White Bone Monkey King

cough.

Seeing that everyone was paying attention to him, Jin An wanted to change the topic, so he made an excuse casually:

"Two old gentlemen, for this table of camel meat, you didn't just kill one camel, right?"

"You slaughtered the camels and gave them to us to eat. What will happen to your future lives?"

"I haven't seen any desert plants along the way. It's not easy for you to raise a camel. You gave us everything to eat and drink. So what will you eat and drink in the future?"

The fat old man Xikelti who was pouring wine turned around and grinned at Jin An behind him, showing his jagged old teeth, and said with a smile: "We are guests from afar. We have stayed in the desert for too long. The desert Apart from the sand, there is nothing but boring things here. It’s rare that so many distinguished guests from far away come here today, and it’s rare that it’s so lively. We don’t ask for money, we just want to be happy.”

As he spoke, he sighed: "We know that we have only a few years left to live, so we have already looked away from whether we can make money or not. Anyway, no matter how much money we make, we can't take it with us when we die. Several customers don't understand our approach. That's right. We have lived in this desert for generations. From more than a hundred people in our ancestors to only thirteen old men left, in a few years we will all be dead and this Laughing Corpse Village will really be gone. People are coming again, so it’s useless no matter how much camels and water we leave, we are already tired of living in this vast desert and don’t want to bother anymore.”

"Thank you, Taoist Priest Jin An, for your concern. We old men appreciate Taoist Jin An's kindness." The fat old man Xikelti gave Jin An one last grateful look, and poured a bowl of wine for Jin An, urging Jin An to hurry up. Eat meat, don't be too polite to him.

Jin An originally wanted to distract everyone, but he didn't expect that he would end up getting burned.

He looked at the human-faced phoenix that was fleeing from camel meat like a poisonous scorpion.

Then he looked at Mr. Yiyun who was smiling like a 200-pound fool.

Then he quietly pushed the wine bowl away without changing his expression: "When I came here just now, I heard Mr. Pasha mention the Black Rain Country, and now I heard Mr. Xikelti mention that my ancestors have lived in this Laughing Corpse Village for generations. , I hope the two old gentlemen can tell me the reason?"

Seeing Jin An being so polite, the fat old man and the tall thin old man said with fear, "Taoist Master Jin An is too polite."

"Hey, actually this matter is not complicated, so there is nothing to hide."

"We don't know much about what happened back then. We heard it from our fathers orally when we were young... The leader of the Black Rain Kingdom led an army into the depths of the desert to find the Kingdom of the Immortal God, and passed through the Holy Mountain of Guchi Kingdom along the way. , Guchi State encountered a disaster on the way to Wuershi, and many people died."

"...The ancestors didn't say what the specific disaster was. They just talked nonsense about being careful that walls have ears, that trouble comes from the mouth, and that they don't want to implicate their descendants..."

"Every time I asked more questions, I would be scolded, so later on it became a taboo to never mention it..."

The fat old man continued to talk about what happened that year: "Since that disaster, which caused many casualties, the morale of the army has plummeted. Everyone is no longer willing to stay away from home and risk their lives for the personal selfishness of the leader of the Black Rain Kingdom. Dangerously entering the depths of the desert without rain or water, looking for the Kingdom of the Immortal God that does not exist at all..."

"...In order to revive morale and win over people again, the leader of the Black Rain Kingdom later built a stockade to store soldiers who died in battle, and named it 'Laughing Corpse Manor'... The leader promised that he would not abandon every soldier. He will definitely take every soldier back to his hometown, whether living or dead, the king will not leave anyone behind, so he has this Laughing Corpse Manor, leaving some wounded and female slaves to take care of the remains. ."

"The desert is very big and boring. When the army marches in the desert, they will also bring some female slaves with them. The guests come from the outside world. People like us must know more about the military prostitutes who accompany the army... Our ancestors stayed in Xiaoxiao back then. The wounded soldiers in the corpse farm have been waiting for the king to find the Kingdom of the Immortal God and bring them back, and then take them home. But they have been waiting for year after year, and they have never seen the king bring anyone back. Our The ancestors gave birth to children with those female slaves, and the children grew up and gave birth to children..."

"But as the land became barren and could no longer feed so many people, the number of people in the Laughing Corpse Village gradually decreased from a few hundred people back then, until no more girls could be born. By the time our generation died, only ten people were left. Three old men sitting there waiting to die... When we die, the Laughing Corpse Village will be completely dead."

