Sure enough, the red shadow on the ground suddenly moved a lot closer to him, and soon it was within his reach.

Sanlang was also caught in the storm!

Xie Lian shouted at him, “Don’t panic!” He took another big mouthful of sand as soon as he opened his mouth, but by now, he was used to it. Although he shouted at San Lang not to panic, in fact, he also felt that San Lang would not panic at all. Sure enough, after the young man was swept into the air, Ruo Xie quickly retracted and closed the distance between the two. Xie Lian could see clearly that there was no panic on his face. It seemed that if he was given a book, he could immediately get away safely in the dust. Xie Lian even suspected that he was swept up on purpose. Ruo Xie wrapped his hands around the waists of the two men several times and tied them together. Xie Lian said again, “Go again! Don’t catch anyone this time!”

So Ruo Xie flew out again. This time, he caught... Nan Feng and Fu Yao!

Xie Lian was exhausted physically and mentally. He said to Ruo Xie, “I told you not to arrest anyone. This ‘person’ doesn’t refer to a person in the narrow sense… Okay.” He shouted to the people below, “Nanfeng Fuyao! Hold on! Please hold on!”

Nanfeng and Fuyao on the ground naturally wanted to hold on. They each stood in their own place, but the wind and sand were so wild and fierce that, not surprisingly, two more black shadows were swept into the tornado after a while.

Now, the four of them were spinning rapidly in the air. In the dark yellow sky and earth, the tornado was like a crooked sand pillar supporting the sky, and a white silk thread connected the four figures in the sand pillar and kept spinning endlessly, spinning faster and faster, rising higher and higher. Xie Lian said while eating sand, "Why are you guys here too!"

All they saw was sand and all they heard was wind. They had no choice but to yell at each other at the top of their lungs. Fuyao ate the sand and said, "Then I'll ask you, silly Bai Ling!"

Xie Lian grabbed the “silly white silk” with both hands and said helplessly, “Ruo Xie, Ruo Xie, now the four of us are all depending on you. This time, you must not catch the wrong person again. Go!”

With a tragic mood, he let go again. Nan Feng roared, "Don't count on this thing! Think of another way!" At this time, Xie Lian felt his hand tighten again, and he perked up and said, "Wait, give it another chance! It caught it again!"

Fuyao also shouted, "Don't trap a passerby again! Let him go!"

Xie Lian was also extremely worried about this. He tugged at Ruo Xie, but the other end didn’t budge. He felt relieved and said, “No! That end is very heavy and stable!” He then said, “Put it away!”

Facing the raging tornado, Ruo Xie quickly shortened his rope. Four figures quickly moved away from the wind column. Gradually, in the yellow sand, Xie Lian could clearly see a semicircular black outline below. This outline was very large, about the size of a small temple. Ruo Xie had caught this thing at the other end. When they got close to the ground, he finally saw clearly that it was a huge rock.

In this level of wind and sand, this sandstone seems like a solid and silent fortress, undoubtedly an excellent shelter.

They had not seen such a rock on their way here, and they had no idea how far the strange tornado had taken them. As soon as the four of them landed, they immediately circled around to the leeward side of the rock. As soon as they circled around, Xie Lian's heart brightened, and he said, "This is truly a blessing from the heavens."

It turned out that there was a hole on the leeward side of the rock. The hole was wide enough for two doors, and slightly shorter than one door, but it was wide enough for an adult to enter by bending down. The hole was irregular and crooked, but it didn't look like it was formed naturally, and it might have been dug randomly by humans. As soon as Xie Lian entered, he found that the rock was almost hollowed out. The space inside the hole seemed to be large, but it was dark inside. He didn't explore around inside, but just sat down in a place where the light could reach, brushed off the yellow sand on Ruo Xie's body, and wrapped it around his wrist.

Nanfeng and Fuyao were both spitting out sand, with sand entering their mouths, noses, eyes and ears, not to mention the folds of their clothes. When they took them off and shook them, they were filled with fine sand. Among the four, Sanlang seemed the safest. After he bent over and came in, he just shook off the sand on his red clothes. It was gone. Except for his black hair being slightly messy and crooked, his relaxed look was not affected at all. However, his black hair was originally tied crooked by Xie Lian, so it didn't matter if it was a little crooked.

