Since ancient times, people have to live together where there is water. The river is vast, and there are many villages and towns on the left and right sides of the upstream and downstream.
Searching along the river was certain, but the first thing Mu and Cai had to decide was whether to go upstream or downstream first.
"I think it's the lower reaches." Cai Zhao looked at the map for a long time. "If it's the upper reaches, the Shi family's two heroes' hermitage is closer to Taichu Temple than Wu'an Mountain. Then my aunt should say, 'With my descendants of Beichen Drinking water from the same river', rather than saying 'drinking water from the same river as Chang Daxia'."
Mu Qingyan agreed.
So they started from Wu'an Mountain and explored the lower reaches of Sichuan River.
As a result, this journey lasted for more than half a month.
The current in the upper reaches of the river is rapid and full of undercurrents and whirlpools, making it difficult for ordinary bamboo raft boats to navigate. However, once they pass Wu'an Mountain, the river suddenly becomes gentle and calm. Not only is it rich in fish, shrimp, clams, and it is not easy to drown, so the villages and towns More lush.
In order to avoid missing the hidden message, the two of them did not even dare to use the golden-winged roc, so they had to ride donkeys and patiently inquire everywhere - but unexpectedly, this journey was not smooth.
Cai Zhaoxian disguised himself as a man, matching brother Mu Qingyan. As a result, the proprietress of a small inn in the countryside suggested that they live in the same room together, saying, "What's the matter with my brother?" '
So Cai Zhao changed into women's clothing, matching Mu Qingyan's brother and sister. Then the villagers covered their mouths and snickered, and expressed with clear eyes, "We all understand, there is no need to hide it, all young men and women who have eloped love each other like brothers and sisters."
"What if they are really brothers and sisters?" Cai Zhao couldn't help but ask while sitting in front of the blacksmith shop.
The fat wife of the blacksmith uncle ate melon seeds and chatted: "Who among the young people these days would travel with their own siblings? Did the elders of the girl's family travel with their own siblings when they were young?"
Cai Zhao was silent.
Although Cai Pingshu and Cai Pingchun are biological siblings who depend on each other for life, they have never traveled together in the world.
Give up the relationship with Mu Qingyan and draw your attention back.
Cai Zhao first asked about "Qiying Village", but everyone shook their heads and said they had never heard of it. In the end, Qiying Village was not found, but there was one each in Sanyang Village and Wuzhu Village.
So Cai Zhao decided to search based on clues about the persimmons. At first, there were no persimmon trees growing in the villages on the left and right banks of the river. Then, there were many persimmon trees growing on the hillsides on the left and right banks of the river. However, the persimmons made by the local villagers were round.
Going further down, Cai Zhao finally bumped into a bright red hexagonal rhombus-shaped persimmon hanging outside. Unexpectedly, he was so happy that he became sad. The local villagers said that every village in this section likes to press the persimmons into hexagonal rhombus shapes.
Cai Zhao sighed and had no choice but to taste it one by one.
The villager really didn't lie. The taste of the persimmons here is indeed different from village to village. The persimmons in Yanghua Village are slightly sweet, the persimmons in Lihua Village are bland, the persimmons in Taohua Village are harder, and the persimmons in Meihua Village are softer... In short, after eating the persimmons for half a month, Cai Zhao felt a little uncomfortable. Living.
"Zhaozhao, your face looks like a persimmon cake now." Mu Qingyan leaned on her shoulder with concern.
Cai Zhao wished she could punch him, "...I know, you don't need to tell me."
"Then which persimmon cake you have eaten has the same taste as it did back then?"
"……Soon."
"Are you tired, Zhao Zhao? Why don't you have lunch first and then try some more? Today at noon, we have sweet persimmon glutinous rice, a local specialty. It's even more famous than the crystal persimmon cake at noon yesterday."
Cai Zhao suddenly felt lifeless.
Her orange complexion seemed to be tinged with bitterness, which reflected the fair, beautiful and graceful young man beside her.
