Strange Records of Xijing

Gao Zekai took the old herdsmen to his camp, and took out a simple map that he copied—since they guessed that the four dragons represented rivers, they copied the four rivers on the blueprint, and the patterns of strange beasts were replaced by Simply draw on it.

The old herdsman's name is A Ya'an, and he met Pei Jingxing and Gao Zekai when he was going to the market. He was blinded by the gold that Gao Zekai brought out, thinking that he had lived in this land for more than 50 years, and he had given many times to those who went deep into the land. The caravan in the desert has been a guide, isn't this gold easy to grab?

Unexpectedly, he walked all the way with these two generous young men and ended up in the army camp of the Zhou Dynasty, which was a big surprise.Coupled with the fact that the soldiers guarding the camp had a fierce look on their faces, and the guns in their hands were glowing coldly, Aya'an had never seen such a formation before, and his legs began to weaken.

After Aya'an entered the camp, he found that all the soldiers patrolling back and forth were soldiers holding guns, following behind Pei Jingxing and Gao Zekai step by step, not daring to take a step away, until he tremblingly followed the two into the tent, he did not dare to leave. Dare to let out a sigh of relief.

"Come here and look at this map."

Ayaan leaned over and snorted, "Is this a map?"

It is no wonder that Aya'an has such doubts, because apart from the four curves representing rivers on this drawing, there are only a few black dots distributed around the curves.

Gao Zekai coughed uncomfortably, and asked again: "Don't you understand?"

A Ya'an had a bitter face, and he realized that gold is not so easy to earn, but there are vicious soldiers outside, if he offends these people, let alone get paid, he doesn't know if he can go back alive.

Pei Jingxing saw that A Ya'an was trembling with fear from Gao Zekai, so he opened his mouth to make a rescue: "Please, old man, take a closer look at the direction of these four rivers, have you seen them before?"

Hearing Pei Jingxing's words, Aya'an couldn't help leaning a few steps towards him, leaned over to observe the map for a long time, shook his head and said, "This is too vague, isn't there a clearer map?"

Of course Gao Zekai would not take out the original map, and said, "Only this one, you can take a look again."

Aya'an had no choice but to walk slowly around the table, constantly changing the angle, and carefully examine this map that couldn't be more crude.

Su Yan listened for a long time, followed the direction of the sound just now, walked over slowly, stretched out his right hand to grope in the air for a while, grabbed Pei Jingxing's sleeve, and pulled it.

Pei Jingxing sensed Su Yan's actions and turned his head to look: "What's wrong?"

Su Yan didn't speak, just gestured, Pei Jingxing quickly understood, he asked Gao Zekai to continue looking at A Ya'an, while he led Su Yan to the inner room.

Su Yan asked, "Is this herdsman reliable?"

"It doesn't look like someone's spies." Pei Jingxing replied, "We happened to meet a group of herdsmen who were going to the market. During our conversation, we learned that this old herdsman named A Ya'an has been able to herd sheep since he was six years old, and he started to learn to be a guide when he was 13 years old. I am very familiar with the terrain in the desert."

Su Yan suggested: "Show him the real map?"

"I think so too. No one knows where we're going today. It's impossible to arrange people in advance. This Aya'an is just an ordinary old herdsman." Speaking of this, Pei Jingxing couldn't help but smile bitterly, "But Gao Zekai seems to be The wind is getting jittery, and even I am on guard, let alone Aya'an."

Su Yan was taken aback: "This is not good."

How could Pei Jingxing not know that Gao Zekai's condition is not good?However, he also understood Gao Zekai's temperament, he was used to being the proud son of heaven, and now that he suffered setbacks twice in a row, he could no longer accept other people's objections.If Pei Jingxing wanted to persuade him, he had to find another way.

"I know, don't worry." Pei Jingxing comforted Su Yan in vain.

Fortunately, Ayaan did not disappoint them. Maybe he was lured by the gold, or maybe he was frightened by the rows of well-equipped soldiers outside. He kept twisting his neck and turning the angle of view, almost sticking his entire face on the map Yes, finally saw some clues.

