Han Ling'er saw the concern in Qu Wuming's eyes, and felt warm in her heart. She shook her head and said with a smile, "I'm fine. It's just that I got a knife on my back just now and lost a lot of blood. I've already taken the pill, but I'm helpless in this situation." Wow, the healing effect of the elixir seems to have slowed down, but fortunately, the bleeding has stopped."
"That's good. If you encounter sand pirates again later, don't follow suit and rest in the carriage." Qu Wuming carefully helped Han Ling'er towards the cart with Tong Xiangyu.
"Slow down, be careful!" Tong Xiangyu reminded.
"Thank you, Sister Tong." Han Linger smiled slightly and said, "I'm fine."
"You've got such a long cut on your back, and you're saying you're fine?" Tong Xiangyu opened the door of the carriage and said, "Even if the wound has been closed to stop the bleeding, you still need to bandage it with some gold sore medicine, and then change clothes. Okay. Brother Qu, go and do other things and don’t let anyone else come in."
Hearing this, Qu Wuming glanced around the battlefield again and saw that Hu Baye, Hou Jinhai and others who were cleaning the battlefield were almost all injured at the moment, but they were all in high spirits, and they were all picking up things with smiles on their faces. With the belongings, weapons, dry food, gold and silver items of those sand thieves...except for the two Zuo Songchan who were shot dead at the beginning, no one else died.
"Your skills are good, and your movement speed is not bad. Among so many people, you are the only one who can keep up with my speed!" Qu Wuming turned around and said to Tong Xiangyu.
Tong Xiangyu was not modest at all, and smiled slightly and said: "Well, if it is on a normal ground, Brother Qu may not be faster than me. Besides, they are just ordinary sand thieves. If there is no bow and arrow to suppress me, I One can beat ten.”
"Only ten? Sister Tong is too modest," Han Ling'er wanted to hide her smile, but accidentally touched the wound that had just begun to heal. She grinned in pain and said, "The one who died under Sister Tong's sword just now, Almost all of them are killed in one move. I think even without our help, the ordinary twenty or thirty sand pirates are no match for my sister. By the way, my sister's sword is also extremely sharp. I'm afraid it is either a sword made by a famous master or a fairy sword of a Taoist. ?”
"Sister guessed it right. This sword was used by the old shopkeeper of Juxian Inn. He said it was an immortal sword." Tong Xiangyu replied, "It's a pity that I don't know magic, so I can only use it as an ordinary sword."
"The sword and the soft armor he left for you don't seem to be ordinary things." Qu Wuming lowered his voice and said from the side, "He should also be a cultivator, and his cultivation before he was injured by the secret is terrible. It’s extremely high.”
"How did you spot these two things?" Han Ling'er asked in surprise.
"My intuition." Qu Wuming grinned and said, "You know, my intuition is always very accurate and never wrong." As he spoke, Qu Wuming climbed into the carriage naturally.
"Hey! Why are you following me quietly? Don't follow me. I have to change clothes and apply medicine!" At this time, Han Ling'er had just turned around and sat down in the carriage. Looking back, Qu Wuming was talking behind Tong Xiangyu. While getting in the car, he hurriedly stopped him with words.
Seeing that he was seen through, Qu Wuming didn't argue. He turned around with a smile and gently closed the carriage door. I wanted to stand guard in front of the car, but I saw Wei Yixian and Mo Tong supporting each other and walking towards the oasis. Mo Tong had a bandage on his leg and seemed to have been injured just now.
Qu Wuming hurriedly took two steps to follow, caught up with Wei Yixian and asked, "Have you been here before?"
"Yes, I've been here before." Wei Yixian nodded and answered truthfully.
"What else will we encounter later? You'd better tell us clearly in advance. There are only a few people left now, and we can't let it be lost due to carelessness." Qu Wuming's face showed a rare serious look along the way, and said to Wei Yixian said.
"The place to go is right behind." Wei Yixian replied, "However, I only went there once a long time ago. As for what the situation is there now, I can't tell."
"Is it still impossible to use magic over there?"
"should be."
"knew."
…
After everyone finished cleaning up the battlefield and carefully counted the remaining supplies, everyone's faces looked a little unhappy.
Even though those sand thieves had deliberately held back, five sand camel beasts still died, but this was not yet important.
The important thing is that there were only three large water storage barrels in total, and two of them were actually broken during this battle, and they were completely broken beyond repair. Even if you collect the dozens of water bags left by the sand pirates, you can barely collect more than half a bucket of water - but now, Qu Wuming and other cultivators have become like ordinary people, no longer Just like before, if you don't drink water or rice for a few days and just rely on meditation, you can still be very active. If you don't drink water for a long time, you won't be able to survive. Now this amount of water is less than two barrels, which is really less for such a team that needs to trek long distances in the desert.
Also becoming somewhat deficient was dry food.
