Chapter 421 The Old Man and the Sea (5k big chapter)
Since entering the desert Haizi, the ancient ship has been sailing smoothly.
The desert sea in front of us has the typical characteristics of plateau lake water, which is blue and bright, like a pure and flawless sapphire.
The vast expanse of sapphires meets the blue sky and white clouds flawlessly, and the line between sea and sky gives people the vastness and vastness, as if standing in the center of heaven and earth, gazing at the ancient artistic conception of the sacred sky lake.
If Jin'an hadn't seen the sea.
You would really mistakenly think that this is the sea.
However, Jin An admitted that the lake water here is very clear, and you can see the sand dunes, Poplar euphratica, Haloxylon ammodendron, Artemisia striata, and even the details of the sand one to twenty meters deep. It is so clear that you can see the bottom.
The weather was sunny at first, and everyone was still in the mood to admire the holy lake. However, this good mood was quickly ruined by the dark clouds coming from the sky.
“It’s the trade wind! It’s January wind season now, and there will be strong winds at night!” Ari shouted nervously.
The weather in the desert changes at every turn. The sky is still clear during the day, but the wind starts to pick up in the evening. When it gets completely dark, the winter wind reaches a higher altitude. Jin'an and the others see that Tianhu also has its violent side.
"Yari, send a few people to the cabin to see how the camels and sheep are doing, and re-tie the camels and sheep to avoid having their heads bruised and bloody in the cabin! And ask people who can't swim to hide away.
Go to the cabin and don’t linger on the deck!”
“You can ask people to find more ropes, tie them around their waists, and then tie them to the ship building to prevent them from being blown into the lake by the big waves!”
Jin An saw that there were still people standing on the deck and underestimated the power of nature, so he quickly called Yali and asked him to call them back.
The largest source of water these desert people have seen in their lives is only rivers. Who knew the power of the furious sea.
That can even be photographed in two pieces.
Let alone the weak.
Although this is not really the sea, it is the winter wind season, and the strong winds and waves in front of us are no different from the angry sea.
At this time, waves hit the ancient ship one after another, making the groaning sound of the overwhelmed wooden planks. The waves hit the waves and broke into white foam.
There were even several times when ice-cold waves were higher than the height of the ancient ship. The water waves hit the bow of the ship fiercely, causing the entire hull to be pressed downwards, causing people to stagger and lose their balance.
How calm and gentle Tianhu is during the day.
How ferocious and cruel it is when there is a strong wind at night.
Those are the two extremes.
Just like the large temperature difference between day and night in the desert.
The lake, which was like sapphire during the day, turned into black water during the storm. It was so deep that it was impossible to see the bottom. If anyone fell into the water at this time, they would definitely experience the fear of deep sea phobia.
Inside the ship building, the spiritual light of the divine talisman is flashing on the surface of Jin'an's body. It shines like a brilliant lighthouse in the dark night, giving people a sense of security in the darkness. The divine light of the imperial water talisman protects the ship building, and
The stormy water outside was isolated from the boat building. All eleven people were dry and refreshed without a drop of water getting their clothes wet.
Looking at the gradually increasing power of the wind and waves, Jin An frowned slightly.
At this moment, Yali and the others looked at Jin An's back with shock and disbelief. Even the water god could be conquered by Taoist Jin An. How many abilities does Taoist Jin An have?
Every Han Taoist priest is as capable as Taoist Master Jin'an?
At this moment, the back of Jin'an was once again infinitely higher in their eyes. Being able to control the desert sea was no longer a matter of human power, but the power of gods.
Jin'an's back is the back of a god in their eyes.
vast.
mystery.
majestic.
Even the sea can be conquered.
“Taoist Master Jin’an, why did we only see storms and waves along the way, but not Guchi Country and mountain peaks?” Yali was so upset by the shaking of the ship that he took the initiative to find a topic to distract himself.
"Don't be anxious, this desert sea will eventually come to an end." Jin'an was indeed not in a hurry at all. He had even seen the Holy Mountain of Huahai. It was only a matter of time before he found the mountain of Zangshi Ridge.
This is just a huge lake where snow and water converge, and it is not a real ocean. It has an end after all.
In fact, his greatest confidence comes from Erlang Zhenjun’s imperial water talisman.