"Here," Aya'an pointed to the point on the map where the two rivers meet, "I remembered, I've been here before."

Gao Zekai stepped forward and asked A Ya'an excitedly: "What is this place, where is it?"

"I remembered that these two rivers, one is the Wusu River, which only appears when the water source is sufficient, and most of the time it is dry, so few people will see the Wusu River. As a guide, there will always be one or two chances a year to see what the Wusu River looks like when it has water, so I can remember it.” Ayaan moved his finger on the map, and pointed to one of the nearly complete circular winding rivers. Zing said, "There are many huge statues in this area. No one knows how deep these statues are. The Wusu River just circled around these statues and continued downstream."

Gao Zekai looked at Aya'an suspiciously, took out another common northwest map, and put it on the table: "Where is the Wusu River?"

Ayaan moved his finger over the map for a few weeks, finally landed on a point, and then slowly slid on the map: "The Wusu River is probably here."

Gao Zekai used a pen to draw the trend of the Wusu River along the place where Ayaan's finger passed, and then asked, "What about the other three rivers?"

Finding the Wusu River is equivalent to finding a reference for positioning. The next three rivers did not cost Aya'an too much time and energy, and they were quickly found.

"What's the use of just finding the river?" Gao Zekai frowned, obviously dissatisfied with the current progress.

Su Yan thought for a while and asked, "How many beasts are there on the map?"

"There seem to be three, but I can't remember clearly." Pei Jingxing looked at Gao Zekai, "Take out the map, there should be clues on it."

Gao Zekai had no choice but to keep A Ya'an away first, so that the latter could not see the content on the map, and then reluctantly unfolded the map on the table.

Su Yan couldn't see, so he could only ask Pei Jingxing, "How many are there?"

"Five, do you know what these beasts are?"

Su Yan shook his head: "I have never seen or heard of a monster with a tiger's head and a sheep's body and a ponytail. I remember you once said that if the deposed prince wants to keep his secret and only let his descendants find out, then It is impossible to use ordinary people's thinking to decipher the secrets of this map."

Pei Jingxing's eyes lit up: "That's right, you continue talking."

Su Yan continued: "For example, as soon as we saw this map, we began to desperately wonder if we had seen such beasts, to think about the symbolic meaning of these beasts, to guess the information these beasts wanted to convey to us, this is Ordinary thinking."

Pei Jingxing understood: "What you mean is that we have to put aside these speculations and look at it from a different angle."

"But from what angle should we look at it?" After Gao Zekai, who was used to keeping everything under his control, left Xijing, he found that things were getting more and more deviating from his preset track, and he became anxious.

Su Yan didn't answer right away, but bowed his head and thought for a while before expressing his guess with some uncertainty: "Four years ago, you lost your way in the wind and sand and crashed into that place by mistake. Four years later, There is an eye-like imprint on your backs, and it grows bigger and bigger. There are only two possibilities for this curse, one is left by Taoist priests or warlocks under the hands of the deposed prince, and the other is left by those barbarians. Was there any barbarian warlock under the deposed prince back then?"

When Pei Jingxing was born, the deposed prince had already passed away many years ago, and he didn't know about it.Instead, it was Gao Zekai who spoke: "Before we set off, Master once told me that besides the Wan Taoist priest, there was a barbarian from the Western Regions who was good at demagoguery. , wearing a ring all year round, I heard that the ring is inlaid with an eyeball of the enemy."

"That's the eyes." Su Yan said, "Look at the eyes of these five beasts, is there any one that is different from the others?"

Both Pei Jingxing and Gao Zekai lowered their heads to look. Sure enough, there was a ferocious beast entrenched above the confluence of two rivers on the map. Above one pair of eyes, there was another pair of narrowed eyes!

