ebookland Chapter 251 Secret Message
Chapter 251 Secret Message
The two men used the light to open the hard animal skin, and saw many words written all over it. Each one was like wild branches and thorns. They didn't recognize a single word.
Yingdan said: "The words written on it are from the Red Sand Country. Could it be a secret letter sent to the Spirit King of the Claw Clan?"
Chu Xiaomu said, "I can't guess it either. Logically, secret letters about war would not be placed so casually." He took out the two small wooden boxes and placed them on the table. Suddenly, he smelled a foul odor emanating from the wooden boxes. He almost felt nauseous and hurriedly moved away from Yingdan and the others.
The slightly larger wooden box was gray-black, while the smaller one was brown and looked strange. There were two or three small holes on the lid of each box, as thin as the tip of a chopstick. The unpleasant smell came from these small holes.
Chu Xiaomu asked: "What are these two boxes used for? There must be something strange inside."
Yingdan asked, "Could it be that the secret letter from the Saudis is inside?"
Chu Xiaomu thought about it carefully and said, "It shouldn't be. The secret letter shouldn't be divided into two boxes, right? Isn't it redundant?"
Yingdan said, "That's not necessarily true. For example, when the city lord of Yutuo City sends some important letters, they are usually sent by two or three people, with each person delivering half or one-third. If one person is robbed on the way, the enemy will not know the entire content of the letter. You live far away on Baihua Island in the West Sea, so you probably won't know."
Chu Xiaomu nodded, thinking that this was a good idea. There was no secret between the two villages in the southeast of Baihua Island that could not be known by others. Letters were usually sent by one person, and no one had ever thought of using this method. So he said, "So, it is most likely a secret letter. Let's open it and take a look."
The two endured the unpleasant smell coming from the boxes, and tried to open and pry them, but the two boxes were not only strange in appearance, but also extremely solid and delicate in manufacture, and could not be opened by normal means. The smell was fishy and smelly, so the two endured it for a long time, and finally had to give up, thinking that even if they opened it, they would not be able to understand the contents of the secret letter, so it would not be too late to find someone who could read the Chisha country's language to open it. Fortunately, the two gave up and did not open the two small wooden boxes, otherwise there would be no Chu Xiaomu and Yingdan in this world.
The other two objects were small stones that were pulled off the Saudi people's belts. They looked basically the same, with a small hole on each of them and a thin leather rope passed through the hole. It was obvious at a glance that they were objects used by these people as identification or something like that, and there was nothing special about them.
The two found a torch and lit it, and searched the bodies of the two Sha people again, but found nothing more. Under the light of the fire, they saw that the two people had ten thin and long fingers, twice as long as the fingers of the Cangmu people, with sharp nails on the fingertips, which shone brightly under the light of the torch, and were obviously very sharp. Yingdan's left shoulder was scratched by the sharp claws of the escaped man, but fortunately it was not serious.
Chu Xiaomu murmured, "Claw tribe... Claw tribe... So that's it..."
Yingdan suddenly remembered something, and beads of sweat dripped down her forehead. She said in a trembling voice: "Xiaomu, it's a good thing we didn't open these two wooden boxes."
Chu Xiaomu asked in confusion: "Why?"
"When we eavesdropped on their conversation earlier, do you remember the 'cultivation technique' they mentioned?"
Chu Xiaomu nodded and said, "One of them asked the other what stage he had reached, and the other said he was almost at the third stage. What happened?"
Yingdan said, "That person said, 'If I raise a few hundred more insects, I will reach the third stage.' I have heard that the people of Chisha often use poisonous venom or poisonous blood to nourish their organs, so it is called 'the art of nourishing organs'..."
Chu Xiaomu was also surprised and said, "You mean, the wooden box contains the poison used in their 'cultivation technique'?"
"It shouldn't be wrong, otherwise there wouldn't be such a bad smell."
The two were horrified and were glad that they did not open the wooden box, otherwise it was unimaginable what the consequences would be.
Yingdan suggested throwing the two wooden boxes away quickly. Chu Xiaomu thought about it and said, "These are the things of the Claw Tribe. I think it's better to give them to Zhou Zhongjun. Maybe we can find something from these things." He cut two large pieces of cloth from a quilt and wrapped the two boxes tightly to prevent them from emitting unpleasant odors.
The two men discussed it carefully and decided to send the secret letter to Bicheng as soon as possible and hand it over to General Bi Ye or one of the central army for disposal.
After a day of intense tension, both of them were extremely tired. They lay in bed and took a nap for an hour. It was already dawn. They forced themselves to get up and walked out of the tent. They saw that the Nanding Army camp, which used to be full of mighty soldiers and majestic horses, had become empty and silent. Many military tents, sentry towers, and carriages had been burned. Horse carcasses could be seen everywhere on the ground, and there were even soldiers' broken limbs. All they could see was the devastation left by a fierce battle, which made them sigh.
The two returned to the place where they tied the horses last night and saw that the manes of the two military horses were covered with pieces of broken ice, which was because it was too cold at night. Fortunately, the horses were not seriously injured. They dug up a piece of oil grass on the grassland and lit it to help the horses keep away the cold. After sweeping away the broken ice on the horses' backs, they mounted their horses and galloped towards Bicheng.
Yingdan asked: "What should we do if we encounter a large group of Saudi people?"
Chu Xiaomu replied: "That can't be helped. The only thing to do is to run as fast as possible."
Bicheng is located in the north of the Nanding Army camp, more than 800 miles away. There are eight or nine post stations along the official road. There are often traveling merchants or travelers on the official road. There are also herders who graze cattle, sheep and horses temporarily staying near the official road, so people are not uncommon. But the two ran along the official road for dozens of miles and didn't see anyone. Occasionally, they saw some abandoned goods on the roadside, either tilted or scattered. The owners of the goods either met with an accident or were too scared to take the goods.
The two men intercepted the secret letter from the people of the country of Sha, and they were both excited and scared. They just wanted to reach Bicheng as soon as possible, so they urged their horses to run very fast. However, these two horses were military horses, good at fighting in battles, but not good at maintaining strength. The horse officer had told them that they should rest for a while after running for about an hour. At this time, they were responsible for important matters related to the survival of Bicheng, so they naturally could not care so much. They ran until the horses were out of breath and foamed at the mouth. Then they had to rest for half an hour and let the horses drink some water and eat some grass. However, Xiao Qisheng was always energetic and ran side by side with the two adult male horses, and he did not fall behind at all.
Fortunately, no Sha people were found along the way. After about two hours, they passed Shishui and the official road to Bicheng turned slightly east.
The two men rode their horses to a place farther away from the official road to rest for a while.