While cleaning, Ning Que saw the chessboard. After a short pause, he threw it into the corner and picked up the big black umbrella. He couldn't help but shake his head.
Compared with its appearance in the past ten years, the big black umbrella had changed a lot. The layer of greasy dirt on the umbrella's surface had completely disappeared, revealing a very thin and almost transparent pure black cloth. There were even a few holes on the edges, which looked very miserable.
The big black umbrella that used to be indestructible and could withstand all attacks in the world had become like this. One could imagine how terrifying the power of the Light of Buddha in the Lanke Temple was.
Ning Que continued with his work. He sorted out the iron arrows, paper talismans, and spare replacement arrowheads and placed them in a convenient place. Then, he lifted up the bottom of the carriage and counted the dry food hidden inside, the strange stones needed to activate the talisman array of the carriage, as well as the yellow fruit eaten by the Big Black Horse.
According to the current amount, it should be enough to return to the Academy from the Wilderness. Even if the dry food was not enough, he would not worry about not being able to find food in the Wilderness. It was not difficult for him to find water. If there was no other way, he could just use his Psyche Power to write a few more water talismans.
The paper talismans in the copper basin had long disappeared and turned into warm yellow flames.
This was a fire talisman that Ning Que had written a long time ago. It looked powerful, but in fact, the temperature of the flame and the length of time it could be maintained were very ordinary. The water in the small pot on the copper basin had just boiled. The rice was rolling up and down in the water. It was hard to tell how long it would take for the rice to be cooked.
Ning Que took a piece of ginseng and walked down from the carriage. He called back the big black horse that was on guard thousands of feet away. He touched its mane and thought of the scene of them going through life and death together in the Lanke Temple. He was touched and said, "From now on, as long as I have a mouthful of meat, you will have a mouthful of soup."
After saying this, he stuffed the ginseng into the big black horse's mouth and patted its head.
The big black horse chewed and swallowed the ginseng. It raised its head unwillingly and looked at Ning Que pitifully, smacking its lips.
Its meaning was very clear. Master, although you have always been shameless, only willing to give me soup to drink when there is meat to eat, but now you are letting me eat such a thin piece of ginseng. How can I be full? You should know that I was scared out of my wits by that strange sinkhole and that scary temple. I carried you for more than three hundred miles. Don't you understand the principle of not starving?
Ning Que felt a little ashamed and said, "I'll definitely get you some meat tomorrow. That's all for today."
The Big Black Horse shook its head gently. It was a little angry, but more helpless.
…
…
The porridge in the pot was ready and emitted a faint fragrance. Ning Que helped Sangsang sit up and fed her. He said, "There's some medicine in the porridge. I stole it from that fool. Don't let it know."
Sangsang was a little embarrassed as she looked out of the carriage. She suppressed her laughter and lowered her head to eat the porridge. After eating half a bowl, she felt a little better. Thinking of his injury, she said, "You eat some too."
Ning Que said, "I have already eaten."
Sangsang said, "It's cold water and dry food. How can it taste good?"
Ning Que said, "Life is better after we arrived at the City of Wei. When we were in Min Mountain, it was a good life to have dry food. Don't worry that I can't get used to it."
Sangsang thought that it was easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but it was difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. The dry food he ate now was definitely not as good as it was when he was young. However, she knew Ning Que's character and did not try to persuade him. She just silently told herself to get better quickly.
The porridge in the pot was still boiling, making popping sounds. Steam rose and the carriage was very warm. Only the big black umbrella in the corner and the chessboard seemed to be emitting a chill.
The seemingly ordinary chessboard was naturally the chessboard left by Buddha. Ning Que could not understand why the chessboard appeared in the carriage when it should have been in the chessboard.
"We now know that we are deep in the Western Wilderness and the location has been confirmed. However, we do not know how many days have passed since the incident in Lanke Temple."
He said, "The old monk said that the world has been searching for us for a long time. It seems that the chessboard has played its role. We only ran on the mountain path for a moment, but a long time might have passed in the real world outside. Although it is still late autumn, I think it is at least ten days later."
Sangsang felt that his deduction was very reasonable. She thought of the Light of Buddha in Lanke Temple and felt a lingering fear. She also thought of the movements in the ruined temple before entering the chessboard. She said, "You guessed that it was Mr. First and Mr. Second who broke into the temple that day. What happened to them after that? I wonder if anything happened to them."
Ning Que said, "Don't worry. There are at most two people in the world who can deal with my two Senior Brothers at the same time. However, they are afraid of angering the Teacher, so they definitely do not dare to do anything."
The two people he was talking about were naturally the abbey dean of Zhishou Abbey and the Chief Preaching Monk of Xuankong Temple.