These eyes are hidden really well, the two black lines are almost stuck together, leaving only a little blank space, and there is a faint yellow line in the middle of the blank space, like a pair of vertical pupils.On the same positions of the other four beasts, there are two thick black lines.If it wasn't for Su Yan's reminder, Pei Jingxing and Gao Zekai would only regard these hidden eyes as ordinary patterns.

Gao Zekai compared the two maps and pointed to a point: "If these beasts represent the direction, then the location of the Holy Land is here. Eh, that's not right!"

Pei Jingxing asked, "What's the matter?"

Gao Zekai asked him, "Where did you start chasing the rogues, and how long have you been chasing them?"

Pei Jingxing thought for a while, pointed to a point on the map and said, "At that time, the army was stationed here, and we set off from here. After losing our way in the wind and sand, we don't know how long it took, but it was already sunset when we entered the ancient city."

Gao Zekai gestured on the map with his fingers, shook his head and said, "No, the wind and sand are so big, if you didn't find a place to hide in time, you would have been covered up long ago. You should have arrived at the Holy Land at sunset that day, which means it took less than a day. But if we start from here, it will take about three days to reach the place we guessed."

However, Pei Jingxing had a different opinion: "That place is too weird. When my master found us, it was here."

Speaking, Pei Jingxing pointed to another point on the map, which was far away from the point Gao Zekai pointed to: "If you say it according to your theory, how did we appear here?"

Gao Zekai was a little displeased: "You don't believe me?"

"It's not that I don't believe you," Pei Jingxing didn't back down, "This matter itself is quite weird. If we use common sense to infer the holy land, the curse, and the treasure of the deposed prince, then we will be unable to move forward at all, and there is no need to do anything."

Seeing the signs of the two people quarreling on one side again, Su Yan said in a timely manner: "There is no other clue right now, why don't you ask A Ya'an, if it is convenient, let's go and have a look."

A Ya'an, who came here for gold, was called over again. After listening to Gao Zekai's words, he looked at the store Gao Zekai pointed at, and said with a sigh: "I've been to this place before."

"you've been to?"

Aya'an nodded and said: "Look, this river is the Wusu River. That time was ten years ago. A group of Hu people asked me to be a guide, saying that they wanted to find the former residence of their ancestors. Their tribe originally The place where they live is near the Wusu River, but because the Wusu River has been dry all year round, it is difficult to find the river channel, so I want me to find the Wusu River channel for them. Since the place where their ancestors lived is in If you are near the Wusu River, then along the course of the Wusu River, you may be able to find the former residence of your ancestors."

"What happened later? Did you find it?"

Aya'an sighed: "No. We searched up and down the Wusu River for almost two months. My skin was almost peeled off, old man, but I still couldn't find it."

The ancestors of the Hu people, the lost former residences, and the holy places also meet these two points.

Gao Zekai finally made up his mind and said, "Ten taels of gold, take us here."

Aya'an licked his upper lip, his eyes were full of reluctance: "This is impossible, I dare not go to this place."

"Don't dare to go?"

Aya'an lowered her voice: "I heard that there is a devil city in that place!"

The three of Pei Jingxing asked in unison: "Devil City?"

"Yes," Aya'an whispered, "I heard that when the sun sets, if a storm blows over the desert, there will be a city that has long been abandoned! People or beasts that went in never came out again! "

Gao Zekai asked: "Who else knows about Devil City?"

Aya'an replied: "Anyone who goes to the desert to seek money knows it. No one knows the exact location of this devil city, but it's probably near here."

Pei Jingxing and the others felt an indescribable sense of helplessness and absurdity at this time. They focused all their attention on the holy land and the deposed prince, but forgot that 30 years had passed, and these 30 years were enough to hide many facts. Then it was distorted into a legend.

Perhaps it is for this reason that Jin Yong and others paid too much attention to the movement 30 years ago when they were looking for clues, and even ignored the legend of Devil City.

Gao Zekai made up his mind completely: "Prepare dry food and tools immediately, and set off early tomorrow morning!"

The author has something to say: the power is about to be cut off, and the rest will be made up tomorrow