After a stick of incense.
Lu Jing, who felt refreshed again after taking a bath, met the female shopkeeper again in the courtyard behind the tailor shop.
The latter was boiling water and boiling the roots of an unknown plant. It smelled a bit like mint and nepeta.
The female shopkeeper poured a bowl for Lu Jing and said, "This place is far away from China and tea cakes are hard to find, so I can only use this soup instead. I hope Young Master Lu won't be offended."
"It's okay," Lu Jing took the soup bowl, but he was not in a hurry to drink it, but asked curiously, "Where is this place? Is the shopkeeper from the Chen Dynasty? Why is he living here?"
The female shopkeeper shook her head, "I am not from the Chen Dynasty, but my mother was born in China. When I was sixteen years old, my family suffered a disaster. My mother fled westward. After many twists and turns, she walked for ten years before she came here and married my father. .
"When I was young, I often heard her talk about her hometown, and I longed for the Chen Dynasty. I also learned my Mandarin from her. As for this place... it's called Malazarhan, and it's a small city in the Mingsha Desert. Translated, it means desert oasis.
Seeing Lu Jing's thoughtful expression upon hearing this, the female shopkeeper added, "The Mingsha Desert is still thousands of miles away from the so-called Western Region countries of your Chen Dynasty. This desert is so vast that almost no one can reach the end of it.
"Coupled with the frequent sandstorms, it is difficult for us to communicate with the outside world, so Lu Shaoxia has probably never heard of this place before."
"I see." Lu Ding nodded, "But if that's the case, why did the shopkeeper ask me if I was from 'that place' when he first met me, and did he know that I was wearing a wooden sign?"
"Because I just prayed a few days ago, and it was Kamei who gave me the answer."
"Shenjing?" Lu Jing raised his eyebrows.
"That's right." The female shopkeeper nodded.
As she spoke, she got up, came to the well in the courtyard, and opened the lid of the well.
Lu Jing looked down, only to find that it was just a dry well with nothing underneath.
"This well was dug by my mother after she settled here. It took several months. However, before she saw the water source, she stopped and laid a stone brick brought from the Chen Dynasty at the bottom of the well. Then she told us that this well could be connected to a mysterious place in her hometown.
"The people in that place are very powerful and have all kinds of magical means. If you encounter danger in the future and pray to them through this well, you only need to write down the trouble you encounter on the talisman paper prepared in advance, then put it in the bag and throw it into the well. Can.
"At first, everyone thought she was homesick and didn't pay much attention to it. Until this time, Malazar Khan encountered a crisis, and I dropped the brocade bag into the well as she said. Unexpectedly, within a few days, the brocade bag came out. The bladder appeared again at the edge of the well.
"I opened it and found that the handwriting on the talisman paper had changed. It said that the department had received my request for help and would send someone over soon. The person who came was wearing a wooden sign, which was easy to identify."
The female shopkeeper's statement confirmed some of Lu Jing's previous guesses.
In the Hengji Coffin Shop, he and Yang Tao were lying in their own coffins when they suddenly fell down without warning, and then came here inexplicably.
Lu Jing recalled later that with the height of the coffin at that time, the only place in the backyard where it could continue to fall was the well.
Of course, it was impossible for an ordinary well to let him fall that deep, nor could it let him fall directly into this small oasis city thousands of miles away.
This is obviously some kind of powerful spell, or the effect of some kind of trick.
And to put it this way... this assessment is for him to solve the crisis here.
However, Lu Jing always felt that something was not right. After thinking about it, he asked again, "Is there only one coffin left in your city?"
"Huh?" The female shopkeeper was a little confused.
"I also have a companion who is lying in the coffin like me. He arrived earlier than I should have. Have any of you seen him?"
The female shopkeeper shook her head when she heard this, "I only saw your coffin, Mr. Lu. I don't know if there are other coffins left elsewhere, but Malazarhan is a small town. If you have any companions left here, It should have spread in the city by now."
"Is that so?"
Lu Jing thought of Yang Tao's scream that stopped suddenly. Could it be that although the two of them went first and then the other, they ended up in different places and faced different assessments?
However, since there was no news about Yang Tao, Lu Jing could only focus on the current matter first.
He took a sip of the mint-flavored boiled root soup. It tasted quite good and was refreshing. Then he asked the female shopkeeper, "You said you were in trouble before, could you be referring to the sandstorm like before?" Is there something from the sandstorm?”
The female shopkeeper nodded again when she heard this, with a hint of lingering fear in her eyes.
"Malazar Khan is located in the Mingsha Desert, so sandstorms often occur. The residents living here are actually used to it. However, about half a month ago, the occurrence of sandstorms suddenly became more frequent. In the past two or three Once a month became once every two or three days.
"And the interval between them is still shortening. By the time you come here, Mr. Lu, sandstorms will occur basically once every half a day. Of course, if it's really just a sandstorm, it won't be a big problem.
"The key is those things in the sandstorm... Once you don't close the doors and windows, or leave a gap, or make any noise, they will break into your house and kill everyone inside. Malazar Khan originally had three There were more than 10,000 people, but now there are less than 20,000 left in the city.
"Everyone is in panic now, but there is no other place to escape in the desert. The nearest oasis city to us is at least two hundred miles away, and the water source there is very tight. It will definitely not be able to accommodate so many of us. , everyone is reluctant to give up the industry and livelihood in the city."
Lu Jing took a moment to digest the information he now had, and then asked again.
"The shopkeeper just saw those armored warriors, but what impression did he have?"
The female shopkeeper hesitated after hearing this, "Today was the first time I saw them. I was too flustered and didn't think much about it before. Until you asked, Mr. Lu, I seemed to have seen similar things on a mural. .”
"Mural? Where is it?"
"In the palace of the city lord." The female shopkeeper said, "Every year on the harvest day, Malazar Khan will hold a grand celebration, and the city lord will open the door of the palace to let the Bai people in the city enjoy themselves inside, but this year's harvest The celebration was held a month ago, and the next time the palace will open its doors will be eleven months later."
Lu Jing heard a hint of hidden meaning from the female shopkeeper's mouth, "Why, is your city lord difficult to deal with?"
"After sandstorms became more frequent, he found a wizard to exorcise evil spirits. The wizard told him that this disaster was caused by foreigners disrespecting the ancestors of this place, so he had actually expelled foreigners from the city before, of course... …There aren’t even a few of them.”