Nan Feng wiped his face twice and cursed. Xie Lian poured out the sand in his hat and said, "Hey, I didn't expect you guys to be blown up into the sky. Why didn't you use a thousand-pound weight?"

Nan Feng then stopped cursing and said, "I used it! It's useless."

Fuyao shook his outer robe fiercely and said viciously: "Where do you think this place is? This is a desert in the extreme northwest, not my general's home ground."

Nan Feng said, "To the north is the territory of the two generals of the Pei family, and to the west is the territory of Quan Yizhen. There is no Nanyang Temple to be found within a radius of hundreds of miles."

There is a saying in the world: a powerful dragon cannot defeat a local snake. Therefore, as the deputy generals of the Southeastern and Southwestern Martial Gods, they were bound to be restricted in their magic power when casting spells in a territory that did not belong to them. Xie Lian saw that they were very frustrated and annoyed. It seemed that this was the first time that they had been blown up to the sky by a strong wind and spun around and could not land. He said, "It is really hard for you."

Sanlang sat down on the ground beside him, propped his chin with one hand, and said, "Shall we just wait here for the sandstorm to pass?"

Xie Lian turned to him and said, “It seems like this is the only way now. No matter how strong the tornado is, it can’t possibly carry such a large piece of rock into the sky.”

Sanlang said, "Just as you said before, this sandstorm is indeed very strange."

Xie Lian suddenly thought of something and said, “Sanlang, let me ask you a question.”

Sanlang said, "Just ask."

Xie Lian asked, “Is the Ban Yue Imperial Preceptor a man or a woman?”

San Lang said, "Didn't I tell you? Girl."

Xie Lian thought that this was indeed the case, and said, “We stopped at that abandoned building earlier, and didn’t we see two people walking past that building? The one in white was a nun in white.”

Fuyao asked suspiciously, "Looking at the person's clothes, it's hard to tell whether he is a man or a woman. His figure is also taller than that of an average woman. Did you really see it clearly?"

Xie Lian said, “I saw it clearly, there is no mistake. So I wonder if that person is Ban Yue Imperial Master.”

At that time, he said that these two people were definitely not ordinary people because their footwork was light and strange, which was definitely not something that ordinary people could do. He did not connect it with evil spirits, but now he had to consider it in this direction. After thinking for a moment, Nanfeng said, "It's possible. But there is a man in black with her, who could it be?"

Xie Lian said, “It’s hard to say, but that person walked faster than her and his skills were definitely not inferior to hers, so he couldn’t be her prey. He must be one of her superiors, friends, or subordinates.”

Fuyao asked, "Could it be the other of the two demon masters, the Imperial Master Fangxin?"

Xie Lian said, “Well, I think the reason why the two demon masters were called together is because according to rumors, the things they did were similar in nature, both were very bad, so they put them together to make an even number easier to remember, just like the Four Ascension Scenes, the Four Evils of the Ghost Realm, and so on. Even if there are not enough four, they have to make it four.”

Hearing this, San Lang laughed out loud again. Xie Lian looked at him and he said, “It’s okay. I just think what you said makes sense. Please continue.”

Xie Lian continued, “In fact, they should have no relationship. I have heard a little about this Imperial Master Fangxin. He is the Imperial Master of Yongan State. It seems that he was born several hundred years apart from Imperial Master Banyue.”

Fuyao seemed to find this unreasonable and said, "You don't know the four evils in the ghost world, but you know the heart-warming national teacher of Yong'an Kingdom in the human world?"

Xie Lian said, “Sometimes if a rag collector passes by, I’ll get to know them a little better. I don’t go to the ghost world to collect rags, so of course I don’t know them.”

At this time, the wind outside the cave became a little weaker. Nanfeng stood a little outside, patted the rock, examined its material, concentrated for a moment, lowered his head and said: "Why was there such a hole dug out of this rock?"

He probably thought that the presence of such a rock here was very suspicious. Xie Lian was not surprised at this, and said, "There are many rocks with holes dug like this. In the past, the people of Ban Yue would occasionally dig a hole in the rock to avoid the wind and sand when they were grazing outside and couldn't get home in time, or to temporarily spend the night. Some holes were not dug, but blasted."

