Song Siyuan motioned Yue Guanchao to look at the details of the war mural. The moment his eyes caught a glimpse of the giant bat, he raised his eyebrows and lowered his voice and said, "Black bag?"
"Yes, it's a black cloth bag. Whether it's the size or the way it hugs its face and attacks people, it's very similar to the black cloth bat."
This discovery made the two more certain that the story of Queen Shanshan was not some ghost myth, but actual history.
Seeing that they were very concerned about the murals, Wang Yuanlu interjected: "The story of Queen Shanshan that you are talking about probably began to appear in the Tang Dynasty. After more than a thousand years of development, it has probably been tampered with a lot. It is very likely that it has been tampered with for a long time. It may be in vain.”
"Of course, if you insist on going, I can't stop you, old Taoist priest. I can still help you find the local people."
Yue Guanchao and the others came to see Taoist Wang this time. They originally wanted him to find a reliable desert guide for them. He nodded quickly: "Okay, I want someone who is really reliable, not someone who has never been to the desert."
"Okay, I'll take you to the South Cave to have a look. I can only help you find such people. As for whether they are willing to take you to the desert, I can't decide."
After that, Taoist Wang led them out of the cave, continued to walk up the stairs, and finally stepped onto the east cliff at the top of the cave along the ladder.
As mentioned earlier, these grottoes are all carved on the cliff at the east foot of Mingsha Mountain. Under the cliff is the Danquan River. Through these stairs, they can go directly up the cliff, walk south along the east cliff, and finally arrive at the southernmost end of the grotto. They then walked down the stairs and down the cliff.
Taoist Wang explained: "There are many abandoned grottoes on the South Cliff. This is also the residence of some shabby people. They live in the abandoned grottoes."
As they spoke, they had reached the lowest level of the grotto and entered a certain collapsed grotto.
The space of this grotto is a little larger than Wang Yuanlu's grotto. It is probably small but well-equipped. Judging from the pots and pans in the grotto shed, more than one person lives here.
If you look carefully, you can see that the shed is built outside the grotto. Using the collapsed walls on both sides, several wooden boards are completely placed on the stone wall to form a shed that protrudes outward. A round arched stove is built inside. The chimney rushed out of the shed, and there were many bottles and jars on the stone table next to it, as well as many dried herbs.
Just as Yue Guanchao was about to step forward to check the situation, he heard a whooshing sound, the wind whistling in his ears, and the arrow roared along the sound wave, and shot towards the wooden board next to him, blocking him from outside the grotto.
There is no doubt that the owner of the grotto does not want him to enter it!
"who are you?"
Yue Guanchao followed the arrow and looked outside the shed. A young man less than twenty years old looked at them warily. Behind him, there was a younger girl.
Wang Yuanlu walked up and tried to pull out the arrowhead, but after trying several times nothing moved, he simply stopped caring and said with a smile: "You are not at home? I thought you were at home."
The boy and the girl pushed aside everyone and walked to the grotto. He pulled out the arrow and put it into the quiver behind his back. His tone was very cold and guarded: "Are you okay?"
Yue Guanchao took advantage of the two of them to get closer and carefully observed the boy and girl.
The boy has a very typical appearance from the Western Regions. He has light brown skin, thick eyebrows and big eyes, three-dimensional facial features, and a high nose. His body shape is similar to that of Yue Guanchao, with broad shoulders and broad back, and muscular arms. Although his face is thin, he is extremely strong and strong. On top of his exotic appearance, there are some rough lines that reflect hard work all year round.
The girl behind him looked much smaller, with the same body shape as Song Siyuan, but she looked younger. In the weather in the northwest, although her skin color was not very white, it was fair and delicate, with red lips, white teeth, and delicate eyebrows, especially Her eyelashes are thick and long, and her brown-blue eyes are like amber, especially deep and beautiful.
Judging from their faces, they are somewhat similar, they are probably brother and sister!
Taoist Wang said with a smile: "Keli, Nayi, these are some of my friends. I brought them here to ask you something."
"What's the matter? We don't know each other at all."
This man named Keli clearly wanted to issue an order to expel the guests. Although everyone stood at the door for a while, they did not open the wooden door of the grotto.
"It's about Devil's Desert." When the boy heard Devil's Desert, his pupils expanded slightly, and then he quickly returned to normal and took out the key to open the locked door.
Pushing the door open, everyone walked into the grotto. The space of this grotto was indeed a little larger than that of Taoist Wang. The space of the entire grotto was similar to that of a square courtyard. There were two subsidiary caves on the left and right, forming a "vessel" type grotto pattern. , there is a hole for ventilation near the door. They tied iron rods to make a window, which can let in light and ventilate the air.
In the main cave in the middle, there is a decapitated statue near the west. In addition, the body has faded and fallen off, and it is difficult to tell whether it is a priest or an immortal Buddha. There are many tables, chairs, benches, desks and bookshelves placed in the rest of the cave. Cabinet tea seat, cargo table and drying rack.
Only one wall was completely empty, and there was a wall-sized map of the deserts of the Western Regions hanging on it. The Tianshan Mountains, Devil's Desert, and Kunlun Mountains were clearly marked on the map, which was almost a partial map of the northwest region.
On the map, there are obviously strange lines deliberately drawn out. At the same time, there are also many wooden totems of animals hanging in the desert. The entire Devil's Desert is full of them and looks extremely strange.
When Yue Guanchao and Song Siyuan were about to take a closer look, the girl named Nayi had already walked in with a teapot and asked them to sit down: "You drink water, you drink water, my brother has this temper."
"Nayi, go to your room and stay... What are you doing in the Devil's Desert?"
Keli half-pushed and half-pulled Nayi into a certain sub-cave, and with his cold words, it seemed that he still didn't let down his guard.
Yue Guanchao had just discovered that there was a lot of information marked on this map. It was estimated that the young man in front of him had explored this desert more than once. He decided not to show off and said straightforwardly: "We want to go to Sha'er City. I wonder if you are there?" Method!"
"Shar City? What are you doing here?"
Ke Li narrowed his eyes, and the vigilance on his face became a little deeper, which showed that he knew the location of Sha'er City. Yue Guanchao and Song Siyuan looked at each other, and continued: "We are going to look for the ancient Shanshan Dynasty near Sha'er City. Ancient city ruins.”
When Guli heard that they were going to Sha'er City to look for the ruins of Shanshan, he frowned slightly and said displeasedly: "Go back, that's the Devil's Ear, not a place for Guanners like you."
Having said that, Guli was about to issue an order to expel the guests.