Erlang Shen is the god of water.
This desert sea is not a problem for him.
Compared with whether he could find Guchi Country and the Holy Mountain, Jin An was more worried about the camels and sheep in the cabin.
It’s been such a bumpy ride.
I don’t know if the cabin was full of vomit.
Suddenly, there seemed to be some other sounds mixed in with the sound of the violent wind and waves. At first, if you didn't pay attention, you couldn't hear it at all. Later, everyone realized that it was someone's cry for help.
“It seems to be coming from the sea! Someone fell into the water!” Someone exclaimed.
Someone immediately answered and said, “Did one of us fall into the water and not be found?”
But everyone carefully counted the number of people, no more, no less, exactly eleven people. It was not that any of them fell into the water.
“Is Taoist Jin An someone else who has the same purpose as us, calling for help after his boat was capsized by a storm?” Yari said nervously.
"Yari, Adan, please come with me to check what's going on. The others should stay in the cabin and don't run around." Jin An ordered two people, then walked out of the cabin and began to identify people on the turbulent deck.
Which direction does the sound come from.
Even as soon as Jin An left the ship building, wind and waves immediately poured into the ship building, and the remaining Sureti people immediately became drowned rats and screamed incessantly.
As soon as Jin An stepped out of the ship building, he recognized the direction of the call for help: "Go, it seems to be coming from the left side of the ship."
The desert sea in the stormy sea was as dark as ink, which made people feel a little frightened. The three of them were trying to find someone on the dark water.
The area in the water is large, coupled with the darkness and poor visibility, the waves rise and fall one after another, so it is not easy to find someone.
“Where is Taoist Priest Jin’an!” A Dan pointed at the area he was searching and shouted with renewed energy.
Jin An and Yali turned their heads and looked over. Sure enough, in the undulating waves, they saw a man holding a piece of wood, struggling violently in the strong wind and waves, and trying to swim towards them.
Yari and Adan, who were eager to save people, did not think too much. They found a rope and coiled it into a loop, and tried to throw it into the waves again and again.
After dozens of their unremitting efforts, the man holding the wooden plank finally grabbed the noose and was rescued on board.
It was only then that I saw clearly that the man who fell into the water was actually an old man.
The skin on the old man’s cheeks is rough, rough and weather-beaten. At first glance, he looks like a boatman who has been running boats all year round.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you so much to my benefactors. If these benefactors hadn’t saved me, Amul, I, Amul, would have died in the storm today.”
The old man was soaked to the skin and shivering in the cold wind. His face was pale and bloodless and his lips were blue and purple from being soaked in the cold lake water.
As soon as he came up, he kept thanking Jin'an, Yali and Adan. When he talked about his escape from death, he shed tears.
Jin'an relied on Ari's translation to understand what the other party was saying.
The old man had just escaped from death and kept saying thanks after being rescued on the boat. He did not notice that the water waves did not wet the three people in Jin'an. It was not until he raised his head to look at the three people that he noticed this detail.
Stunned.
"This is the Taoist priest from the Han people..." the old man said with slight hesitation.
This time he spoke in Han Chinese.
Although the pronunciation is a bit awkward, it is even more awkward than when Ali and others speak Chinese, so I can barely understand the meaning.
Jin An looked thoughtfully at the drowned man in front of him who claimed to be Amul. He chuckled and said proactively: "It's very stormy outside. Let's not stand here and talk. Otherwise, a big wave will hit all four of us."
Let's go to the shiphouse first before we enter this desert sea."
Hearing this, the old man's admirer said happily: "Well, Taoist priest, you are so considerate. Amul would like to thank Taoist priest again for his life-saving grace."
When Amul came to the ship building, it was natural that they had to introduce each other.
Kind-hearted Ari saw that Amul was soaked and shivering from the cold. He kindly took out the extra clean clothes, took off the goat's milk wine from his waist and handed it to Amul. Amul, who had already changed into clean clothes, took the sheep with tears of gratitude.
Milk wine.
“Mr. Amul, how did you fall into the water?” Jin An asked with a warm smile after seeing that the old man’s mood had stabilized a little.
The expression on his face is warm.
There was no guarded expression.
