After searching the surroundings again, Yin Xiu and Ma Xiaoyu's expressions became more solemn.
Of course these cavalrymen were bitten by zombies, and judging from the traces, they were probably the same zombies.
As for those weird operations of placing zombies on horseback, it's puzzling.
Ma Xiaoyu's worries gradually surfaced, and combined with the recent strange weather, some legends may be becoming reality.
Ma Xiaoyu took out a compass and began to measure in several directions.
At first, the compass pointer pointed accurately to one of the positions, but later, the pointer's trajectory began to become disorderly, chaotic, and even upside down.
Yin Xiu sensed something was wrong from her expression and the trajectory of the pointer.
"What's wrong?"
After hearing the question, Ma Xiaoyu raised his head, his brows relaxed a little, but his expression was still worried.
"Drought Demon."
"Hanba?"
For Yin Xiu, this is a familiar yet unfamiliar title.
It has been described as early as in the Book of Songs: Drought and demons are cruel, as if they are burning.
"Shuowen" records this: Ba, a drought ghost.
There is also a record in two volumes of "Zi Buyu": A zodiac has a shape with loose hair and walks on one foot. The corpse first turns into a drought demon, and then changes into a rooster.
This is an allusion that Yin Xiu and many people are familiar with, or have heard to some extent.
However, what is strange to Yin Xiu is that at the beginning, during the zombie catastrophe on Hong Kong Island, he asked Uncle Ming: Is there really a so-called drought demon in the world?
At that time, Uncle Ming just said indifferently that it was just someone else's imagination and deception. Where could there be any drought monsters on the mountain?
"Does the Drought Demon really exist?" Yin Xiu asked Ma Xiaoyu.
Of course Ma Xiaoyu knew that Yin Xiu was not doubting his judgment or questioning himself.
He just wanted to find out whether the so-called "Han Ba" that was intertwined in those historical records and today's people's ideas was the same as the Han Ba that Ma Xiaoyu was talking about now?
Is a powerful zombie that can cause droughts, breathe clouds and mist, go to heaven and earth, and speak human words real?
Or is it just a terrifying combination of people's imaginations?
That is, human beings put together the things they fear, poison, fire, weapons, drought, and floods, and call it "Nian", "Drought Demon", or other weird existences with other names. ?
"But the Drought Demon, or that monster whose name I don't know, is real."
Ma Xiaoyu began to talk about an old secret that had never been mentioned to anyone before, and even the Ma family members rarely knew about it.
"The reason why the ancestors of the Ma family left the Central Plains was to stay away from the disputes among Taoist sects. It was only a superficial reason.
The real reason was that they were tracking a drought demon at that time, which led them to Malaysia, and various factors contributed to the subsequent great migration of the Exorcist Ma family. ”
Ma Xiaoyu said seriously: "I saw that in a warehouse of the Ma family. The notebook was placed in the corner. Probably because it was not a magic spell, it was not taken seriously and was left there.
This incident was recorded by our ancestor, Ma Linglong, the contemporary Celestial Master of the Ma family. ”
"Did they finally catch the drought demon?"
"It seems to be telling it to run away."
Ma Xiaoyu was also a little unsure, "There are no details in the handbook about the abilities and characteristics of the drought demon.
I only know that it is recorded in the handbook that Heavenly Master Ma Linglong seriously injured it, but still missed a step to let it escape.
As for the Tianshi himself, he was seriously injured in the battle and finally lost the ability to continue chasing it. ”
"What a pity."
Yin Xiu asked: "Are there any other records? More?"
"No more."
Ma Xiaoyu shook his head, "The manuscript was infested with moths. In fact, more than half of it had been eaten by moths when I found it. Perhaps the important records in it have disappeared."
"The remaining pages."
Yin Xiu scratched his head and felt that although the information contained a lot of information, it still lacked a lot of key content.
"There is no need to be so disappointed."
Ma Xiaoyu said: "Actually, I also found out the name of the drought demon in the letter - Emperor Chongluo."
The Emperor Chongluo...
In the mountains, among the terrifying caves filled with death, a figure slowly turned around and looked into the distance.
Under the moonlight, the armored general, who was covered in bright armor and could not even see his eyes, felt the soft whispers and calls, as if the voice was close in front of him.
"Those old monsters in Yujing, do they think of me? Or are they talking about Xiandu..."
The general punched the mountain wall.
With a thunder, thousands of kilograms of rocks collapsed, causing a bigger noise. The birds were frightened and flew in all directions. Then they died in pieces in the air and fell, causing a shocking rainstorm.
Then in the dry forest with only dead branches left, there was a dense rustling sound, and one black shadow after another came out of the forest, either jumping, flying, or even lying on all fours, heading towards Walking away from the place where this murmur came from, under the moonlight, black air filled the air.
laugh!