During this period of time, Mu Qingyan changed from the rich black and red clothes he wore before, and suddenly changed into a light and elegant scholar's attire. A scholar's scarf was neatly tied on top of his dark hair, and he carried a rattan square on his back. Bamboo box, the whole body is pure and elegant, chic and harmless.
It was also during this period that he never spoke sharply again, let alone made sarcastic remarks, and he surrounded Cai Zhao every day to say heart-warming words.
It's just that I don't know if it was due to his lack of skill, but his heart-warming words were more painful than arrows piercing his heart - Cai Zhao firmly believed that he did it on purpose.
During this period, Cai Zhao was eating persimmons with a sad face every day, but Mu Qingyan made good friends and actively helped the villagers solve their problems every time he went to a village. He was even more famous than a famous family.
Yanghua Village and Lihua Village were fighting over a ditch, and he gave them a pile of money to build another one;
There was an old crooked neck tree used for praying in Taohua Village. It had not bloomed for five or six years. Without saying a word, he took out a can of unknown medicinal powder and sprinkled it around the big tree. The borers were quickly driven out, and it would surely be there next year. It can bear fruit again;
Because of a huge boulder blocking the passage between the two villages, the widower of Juhua Village and the widow of Meihua Village could not abandon their families and joined together. Mu Qingyan came up and slapped the boulder into pieces with a few slaps.
At the wedding of the widower and the widow, he was moved to tears and asked Zhao Zhao if he was touched that his lover finally got married.
Cai Zhao expressed that he was very touched.
Mu Qingyan wondered why Zhao Zhao didn't laugh since he was so touched.
Cai Zhao twitched the corners of his mouth a few times to show him.
Seeing that they had almost visited all the flower villages in this section of the river, they came to the foot of a rugged and strange hill. As night fell, there was sudden thunder and heavy rain.
Mu Qingyan hugged Cai Zhao and hid in a small pavilion at the foot of the mountain, regretting that she should have settled in Hehua Village in the afternoon.
In the dark rainy night, only chains of lightning flashed from time to time, illuminating each other's faces for a moment.
In the frightening and lonely night, at some point, a group of men in black suddenly appeared in the rain.
Without saying a word, they slowly surrounded the small pavilion like ghosts at night.
The corners of Mu Qingyan's mouth curled up slightly, revealing a long-lost indifferent smile, and said softly: "Finally, they showed up. I thought I couldn't lure them away."
Cai Zhao's eyes were calm, and he put his hands on the bracelet around his waist, "Master Mu has worked so hard to put on a show, wouldn't it be a shame if they didn't show up?"
Chapter 105
It has been raining continuously on both sides of the river, and it has been oppressively hot for several days. Today it finally turned into a torrential rain.
The dark night was as dark as darkness, and pale shock waves struck the faces of both parties faintly and heavily.
Raindrops fell from Mu Qingyan's tall nose, and there was an excited smile in his eyes, "As long as we catch a few alive, Zhaozhao, you won't have to eat persimmons anymore."
Cai Zhaoshu drew out the Yanyang Knife, and the water-like rain stream meandered along her wrist on the golden-red blade. Her face was condensed: "Don't mention those two words to me!"
In fact, when she ate the persimmons from the fifth village, Mu Qingyan came up with the idea of luring fish to the bait, because during the field search, the two discovered that if they couldn't make a big splash, it would be too easy for the Shi brothers to hide. .
Not to mention that the persimmons sent to Cai Pingshu were not necessarily a specialty of the place where they retreated. They might have been bought in a neighboring village, or even more likely to go to the upstream and downstream villages far away to buy them.
Besides, even if it is produced locally, Cai Zhao may not be able to eat it accurately.
And if Cai Zhao really eats it, if the Shi brothers want to avoid it, they can hide in the mountains or nearby villages. How can they find it in the huge sea of people. In fact, if you think about it carefully, they were looking for the Shi brothers to find out the culprit behind the scenes. In this case, they could just skip this step and lead them out directly.
