As Huang Xiao drove the carriage toward the oasis, he saw quite a few caravans hurrying away from it, their people looking flustered and frightened.
From them, Huang Xiao received much the same news as before.
There were many venomous creatures in the oasis. What had once been a place to stop and rest in the desert was no longer suitable. They had to leave quickly and press on toward their destinations.
Huang Xiao's party soon reached the oasis. At its center stood a tall mountain of dark brown rock, named Brown Stone Mountain. The oasis surrounded it, with dense woods growing close to the mountain and grassland farther out. But it was winter now, and most of the grass had withered yellow, with only a little still retaining its green.
There was a lake on the grassland, fed by small streams whose water came from melting snow on the great snowy mountains far away. It was precisely because this snowmelt flowed through the area that this desert oasis had formed.
Huang Xiao and the two women got out of the carriage beside the lake, where they saw many people from the caravans groaning in pain.
Huang Xiao went a little closer to look. Their faces had turned black, and some had such swollen limbs that their arms were as thick as thighs.
Poisoned! Huang Xiao thought.
Sure enough, all of this was poisoning, caused by venomous creatures rather than poison administered by someone.
"Brother Huang, these people seem to have been bitten by venomous snakes, haven't they?" Zhao Xin'er asked after glancing at them.
After all, Zhao Xin'er had traveled the Jianghu for a long time, so she could naturally recognize these symptoms of poisoning.
"That's right. Quite a few were bitten by venomous snakes, but some probably weren't