The junction of Xingzhou and Sizhou, the suburbs of the city and the countryside.
The children who had returned from delivering meals to their fathers who were busy at the river dam were talking and laughing on the mountain road back to the village.
The children don't know what kind of sea monsters are on the rise these days. They just know that everyone's life has gotten much better in recent years.
Fertilizers and pesticides can be sprayed into the ground to make crops grow wildly; the road to the town has been rebuilt, so you don’t have to walk all day to go to the market as before; the drug store in the town also sells a kind of magical medicine in a small glass bottle Just a little medicine can cure various diseases;
The word starving became vague in my mind.
The only unhappiness is probably that the cloth woven at home is not easy to sell, right? After all, because of the workshops along the river, cloth and ready-made clothes are cheaper than in the past.
Just as they were discussing whether they should catch crabs or cicadas together after cutting pigweed, collecting firewood and other household chores, a sharp-eyed child quickly raised his hand to signal everyone to keep their voices down.
On a hill not far away, an old man sat quietly.
Wearing a black robe, he sat with his legs crossed under a tree, facing a tomb, wondering what he was thinking. On the tombstone in front of the tomb, you can vaguely see the word "lian".
Unnatural looks appeared on the children's faces, and everyone subconsciously quickened their pace and fled from here.
The old man whose name I don’t know comes to the village hill every year at this time and sits in front of the tomb for a day or two.
As early as a few years, more than ten years, or even before the village was established, some people had seen him worshiping that tomb.
The strange thing is that no one in the nearby villages or towns recognizes him even though he has a similar accent. No one has ever seen him entering or leaving the village.
It is said that a few decades ago, someone with good intentions went to the city and reported to the Zhenfu Secretary.
The soldiers from the Zhenfu Division came over and took a look. They did not explain the identity of the old man, but solemnly warned the villagers not to disturb him.
How strange...
Not long after the children quickened their pace and left, the clouds broke through in the sky, and Li Ang plummeted down, landing on the hillside.
"call."
He straightened his collar that was blown by the wind, strode up the hillside, walked through the pine forest, slowed down, came to the two tombs, bowed and raised his hands in respect and said respectfully: "Chief of the Mountain."
Lian Xuanxiao didn't look back and said slowly: "...Ati asked you to come, right?"
"yes."
Li Ang paused for a moment. He didn't know that the mountain chief was because he had only told Ati his whereabouts. He inferred the reason why Li Ang could find him.
It was still the mountain chief who maintained communication with Ati.
"Is there a problem?"
"Is such that..."
Li Ang succinctly explained how he discovered the Si Youren Temple through Mo Si's clone.
It focuses on the four murals in the temple that are suspected of prophecies, and how Zhaoming is likely to have mastered the secrets of the Siyou clan through Shi Xingseng, or today's Harvard.
"I see."
The mountain leader nodded. Without any unnecessary movement, the pine leaves next to him blew away on their own, clearing an open space. "Sit down."
ah? Aren’t the things about the Siyou tribe’s prophecy and Zhao Ming important?
Li Ang suppressed his worries and followed Shan Chang's example, sitting with his legs crossed on the ground.
The mountain leader turned his head slightly and asked: "How are you staying in the academy during this time?"
"good."
Li Ang subconsciously answered truthfully, then paused and scratched his head in embarrassment, "I'm just a little... uncomfortable. It's too deserted."
The friends I know may have gone to the frontier and are stationed in the army, always ready to face the enemy's sneak attack.
Or go to the East China Sea and join in the hunting of sea beasts.
Instead, Li Ang himself, who had been very busy before, was left in the academy.
"Is it?"
The mountain chief didn't say anything, turned around, looked at the tomb, and said calmly: "This is my family's tomb."
Li Ang didn't know what to say, so he simply remained silent.
"During the Fengyi period, a rumor about Zhenhe Chi Beast appeared in the Jianghu. It is said that as long as you take the dragon beads that the Chi Beast is still gestating, you can prolong your life, improve your cultivation, and even have a glimpse of the realm above the candle sky.
People from all sides had evil intentions and surrounded and killed the river-suppressing beasts, causing the river banks to burst, flooding, and thousands of miles of land to be wiped out.
This Taoan Village was completely submerged. "
The mountain chief pointed to the peaceful village at the foot of the mountain and said slowly: "In the face of floods, houses are like bricks of sand. They will fall down as soon as they are pushed.
When a person falls into the water and is swept up by the undercurrent, he disappears from the water in an instant, only to resurface lifelessly after floating dozens of feet away. A distended belly is often filled with water.
Many floating corpses were covered with colorful bugs. It was not that maggots were born so quickly, but that the bugs also wanted to escape the flood. "
The mountain chief had an expression of memories on his face and said: “My house was washed away, and my father, brothers and sisters were all washed away.
My mother put me into the wooden bathtub and tried to push me to the low hill, but she really had no strength, so she pushed me away with all her strength and disappeared under the water.
I sat on a wooden basin and floated all the way to the border of Caozhou. I was rescued by the academy and survived.
I entered the Academy and learned faster than anyone else. In the first year, I listened to the rain, in the second year, I patrolled the clouds, and in the third year, I killed all the monks suspected of participating in killing the river-suppressing beast and causing the flood, whether they were good cultivators or demonic cultivators.
Among them, there are also academic doctors, court officials, palace ministers and royal family members. "
"ah?"
Li Ang's eyelids twitched. He knew that the mountain leader's temper in his early years did not seem to be as gentle and generous as he is now, but he did not expect that the old man had killed so many people, even the academy's own people.
And...Is it really okay to commit such a big mistake in just the third year of school?
"Perhaps the monks who participated in killing the Chi Beast had their own motives, or they just wanted a piece of the pie, or they listened to the orders of the big shots, or they were instigated by others, but in my case, they all deserve to die."
Guessing what Li Ang was thinking, the head of the mountain said calmly: "During the day, I was studying in the academy, deliberately pretending to be dull in nature, poor in talent, and only capable of sensing aura.
At night, I put on my night clothes and went out to the city to kill people with a knife, using the most cruel and brutal methods.
Even if some classmates, teachers, or sergeants of the Zhenfu Division noticed something unusual, I would easily put it off - no one would doubt that a gentle disciple with a sword who could only sense Qi would get into trouble with the famous killer Ren Tu. on the association. "
"That..."
Li Ang hesitated to speak. No wonder the mountain chief looked dull when he found out that the demon was living in Li Ang's body. He was even more ruthless than himself when he was young.
However, even though the academy is well-educated, it will not allow its disciples to be bloodthirsty, let alone choose him to be the mountain leader. Not many people must know about this. Why tell Li Ang at this time?
"Wondering why I'm telling you this?"
The mountain chief turned his head and said with a smile: "Because, I am going to die."
