If the wind does not drive the grass, it will not grow.
The sun doesn't rise until there's no light on the snow,
The sky is covered with stars,
Wildflowers also come late in spring.
-----(gorgeous dividing line)-----
The peach groves on the edge of the Daling Mountains are still there. Even though nearly 70 years have passed, the peaches seem to have gotten bigger and the peach trees are still so dense. However, it is obvious that there is no more harvesting of peach gum.
Song Pingcun remembered that the villager named Zhang Daniu had been given the conditions to live for at least another hundred years. He thought that if nothing unexpected happened, he should still be alive. But the changes in Taolin in front of him made Song Pingcun feel that things were not that simple.
There are several mud houses and thatched houses deep in the peach forest, which don't feel like a village at all.
Song Pingcun's spiritual consciousness swept over and noticed the guest token of the Shennong Sect in a house. But there was no aura of Zhang Daniu, not even a blood aura similar to his.
This made Song Pingcun even more strange.
Song Jiao, Song Kang, and Song Di, who followed, were about to go down to check, but were stopped by Song Pingcun, who ordered: "You stay where you are, I'll go take a look."
Song Pingcun walked over and knocked on the door of that house, but a man in black robe walked out. If this man had not had any cultivation, he would have thought he was someone destined for death.
"You are..." The other party saw a stranger who looked like a young man knocking on the door, which seemed very strange.
"I'm looking for Zhang Daniu." Song Pingcun took out the strand of Zhang Daniu's hair.
The other party just glanced at me and burst into tears, "Sir, please come in."
After letting Song Pingcun sit down in the main room, even though it was daytime, there was no light at all in the room and it seemed a bit dark.
This man walked into the back room, walked out after a while, and then plopped down on his knees in front of Song Pingcun, holding a jade plaque high above his head.
"Sir, I'm finally here. Please forgive me, the Li family." The man in black robe took off the black hat on his head, revealing a face that had gone through many vicissitudes of life. He looked like a middle-aged man.
"What's going on?" Song Pingcun was a little confused. The token was indeed left by him.
The middle-aged man did not dare to lie and told all the causes and consequences of the matter.
Li Quan and Li Yigang of the Zhigui Sect who were in Langshan City were both members of the Li family. The Li family had long been peripheral members of the Death Sect. Only a few elders in the family knew about it, including Li Yigang, the leader of the Zhigui Sect. .
After the episode in the peach grove, Song Pingcun and the others left, and the people from the Death Sect came. The Taojiao who was in charge of this peach grove was from the Li family, so nothing happened. He bought the peach gum and left as usual. When he left, he found traces of burned peach gum in the peach forest and returned to the village.
Zhang Daniu and others who were in charge of taking care of it did not dare to hide anything and told everything about that day. In order to save their lives, they had no choice but to take out the token left by Song Pingcun and stated the agreement between the two parties.
But Zhang Daniu didn't expect that the whole village would be massacred after the incident was leaked. After the acquirer returned to his family to report the matter, Li Yigang hurried over and saw what happened to Song Pingcun and the others when they left Langshan City.
The token was reported to the Li family for death. In order to keep it secret, the matter was originally stopped here. But then it was revealed that Song Ping's identity existed in Yibaofang City. In the past ten years, the senior officials of the Death Sect knew that this matter could not be solved easily. The entire Li family's cultivation was wiped out, and they were sent to this peach forest to wait for Song Pingcun, who would come in who knows how many years, to hold him accountable.
After listening to the middle-aged man's narration, Song Pingcun finally understood why there was no trace of Zhang Daniu's breath. The entire village had disappeared more than 60 years ago. disaster. Zhang Daniu may not have figured out how this disaster came about until his death!
"These buildings are all members of your Li family now?" Song Pingcun asked.
"Yes, sir. Please also look at the big mistake my ancestors made decades ago because they did not know the identity of my husband. I have been told that no one can forgive my Li family except you." Middle-aged He may be the head of the Li family of this generation.
Song Pingcun felt heavy with emotion.
Is the Li family at fault? From the perspective of Song Pingcun and Zhang Daniu's village, it is of course an unpardonable crime. But from the perspective of the Death Sect, the Li family is actually maintaining the secret of the Death Sect.
The middle-aged man with a frightened face and longing eyes in front of him made Song Pingcun feel powerless. When he was eighteen or nineteen years old, he could confidently say that Zhang Daniu would live for hundreds more years, but what about the reality? Zhang Daniu and his village all disappeared after he left, but what about today? He can decide the life and death of the Li family, but can he?
