In the Clouds: Mulan Line

Chapter 22
With the scorching sun hanging high, Hua Mulan shook the water in the sheepskin bag, only half of it was left.

Hua Mulan unscrewed the lid, drank the last few sips of water, wiped the corners of her mouth and said, "This old camel is really slow. If we go on like this, we don't know when we will be able to get there."

In the team of three people and one beast, this old camel looks like a leisurely old man. Usually, no one rides it—it is already walking so slowly if you don’t ride it. Moved.

Hua Mulan stuffed the sheepskin bag into her waist, and said to Baili behind her without turning her head, "Baili, do you think there is an oasis around here?"

When Baili kept the promise, he sniffed lightly, his eyes seemed to be flickering faintly, and the two ears on the top of his head moved dexterously...

After making some distinctions, Baili Shouyue said, "Something is coming this way."

"Ok?"

Hua Mulan subconsciously touched the dagger at her waist. A moment later, she heard a long howling sound from far to near, and looked intently, a dozen sand boats circled the sand dunes in the distance, galloped in the desert, Behind these sand boats, billowing yellow sand rises all over the sky, like dancing yellow dragons.

"Sand boat?"

This is the first time Hua Mulan has seen sand boats of this shape. These sand boats are obviously much more sophisticated than those of the Brotherhood of Sand Boats. The metal shuttle-shaped hull has a ferocious ram angle installed on the bow, and the triangle sails on the boat Standing sharply like a shark's dorsal fin.

In contrast, the sand boats of the Shazhou Brotherhood are like simple wooden boats. If the two collide, those simple sandboats of the Shazhou Brotherhood will fall apart in an instant.

"It's the son of Shahai!" Hua Mulan's heart moved, and these four words popped up in her mind for some reason.

Before entering the sand sea in the cloud, Hua Mulan had already heard the name of the son of the sand sea.

Roaming City, formed by the children of Shahai, is known as one of the three major business groups in the cloud, and it can be ranked alongside the Secret Jade Association in terms of reputation.However, Roaming City said it was a business group, but it was actually more like an adventurer organization, and the personnel composition inside was also very complicated.

Adventurers, scavengers, mercenaries, remnants of the ancient kingdom in the cloud, desert bandits and more!
Don't ask about your background or past, as long as you have the strength, you can join.

This may sound similar to the Shazhou Brotherhood, but in fact there is a big difference.

The Sons of the Sand Sea travel alone, making a living by digging for wealth and exploring ruins. As long as there is a place where wealth may be found, no matter how dangerous it is, it will attract the Adventures of the Sons of the Sand Sea.

And the Shazhou Brotherhood... is mainly about robbing caravans, and adventure can be regarded as a small sideline at best...

"What are they doing?" Kai asked with some doubts. Originally, he thought that these sand boats were chasing some prey, but when he looked carefully, he found that they deliberately shuttled through a large sand dune.

All kinds of drifting and extreme speed steering are dazzling, and we can't help but admire the superb skills of these sand boat drivers.

Baili Shouyue touched his wolf ears, and said: "This should be sand boat racing. The son of Sha Hai likes to prove his strength through this kind of competition. It can be called the glory of a lifetime. It seems that Mingsha City is nearby."

"Camel, you're really good!" Hua Mulan smiled and patted the old camel's back. She didn't know how the old camel, who had always looked so leisurely, found Mingsha City in the vast yellow sand.

Not to mention that there is no reference object in the yellow sand that can identify the direction. As a camel, you can't identify the direction through the star map, right?Just talking about Mingsha City, this is a moving city!
A city that can move is constantly migrating. Even if ordinary people have heard of the existence of Mingsha City, it is difficult to find its trace in the sand sea.

As the sand boat passed by, deep ravines appeared in the originally flat desert. Walking along these ravines and bypassing a huge sand dune, Hua Mulan and the others finally saw the so-called Mingsha City.

When she saw this city, Hua Mulan was completely shocked. This kind of shock is second only to the moment when she went to the Great Wall Guard Army alone and witnessed the Great Wall when she was ten years old.

Near the distant horizon, on the dull, monotonous, endless stretch of yellow sand, countless sand boats gather together to form a magnificent and huge city, which is like a golden giant lying in the desert!

What shocked Hua Mulan even more was that this city made of sand boats could really move.

Although it moves slowly, it is calm, majestic, and unstoppable like an island in the sand sea.

It turns out that the reason why Mingsha City can be moved is not because it is composed of tents that can be easily dismantled like nomads, but because it relies on countless sand boats.

These sand boats are large and small, with dark yellow hulls, which are integrated with the desert. Because of the wind and sand erosion day and night, this huge city reveals an old-fashioned, but wild and majestic atmosphere.

Hua Mulan couldn't help admiring: "This is Mingsha City..."

Beside Hua Mulan, Kai was also shocked by the sight in front of him.

Even Baili kept the promise, a flash of surprise flashed in his eyes.

It can be said that no one who saw Mingsha City for the first time could remain indifferent.

