Holy Bone

Chapter 391 You should be thankful, Daoist Jin'an, that Yueqiang didn't force us to drink cow urine and eat cow dung to exorcise demons

Yueqiang Kingdom is not close to the ancient river.

After getting on the ancient river, there is still a long way to go before you can see the Yueqiang Kingdom.

After the ancient river dried up, the snow water that melted and flowed from the snow-capped mountains changed its course and merged into the underground river. There was a branch of the underground river under the Yueqiang Kingdom.

Old people in the desert believe in a legend that there is also a boundless ocean under the boundless desert. It is that the melted snow from the snow-capped mountains for thousands of years has flowed into the underground river, and the more it sinks.But no one has ever found out where the entrance to the underground river is, another special world used by the gods to protect desert animals.

Just when the camel team was about to enter the city, they encountered a problem. The Yueqiang Kingdom actually sealed off the city and did not allow anyone to enter. Jin An concentrated on waiting in the team. Heavy walked back, bringing back a very bad news.

"Recently, many major events have happened in the desert. Many demons have appeared in the desert. Many countries in the desert have begun to issue laws, closing the city at night and prohibiting people from entering and leaving. We can only spend the night outside the city tonight."

"Fortunately, I bribed the city guards with a grain of gold and allowed us to rest under the city gate for one night, where our safety can be guaranteed."

Hearing that there were a lot of devils in the desert, the camel team suddenly had a lot of discussion, and the panic quickly spread.

If it wasn't for the good news brought by the big beard, it is estimated that many people in the camel team who are tired, sleepy, hungry, thirsty, and physically and mentally exhausted after three consecutive days of traveling will have mental breakdowns.

Although unable to enter the city, being able to rest under the city gate is good news for the worst outcome.

There are torches shining on the city gate, the fire is burning under the city gate, and the night watch soldiers on the city wall can bring a great sense of psychological security.

Although they didn't sleep well that night, everyone got more or less sleep and gained some energy.

the next day.

The first ray of the sun rises from the eastern horizon in the morning, reflecting the sky red, reflecting the rippling desert and several poplar trees knotted like dragons, an earthen city surrounded by irregular earth walls ten feet high, Dressed in the red sun and morning glow, slowly opened the city gate.

Jin An, who hadn't slept all night, was surprised to find that outside Yueqiang city, there was a circle of white crystal powder, shining brightly under the rising sun.

Before he could take a closer look at what those white crystalline powders were, the bearded man's urging shout interrupted his thoughts. The bearded man woke everyone up, packed up the tents, blankets, and camels, and was ready to enter the city.

The Yueqiang Kingdom is the second city in the Western Regions that Jin An has seen in the desert. He still shows great interest in these loess cities with towers and castles. Soldiers and a shaman are responsible for checking whether there are demons in the camel team.

Taoist priests and shamans appear in the same place, which is really exotic.

The bearded man was in charge of negotiating with the soldiers defending the city of Yueqiang Kingdom. Jin An and Uncle Keremu walked together. Uncle Keremu seemed to see Jin An's interest in Shaman, so he lowered his voice and explained: "That's the 'Hekmat' shaman, which means a wise man. This shaman is famous in the desert for exorcising demons..."

"It should be that the desert is not peaceful recently, so the Yueqiang royal family invited the Hekmaiti shaman to protect the Yueqiang country."

"Unexpectedly, the Yueqiang royal family did not selfishly ask the Hekmat shaman to protect the royal family. Instead, they used the Hekmat shaman, who is somewhat famous in the desert, to guard the city gate. This month, the Yueqiang royal family is considered rare. A master who thinks about the safety of his people."

Keremu highly respected the Yueqiang royal family.

There was even a bit of envy in his tone.

It seems that the people of his country are not as happy as the people of Yueqiang country.

"Uncle Keremu, why did the shaman wear an animal claw on his neck? Is it a bear claw or a tiger claw mummy?" Jin An asked in surprise when he noticed a dry claw hanging on the shaman's chest.

Uncle Keremu smiled and replied: "That's a bear claw. Shamans believe that bear claws are psychic tools that can ward off evil spirits and summon souls."

Jin An nodded thoughtfully, thinking about it in his heart, this is like the summoning bell and the mahogany sword magic weapon commonly used by Taoist priests when performing rituals.

