Qining was very surprised that Ugly Han could master the Diamond Dharma Sutra, but he had already guessed that Ugly Han's origin was unusual, so he was instantly relieved when he knew that Ugly Han had miraculous powers.
Could it be that the ugly man is actually a disciple of Buddhism
But how could a Buddhist disciple have that precious black cloak
The Ugly Man itself is a huge mystery, but it is difficult to solve for a while.
"This man is supposed to be a top master, but he is unconscious and cannot remember his martial arts." Ximen Wuhen said slowly: "A skinny camel is bigger than a horse. Although he has mental problems, his martial arts foundation is solid. He is very talented, and he can see other people's martial arts moves in an instant and even learn and use them immediately. Looking at the world, there are only a handful of people with such ability."
Qi Ning cautiously asked, "Does the god know who he is?"
Ximen Wuhen glanced at him and snorted coldly, but then remained silent for a moment before saying, "I can't figure out who he is at the moment." After saying this, he said no more.
The ugly man didn't scream again that night. Qining guessed that the ugly man's previous howling might be a demonstration to Ximen Wuhen.
Early the next morning, Hong Mendao put away his tent, and the three of them and one horse continued to move forward.
After walking like this for three days, the ugly man never appeared. However, the air became thinner and thinner, making it difficult to breathe. The terrain became higher and higher. Finally, I heard Hong Mendao say to Ximen Wuhen: "God By now, we have entered the territory of the Ancient Elephant Kingdom. If we keep walking like this, we will have to walk for at least half a month to reach the Snowy Mountains, and we need to find some horses."
In fact, the place we traveled these past few days can be said to be deserted. There were no people at all, let alone horses.
In a barbaric land, even if there are mountains of gold and silver, it is difficult to exchange for a horse at this time.
The horse that was transporting the items on the camel had also slowed down. This horse was not even considered a good horse. It had been traveling day and night for more than ten days and was already exhausted. Fortunately, it was a northwest horse with plenty of endurance, so it persisted. Now, but now that we have entered the plateau area, even Qining feels a little uncomfortable, let alone the horse, which is obviously uncomfortable.
Hongmendao knew that even if a person could persevere, at the current speed, the horse would collapse in less than two days.
In addition, food and water have begun to be scarce. Although supplies have been replenished before, they are consumed every day. The remaining food and water can only last for two or three days at most. If it is no longer possible within these two or three days, Finding a place to replenish supplies would make things even more troublesome.
"You can see people in two days' walk." Ximen Wuhen raised his head and looked into the distance. The sky was high and the sky was high, and towering peaks appeared on the distant horizon. He raised his hand and knew: "After passing that mountain, there will be people living there. "
Although no one was seen, a wolf pack attacked that night. Although the wolves were easily eliminated, the wolves took the lead in attacking the exhausted horse from the beginning, and the wolves were destroyed. The horse was also lying in a pool of blood.
As a result, the camel didn't even have the strength to transport it, so he had to throw away all the other items, leaving only water and dry food.
The mountain seemed very close, but it was quite a long way to go. I walked for a whole day before reaching the foot of the mountain, rested overnight, and climbed over the mountain early the next morning. This mountain is actually not too high, but it is very high. It was steep. At dusk, I managed to cross the mountain. Looking over it, I saw an endless wilderness. There were many cattle and sheep in the wilderness, and there were more than a dozen tents scattered here and there.
Hong Mendao let out a sigh of relief and said, "It shouldn't be a problem to buy a few horses from here."
After the three people descended from the mountain, they went straight to the tent. Passing by a group of sheep, they saw two shepherds wearing thick robes. The style of the robes was completely different from those in the Central Plains. Both shepherds had dark skin and soft skin. Her hair was rough and had many braids sticking up. When they saw Qi Ning and the others passing by, they all looked at them with strange eyes.
"This is the border area of the Ancient Elephant Kingdom." Ximen Wuhen finally said: "This is the Naqu Sect. The Ancient Elephant Kingdom has sects. Their sects are like our counties, but each sect is larger than our county. There are quite a few, as far as I know, there are a total of ninety-eight sects in this ancient elephant kingdom, and its territory is also very vast, but the population is sparse, and it is far less lively than the Central Plains."
Qining thought that Ximen Wuhen knew so much about the Ancient Elephant Kingdom, it seemed that this old guy might have been here before.
The three of them walked towards a larger tent, and suddenly they heard a whistle. It was very loud in the wilderness. Qining followed the sound and saw another ancient elephant man playing whistle not far away. Whistle, but a pair of eyes is looking here very alertly.
The whistle sounded, and soon I saw people coming out of several nearby tents.
Qi Ning and Hong Mendao looked at each other and saw that the group of people gathered together quickly. Soon several people came over. Qi Ning saw that the group of people were all very old, and the youngest one looked like the youngest. He was also in his fifties, but there was no young man around.
He felt strange in his heart, but he saw an ancient elephant elder walking towards him, with his arms crossed on his chest, he bowed slightly to this side, and then said something to this side, but what he said was the ancient elephant language. Ning, however, couldn't understand what was being said, and seeing Hong Mendao's confused face, it was obvious that Hong Mendao didn't understand either.
