Xizhou, deep in Yangguan.
The desert is solitary and the smoke is straight, the sun is setting over the long river.
"So beautiful...so spectacular..."
Li Hu unloaded the last load of food and grass and walked to the tower.
He looked at the vast Gobi Desert in the distance, took a deep breath of the desert's unique smell of wind and sand, and his eyes suddenly became moist.
"Hey! Mr. Li! Go to the kitchen and chop wood for the fire!"
And just before his emotions burst out, a tall, muscular man yelled at him from a distance.
When Li Hu heard this voice, his emotions that were about to be released suddenly stopped, and his neck suddenly shrank.
That man's name is Liu Heizhuang, the kitchen chief of the Yangguan border defense.
As his name suggests, he has been dark and strong all his life. There is a centipede-like scar across his face, slashing from the corner of his left eye and eyebrow to his lower jaw.
The flesh of his arms was so dark that he had bulging veins, which was even worse than what Li Hu had seen before from the Kunlun slaves of the Western Regions in the drama.
When he saw Liu Heizhuang for the first time, Li Hu felt like he saw a blind black bear standing upright. The palm was as big as a fan, as if he could twist his head off with a gentle squeeze.
"Why are you so stunned! Why don't you come down yet!"
Perhaps Li Hu was stunned, and Liu Heizhuang's voice came from over there again.
This time, Li Hu had to put away all his thoughts and ran towards the kitchen.
"When will the Taoist master come and take me away..."
While running, Li Hu recalled Duan Zhen's words when he rose into the sky and left him on the tower of Yangguan City:
"Just wait here for me, they won't make things difficult for you."
As soon as he finished saying that, Li Hu had not yet come back to his senses.
But it wasn't until the brilliant light that had been covering his body like an invisibility spell dissipated that Li Hu finally understood.
As soon as his eyes flashed, he saw dozens of long knives pointing in the distance, and he immediately crouched down in fear.
Then, there was an interrogation that seemed to turn all eighteen generations of his ancestors upside down.
When did these soldiers stationed at Yangguan see an ordinary person suddenly appear on the tower?
The reason why Li Hu was not killed with one strike was because he had only one arm and no cultivation.
During the ensuing interrogation, Li Hu explained repeatedly how he and Duan Zhen would enter Xizhou and step onto the tower together.
But what he received was the ridicule of all the soldiers:
"You follow Taishang Dao Master to practice? I am still the chief disciple of Dazen Temple!"
"The Taishang Dao has always accepted only peerless geniuses. You kid, your muscles and bones are not clear, so I'm afraid you are just talking nonsense!"
"Take him down and continue questioning!"
After that, no matter how Li Hu explained, no one believed his words.
After the long interrogation was over, he was finally dismissed as an enemy spy, and instead was treated as a Chinese citizen who mistakenly crossed into the Yangguan border, and was left here to start serving.
Not everyone can break into the Great Periphery Pass at will.
If ordinary people try to fish in troubled waters and rush into the checkpoints, they can fight for 20 years and serve for three years, or for 80 years and serve for seven years.
It doesn't matter if you commit it for the first time. If you are caught, you will be punished.
This is a border land bordering hundreds of countries in the Western Region. The group of people from other countries who practice evil arts and demonic ways are always watching with covetous eyes, coveting the richness and vastness of the Middle Earth.
A slight oversight may lead to a big mistake. How can we tolerate this?
Among the many punishments in the Great Zhou Dynasty, the punishment of crossing the border can be regarded as one of the most severe.
However, Li Hu was a one-armed man and found out that he was from Nanzhou, so he was exempted from the battle penalty.
But because he didn't know how he appeared on the tower, he compromised by serving a sentence of military service and was stationed here at Yangguan for five years.
It is currently in its third year.
Li Hu recalled the past three years with sadness, but he quickly arrived at the kitchen.
He greeted a few colleagues and started preparing for tonight's meal.
As a person who has never practiced Buddhism and is still one-armed, he can only beat people in the kitchen.
Brush it!
Suddenly, Li Hu, who was putting up the firewood, felt a pain on his back. Immediately, he threw himself forward and his face was pressed directly on the peat.
Immediately afterwards, laughter sounded from behind:
"Hahahaha! This kid can break a dog and eat his shit even if he makes a fire. He is such an idiot!"
"Brother Peng, what you said is wrong. How can you insult a dog? Hahaha!"
"Oh! It's my fault! It's my fault!"
Mockery, abuse, and insults came from the three people behind.
That sarcastic tone and playful meaning penetrated deep into Li Hu's heart.
This isn't the first time.
These things have been happening every day for three years.
He had also been angry, resisted, and fought, but these three people seemed to have some cultivation skills, and they were able to knock him down effortlessly with their fists and kicks.
Often when a punch comes down, it hurts so much that my eyes turn black and my head is filled with stars, but when I look at the scars afterwards, there is nothing there.
The pain was real, but there wasn't even a bruise.
Even if the trouble goes to the top, his wounds cannot be inspected.
Feeling the peat being imprinted on his face, Li Hu tightened his right fist and finally loosened it.
"The fire is lit."
He stood up and turned to face the three of them with a forced smile, as if the malicious collision had never happened.
"Is the baby ready?"
Among the three, the man named Peng suddenly had a flash in his eyes, picked up the water spoon, and poured out a handful of water.
His name is Peng Yong, and he is also the leader of this group of people.
Brush it!
The firewood that had just been lit was extinguished in an instant.
"Ouch! How could you be so careless! How could you spill the water!"
Peng Yong threw the water spoon at Li Hu's feet, deliberately making an extremely exaggerated action, and immediately burst out laughing again.