Mingsha City is already so magnificent, it is hard to imagine how magnificent Roaming City is far beyond its scale.However, Roaming City, as the base camp of the Son of Sand Sea, is even more difficult for outsiders to see and get close to.

The three of them walked towards Mingsha City, and saw the towering sails above the city, like countless flags, and huge hot air balloons floating in midair. The canvas of the balloon was very thick, and the images of Roaming City and Mingsha City were drawn on it Signs—the moon and the scimitar are interlaced on the desert.

Seeing the interlaced pattern of the moon and the scimitar, Kai was stunned for a long time.

"What's wrong?" Hua Mulan asked.

"It's nothing..." Kai shook his head in bewilderment, "I just think... this knife and Yue are familiar to me..."

Hua Mulan was taken aback, and asked curiously, "Did you remember something?"

However, Kai shook his head again: "It doesn't count... I just remembered some meaningless pictures in my mind, which may be fragments of previous memories."

Kai pressed his forehead with some headache.

As a person who has lost his memory and the past is blank, Kai naturally wants to get his memory back.

But for some reason, there seems to be a trace of fear of past memories in his heart. It seems that his instinct is warning him that once those memories are remembered, maybe he will not only know who he is, but also where the magic armor came from. Come, and at the same time he will know something he wants to forget.

"Captain, look at that hot air balloon..." Baili Shouyue raised his head, and looked into the distance, "It seems that someone has noticed us."

In Baili Shouyue's sight, someone in the hot air balloon was holding a cylinder, watching them through the slender cylinder.

When Hua Mulan heard this, she also looked up. Her eyesight was considered excellent, but she could only see a hot air balloon floating high in the sky...

The vision of Baili keeping the promise really fully reflects the bloodline ability of the hybrid demon.

It is estimated that it will take a lot of training the day after tomorrow to truly bring this ability to the extreme.

"It seems that the hot air balloon should be their sentry post." Hua Mulan said without any surprise. For such a large city and one of the cities belonging to the Son of Sand Sea, it is normal to arrange a sentry post.

If it were the Great Wall, there would be a post every ten meters, and a sentry post every five steps. The defenses were extremely strict, and Asuka was sad.

"Captain, someone is here."

Baili kept the promise and said.

Immediately, the three of Hua Mulan were silently on guard.

Although the Sons of Shahai is different from the Shazhou Brotherhood, the Sons of Shahai also believe that the strong are respected.Moreover, the son of Sha Hai is a loner, hardly dealing with outsiders.

For these reasons, they had better be careful.

As soon as Baili kept the promise, five or six small sand boats separated from the edge of the huge sand boat city, suspended on the sandy sea, and galloped towards them as if they were separated from the mother body.

The leading man was wearing a black leather jacket, a necklace of animal bones around his neck, and an epee on his back.

"Who are you? Why did you come to Mingsha City?"

The man asked in a cold voice from a distance.

Apart from this man, there were one or several sons of Sha Hai on the other sand boats, and they all looked at Hua Mulan and the three of them with impunity, and their eyes definitely could not be described as kind or welcoming.

However, under such disturbing sight, Hua Mulan and the three of them were all... very calm.

As a warrior, Hua Mulan has no fear in seeing blood and fighting, let alone just a little threat in her eyes.

Although Baili's keeping the promise is gentle, it is actually very deadly inside...

As for Kai, although it is invisible to the naked eye, after all, he is also a person who was once called a "monster"...

So these sons of the sand sea looked at Hua Mulan and the three of them, and found that the courage of the three was not bad, so they couldn't help guessing the identities of the three in their hearts.

Hua Mulan raised her voice, "We are bounty hunters who came from afar, and we want to find Wu Nan!"

Bounty Hunter?

The leading man stared at Hua Mulan for a second, then smiled: "Are you looking for Wu Nan? Wu Nan is one of the castle masters of our Mingsha City. How could some inexplicable cat or dog be able to see him just by giving his name?"

Hua Mulan frowned suddenly.

baffling?A cat or a dog?
Xiaoyu sensed the change in Hua Mulan's breath, and secretly wriggled in Hua Mulan's arms.

Hua Mulan temporarily restrained her desire to draw her sword, and turned to look at Baili Shouyi: "Castle Master?"

Isn't this Wu Nan an ordinary son of Sha Hai?
Baili Shouyu thought for a while, and said: "It is said that... the son of Shahai will leave Mingsha City before he becomes an adult, then form his own team, build his own sand boat, and then bring the sand boat back to Mingsha City , will be truly recognized as the son of Sha Hai."

"If you have enough sand boats, you can become the owner of the castle."

As for the castle owners of Mingsha City, there are currently less than 20 people.

The conversation between Hua Mulan and Baili Shouyue was not deliberately concealed. The man in black also heard it. He looked at Baili Shouyue in surprise: "Half-devil, you know a lot."

When he spoke, his eyes swept over Baili's covenant-keeping wolf ears.

