The caravan merchants led Su Wu and his party to a secluded corner.
He carefully studied Su Wu's face for a while, and the more he looked, the more he felt that the other person was a Han like himself. The businessman smiled and opened the box in front of him, revealing a layer of straw laid flat inside the box.
After removing the layer of straw, a pair of black patent leather sheathed swords were revealed.
"Little brother, how could you, a Han Chinese, settle in such a dangerous area as Minzang?
These swords are all from the official forges, and they are of very good quality. Today, Emperor Zhao Chenqiaoyi wears a yellow robe, changes his name to Yuan Jianlong, and the country is called "Song". It won't be long before these official forges will be used again.
Once the government regulates it, we may no longer be able to sell such sophisticated weapons, and even our caravans will no longer be able to engage in the business of selling weapons.
Take a look at these weapons, which one do you need? You can choose your own." The caravan merchant spoke to Su Wu behind him, turned sideways, and led Su Wu and his group to come forward to choose weapons.
Su Wu pointed at the weapons in the box, and Tenzin, whose eyes lit up beside him, immediately understood.
He went to pick out a sword, taking it out of its sheath from time to time and checking the blade.
Su Wu started talking to the caravan merchants: "During the war years ago, my parents and family were carried by the rebels to the secret area, and they settled here ever since.
I see that you are now specializing in collecting herbs such as the 'Herb of Life and Death' in the Secret Realm - after living in the Secret Realm for such a long time, I have rarely heard that this kind of medicinal herb can be produced in the Secret Realm.
Don’t know what this herb is used for?”
Su Wu had indeed never heard of the herb "Life and Death Grass" during his years of activity in the Secret Area.
Tenzin also knew very little about this herb.
"This kind of medicinal herb has only occasionally appeared in the secret area in recent years.
Its roots are like worms, similar to 'Cordyceps sinensis', but its stems and leaves resemble ginseng leaves, which are quite different from ordinary Cordyceps sinensis.
It is said that 'Life and Death Grass' is a variant of 'Cordyceps Sinensis' - this kind of herb only exists in the secret area." The caravan merchant explained to Su Wu, "As for the effectiveness of this herb, its name can also be used to explain it.
Guess one or two.
It has the effect of 'reversing life and death'.
It can restore life to people who have been "buried in loess" so that they can survive in this world for a longer period of time."
When the caravan businessmen mentioned the words "buried in loess", there was a hint of worry in their expressions.
After listening to his words, Su Wu was convinced that the 'Loess Burial' was not a false concept, but a real thing. He looked normal, as if he didn't notice the strangeness in the caravan merchant's words, and said loudly: "My family and I
I have settled in the secret area and haven't heard any news from the Han Dynasty for a long time.
Now that the world has been settled and the Zhao family has taken over the world, I hope that the world will be at peace, the scourge of war will be eliminated, and the people will live and work in peace and contentment."
The businessman heard the sound and looked at Su Wu in surprise.
The conversation that the other party showed occasionally was quite good, unlike the young people who could be cultivated in ordinary chaotic families.
"I hope so..." the caravan merchant said with a smile, without discussing it too much with Su Wu.
Su Wu tentatively asked the merchant what "Loess Buried" specifically meant. The caravan merchant did not reveal much information to Su Wu. He only said that it was a disease spread in the famine-stricken areas of Han Dynasty.
'Can delay the progression of the disease.
Caravans travel around the world and are engaged in the business of "earning their lives on a knife's edge", so they are naturally wary of outsiders.
Although this businessman was a little closer to Su Wu because he was a Han Chinese.
But this closeness is obviously not enough for him to reveal some secrets related to his family's life and death.
Su Wu didn't ask any more questions.
Dan Zeng selected two knives, and Su Wu took out the silver and paid the bill.
The businessman wrapped the knife in black cloth and handed it to Su Wu. At the same time, he only took one silver particle from Su Wu's hand and returned the other one to Su Wu: "It's also good to see my compatriots in the secret realm. Not an easy task.
I only charge half of the money, just to protect the capital.
Brother Su, take care of yourself."
"Take care." Su Wu clasped his fists in return and said, "If anyone needs my help in the future, you can go to the nearby Chawang Village, twenty miles away, to find me."
"Definitely." The caravan merchant nodded in agreement.
He didn't look down on Su Wu because Su Wu didn't seem to have a powerful position. He also had the idea of having many friends and multiple paths.
Su Wu carried the sword on his back and said goodbye to the caravan merchants.
——Now this caravan has sold almost the same amount of goods. After packing boxes of goods, the person at the head of the horse team sounded the gong to clear the way, and the whole caravan slowly left as people watched.
"Let's go, it's time for us to go back." Su Wu pulled Lunzhu and said to Tenzin.
Tenzin nodded repeatedly and followed Su Wu.
His eyes were entirely focused on the sword wrapped in black cloth behind Su Wu, and he did not want to move away for a moment.
…
Horses pulling carriages galloped across the dim yellow plains, and the smoke and dust kicked up by the horses' hooves gathered into an earth dragon.
The vehicle was being pulled by strong horses, and the wheels rolled over the bumpy road and the stones on the ground. It was bumpy all the way. The various parts of the carriage kept colliding with each other in the bumps, making bursts of overwhelmed groans. .