When talking about the fact that he fell into the water, Amul couldn't help but sigh: "Taoist Master Jin'an, you are able to appear in the desert basin during this season, are you also here for the Kingdom of Guchi and the Kingdom of the Immortal God?"
“To be honest, I am also looking for Gu Chiguo.”
"But I'm more unlucky than you, Mr. Jin'an. The storm at night was too strong. The boat was overturned by a big wave, and people fell into the water. Everyone else on the boat was also separated... Now it seems that I am the only one who survived."
Amul said in a low mood: "If I hadn't been holding on to the wood desperately and drifting on the sea, I would never have been able to wait for your boat, Master Jin'an."
“Oh?” Jin An was slightly surprised.
“Have you also found clues about Guchi Country?”
“How come so many people have found clues about Guchi Country?”
When he heard Jin An's question, Amul glanced at Jin An in surprise. His expression seemed to be astonished. Did you really come to the depths of the desert to find Gu Chiguo without knowing anything?
Amul thought for a while, not knowing what he was thinking, and then said truthfully: "Everyone in the world knows that the ancient rivers in the desert basin have dried up, and several ancient countries have been destroyed for thousands of years. The world also knows that the desert basin is a dry and uninhabited place without water.
In this area, no living life can survive in the desert basin. But later, a living person, with no water and no camels, miraculously walked out of the desert basin alone. No one knew where he came from in the desert basin, and no one knew
How did he get out of the desert basin? There are rumors that that man is the only person who escaped from hell and was resurrected..."
“After that person walked out of the desert basin, he began to spread various clues to attract more people to enter the desert basin to search for the Kingdom of the Undying God... Taoist Priest Jin’an, you really don’t know about this?”
Speaking of this, Amul looked at Jin An in confusion again.
Jin An frowned and shook his head: "I really don't know."
Tut.
Amul looked at Jin'an, then at the ordinary people in the boathouse, whose faces were white from being soaked in the cold lake water, and was amazed.
"If you, Taoist Priest Jin'an, don't know this information, how did you find this place? Some people have been looking for the entrance to Guchi Country before, but no one has found the real entrance. I am somewhat interested in Taoist Priest Jin'an and your experiences along the way.
How did you find the Guchiguohuahaishengshan that others spent thousands of years trying to find?"
Jin An was still thinking about the shocking news brought by Amul. Faced with Amul's curiosity, he just responded vaguely: "It's just a coincidence and good luck."
After finishing speaking, he raised his head and stared at Amur: "So you have found the real entrance to the Holy Mountain of the Sea. Is there really a mountain in this desert sea?"
Unexpectedly, Amul shook his head: "The time has not come yet."
"time?"
“What time?”
Jin An urged to ask.
Amul smiled at Jin An, his lips turning purple from the cold. He seemed to have some other meaning hidden in his smile: "When the sky collapse and the earth crack at the same time, the entrance to the holy mountain of Guchi Kingdom will be truly opened."
Listening to Amul's riddles, Yari and others who had been standing nearby curiously couldn't help but wonder: "What do you mean? Why can't I hear it so well?"
“Yes, why do we have to wait until the sea is halfway down before we can see it?”
Jin An had already guessed the answer. He looked at Amul: "I understand what you mean. You want to say that the entrance to the holy mountain of Guchi Kingdom is not on the sea, but in the sea, so Mr. Amul said to wait
, the entrance will be revealed when the water drops by half.”
Amul opened his mouth and smiled, revealing a set of uneven black and yellow withered teeth: "Yes."
Yali and the others still didn't understand and were confused. Jin An looked at the dark night outside where the roaring waves were still beating the sky, and patiently explained: "The holy mountain of Guchi Kingdom is covered with yellow sand all year round. It usually looks like
It's just an ordinary sand dune. Unless we dig out the dunes one by one, we can't know that the holy mountain of Guchi Kingdom is buried under that dune. But this method is obviously very unrealistic. The four words "Huahai Holy Mountain" are very crucial. I
Only now do I understand that the sea here is not only a desert sea, but also refers to the collapse of the sand sea and the mountains exposed."
"Yari, do you still remember the collapsed sand dune we saw on the way back to the Xiaoqiu Country Camp? The sand dunes were unstable and collapsed due to river erosion. Similarly, the wind and waves here are so strong that the sand dunes covering the surface of the desert mountains
Sooner or later, the sand layer will collapse. Sky collapse refers to the collapse of sand dunes, and earth fissure refers to the exposure of mountain rocks."
