"Sir, why don't you let me lead the team in?" Wang Yiming couldn't help but suggest.
"No, I want to handle this matter personally. You continue to watch them clean up the town at Wanhekou, and you must not slack off. Especially those who suddenly become ill must be handled according to the procedures we have agreed upon, and no mistakes can be made. Do you understand? "
"clear."
Shen Hao was holding doubts in his heart. He was curious about the mystery of the encrypted map hidden by the Xu family, so he naturally wanted to see it with his own eyes. Moreover, going to the front line to investigate in person and sitting in command are two different things. Since you have done it, you must do it to perfection.
Shen Hao personally led the team, with two local Xuanqing Guard guides, fifty soldiers from the Black Flag Battalion of Fengri City, fifty Qianhu guards and two doctors.
After getting off the official road, I walked for an hour before I saw the start of the route on the map, a mountain col. The obvious feature is that the mountain col is crescent-shaped.
This place is actually not far from Xiushan Village. It is only more than 20 miles away from the village.
"Remember to mark the road along the way to avoid getting lost." Although there was a guide and he promised that "you can come out with your eyes closed," Shen Hao still said uneasy,
The soldiers of the Black Flag Battalion in Fengri City responded quickly. Many of them had been in the army and knew some methods of marching in the wild.
For example, peel off the bark of a tree and carve it as a record.
The journey was quite peaceful. With so many people entering the mountain, even the wild beasts would not jump out. Their instinct would be to avoid disaster.
However, there are no roads at all in the mountains. The vegetation is dense and you have to open a road to move forward, so the speed is very slow. Moreover, Shen Hao also divided the front, middle and back teams into three teams for safety reasons. One team pressed the formation, one team explored forward, and one team controlled the situation in the middle. This cautious approach naturally made progress slower.
After walking for two hours, the sky began to darken.
"Sir, we should be here now." The guide pointed to a small section of the rubbing map and said to Shen Hao. I walked less than a third of the path on the map this afternoon.
"Speed up a bit tomorrow, but you should be careful not to relax. Go down and rest."
Shen Hao didn't need to worry about security matters. He had his own small tent while others slept in the open.
The next day we continued on the mountain road, and the speed was a little faster than yesterday. In the afternoon, we reached the node where the previous scouts were confused by the map.
"Going further is a place that the spies have never been to before. There may be some traps. Everyone should be more vigilant. If you find anything around you, call the police immediately."
Because Shen Hao judged that the basket of Guitou pears in the Xu family was picked somewhere in front of here, and Guitou pears did not grow in a good place, so it was unclear what dangers were hidden inside, and the source of the plague might also be there. Don't be careless in front.
Sure enough, after crossing the doubled line on the map, the atmosphere on the mountain road became less normal. Strange ghost trees began to appear in the originally lush and dense forest. Most of the rocks on the ground were as sharp as knives. Even the soil became dark. When you step on it, it looks sticky like mud?
"hiss!"
"Uh-huh!"
The sergeant who was clearing the way in front swung his knife and chopped off a black snake that suddenly shot out from the grass. The snake had a triangular head and inch-long fangs. If it bit it, it would probably lose its skin even if it was not dead.
"Black pit viper. Is there such a snake here?"
A doctor was quite surprised when he saw the corpse of a ten-foot-long snake handed back by the previous spy, because this kind of black pit adder is also a material for alchemy, and its venom is the medicinal primer of a high-grade poisonous elixir.
"This kind of snake is usually found in barbarian areas, and is rarely seen in the territory of the Jingjiu Dynasty. I didn't expect it to still grow here."
"It's very strange here. The originally vibrant forest around it has now become diffused with gloom, and there are many ghost trees, and the soil is as dark as pulp. This kind of area should not appear here. This, this is unreasonable... ..”
Any monk who knows a little bit about geological techniques will be confused by the situation in this area. It was obviously a landform with good mountains and good water, but it suddenly changed. It quickly changed from "good mountains and good water" to "eerie and weird". There was not even a trace of excessive topography in the middle. It was so sudden and strange. .
Shen Hao once again raised the alarm and told everyone that they had now entered a high-risk area and that any disturbance should not be taken lightly.
After walking for another half an hour, Shen Hao found that the yin here was getting heavier and heavier, and even the surrounding vegetation felt an inexplicable sense of oppression, and he always felt like someone was staring at them.
"Stop advancing! The front and rear teams will search for two miles. If there is a threat, annihilate it!" Shen Hao decided not to rush in and take a look at the situation. The changes in the terrain here made him very depressed.
No one felt that Shen Hao's caution was wrong. They all felt the same as Shen Hao. Those who were on the outside of the team drew their weapons to guard each other even without anyone shouting.
Soon, the weirdness of this place opened Shen Hao's eyes again.
"Report, we found three Guitou pear plants! They are all bearing fruit!"
"Report, we found a strange tree that can move and is attacking us!"
"Report, a strange beast was found..."
The search was spread out but within a mere two miles, warnings kept coming back. Fortunately, the danger is not high, and a group of people can easily deal with it due to the large number of people.
Shen Hao first went to see the three ghost pear plants. It is five to six meters high, with lush branches and leaves. If you get closer, you can smell an alluring fruity aroma. Looking at the fist-sized golden fruits among the leaves makes people salivate.
"Sir, there are signs of climbing on this tree." A soldier came over to report.
Shen Hao heard this and walked over to take a look. Indeed, there were some obvious scratches on the trunk of a ghost pear. It was not caused by the claws of wild beasts, but probably caused by stepping on shoes. Looking up, he could see that some branches were also broken. .
Is this where the Xu family picked Guitou pears?
There is a map, indicating that the Xu family knows the weirdness here, so coming in should not be by mistake but coming in with a purpose, for these ghost pears?
Shen Hao had asked the doctors accompanying the team before that because there are very few Guitouli in Jingxi, it is difficult to buy on the market and the price is very high. So could the Xu family come in just for money?
"Be alert and keep moving forward."
Shen Hao frowned, but still gave the order to continue exploring. Looking at the map in their hands, they were only two-thirds of the way there. At their current speed, it was impossible to reach the red dot marked on the map today.
This is much slower than Shen Hao expected before arriving, and it is hard to say whether there will be any danger when sleeping outdoors tonight. After all, the inside and the outside seem to be two different worlds.