The two people around him also showed mocking smiles and laughed with Peng Yong.
"you…"
When Li Hu saw this scene, he suddenly felt a surge of anger pouring into Tianling from the soles of his feet. He held his right palm tightly, and his nails dug into the palm of his hand.
But the next moment, he released his palm, opened and closed his mouth silently, squatted down and picked up the water spoon.
Although the three people in front of him were extremely hateful, he couldn't defeat them at all.
At this time, let him tease you for a while, then stop it. If he contradicts you through words or actions, he will inevitably be beaten severely.
He could only endure it.
"You four! What are you doing?!"
At this moment, an extremely rough voice suddenly sounded from outside the kitchen door, like a muffled drum and thunder, which made the four people in the room feel their hearts skip a beat.
Kitchen captain Liu Heizhuang walked in.
"Master Liu!"
"Master Liu! Why are you here?"
At this moment, the three people, including Peng Yong, took a few steps back. The expressions on their faces that were originally mocking and teasing suddenly turned into flattery.
They bowed and saluted Liu Heizhuang, who stood upright like a black bear.
"Huh? Why did the stove get flooded? Who did it?"
Liu Heizhuang only nodded slightly at the respect of the three people, and then immediately saw the fire extinguished by the water.
He immediately frowned and raised his voice again.
The air suddenly became silent, and in the next moment, Peng Yong and the others looked at Li Hu and the water spoon in his hand at the same time.
"Little Li? Is that you?"
Liu Heizhuang frowned and looked at Peng Yong and others, then stared at Li Hu who had been in a daze, and his tone softened slightly.
Although this boy is one-armed, he can still do things and has a good heart.
At least it's much better than the flattery that Peng Yong and others can see at a glance.
"I…"
Li Hu met Liu Heizhuang's gaze, but suddenly his eyelids trembled and he lowered his head:
"Master Liu, I was negligent."
Even if he said it was Peng Yong's teasing, what would he do?
There were three opponents and only one of them, so they couldn't argue.
And since a severe beating is unavoidable afterwards, it’s better to raise the flames again as soon as possible.
"It won't happen again! You four, hurry up and prepare dinner!"
When Liu Heizhuang saw Li Hu admitting, he didn't say anything more. Instead, he scolded the four people and left.
"Stupid thing, you know what you're doing!"
"I'm sure he won't dare to talk nonsense, otherwise he will suffer a lot!"
"Bah! You coward!"
At this moment, Peng Yong and the other three people gathered around Li Hu and began to insult and ridicule him again.
Li Hu clenched his fists again, but he could only turn his head and continue to fiddle with the stove.
It's been like this every day for the past three years.
….
"Will the Taoist master still come to pick me up?"
The day's busy work was finally over. Li Hu lay on the bed, looking at the roof, and the thought in his heart rose again.
He didn't know where Duan Zhen had gone, but he always believed in his heart that Duan Zhen would come and take him back to the depths of the Immortal Mountain of Taishangdao one day.
"Practice the formula handed down by the Taoist Master."
There were so many things to worry about tonight, and Li Hu was tossing and turning and had trouble falling asleep.
He stood up gently, looked at the dozens of soldiers sleeping around him, crossed his legs and closed his eyes.
Duan Zhen taught him a method of cultivation. Over the past three years, he had been practicing it every night, but he couldn't get into it at all.
That method seems to involve visualizing a pagoda and a hanging copper bell.
"From all directions, throughout the ages... I haven't felt that inexplicable divine will in the past three years. I'm afraid it will be difficult for me to get started..."
Li Hu kept imagining the appearance of the pagoda and the bronze bell in the depths of his mind, but as soon as he thought about it, he was surrounded by all kinds of distracting thoughts. Even if he looked at these two pictures, he couldn't see them clearly.
This was the case for three whole years.
"Hey... I'd better get up early tomorrow and practice the Tiger Demon Body Refining Fist."
After three sticks of incense, my mind declined to the extreme, but my visualization made no progress at all.
Li Hu couldn't help but sigh, and was about to lie down and fall asleep, preparing to continue practicing the boxing techniques passed down to the entire army when he entered the military camp three years ago tomorrow morning.
That boxing technique can be mastered by him very well, and he can get started very quickly.
However, he was missing an arm, and since he was over twenty-six or seven years old, it was difficult to reshape his muscles and bones. After three years of training, he still could not refine his skin and flesh to a transparent level.
"Um?"
But at the moment when Li Hu was about to quit the meditation, a glimmer of light suddenly appeared in the depths of his soul.
The pagoda and bronze bell that were about to dim suddenly turned into a real scene that was engraved deep in the heart, roaring in the heart.
He felt that his mind became extremely dark and deep, as if he looked up at night and saw the starry sky, vast and boundless.
Whirring whirring!
At this moment, the pagoda and the bronze bell collided with each other, as if they made a loud noise, illuminating the endless darkness.
Three giant golden Buddhas, which seemed to be thousands of feet tall, soared into existence in the depths of darkness!
"What's this?"
At this moment, Li Hu only felt that the depths of his soul were being subjected to endless shocks. Just when he was about to take action, he saw one of the three giant Buddhas and suddenly pointed a finger at him!
Behind the head of the Buddha, there are nine haloes of divine light, which seem to represent great wisdom, perfection, and bliss!
clang!
clang!
clang!
At the same time, the bronze bell hanging on the top of the starry sky thundered, emitting a long and powerful sound that seemed to condense time!
"I…"
At this moment, Li Hu suddenly opened his eyes and saw that the entire dark military camp seemed to be a little different.
….
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