Southern Xinjiang, one hundred thousand mountains.
In a huge, dark and humid cave, a drop of water fell from the stalactite hanging upside down on the cliff wall of the dome, and hit the center of the eyebrow of a handsome young man of thirteen or fourteen years old below with a "click".
The young man's lips were blue. He shuddered suddenly when he was agitated by the water droplets, and slowly opened his eyes.
He looked at the dark dome above, froze for a moment, and struggled to sit up.
"hiss……"
The pain radiating from everywhere in his body made him take a deep breath.
However, his mind seemed to be quite tenacious, and he endured the pain, forced himself to sit up, and leaned against the wet and slippery cave wall behind him.
His movements brought out bursts of "canglang" sounds, followed by a series of moans.
The young man was startled and looked around cautiously. Only then did he realize that there were at least two to three hundred figures in the darkness around him.
There is a heavy shackle on one of his wrists, and a chain extends from it to connect with the shackles on the hands of more than ten people nearby, connecting these people together.
"Where am I?" The young man was surprised, and questions suddenly arose in his mind.
He thought silently for a while, but was shocked to find that he had no answer.
The young man felt that his mind was in chaos, and his memories of his past were blurry. He could not remember anything at all. The only thing he could remember was his name, Yuan Ming.
He actually lost his memory!
Before Yuan Ming could figure out what was going on, there was suddenly a heavy "rumbling" sound in the distance, which made people panic, as if a heavy iron door had been pushed open.
Then a burst of fire tore a hole in the darkness, and seven or eight burly men holding torches, wearing animal skins, and wearing horn scimitars hanging from their waists walked in surrounded by a tall, half-naked man.
Under the flickering light of the fire, Yuan Ming saw these people. Their skin was maroon red, their muscles were bulging, their lines were very prominent, and they were full of primitive and wild atmosphere.
Especially the half-naked big man at the head, the muscles on his body looked tougher than the others, and his whole body was full of explosive power. He looked like a strong man enshrined in a temple.
It's just that these people have very strange hairstyles. All the hair on their heads is shaved off, leaving only a lock of hair on the top, which is tied into a thick braid.
Yuan Ming saw this, and for some reason, the word "Nanmanzi" appeared in his mind.
As this thought arose, some memory fragments seemed to be pieced together in his mind, and some pictures appeared intermittently.
There were lively and prosperous markets, magnificent mansions and people wearing silk and satin in the picture. He looked down at his clothes that had been worn into strips. This convinced Yuan Ming that he and the Nanbarbarians in front of him were definitely not the same.
A class of people.
Just when Yuan Ming was full of confusion, the naked man at the head suddenly glanced in his direction and mumbled something.
Yuan Ming listened to the strange pronunciation, which was completely different from the words in his memory, but he understood it all at once.
This is Nanman language!
What the man said was: "It's the last place, be smart and don't miss it."
The southern barbarians wearing animal skins came forward with torches in hand, and each took out what looked like some kind of beast bone, with a thumb-sized red stone embedded in it.
"Who are you? What are you doing?" Seeing one of them walking towards him, Yuan Ming pretended to be calm and asked in Nanman dialect.
The naked man glanced at him upon hearing the sound, with a look of surprise on his face, but the southern barbarian who walked in front of him roared, waving a torch and hit him on the cheek.
Yuan Ming dodged sideways, and the torch grazed his shoulder and hit the wall, sending up a cloud of sparks.
The flying sparks frightened a person next to Yuan Ming. He yelled "Wow", shrank hard, and drilled into the gap under the rock wall.
Taking advantage of the firelight, Yuan Ming saw that the man's upper body was naked, and his lower body was wrapped in a skirt woven from withered grass. He was completely black, with a dry figure and messy hair. He looked no different from a savage.
The southern barbarian leaned down, grabbed the savage's ankle, and pulled him out with a little force. Then, during his fierce struggle, he sent the animal bone to the top of his head.
I saw that the animal bone first lit up with a blue will-o'-the-wisp light, and then the red stone inlaid in the middle also suddenly lit up.
However, as soon as the red light came on, it immediately went out again.
Seeing this, the naked man frowned slightly and shook his head.
Seeing this, the Nanmanzi who was holding the savage by his ankles drew out the scimitar from his waist without hesitation and chopped off the savage's head.
There was a "puff" and a miserable howl. The savage's struggling movements immediately slowed down and gradually became silent.
"Kill, kill someone..." Yuan Ming felt a warm blood splash onto his cheek, his breath was filled with the sinister smell of blood, and his mind went blank.
A chill rose from the bottom of his heart, making his whole body stiff, and he even forgot to continue escaping.
Of course, he couldn't escape at all.
His wrists were still tied with cold chains to the still warm body.
Just before he regained consciousness, the light in front of his eyes dimmed, and a piece of animal bone was delivered to his head.
As the blue ghost fire lit up, a red light lit up like a candle, but did not go out immediately.
It wasn't until a few breaths later that the red light slowly extinguished.
The big man in animal skin holding the piece of animal bone put one hand on the handle of the knife at his waist and turned to look at the naked man.
The latter pondered for a moment, seemed hesitant, and nodded.
The big man in animal skin then let go of the hand holding the knife, turned around and walked towards the other person.
