Hitzfeld didn't know geology, but she had some common sense. If I remembered correctly, the strange shape of the rocks was due to the lack of wind protection in the desert.
Whenever the wind blows, the tiny sand grains will be swept into the wind. They will be carried by the wind and constantly hit the surface of the rock. The collision of a single grain of sand is definitely nothing, but there are too many of them, and the frequency of such collisions is too high.
Over time, the hit areas will be continuously scraped...the edges and corners will be smoothed out, eventually becoming the strange appearance it is now.
This was a natural wonder, and Hitzfeld thought it was amazing that it could actually happen. She truly believed that nature was a sculptor with unique quirks here, and every deformed rock below was a masterpiece.
"..." Xia Yibing pushed open the door of the observation deck and saw her leaning on the glass, looking at the scenery below with great interest. She suddenly felt her scalp tingling.
There was little entertainment on the airship, and the observation deck was one of the few places where one could relax, but once one entered the desert, no one came here anymore... Didn't she, Aisuen, feel something was wrong?
She walked to the nearest glass and leaned over to look out over the desert landscape.
Sand dunes...strange rocks...every surface of those rocks is as smooth as an egg, but they have different shapes.
If some of them were like a whole pebble with indentations polished off at different corners, which could still be considered worthy of appreciation, then the others... those strange rocks that looked like corals or even like human ribs, she really didn't think they had any appreciation value.
Especially when the sunlight casts their shadows on the sand dunes, the yellow sand surges like a group of magic shadows dancing in it.
Everyone else thought this scene was so horrifying that they were not willing to come, except her... Xia Yibing could only say that her taste was more unique than that of ordinary people.
She did not try to disturb the girl, but just stood at the door and stared at her for a while, then went back silently.
This should be Aisuen's first time going abroad and she is about to cross the border. Maybe she wants to see it with her own eyes.
Hitzfeld had been staring at the strange shapes on the dunes and hadn't noticed the woman was there at all.
But if she knew the woman's "good intentions", she would definitely say that she was thinking wrongly - it's not that she has never been abroad, although those times happened in her previous life, in another world, but she had long lost the mentality of being surprised by going abroad.
After dinner, she asked Xia Yibing at the table: "Is the Western Desert also a dangerous place?"
"It's an absolutely dangerous place." The woman nodded, cut the soft and juicy lamb chops with a dinner knife, forked the dipping sauce and put it on the girl's plate.
She thought Hitzfeld should eat more.
Before... uh, when I saw her getting dressed before, I already thought she was a little thin, but when I touched her in actual practice, I realized that it was not an illusion.
Of course, she had a lot of flesh where it should be...but her thin and frail feeling still made her feel distressed, and she desperately wanted to fatten her up.
While there is still half of the nature orb in her body.
While the orb was still combing her body.
Hitzfeld has always been interested in rumors about such dangerous places. While eating the mutton prepared by the woman, he talked to her and almost dug out all the legends of the Western Desert during the meal.
"There are sandworms here." Xia Yibing put down her knife and fork slightly. "It's not a weird thing like the red soil worm. The sandworm is more like a sea urchin, but the spikes need to be replaced with soft tentacles..."
She said that sandworms would wrap themselves into balls and roll down the sand dunes, and that this habit was to paralyze other animals, making them mistakenly think that it was a ball formed by wind-blown sand, and then suddenly approach and attack them when they let their guard down.
"Sandworms don't eat meat. Liquids are the most precious thing in the desert, so they only suck blood... After catching their prey, they will use countless tiny tentacles to drill under the prey's fur and will not stop until only the prey is left with skin."
When Russell pushed the door open, he happened to hear Hitzfeld arguing with the woman about whether it was "only sucking blood" or "using digestive enzymes to break down the meat into gravy and suck it together with the blood."
“…” For a moment, confusion appeared on the mechanic’s face.
He admitted that he had been away from the bottom of society for many years - oh, maybe he had never been there, but according to his understanding, whether it was a lady from the upper class or the daughter of a migrant worker... they shouldn't discuss these things at the dinner table.
This is ridiculous, doesn't she find it disgusting?
"Good evening, Mr. Russell." Hitzfeld saw him, stood up and bowed slightly to him, "What's the matter with you coming here?"
"Nothing, I just heard that you stayed at the observation deck all day, and I was worried that the sand dunes might have frightened you and left you with a trauma."
"Ah, I didn't know those sights were so horrible."
"I'm not exaggerating." Russell shook his head. "Have you heard of the mirage?"
"of course."
"The mirages in the western desert can directly affect people's emotions. Staring at them for too long can cause tinnitus, auditory hallucinations, anxiety and other symptoms. If you're unlucky, you can get hysteria."