The uneasy restlessness of the camel horse woke Yin Xiu and Ma Xiaoyu up.
The two of them seemed to have lost consciousness for a moment, but they didn't realize it.
"However, it would be a bit of an exaggeration to identify Drought Demon as the guy who escaped earlier."
Ma Xiaoyu said this herself, and she subconsciously avoided that name.
"This happened a long time ago. From ancient times to the present, anything can happen. Maybe the drought demon has been annihilated."
"That means a new king has appeared."
Yin Xiu touched his chin, "Maybe a new Drought Demon has appeared here.
After all, not only humans, but also zombies have to strive for the top. ”
"Are you still in the mood to joke at this time?"
Ma Xiaoyu was funny and angry, and rolled her eyes at him, "Although those zombies may not have come for us in the first place, we still have to be careful."
"No."
Yin Xiu suddenly became serious, "These zombies are here to deal with us."
"But, didn't we just happen to run into them, and that's it?"
"I mean, these zombies on horseback might just be some kind of special scouts, and someone let them out and ran around.
If we do this, we will break into the village at night, or meet overnight sleepers like us in the wilderness.
Besides caravans and interested people, who would spend the night in the wilderness at this time? Not to mention that the caravan's nose is very sharp, and it may have escaped early.
In this case, the only people left to enter Jiaozhi are those who are bold and consider themselves to be highly skilled. ”
Ma Xiaoyu also realized the crux of the problem.
In addition, what I heard from Bai Fenghuang before was that many people came for the secret treasure in Jiaozhi Taoist Temple. So, could the person who released this cavalry team also be a contender for the secret treasure?
His behavior, just as Yin Xiu said, was done to target these talents who came to Jiaozhi.
If this is the case, there may be more zombie cavalry teams running around at this time.
Just thinking about it made goosebumps form on the back of Ma Xiaoyu's hands, not for herself, but for the innocent people who met this death cavalry.
Even if it is the lowest zombie, it is not easy for ordinary people to deal with it, let alone eliminate it.
"Let's go."
Yin Xiu smoothed the cold hair on the back of Ma Xiaoyu's hand.
"It's dangerous to stay here."
Ma Xiaoyu nodded in agreement and followed Yin Xiu to pack the luggage on the back of the camel.
Then the two of them got on the back of the horse and kicked the horse in the belly. The horse started running again.
Yin Xiu took out a map that was found on zombies.
The special mark on it should be the location of the county government or city.
Yin Xiu traced his fingers on it and calculated that it was probably less than fifty miles away from them.
From here, by about afternoon, they would reach the small town called "Wangnan". Although the terrain is thousands of miles away, even in towns, there probably are not many supplies, but for people traveling far away, as long as it is a human town or village, no matter its size, if there is a trace of human habitation, it can be called People feel comforted.
For Yin Xiu and Ma Xiaoyu, comfort is not that important.
It's just that towns are also areas where populations meet and intelligence flows.
There, you may be able to get more information about the drought in southern Xinjiang, even if it is just some rumors and speculation.
The people here know more than General Zhennan and others, and have been exposed to more, including the horror and pain.
Therefore, they quickly moved towards that place without much discussion.
In the early morning, when the sun had just risen, they had passed through a dead forest and were still twenty miles away from looking south.
What appeared in front of Yin Xiu and Ma Xiaoyu was a small village that was not even marked on the map.
On the one hand, the map was indeed crude, and on the other hand, it was probably because the village was too small, with only a dozen households.
At this point, Yin Xiucai remembered a rather important question.
"Can you speak dialect?" he asked Ma Xiaoyu.
"I can speak a little bit of Malaysian dialect, which is as good as buying food at the wet market. What's wrong?" Ma Xiaoyu asked doubtfully.
"Is what we say here in Cochin the same as in Malaysia?"
Ma Xiaoyu rolled her eyes, thinking that Yin Xiu, not to mention never studying geography, had probably never left Hong Kong Island before.
"These two places are thousands of miles apart, do you think they can be the same? Even in Malaysia, separated by a mountain, the dialect can be different, and it will be the same in a village."
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"Then when we enter the village, can we only sign in sign language?"
Yin Xiu was a little worried.
After all, the language barrier will not only cause a lack of understanding, but may also lead to disputes.
"Speak Mandarin."
Ma Xiaoyu asked Yin Xiu, "What language did you speak in Dunling, America? English?"
"Mandarin..." Yin Xiu spread her hands and said.
"That's okay. People all over the world can speak Mandarin, let alone Jiaozhi, a place that was previously under the jurisdiction of Kyushu."