Only when his figure left did Yuan Ming recover from his fear.
He suppressed all doubts and shocks and looked around, only to realize that almost all of the people bound by chains were disheveled savages.
Like him, they were all frightened and tested one by one with the animal bones on their heads.
As long as the red light flashed out, they were all killed with a single blow. Only those with red light above their heads that could last for a while survived.
For a time, wailing, exclamations, and the sound of metal clashing with chains could be heard one after another.
It lasted for more than an hour, and the entire cave was filled with a strong smell of blood.
Seeing that all the temptations had been completed, the naked man began to chirp and give orders again.
Then, Yuan Ming and the dozen or so people who survived were freed from their chains, put on handcuffs and shackles again, and were taken aside to wait.
Yuan Ming was a little uneasy. He didn't know what these people were going to do, and he didn't dare to ask.
But from the behavior of those Nanmanzi just now, it is not difficult to see that these people have passed some kind of selection and should not be killed for the time being.
At this time, the naked man at the head suddenly took out a silver-white bell about an inch long from his waist, held the wooden handle in his hand, raised it up, and started shaking it.
"Rang..."
An ethereal bell sounded, echoing in the empty cave.
The moment Yuan Ming heard the sound, he felt a heavy blow to his head. He didn't feel any pain, but he felt a severe dizziness, and even the scenery in front of him had double images.
In the mist and illusion, Yuan Ming saw a group of spiritual lights lighting up above the corpses in the cave, and then blurry shadows floated out one after another.
I saw those shadows floating out of the corpse's head, overlapping one after another, and finally became exactly the same as the corpse.
Yuan Ming was so frightened that he became more awake.
Only then did he realize to his horror that those floating shadows were not a dazzle for him, they were all real.
But they all had their heads lowered and their legs were dangling in the air, floating above the corpses.
Yuan Ming swallowed hard, looked at the naked man, and saw that he was holding a bell and shook it again.
"Rang"
The same ethereal voice sounded, but this time Yuan Ming did not feel any obvious dizziness. He watched helplessly as the suspended shadows all drifted towards the bell in the naked man's hand.
As they got closer, the shadows turned into light spots, merged into the bell, and disappeared.
"Could it be that...these shadows are the souls of those people?" This thought popped up in Yuan Ming's mind, sending chills down his spine.
If he hadn't passed that mysterious test, not only would his head be in a different place at this moment, but his soul would also have been taken away like those people.
"The harvest is not bad, there are thirteen. Okay, let's go back to meet up and prepare for the return journey." The naked man put away the bell, wiped the sweat on his head, and said.
It seemed that the two ringings of the bell just now had a heavy load on him.
Yuan Ming stared blankly at the bell in the big man's hand. Although he didn't know what it was, these southern barbarians in front of him were obviously not ordinary people.
…
Three days later, in Shiwanda Mountain, in a valley covered by mist.
A team whose faces were uniformly covered with a piece of green animal skin marched mightily through the poisonous miasma of mixed blue and purple colors.
These people are clearly divided into two categories. One category is the Nanmanzi who wear animal skins and hang scimitars on their waists. There are only about ten or twenty people. They are divided into two ends of the team. From time to time, a few people shuttle among them to maintain order.
On the other hand, prisoners whose upper bodies were naked and whose hands were shackled formed a long queue and walked silently with their heads lowered.
As the latter, Yuan Ming was caught in the crowd and was walking hard with the team.
He has been traveling through mountains and mud for the past few days. He has never spoken a word, and no one has come to ask him. However, through the few words exchanged between the southern barbarians, Yuan Ming knows where they are now.
It is called "Southern Xinjiang", and the destination of this trip is Biluo Cave.
According to the big Han men in southern Xinjiang, it was a place blessed by the gods and a holy place for their practice, and they were the ones who were selected and sent to receive gifts from the gods.
Based on the evil behavior of these people, Yuan Ming doesn't believe that "Biluo Cave" will be a good place, and what awaits him will never be a good thing. But nowadays, everyone is a swordsman and I am a fish, so he can only take one step at a time.
.
What's worse is that his memory has not been recovered at all, and he still cannot remember who he is.
But the "Central Plains" in his remaining memory is much more prosperous than this uncivilized land. He should be from there, but why did he come here from the Central Plains and then be seriously injured? Was he framed by a gangster, or was he
Being chased by enemies?
Yuan Ming had a lot of thoughts in his mind, but he secretly decided to figure it all out!
Fortunately among the misfortunes, these big men from southern Xinjiang did not make things more difficult for them along the way.
On the way, they would distribute food to the prisoners on time, although it was only some unpalatable dried fruits and meager amounts of dried meat. They would also apply some herbal ointments on them to treat their injuries.
It was also during the treatment process that Yuan Ming discovered that he had more than thirty wounds, large and small, including lacerations, friction wounds, penetrating wounds, and even a broken rib.
The herbal ointment applied to him by those big men in southern Xinjiang was not deceptive at all. In just three days, almost all the injuries were healed, leaving only the broken rib, which would be difficult to recover for a while.
There is some pain but it does not affect movement.
Now that they entered this poisonous valley, the big men in southern Xinjiang even gave them anti-poison animal skins, which made Yuan Ming even more cautious.
This chapter has been completed!