Chapter 84
Going to Beijing, in the abandoned Xiao Mansion.
Xiao Zhan stood in the vermilion wooden corridor, looking at the spider webs on the eaves, the thick dust on the pillars, and the fallen leaves on the ground, a flash of memory flashed in his eyes.
Here are his wonderful memories before he was twenty years old.
At that time, the Xiao family was harmonious, friendly, and lively.
It's a pity that things are different and people are different.
Xiao Zhan glanced at the surrounding rockeries and fish ponds, and slowly took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.
A voice suddenly came from across the garden.
"Memories are just memories after all. Once you lose them, you can never get them back."
Hearing this voice, Xiao Zhan frowned slightly and walked several dozen meters further along the wooden corridor.
A familiar figure appeared in Xiao Zhan's sight.
The old beggar, who had met once in Wudang Mountain, was leaning against a pillar, still holding a wine gourd in his hand. His hair was as messy as a bird's nest, and his clothes were in tatters. He was burping from wine and looking at it with drunken eyes. Looking at Xiao Zhan.
Xiao Zhan clasped his fists and said slowly:
"Senior are you here to see me?"
The old beggar nodded and threw the wine bottle in his hand towards Xiao Zhan.
Xiao Zhan reached out to catch it, opened it, smelled it, and then took a sip with a smile.
The old beggar said slowly:
"I said, we will meet again when you come to the capital."
Xiao Zhan said "Hmm", threw the wine gourd back to the old beggar, and said in a deep voice:
"Senior, just say whatever you want to say."
The old beggar raised his eyebrows and said, "So you have thought clearly and no longer want to stay at home with your wife and children?"
Xiao Zhan frowned:
"Senior, let's get down to business."
The old beggar pouted, walked up to Xiao Zhan with his hands behind his back, and reached out to grab Xiao Zhan's wrist.
Xiao Zhan subconsciously wanted to dodge, but found that it was impossible to dodge.
The old beggar grabbed Xiao Zhan's wrist, felt it for a while, then nodded and said:
"After the body tempering is the Qi Gathering state, the true energy in your body has been completely transformed into true essence, faster than I thought."
As he spoke, the old beggar reached out and took out a shabby gray cloth bag from his arms and said in a deep voice:
"There are five True Essence Stones inside. After you absorb the True Essence, you will have completely stabilized your initial strength in the Qi Gathering Realm."
Xiao Zhan did not take the bag from the old beggar's hand, but frowned and asked:
"Senior, you haven't told me yet, what exactly is in the Lost Land?"
The old beggar walked to a stone table and sat down.
Xiao Zhan also sat opposite him.
The old beggar took out another dry cigarette from his arms, lit it, took a puff, and then said:
"You should have guessed that it's not that there are no god-level powerful people in the world, but those who have reached god-level strength have all entered the Lost Land."
"In other words, the people in the Lost Land are at the lowest level of god level."
Xiao Zhan nodded and listened quietly to the old beggar continued.
The old beggar's expression gradually became serious:
"Aside from those people, the real terror in the Lost Lands comes from the unknown."
"Unknown creatures, unknown environment, unknown power."
"For example, there are many ancient creatures that should have become extinct long ago, or the fog that can constantly corrode the meridians and the body."
Xiao Zhan's eyes narrowed, "Then, what is there in the Lost Land that is worthy of all the countries in the world sending their strongest forces into it?"
The old beggar pointed to the cloth bag on the table.
"What else could it be? Of course it's the True Essence Stone."
"In the whole world, only the Lost Land still has veins of true essence stone."
Xiao Zhan's eyes darkened, and it was exactly what he had guessed.
After thinking about it, Xiao Zhan asked again:
"How many people in Yanlong Kingdom are in the Lost Land now?"
The old beggar was silent for a moment, sighed and said:
"Not sure."
"The missing and dead cannot be counted as of today."
Seeing that Xiao Zhan remained silent, the old beggar put the cigarette rod aside and took out an incomplete map from his arms.
"This is the route and area that our Yanlong Kingdom has explored in the Lost Land. Although it is not much, it has taken countless efforts."
"There are also some stolen from other countries."
"Each country has different maps."
Xiao Zhan picked up the map and looked at it. Only a very small area and a few routes on the map were outlined with black lines. More areas were marked with question marks or red exclamation marks.
You don't need to think about it to know that the red exclamation mark represents a dangerous area.
There are also small areas marked as areas occupied by other countries.
The old beggar continued:
"The Yanlong City on the map is the headquarters of our Yanlong Kingdom."
Xiao Zhan nodded, put the map in his arms, then frowned and asked:
"Except for seniors, has anyone been to the Lost Land?"
"Of course," the old beggar nodded, "There are also several seniors who were seriously injured and have been in seclusion."
"There is also Gong Baotian who lives in Yujintian Mansion. It's my fault. I was so anxious to find out the situation in Yanlong City that I sent Gong Baotian, who was still at the Saint level, in, causing him to almost die inside."
"Besides!" The old beggar gave a sharp look. "As I said just now, only a very small area of the Lost Land has been explored. Someone will definitely come back through other unknown exits."
"Also, some veteran strong men have left heirs in the Lost Land. Those people may not have reached god-level strength. If they are lucky, they can leave the Lost Land."
"Furthermore, some big families, or forces that have been passed down for many years, have road maps to and from the Lost Land hidden in their homes. They may also enter and exit the Lost Land without our knowledge."
