In the early morning of June 27th, everyone at Yijian Villa completed their repairs here. Under Lu Fengbai's arrangement, everyone took Mu Tianliao and Yue Qingqiu, as well as the injured and sick members of the caravan, to prepare to go south to Fengcheng in southern Xinjiang.
After the group of people walked out of the Maple Leaf Forest stronghold, Lu Fengbai looked at the dangerous pass built with natural danger behind him, and began to recall Uncle Huang's past life. In his impression, except for serving as a supervisor in the army, he was the guest minister of the Sword-making Peak that he had explored earlier. , why he suddenly jumped from the army into the world, and finally became a bandit.
Why didn't he say a word to himself? Why did he really want to rebel, and why did he die by his own sword? Also, the armored man's words in Cishan's mouth made him very disappointed with his choice... I originally thought that he just thought that the man felt that he He and his father had completely given up the power of the Lu family in the ranks, but from this point of view, things were not as simple as he thought.
"What are your plans for this stronghold?" Lu Cishan rode up to Lu Fengbai's side and interrupted his thoughts.
"...Burn it. This place must not become a gathering place for other bandits. If the weapons and equipment are leaked out, it will only cause the surrounding people to face disaster again," Lu Fengbai said with a sigh.
Lu Cishan responded, then turned his horse's head and called several disciples of Yijian Villa to ride the horse and walk towards the stronghold together. Not long after, a raging fire rose in the stronghold, and black smoke shot straight into the sky. Under the fire Under the erosion, all the utensils and weapons in this place were burned.
Everyone in Yijian Villa turned their backs to the fire and headed south. ...At the same time, in central Guizhou, on a mountain trail, a young man in a short shirt was riding. It was Lin Manliu who had said goodbye to everyone at Yijian Villa. He had been traveling for the past seventeen days. It was extremely slow. As he moved forward, he kept thinking about the words of the Taoist priest who visited the Star Temple.
Is it true that only through death can a person be truly liberated? Does every step that Zhou Mo takes must follow the direction he calculated?
If so, is it the so-called destiny that dictates his journey, or is he following the destiny and figuring out his own path... On horseback, the young man at least rubbed the foxtail grass on the roadside just now, and pulled its roots wantonly, The thoughts in his heart became more and more chaotic, and the expression on his face was a little angry. Then he threw the piece of dogtail grass out casually, and then snorted. Xiao Huang who was sitting down seemed to hear the young man's annoyance, and jumped on the spot. For a moment.
Lin Manliu laughed happily at this jump. He smiled and was afraid of the horse's belly and said: "What do you want him to do! For such a selfish person, it is better to think about the master, the old liar, Chong Ying and Sister Xiao Xiao...and think about Miss Yue!".
After the boy finished speaking, Xiao Huang also neighed, as if in response to the boy's answer. After one person and one horse stopped worrying about each other, they began to move faster. Lin Manliu was relieved and thought about finding a village inn before noon to have a good rest. He could not treat Xiao Huang badly anymore.
After half an hour's journey, I finally saw the faint smoke behind the mountains and forests ahead in the distance. There were some houses located irregularly in the countryside. After confirming the direction, Lin Manliu scratched Xiao Huang's horse mane. , signaling him to move forward and continue on his way, Xiao Huang immediately started running, aiming straight for the village ahead.
When Lin Manliu's royal horse arrived at the entrance of the village, he dismounted and walked towards the village station. This place is sparsely populated. I had never been here before when I returned with the old liar. The boy in a short shirt pulled Xiao Huang to the tree stump at the door of the inn, tied him up and entered the inn. At this time, there was no one in the inn, but The tea in front of the shop was boiling vigorously, and steam rose from the spout of the teapot from time to time.
Lin Manliu found a table and chairs under the table. After looking around, he could only shout: "Is the store here? Is the store here?" He repeated this several times.
There was a sound of running footsteps coming from the backyard of the inn, and a voice responded: "Guest, wait a moment!!!".
As the sound approached, an older man ran out from the backyard of the inn. After he walked into the tables and chairs of the inn, he casually banged on a table and began to breathe.
"Don't panic, old man, I just shouted when I saw no one was here," Lin Manliu said respectfully.
"Nothing, nothing... Is this your first time here? Let me serve you some tea first." The old man said after a short rest. He casually wiped the saliva he had just breathed out and walked towards the store. He walked towards the stage, lifted the pot of boiling hot tea from the charcoal stove with his hands, and walked towards the boy in a short shirt.
Lin Manliu turned the teacup upside down on the table so that the old man could pour himself tea.
"You little kid, you are quite sensible. No one has passed by this place for a long time in the past few years..." The old man smiled and started pouring water for the young man, and the heat rose in the tea bowl.
"This is my first time passing by this place. I don't know what this place is called, and none of my elders have ever mentioned it." Lin Manliu asked the old man after taking the tea bowl.
"You may not believe it, but this place is called Buried Sword Valley. During my generation, this place was a famous place. It must have been almost forty years ago. At that time, I was as old as you..." The old man sat down on the table and chair on the boy's side and began to talk about the past.
