The deep grassland in November has turned into another scene. Both the nearby mounds and the distant mountains are covered with a monotonous but sacred white.

The white snow covered the endless yellow and the remaining scattered green, leaving only the bitter cold.

Hundreds of felt tents are dotted across the snow-white grassland. The white dome-shaped tents are large and small, falling in a random pattern on the white ground and blending into the snow.

Although these tents are distributed in a random pattern, it can be seen that they are concentrated on a flat land.

There were a few exceptions. Not only were they located in a remote corner far away from the large group, but they were also decorated with many terrifying things.

Dried sheep heads, scattered bones, fallen eagle feathers, dried internal organs and countless colorful strips of cloth...

There was a huge bull's head hanging on the door of the felt tent, which was almost coiled into a circle, with frost condensed on the huge horns. There were two braziers on both sides of the tent curtain, and the flames burning in the braziers swayed in the wind.

A string of bone wind chimes was hung inside the tent curtain. Whenever someone opened the curtain, the bone wind chimes would be shaken, causing a clicking sound.

Snap, snap, snap—Snap, snap, snap—

A man walked into the tent and bowed respectfully in a certain direction inside the tent.

The light inside the tent is dim, with only the flame from the burning cow dung in the brazier in the middle illuminating the tent. With the faint campfire, one can see animal fur, bones and feathers everywhere in the tent, mixed and matched as decorations, making the entire tent look eerie and spooky.

Similarly, the smell inside the tent is hard to describe, a mixture of stinky smells, fragrant smells and many indescribable smells. It always makes people dizzy if they smell it for a long time.

"Bo'e, King Hunxie wants you to go to the big tent to discuss important matters."

Sitting in the direction of the person who was speaking was a man dressed like a wizard, wearing a feather hat, a divine robe decorated with countless bones and feathers, and leather shoes. His entire face was covered with red and white totems, and his facial features could not be seen clearly in the dim light.

Hearing the words of the visitor, the wizard sitting at the top slowly opened his eyes, then put down the sacred drum and mallet in his hands, and nodded to indicate that he had heard.

The wizard stood up, put on the bell around his waist, picked up the bronze mirror and the magic sword, pointed to the servants on both sides, and asked them to follow and serve him.

All of a sudden, a group of people followed the visitor out of the tent, and suddenly only two servants who were burning incense and chanting incantations were left in the tent.

When the footsteps faded away, the two servants who remained in the tent looked at each other, stopped what they were doing and muttered.

One of them stood up to check the situation outside the tent. After receiving the signal that it was safe, both of them breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed on the ground.

The two slaves wearing leather clothes decorated with bones were Feng Yingman and Tang Kaide who followed Li Changxiang into the grassland. They were very similar to the wizard who had just left. At this time, they were wearing simple feather hats on their heads and their faces were also painted with totems.

Feng Yingman was the one who stood up to check the situation outside the tent. After he confirmed that the surroundings were safe, he returned to his seat and whispered to Tang Kaide: "Do you think Xiaolai can handle it alone?"

"It has to be done even if it's impossible. He's the only one among the four of us who can speak and understand Huihe."

Speaking of this, Feng Yingman sighed helplessly and could only wish all the best to his teammates who were going to the big tent to discuss important matters with the Uighur King Hunxie.

The wizard leader was Yang Xiaolai.

Tang Kaide patted Feng Yingman on the shoulder and said, "You stay on guard inside the tent. I'll go outside to see how the captain is doing and bring some food." After that, he slipped out of the tent, leaving Feng Yingman alone.

With none of his teammates around, Feng Yingman sat in the tent with a worried look on his face.

How did things come to this? !

It was still August when the four of them entered the grassland, and now it was already November. Not to mention stealing horses, it was even a problem how to leave the base camp filled with Uighurs.

The captain must have a way, right?

After comforting herself, Feng Yingman began to recite an incantation in a low voice without understanding the meaning of it.

On Tang Kaide's side, he swiftly slipped out of the felt tent and ran quickly towards the square stone platform not far away.

The stone platform is very large, half a person's height, and the surface is covered with wooden boards. When you step on the old wooden boards, they make a creaking sound.

Tang Kaide carefully looked around and made sure that no one had walked out of the tent in the biting cold wind. He then quietly slipped to the back of the stone platform, squatted down, took a stone from the platform, and quickly stuffed the food and the note in his hand into the platform. When he felt that the things in his hand had been taken away, he immediately withdrew his hand and stuffed the stone back.

It turns out that this stone platform is hollow.

And there was a person huddled inside the hollow stone platform.

After doing all this, Tang Kaide immediately returned to the felt tent quickly.

The person hiding under the stone platform was Li Changxiang. Because his burned face was particularly conspicuous, he could not disguise himself as a wizard and hide in a felt tent like Tang Kaide and the other two.

He put the cold and hard mutton aside and checked the message sent by Tang Kaide first.

"Time waits for no one to come to the big tent."

