books44 Chapter 348 Dangerous Road (1)
Chapter 348 Dangerous Road (1)
There were no obvious roads along the way, but there were always places for people and horses to pass. Sometimes the road was flat, sometimes it was rugged, sometimes it was one or two meters wide, and sometimes it was only a few feet wide enough for a horse to pass through - it became more and more strange and difficult to walk on.
Chu Xiaomu thought, could this be the "Black Miasma Ancient Road" that the general mentioned? But how could there be any trace of a road in this place?
After passing through a dense grove, a steep cliff appeared in front of them, with rocks on both sides. It was impossible for ordinary people to climb over it except for flying birds and geckos, and the two Hoof Tribe members could not fly over it either. There was a narrow rock crack only about one foot wide under the steep cliff, and it seemed that this was the only way left. Everyone had no choice but to get off their horses and squeeze through the crack. Fortunately, the crack was very short, only about twelve or thirty feet.
After the cracks in the rocks, there was another large area of jagged rocks in front of them, cut by knives and axes, slanting and flying, as if a large area of large and small, long and short spikes had grown on the ground. Seeing this scene, everyone's heart was pounding and they dared not move forward.
Chu Xiaomu shouted loudly: "Qisheng, Qisheng, come back quickly!"
Qisheng jumped out from the front as expected. It then stood in the thorny rocks, barking at Chu Xiaomu and shaking its head back and forth, as if asking everyone to follow it and keep moving forward.
Chu Xiaomu said: "Huiqisheng, Guaiqisheng, we can't go any further, it's too dangerous ahead..."
Qisheng really understood what he said, and he jumped left and right in the thorny rocks, and easily came to Chu Xiaomu. The place where ordinary people couldn't walk was as flat as the ground under his feet. However, everyone had seen it many times, so they didn't think it was strange.
Chu Xiaomu touched Qisheng's head and said, "Let them go. We won't chase them." Qisheng kept whining and seemed very reluctant.
Everyone turned their horses around and headed back.
Zhou Wei De moved from the back to the front, but when he came to the crevice, the horse refused to move any further. No matter how he dragged or scolded, the gray-black horse just refused to go into the crevice. Zhou Wei De was so angry that he kept cursing, but he couldn't bear to hit his only mount.
Chu Xiaomu walked over and saw that the horse's belly had been scratched by the sharp stones in the cracks, and blood was dripping down. Thinking that the horse was injured, he naturally did not dare to walk into the cracks again.
When checking the rest of the horses, five out of the nine had one or more scratches. Chu Xiaomu's horse was not spared either. When he tried to lead it to the crevice, it resisted and stopped, refusing to move forward.
Everyone was suddenly at a loss as to what to do. They squatted on the ground and no one wanted to speak.
Since joining the Bicheng Army, whether on the march, patrolling the border, or even going out for fun, they have always been inseparable from horses. After several months of getting along, everyone has long regarded the mounts as one with themselves. If they want to go back to the original route to the Dongzhong Army, the only way now is to abandon the horses here and walk back with nine people. But no one can bear to abandon the mounts.
Zhang Hou said gloomily, "If anyone is to blame for this, it's Brother De'er, who insisted on eating spotted deer meat. Now, we haven't even plucked a single hair from the spotted deer, and we're stuck here, unable to get in or out."
Zhou Weide was furious and shouted, "You thick-skinned bastard, if you keep talking nonsense, I will tear your mouth to pieces! Didn't you scream loudly when you found them? And every time we hunted down fresh food, didn't you eat the most?!"
Wang Gang quickly tried to smooth things over, saying, "Stop bickering between the two of you. It's no use blaming anyone now. You should think of a way to get back."
Chu Xiaomu took out some dry food and distributed some to everyone, saying: "Let's keep moving forward. We even escaped from Jiaoshan, so why can't we get out of Beast Mountain?" However, he was not very sure.
Everyone ate something quietly and continued to move forward with Chu Xiaomu leading the way.
The area of sharp thorns and rocks was indeed very difficult to walk on. Everyone walked very carefully, but their trouser legs were still inevitably pierced and torn. They bumped into sharp rocks several times, causing injuries and bleeding. The horses could not see the road under their feet, and their four legs were pierced and bleeding, which was very painful.
The right hind leg of Zhou Weiyi's mount accidentally hit a sharp rock, and the horse screamed in pain. Suddenly, it stood up and tried to escape, but unfortunately stepped on other sharp rocks when it landed. It panicked even more, broke free from the reins in Zhou Weiyi's hand, and ran aimlessly among the sharp rocks. It could not run more than ten feet before its two front legs hit the sharp rocks and broke immediately. Then it fell sideways, and its chest, abdomen and neck were pierced by the sharp rocks. It was obvious that the horse was dead.
Zhou Weiyi cried loudly while holding his mount which was still wailing, and everyone felt heartbroken watching.
Zhou Weide walked up to him and comforted him, "Don't cry, Xiao Yi'er. The horse is dead, and crying is useless."
Zhang Hou couldn't help but say, "Brother De'er, how can you call this comforting? I think Xiao Yi'er will only be more sad."
Zhou Weide said angrily: "Then how do you say I should comfort her?!"
Zhang Hou walked to Xiao Yier, stroked his head gently, said a few words softly, and then said: "Don't worry, Xiao Yier, from now on your brother Houer's mount will be your mount. Wherever you want to play or go shopping, brother Houer will take you there..." As expected, Zhou Weiyi gradually stopped crying, and everyone was very impressed.
After finally walking out of the area covered with thorns and rocks, everyone hurriedly found a slightly wider and flatter place to bandage the horses' legs. Except for Qisheng, every horse had injuries to varying degrees.
After passing the rocky area, we walked along a winding mountain road and a steep slope appeared in front of us.
Everyone stood at the foot of the slope and looked up, and their scalps tingled. It turned out that this slope was a complete stone wall, with no grass or trees growing on it, and there was no place to stand or hold hands.
There was a lot of moss growing on the stone slope, and there were obvious traces of people walking on it. It was obvious that the two people from the Hoof Tribe climbed up along this stone slope. Everyone looked at other places, which were even more steep like dangerous walls, and many places were actually sloping cliffs. There was no other way to go except this one.
Chu Xiaomu sighed and said, "Let's go."
But the stone slope was extremely slippery. Chu Xiaomu and his nine companions could climb up using their hands and feet, but the horses could not go up no matter what.
The crowd had no choice but to take out ropes, tie them around the horses' necks and front legs, and have two people pull from the front while two or three people push from the back, dragging the horses up one by one.
Fortunately, after practicing the "Return to the Stars Technique", several people gained a lot of strength and were able to push and pull all eight horses to the top of the mountain. If it had been three months ago, it would have been impossible to do so.
Even so, the nine people were exhausted. By the time they all reached the top of the hill, it was already past mid-afternoon and the sun was about to set.