The windows and doors were covered with thick cloth curtains, and inside the dim carriage, a man wearing a thick black robe and wrapping himself tightly in a cloth sat in the carriage.
The carriage shook and bumped violently, but the man sat upright in the carriage, always maintaining a posture, and was not affected by the bumps.
I don't know how long this shaking and bumping lasted.
The sound of horse hooves outside the window gradually became slower.
The whistles and shouts of the caravan members sounded one after another.
The entire caravan came to a halt.
Outside the carriage where the man in black robe was standing, the voice of the caravan's maguotou could be heard: "Proprietor, we bought a total of seven grasses of life and death in the last market, one with three leaves, two with two leaves, and the rest are all It's a leaf, what do you think you should do with it?"
"Stewed together with the meat and bones, added some mushrooms, and distributed it to the brothers." The "black robe" who Ma Guotou called the "proprietor" stretched out his palms covered with black cloth pockets. Putting her palm against 'his' throat, a strange-sounding sound came from under the cloth.
"yes."
Ma Guotou responded and left.
He took off the big iron pot from his back and placed it on the simple stove built by the caravan brothers.
The young man who went to fetch water from the nearby river came back with a few buckets of water. There was also a big fish hanging on the hay stalk in his other hand.
The young man poured half of the water into the iron pot, handed the fish to the woman who was adding firewood to the fire, grinned at Ma Guotou and said: "Guotou, the fish here are so stupid. They are not afraid of people. I One of them was knocked unconscious with one stick, and we brought him back and made fish soup for us to eat!"
Ma Guotou glanced at the big fish, and while washing the pot with melon pulp, he nodded to the woman carrying the fish.
The woman carried the fish back to the river, where she released the big fish.
The young man opened his mouth slightly, looking a little confused.
Another young man who had been the translator for the entire caravan came over with a bundle of firewood and said with a smile: "Remember this from now on, Xu Jing, don't eat the fish in their rivers when you get to the Secret Realm.
No matter how easy it is to get this fish, you can't eat it."
"Why?" the young man named 'Xu Jing' asked, scratching his head.
Chang Chun, the young man who was the translator of the caravan, pointed to the river at the foot of the hillside and replied: "If you have nothing to do, you can wait and see by the river - if you are lucky, you might be able to see a corpse floating down the river.
, the body went all the way down the river, and there were so many fish gathering around the body that you couldn’t even catch them all!”
Xu Jing was stunned when he heard this, and then his expression suddenly became a little complicated as if he realized something.
After brushing the pot head, pour another bucket of water into the pot.
When the water boils, add fresh beef and dried mushrooms in sequence. When the mushrooms and the aroma of beef bones waft out from the pot, you take off the cloth bag you carry with you and take a stick from the cloth bag.
One by one, he twisted the grass of life and death and threw them all into the pot.
The woman who was adding firewood to the fire, the young man who was returning from fetching water, the old man who was setting up a tent, and the whistlers who were patrolling all over the place all slowed down when Ma Guotou untied the black cloth bag around his waist.
When they saw seven grasses of life and death being thrown into the pot, their faces suddenly became excited.
"The proprietor ordered me to put all the grass collected this time into the pot and share it with all the brothers." Ma Guotou, who had always been serious about his words, looked at the few grass roots floating in the pot with a rare smile on his face.
A smile.
"Dongzhu Renyi!"
"You have been a great help to us, proprietor!"
"We will do our best to serve the host and find the seven-leaf grass of life and death as soon as possible!"
There was a sound of gratitude outside the car window.
The man in a black cloth robe was sitting in the carriage, his body motionless, like a carved wood sculpture.
Not long after, a gap was opened in the carriage curtain, and a little sunlight shone into the carriage through the gap - the man in the carriage turned slightly sideways to avoid the light - Ma Guotou brought a bowl of broth to the edge of the carriage.
.
The car curtain rotates back to its original shape.
The proprietor of the entire caravan peeled off the cloth covering his face layer by layer, revealing a face that looked like a newly molded clay tire. Judging from the appearance and eyebrows, it should be a woman's 'mud tire face'
On the top, there is dry and rolled mud.
The 'skin' like loess and mud spread all the way to the forehead of the 'proprietor'.
The skin on the proprietor's forehead is a normal flesh-and-blood color.
'He' took a wooden stick from the corner, moved closer to the bowl of broth little by little, used the corner of the top of the wooden stick to pull the broth to his feet, and then leaned down little by little and picked up the bowl of broth.
Bowl of broth.
As he leaned down, there were waves of extremely subtle "kacha" sounds all around him.
It was like the sound of cracking clods of earth.
Picking up the broth and putting down the wooden stick, the host held the whole bowl of broth and drank it all.
He ate up the three grasses of life and death floating in the broth.
A whole bowl of beef bones and mushrooms was left alone.
The proprietor exhaled slowly.
The yellow mud crust on the surface of 'his' skin dried up quickly.
It turns into loess and mud powder and shakes off from the face.
After shaking off the mud shell, the face is extraordinarily delicate and beautiful, like a flower and jade.
The current proprietor of this caravan is indeed a woman!