The old man mentioned in his words that there is a valley five miles away from here, which was owned by Zhujian Peak in the early years. Whenever the sword house at Zhujian Peak, the broken swords or waste swords that failed to be forged would be transported here. Abandoned in the valley, disciples of the Sword-making Peak would have been guarding the valley in the early years to prevent outsiders from entering the valley and stealing the remains of the sword.
Therefore, all the villages in the valley were named Buried Sword Valley by the once prosperous Zhujian Peak. However, Zhujian Peak suffered several accidents one after another, from the sudden death of the old mountain master Sixuan to last year's After the sword theft happened, no one remembered the origin of this place, and no one knew since when, no one went to the valley to look for the remains of the sword.
Some of the villagers here were good people. They once went to the valley to find some iron tools and melt some farm tools. However, they never returned. It was not until March and April that anyone came to the stream outside the valley. I saw the clothes of people who had entered the valley, neatly placed on the edge of the stream, and the tops of the clothes were neatly pressed down by stones.
Because of these rumors, no one from the villagers in the Buried Sword Valley dared to enter the valley anymore... Lin Manliu listened to the old man's words, which became more and more mysterious. At first, he believed some of the past events in the world, but later As the old man was talking, he was about to tell him about ghosts and gods. He immediately picked up the tea bowl and took a swig. Unexpectedly, the tea was still so hot after a long time. The young man immediately opened his mouth and spit it out on the other side. Tongue.
"Hey...you little kid, why are you so arrogant when drinking tea? Are you following what the book says about a troubled young master, Pian Pian and so on?" The old man clapped his hands on the table with one hand, and twirled his beard with the other and laughed. Said out loud.
It was Lin Manliu's embarrassment that made the old man stop being weird.
"Mr. Xuetang said... He is a handsome young man in troubled times. It is not appropriate for me to use this..." The boy in short shirt finally regained his composure and spoke.
"What a shame! You little kid is rude again. The elders finally had some ink in their stomachs, but you pointed it out directly." The old man said immediately, with a pair of eyes that seemed to be angry, and he slapped the table again. A palm. "It's the boy who's being rude..."
"Although he knew what the old man said was a joke, Lin Manliu had no choice but to apologize and said. This caused the old man in front of him to start laughing again.
"Mr. Pingyuan, he is a handsome young master in troubled times, but he has not seen the whole body. I said humbly.
"Li Lingzhifa"..." There was a voice of someone chanting in the distance, and the tone sounded like a woman. Lin Manliu followed the voice and looked over, but it was a person dressed as a scholar, but judging from his appearance, he still looked like a woman. It can be seen that it is a woman.
It was on the opposite side of the road from where he came. A man was leading a horse walking on the country road, saying the words that the old man mentioned just now. When he saw the boy in a short shirt looking at him, the man tilted his head and smiled, and waved a folding fan in his hand. In one hand.
"It is indeed inappropriate for my little friend, no, inappropriate," the woman dressed as a scholar said out loud.
When Lin Manliu heard this, he thought to himself, even if it's inappropriate, you don't have to say it out loud. They are all wandering around. Even if you are a woman who talks like this, what if I get angry and punch you?
Seeing that the boy in a short shirt didn't reply, the scholar just looked at himself, started to hit his head with the folding fan in his hand, and said casually: "You must have been saddened by what I said, but don't worry, little friend, I am a good person." Young, I will definitely find a good match in the future who will not dislike my looks...".
Lin Manliu ignored it, turned around and picked up the tea bowl at hand, blew on the still hot tea in it, and then drank it all in one gulp. This time it was not as hot as before. After drinking a bowl of tea, he swept away the tea. Exhausted from walking in the mountains and forests for more than ten days.
Seeing that the young man was ignoring him, the scholar let out a sigh at first, then led his horse to the tree stump, tied his horse there, and then walked into the inn and sat directly in the forest. Manliu stood opposite, and then shouted to the old man beside him;
"Staff, please pour me a bowl of tea!" After saying that, he slapped his folding fan to the table and looked at the young man.
"You girl, it's rude to be like this," the old man stretched and said with a yawn. As soon as these words came out, the woman dressed as a scholar became angry at first, pouted her little mouth, and then started to panic again. She hurriedly looked back and forth at the old man and the young man several times, and then suddenly started to collapse like a deflated rubber ball. Come on.
"How did you recognize me, old man..." the woman said with an aggrieved look on her face. She also imitated the young man and began to call her old man, instead of calling him the store owner like before.
"Ask the little kid next to you if you can tell." The old man pointed at Lin Manliu and said. Lin Manliu nodded without waiting for the woman to reply.
This time the woman looked even more aggrieved, and then she threw herself on the table, muttering something that the two of them could not hear clearly.
"Are you so sad?" Lin Manliu said softly, looking at the woman. The woman dressed as a scholar immediately raised her head, stared at the young man's face fiercely, and said in a deep voice: "You know nothing!".
