, and wiped it on Su Yan's nose a few times: "Hey, don't move, I'll wipe it off for you."

Su Yan felt a cool touch on his nose and cheeks, but after penetrating into his skin, it was extremely hot.Tired of rushing for the past two days, Su Yan managed to find a small spiky sprout in his heart that had been left unattended. At this time, Su Yan re-examined his heart, only to find that the sprout had taken root in his heart In his heart, no matter whether he pinched or pulled it out, he couldn't get rid of it from his heart.

"Pei Jingxing, I..."

"What's the matter?" Pei Jingxing asked, "What did you find?"

"No..." Su Yan had never experienced this feeling before. He felt that he had a lot to say to Pei Jingxing, but when he got to his mouth, he found that he had nothing to say.

"Is that uncomfortable?" Pei Jingxing only thought Su Yan was embarrassed, and encouraged him with a smile, "Is there anything we can't say between you and me?"

"I..." Su Yan opened his mouth, and finally said, "I was thinking, is the ghost city that the nonsense talked about, really the holy place we are looking for?"

Pei Jingxing was a little strange, because according to Su Yan's personality, he would not ask such questions.However, Su Yan was only 16 years old after all, and he had suffered a lot in the extreme environment of the desert at such a young age. Pei Jingxing only thought that Su Yan was tired, so he smiled and comforted him: "Whether it is or not, we are all here. Always go in and see."

Su Yan nodded, rejoicing secretly, and said: "Yes, I must go in and have a look."

Gao Zekai filled the water and asked the old man Aya'an: "This place is full of sand, where is the city?"

The old man Ayaan explained: "I haven't seen it, but I heard that only when the sun sets and the sand blows on the desert, this ghost city will appear."

Gao Zekai built a shade on his forehead with his right hand, looked at the sun in the west, estimated the time, took out some dry food, and took a bite.

"Eat something to replenish your strength. According to the people here, the time for Devil City to appear is very short, and we can't waste any time."

As the sunset approached, the wind suddenly blew up in the desert.The old man Aya'an looked nervous, and asked Gao Zekai: "It's windy. It's windy in the desert at this time. It might not stop all night. Do you really want to find a place to hide?"

Gao Zekai squinted at the old man Aya'an: "We spent so much time and suffered so much, didn't we just find the Devil City? Now it's about to set, and it's finally getting windy, hide?"

The old man Ayaan rubbed his hands and bargained: "Since I have brought you here, then...then I will go first, if you pay..."

Before the old man Aya'an could speak, Gao Zekai made a sudden move, and he didn't know what he did. The old man Aya'an's feet were together, as if he was tied up by an invisible hemp rope.

"No one wants to leave until you see the Devil City."

The wind was getting stronger and stronger, carrying countless sand and gravel and hitting everyone's bodies. The old man Aya'an couldn't speak, but he ate a mouthful of sand.

This kind of weather is like a precursor to the nightmare experience four years ago. Pei Jingxing's face twitched, and he said to Su Yan: "If the Devil City is really a holy place, there are many secret passages in it, and it is easy to get lost if you are not careful. .After you go in, don’t worry about what happened, just follow me.”

Su Yan patted the dagger on his waist, nodded: "I know."

"Out!"

Hearing Gao Zekai yell, everyone looked in the direction he pointed.

In the afterglow of the setting sun, a huge shadow loomed faintly on the desert in the distance.At the beginning, it was just a piece of chaos like yellow sand, which was hard to see clearly.But slowly, the sand and gravel blown by the wind gathered together to form the gates, walls and countless houses.

"That's Devil City!" Elder Aya'an exclaimed, "I've fulfilled my promise, hurry up and pay me!"

"No, I'll pay you after we go out." As soon as Gao Zekai snapped his fingers, old man Aya'an involuntarily walked towards one of the camels, turned over and rode on it stiffly.

"What are you still doing in a daze, the city gate is already open, let's go in quickly."

"Hahahaha, the city gate is open, and the treasure inside is mine!"

Just when everyone was about to set off for Devil City, they suddenly heard a hoarse voice coming from the sand dunes in the distance.

I saw a group of burly men appearing from the other side of the sand dune on camels, each of them was murderous, and they were not good people at first glance.

"Gao Daoist, Gao Daoist, save me!"

Another familiar voice came from among the group of big men, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be Zhao Shimin who had left everyone behind and fled alone two days ago.

His face was bruised and swollen, and he knew that he had done a lot of crimes at the hands of this group of people.Seeing Gao Zekai and others, Zhao Shimin cried out with tears and snot running down his face, "Master Gao, save me, save me!"

The old man Aya'an was trembling all over, and fell off the camel.His feet were restrained by Gao Zekai, unable to move freely, he simply lay down on the ground and tried to crawl on the desert with his hands.

"Yes...it's the raiders!"

The author has something to say: it’s even later, I’ve been working overtime for the past two days, and I’ll continue tomorrow