"Then this situation should have been discovered a long time ago." Hitzfeld paused, "Have you never tried to find out the reason?"
"After 150 years of searching, we have come to the conclusion that there is no reason." Russell said calmly, "Sandworms are not extremely threatening monsters, and they are not even evil species. The biggest threat that the expedition team needs to face when traveling through the desert is mirages, but to this day, it is still unclear how that effect comes about."
"Not fatal?"
"It's not fatal. If you encounter it, you'll be fine as long as you don't stare at it. Even if you get hysterical, you can recover after a few months or years. In a word, it's mysterious, but not a big threat."
Hitzfeld turned to look at the woman, and his meaning was obvious - why didn't you introduce these to me just now.
Xia Yibing was also innocent: she was not a traveler or an explorer... It was already a great achievement for her to travel all over the country just to investigate a case, so of course she would not know such secret information that was deliberately blocked.
But she estimated that the relevant information was available in the bureau, but she had been dealing with interpersonal relationships since taking office and had no time to browse the parts that could be unlocked by the new permissions.
"You know a lot, Mr. Russell."
Hitzfeld turned to look at the mechanic, and there was an inexplicable meaning in his words.
She had no intention of saying the word "nightingale" in front of the other person.
But if he took the initiative to reveal it, she wouldn't mind knowing more.
"have a good rest."
Russell was unmoved by the temptation.
"Once we arrive at the Wild Wind Outpost, we can no longer relax."
Two days later, the Evans airship arrived at the final destination of its journey.
Looking at the surging sand outside the window, Hitzfeld finally understood what Russell meant and why this place was called this name.
"It's so annoying..."
Sixus was wearing a raincoat with his collar pulled high. "This damn place is still the same as it was back then. It's not even suitable for human habitation!"
Under normal circumstances, the airship would land and dock, but due to the weather, the risk of take-off and landing was too great, so the Evans did not land at all. Instead, it dropped people and cargo on the top of a high tower and had to return half an hour later.
Precisely because it is impossible to stop and rest at the Kuangfeng Outpost, every airship needs to obtain sufficient supplies in Wengsayn.
Also wrapped in raincoats and cloaks, several people went down to the outpost tower, followed the tower to the ground, and headed straight for the only passenger station in the outpost.
The train here did not go behind them but went directly to the Fire Dragon Alliance. They bought 4 sleeper tickets and boarded the steam train at : that night without any rest.
This kind of journey is extremely boring.
Even Hitzfeld - she had long been accustomed to using various methods to relieve the boredom brought by too much time, when she left the carriage and set foot on the land of Talignan for the first time, she couldn't help but feel a sense of liberation of "rebirth".
"Metz County." Xia Yibing said.
Then she looked at Russell, wondering if he had made any plans.
"follow me."
Russell was indeed prepared.
"There is no divine grace here."
"We have to find a place that's safe enough before dark."
Chapter 20: The Shadow of Terror Part 2
As he left the station, Hitzfeld kept looking at the people around him.
There weren't many people inside the station, and everything looked normal. She thought it might be because the train was going to the Windward Post - most of the people going back and forth were soldiers and peddlers, who were far from being able to summarize the appearance of the people of Talignan.
As they walked further out, the expressions of the people she saw became more and more different.
How to say it, if the experience of the Sara people living in Sara is somewhat inclined towards the "old times of the earth" in her memory, then in Talignan, this old times seems to be shrouded in a shadow.
Alert and nervous, observing her surroundings at all times, that anxious look finally made Hitzfeld realize...she was already in another country and had to get used to the local customs again.
"Be careful, miss!" A conductor working at the station warned her in broken Saran, while grabbing a short boy who suddenly rushed out from the side.
He didn't do anything to the boy, just pulled him away and let him go immediately.
Hitzfeld noticed that the boy glanced at her as he ran away. The dead and numb look in his eyes made her feel a little uncomfortable.
"Thieves?" Sixus was in a mood to laugh. "I haven't been here for almost half a century. I didn't expect them to still be like this."
"It's not like Sarah doesn't have anything." Xia Yibing frowned slightly, pushed her on the shoulder, and signaled her to walk faster.
She had already discovered that besides the normal travelers, there were also quite a few street urchins around. They were probably local gangsters, and a train station with a large flow of people and a mixed crowd was just right for them to show their strengths.
And some of them have already noticed them. After all, she said bluntly that whether it was Hitzfeld, Sixus or herself, the three of them were not bad in appearance. Traveling together would attract attention even in Sara, not to mention that they might be desperate criminals.
