Rebirth of the Viking King

Chapter 530 48 River of Quicksand

Early the next morning, after a full night's rest, the Hash caravan set out on the road again.

The sky was still as blue as the deep ocean. After the wind direction changed, the dry air blowing from the north rarely felt like it was burning.

In the Middle Ages, human civilization was mainly concentrated in the east and west continents. The New World was slowly being integrated into the mainstream territory due to its increasingly prosperous commercial activities.

However, what is hidden in the vast land north of the Sahara Desert is still a mystery to most residents of the Western Continent.

The reason is simple. There are almost no cities in this continent.

No explorer would be so crazy as to use camels all the way south from the Black Desert, because even the free people don't know where the water is hidden in the desert on the other side.

The only way to explore south of the Black Desert is to sail along the coastline.

But ships also need supplies.

There were no towns along the way, not even a human eye in sight. The continuous coastline consists of only towering rocky mountains, and even sandy beaches are quite rare.

Some ships carried psychics, who attached their spiritual consciousness to the birds and saw that the endless desert ended with endless rocky mountains.

Some explorers seemed to have climbed up to the coast when they were out of ammunition and food. They walked for three days and three nights, and finally saw a primitive jungle full of giant snakes as thick as buckets.

The 10 explorers who went out were both lucky to be able to come back. As for these lucky people who knew how to return in time, there were huge discrepancies between their sailing records and the maps they drew.

In this medieval era, only the romantic emperor "Li Longji" who had a terrifying empire would mobilize the whole country and send a team of thousands of people to all corners of the nine continents to draw the "General Map of the World" in an attempt to benefit the world. All mankind.

He only completed a small part of it.

Other bachelors who either disappeared or suffered accidents were hidden in the corners of the world. Eventually, as the national power of the Tang Dynasty was shattered, they were buried forever with their unfinished scrolls.

After leaving their foothold on the third day, the Hash Caravan continued to move deeper into the Black Desert while slaughtering useless horses.

Four days later, when they entered the next stop, at the top of an abandoned stone tower, the dry bones scattered in front of Loki gave him a very familiar feeling.

Judging from the appearance, they must have been dead for a long time.

The dry hot wind that continues day and night has turned all the flesh and blood tissue on the corpse into leather as hard as rotten wood, but the wooden table in the room that was transformed from a vehicle still retains its original appearance.

He reached out and pushed aside the fine sand accumulated on the table. Under the yellow sand, he touched a piece of soft leather. The words "General Map of the World" were written clearly on the leather.

This leather book cover is exactly the same as the "General Map of the World: Submerged City Volume" that he got from Old Wade 17 years ago.

The erosion of wind and sand has corroded all the fragile paper inside the book cover into dust. Except for the cover made of leather, nothing on the top of the stone tower has been preserved.

Unsurprisingly, these skeletons should be of the same identity as Mo Yiquan, who went deep into the Sunken City, and Xiao Lu, the traveler who led the fleet north to the Land of Eternal Night.

They went deep into the Black Desert to make a map for the Eastern Tang Dynasty, but for unknown reasons they died on a high tower in the ruins of the city.

"King Loki, did you find anything on the top of the tower?"

From below came Mergwen's loud shout.

The main reason why these skeletons can be kept on the top of the stone tower is that the wooden steps in this stone building have all been broken.

The lack of stairs to go up to the tower, and the building's dilapidated exterior walls, made it look unsafe.

Among the Hash Caravan, only Loki can jump 20 meters off the ground and jump directly to the top of the stone tower.

Apart from the skeletons on the top of the entire tower, and the leather book covers under the yellow sand, there were only a few rotten swords as crisp as egg shells, three or four telescopes, and a dozen silver coins riddled with holes.

All other belongings of the Tang explorer had been corroded into dust.

In a few decades, even these skeletons will turn into yellow sand at the same time, and there will be no trace of human activity in the entire room.

**

It was now the time when the sun was about to set.

Standing on the top of the tower facing the setting sun, a thick "river" composed of fine yellow sand is moving slowly under the sand dunes where everyone lives.

This is the "Quicksand River", a natural wonder that only exists in the Black Desert.

Taking one last look at these dry skeletons, Loki jumped to the ground.

"Like several other villages we passed, there is nothing on the top of this tower."

Not long after he jumped, Hans Welsh's melodious voice came from not far away. During these few days of travel, he looked more like a tour guide leading a group than a bachelor.

No matter where he goes, he can use the half-knowledge in his mind to point at the ruins and talk about it.

Unlike the bards who talk about running things, most of the stories told by the bachelors have a certain degree of reality as a reference. The journey was so smooth that quite a few members of the caravan would spontaneously come to his side and listen to his account of the ancient history of this land.

"Seven years ago, the City Library received a large stack of 'Books of the Dead' from a merchant. One of them recorded the process of a shipbuilder entering the underworld after his death."

"Osiris, the Egyptian Pluto, respected his talent so much that he even made an exception and allowed him to retain his memory after reincarnation and continue to build more powerful ships.

The shipbuilder regarded this 'journey to the underworld' as a supreme honor, so he asked the Styx priest to draw the ship he designed on the papyrus paper and be buried with him. "

When the chief bachelors saw the shape of the wooden ship, they felt that this giant ship made entirely of steel was very different from our common ships. After careful study and comparison, they discovered that the carpenter's ship was specially designed for traveling. Designed by Shahe!

In the early civilizations of this continent, this flowing sand river became a passage for many pharaohs to transport huge stones. They would carry huge steel boats to the sandy river, fill them with stones, and then sail them down the river.

You might as well turn around and see that the 'village' we live in tonight is the place where the ancient Egyptians docked their ships and loaded and unloaded goods.

This sandy river is completely different from the rushing rivers on other continents.

Water is a substance with extremely high light reflectivity and light transmittance.

In the river at night, the water can reflect moonlight and starlight, allowing the ferry to clearly see the outline of the river bank and avoid accidents involving rocks.

But the quicksand in this sand river is exactly the same as the land on both sides at night! Towering lighthouses were designed on both sides of all rivers so that the slaves driving the ships could identify the river banks. After entering the night, a blazing fire will be lit on the lighthouse to point the way forward for the ships in the sand river.

Our respected King Loki has just entered an ancient lighthouse that has been abandoned for at least two thousand years.