When he said this, Jin An's voice paused slightly, and his eyes flashed: "If I guessed correctly, the desert mountain range regarded as a holy mountain by the Guchi Kingdom should extend to the depths of the desert.
The well-known Kunlun Mountains is a small mountain range. Kunlun Mountain has always been believed to be a holy mountain, so it makes sense that the Guchi Kingdom regarded a small mountain range of the Kunlun Mountains as a holy mountain."
Although what Jin An said was a bit complicated, Yali and the others finally understood it this time.
Yari said: "It is so complicated and hidden to enter the Guchi country. I don't know how those businessmen who went to the Guchi country to do business a thousand years ago could endure it."
Amul smiled: "Brother Ari, you are wrong this time. The ancient river that flowed through the desert basin more than a thousand years ago has not disappeared. It was actually very convenient for merchants at that time to do business in Guchi Country. They didn't need to
As hard as we are now to find the Holy Mountain of Guchi Kingdom, the cargo ship can have a smooth journey. Now because Guchi Kingdom has disappeared and the ancient river channels have also disappeared, we can only use the only vague clue of the 'Huahai Holy Mountain' to search in the desert.
The location of Guchi Country."
Oh? Jin An glanced at the old man Amul in front of him with a slightly raised corner of his mouth: "Mr. Amul seems to know a lot about the ancient people from a thousand years ago. I almost doubted whether Mr. Amul has lived for more than a thousand years and has given birth to a child before."
We have done business in Guchi Country."
Jin An’s words made Amul smile for a moment, then he returned to his normal expression and shook his head: “Taoist Master Jin An was joking.”
Jin An had a serious face: "I'm not joking."
Amul glanced at Jin An and didn't dare to answer the question for a while.
Haha, Jin An suddenly laughed loudly: "Okay, let's not joke with Mr. Amul. I was indeed joking before."
Amur: “?”
If he hadn't been living under someone else's roof now, he would have cursed Jin An for being sick.
Jin An stopped joking and curiously asked a question in his mind: "Mr. Amul, you and your people found this desert sea, then where did you find a boat that can enter the sea? Don't say that you carried it all the way.
The boat sailed into the desert."
At this time, the boat was still bumping violently up and down with the waves.
People who have only lived in arid deserts all their lives have never suffered such a crime. Yali and the others have been suppressing the turbulence in their stomachs and feeling listless. Occasionally, their throats will rumble and slide, and they will suppress the urge to vomit.
Amul did not answer immediately. He asked Jin An: "I don't know, Master Jin An, how did you get this big ship? Could it be that you really carried it all the way into the desert?"
Amul looked at Jin An.
Jin An looked at Amul.
They both suddenly burst out laughing at the same time.
The cunning and cunning Jin An showed an innocent, upright and bright smile: "Old Mr. Amul may not believe it at first, but I am born with supernatural powers. I really carried the boat from Kangding country all the way out of Yangguan and into the Western Regions.
Carry the boat all the way in here."
«
“!”
Amul was stunned with dull eyes.
He has seen shameless ones.
But I’ve never seen anyone so thick-skinned.
These words are obviously a bunch of nonsense and you are trying to fool the devil. Who will really believe your nonsense?
“Taoist Master Jin An really loves to joke.” Amul almost suffered internal injuries and vomited blood due to Jin An’s words. He held it in for a long time and could only say these few words.
Jin An: “How funny?”
Amur: “?”
Amul did not intend to take Jin An's words anymore. He found that the Han Taoist priest in front of him seemed to be a little abnormal, so he asked and answered himself: "Our boat is a wooden boat made of cut down poplar trees."
Speaking of this, Amul suddenly lowered his voice mysteriously: "Taoist Master Jin'an, I see that your ship is very similar to those old merchant ships that sank in the exhausted ancient rivers. When you found this antique ship, did you notice
What's the special movement that looks a little unclean?"
When he spoke in a low voice, he turned his head and looked around, as if he was on guard against someone eavesdropping, and what he was guarding against was the ancient ship at his feet.
“What’s the special news? Have you seen a ship exactly like ours?” Jin An became interested.