(7)
They surrounded the pagoda, and there was a circle of Taiping Taoists forming a sword formation on the outermost edge. Every other person held a lantern, and there were several rows of people standing inside waiting for orders. Most of them had dull expressions, and the strong sleepiness made each other angry. Infectious.
The night was extremely dark, and nothing concrete could be seen in the bamboo forest. However, it was easy to see through the gaps between the forest leaves the stone lampposts standing on both sides of the mountain crossing down the slope. The candlelight shined through the hollow windows. Look at the bright light. In terms of shape, you can vaguely recognize that the window hole is a hollow in the shape of "fire".
Li Keyong took a small number of men and broke into the pagoda to search around. He himself ordered most of the people to garrison elsewhere, leaving only two people on the left and right to follow him to the Buddhist worship room where the Xianbei witch was.
He thought that by doing this he would not alert the dignitaries in the room.
There were no candles lit inside, the sound of the wind blowing was stirring something, and the "squeaking" sound of the old and disrepaired wood about to break, as if something was about to fall at any time. Logically speaking, such a noble pagoda should not this circumstance occurs. Murong Yan's plaintive breathing was intermittent.
"Miko!" Li Keyong pushed the door open and went in with his hands raised in greeting: "Sorry for the delay in coming down."
The two Taoists on the left and right immediately picked up the lanterns and went in to survey the surroundings and lit the lampstand. They saw that the room was messy, as if there were traces of a fight, such as Buddhist scriptures, inkstones, broken teacups and porcelain pieces, etc., scattered on the ground.
Murong Yan's hair was messy and she was sweating. She sat down against the wall. She held up a piece of broken ceramic stained with blood in her hand to confront the visitor. She muttered: "Don't come here...please, let me go."
"Master Witch?" Li Keyong saw that her clothes were stained with blood, and for a moment he thought that the other party was also injured. However, the other two Taoists went over to check and found that Murong Yan had no injuries on her body, but she was frightened. , the body is extremely weak.
"Take the miko to another place and be sure to send heavy troops to guard her!" After Li Keyong said this, he immediately called the old monk who was guarding the pagoda and asked, "What's going on?"
The old monk said: "At first, I just heard a strange noise upstairs. Later, when I went up to take a look, I discovered that it was the miko who was struggling with the assassin. The old man had never practiced martial arts. In desperation, he immediately went down the mountain and called all the Taoist priests. !”
"But the assassin is missing?" Li Keyong walked to the place where Murong Yan stayed just now and picked up the broken ceramics abandoned by Murong Yan and looked at it. His eyes gradually came to the damaged window. The window lattice was broken into pieces by the gangster with brute force. The two pieces are completely unusable, and they will sway and make a "squeaking" sound when the wind blows lightly.
"Blood?" At the break, Li Keyong found blood stains, which spread all the way to the green tiles and flying trees outside the window: "It's the blood of the assassin."
Li Keyong remembered the direction in which the blood stains finally disappeared, and immediately led people to chase it himself.
The entire hillside was surrounded by Taiping Taoists, and it was absolutely impossible for the assassin to escape easily. Li Keyong was so conscious that he and the assassin would definitely meet at some point.
Every once in a while, there was a sound on the compacted soil slope, and the vigorous mountain search operation soon came to fruition.
The assassin appears.
He was wearing green clothes and a bamboo hat, and his appearance was unclear. He limped to Li Keyong and said, "I surrender, so please stop chasing me..."
The assassin's words were not humble, nor did they sound like a sincere surrender. Li Keyong responded with natural caution: "Stop! You guys have the guts to cross the imperial city guards and come here, and you are actually willing to surrender? Tell me, what is your purpose? ?”
"What purpose can I have?" the assassin asked, "I want to kill the emperor, is that a purpose?"
"What did you say?" Li Keyong continued to question: "Your goal is His Majesty the Emperor, why do you want to do something to a woman?"
