If you don't give up, I'd like to be your adoptive father.

Chapter 7 Encountering a Monster
The night is like a curtain, covering the vast earth.

The stars are the crystals dotted on the curtain, and the crescent moon is the affectionate eyes of the fairy Chang'e peeking at the human world from behind the curtain.

At this moment, the sand dunes are a tomb under the curtain.

More than 15,000 Sand Barbarians were circled together. The injured were groaning, and the exhausted were huddled on the ground and sleeping soundly.

Outside the Shaman camp, several bonfires were lit. The Shu knights were still wearing full armor and standing around the bonfires, ready for battle.

"Whoosh~~~"

A dark red spot suddenly appeared from the southeast, and the whistle sound that came with the wind was as faint as a ghost whimpering.

Song Changqing, who was dozing with his eyes closed, suddenly stood up and looked towards the southeast night sky.

Then he hurried to the large animal-skin tent built on the site of the former Dune Palace.

There were traces of red light shining through the gaps in the tent.

When you get closer, you can clearly feel a burning sensation.

It was as if there was a huge stove hidden in the animal-skin tent, and the temperature of the stove was several times stronger than the campfire outside.

"General, General Guan, something happened."

Song Changqing didn't rush in rashly, but just called out softly outside the door.

"what's up?"

General Guan's lazy voice was heard, and the red light and heat projected gradually faded.

"A 'three-petal flower' cloud-piercing arrow rose in the southeast, and its color was bright red. It should be the brothers who went out to hunt down the Shaman. They encountered an insurmountable danger." Song Changqing said.

"Buzz~~" A three-meter-long golden light shot out, swept in the southeast direction and then quickly retracted.

"Wow~~~"

The cowhide door curtain was lifted from the inside, and General Guan, who was still fully armored at night, strode out from inside.

His face was solemn, and he shouted in a cold voice, which shook the whole area: "Everyone in the Iron Cavalry Battalion, bring your horses and gather outside my tent."

Song Changqing said: "General, the night is dark and not suitable for cavalry to travel. You ride on the red smoke horse and the brothers can run over."

General Guan glanced at him and sneered, "Do you think I would take you to fight a river monster dozens of miles away at this time?"

"It's not a sand barbarian, it's a river monster?" Song Changqing exclaimed.

General Guan turned to the southeast and said in a low voice, "It should be a fish monster. Its transformation is not complete, and it has a herring head as big as a windmill.

When I looked over, it was swallowing Zhu Tong and the others whole, mouthful by mouthful.

She seemed to notice my gaze and turned her head to meet my eyes (ps).”

Song Changqing understood.

General Guan assembled the Armored Cavalry Battalion, not to go out and rescue Zhu Tong, Zhang San and the others, but to gather strength to protect himself - he was worried that the monster would follow the gaze of the "Eye of the Immortal" and chase here.

Soon, more than two hundred knights, both black-armored knights and leather-armored light cavalry, were leading their war horses and standing in an orderly manner outside General Guan's tent.

Their movements were quite large, so they naturally alarmed the Shaman people.

The sand barbarians did not dare to move, but gathered together and whispered.

In the dim firelight, one could see that there was both fear and ferocity in their furtive gazes.

The Shu Knights, out of fear, went on a killing spree, but had the awareness and determination to transform into ferocious beasts and bite off a piece of flesh from their enemies before dying.

"You, that's you, old savage, come here!"

The Shamans were alert for a long time, but no cavalry came to "plow the camp". Only Song Changqing came and pointed at the old man in the leopard skin skirt and shouted.

"Master Song, you call me a slave?" The old barbarian showed a sincere and flattering smile, ran over, and lowered his voice with a strange look on his face and said: "This slave has not had the opportunity to report to you before. My daughter and many other Shaman girls are willing to serve you adults."

Song Changqing looked at him in surprise.

The old man actually called him "Master Song".

He didn't take the initiative to reveal his name to the barbarian, and it was obvious that the old barbarian had been paying attention to their conversation.

