Dragging his exhausted body through the valley of white bones, he finally reached the end at noon on the second day. Suddenly, the landscape opened up before him, and Chaozi looked up to the sky and let out a long whistle: "Heavens! We've finally made it!"

  The actual distance was more than twice what Lao Dao had estimated, and the Wild Ox Gorge was a completely curved "S" shape, winding back and forth inside.

  At this critical moment, everyone fell to the ground, wrapping themselves in sleeping bags and resting, even Cha Wenbin and Lao Dao couldn't help but close their eyes, too exhausted.

  It wasn't long before the sound of "chirping" came from around, followed by Old Knife's loud scolding and the sound of guns being cocked.

  Zha Wenbin stood up and took a look. This side of the face was surrounded by a group of black people, who had unknowingly appeared at some point, surrounding them in three layers inside and out.

  These people were holding all sorts of strange weapons, some made of bronze, others of stone, and there were also Mongolian curved knives. Some simply held clubs. They had no clothes on their bodies, only animal hides. Some wore necklaces made from animal teeth, while others hung colorful little stones around their necks.

  Those people, armed with knives, guns and clubs, were itching for a fight. Some children even threw stones at them, letting out fierce cries. Their language was unintelligible to anyone, but their expressions were far from friendly.

  Chaozi was getting impatient and scolded loudly: "Where did you bunch of savages come from? If you make me angry, I'll take down all of you with one arrow!"

  Lao Dao leaned against Cha Wenbin and asked: "Is it a ghost soldier?"

  "Hey, this is a living person, possibly a local native, best not to make any sudden moves."

  Lao Dao shouted loudly: "Don't move anyone, without my order, no one is allowed to shoot!"

  These people may have been unable to hold back, and several of the bolder ones had already charged forward with long spears in hand, but they were all blocked. The surrounding circle began to shrink smaller, when everyone was forced to stand back-to-back. Old Knife suddenly fired a shot into the air, the crisp gunshot made those people involuntarily retreat backward, the people behind them didn't have time to react and were knocked down one after another, several children had already begun wailing loudly in fear.

  It's unclear whether the old blade's single shot intimidated them or enraged them, but one of them picked up a cow horn hanging from his neck and blew it with a "whoosh" sound. A loud rumbling of horse hooves echoed in the distance, and the group of people instinctively parted to make way for four or five burly men wielding long knives, who charged forward with a fierce momentum, facing them head-on.

  "Friends, we mean no hostility." Zhang Wenbin tried to explain to the other side.

  "A string of unintelligible words burst from his mouth, but the tone still conveyed hostility."

  Cha Wenbin had no choice but to ask Zhe Luo: "What is he saying?"

  Zhe Luo was a bit afraid, he leaned in close to Cha Wenbin's ear and whispered: "I don't understand, this isn't Tibetan, I've also never seen anyone dressed like this around here."

  Those men saw Cha Wenbin and the others whispering to each other, looking more and more furious. One of them, a burly man, suddenly clamped his legs tightly around his horse's belly and let out a loud shout before charging towards them.

  Look at the movement, the other side is ready to go all out, he's holding a shiny big knife, and that person is about to kill him. Lao Dao raises his gun and prepares to fire, when suddenly a tall figure rushes over, grabs the horse's head, and lets out a loud roar, causing a shocking scene to unfold. The horse, along with the person on it, was violently thrown to the ground.

  Then the tall figure rushed forward, kicked open the knife in his hand with one foot, grabbed the opponent's clothes with both hands, and lifted it over his own head without much effort, making a gesture to throw it into the crowd.

  At this time, Cha Wenbin shouted: "Big Mountain brothers, don't, put him down!"

  Hengmei's face lit up with a big smile as he gazed at the person he had just lifted high, let out a "heh heh" and then tossed him to the ground, clapping his hands before returning to Zha Wenbin's side.

  Lao Dao and his group were all stunned, what kind of ability would it take to easily lift a warhorse that was accelerating in a charge, along with its rider, with bare hands? The muscles on the man on the ground were about to burst out, he looked like he weighed at least 145 pounds, yet he was lifted over his head as if he were light as a feather. Is this still human?

  The man who was knocked down got up in a sorry state, and the group of people behind him burst out laughing. This made the man even angrier, and he chased after Dashan with his bare fists. Lao Dao shouted: "Brother, watch your back!"