Nan Feng wondered, "How do you graze in the desert?"

Xie Lian smiled and said, “Two hundred years ago, this place wasn’t entirely a desert. There was also an oasis.”

At this time, Sanlang said: "Brother."

Xie Lian turned around and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Sanlang pointed and said, "There seems to be something written on the stone you are sitting on."

"What?" Xie Lian bowed his head first, then stood up. He realized that the place where he sat was actually a stone slab. He wiped off the dust and found that there were indeed words on the stone slab. However, the words were engraved shallowly and were not very obvious. Half of the stone slab was still buried in the sand, and the words extended all the way up, disappearing into the darkness.

Since there are words, I must take a look. Xie Lian said, “I don’t have much mana left. Can one of you hold up a palm flame to help me light it up? Thank you very much.”

Nanfeng snapped his fingers, and a ball of fire appeared from his palm. Xie Lian glanced at Sanlang unintentionally, but he was not surprised. After all, he had seen the game of shrinking the earth by a thousand miles. Xie Lian felt that no matter what the two sides showed each other in the future, they would not be surprised. Nanfeng moved his palm to where Xie Lian pointed, and the fire illuminated the words engraved on the stone slab. The words were very strange, like a child's random scribbles, slightly tilted, and Nanfeng asked, "What is written on this?"

Sanlang said: "Of course it is the writing of the Half Moon Country."

Xie Lian said, “Nan Feng is probably asking what it means. Let me take a look.”

He cleared the sand and stones on the slab and came to the top row. The characters were particularly large and seemed to be the title. And these symbols appeared repeatedly on the slab. Fuyao also raised a palm flame and said, "Can you read Banyuewen?"

Xie Lian said, “To be honest, I have collected scraps in Half Moon Country before.”

“…”

Xie Lian sensed a moment of silence, raised his head, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

"Nothing." Fuyao snorted, "I'm just curious, how many other places have you collected junk from?"

Xie Lian smiled and lowered his head to continue reading. After a moment, he suddenly said two words:

"General."

Nan Feng and Fu Yao asked at the same time: "What?"

Xie Lian looked up and said, “I said, the words written on the top of this slate are ‘General’.” He paused and continued, “However, there is another character after ‘General’. However, I’m not sure what this last character means.”

Nan Feng seemed to be relieved and said, "Then you can take another look."

Xie Lian nodded, and Nan Feng held the flame in his palm and moved his hand a little further. As he moved, Xie Lian suddenly felt that something was wrong. There seemed to be something extra at the edge of his vision.

He placed his hands on the stone slab engraved with words and slowly raised his head.

Above the stone slab, the faint flames illuminated a stiff human face in the darkness. The two eyes of this face looked down and stared at him.

“Aa ...

·

It was not them who screamed, but the human face with stiff muscles.

Nanfeng also raised the palm flame with his other hand, and the flames in both hands suddenly jumped high, finally illuminating the entire interior of the cave.

The fire just now illuminated a person who had been hiding in the darkness. At this moment, he rolled and crawled to the side and shrank to the edge of the deep cave. At that edge, there were already seven or eight people huddled together, shivering.

Nan Feng shouted: "Who are you?!"

The shout made the entire cave buzz. Xie Lian's ears were already aching from the screams, so he had to cover his ears. The wind and sand were too strong, and the noise was deafening. They couldn't hear each other clearly if they spoke in a low voice. After entering the cave, they first started discussing the Ban Yue Imperial Master, and then concentrated on interpreting the stone tablet. They didn't even notice that there were other people hiding in the cave silently. The seven or eight people trembled for a long while, and then an old man in his fifties said, "We are a passing caravan, ordinary merchants, and my surname is Zheng. The wind and sand are too strong, and we can't leave, so we take shelter here."

He was the calmest one among the group and seemed to be the leader. Nan Feng asked again, "If you are just an ordinary merchant passing by, why are you hiding here in such a sneaky way?"