After scanning the note, Li Changxiang immediately knew why his teammates were anxious. He then swallowed the note and destroyed it completely. Then he picked up the frozen mutton and slowly began to chew it.

The story of how things developed to the current situation started two months ago.

He and his teammates followed a group of Uighur cavalry all the way to the northwest and watched them enter a valley.

When the Uighur cavalrymen were stationed to rest, they would release carrier hawks for patrol and guard. The four of them had no choice but to wait outside the valley. For several days, it seemed that the cavalrymen would stay in the valley and not leave.

Is it true that the Uighurs’ headquarters is stationed in the valley?

Eagles have poor night vision and usually return to their nests to rest at night. Their opportunity comes after nightfall, so Li Changxiang decided to sneak into the valley at night to find out what's going on.

Just as it was drawn on the map, there was a lake in the valley surrounded by rocky mountains. The lit bonfire exposed the position of the Uighur cavalry, indicating that they were stationed and resting by the lake at that moment.

Logically speaking, it wouldn't take too much time to rest. This group of people had already stayed in the valley for a few days. They didn't seem to be resting, but more like waiting for someone.

Thinking of this, Li Changxiang looked at the bonfire in the distance, and then looked at the darkness on the other side of the lake. After a long while, he gestured to his teammates, signaling Feng Yingman to follow him, while the remaining two stayed where they were to monitor the situation of the Huihe cavalry.

He saw that in addition to the bonfire lit by the Uighurs, there seemed to be a faint light on the other side of the lake.

When they reached the other side of the lake along the foot of the mountain, they immediately discovered, with the help of the rising sun, that there was something unusual on the hillside of the mountain on the other side of the lake.

Not only were there countless colorful strips of cloth hanging, there were also animal skeletons everywhere, and more importantly, the sound of musical instruments could be heard coming from the mountainside.

They are just simple, unmelodious sounds.

Li Changxiang and Feng Yingman quietly climbed up the mountainside and found that the starting point and melody of the cloth strip both originated from the entrance of a cave.

There were three strange men in strange costumes in the cave, wearing leather hats full of feathers, masks with ferocious fangs on their faces, leather coats full of bones and feathers, and leather boots. The three men held different musical instruments in their hands, some were ringing bells, some were beating drums, and some were hitting sticks. They shook their heads, hummed incomprehensible mumblings, and at the same time raised their hands high, lifted their feet left and right, and danced around the campfire in a swaggering manner.

Li Changxiang and his teammates looked at each other, nodded, and hid motionlessly under the rocks outside the cave, observing the three people, while also waiting for night to fall again.

Another day passed, and Feng Yingman returned under the cover of night to find the remaining two people, and then four of them became guarding outside the cave.

Midnight passed, and when people and horses were tired, the three strange people in the cave also fell asleep.

Li Changxiang nodded to his teammates, and the four of them sneaked into the cave tacitly. With a few slashes of their swords, they quickly and efficiently killed the three people in the cave.

The jumping shadows in the cave were projected by the campfire, and the four people dealt with the bodies of the three people and sat by the campfire to discuss the next course of action.

"The three of you pretend to be them and follow the Uighurs back..." Li Changxiang explained his plan to his teammates bit by bit.

After hearing Li Changxiang's plan, the three teammates widened their eyes and were so shocked that they couldn't close their mouths.

Yang Xiaolai swallowed his saliva and looked at the strange clothes on the ground. They were clothes taken off the three people. "Captain, this... is too unbelievable!"

Tang Kaide came back to his senses, clenched his teeth, and then said: "Didn't you say that they are wizards of the Huihe people and their status is extraordinary?! I think the ability that the captain said is not surprising!"

Yang Xiaolai paused. He had indeed explained the identities of these three wizards to the other three people. If nothing unexpected happened, if they were selected as the shamans of the Huihe, they would be called "Bo'e", and would later be the tribal doctors, representatives of the gods, and ceremony hosts...

A new Bo'e is usually chosen by bloodline or tribe. Ordinary people must obtain "instructions from God" if they want to become a Bo'e.

It seems that the reason why these three people danced in the cave was to get instructions from God, so that they would be qualified to compete to become the new "Bo'e" after returning.

Now that things have come to this, it’s too late to say anything.

According to Li Changxiang's plan, Yang Xiaolai and the other two immediately changed into wizard's clothes, painted totems on their faces, and then put on masks.

Feng Yingman looked at Li Changxiang, who was sitting on the side busy tying ropes with cloth strips, and asked, "Captain, the three of us are pretending to be wizards, what do you want to do?"

Li Changxiang was not panicked at all. He kept weaving strips of cloth with a scary face. "I will lurk around you and help you act. After you enter the Huihe King's Court, I will act according to circumstances and wait for an opportunity to find a good place to perform and cover my infiltration."

Yang Xiaolai was also sitting on the ground, busy with his hands, but the difference was that he was weaving something with dry vines.

Tang Kaide and Feng Yingman were not good at manual work, so they could only silently review the three wizards' dancing movements and try to move their arms from time to time.