"I am more worried about Master Qishan."
Ning Que thought of the virtuous and benevolent high monk of the Buddhism Sect. He thought of the scene when the Master opened the chessboard and sent them away. He frowned and said, "The Master's health is not good. He used the mantra to help me fight with Qi Nian and then forcefully reversed the chessboard. I really don't know if he can withstand it."
Sangsang was also very worried when she heard that. She took out a black chess piece from her waist and looked at it blankly.
Ning Que knew that this was the black chess piece that Sangsang had placed on the chessboard in the last game of the three games of chess on Tile Mountain. He said in a low voice, "I have a bad feeling. Keep this chess piece as a souvenir."
Sangsang nodded and clenched her fist tightly to hold the black chess piece. She looked at the chessboard and said, "There is no aura of Buddha on the chessboard. Is it destroyed?"
Ning Que said, "After all, it is a relic of Buddha. Even if it cannot open the world in the chessboard, it is good to keep it and sell it. It is not good to just find a place to bury it."
As the night deepened, the Big Black Horse had already fallen asleep.
It was coarse and thick, so it did not care about the howling cold wind in the Wilderness at night. Its sleeping style was also very different from that of ordinary horses. It did not completely support its body weight with its four hooves, nor did it lie on the ground like those weak old horses. Instead, it leaned against the carriage with its head tilted like a drunkard. Its nostrils were slightly puffed up, and it smelled the fragrance of porridge coming from the window. It slept very soundly.
The carriage was filled with the hot mist of porridge and the talisman paper that was still slowly releasing heat in the copper basin. It was a bit stuffy and suffocating. Ning Que reached out and opened a gap on the roof of the carriage.
Silver starlight came in through the gap and sprinkled on him and Sangsang. It fell on the surface of everything and became the world of silver that they both loved the most.
Sangsang curled up in his arms and grabbed his clothes with her right hand. She looked at the night sky through the gap and found that the starry night in the Wilderness was as bright as before. However, she always felt that someone was looking at her among the stars. She could not help but feel a little confused and scared, and held on to Ning Que's clothes even tighter.
Ning Que did not know what she was thinking at this time. He lowered his head and kissed her forehead. He found that her forehead was a little cold, but it was much better than when she was sick.
He looked up at the stars in the night sky and suddenly felt something. He reached out and pointed at the starry sky through the gap. He moved his fingertips slowly and looked extremely solemn.
Sangsang looked at the trace of movement of his fingertips and confirmed that it was not the Two-Horizontal Talisman. She asked nervously, "A new talisman?"
Ning Que said proudly, "It is not a talisman. It is just a very desolate calligraphy section with a few words. It can at least be ranked in the top ten of my works. How much do you think it is worth?"
It was all silver in the carriage. However, those were all illusory. A calligraphy section written by fingers in the air, no matter how desolate the world was, was also illusory. It was worthless if it could not be preserved.
Sangsang shook her head with some regret and said, "If we really want to go back to the Academy, we don't know how many dangers there will be on the way. We can't sell these words. It is better to comprehend a few new talismans as soon as possible."
"Although I have entered the Knowing Destiny State, my master has already gone to the Divine Kingdom with your bastard master. Without anyone to guide me, I can at most be regarded as a half Divine Talisman Master. I can already be regarded as a Talisman Taoism genius if I can write an Infinitive Talisman. It is not so easy to comprehend a second talisman."
Ning Que thought of what Sangsang had said before and remembered a very important thing. He looked at her and said, "No matter what danger we encounter on the way, you are not allowed to use Divine Skills, let alone open the big black umbrella."
Sangsang understood what he meant and nodded gently.
If she used the West-Hill Divine Skills, it was very likely that she would have a relapse, die or attract the attention of Yama. If she opened the big black umbrella, it was very likely to cause some other changes. It was also very likely to attract the attention of Yama or the powerful people of the Buddhism and Taoism Sects. Either situation was extremely dangerous.
…
…
In the early morning, when Sangsang was still asleep, Ning Que had already woken up. He looked at the sky and wind direction and confirmed that it was a good day for them to travel. Then he woke up the big black horse with his fist and urged it to hurry on.
However, the black horse carriage did not go far before it met the enemy. They were in the depths of the Wilderness, where there were few people. It was difficult to even meet a person, let alone an enemy.
The only explanation for this situation was that Haotian had probably discovered the existence of the Daughter of Yama. The invisible but ever-running Way of Heaven had begun to try to destroy her.
This was a slightly undulating meadow. The yellow grass on the meadow had long been blown down by the cold wind. Maybe it was dead, or maybe it was waiting to be reborn next spring.