Only the brothers in the Iron Cavalry Battalion called him by his name.

"I want to ask you something." After a pause, Song Changqing said meaningfully, "I came to you instead of others because you spoke clearly and logically during the questioning this afternoon. You are obviously a smart person. I hope you will continue to be smart."

The old barbarian nodded repeatedly, "I understand. Master, whatever you ask, I will answer. I will obey you without saying a word."

Song Changqing nodded and brought him to General Guan and a group of armored knights.

"Only him?" General Guan frowned slightly.

"Sir, the other barbarians are dull and stupid. They can't answer one of ten questions. But this old barbarian is a veteran among the Sha barbarians. He can take on a group of people alone." Song Changqing said.

General Guan asked the "old man" barbarian, "Are there any monsters near the sand dunes?"

The old barbarian seemed to be thinking about something, and said quickly, "Sir, this is a wild place far from civilization, so there must be no shortage of monsters and demons, but we don't encounter them often. I wonder which one you are talking about?"

"Tell me everything you know." said General Guan.

The old barbarian said, "First, a few years ago, there was a wild fairy who flew from an unknown hill in the west, or a passing fairy, named 'Iron-beaked Golden-winged Eagle'."

"Why do you say it's a wild fairy, or a passing fairy?" Song Changqing asked.

"The iron-beaked golden-winged eagle landed directly on the sand dune. In broad daylight, it pecked at children and adults, and pecked to death 20 or 30 of them.

If there were goblins living nearby who really wanted to eat people, they would only take one or two, which is called a steady stream. How could they be so wanton and waste food?" said the old barbarian.

"Yeah, that makes sense." Song Changqing nodded and asked again, "Now the Iron-beaked Golden-winged Eagle has flown away - oh, that's not right!" He suddenly remembered, "When I asked you about Sha Manyu before, you seemed to have mentioned the 'Iron-beaked Golden-winged Eagle'. Was it killed by Sha Manyu, or was it another Golden-winged Eagle?"

The old barbarian sighed, “Just that one beast almost wiped out our tribe.

The beast pecked many people to death, so of course the tribal warriors would not just sit there and do nothing.

The chieftain personally led thousands of warriors to besiege it.

But it was a monster, with a copper head and an iron beak. When sharp arrows and spears were shot at its back, at most feathers fell off, but no blood or flesh was seen.

If it weren't for Yu Yatou's secret poison arrow, who knows how many people would have died, and in the end it would have gotten away with it."

"You also have poison arrows, right? Why didn't you hurt the eagle monster?" Song Changqing asked.

"No matter how poisonous the arrow is, it won't be effective unless blood is shed!" said the old barbarian.

"Could it be that Sha Manyu was born with supernatural powers and can pull a hard bow with a force of a thousand pounds?" Song Changqing asked in surprise.

The old barbarian said: "She is quite strong, but she can't penetrate the eagle demon's flesh."

"Ah, I see, it's the eyes!"

An armored knight suddenly shouted, "No matter how strong the Eagle Demon's muscles are, its eyes will definitely not be able to withstand the sharpness of the armor-piercing arrows."

The old barbarian had a strange expression on his face. "Yu girl did shout 'shoot its eyes', but when everyone shot arrows at the eagle demon's eyes, she quietly went behind the eagle demon, and when it flapped its wings and jumped high, she shot an arrow through its anus.

The three-foot bone-piercing arrow was halfway shot into the eagle monster's body, blood splattered, and the eagle monster howled miserably. It flapped its wings for less than a quarter of an hour before it died.

After the eagle demon was completely dead, she came out from behind the warriors, stepped on the golden-winged eagle's head, and boasted proudly, "I knew it might have become a spirit, but how could I not guess that it could understand human language? I shouted like this on purpose to make your arrows miss, so that it would be proud and arrogant and show its butt."

"Why is she screaming? Why not just shoot her eyes secretly?" the black-armored knight frowned.