Without him, all this life is alive and does not need mercy and blessings from others.
"Didn't Shennong Sect come to check?" Song Pingcun calmed down his emotions and asked.
"I didn't know before, but no one from the Shennong Sect has come to investigate in recent years." The middle-aged man answered honestly.
Song Pingcun remembered that he asked Liu Yiyi to explain to the Shennong Sect, but for more than 60 years, the Shennong Sect had not sent any information to him. Even if he was in the Wanbao Sect and later went to sea, in the years since he came back, the Shennong Sect had immediately solved the problem of his apprentice and Wen Danshu, but when the people in the village were gone, the Shennong Sect didn't care at all?
"I don't know how to deal with your matter. I don't have the right to decide whether to pursue it or not. However, can you contact the senior officials of the Death Sect, preferably your sect leader? I will be waiting here in three days. Him." After saying that, Song Pingcun took the token and the strand of Zhang Daniu's hair and walked out of the room, sent a message to the three Song brothers to stay here, and headed towards the Shennong Sect.
Passing by the peach grove, with a wave of his hand, Zhang Daniu's strand of hair was scattered in the sky above the peach grove, flying in the wind. It didn't matter whether it could land in the peach grove or not.
One of his own random actions caused a whole village to lose their lives. The pain was hard to describe, indescribable.
…
Wen Wushang, the leader of the Shennong Sect, was still in his Anshen Pavilion with his eyes closed to rest. Ever since the spiritual master of the sect came out of seclusion and hinted that he could no longer cultivate, he knew that things were going to change. The source of this news was undoubtedly Song Pingcun, the sect’s former guest minister. He had good relationships decades ago, but he didn’t expect to receive such news.
Today, while he was in Anshen Pavilion, he felt heart palpitations. He didn't know what was going to happen. But he saw Wei Suli coming from outside, "Sect Master, Song Pingcun went to the sect and left a message asking you to meet at the Peach Grove two hundred miles to the south."
"Did he say something?" Wen Wushang was surprised. Song Pingcun appeared in the sect at this time but did not come to him directly. Although it takes a short distance to travel from the sect's main hall to Anshen Pavilion, Song Pingcun's current state As far as I'm concerned, the entire Daling Mountains are no secret to him, so why bother?
"I don't think his face looks very good, but he doesn't have any other emotions." Not to mention Wen Wushang, even Wei Suli felt something was wrong, but he couldn't tell exactly what was wrong.
"I understand. Go down!" Wen Wushang stood up, supporting his body on one leg. He had never felt so heavy. He called Cao Defa, the chief elder of the House of Internal Affairs, and told him: "I may have to leave for a while. If the sect has urgent matters that cannot be handled, please consult with the Supreme Elder."
"Sect Master, are you going on a long trip?" Cao Defa asked carefully.
"It's not far, but it may take a long time." Wen Wushang did not explain why.
After Cao Defa left, he silently bowed to the portrait hanging in the nave, sighed, waved his hand, took it off, rolled it up, and put it into a storage ring.
…
In a very secret area of the Daling Mountains, Shi Jingtang frowned when he received a message from the disciple on duty. What did Song Pingcun mean by asking him to meet in Taolin?
Isn't it enough that the entire Li family died for the village of Zhang Daniu? Although he had met Song Pingcun twice, he still didn't understand this young man at all. According to news from overseas, Shi Bufan did not follow Song Er into the abandoned land, but was cleverly arranged by Song Er on Qianji Island. This is already very strange. But not long after, Song Pingcun asked him to meet in Taolin. What on earth was he going to do?
I asked the disciple on duty to bring over all the recent news about Song Pingcun and read it carefully, but still didn't notice anything special. There is no external information about Song Pingcun's actions. The only useful thing is that the mysterious woman next to Song Er returned to Shuxian Sect.
The saint on the northern continent seems to be no longer in the Beiyu Mountain. Are these two things the reason why Song Pingcun is looking for him? But this is not in line with Song Pingcun's usual character!
"During my absence, any matters related to the Shuxian Sect will be temporarily suspended until I come back."
"Yes," a man in black robes sitting on a seat not far from his head replied, "Sect Master, do you need me to accompany you?"
"No, although Song Pingcun didn't say that I would be the only one to go, there is no practical significance in having one more person." Shi Jingtang refused, stood up, walked to a stone wall behind him, and opened a secret passage.