Dozens of grassland cavalrymen in leather armor were silently waiting above the meadow. From time to time, they stretched out their hands to comfort the tired warhorses under them. It seemed that they had also experienced a long journey to come here.
Ning Que glanced at the grassland cavalrymen. Without observing the details of their armors, he could guess where they came from. In the Western Wilderness, only the tribes of the Right King's Palace could have such elite cavalrymen.
At this moment, the black horse carriage was about two thousand feet away from the grassland cavalrymen of the Right King's Palace. It was still out of the shooting range of the arrows. He could totally let the big black horse take advantage of its speed and charge diagonally. He believed that no matter how good the cavalrymen's riding skills were, they would not be able to catch up with him.
However, the grassland cavalrymen were scattered on the meadow and the charging line was very long. It seemed sparse and weak, but in fact, it was to prevent the black horse carriage from escaping. If Ning Que wanted to leave without fighting, he would have to make a big detour to bypass the meadow. However, that would take too much time.
The most important problem was that Ning Que had been dealing with the Horse Gang and grassland cavalrymen in the Wilderness for many years. He was very sure that there would be endless cavalrymen coming to intercept him. If he were to turn around and escape when he met someone who wanted to intercept him, with the other party's riding skills and hunting skills, they would only need to repeat a few times to surround the black horse carriage in the depths of the Wilderness. That would be very dangerous.
Therefore, Ning Que did not avoid them. The black horse carriage continued to move slowly towards the meadow, and it was getting faster and faster. The steel wheels rolled over the grass that was covered with thin frost, splashing up a lot of mud.
A cavalry leader on the meadow noticed that the black horse carriage was actually rushing towards him. His face did not show any joy or look like he was looking at an idiot. Instead, it became unusually serious. Then, he slowly pulled out the saber at his waist.
Whether it was the Left King's Palace, the Right King's Palace or the Golden Palace, the grassland cavalrymen and the Horse Gang all used curved sabers. A few years ago, when Ning Que was a professional woodcutter in the City of Wei, he was also very used to this kind of curved saber.
Because this kind of saber was very effective in cutting people's heads.
Dozens of grassland cavalrymen pulled out the curved sabers from their sheaths at the same time, and the sound of metal clanging could be heard.
When the black horse carriage reached the bottom of the meadow at a high speed and should not be able to change its direction anymore, another dozen cavalrymen silently appeared behind the leader. They took out their bows and aimed at the horse carriage!
…
…
To Ning Que, there was nothing new in the Wilderness.
He was even more familiar with the tactics of the grassland cavalrymen and the Horse Gang than he was with the military discipline of the Tang Empire. Therefore, when he saw the archers who were previously hiding under the meadow, he was not surprised or shocked. Instead, he felt that it was a little boring because he was too familiar with it.
The bowstrings buzzed and the arrows pierced through the air. More than ten arrows drew an arc in the air and shot towards the black horse carriage from the meadow that was dozens of feet away.
"How can a dozen boxwood bows be used as a projectile? The horse carriage may be a big target, but it's not like that. "
Ning Que looked behind him. Sangsang was still sleeping soundly, her two small hands tightly gripping the corner of the blanket. Her eyebrows were tightly furrowed, and he did not know what she saw in her dream.
He flew out of the carriage and landed on the back of the Big Black Horse, his legs lightly squeezing the horse's belly.
The Big Black Horse neighed joyfully and dashed forward!
Just a moment ago, Ning Que had already untied the connection between the shaft and the body of the carriage. The Big Black Horse charged forward and immediately separated from the carriage. The carriage that had lost its power continued to move forward under the influence of inertia, but at a slower speed.
In the process of gradually slowing down, there was a series of soft popping sounds in the black carriage. The skylight on the ceiling, the windows on both sides, and the front door were all locked by springs.
The arrows thrown by the grassland cavalrymen finally fell, whistling mournfully.
Five or six arrows accurately hit the carriage that was slowly coming to a stop. However, for the carriage that was made of pure steel, being hit by these seemingly terrifying arrows was not even as good as tickling.
The arrows hit the carriage and broke in the middle, falling to the ground. They looked like a few dry straws trying to pierce through a stone. It was very funny and very pitiful.
The black carriage was very thick. Once it was completely sealed, it was difficult to hear outside sounds. The arrows that hit the carriage made a few light sounds, like birds pecking at their food.
In the carriage, Sangsang was still sleeping soundly. She probably heard the sound of the arrows falling and waved her arms unhappily, as if trying to drive the sound away from her ears. Then she turned over and continued to sleep.
…
…
(Correction of a key mistake. I made a mistake in writing starlight as moonlight. At the end of the original chapter, I said that from the next day onwards, I would adjust my biological clock and try to write during the day and update during the day. End of report.) (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian.Com to vote for me. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
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