Just as the old man surnamed Zheng was about to speak, a teenager of about seventeen or eighteen beside him shouted, "We weren't sneaking around. You suddenly rushed in, so who knew if you were good or bad? Later, we vaguely heard you talking about the Ban Yue Imperial Master and the ghost world, and that you could set fire out of thin air. We thought you were the Ban Yue soldiers, patrolling and arresting people to eat, so we didn't dare to make a sound."

The old man seemed to be afraid that his words would offend the other party, so he said, "Tian Sheng, don't talk nonsense."

The young man had thick eyebrows and big eyes, and was born with a tiger-like face. When the elder said that, he immediately shut up. Xie Lian’s ears finally stopped hurting, and he put down his hand and said in a friendly manner: “It’s just a misunderstanding. It’s just a misunderstanding. No need to be nervous, just relax.”

After a pause, he continued, "We are certainly not Half Moon soldiers. I am the master of a Taoist temple, and these people are all...people in my temple, and we all learn the art of Qimen Dunjia. You are ordinary businessmen, and we are just ordinary Taoists. We have no ill intentions, we are just seeking shelter from the storm, and we just happened to enter the same cave."

His gentle voice and slow words were quite soothing. After repeated explanations and assurances, the expressions of the merchants finally calmed down.

Unexpectedly, Sanlang suddenly laughed and said, "No, I think these businessmen are not ordinary, they are modest."

Everyone looked at him in confusion. Sanlang said, "Isn't it said that 'more than half of the people go missing every time they pass through the Banyue Pass'? Knowing this rumor, you still dare to pass through here, which is very courageous. How can you say it's normal?"

Hearing this, Mr. Zheng said, "Young man, this is not necessarily true. In fact, there are also some caravans passing through here, and they left peacefully."

Sanlang said, "Oh?"

Old Man Zheng said, "As long as we find the right person to lead the way and don't mistakenly enter the former territory of the Half Moon Kingdom, it will be fine. Therefore, when we cross the border this time, we specially found a local to lead the way."

The young man said, "Yes! It still depends on the guide. We are all very grateful to Brother Zhao for this journey. He led us to avoid a lot of quicksand. When he saw the wind start, he quickly took us to find a place to hide. Otherwise, we might be buried alive by the sand now."

Xie Lian took a look. The person leading the way, Ah Zhao, was very young, about twenty years old, with a handsome and dull face. He did not show any reaction to the praises, and only said in a low voice, “It’s nothing. It’s all my duty. I hope this storm has passed, and everyone’s camels and goods are safe.”

"It will be alright!"

This group of businessmen were very optimistic, but Xie Lian always felt that things were not as simple as they thought.

If there were no problems if they didn't stray into the remains of the Half Moon Kingdom, then could it be that all those caravans that "missed more than half" in the past were determined to die because they didn't believe in evil? It would be fine if one or two caravans were determined to die, but with the tragic examples in the past, why would people take risks so frequently?

He thought for a moment, and whispered to Nanfeng Fuyao, "This happened suddenly. When this sandstorm is over, we should first ensure that these people leave safely, and then go to the old site of Banyue Country to find out what happened."

Nanfeng and Fuyao would naturally not object. So Xie Lian continued to look down at the words on the stone tablet. He just recognized the two characters "General", but that was because this word was used quite frequently, and he had been in Banyue Country for two hundred years. Even if he had learned it well at that time, after two hundred years, he would have forgotten everything. It would take some time and patience to suddenly learn it again. At this time, Sanlang said, "General's Tomb."

As soon as he said that, Xie Lian remembered it. Didn’t the last character mean “tomb, grave, and cave”?

He turned around and asked, "Sanlang, do you also know Banyuewen?"

San Lang smiled and said, "Not many. I just got to know a few out of interest."

Xie Lian was already used to him saying that. The word "tomb" wasn't a common word, so if he really just "knew a few", how could he have just known this one? Since he said "not many", it meant "ask as you like", so he smiled and said, "Great. Maybe the ones you know are the ones I don't know. Come over here, and we'll take a look together."

He waved his hand gently, and San Lang came over. Nan Feng and Fu Yao held the palm flames beside them, lighting the way for the two of them. Xie Lian's fingers slowly brushed over the words on the stele, and he and San Lang discussed in a low voice, reading quietly. As they read, his eyes became more and more curious, and finally gradually calmed down. After all, the young man in the caravan was born young, and young people are curious. In addition, the two sides just chatted casually for a few minutes, so he treated it as a familiarity and asked, "Brothers, what is written on this stone tablet?"