Fortunately, perhaps out of caution or because someone had given them a heads-up, those people did not interfere with them. They just watched them follow Russell to the street and get on a wide-covered carriage waiting there.
"Mrs. Moss." Russell told the driver the destination. The sound of whips came from outside the carriage, and they were on the road again, swaying.
Hitzfeld took out his pocket watch and checked the time. It was 4:30 in the afternoon...but it was already approaching evening there.
The sky was dark, with dark clouds rolling and wriggling in the sky. There were almost no tall buildings in sight, and the roads were poorly cleaned, with garbage and horse manure piled up on both sides of the road.
Sixus's mysophobia may be the worst among the three. She was almost fainted by the smell on the road and wanted to take a shower as soon as she arrived at the hotel.
Hitzfeld also wanted to take a shower, but before that she needed to know where to stay before she could feel at ease. After putting down her luggage, she went directly to the next door to find Russell and asked him, "Is this the safe place you mentioned?"
Even with her experience, she could tell that Mrs. Moss was a shady business.
It may not be a shady place that involves murder and robbery, but it probably doesn't have a business license... Those who hang out here are from the lowest social class. Occasionally, you can see people with knives and pistols going to the bar to pay the bill.
Let's not talk about other things. The sound insulation of the wall panels and floors was ridiculously poor. They could feel the vibration downstairs even when they were standing in the room on the second floor - it was a group of drunkards reveling. When she came up, she heard a few words and it seemed that someone won the ball game.
"No one has any secrets." Russell was checking the things in the drawer in the room. "Don't you think this is the safest place?"
Hitzfeld was silent for a while, and then thought it made sense.
A land without the blessing of God... Even if it is not eternal night, it is still very dangerous after nightfall.
In such an environment, no one would want to live with someone they don't know, unless they have no secrets from each other and are so honest that they can tell what the neighbors are doing by putting their heads against the wall.
"Then you should at least explain to us," she continued, "where Eugenie is now."
They had arrived in Metz as arranged by Russell, but they had no clue about the "rescue of Eugenie Copperfield" mentioned by the other party.
She still didn't know what danger Eugenie had encountered, and why Tarignan didn't go to save him himself, but needed foreigners like her to come.
But Russell told her not to worry, and asked her to go back and have a good rest, and then discuss it together at 10 o'clock tonight.
Hitzfeld looked at the drawer filled with guns and ammunition, then turned and left as he was told.
At 10 o'clock, the three of them took turns taking a shower. Xia Yibing and Xixus took a nap. Then they called Russell to the room to listen to his plan.
If they were in Sarah, in a room with such poor soundproofing, their open conspiracy would surely reveal all their secrets.
But this is Talignan.
Even after 10 o'clock in the evening, there were still a lot of people who were not asleep. The noisy movements mixed together and even if someone was pressed against the wall, they could at most hear people talking inside, but could not hear the specific content clearly.
"You already have a general idea of the specific situation, but not in detail." Russell said, "Due to the previous environment, I couldn't say too much, but now I can tell you directly that the most important goal of our trip is to save the true descendants of the Dragon God from the hands of the Undead Party."
The three of them looked at each other, and finally Xia Yibing asked: "How can you be sure who is the true descendant of the Dragon God?"
"Simple. The last level of the Dragon God's Tomb can only be opened by a true descendant. Someone secretly did this two months ago. He may have thought that he did it without anyone noticing, but in fact, he was being watched from beginning to end."
"Who is he?"
"I still do not know yet."
"do not know?"
"Yes - the few people who know who that person is are being hunted by the Deathly Haunted. They have now taken control of the Dragon God's Tomb and sealed off Kerg, the capital of Tarinian. Although they are nominally loyal to the country and the queen, everyone knows what they are up to."
"That's odd," Hitzfeld put in. "I thought a king was a king because of at least some blood connection..."
"No one cared about this before the Dragon God's Tomb was unearthed." Russell told her, "As long as you can convince others, you can sit in that seat."
"Ah, they are pretty rough then." Hitzfeld twitched his lips and asked, "So Eugenie is also an insider."
"Yes, we were alerted by the Third Intelligence Agency of Talignan that one of the insiders was him, and Metz County was where they speculated he might be."
"Why don't they just do it themselves?"
"Because Eugenie no longer trusts his own people." Russell narrowed his eyes, "The reason why he was hunted by the Death Party was because someone leaked the information in the third game."
"This is really confusing..." Xia Yibing rubbed his temple, "So what you mean is that you need to use our relationship with him to lure him out?"
"It would be best if it could be this natural."
"What if he doesn't come out?"
"He had no choice." Russell's tone sounded a little cold.
"The information we can get from the third game can also be obtained by the Death Party."