Ma Xiaoyu kicked the horse in the belly and took the lead.
Although Yin Xiu was a little skeptical about her statement, after thinking about it, she seemed to have no reason to refute it.
So he followed.
But after taking a few steps, Yin Xiu saw Ma Xiaoyu motionless, just sitting on the horse.
Yin Xiu couldn't help but feel nervous. She followed Ma Xiaoyu's line of sight and looked ahead, only to find that the village was silent.
It was early in the morning, when there should be smoke from cooking pots, roosters crowing and dogs croaking, and every household walking in a hurry, but there was no movement at all in the village.
The whole village seemed to have not woken up from the dark night.
Yin Xiu gently held Ma Xiaoyu's hand and found that her palm was cold.
It was obvious that she was being surrounded by an uneasy and terrifying premonition, which made her palms sweat slightly.
"How about you stay here and I go there to take a look first?" Yin Xiu asked thoughtfully.
Ma Xiaoyu just shook her head slightly and squeezed Yin Xiu's hand. "It's okay. Let's go and have a look together."
"Well, let's go and have a look together."
Yin Xiu drove the camel and horse forward slowly.
As the distance got closer, they gradually smelled a strong smell of blood, blowing in the wind.
Then there are the blood stains on the front of those stilt houses, the windows, the steps, all stained with blood.
On some steps, there were still some stumps, which were now turning white and purple.
Such a miserable situation, even if the bandits were looting, they would not be able to do such cruel things.
Ma Xiaoyu jumped off the horse and immediately saw rows and rows of messy horse hoof prints on the ground, and then more intense blood stains.
This village has obviously been invaded by zombies.
She cast a questioning look at Yin Xiu.
Yin Xiu didn't say anything, just took a long knife from the camel horse and held it in his hand.
It was daytime now, and even the Zombie King could only hide in the darkness and hibernate, not daring to show up. However, Yin Xiu was still very cautious.
He walked to a house and gently pushed the door open with a knife.
As soon as he exerted force, there was the sound of something falling to the ground inside.
Yin Xiu pushed forward and found that there was a corpse hanging on the door just now. Yin Xiu pushed it and it fell down.
The corpse was covered with scratches and bite marks, and the blood had been sucked dry. There were only tear stains on the pale face, and the expression of fear and unwillingness.
Yin Xiu took the knife and continued walking inside, stopping in front of a cabinet.
He heard a suppressed gasp inside, as if he was trying his best to hide himself, and seemed to be suppressing pain.
As Yin Xiu approached, there was still the sound of chattering teeth.
Yin Xiu stopped in front of the cabinet and gently opened the cabinet door with a knife.
I saw a farmer covered in blood hiding inside, shaking constantly.
Seeing Yin Xiu, a flash of surprise at being saved flashed in his eyes.
Pointing to his arm, he said hoarsely: "Help me, please save me, everyone has turned into a man-eating monster, mother, brother, Xiaozhu, they have all turned into a man-eating monster... ”
At this time, the joy of being saved washed away the previous pain, hesitation, and fear, causing the farmer to mix two emotions, crying and laughing.
However, Yin Xiu glanced at the arm he was pointing at, which was bloody and bloody.
And not just on his arms, there were several other bite marks on his thighs and stomach.
Apparently he wasn't bitten by a zombie.
The farmer was obviously lucky and unlucky.
Fortunately, with so many zombies attacking him, he was able to escape death and hide in the cabinet for the whole night until he was discovered.
Unfortunately, the person who discovered him was none other than Yin Xiu.
From the black and rotten wound, Yin Xiu judged that the corpse poison had entered his seven meridians and eight meridians and could not be removed.
"Sorry, we are a little late." Yin Xiu whispered.
"You came at the right time, please..."
The farmer opened his hands to him, longing for a hug.
Yin Xiu stretched out his hand forward, and the long knife passed through the farmer's head and was nailed into the cabinet.
When he walked out of the house, Ma Xiaoyu was standing in front of another stilt house, pointing underneath, "Look here."
Yin Xiu walked over and leaned down to look down.
Under the stilt house, in a dark area that was not exposed to sunlight, there were more than a dozen "corpses" crowded together, twisted and stacked on top of each other, breathing in a slow rhythm and exhaling white air. , chest rising and falling.
These corpses, obviously all zombies, were crowded into a place to sleep to avoid sunlight. They were piled up on top of each other, like a ball of flesh.
In silence, Yin Xiu motioned to Ma Xiaoyu to get on the horse first.
Then he stretched out his hand, and a ball of flame shot out from his palm, engulfing the entire village in flames in the blink of an eye.
They didn't even look at it and continued riding their camels to Wangnan Town. (End of chapter)