Xie Lian came back to his senses and replied, “This stone tablet is a stele. What is written on it is the life story of a general.”

Tiansheng said: "A general from the Banyue Kingdom?"

Sanlang said: "No, he is a general from the Central Plains."

Nan Feng asked suspiciously, "A general from the Central Plains? Then why would the people of Banyue Country build a tomb for him? Didn't they say that the two countries were constantly at war, big or small?"

San Lang said: "This general is very strange. Although the stone tablet calls him a general, he is actually just a captain. Moreover, at the beginning, he led a hundred people, then he led seventy people, and then he led fifty people."

“…”

"In short, I was demoted all the way."

This experience of being demoted again and again, until there was nothing more to demote him, was very familiar. Xie Lian felt two pairs of eyes fixed on him, but he pretended not to notice and continued to read the words on the slate. At this time, Ting Tiansheng asked in confusion, "How can an official get demoted like this? As long as you don't make any big mistakes, you won't be promoted, but you won't be demoted either. How many failures does it take to achieve this?"

“…”

Xie Lian made a fist with his right hand, put it in front of his mouth, coughed lightly, and said seriously: "My little friend, it is not uncommon for officials to be demoted as they advance in rank."

"ah?"

San Lang laughed and said, "Indeed, it happens often."

After a pause, he continued, "The reason why this captain has been promoted lower and lower is not because he is not strong enough in fighting and is unworthy of his position, but because the relationship between the two countries is not good. However, on the battlefield, he has not only always made no achievements, but has also been a hindrance many times."

Nan Feng said: "What do you mean by getting in the way?"

San Lang said: "Not only do we stop the other side from killing our own people, we also stop our own people from killing the other side's people. If we stop them once, we will be demoted one level."

As he spoke leisurely, the seven or eight merchants gradually sat around, listening to his story and expressing their opinions. Tiansheng said, "I feel that the captain is not wrong. Soldiers fighting is fine, but not killing civilians casually is not a problem, right?"

"Although it's a bit of blind kindness and inappropriate for a soldier of a country to do this, but generally speaking, there's nothing wrong with it."

"Yes, after all, it's about saving people, not harming them."

Xie Lian listened and smiled slightly.

The group of merchants in front of him were neither the common people living in the border area nor the ancient people from two hundred years ago. Today, the Half Moon Kingdom has been reduced to ashes, and when people mention it again, they can naturally downplay it, or even praise it. Even if they disagree, they can probably understand it. But back then, the evaluation of this behavior was definitely not something that could be summed up in one word: "blind kindness."

Among the group of people, only Ah Zhao, who was probably a local and knew more, said, "Today is today, and two hundred years ago was two hundred years ago. How deep the hatred between the two countries was at that time is completely beyond the imagination of people today. This captain was only demoted, which is already very lucky."

Fuyao sneered and said, "How ridiculous."

Xie Lian could almost guess what he was going to say, and rubbed his brows. As expected, under the firelight, Fuyao's gloomy brows were illuminated. He said, "One should do his job well. Since he is a soldier, he should always remember to defend his country and fight bravely on the front line. When two countries go to war, casualties are inevitable. Such a soft-heartedness will only make his comrades hate him, and the enemy soldiers will think he is ridiculous. No one will thank him."

What he said made a lot of sense, so there was silence in the cave. Fuyao said calmly: "In the end, this kind of people will only have one end - death. Either die on the battlefield, or die at the hands of their own people."

After a moment of silence, Xie Lian broke the silence and said, “You guessed right. In the end, he did die on the battlefield.”

Tiansheng was shocked and asked, "Ah! How did he die?"

After thinking for a while, Xie Lian finally spoke, “It says that during a battle, my boot laces were not tied tightly, and I stepped on them, and fell…”

Everyone in the cave originally thought that the general must have died in a tragic way. They were all stunned when they heard this, wondering what kind of death this was. They all burst into laughter: "Hahahahahahaha..."

"…he was hacked to death by the blood-thirsty soldiers on both sides."

