Chapter 31: Negative Lazy Donkey in the Wilderness

  If the land of white bones is winter, then where Liu Yi and others are walking now is spring.

  In the midst of a carefree and joyful heart, all the previous repression and discomfort from the underground dark river and the land of white bones have completely disappeared.

  Not far away, a river of water gushed out from the ground and formed a slow-moving stream. There were many Tibetan wild donkeys drinking water by the stream. A few Tibetan antelopes ran past, bleating "maa" several times, tilting their heads to size up those Tibetan wild donkeys, as if they had some mischievous idea in mind.

  Professor Zhou naturally looked around and took out his camera to take photos everywhere.

  Malacca is even more ridiculous, lying on the green and tidy lawn like artificial turf, stretching out a pair of scissors to take a selfie, preparing to post it on Weibo, but found that there was no signal here, scolding China Mobile for not building a signal station here.

  Lu Zonghan, as usual, looked at Malacca with disdain, as if looking at a mental patient. Liu Yi, on the other hand, had his hands clasped behind his back, strolling leisurely on this emerald green lawn.

  Professor Zhou ran to the stream and scooped up a handful of water, took a sip, and found it sweet and slightly cool. He thought to himself, "Could this be water from an underground river?"

  Although no one told him the answer, it turned out to be just as he thought. This stream was indeed the underground dark river where they had fought before, and this section was its exit. The underground dark river has two exits leading to the place of sacrifice, one is the land of white bones, and the other is this paradise like spring, only that they were unlucky and took a more difficult path.

  "The blue sky with white clouds floating, under the white clouds horses are running..." Ma Liu Jia pulled out his broken gong-like voice and started singing a small tune from Yimeng Mountain. When others sing, they want money, but when he sings, people can't help but want to throw two rotten eggs at him.

  The singing had just ended when, from afar, a small Tibetan antelope appeared, leading six Tibetan wild donkeys, which trotted over with their tails held high. Among them was one with a big belly, seemingly pregnant. The crowd couldn't help but wonder: "Does Little Ke have many animal friends? Is it going to help deliver the baby this time?"

  The animals stopped in front of the crowd, and Xiao Ke proudly bleated a few times like a general. Then it looked at Liu Yi and others, then at its wild donkey friends, repeating this several times. After that, the wild donkeys bent their front hooves and knelt down.

  "I'm telling you, brother, we can't take this kind of thing! You're kneeling down to us, it's unbearable!" Ma Liuji shouted, waving his hands wildly.

  As soon as the words fell, Xiao Ke ran over and knocked Ma Liu Jia down with a head butt, causing him to fall over.

  It was only then that everyone realized that the wild donkey was actually a "means of transportation" found by Xiao Ke for them, and they all praised Xiao Ke for being very capable and having many connections.

  Many people ride on donkeys and watch the scenery by the roadside as they move forward, while a few proud ones jump around beside them.

  He pointed to the small group of Tibetan wild donkeys: "They should be a small group, generally speaking, small groups of Tibetan wild donkeys have 5-6 heads, slightly larger groups have more than 10 heads, and super-large groups will have 'over 100 donkeys'. They are first-class national protected animals, mainly living in high-altitude areas of 3,000 to 4,000 meters. However, due to the killing by poachers and human destruction of the environment, the number of this species is also decreasing."

  Everyone laughed and chatted as they mounted their donkeys.

  These Tibetan donkeys have a brown upper body and light white lower body, with shiny fur that is quite beautiful.

  It just so happens that the Tibetan donkeys seem to be threatened by Xiao Ke and are extremely unwilling to do their job of carrying people, and everyone can clearly feel their negative emotions.

  The wild donkeys walk for a while, then stop and graze on the grass by the roadside, run to the stream to drink two mouthfuls of water, and then quickly run forward for a short while. After digesting the food in their stomachs, they continue to lower their heads and graze again.

  "I'm telling you, they're a bunch of foodies!" Malacca was extremely dissatisfied and used his feet to kick the wild donkey's belly hard, almost getting flipped over by the wild donkey.

  Liu Yi and others were somewhat satisfied with their speed, although they were slack in their work. According to Liu Yi's estimate, this speed was far higher than the walking speed of a human jogging.

  They walked for an unknown length of time, the dense green color of the meadow gradually turned into a mixture of blue and yellow, and a layer of frost also appeared on the ground. As they continued to move forward, the blue and yellow colors slowly disappeared completely, and they entered a Gobi desert area.

  Generally speaking, due to the high altitude, the wind intensity is greater and the wind speed is faster, making it difficult for sand to accumulate and form a desert. However, before their eyes lies a vast "highland desert".

  They dismounted the Tibetan wild donkeys and bid them farewell. The Tibetan wild donkeys seemed to feel that they had completed a painful task, excitedly called out to Xiao Ke twice, turned around and galloped away with their four hooves flying, leaving only a black dot in a short while.

  Could it be that the little antelope had helped these wild donkeys before?

  Professor Zhou got off his donkey, squatted down and grabbed a handful of sand, starting to observe it.