As if they were talking about sadness, the fat old man and the tall and thin old man had tears in their eyes. They raised their hands to wipe the tears with their sleeves, their eyes red.

Jin An was thoughtful.

I am afraid that the reason for the sharp decline in the population of Xiaoshi Village is not only the barren land here, but also a bigger reason. The lack of outsiders to integrate with fresh blood will definitely lead to incest in the end. When a village is full of incestuous marriages, the rate of congenital disabilities among children increases greatly, and death is not far away.

After his mood stabilized, the tall and thin old man Pasha, with his deeply wrinkled old face that had been eroded by wind and sand, sighed softly, and this time it was him who continued: "Actually, we don't need to say it to several guests. Several old men also know that the king and others who went into the depths of the desert to search for the legendary Kingdom of the Immortal God must have died deeper in the desert...otherwise, the king and the others would definitely come back and take away the living people in the Laughing Corpse Village. There are still dead people. Without the country’s leader and army, the Black Rain Kingdom must have ceased to exist long ago... But we still take a chance and can’t help but ask the guests about the Black Rain Kingdom. When we see the faces of the guests Reaction, knowing the meaning of the answer is no longer important.”

It seemed that he was relieved, as if he had finally let go of the obsession of several generations. When he said this, the tall and thin old man sighed heavily and said that they were old and couldn't move anymore. They didn't want to go anywhere. They just wanted to live in this life. He died peacefully at Laughing Corpse Manor, accompanying his ancestors on their last journey of life, which can be regarded as sticking to the vows made back then.

If what the other party said is true, it is really a touching story about being in the same robe as my son.

But there is no what if.

As long as you are not blind.

Everyone can see that there is something wrong with this Laughing Corpse Village.

Jin An once again looked at the human-faced phoenix that had self-inflicted blood on the ground and was far away from the camel meat. He pretended to be sad and said: "This is really a sad story."

"As we walked along, there was no rain or water in this desert. It was a desolate area that was not suitable for vegetation to grow. We didn't even see a poplar tree, saxaul grass or white thorn. How could the people and camels in the Laughing Corpse Village do it? feed?"

Facing Jin An's curiosity, the tall and lanky old man directly gave out shocking news: "Because we have found the Wuer clan ruins!"

"Master Yan and the others also know this. They arrived a few days earlier than you and have already gone to Wuer's with us!"

"In order to find a way to survive, according to some ambiguous clues left by our ancestors, generations of ancestors have been constantly looking for a way to survive. Over the years, what is in this desert, not to mention figuring out the surrounding terrain, after generations of ancestors slowly exploring, they have learned about the nearby I know 70% to 80% and still feel confident.”

"The ancestors also found the sacred mountain of Guchi Kingdom, but the sacred mountain of Guchi Kingdom was too dangerous and the ancestors could not get out. They could only follow their ancestors' footsteps and go deep into the desert to find other ways to survive. They accidentally found Wu Er. His ruins."

"Now that I think about it, in the boundless desert, we were lucky enough to find the Wuer clan with just the number of our ancestors. Thank you to the desert gods for not abandoning us people."

When he talked about being grateful, the tall and thin old man showed a thankful smile, with black and yellow teeth in his mouth.

And the Lord Yan he was talking about was the big Han general sitting opposite.

Seeing the tall and thin old man pulling over to his side, the burly general touched the fine iron ring on his finger again, glanced at the former, and nodded with no anger or joy on his face: "Yes, we have indeed been there. No ears."

In this world, if you want to tell a lie well, it must be 70% true and 30% false.

That is the most difficult thing to distinguish between true and false.

Unexpectedly, these suspicious veterans, in order to lure them to take the bait and appeal to the deepest greed in human nature, would even throw out such important clues as the Wuer clan.

This is really a waste of money.

But if you think about it carefully, this is the only way to hook big fish like them. I don’t know what these veterans are trying to do by putting so much effort into planning?

Jin An was not in a hurry to inquire about the Wuer clan. Instead, he looked at Lord Yan across from him: "On the way here, I met a man from the Western Regions who was swept up by a sandstorm during the day and fell to death. I don't know if he was Lord Yan's." people?"

He roughly described the appearance of the people from the Western Regions.

Master Yan shook his head without joy and anger: "They are not from my team."

Jin An smiled: "I just asked casually, Master Yan don't need to think too much."

I don’t know how true or false his words are.

"Can you tell me about the situation at Wu'er's side?" Jin An turned to look at the fat old man and the tall and thin old man this time.