“Hahahahahahaha…”

San Lang raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is it funny?"

Xie Lian also said, “Ahem. Yes, it’s quite tragic. Please show some sympathy and stop laughing. Since he is in someone else’s tomb, please give him some face.”

Tiansheng said hurriedly: "I don't mean any harm! But this is too... a little... haha..."

Xie Lian had no choice, because when he read this, he also felt like laughing, so he had to stop talking about it and continued reading and translating, saying, “In short, although this captain has a bad reputation in the army, some of the people of the Half Moon Kingdom and the Central Plains in the border area have received his care, so they call him ‘General’ and built a simple stone tomb for him here and erected a stone slab to commemorate him.”

Sanlang continued, "Come here to herd sheep in your free time, and cut some fresh grass for him."

Xie Lian was puzzled and said, “Ah? Why should I cut grass for him? He is not a sheep.”

Sanlang chuckled and said, "I made up the last part."

Xie Lian looked over and saw that it was indeed the case. There was no trace of anything behind the stone slab. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, and asked, “Why are you so naughty?”

San Lang stuck out his tongue. The two were laughing when suddenly someone screamed, "What is this!!!"

This scream was extremely sharp in the entire cave, buzzing and making people shudder. Xie Lian looked towards the place where the scream came from and asked, "What's wrong?"

The person who was sitting there scrambled away and cried out in horror: "Snake!"

Nanfeng and Fuyao turned their arms, and the flames from their palms illuminated the ground from afar. On the sand, a long snake with bright colors was coiled!

Everyone panicked: "Why is there a snake?!"

"This... this snake doesn't make any sound at all. I have no idea when it crawled in here!"

When the snake was illuminated by the fire, it raised its body, as if it was extremely alert and ready to attack at any time. Nan Feng was about to strike it with a palm flame, but he saw a man slowly walking over, grabbing the snake by the seven inches, and holding it with his left hand. While holding it in front of his eyes to observe, he said: "It is common to see snakes in the desert, isn't it?"

The one who was so bold and unscrupulous was naturally San Lang. As the saying goes, if you hit a snake, you should hit it at its weakest point. If this snake is pinched to death, no matter how fierce its fangs are, it will not be able to be very powerful. The snake's tail entangled his left arm several times. Now that the distance was closer, Xie Lian took a closer look. The snake's skin seemed to be translucent, and the bright purple-red color inside could be seen. The purple-red color was also mixed with strands of black, which reminded people of the color of internal organs, which was very uncomfortable. The snake's tail was actually flesh-colored, and it was segmented, and it looked as if it had layers of hard shells. It didn't look like a snake's tail, but more like a scorpion's tail.

After seeing this, Xie Lian’s expression suddenly changed, and he said, “Watch out for its tail!”

Before he finished his words, the snake's entangled tail suddenly let go of Sanlang's arm, and the tip of the tail seemed to have turned into another snake head, which bounced back and stabbed fiercely!

The tail was extremely powerful, but Sanlang's right hand shot out and caught the tail easily. He held the tail like something fun, showed it to Xie Lian, and said with a smile, "This tail is interesting."

I saw that there was a flesh-red thorn at the end of the snake’s tail. Xie Lian breathed a sigh of relief and said, “It’s good that it didn’t get stabbed. It really is a scorpion-tailed snake.”

Nanfeng and Fuyao also came to see the snake and asked, "Scorpion-tailed snake?"

Xie Lian said, “Yes. It is a poisonous creature unique to the Half Moon Country. It is quite rare. I have never seen it, but I have heard of it. Its body is like a snake and its tail is like a scorpion, but its venom is more potent than the two combined. Whether you are bitten by its fangs or stabbed by its poisonous tail, it will…”

At this point, he saw Sanlang coiling the snake in his hand and tossing it over and over, sometimes stretching it, sometimes shortening it, sometimes twisting it like a towel, and he was just short of tying it into a bow. After a moment of silence, he gently advised: "Sanlang, don't play with it, it's very dangerous."

San Lang smiled and said, "It's okay. Don't worry, brother. This scorpion-tailed snake is the totem of Ban Yue Imperial Master. This is a rare opportunity, so of course we have to take a closer look."