"Haha." The assassin sneered: "It has been two days and one night since I was ordered to stay here. I originally planned to go back and resume my life before the emperor came, but I didn't expect that tonight I waited until you guys came. With such heavy defense, he must be an important person... ...I thought I was going to succeed tonight, but I never expected that a group of you Taoist priests would actually guard a pregnant woman coming and going. Tsk, I thought I could have a change of taste tonight. She is a beauty after all."
Li Keyong gritted his teeth with hatred. He drew his sword out of its scabbard and fought with all his strength. The assassin in Tsing Yi used his skill to jump up, stepped on Li Keyong's head, grabbed the bamboo tip and turned over.
Condescendingly, the assassin complained: "I have already surrendered, why do you still want to kill me!"
"You, a heinous and unforgivable villain, actually want to violate the witch? I must kill you, otherwise, I cannot explain to the Heavenly Master!"
Li Ke slashed at the bamboo lattice with his horizontal sword, and the bamboo slowly fell to the ground. The assassin suddenly lost his strength and fell back to the ground. There were obvious signs of bandage on his injured arm, and fresh blood dripped down his sleeves from time to time.
"Are you really not going to let me go?" The assassin said this with almost a smile, very provocative: "Hahaha, then I am not willing to surrender."
Li Ke used his straight sword, and the assassin used the cover of the bamboo forest to get out of the way. The sword hit the bamboo, leaving a deep mark.
Hearing the sounds of fighting here, more and more Taiping Taoists joined in the pursuit of the assassin.
The assassin fought and retreated, always using stones he picked up casually as hidden weapons to deal with people. He used the toughness of bamboo as a support for his toes, and he jumped up and dodged at will. His shoes almost never stuck to the mud along the way.
The harder Li Keyong chased, the farther away he got from the assassin...
When more than half of the Taiping Taoists gathered in the bamboo forest, with hundreds of large lanterns lighting up the forest, Li Keyong yelled with hindsight: "This is to lure the tiger away from the mountain, go back to the pagoda quickly, our first priority The mission is to ensure the safety of the miko!"
Everyone obeyed the order and watched the figure of the Tsing Yi assassin disappear into the night.
Fortunately, Murong Yan was well protected.
Her underwear showed signs of being slightly torn, and there were red marks on her neck. To others, these must be signs of a fierce struggle.
What's more, the Xianbei witch is now dying, her physical strength and spirit are on the verge of collapse, and people have to worry about the fetus in her belly.
"How is the current situation of the miko-sama?"
The female Taoist who has some knowledge of medicine replied: "The witch-sama was just too frightened, so she is lucky that she didn't faint! If there is fetal gas again later, I'm afraid the consequences will be unpredictable."
"Miko-sama, can you hear me?"
Murong Yan nodded and chuckled softly.
"We are now going to send you to Uncle Tianxuan. You must take good care of yourself. I will not let you step out of the Taoist temple again."
Tianxuanzi, one of the Seven Beidou Masters of Taiping Dao, is also a person second only to Tianshi in Taiping Dao. He is good at acupuncture and Yili.
But what is strange is that Tianxuanzi is not only a girl, but also petite and child-like. It is said that this is because she has been practicing "the art of maintaining beauty" for many years. At the same time, she has a violent temper that is completely opposite to her appearance. Rumors often circulated within the Taoist community that she punished her disciples excessively and mercilessly.
Li Keyong only heard about all these things and never witnessed them with his own eyes. In fact, his impression of this uncle was very superficial. He only remembered that her appearance had not changed for many years.
The day after Murong Yan was sent to Tianxuanzi, Tianxuanzi pulled up several layers of white curtains at the place where Murong Yan rested. Centering on that narrow place, Tianxuanzi added more layers to the existing walls. There were several layers of "defense", and only women were allowed in and out of the curtain on weekdays, while men stood outside the door guarding various important roads. Even Li Keyong, who was ordered by the Heavenly Master, could only stand in front of the door at a distance. Curtain looked into the room.
It seems that Tianxuanzi plans to let Murong Yan conduct all her daily life in such a "small box".