Before the old barbarian could speak, General Guan sneered, “Only a fool would think the eagle demon’s eyes are a weakness.

Look at the corpses of mortals on the battlefield, so many of them have fatal wounds in the eyes.

Even ordinary people would subconsciously avoid foreign objects flying towards their eyes, let alone a sharp-eyed eagle, which has become a spirit. "

After saying this, General Guan frowned again.

When mentioning Sha Manyu, he remembered the task assigned to him by the envoy from the upper country.

"Old barbarian, keep talking."

"Another time, about five years ago, it was also Yu who caught a man-eating clam with an iron hook by the Quicksand River.

The old clam was bigger than the tabletop. Although it was not a wild goblin, it was just as ignorant of the rules as a wild goblin.

With a body size like its own, it can only eat a small child at most.

But it actually climbed ashore and sprayed poisonous mist in the paddy fields, knocking out all the women picking fruit, and then biting off their heads one by one.

"Five years ago?" Song Changqing asked doubtfully, "How old was Sha Manyu five years ago? Could he have fished for man-eating clams?"

"She just set the hook, and it was the servants who dragged the man-eating clams ashore. We also used poisoned hooks to poison the clams first." said the old barbarian.

"Say it again."

"Two years ago, a one-eyed wolf demon roamed near the sand dunes. Yu Yatou once again asked the hunter to shoot its eyes while she hid behind it and attacked the one-eyed wolf's anus.

I don’t know whether the wolf demon is dead or not. After being shot by Yu Yatou’s arrow, it howled and ran away with its tail between its legs. No one has seen it since then.

besides"

The old barbarian was very good at observing people's words and expressions. Seeing that the Shu knights were particularly interested in "Sha Manyu", he specifically told the story of "Sha Manyu's heroic hunting of monsters".

"What you are talking about are not monsters. They don't even have human form. At most, they are nourished by the essence of the sun and the moon and have just awakened a little intelligence. I want to know the news about the real monsters that have escaped from animal form." General Guan said.

The old barbarian thought for a moment and said, "About two hundred miles to the south, there is also a sand dune. The forest is denser than here. I heard there are tree monsters there. I don't know what they look like. Those who have seen them are all dead.

About 300 miles to the south and west, a Shaman once saw half a tiger carcass, with tooth marks on it thicker and longer than the legs of a table. And there is also.”

The old barbarian talked incessantly, telling all the "Dune Ghost Legends" he knew, whether true or false, for a full half hour.

In fact, he could continue talking if he was given a bowl of water to moisten his throat.

General Guan was quite well-mannered. Even though the other party was obviously talking nonsense, he did not interrupt his "Legend of Dune".

When the old barbarian began to stammer with dry mouth, Hu Chen asked directly: "Is there a fish-headed monster with green scales?"

"There must be!" the old barbarian said firmly.

General Guan and the armored knights were shocked and were waiting for the old man to reveal key information, but the old man shook his head and said, "But I have never seen or heard of it."

General Guan was furious and scolded, "You haven't even seen a killer like that, how can you be so sure of that?"

Lao Shaman explained: "My lord, I am an honest man. No matter what you ask, I will tell you the truth without any ambiguity.

You asked if there are fish-headed monsters with green scales. Of course there are.

Although I have never seen it nor heard anyone talk about it, this is the 800-li Quicksand River.

There is no shortage of fish monsters in the Quicksand River. We can get whatever you want."

"I want your dog head!" General Guan threw a big punch at Lao Shaman, knocking him two meters away.

At this moment, there was a sudden commotion in the darkness in the distance, and some Shaman were shouting excitedly.

General Guan's eyes shone with golden light, which swept over the noisy area, then retracted the light and said calmly, "Zhu Tong is back alive. Hurry and bring him here."

"Zhu Tong?" The black-armored knights were surprised and delighted, and several of them immediately turned around and ran downstairs.

(End of this chapter)