At this time, the bearded man came back after negotiating. He told everyone that each person would have to pay a salt tax, a water tax, and a city entry tax. There would be a total of three taxes to be paid, and each caravan should prepare money in advance according to the head of the caravan. bag.

Uncle Keremu frowned and said, "In the past, we only had to pay water tax and city entry tax. Why do we have to pay an extra salt tax this time?"

Uncle Keremu expressed his dissatisfaction by muttering exorbitant taxes in a voice that ordinary people could not hear.

The bearded man smiled wryly and said, "The desert is not peaceful recently, and the salt tax has been paid there."

He raised his hand and pointed to the snow-white crystalline powder scattered around the outside of the city, which turned out to be all white salt.

Jin An was taken aback.

Good guy, he really didn't think about salt at first.

Because salt is very expensive in this era, otherwise there would not be so many people risking beheading at Caishikou to smuggle salt.

Because the profits are high.

So he didn't think about salt at first.

However, thinking that there is no shortage of stagnant salt lakes in plateau areas, snowflake white salt accumulated for thousands of years is deposited on the shores of salt lakes; moreover, the climate in plateau areas is also very conducive to drying salt; The amount is not as high as that of Kangding Kingdom... So Yueqiang Kingdom is so extravagant and wasteful of salt, he was soon relieved.

However, he was a little curious, could salt be used to drive away evil spirits in the deserts of the Western Regions?
Faced with Jin'an's question, Big Beard and Uncle Keremu both laughed. Uncle Keremu smiled and answered: "The salt in the desert is like the glutinous rice in Kangding. It can be used to drive away demons and prevent them from entering. city."

Tsk tsk, Jin An once again opened his eyes to all kinds of strange things he saw during his trip to the Western Regions.

When passing through the city gate, another small episode happened. When everyone passed through the city gate, they had to take off their shoes and walk in with bare feet and step on salt as required by the shaman, saying that the devil is afraid of salt. In the camel team, this can make the devil show his true colors.

Anyway, he did as the Romans did, Jin An had a sense of novelty, and he would do whatever others said.

When it was Jin'an's turn, looking at Jin'an, who was wearing a Taoist robe, a Taoist crown, and dressed incompatible with people from the Western Regions, those soldiers from the Yueqiang Kingdom with high noses and deep eye sockets couldn't help but look at Jin'an more. Seeing him Yili chatting, after that, the shaman named Hekmaiti also chatting to Jin'an Yili, Jin'an was dumbfounded.

At this time, it is deeply reflected that the importance of people learning a few more foreign languages.

In the end, it was Big Beard and Uncle Keremu who rescued Jin'an. They chatted with the Yueqiang soldiers and shamans for a while, and the eyes of those Yueqiang soldiers looking at Jin'an obviously changed.

A bit serious and respectful.

There is also a bit of skepticism.

After successfully passing through the city gate, Jin An curiously asked Uncle Keremu what happened just now. Uncle Keremu replied that because the desert was not peaceful recently, those soldiers would ask everyone who entered the city. Have you encountered anything in the desert recently? The bearded man talked about encountering strange corpses and corpses the night before yesterday, and also mentioned that you, the Taoist priest of Jin’an, resolved the crisis for the camel team, so those soldiers and shamans saw you, the Taoist priest of Jin’an Always surprised and curious.

"Daoist Jin'an, you should be lucky. We are now in the Yueqiang Kingdom. We only use salt to drive away demons, but let us walk over the salt. Some places believe in white cows as gods, and they will force outsiders to drink cow urine and eat them. Cow dung drives away the devil." Uncle Keremu joked to Jin'an.

Uh.

Jin An looked at the other party with a strange expression: "Uncle Keremu, don't you know how to exorcise evil spirits by drinking cow urine and eating cow dung?"

Uncle Keremu's face changed when he heard the words, "That place is very poor. Apart from the large population, there is no profit. No businessman will go all the way there."

"Only slave traders whose conscience was eaten by vultures would go there and sell those dark-skinned Kunlun slaves to Persia, to the Western Regions, to the northern grassland tribes, and to Kangding."