As soon as the man's voice fell, Kai frowned. Although he was a stranger and had not lived in the cloud for a long time, he already knew that the hybrid demon species in the cloud was not recognized by everyone. In fact, many people reject and discriminate against hybrid demons.

Naturally, it is because of the demon seed...

And the title of "half-devil species" is even more malicious in itself.

Baili Shouyue himself, on the other hand, didn't show any change in expression after hearing this address, he was still very gentle and calm, as if he wasn't speaking of himself.

However, at this moment, there was a light brushing sound, and a cold light suddenly flashed across.

The pupils of the man in black shrank suddenly, and he felt a cold light flash in front of his eyes. The next moment, the animal bone necklace hanging around his neck snapped apart, and the bone beads strung on it fell to the ground with a crackling sound. .

Suddenly, there was silence.

After a few seconds of silence, a drop of cold sweat fell from the head of the man in black.

What a fast sword!

"Clang clang!"

The people behind the man in black drew out their weapons one after another.

The sword was unsheathed, and the cold tip of the sword pointed directly at Hua Mulan!

But in the face of such swords and swords, Hua Mulan, who has few enemies and many enemies, is not afraid at all, and even has a fighting spirit eager to try.

This fighting spirit, on the contrary, made those who held the sword feel uncertain.

Hua Mulan held a light sword with cold eyes, and said in a cold voice, "Is this how the famous Son of Shahai welcomes guests?"

Although the sons of Sha Hai don't like dealing with outsiders, they will respect the strong.

The man in black took a serious look at Hua Mulan, and his eyes were finally no longer as arrogant and rude as before. He waved his hand, and the weapons of his subordinates were all put away.

"I don't think you are guests." Although the man in black spoke coldly, his tone has softened, "What do you want to do with Master Wunan? There doesn't seem to be any dealings between bounty hunters and our Son of Sand Sea. place."

Hua Mulan withdrew her light sword and said, "We have something important to see Lord Wunan. Presumably the son of Sha Hai has heard about it. In the past few months, many girls have disappeared in the cloud. , It is rumored that there is a dangerous place in the sand sea, which is related to the disappearance of these girls."

Hua Mulan still decided to share this information, otherwise she might not even see Wu Nan's face.

Hearing what Hua Mulan said, the man in black was obviously moved. He pondered for a while, and when he looked at Hua Mulan and the other three, his expression became more cautious: "So, you are here because of these missing girls. Lord Wunanbao?"

Hua Mulan said: "That's right, you can just tell Lord Wunanbao like this."

"You don't need to tell me... Forget it," the man in black hesitated for a moment, then waved his hands and said, "Come with me, but I don't know what the Lord Wunan has to do with this matter... He may not What can I do to help you?"

Hua Mulan didn't say anything else, the three of them looked at each other, then boarded the black-clothed man's sand boat, and returned to Mingsha City with everyone.

As the distance between them and Mingsha City rapidly narrowed, it was even more shocking to see this huge city made up of sand boats up close.

The sand boat floated on the ground relying on the repulsion between the black crystal sand and the yellow sand, and the three of Hua Mulan circled up along the road. There were often square holes left on the top of the pointed sand boat. The wind passed through the holes, and immediately made bursts of buzzing sounds, like huge musical instruments.

This special musical sound is probably the origin of Mingsha City.

And any traveler or caravan near Mingsha City will hear the guidance from this music.

During the conversation, Hua Mulan learned that the man in black who led the way was named Ligu, and he had only just grown up, but he looked a bit old-fashioned.

Ligu just returned to Mingsha City with the sand boat he built before, and was recognized by Mingsha City. The brothers around him all joined him when Ligu went out to form his own fleet. They are both his brothers and his men.

It's just that these people are not strictly the sons of Shahai, they can only be regarded as Ligu's people.

In the process of moving forward, the three of Hua Mulan learned from Ligu that there have been missing girls in Mingsha City in the past few months. This is probably the reason why Ligu agreed to take Hua Mulan to see Wunan.

Hua Mulan was about to enter the city when she suddenly heard the sound of "rumbling" drums.

Hua Mulan turned her head and saw a huge black iron sand boat sailing towards them with a moon and a scimitar sail.

On the deck of the sand boat, a strong man, with his back to Hua Mulan and the others, was beating vigorously on a large animal skin drum.

Hua Mulan took a closer look, only to find that the flesh and blood on the strong man's body had obvious wooden textures. It was not a human at all, but a mechanism.

An organ that specializes in beating drums?
Hua Mulan looked at the organ man again, there was a big wooden chair made of white bear skin, and on the wooden chair sat a languid woman in black gauze, and behind the woman stood two Among the maids, one is holding a pipa and the other is holding a huqin.

The woman in the middle has deep features, long black hair mixed with thin braids full of exotic styles, and a silver circular hair band on her forehead. The hair band is in the shape of a letter-spitting snake.

The woman wore two exaggerated moon earrings on her ears, and a cyan totem tattoo on her neck, which was hidden in the black gauze on her chest. Her round thighs were exposed outside the black gauze, and a pair of three Inch-long animal hide machete.

(End of this chapter)