There are very few contacts between the Ancient Elephant Kingdom and the Central Plains. Although there are trade exchanges between the two sides, it is mainly merchants from the northwest region who trade with the Ancient Elephant Kingdom. Da Chu is located in the south, but has almost no contact with the Ancient Elephant Kingdom. Therefore, There are very few people who are proficient in the ancient elephant language in Chu State, and there are not many people who are proficient in the Central Plains language in the ancient elephant kingdom.
Qi Ning was just thinking about whether the two parties should use gestures to communicate, when he saw Ximen Wuhen step forward and actually communicated with the elder Gu Xiang in the ancient elephant language.
Ximen Wuhen's Ancient Xiangyu was not fluent, but it could be seen from the old man's expression that there was no big obstacle to language communication between the two parties.
Qi Ning was shocked. Although he had guessed that Ximen Wuhen must have been to the Ancient Elephant Kingdom before, he did not expect that he could actually communicate with people in the Ancient Elephant Language. This was not just a visit to the Ancient Elephant Kingdom, but also a visit to the Ancient Elephant Kingdom. He has a very in-depth study of the ancient Xiang Kingdom.
He originally didn't believe Ximen Wuhen's statement that he came to Daxue Mountain to plead guilty to Dharma King Zhuri. Now he was even more certain that Ximen Wuhen brought him to the Ancient Xiang Kingdom this time for a great purpose.
Ximen Wuhen chatted with the old man for a while, and then saw Ximen Wuhen turn around and ask: "Lao Wu, do you have any money with you?"
Hong Mendao immediately took the silver bag and handed it over, but Ximen Wuhen was very generous and handed all the silver bags to the old man. The old man immediately waved his hand and shook his head. The two sides said a few words, and Ximen Wuhen finally took a few from it. A piece of silver was given to the old man, and the rest was thrown back to Hong Mendao.
Qining could tell that Ximen Wuhen should have made a deal with the old man, but the old man was very honest and did not accept all the money because of Ximen Wuhen's generosity, but just took what he should have earned.
"They can provide us with three horses, and then give us some food and water." Ximen Wuhen said: "It's getting late, so we don't have to rush on our way. We can rest here for one night, and he will prepare some food for us. The tent will let us rest, and we can start our journey early tomorrow morning.”
Qi Ning and Hong Mendao both saluted the old man in the same manner as the old man saluted.
The tent provided by the old man Gu Xiang was very spacious. It could easily accommodate seven or eight people, not to mention three people. Not only that, they also specially sent a dinner. Although it was not very rich, the food had characteristics that were different from those in the Central Plains.
After drinking and eating, they saw a sound coming from outside the tent. The three of them all came out of the tent. They saw the old man Guxiang waiting outside. When he saw the three people coming out, the old man Guxiang said a few words to Ximen Wuhen, and then pointed. Pointing not far away, I saw three horses already prepared there. These were plateau horses, which were naturally different from the northwest horses.
Qining saw plateau horses for the first time. He couldn't help walking over and admiring one horse. The man who led the three horses was also an elderly man in his sixties. Qining looked at the horses with great interest. , actually said in a rather jerky Chinese dialect: "This is... the best horse here. It is very fast and can... climb mountains!"
Qi Ning was surprised and asked: "Do you know the Chinese dialect?"
"When I was young, I went to your place." The man said, "I learned a little bit, but I'm not very familiar with it."
Qi Ning felt a sense of intimacy when he heard him speak the Central Plains dialect. At this moment, he saw Ximen Wuhen and the elder Gu Xiang walking not far away and talking. Then he asked the man: "Are you doing business?" Central Plains?"
The man nodded and said: "When I was young, I went with the caravan. I went to a big city called... Yes, Xianyang. I went to Xianyang. It's very big and there are many people!" As he spoke, he opened his arms and made big movements.
"Not bad, Xianyang." Qining laughed and said, "Xianyang is very big, you can go and take a look again."
The man shook his head and said: "I'm old, I can't go, there is no team to go...!" He showed a very regretful expression.
Qi Ning asked: "What do you call the old man?"
"Samba!" The man said: "My name is Samba, and little Samba has become old Samba, hahaha...!"
Qi Ning was in an extremely depressed mood these days. When he heard the cheerful old man speak, he felt much better. He smiled and said, "Samba is a good name. By the way, why can't we see young people here? Why are they all so old?" ?”
Semba originally had a smile on his face, but when he heard Qining's question, his expression suddenly darkened, and there was even a hint of anger between his eyebrows, but he did not speak.
"Shouldn't you ask this?" Qining thought he had offended the other party and said hurriedly: "If I said something wrong, don't be offended or angry. I won't ask again."
"Palace!" Samba lowered his voice and pointed toward the southwest: "There is a palace over there. Young people are going to build the palace. It requires many, many people, and cattle and horses. Many of the cattle and horses are gone, and...!" He leaned close to Qining's ear and whispered: "Women, young women, are all going to the palace, they are all gone!"