  "After a long while, he said: 'The desert here should be the wind-eroded rock particles carried by the strong winds, falling to the ground and then freezing to form a frozen desert. It's only in such places that we can see such wonders!'"

  Even if a vast ocean appeared here now, people wouldn't be surprised, let alone the appearance of a small desert.

  The place where they are has a small lake, which reflects the seven colors under the sunset glow, shining brightly like a still mirror, very beautiful.

  Everyone saw that the sky was already late and prepared to find a place to camp.

  At this time, they saw several black dots suspected to be tents in the distance by the lake. Lu Zonghan took out his binoculars and looked over, shouting: "It's a tent, it looks like it was left behind by people before!"

  A crowd ran over to find signs of a wild barbecue around the tent, and a slaughtered Tibetan donkey appeared before them, its legs and back stripped of meat. Only one large head remained intact, with eyes wide open in a terrified expression.

  "Damn it, these poaching bastards! I'll catch them and skin them alive!" Ma Liu shouted.

  "It must be the actions of those people we met in Cocoa Village!" Liu Yi pointed to the broken windproof tent and said, "It looks like they left here in a hurry!"

  "They must have encountered danger!"

  As they entered the tent to take a look, they indeed found several corpses with their entire bodies already blackened and rotting, emitting a foul odor. On the ground of the tent, there were also many dead white snakes, whose appearance was very strange, not smooth at all, but covered with small bumps like those on a toad's body.

  Malacca saw a white snake and shouted: "My god, isn't this a white saltwater snake?", then ran out of the tent.

  Everyone saw the strange appearance of Malacca, and they didn't dare to stay in the tent for a long time. They all ran out and said that they knew those poachers wouldn't leave any useful clues for later generations, even if they searched, they couldn't find any useful information.

  Everyone was surprised and had never heard of the existence of a "White Salt Snake" before, so they urged Liu Jia to tell them quickly.

  The escaped Ma Liuka still looked frightened, he said: "This white salt snake grows in the salty lake, not big in size, thumb thick, but extremely toxic, being bitten once, must die without a doubt, within five seconds the whole body turns black and dies. It's much more vicious than those bamboo leaf green snakes! When I was with my comrades searching for water in the uninhabited area of Kokoxili, we encountered this kind of snake, one of us was bitten to death, alas, it was really scary, the wound was only the size of a needle hole, then a black gas spread throughout the body, and he died within five seconds, there was no time to save him. Within one minute, the corpse began to rot.

  The snake is so frightening that when it raises its head and eyes with a sinister and cold gaze, people will involuntarily feel a chill down their spine. They quickly left the seemingly calm lake.

  That night, they found a weathered rock cave nearby and stayed overnight. The next day was sunny, and under Xiao Ke's leadership, they crossed the plateau desert and reached the edge of the desert, where everyone saw a stretch of dark muddy land in front of them.

  Liu Yi pointed ahead and exclaimed: "Father mentioned in his letter that after passing through the dense white bones, we will arrive at the boundless swamp land. It seems this is it!"

  It wasn't until they were tens of meters away from the marsh that everyone realized this piece of marshland was not as simple as an ordinary marsh. An ordinary marsh is usually a muddy area with dense aquatic plants, at least there are some water grasses growing.

  However, the swamp in front of Liu Wei showed no signs of life, but there were many corpses floating far away, both human and animal, and it was unknown how many animals had been swallowed.

  Liu Yi walked forward, scooped up a handful of swamp mud and water, and found that the swamp was made up of rotting plants and animals, sand and water mixed together to form a 'black muddy water', with a relatively large proportion of water. This is not a swamp at all, but a black sea.

  Malacca laughed and said: "If I were the nine-tailed fox raised by Lin Chao Ying, it would have passed quickly!"

  At this time, the Tibetan antelope Xiao Ke became excited again. Since seeing the red-crowned crane, he had been pulling in old friends and making new ones without stopping. Now, he raised his head high and bleated loudly.

  "Xiao Ke, this guy is with Father, and it's really a vast network of connections. Could it be that there are also friends here? "Kexi thought to herself: "In the clan, having a big release is like raising an animal by your side, the position of Da Shi Bi is truly something to look forward to. My father, where are you?"

  The Tibetan antelope let out a few short cries, but the marsh was still as calm and silent as before, with no signs of life.

  Liu Yi smiled and said to Xiao Ke: "Has your old friend gone on a long trip?"

  The little Tibetan antelope saw Liu Yi's expression, which seemed to be smiling but not quite, and knew that this human was mocking him. Feeling his face suddenly lost, he became anxious and started jumping up and down on the shore of the black swamp, occasionally letting out two loud roars.

  Liu Yi feared that Cang Yang would get excited and jump down into the marsh without considering the consequences, so he prepared to go forward and comfort him.

  At this moment, 500 meters away from the black water of the swamp, a huge dark fish back emerged from the surface of the water!

  After the previous psychological tempering, everyone's mental quality has become extremely tough. Even if a whale were to run out of the swamp, they probably wouldn't be surprised. This time, they are no longer surprised, but instead filled with anticipation.

  They know in their hearts:

  Another gigantic creature I've never seen before has appeared!

  Another little animal friend of Tibetan antelope appeared!