Divine Capital The city gate is thirty feet high, with red lacquer and copper nails, reflecting the dazzling Imperial Power majesty in the morning light.
Gate Commander is a middle-aged man with lively eyes. He usually strips away three layers of fat when he sees a mouse leaving the city, but today he shrank himself into a quail.
He stood with his hands lowered in the shadow of the doorway, not daring to raise his eyelids, and allowed the grotesque team of carriages and horses to roll over the moat suspension bridge.
That carriage was too ostentatious.
The whole body is made of Golden Silk Nanmu Wood, with copper bells hanging on the four corners to ward off evil spirits. The outer wall of the carriage is inlaid with a whole piece of Hotan Jade, which is moistened by the morning sun.
The cart was pulled by eight Northern Border Tribute and Dragon Blood Qilin Horse, with white air blowing out from their nostrils and wind blowing under their hooves.
Such extravagant ostentation, even if it is a prince's trip, it is nothing more than this.
"Boss, this is Dust Repelling Carriage that I got from the old man's private treasury at home."
Qian Dagui is sitting on Chariot Shaft acting as a groom, waving a Horse Whip studded with gems in his hand, his handsome but wretched face is full of pride He said, "This car is engraved with ninety-nine and eighty-one lines Formation, which means it is warm in winter and cool in summer, and it is shock-absorbing and sound-insulating. Western Desert is tens of thousands of miles along the way. We can't sleep in the open air, right?"
Inside the car, the space is incredibly spacious.
Fang Mo was half-leaning on the soft couch covered with Snow White Fox Fur. He held a dark red fruit in his hand and took a bite. The juice overflowed.
Four Palaces is running in his body, Heart Fire is warming and nourishing the bones, Lung Metal is inhaling and swallowing Sha Qi, Kidney Water is nourishing the meridians, but the newly opened piece of the Stomach Palace Chaos is like a bottomless pit that cannot be filled.
Food along the way may become a big problem.
"Extremely extravagant and lustful." Li Mingyue sat in the opposite corner, holding the pitch-black Spring Embroidered Saber, and spat out these four words coldly.
Although her injuries have not healed, the Formation in the carriage seems to have the effect of warming and nourishing Qi and blood, giving her pale face a trace of color.
Through the Jiao Sha of the car window, she looked at the Divine Capital city wall gradually going away, her eyes were complicated and difficult to understand.
"Commander Li I don't like hearing this anymore." Fang Mo chewed the pulp and replied vaguely, "Qian Dagui was born based on his ability, and the money he spent based on his ability is called making the best use of it. Besides, we are going to Western Desert to save sentient beings, and the scene is not big, how can we show our sincerity?"
"Educate all sentient beings?" Li Mingyue sneered, "Whether you go to kill people or collect debts, you know it yourself."
"Killing is a means, and debt collection is the purpose. There is no conflict between the two." Fang Mo threw the core out of the window.
The wheels rolled and gradually drove away from the Divine Capital boundary.
For the first hundred miles, you can still see streets and smoke curling up on both sides of the official road.
Although the people's clothes are ragged and their faces are dishonest, they can still see some vitality.
After three hundred miles, the scenery started to look a little different.
The fields are barren, overgrown with weeds, and large tracts of fertile land have turned into infested areas Wasteland of wild dogs.
Occasionally I passed through several villages, but they also had ruined walls, collapsed roofs, and dark doors and windows, like eyes staring at the strangers passing by.
Five hundred miles further west, it was already dusk.
The setting sun is like blood, spreading on this dead land.
Qian Dagui tightened the reins, and the eight horses Qilin Horse snorted and stopped. His usually playful and smiling face was a little white at the moment.
"Boss, the road ahead is blocked."
Fang Mo opened the door and jumped out of the carriage.
The pair of bare feet stepped on the cracked yellow soil, making a slight crunching sound.
The sight in front of him made Li Mingyue's hand holding the knife tighten instantly and his knuckles turned white.
Official channels are gone.
Instead, there was a mountain of corpses.
They were not heroic corpses left behind by battles on the battlefield, but thousands of people who died of starvation.
Skinny corpses were piled up in layers in the middle of the road, some of which had not yet rotted, and their open mouths were filled with Guanyin Earth and dry grass roots;
Some of them have long since turned into white bones and been eaten to pieces by wild dogs.
The air is filled with a disgusting rancid smell and Death Qi.
A few vultures with red eyes stood on the top of the pile of corpses. They were not afraid of the sight of living people. Instead, they made strange cackling calls, seeming to invite their companions to come and enjoy this fresh meal.
"What's going on?" Qian Dagui held his nose, his stomach churning, "This place is only eight hundred miles away from Divine Capital! How could there be such a thing under the emperor's feet..."
"At the Emperor's feet?" Fang Mo walked to the pile of corpses and reached out to push aside the corpse of a young child.
The child was still clutching half a piece of moldy pancake in his hand, and there was a neat cut on his throat. It was obvious that someone had cut his throat to death.
"Da Gui, although your father is greedy for money, he at least pays attention to fair transactions. But this Great Qian master is doing business without capital."
Fang Mo patted the dust on his hands, and the dark golden light in his eyes began to rotate.
He saw more than just bodies.
Instead, there are Karma Threads that are broken one by one, and the Grievance Qi and appetite that remain in the air that are too rich to be dissolved.
Someone is eating here.
It's not that wild beasts are eating flesh and blood, but something is harvesting the vitality and Despair of these refugees on a large scale and in an organized manner.
"Amitabha."
A frivolous but not solemn Buddha chant sounded.
Jie Se Monk came up from behind the line..
He didn't look at the corpses, instead his peach-blossom eyes stared at the shadowy dry woods behind the pile of corpses.
"Jushi Fang, this doesn't taste right." Jie Se stuck out his tongue and licked his lips, with a look of disgust on his face, "There's no smell of blood at all, it's just a smell. That's the smell of dried human oil."
Li Mingyue drew his sword out of its sheath and pointed the blade at the woods. "You mean, someone is practicing evil here?"
"Refining the method?" Fang Mo smiled, and the smile was so cold that it made the surrounding temperature drop a bit, "Commander Li, you think too highly of them. They are just a group of wild dogs waiting to pick up something. They will come just by smelling it."
He raised his foot and stepped hard on the hard yellow soil.
Boom!
The earth trembled.
The mountain of corpses in front collapsed, revealing a path blackened with blood behind.
"Come out." Fang Mo said to the piece of Dead Forest, "If you hide your head and tail, you are not afraid of suffocating to death in the mud."
Dead Forest It was silent.
Only a few dead leaves were picked up by the wind and swirled down.
The next moment.
Countless gray shadows emerged from behind tree trunks, under the soil, and even from the gaps in the pile of corpses.
They were wearing gray robes, with bronze masks without any Five Senses on their faces, and holding strange-looking Curved Hook Saber in their hands.
A total of one hundred and eight people.
The breaths are connected together, sealing the world airtightly.
"Life Intercepting Division?" Li Mingyue's pupils shrank sharply.
This is not a Daoist priest from Eastern Wasteland Daoist Land, nor a monk from Western Desert, but a scavenger raised secretly by the Great Qian Imperial Family and specially used to deal with unclean things.
Their presence here itself illustrates a problem.
These hungry people are garbage created by the royal family.
And now, these garbage collectors are going to clean up the Fang Mo team as well.
The leading man in gray robe slowly raised Curved Saber.
No nonsense.
"Kill."