According to records of the Ancient Western Regions, it takes about half a month to travel through the desert from the Flame Mountain to the ancient Gaochang Kingdom.
In the middle, you will pass through 7 caves and 16 caves, where there are swarms of demons and monsters. Each cave has its own king. They devour passing merchants on the way, and they are so vicious and ferocious!
These ancient materials are full of superstition. Excluding these exaggerated myths, judging from the current geographical location map, it does take fifteen days for a normal adult to walk from the Flame Mountain to the location of the ancient Gaochang Kingdom.
or so time.
But Chen Zhi and the others walked very quickly, without stopping in between. They only had one meal at night, drank water once at noon, and slept five to six hours a day.
So this time was saved, and it was estimated that the trip would only last eight or nine days.
During this period, they deliberately relaxed their guard during the night, and everyone got into their sleeping bags and fell asleep, exposing all their flaws.
However, nothing unexpected happened and nothing strange was seen.
But in the morning, Ghost Sword often finds some very thin footprints far away.
Those footprints were as shallow as a piece of paper. The sand moved a little and then disappeared.
By the fourth day, they had entered the very center of the desert, where the yellow sand was everywhere, glowing orange-red like magma under the scorching sun. The billowing heat flowed through the whole body, and it was indeed so hot that one could go crazy.
They put some compressed food and some half-cooked meat products in their treasure bags.
In this place, they don't even need an oven, they just dig a hole in the sand, stuff the food inside, and it will be cooked in a short time.
When people rest in the middle of the journey, they must put a sleeping bag underneath, otherwise they will want to leave after not staying in the hot desert for long.
This is definitely a deserted and uninhabited area, and the government has not yet developed such a far-reaching desert area.
Along the way, there are no traces of human beings. Even adventurers would not choose such an uninhabited place.
The scorching hot temperatures every day made people's spirits gradually collapse. When Chen Zhi was on the road, he felt that his skin and flesh were already sticking to his clothes.
After the sweat flowed all over the body, it was blown by the sand wind and turned into mud. After a few days, the whole body smelled sour.
Everyone's face has begun to suffer from dry skin. Even Danxuan's fair and tender face has not been spared. His lips are cracked, his face is red and swollen, and he keeps coughing. These are all reactions to heat stroke!
However, even so, Danxuan did not fall behind or utter a single complaint...
In stark contrast, Fat Wei suddenly became unbearable.
He was very anxious at first, and kept complaining, saying that he shouldn't take a trip to this muddy water, and that he was completely crazy to come to this ghost place!
Then he became very excited and spoke fiercely. On several occasions, he even had conflicts with Chen Zhi and ran far away by himself.
Finally, one time, he complained that his stomach hurt. After having sex in a distance, his whole person changed when he came back. His face became gloomy and ugly, and he stopped looking at people's eyes and stopped saying a word.
The rest of the journey was quite boring, and everyone kept walking forward in silence. It seemed that this process was more important than the destination ahead.
From then on, Fat Wei began to become very strange. His feet always hung weakly on the yellow sand, as if his legs had been broken, but he walked very fast.
He is no longer willing to communicate with others or quarrel, but he always seems to be very hungry and thirsty. He will unscrew the wine can under the scorching sun and keep devouring the food in the treasure bag. He looks very greedy and
Always want fresh water to drink!
At night, he often leans on the rocks and stares at the stars. His eyes are hard to describe, and he seems to have a lot of resentment.
But on this day, they suddenly found a deep underground cave with a large area.
This cave was very abrupt in the desert. After careful observation, Chen Zhi thought that it was probably a karez.
Karez means "well cave", which is a large cave dug to find water.
It was recorded as early as "Historical Records" and was called "well canal" at that time. It was a special irrigation system in desert areas.
It is said that this kind of thing originated from foreign divine countries in the earliest times and was more common in the Turpan region of Xinjiang, China.
Because the desert here covers a large area, in order to survive in the desert, people use this kind of thing to develop and utilize underground water and pour crops.
This karez is very crude. The cave inside is more like a natural formation. There is no trace of man-made artifacts. It seems that it was not built by humans. However, it is very old and its origin cannot be verified.
When they drilled into the well, they immediately felt refreshed. It was like paradise in this scorching desert. They drilled in and explored. It was bottomless and there were several layers of things, but the location of the second layer.
There is a water source.
Seeing the clean water flowing slowly by, everyone's hearts seemed to be nourished.
This is the center of the desert. We have already traveled more than half of the journey. If we go a few days ahead, we will probably reach the ancient country of Gaochang.
Chen Zhi ordered to stop and rest, save some fresh water, take a good bath, and go outside to warm up in the evening.
The underground caves of this karez are connected one by one. The deeper the cave, the cooler the temperature becomes. The cold water makes the whole body feel comfortable.
They used the water here to cleanse their bodies. After this period of trekking in the desert, they were able to wash away three pounds of sand and mud!
After everyone had packed up, they set up a bonfire on the sand outside and buried the food they brought with them in the sand under the bonfire.
After these few days of travel, everyone was extremely exhausted and wished they could find a safe place to have a good sleep.
After eating, Guidao went out to explore the surroundings as usual, while Danxuan found a place on the first floor to meditate, twirling his Buddhist beads with his eyes closed, and reciting scriptures silently.
Chen Zhi found a place near water on the second floor, used an automatic charger to charge his phone, and then looked through the information on the phone.
This well is really a strange place. When it gets cold outside at night, this well actually warms up and makes people feel comfortable all over. It is a good place.
But the atmosphere here is very strange, quiet, dark, and smells of death!
After Chen Zhi flipped through some information, he turned off the small light, closed his eyes, and let himself blend into the darkness here.
There is a strange smell in this cave, sour and rotten, like a place where animals have lived for a long time. These animals should have died a long time ago. The ancient smell of blood still seems to be pungent.
The surroundings were dark and strange, and there seemed to be strange things hidden behind all the cracks in the stones.
Chen Zhi opened his eyes and let his eyes gradually adapt to the darkness.
At this time, he saw a shadow slowly emerging from behind the rock wall in front of him...