"Captain, can what you said really work?" Yang Xiaolai was chosen as the main force in the show because he could understand and speak part of the Uighur language. When he thought of the tricks Li Changxiang said, he couldn't help trembling in his heart.

"It's possible." Li Changxiang said with certainty, and the rope in his hand became thicker and longer. "But this trick must be arranged in advance, and I will do it after I prepare the rest. Remember not to perform it casually, it must be combined with the right time, place and people."

Hearing this, Feng Yingman and Tang Kaide also comforted the nervous Yang Xiaolai: "Don't worry, the captain said he will cover us in secret, and the two of us will deal with it by your side, you just need to act."

As the two skilled handicraft workers continued to weave, one of them made a thick cloth rope that was nearly two meters long and one fist wide, while the other made a straw vine basket that was half a person's height, with a wide belly and a narrow mouth.

Over the next two days, Li Changxiang and his teammates practiced the trick he mentioned over and over again. As Ji Qingyue said, this trick required the most cooperation from teammates. If they didn't want to be seen through, they had to cooperate cleverly.

Two days later, the three masked wizards successfully came out of seclusion and went down the mountain. They walked along the shore of the lake to where the cavalry was stationed, and then followed the cavalry back to the royal court.

Shortly after the three entered the royal court, Li Changxiang, who had been following the marks left by his teammates, also entered the stone platform under the cover of the three.

The real show finally begins.

The Huihe people have recently been selecting new Bo'e. Some of the candidates are bloodline descendants, some are popular choices, and some claim to have received instructions from God and have comprehended magical skills, and can even use the cloth rope in their hands to reach the sky!

When Yang Xiaolai said this, everyone present was shocked.

The leader, King Hunxie, pointed at him and ordered him to show his magical skills immediately.

Then, the Huihe wizard put on a complete set of divine clothes and hat, held a straw basket, and stood on the stone platform where he usually performed rituals and sacrifices.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, the leading wizard turned the wicker basket in his hand over, and the cloth ropes inside poured out, leaving a soft puddle on the table. The wizard then showed the mouth of the basket to everyone below the stage, indicating that there was no mechanism inside the basket and there was no possibility of cheating.

Then, the wizard threw the cloth rope on the stage to the audience for everyone to check. It was just an ordinary rope.

While everyone was checking the ropes, the three wizards on the stage began waving their hands and jumping their feet, chanting different spells, slowly raising the tense atmosphere on the scene.

After a while, the people below passed the cloth rope back to the stage. The leading wizard picked up the rope and slowly coiled it into the rattan basket bit by bit.

The two wizards beside him, one shaking a bell and the other beating a drum, danced with no regularity or rhythm, making the wooden boards on the table bang.

The next moment, the leading wizard took out a stone whistle and blew it slowly.

As the whistle sounded, in full view of everyone, a piece of cloth rope slowly poked out of the wicker basket.

what--

The scene was suddenly filled with screams and exclamations like a tsunami. Everyone, including King Hunxie, could not believe their eyes for a moment!

How can a rope come alive like a snake?!

The wizard seemed to be startled by the exclamation on the scene. He slapped the rope that had stuck out its head and pressed it back into the basket.

After waiting for a while, the people in the audience quieted down, holding their breath and not daring to make a sound. The ropes in the wicker basket seemed to quiet down as well. Then, the wizard lifted the basket, changed its position, and blew the stone whistle again.

The rope in the basket slowly poked out again, stretching longer and longer, going straight up to the sky.

On the stone platform, three wizards tried their best to perform magic, making the rope rise higher and higher like a snake. Before they were exhausted, the rope finally stopped and stood upright in the basket.

The rope actually grew upward from the basket and was more than ten feet long!

The three wizards held the straight rope, panting.

The next moment, the leading wizard could no longer hold on and fell directly onto the stone platform. At that moment, the straight cloth rope suddenly collapsed as if its soul was taken away, losing its backbone in the middle, and fell from the air, landing on the platform just like a soft cloth rope.

“Hurry up and carry Bo’e back to the tent!!” King Hunxie has already called the wizard Bo’e. Bloodline inheritance or popular support are not as good as seeing the instructions of God with one’s own eyes!

In this way, Yang Xiaolai, as the new Bo'e, and his teammates hid in Huihe for two months.

Today, King Hunxie invited Yang Xiao to the big tent in order to hold a grand prayer and sacrificial ceremony before the heavy snow comes. After the spring, they will go to the deeper grasslands, where the real royal court - Khan is.

"Has Bo'e's magic power increased?" King Hunxie raised his wine glass and asked Yang Xiaolai respectfully, "Bo'e said that the rope can reach the sky, and then he ordered a child to climb up to the sky along the rope and pick the fairy fruit. I hope Bo'e can let the rope reach the heaven as soon as possible, so that I can take the fairy fruit and present it to the Khan!"

Yang Xiaolai, wearing half a mask, drank milk wine, feeling unspeakable bitterness in his heart, but he could only keep agreeing with King Hunxie, promising King Hunxie that he would let the rope reach the sky as soon as possible.

Team! Help!

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