  It may be too late, the big Han clutched the mountain's shoulders with both hands and let out a ghostly cry, his teeth almost bursting out. He must have used all his strength. But the mountain was like a wooden stake, unmoving. Suddenly, he grasped the hand on his left shoulder, pushed back with his hips, took a horse stance, and shouted loudly: "Get out of here!" All that could be heard was a loud "thud", and a human-shaped object flew out four or five meters away.

  "Good!" Chaozi and Zhuo Xiong led the applause, even Lao Dao and his men couldn't help but cheer for Dashan's move.

  The man who was lying on the ground struggled to get up, shook his head vigorously, and had a layer of skin scraped off his face by the stones on the ground. His steps were somewhat unsteady, and he staggered back over again.

  Dà Shān thought he was going to fight, so he got into position. But the man walked up to him and suddenly knelt down on both knees, took a small thing hanging from his waist with both hands, and held it above his head, humming a sentence that no one could understand.

  This thing was snatched away by Cha Wenbin in one move, and he held it in his hand with some slight excitement, shouting: "Old Wang, come quickly to see what this is!"

  Old Wang took a look and his mouth was agape for half a day: "Heavens! I actually saw this thing!"

  This is a soap-sized plaque, which should be cast in bronze. There is a hole on the top of the plaque, and it is worn with a strap made from an unknown animal's tendon. This thing looks like a command token.

  They were shocked not by the token itself, but by the floral pattern engraved on it. This pattern had appeared in Cha Wenbin's dreams countless times, and the first time was when he saw it with Old Wang at General Temple. Those twisted and curved characters looked like insects, and later Old Wang said they should be a kind of ancient minority language that had no historical records.

  Later, they found a suspected "Ru Yi Ce" in the temple. They had seen this kind of text before, first on Mount Qi Feng, and then on the surface of the lake where the man in their dreams appeared. They didn't know how long they had been searching for someone who could recognize this text, but until today, no one else in the world seemed to be able to read it. Yet now, they saw someone using this text as a token!

  Old Wang handed the token to Dashan and said: "You let him get up first, it seems that this should be a sign that you defeated him, he surrendered to you."

  "Oh!", Da Shan then went to help the person on the ground, and Zha Wenbin pointed at the token and compared it with the big man for a while, roughly meaning where this thing came from.

  Before language was invented, people relied on gestures to express themselves, and even now, people who do not share a common language can still communicate with each other through this most primitive method.

  This trick worked, and the other party probably also understood that they couldn't rely on language communication. At the same time, they muttered to themselves while gesticulating, first pointing at themselves and then pointing at Cha Wenbin.

  "He means to ask where we are from." Old Wang said beside him.

  Zha Wenbin pointed to the outside of the Wild Bull Gorge, and that man's face changed in an instant. It was an unbelievable expression. Then he quickly pulled him and Heng Roulian into their crowd, still shouting loudly in his mouth. Those people immediately made way for a path.

  Just a moment ago, they were a group of fierce-looking men, but now they had become a group of friendly friends. They surrounded others in the middle, with happy expressions on their faces, following behind that big fellow and walking forward.

  Not far away, a row of houses made of wood and animal hides can be vaguely seen, with women preparing food and children playing and laughing. When they saw a group of strangers visiting, they immediately dropped what they were doing and rushed into the house, then hid by the door and peeked out secretly.

  They were soon led into the largest and most central house, where several armed men stood guard at the entrance. The door curtain made of animal hide was lifted, revealing a stove burning brightly with charcoal inside. The floor was covered with a thick layer of sheepskin, soft and comfortable. Beside the stove sat an elder reading from a book bound in animal hide.

  The big man walked up to the elder's ear and whispered a few words before leaving.

  Chaozi looked around and muttered: "What is going on here?"

  The elder stared at the book in his hand and suddenly said casually, "Young people, don't be so impatient. Please sit down, friends from Central Plains."

  "Do you speak Chinese?" asked Zhang Wenbin with some surprise.

  The elder put down the book in his hand, raised his head and smiled: "What's strange? We've been waiting here for a long time, and finally someone can pass through the Yin-Yang Road alive. It's probably been thousands of years since someone came last time."

  read3;