The position of these two old men at this time is a bit interesting.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, after filling everyone's wine bowls with wine, the two of them stood at the door, one on the left and the other on the right, just blocking the door, as if to prevent them from escaping.

At this time, the aroma of meat was still rising in the room, and those who drank and ate meat were still biting the meat, eating it deliciously, and their mouths were full of oil.

They had been talking about it for a while. At least each of them ate five or six pounds of meat. Logically speaking, people should have eaten to their full capacity.

Unless you have a particularly big appetite.

But these people are still eating meat all the time, and they don't feel the pain of overeating at all.

On the table and on the ground, there were many thick ribs and leg bones thrown away. Those bones were chewed clean, and even the marrow was chewed out.

In this slightly eerie atmosphere, the tall and thin old man began to mysteriously talk about the Wu Er family.

"In the desert, there is a mysterious legend about two ears of the gods. Whoever finds the ears of the gods can hear the voices of the gods and become the person closest to the gods... This mysterious legend attracts countless people."

"A long time ago, this place was not a complete desert. There were rivers, oases, wild beasts and vultures... The melted snow from the Kunlun Mountains and Tianshan Mountains converged into a vast river, flowing from the desert basin to the outside. At the must of the ancient river There are two ears of gods on the path."

"Then one day, someone found the ear of the gods and called it a miracle. Then they built a country on the miracle. No one knew the name at first. Later people used to call them the earless people. They claimed to be close to the gods. The ears can hear sounds from the north of the Tianshan Mountains, can hear sounds from the south of the Tianshan Mountains, can hear all the sounds in the entire desert, and can even hear the whispers of mysterious people from the Kingdom of the Immortal God... In order to be able to hear more There are many gods’ voices, so they created the ear-cutting ritual. Cut off your own ears and sacrifice them to the gods, so that you can hear more gods’ voices from the gods’ ears...”

"It is precisely for this reason that the name was later changed to 'Wuershi'."

The tall and thin old man spoke mysteriously, but he never said what the ear of the god looked like.

Jin An: "What does this god's ear look like?"

The night sky outside the door was dark, and the tall and thin old man standing at the door smiled mysteriously: "That is a huge human ear that grows in the desert, leading deep underground. No matter how many stones are thrown into the hole, you will never hear anything." The sound of stones falling to the ground was bottomless."

Sinkhole?

An abyssal sinkhole that looks like the outline of a human ear?

This was Jin An's first reaction.

Jin An nodded thoughtfully: "Then the desert god's ear canal is quite deep, like a bottomless pit."

Mr. Yiyun, who was sitting next to Jin An, raised his red mouth slightly, his face was as beautiful as snow-white porcelain, and his skin was delicate and white, which made his cold temperament a little lighter.

Seeing Jin An turning around to look, she deliberately kept a straight face, making Jin An look confused. He glanced at the dead Jiupan brother, stopped looking around, and continued to look at the two wrinkled men at the door. old man.

Jin An: "Since you have found the Wuer clan ruins, you should also have found the sinkhole... uh, the Ear of the Gods, right?"

Pasha and Xikelti nodded.

Jin An: "Did you hear the voice of the gods? Or the whispers of mysterious people from the Kingdom of the Immortal God?"

The two shook their heads in distress.

The promise was obvious.

According to what the tall and lanky old man said next, deep in the sinkhole in Desert Ear, there is a water source that even the sun cannot shine on. They have relied on that water source for so many years.

This table of camel meat, if only the people from Master Yan's side would not be able to finish it. With the seven or eight people from the Western Regions who joined later, they could finish the table of camel meat.

When all the camel meat was finished and the strong aroma of the meat disappeared, those people who had lost their minds and had been eating gluttonously came to their senses, holding their stomachs in their hands and saying that they had eaten well.

I don’t know what the two old men were thinking. When all the camel meat on the table was finished, they stopped serving meat. The two of them glanced at the night outside, and then looked at each other again before heading into the house. The person with a smile said: "It's getting late now, and the few guests from far away should be tired. We have already asked people to sort out a few sleeping rooms."

"However, the desert is barren and the nights are cold. There may not be enough beds and quilts, and even the number of rooms is not enough. Everyone has to squeeze in... Although Laughing Corpse Village is a large place, many rooms have not been occupied for many years and are covered with thick dust and are not suitable for living. , Master Yan and the others already have a place to sleep, so they have to give in to Taoist Priest Jin'an, Master Yiyun, and several other distant guests to squeeze in."

Qi Bo, who was lying down and pretending to be drunk: "!!!"