Cai Zhao stepped forward and asked loudly according to the lines in the play, "Who are you, how dare you be here..."
"What are you telling them? Let's start the fight quickly. Remember to capture her alive!" Mu Qingyan pressed down on the girl's shoulders, and her tall figure flew up. In the dark night, she was like a fast and fierce giant bat, pounced in an instant. To the opposite side.
Cai Zhao took a step slower and rushed over with a sullen face.
There were twenty-one people in this group of men in black, fourteen of whom held shields in their left hands and daggers in their right hands. The other seven could not see what they were using at the moment. And when they saw Mu Cai and Mu Cai rushing towards them, they immediately deployed their formations.
Before Mu Qingyan arrived, the wind had already arrived. Unexpectedly, the men in black at the head did not resist, but ducked away. As soon as Mu Qingyan landed on the ground, he was immediately surrounded by seven people, with another seven people standing in the outer circle.
Although Mu Qingyan is young and has a lot of experience against the enemy, he knows that the best way to break the formation is to break it, that is, kill one or two of them first, as the formation cannot be changed. He didn't pick anyone, he stretched out his left arm horizontally and his right arm quickly, and struck the man in black in front of him with two chopping palms in succession.
Unexpectedly, the man in black took a few steady steps back, seemingly completely ignoring himself and only protecting the formation. Before Mu Qingyan could successfully succeed, the other six people rushed over at the same time, attacking six vital points on his body.
If the other party came over with claps, Mu Qingyan was willing to rely on his internal strength to take a few hard blows. However, the daggers in the hands of the six men shone with a permeating green light in the dark night. He knew that these weapons were not only sharp but also probably tempered. Poisoned. The last time he was poisoned, he was raised in Changjia Wubao and Qingque Sect for more than a year. Now he didn't dare to care about him, so he had to turn around to protect himself.
As soon as he withdrew his attack, the seven men in black retreated in unison like marionettes. Just as he was still flying in the air, the seven men in black on the outer circle suddenly started to throw flying missiles at Mu Qingyan's vital parts. knife.
It was not a flying knife, but a continuous series of flying knives - the man in black threw the first flying knife with his right hand, and immediately threw the second with his left hand. At this time, his free right hand took the third flying knife from behind and threw it. Going out, each man in black is wearing seven or eight flying knives with a green dark light. When the throwing knives are thrown empty, they will be immediately picked up by the men in black on the opposite side, and then thrown again, and so on. Continuously, like water.
Mu Qingyan had no choice but to land.
As a result, he was in a dilemma. When he landed, he was besieged by the seven-man formation; when he was in the air, he was threatened by the knife net woven by a series of flying knives.
Cai Zhao on the side looked horrified.
She had seen Mu Qingyan fall into a siege before, and he would either fight his way out, or fly into the air, fly out of the outer circle with a blue cloud, and break through the siege from the outside in. However, at this moment, both methods were difficult to achieve. .
She frowned, vaguely feeling as if she had seen this formation somewhere before.
Mu Qingyan dodged and dodged all the flying knives. For a moment, he was filled with hatred, turned around and launched another attack.
The powerful palm movement brought with it the sound of a biting wind, and only a soft click was heard. A man in black was hit by the wind of Mu Qingyan's palm. In an instant, six other men in black pounced on him, Mu Qing. Yan had to withdraw his hands to protect himself.
The injured man in black immediately withdrew from the inner circle, and a man in black throwing a throwing knife from the outer circle took his place. The seven people defended each other, and their footwork and moves compensated for each other, so the formation continued to operate normally, seamlessly and without any flaws.
In the moment when Cai Zhao was stunned, he also fell into the seven-man formation.
These seven people were not using round shields and daggers, but golden silk threads that were as thin as spider webs but extremely flexible. No one knew what the golden threads were made of. When they struck Cai Zhao through the air, their roots trembled straight and sharply. Like a steel whip, when struck by the Yanyang Knife, it immediately softens and winds around as weakly as silk. Once it is wound around, it retains its strength. If someone seems to try to pull the Yanyang Knife away, there are several times when the Yanyang Knife almost loses its grip. .
