to blame

Qingqiu flapped his wings, strenuously circling and flying upwards along the direction of the turning of the stairs.

At this time, everyone is dealing with various follow-up issues in the yard: sampling, cleaning, and disinfection.As a result, the second floor seemed extraordinarily quiet.

Qingqiu flew to the door of Mingxia's room, eager to press the doorknob with his claws, but the door was pulled open from the inside. Nanjiang walked out quickly, reached out to fish it into his arms, and then closed it very quickly. Door.

Qingqiu smelled the familiar scent before seeing anyone, so he didn't struggle, but looked up at Nanjiang's expression with some doubts, "Where's Mingxia?"

Nan Jiang touched its back twice casually, "He is exhausted, and fell asleep right now."

Qingqiu felt that there was something wrong with this statement, and was thinking about it, when he heard Nanjiang ask it, "I read it before and after, what did you find?"

Qingqiu straightened his back with a whoosh, and instantly switched his state to the working mode, "The supply station is facing west, near the 'Nine Mu Umeda', there are traces of an ambush by the scorpion. But when I rushed over, they had already Withdrew."

"Nine Mu Umeda" is not someone's crop land, but it got its name because monks lived in seclusion here when the formation was first established.There are many trees here, and the terrain is rather complicated—people who originally lived in seclusion did not want outsiders to come in and disturb their tranquility.The water pheasant chose this place to ambush because of the terrain.

"Let's go." Nanjiang didn't plan to take anyone into a place like "Nine Mu Umeda". It was dark and midnight, and the terrain was unfamiliar. Could it be that he was rushing to deliver rations to the monsters?

"Also..." Qingqiu hesitated in a rare way, "Places like 'Nine Mu Umeda' are full of trees, and no one prunes them. There are also weeds and shrubs everywhere near the periphery, which grow in a mess. If you want to It's hard to pass there... I don't know if I'm reading it wrong..."

Nan Jiang held it and stopped at the corner of the stairs on the second floor. Looking out from the narrow glass window behind him, Li Youran was helping Lin Su collect the residues on the surface, and Tang Xun led people back and forth in a further place. Patrol.Without the foggy gloomyness before, the small courtyard at night showed a bit of quietness unique to the wild.

Nan Jiang asked again, "What did you see?"

Qingqiu took two steps back and forth on his arm anxiously, "When I passed above Umeda, I saw something jumping over the plum branch. Its body was about the size of the beauty from Tu Qing's family, no, it was bigger than The beauty is even bigger. Four legs and a short tail."

Nan Jiang frowned slightly.Listening to its description, there doesn't seem to be anything unusual about it.

"I probably startled it when I passed by. It stopped on a branch and turned around to look at me." Qingqiu paused for a moment, with a sense of disbelief in his tone, "I saw it with a pointed head, Round eyes, like a cat but not a cat, and a few short horns growing on his forehead."

Nan Jiang's eyes froze, and his body stood up straight, "There are horns on the head?!"

"The shape of the horns is like that of an elk, but it's very short. When it saw me, it spread its wings and wanted to pounce on me." Qingqiu shivered a little, "I'm actually not afraid of fighting with it. It’s the fact that it has horns and wings all of a sudden, which frightened me. Do you think it’s…”

Nanjiang suddenly felt a headache, "You want to say... Gu carving?"

"Shan Hai Jing Nan Shan Jing" once recorded a kind of man-eating fierce bird called Gu Diao.It is said in the book: its shape is like a sculpture, there are horns on its head, and its cry is like the voice of a baby.The reason why he was sealed in the Xishan Great Formation was also because of eating people.

Since ancient times, there have been many cases of beasts hurting people.To this day, there are still rumors of man-eating tigers, man-eating crocodiles, man-eating pythons and other ferocious beasts all over the world from time to time.In order to compete for limited resources, creatures in nature are performing the drama of natural selection and the law of the jungle all the time.

This kind of competition is nothing more than normal.

If this is the case, the Gu carvings will not be included in the "Shan Hai Jing", and will be sealed in the Xishan Great Formation, and one letter will last thousands of years.The reason why it will be punished is because the hunting methods of this race are extremely cruel.

They will repeatedly investigate in advance, and finally select a certain village or town as the target.Then they will block the way in and out, densely surround the target location, and shrink the encirclement while killing.An adult Gu carving can easily tear apart an adult's body with its sharp claws.

Moreover, they only eat the internal organs of living people.

Nanjiang made a decision as soon as he heard the news, this road cannot be followed.

The "Nine Mu Umeda" is very likely to be ambushed by the water scorpion, plus the unidentified beasts such as gu carvings, plus the complicated terrain around Umeda.If you choose this route, there are too many uncertain factors.

Nanjiang instructed Qingqiu, "You go to Li Youran and ask her to report to Mr. Hu. Report the matter of the Gu carving."

Qingqiu was not very sure, "Is it possible that I misread it?"

"It doesn't matter if you make a mistake," Nan Jiang rarely showed a gentle expression. "Reporting it will attract more people's attention. Even if it is finally confirmed that there is no such thing, it is good for everyone to be more vigilant."

As Nan Jiang spoke, he opened the narrow window beside him.The size of the window is not even big enough for an adult cat to come in and out, but it is not a problem for Qingqiu.