The dry food originally brought from the Juxian Inn had been reduced by half before this battle, but some were lost during this battle. Even if the dry food of the sand bandits who were collected later was added, it would be difficult to provide the rest. The people managed to return to Juxian Inn via the original route.
Fortunately, the two chefs came up with the idea to cut the horse meat and sand camel meat that were killed in the battle into strips, spread them with salt, and put them on the roof of the carriage to dry. In less than two days, they made a lot of dried meat. , Qu Wuming and others tasted it, and it actually tasted pretty good. It’s just that you’re more likely to feel thirsty after eating, so no one dares to eat more.
After leaving this oasis, there was only yellow sand left along the way, and even the desert lizards, snakes and insects that were occasionally seen before were hard to see.
A few days later, even though everyone had saved a lot of money, the water bladders and buckets they brought gradually became empty. Even the sand camel beast, which is always known for its resistance to thirst, began to show some signs of thirst and dehydration... …
The group of eighteen people were no longer interested in chatting at this moment. Except for two or three people who took turns leading the sand camel beast forward, the rest of the people mostly hid in the carriage and did not dare to show their faces, for fear of exposing themselves to the sun for a while. I can't help but drink more water.
Nowadays, everyone has a limited amount of water, and every sip is a sip less.
Only by finding the last oasis that Wei Yixian mentioned can it be possible to regain supplies.
…
Qu Wuming was sitting in the carriage with his eyes closed. Han Ling'er, who had been drowsy, was leaning against him. Her originally pretty face was now a bit haggard, and even her red lips were now looking more haggard. The skin was dry and cracked, which made Qu Wuming secretly feel distressed. Next to Han Ling'er, Tong Xiangyu was sitting there hugging her knees. She didn't have much energy at the moment. She just huddled in a corner of the carriage and continued to take a nap.
Suddenly, a burst of urgent calls for help and shouts suddenly entered the car. The three people in the car were suddenly awakened and all opened their eyes. Qu Wuming was the first to stand up and get out of the carriage, looking towards the source of the sound.
"Stop quickly, back up quickly! Back up quickly!!!" someone shouted from the front.
Among the cars in front and behind, Mo Heng, Ding Xian, Hu Baye and others also got out of the car one after another. Seeing the situation in front, they hurriedly ran to the sand camel beasts in front and struggled to drag the sand camels. The camel beast backed away.
Qu Wuming also hurriedly took action, turned around and found a rope from the cart, tied one end to his wrist, and threw the other end forward...
Seeing Han Ling'er and Tong Xiangyu also getting out of the carriage, Qu Wuming hurriedly shouted: "It's quicksand! Don't go to the front! Help me save people!"
…
From the time Qu Wuming and others heard the sound and started to move, to the time everyone rushed out of the carriage and took action on their own, it only took two or three breaths.
However, in this short period of time, the sand camel beast that was originally walking at the front of the team had only one head left exposed - its entire body, together with the rider on it, had already fallen into Into the quicksand! And the one that was originally walking behind it has long since disappeared, leaving only a huge cone-like hourglass on the ground, which is still sinking...
The third sand camel beast was also struggling at the moment, twisting its huge body vigorously, but its efforts only made it sink faster, and only half of its neck was left exposed. on the ground. The knight on it had already seen something was wrong and jumped down in advance. However, it still could not escape the fate of falling into quicksand. At this moment, most of its body was swallowed by the yellow sand, and even breathing became a little difficult.
Just when the yellow sand was about to cover his throat, the rope thrown by Qu Wuming accurately landed between his stretched out and raised hands. The man hurriedly grabbed the rope and struggled to avoid the fate of being swallowed by the yellow sand.
"Hold the rope and stop moving!" Not far away, Wei Yixian shouted anxiously, "The more you move, the faster it will sink! Don't move! Wait until we pull you out!!!"
However, at this life-or-death moment, the instinct to survive had long overtaken the man's reason.
While holding on to the rope as hard as he could, he twisted his body as hard as he could, trying to use his strength to break free from the quicksand.
On the other end of the rope, Qu Wuming struggled to pull back. However, the yellow sand under his feet was too soft and he couldn't put any effort at all!
Qu Wuming's body was involuntarily pulled forward. Tong Xiangyu and Han Ling'er had already rushed over and grabbed the rope together and pulled them back. However, when they tightened the rope, they found that they seemed to be pulling someone else. A human being, but a huge beast! No matter how hard they tried, not only did he not take a step back, but he was dragged and slid forward!
Suddenly, the three of them felt their hands loosen, and they stumbled backward several steps, falling to the ground like gourds rolling on the ground.
When the three of them struggled to sit up and looked forward, where was the shadow of the man in the still-collapse quicksand pit in the distance?
There is only a huge hourglass left on the ground, and it is still expanding in scope, as if there is a bottomless pit below that wants to swallow up the entire desert...
