Seeing that they relented, Wang Yuanlu decided to seize this opportunity and explained in a mysterious manner: "Buddhism originated from the West, and the word Milan comes from "Mount Sumeru" in Sanskrit."
The term "Mount Sumeru" is a term from Brahmanism, which was later quoted in Sanskrit by Buddhists. It is often active in Buddhist stories as the legend of Mount Sumeru or the Holy Mountain of Sumeru.
It is rumored that Mount Sumeru is the only place where gods live in the world. It is tens of thousands of meters high, tens of thousands of meters wide, and tens of thousands of meters below the water surface. It is shaped like a golden mountain as high as the sky. It is the center of the universe and the sun and moon. In the center of the stars, the island is surrounded by the Aral Sea, with Mount Sumeru as the center, scattered across four major continents and eight minor continents, where all living beings and the three realms and six realms live.
Back then, when the Western Buddhists who came to the Central Plains to preach the scriptures came to Milanze, they could see at a glance that there was a huge oasis in the center of Milanze. The unique terrain here was almost exactly the same as the Buddhist Mount Sumeru. These great monks Thinking it was a miracle from the Buddha, he came to the oasis island and started building a Buddhist temple here.
After that, the Great Secret Orchid Pagoda was erected in the four directions of the oasis. These great monks stayed here, practiced and preached here, making Secret Orchid Ze a Buddhist mandala for Buddhist practitioners in the Western Regions. Only then did Secret Orchid Ze develop. Come out of a commercial town like Milan City.
At this point, Wang Yuanlu continued: "Think about it, even Keli probably doesn't know about this matter, but I know something that he doesn't know. This can always prove that I understand the allusions of Thousand Buddha Cave, right? Don’t worry, take me with you. Since Secret Orchid is a Buddhist mandala, I must be useful.”
Song Siyuan looked at Yue Guanchao: "Why don't we bring Taoist Wang along with us? Another identity of Secret Orchid City is the Dharma Mandala. With him, we can also learn more about Secret Orchid City during the ancient Shanshan civilization. How about that?"
Yue Guanchao nodded: "Since you said so, let's do as you say. I think it wouldn't be good if we all go into the desert. Seeing that the second uncle and Lao Suntou are old, let them stay at the inn. , if something happens to us, we can let them think of a solution outside."
In the next two days, Nayi's condition gradually improved, and Keli joined them at Thousand Buddha Cave as scheduled.
At this moment, except for Lao Yuetou and Lao Suntou who were left behind, everyone else gathered in front of the Thousand Buddha Cave. The place had changed from the previous depression and desolation and became lively.
Behind Keli, more than a dozen camels could be seen standing in groups on the sand, chewing the food in their stomachs with their mouths crooked, exhaling hot air from their nostrils while ruminating, and letting out several low beastly roars.
Yue Guanchao saw these dozens of strong camels and said excitedly: "Okay, Keli, we also want to rent camels these days. Once these people heard that we were going to Sha'er City, they refused to let us rent them."
Keli touched the heads of the camels and fed the thorn ball cactus in his hand into their mouths: "Sha'er City is the devil's ear, let alone the camels. Even if a living person goes there, he may not be able to come back alive. These camel shops are all As a businessman, it is impossible to rent out so many camels and go specifically to the city of Sal to die."
"The camels I'm looking for don't belong to the camel merchants, but to some of my hunting friends. When we come back from Sha'er City, I have to return them."
When Keli spoke, he looked at the people coming. In addition to Yue Guanchao and Song Siyuan, there were also Yue Erpao, Xu Xiake, and Wang Taoist. There were seven or eight people in their group. These camels could be distributed evenly.
Everything was in order except for the east wind. Everyone got on their camels and left the Thousand Buddha Cave and rushed to Sha'er City in the northwest.
…
The tinkling clang, the camel bells ripple, the barren mountains are majestic, and the sand dunes are rugged.
A group of people rode on camels, like a team of ants and insects, slowly walking through the sand dunes like a black gossamer. In the distance, the yellow sand is endless, and the sand and sky are connected, making it difficult to distinguish the boundaries between heaven and earth. The nearby sand dunes are even more undulating. , rugged.
When everyone was walking on the road, they could not avoid being blown by the hot and dry wind in the wilderness, as if they were entering a steamer. Under the conditions of high temperature and low humidity, they were covered in sweat, even if most of their mouths and noses were covered. , you can also smell the rich sandy smell in the desert.
The smell of sand in the wasteland is even more pungent than that of the Loess Plateau. Coupled with the fact that rotten animal bones can be seen everywhere, it makes the smell even more unpleasant.
During the breath, the hot air has dried up the throat, making the mouth dry and the body and bones aching. At this time, they can only cover their mouth with cloth to reduce the loss of moisture in the throat.
They didn't expect that just a few dozen miles out of the Dunhuang Oasis, the surroundings had already returned to rough desolation. All they could see were long stretches of yellow sand, bare sand dunes, or wind-eroded wasteland, ruined cities, and a desolate sky as they walked. , the color of the ground is dark and yellow, and there is no trace of green here.
The further northwest they go, the more they feel they are approaching death and the Devil's Sea. It's no wonder that the people nearby are unwilling to go to the desert at all - who can move forward calmly knowing that there will be no return?
"Moo~~~"
After walking for a long time, the camels finally couldn't stand it anymore. They raised their heads and mooed, and were no longer willing to move forward. Some camels even dropped their front hooves to the ground, knocking people off their humps. This behavior also caused other camels to follow suit and threw people. On the ground, keep treading in place.
Keli got up from the ground and patted the sand off his body. He squatted down and put his forehead against the camel's. He didn't know what he muttered to the camels. The camels finally stopped howling and became a little calmer.
Keli touched the camel's head: "The dry old road of Sha'er City near Tarim is three hundred miles away from Dunhuang. They walked for a day and could barely make it halfway. In any case, they would never be able to run away in two days. These camels They are all mortal, and they have to rest and eat fodder for up to half a day on the road. Let’s go to a nearby abandoned ancient city to rest first, and then feed the camels water and plants before leaving.”
After saying that, Keli led the camel and rushed to the abandoned ancient city in front of them.
The area of this ancient city is not large. The city walls have collapsed due to weathering, and only a small part of the walls are left in ruins. When you walk into the city, many of the residential buildings are in ruins, and only the low walls have not collapsed.
They found a corner of the city wall that could block the wind and put down all the camels. Kelley then took out a clay pot and poured the water bladder on the camel's hump into the pot. At the same time, he also took out a lot of withered green hay mixed with beans and dried sweet potatoes. .
These camels had been traveling for half a day and were already hungry and thirsty. When they saw water in the pottery basin, they automatically gathered around the pottery basin, stretched out their tongues to lick the clean water, and at the same time began to chew straw.
Everyone opened the water bottles on their waists, raised their heads, and kept watering their thirsty throats. After a meal of cold water, the heat in their bodies finally eased.
Seeing Yue Erpao pouring water to wash his face, Ke Li quickly stopped him: "The water in the desert is very precious, it's best not to waste it like this."
"I can just wash my face to cool it down a bit. How can this be called a waste?" Yue Erpao questioned.