Qingqiu's figure came out of the window, and Nan Jiang's expression darkened.

He told Ming Xia earlier that the task of entering the mountain this time was to collect actual combat data for new weapons, and at the same time start the cleaning work from the outermost area of ​​the Western Mountain.This is not a lie, they really want to complete these tasks during this trip.But these are not all of their tasks, they are just tasks that require Ming Xia's participation - as a technical foreign aid, Ming Xia is not suitable to know too much about the internal affairs of the "Sixth Group".

The place they are really going to is a canyon at the northernmost end of the Xishan Mountains.

Nanjiang decided to discuss the route issue at the morning meeting tomorrow morning.

It was destined not to be able to sleep peacefully that night.

Although it is very quiet here, it seems a bit unusual if it is too quiet.

The late autumn in Yaozhou has not yet reached the time when the vegetation is killing. On such a night, there should be the last autumn insects singing in the night sky, and there should also be small animals looking for food shuttling through the forest, and the sound of small footsteps stepping on fallen leaves and broken branches , which emits a suspiciously soft beep.Nocturnal birds go out to hunt, their wings carry the wind, and occasionally they will make a long song.

However, at this moment, Nanjiang didn't hear anything.

Nan Jiang couldn't relax his nerves when he thought that there might be some huge monster hidden in the nearby darkness—this kind of concealed oppressive feeling was more breathless than confronting him face to face.

Fortunately, the night passed peacefully and they were not attacked again.

When the first ray of light in the morning penetrated the morning mist and sprinkled warmly on the messy brick floor in the small courtyard, everyone quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Mingxia and Qingqiu are not members of the staff, and it is not their turn to participate in things like the morning meeting, so naturally no one is too busy to wake them up.

So, when this person and bird came down from upstairs looking for food full of energy, the seminar hosted by Nan Jiang had come to an end, and it was difficult to reach a consensus on the direction of progress.

Ming Xia was not interested in their meeting at all, and walked past the group of people in the meeting with Qingqiu in his arms, and went straight into the kitchen.The food reserves in the supply station are still very rich. The only downside is that the big troops have finished their breakfast, and the rest of them have to rely on themselves to eat.

Fortunately, everything is ready-made, hot water, instant noodles, canned food.Ming Xia also found a sealed packaged cake in the cupboard, and happily took it out to share with Qing Qiu.

Qingqiu's perception of sweets is average, it mainly likes to eat meat.But seeing Ming Xia eating so happily, he also applauded and took a few mouthfuls, and then said that the taste of this kind of dim sum was very different from the dim sum in his memory.

Ming Xia divided the soaked noodles and canned food into two parts.When they were eating, Nan Jiang also sat down and ate something with them as if joining in the fun.

"You haven't had breakfast yet?" Ming Xia was surprised, he heard from Qingqiu that the team members had gotten up more than an hour ago.

"Too busy, I forgot." Nan Jiang also soaked noodles for himself, and soaked marinated eggs and sausages in hot water.

Ming Xia's complexion was much better than yesterday, which made Nan Jiang very relieved.

In Nanjiang's mind, Mingxia has evolved from a "skilled worker in need of special protection" to a "foreign aid with outstanding skills".He has a hunch that there are still many places where he can be used along the way.Taking a step back, Ming Xia is not a weak bun, and will not hold back the whole team, which in itself has greatly reduced their task pressure.

Nan Jiang's smile became more gentle and amiable, "Let's go after dinner."

Ming Xia raised his head, his eyes and the tip of his nose were slightly reddened by the steam, "Where are you going?"

"First go to a valley called 'Nine Mu Umeda'." Nanjiang glanced at Qingqiu, saw that it didn't react too much, nodded and continued: "Then turn northeast from there to Xixin River."

Ming Xia waited for him to continue, but Nan Jiang stopped talking.

"Is this the end?" Ming Xia was puzzled, "What are you doing by the river? Catch the water lizard? Is it hiding there?"

Nanjiang smiled and said, "No one is sure where the water scorpion is hiding. When it broke through the formation that day, our people had no time to leave a positioning chip in its body. So...everywhere possible Do a search."

Ming Xia nodded, expressing her understanding.Just looking for clues everywhere.

Nan Jiang looked into his clear eyes, hesitated for a moment, and added: "If there are no traces of water gnats near the Xixin River, we may continue to advance north."

Ming Xia raised his eyebrows and looked at him puzzled, "Didn't you say that the main task is to find a few weak targets and test the lethality of the new weapon?"

Nanjiang lied for himself without changing his face, "The original plan was right, but as you can see, the water scorpion has already regarded this place as its territory, and the battle last night was just a test. I think, even if we want to let go If it's a horse, it probably won't reconcile with us."

Ming Xia sighed, "That's true."

According to his thinking, in a place as close to the foot of the mountain as the supply station, big monsters like water gnats that need to hide to recuperate shouldn't appear.

Who would choose such an easy-to-find place to recuperate?

"Soldiers come to block you, water comes to cover you." Ming Xia said straightforwardly, "Anyway, my job is to cooperate with you. Naturally, wherever you go, I will follow you."

"Then..." Nan Jiang looked at him, a sincere smile slowly appeared on his face, "It's settled then."