Xiao Zhan's face gradually became serious:
"In other words, there are still some powerful people who have been to the Lost Land hidden in Yanlong Kingdom, but even Yanlong Kingdom doesn't know their traces?"
The old beggar nodded, "That's the fact."
Xiao Zhan's expression instantly became solemn.
The old beggar could tell at a glance what Xiao Zhan was worried about, and said slowly:
"You mobilized all the holy masters hidden in the Temple of War to Queqiao Mountain. Are you still afraid that someone will harm your wife and daughter?"
"I have already gone to see Gong Baotian. He is willing to stay in Queqiao Mountain to protect your family."
Xiao Zhan nodded, a flash of determination flashed in his eyes:
"How to distribute the True Essence Stones obtained in the Lost Land?"
"This may not be the case," the old beggar laughed: "If you hide the True Essence Stone after you get it, no one will know."
"But once you encounter a good vein of true essence stone, you won't be able to keep it alone."
"In the Lost Lands, no one can survive alone."
"Otherwise, our Yanlong Kingdom would not have just built a Yanlong City in the Lost Land after spending so many years. You should understand the reason for this."
Xiao Zhan nodded but said nothing, with a thoughtful look in his eyes.
The old beggar did not interrupt Xiao Zhan's thinking, but put the cigarette rod on his waist and left slowly with his hands behind his back.
Xiao Zhan sat on the stone bench for half an hour.
His habit is not to fight an unprepared battle!
Once you attack, you must win! This is also the fundamental reason why the Temple of War can achieve such achievements today!
What's more, if you want to enter a completely unknown lost land, it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a life of death.
But when he thought of the True Essence Stone, Xiao Zhan had to admit that he was also moved.
As long as there are enough True Essence Stones, not only can one's own strength be improved again, but the members of the War Temple can also grow up quickly.
As the old beggar said, the fog is approaching, the land of loss is slowly expanding, and one day, the whole world will be in crisis.
If you don't prepare early, you will have no choice but to wait for death!
Xiao Zhan placed his right hand on the stone table and tapped his fingers rhythmically. This was his habitual movement when thinking.
If you want to enter the Lost Land, the safest way is to go to Yanlong City and wait for the opportunity.
After thinking about it, Xiao Zhan took out his cell phone, hesitated for a few seconds, and then dialed a number.
In the southwest of Yanlong Kingdom, there is a vast desert.
On the endless yellow sand, the steaming heat waves twisted and gathered into a hot wind, roaring and raging across the entire desert.
Deep in the desert, there is a lake that has dried up for thousands of years, and now only a huge depression remains.
The huge pit was scorched black, and the hot magma emerging from the ground continued to flow in the pit. The scorching high temperature caused the surrounding sand dunes to melt into a hard gray-brown glass mountain over a long period of time.
The flowing magma is like red fire pythons, constantly flowing in the giant pit.
In the center of the pit, a charred stone house stood, burning all the time in the rolling heat wave.
Surprisingly, there is someone in the stone house!
The stone house was empty except for a black stone platform with a diameter of more than five meters in the middle.
There is a pit on the stone platform. The magma in the ground keeps emerging through the channels inside the stone platform, and then flows down the stone platform, falling into the depths of the ground through the cracks in the ground.
Next to the stone platform, a bare-chested, skinny man held a black hammer and struck it down again and again. The red-hot meteorite gradually revealed the shape of a long knife.
The skinny man had sunken eye sockets and a head full of withered hair emitting white smoke. He was soon roasted into ashes and fell.
The sweat on his body continued to fall, splashing onto the stone platform with the tapping movements, and suddenly evaporated into water vapor.
"Dudu..."
The phone placed not far away suddenly rang.
The skinny man frowned, stuffed the knife blank into the magma accumulated on the stone platform, and then picked up his phone and looked at it.
"Tell me what you want from me."
Xiao Zhan's voice came over:
"Have you prepared that knife?"
After hearing Xiao Zhan's words, the skinny man said coldly:
"Get it in three days."
After saying that, the skinny man threw the phone directly into the lava.
The phone instantly turned into ashes.
Then, the skinny man looked at the blade slowly turning red in the magma, with a flash of excitement in his eyes.
If anyone knew the name of this skinny man, they would be so surprised that they would be speechless.
His name is Ou Yanlie, a swordsmith who emerged from nowhere thirty years ago. Once upon a time, strong men from all over the world were proud to own a weapon forged by him.
Thirty years ago, he suddenly announced his retirement and made a bold statement that if he did not build a peerless magic weapon, he would never show up again in this life.
Not only that, Ou Yanlie is a descendant of Ou Yezi, the originator of sword making. This name alone is enough for swordsmiths around the world to respect him.
Two years ago, Xiao Zhan accidentally got a piece of meteorite iron, which was tougher than any material in the world.
At that time, Xiao Zhan had the idea of turning that piece of meteorite iron into a peerless magic weapon.
To this end, the people from the Temple of War explored almost every corner of the world, and finally found Ou Yanlie hiding in the center of the desert.
At that time, when Ou Yanlie was discovered, his expression was so exciting. He never expected that someone in this world could actually find him.
When Xiao Zhan placed the piece of meteorite weighing a thousand kilograms in front of Ou Yanlie, Ou Yanlie's eyes lit up and he immediately said that he would definitely build it into a peerless magic weapon.
As a result, he didn't expect that it would take him two full years to melt the meteorite iron into a knife blank.
Although the process was difficult, Ou Yanlie was even more convinced that this knife would definitely become his pinnacle work!