Talking about walking, the camel team has completely entered the city of Yueqiang. With the dawn, some people from the Western Regions with three-dimensional features and deep eye sockets appeared one after another on the road. Those people just took a curious look at the camel team entering the city so early. , and soon passed by.

The pace of life in the Western Regions is much slower than that of the people in Kangding, and many shops along the road have not yet opened, such as taverns, restaurants, naan bakeries, roast lamb shops, etc. are still closed.People here may not be able to get out of bed until nine o'clock in the morning, just as the plateau desert does not get dark until nine o'clock in the evening.

It was half an hour later than Xizhou Capital when it got dark.

The bearded people have been doing business in the desert all year round, and they have a familiar inn in Yueqiang Country, which saves Jin'an a lot of trouble. Jin'an only needs to follow the whole process, and finally check in easily.

The camel caravan had a large number of people, and one inn would definitely not be able to accommodate them. Jin An and the bearded man lived in a small inn, and booked two courtyards to accommodate everyone.

This inn is run by a family of four. The owner of the inn is Kuturuk, and the proprietress is Nurli. They also have a daughter and a hard-working son-in-law. The four of them can more or less speak Chinese.

The daughter and son-in-law also gave birth to two big fat boys, a four or five-year-old brother, playing in the lobby with his still-weaned brother.

This is a happy family of three generations.

There is a shortage of supplies in the desert, and there are not many edible things. After a hasty meal with naan bread and goat milk, everyone went back to their rooms and fell asleep when they were too sleepy.

The two courtyards surrounded by the bearded man are Datong Shop. A dozen or so people are crowded into one courtyard. The sound of snoring and the smell of sweaty feet can make people run away. Jin An likes quietness. He didn’t go to live in Datong Shop, but ordered alone. He built a yard, Nuoda lived in only him and a goat.

Finally, the hard-working son-in-law of the boss led Jin An to live in the yard.

In fact, it is a yard, that is, a simple earthen house, plus a vine shed in the yard, and the lack of supplies in the desert, everything is just make do.

Before leaving, the innkeeper's son-in-law kindly reminded him: "Master Dao, your goat is very strong, so be careful that some thieves will target it."

"I have lived in the desert for so long, and this is the first time I have seen such a strong goat. In the eyes of some people, the horns of your goat are very, very valuable."

He specifically said two very things, which attracted Jin An's attention.

This indeed attracted Jin An's attention: "Thank you for reminding me."

Although after practicing, he seldom relied on sleep to replenish his physical strength, but this time even Jin An felt a little tired, and fell asleep after returning to the guest room.

evening.

As soon as the bearded man walked outside the courtyard door where Jin An lived, Jin An had already pushed the courtyard door open, and the bearded man who was about to raise his hand to knock on the door was taken aback: "Daoist Jin'an, you didn't take a break, did you catch up on sleep?"

Jin An said with a smile, "I've already slept."

Then he looked at the bearded man curiously and asked, "What's the matter, what's the matter?"

"I want to see if you are awake, Taoist Master Jin'an. If you wake up, I would like to invite Taoist Master Jin'an to have dinner with us."

"Okay."

Jin An followed the big bearded man to the next yard. Good guy, there are a lot of people crowded in one yard, and a few whole roasted lambs are roasting on the fire, dripping golden grease, and the aroma is tangy.

He also saw Uncle Keremu and several leaders of another caravan.

Looking at this posture, does the bearded man have something to talk to them?
"Even the Yueqiang Kingdom is on alert, saying that many major events have happened in the desert recently, Big Beard, have you heard anything?"

There were two groups of people sitting in the yard, one was the bearded people brought out from the family, and the other was the heads of the caravan such as Jin'an, the bearded man, and Keremu. There were six or seven people in total.

Jin An saw that the faces of the bearded men were a bit serious, he declined the kindness of the mutton offered by others, and asked with a slight frown.

Ever since he entered Xizhou Prefecture and the Western Regions, he had no choice but to give up mutton. He ate naan bread and ate vegetarian food all the way, and his mouth almost faded away. Pork is almost invisible in these places, and people only eat mutton for meat.

Goats would resist others eating mutton at the beginning, and hurt many people. Every time, Jin An apologized and lost money. Later, after being blasted by Jin An several times, one person and one goat reached a tacit understanding. eat, but Jin An must not touch mutton.

(End of this chapter)