Xie Lian was startled and asked, “The totem of Master Ban Yue?”

San Lang said, "That's right. It is said that because Ban Yue Imperial Preceptor can control this scorpion-tailed snake, the Ban Yue people believe that she has boundless magical powers and worship her as the Imperial Preceptor."

As soon as Xie Lian heard the word “control”, he felt something was wrong. He thought, whenever we talk about “control”, it always means a large group of people. He immediately said, “Everyone, get out now. There may be more than one scorpion-tailed snake…”

Before he could finish his sentence, he heard a scream: "Ah!!!"

Several people screamed, "Snakes!" "Lots of snakes!" "There are some here too!"

In the darkness, seven or eight purple-red scorpion-tailed snakes crawled out silently. They came so suddenly that no one knew which cave they came from. They did not attack, but just stared at the group of people quietly, as if they were examining something. The snakes crawled and attacked silently, without even the "hissing" sound of poisonous snakes. They were extremely dangerous. Nanfeng and Fuyao fired two palm flames at them, and a large ball of fire exploded in the cave. Xie Lian said, "Get out!"

The crowd dared not stay in the cave any longer, and hurriedly fled. Fortunately, it was already dusk, the tornado had long gone, and the wind and sand outside had also died down a lot. The group retreated to an open area. As they ran, Xie Lian was thinking about what was going on, when the old man Zheng that Tiansheng was supporting suddenly fell down. Xie Lian rushed forward and asked, "What happened?"

Old man Zheng's face was filled with pain, and he raised his hand tremblingly. Xie Lian grabbed his hand and looked at it, his heart sank. He saw that there was a purple-red area at the base of his palm, which was swollen very high. A very small hole could barely be seen in the swelling. Such a small wound, I'm afraid that it would take a while for someone to feel it, so he immediately said, "Everyone, check if you have any wounds on your body. If you have any, tie it up with a rope!" He turned his wrist over to look at his meridians, and there was a visible purple-red color climbing up along his meridians. Xie Lian thought that the snake venom was very strong, and was about to take off Ruo Xie, but he saw Ah Zhao tear off a strip of cloth and stab it in the middle of the old man's forearm. The stab was so tight that the poisonous blood could not flow back to the heart. His movements were extremely fast, and Xie Lian secretly praised him. When he looked up, Nan Feng had already taken out a medicine bottle and poured out a pill before he could say anything. Xie Lian gave it to the old man. Tian Sheng panicked and shouted, “Uncle, are you okay?! Brother Zhao, uncle is not going to die, is he?!”

Ah Zhao shook his head and said, "If you are bitten by a scorpion-tailed snake, you will definitely die within two hours."

Tiansheng was startled and asked, "Then...what should we do then?"

Mr. Zheng was the leader of the caravan, and the merchants also asked anxiously, "Didn't this young man give him medicine?"

Nan Feng said: "What I gave him was not an antidote, it was not a temporary life extension. At most it helped him delay two hours to twelve hours."

The merchants were all in a panic: "Only twelve hours?" "So, doesn't that mean we can only wait to die?" "Is there no cure for this poison?"

At this time, Sanlang slowly came up and said, "There is hope."

Everyone looked at him. Tiansheng was delighted and turned around and said, "Brother Zhao, why didn't you tell me earlier that there was a way to save you? You scared me to death!"

Ah Zhao said nothing, but shook his head silently. San Lang said, "Of course he can't say. If the poisoned person can be saved, but others may not be saved, how can he say it?"

Xie Lian asked, “San Lang, what do you mean?”

San Lang asked, "Brother, do you know the origin of this scorpion-tailed snake?"

It turns out that according to legend, hundreds of years ago, there was a king of the Half Moon Kingdom who went into the mountains to hunt and accidentally caught two goblins transformed from poisonous creatures, a venomous snake spirit and a scorpion spirit.

The two poisonous creatures practiced in the mountains, not caring about worldly affairs, and never harmed anyone, but the King of Banyue wanted to kill them because they were poisonous and would harm people sooner or later. The two goblins begged the king to spare their lives, but the king was cruel and lewd by nature, forcing the two goblins to mate in front of him and his ministers, so that they could drink and have fun at the banquet. After the banquet, the king still killed the two poisonous creatures.