Cai Zhao suddenly remembered Cai Pingshu's words, that was when she had just been allowed to use the Yanyang Sword——
"Zhaozhao, don't think that the Yangyang Sword is invincible and indestructible. You must know that everything in nature is one thing that defeats another, and the cycle goes on and on. There is no exception."
"No matter how famous a weapon is, it should not be used frequently. Once it is used too much, people will become defensive."
For the first time, Cai Zhao put away his reliance on the Yangyang Sword. He took a few steps back and then held the sword in his arms, concentrating on defense.
After fighting for several rounds, she suddenly noticed something and shouted angrily: "Why are there only seven people attacking me, and the ones throwing throwing knives outside!" - This kind of differential treatment is really not very harmful, but extremely insulting. powerful.
Mu Qingyan was originally thinking about how to break the formation and how to capture him alive, but he immediately smiled when he heard this.
He laughed and said loudly: "Zhaozhao, Fuying!"
"I know!" Cai Zhaoyun took off the flower ferry and rose into the sky. At the same time, more than a dozen golden threads flew out.
In the short moment when Cai Zhao was soaring higher than the man in black and the golden threads had not yet gathered, he opened and closed the five fingers of his left hand rapidly toward the small pavilion at the foot of the mountain behind him. Gong Jin Festival'!
Inspired by the power of her palm, the bamboo box placed in the small mountain pavilion suddenly flew up, as if being pulled by a silk thread, and flew straight towards Mu Qingyan who was far away.
At this time, more than a dozen golden threads had formed a spider web in the air, and they were densely packed under the head cover. Cai Zhao quickly landed on the ground to avoid it, and the dozens of golden threads that had formed a dense web were suddenly retracted.
Both sides know that the most powerful time of this kind of spider web is when it is in mid-air. Once it falls lower than Cai Zhao's waist, Cai Zhao can jump out from the larger gap at the edge of the spider web, avoid the spider web, and attack the man in black in the air. .
It's a pity that the spider webs gathered too quickly just now, and Cai Zhao's dragon-capturing hand did not fully exert its power. The bamboo basket with rattan was already showing signs of weakness halfway through the flight. Mu Qingyan let out a clear whistle, and suddenly slapped a palm towards the position of the bamboo basket, only to hear There was a loud crackling sound, and the bamboo basket shattered in mid-air, and a silver light that looked like a swimming dragon flew into Mu Qingyan's hand like a giant scythe splitting the night.
With the sharp sword in hand, Mu Qingyan could no longer bear it any longer. There were several crisp sounds of metal weapons clashing, and the daggers in the hands of the seven men in black were all broken, and even the round shields were split into cracks.
Cai Zhao stared blankly for a few times and turned his head sideways - the Painted Skin Demon has never boasted about the sharpness of his personal sword. Now it seems that 'Fu Ying' is not as powerful and brave as the Yanyang Sword.
She suddenly felt that she had been a little frivolous before.
After a moment of confusion, Mu Qingyan next door had cracked open the formation. If he hadn't remembered to stay alive, he would have gone on a killing spree like killing chickens and ducks. As soon as he defeated the men in black on his side, he flew sideways and rushed towards Cai Zhao's encirclement, killing several people from the outside in. In an instant, blood flowed across the ground, but the bright silver sword was not stained at all.
The young man who stood tall with his sword in the pouring rain smiled coldly and said, "I'm going to capture you without any hesitation."
His posture was very arrogant and cold, but his other hand was busy pulling Cai Zhao, who had just finished off the remaining people, behind him, looking a bit like a nanny.
"I don't think we won by chance." Cai Zhao wiped the rain from his face.
"That's natural." Mu Qingyan said confidently, "If it weren't for catching them alive, we would have dealt with them long ago."
Cai Zhao finally regained some confidence, "It means I was caught off guard. I can find their flaws as long as I calm down."
"That's right, who can't see such a big flaw? It's simply bigger than a persimmon."