Only the queen could not bear it, yet she dared not disobey the king, so she picked a vanilla leaf, threw it over, and covered the bodies of the two poisonous creatures.

The poisonous snakes and scorpions turned into evil creatures, full of resentment, and cursed that their offspring would stay here forever and kill the people of Half Moon Country. Therefore, scorpion tail snakes only appear in the area of ​​Half Moon Country, and once bitten or stung by them, the poison will take effect quickly and the death will be miserable. However, due to the queen's kindness, the vanilla leaves that she used to cover them that day could be used to detoxify the poison.

After that, Sanlang said, "That kind of herb is called Shanyue grass, and it only grows in the territory of the former country of Banyue."

When the merchants heard this, they all said, "This...can we really believe this kind of myth?"

"My dear little brother, human life is at stake. Don't joke with us!"

San Lang just smiled and said nothing. After he finished telling Xie Lian, he didn’t say much. Tian Sheng then asked Ah Zhao for confirmation: “Brother Zhao, is what the brother in red said true?”

After a moment's silence, Ah Zhao said, "I don't know whether the myths and legends are true or not. However, within the borders of the Half Moon Kingdom, there is indeed Good Moon Grass growing. And Good Moon Grass can indeed cure the poison of the scorpion-tailed snake."

Xie Lian said slowly, “That is to say, those bitten by the scorpion-tailed snake only have a glimmer of hope for survival. And this glimmer of hope can only be obtained by going to the ancient land of the Half Moon Nation?”

No wonder many passing caravans and travelers would still break into the former territory of the Half Moon Kingdom even though they knew that "more than half of the people disappear every time they cross the border."

It was not because they were determined to die, but because they had reasons to go in. If there were many scorpion-tailed snakes in this area, the passing caravans would inevitably be bitten. Once bitten, they would have to go to the ancient land of the Half Moon Kingdom to get the antidote.

The scorpion-tailed snake is the totem of the Half Moon Demon Dao, and can be controlled by her. So the appearance of this scorpion-tailed snake is definitely not a coincidence. With just a few of them, I'm afraid they can't protect so many people. I don't know if there will be more scorpion-tailed snakes. In order to prevent these people from having any accidents, Xie Lian put two fingers together, pressed them against his temple, and activated the spirit communication array, wanting to see if he could shamelessly borrow a few more young priests. Who knew that the operation failed and there was no news.

He put his hand down, feeling strange, and thought to himself: "My magic power is not used up so quickly, right? I counted it this morning, and there is clearly still a little left." Then he turned to Nanfeng and Fuyao: "Who of you try to enter the spiritual formation? I can't go in from here."

After a moment, the two men looked solemn, and Nanfeng said, "I can't go in either."

It's impossible that they can't get in because the wind and sand are too strong. In some places where evil spirits are rising, the magic power of some priests will be affected and temporarily weakened or blocked. I'm afraid that they are facing such a situation now.

Xie Lian paced back and forth for a while, then raised his head and said, “Maybe it’s because this place is too close to the Half Moon Ancient Country…” At this moment, he suddenly caught a glimpse of an unusually dazzling red color from the corner of his eye.

Nanfeng and Fuyao were trying to enter the spiritual formation here, while other merchants were busy checking for minor wounds on their bodies. Only the young man Tiansheng was so busy holding Old Man Zheng that he didn't notice that a purple scorpion-tailed snake was silently crawling up his back.

It coiled around Tiansheng's shoulder, its fangs aimed not at the boy's neck, but at the arm of Sanlang who was standing nonchalantly beside him.

The snake's body raised up and protruded!

Just before the fang was about to pierce San Lang, Xie Lian reached out a hand and pinched its vital point with incredible precision.

With his strength, this pinch could have directly crushed the snake's vital points, blasting its liver and brain to pieces. However, he didn't know if the snake's flesh and blood also carried poison, so he didn't dare to move rashly. He then went to pinch its tail. Unexpectedly, the snake's body was extremely slippery and difficult to catch. When Xie Lian pinched it, he felt a round, soft, cold thing slipping through his fingers. The next moment, he felt a sharp pain like a needle piercing the back of his hand.