The only woman in the mission was Dong E. Just in case, and worried that the guide would recognize her, she had to disguise herself as a man.
Every night when staying, Gu Shengchao would set up the tent first and then sneak in to rest at nightfall.
Except for Lu Shouwen and the driver who was driving the carriage, it was easier for the others to hide her whereabouts for the time being.
Along the way, Dong E asked her sworn brother Gu Shengchao for advice on kung fu. However, she had no foundation at all and could not practice dual cultivation like Liu Ximei, so she had to start from the most basic level of Qi training.
The Qi training state, the foundation building state, the Yuan Shen state, and finally the Nirvana state are the limits for most people.
Because the next tribulation realm will scare away most people.
Only those who have experienced it can understand the dangers involved.
That time on the passenger ship in the lake, Liu Ximei was assisted by the ancient sage Chao, but her meridians were almost destroyed. One of the passengers on the same ship forced the passage and was struck to death by lightning and burned to coke.
The difficulties and dangers involved are not something ordinary people can understand.
Although Qi training is simple, it is the most test of one's patience and perseverance.
Because starting from scratch, this process cannot be accomplished overnight, and it is most likely to cause anxiety and self-doubt.
Dong E was like this. There was no progress for several days. With a frown on her face, she began to question whether she was the material. Fortunately, she was eager to take revenge. Even if she didn't see the results, she gritted her teeth and persevered and kept practicing.
As they moved forward, they unknowingly left the territory of the Dawu Dynasty and entered the vast desert.
The weather has also changed suddenly, as if it has suddenly entered late autumn. Even if you wear heavy clothes, you can't feel the warmth. You can only feel a touch of warmth when you are basking in the sun at noon.
The first person who felt something was wrong was Dong E. She quietly told Gu Shengchao: "Brother, the guide has led the wrong way."
"how do you know?"
If he was traveling at night, he could still tell the direction through the stars, but he was not sure whether he would travel by day or night.
"My father and I used to go back and forth between Beihu and the Dawu Dynasty many times to sell fur goods. Along the way, there were obos used by herdsmen to worship various gods as road signs. There were also hills and rivers to guide the direction. But since the day before yesterday, there has been no obos. See, the small river I saw a few days ago is also gone.”
"The herdsmen all live in pursuit of water and grass. Now it is becoming more and more desolate. There must be a scam."
Dong E's analysis was well-founded, and Gu Shengchao quickly and quietly informed the envoy Lu Shouwen.
That night, after choosing a suitable place to set up camp, Gu Shengchao arranged for night guards as usual, changing shifts every hour.
Logically speaking, it is most appropriate to change shifts every two hours, but it is human nature to be lazy, especially in the second half of the night, there are always people who can't insist on taking a nap.
However, the danger is often at this moment.
"Your Excellency, you are too worried. There is not even a ghost in this wilderness. Why bother letting your men keep vigil all night? Just go back to sleep." The guy who Dong E called "Ghost Seeing Worry" came over to make sarcastic remarks.
The ancient sage chuckled: "It's better to be careful. There are wolves in the night, so be careful and sail the boat for ten thousand years. You won't go wrong."
The bright moon was in the sky, and snoring could be heard from time to time in the tent under the night sky.
Feeling inexplicably uneasy, Gu Shengchao walked out of the tent and saw silence everywhere. The two men on duty were holding wine bags and taking a few sips from time to time.
Seeing someone coming, he quickly hid the wine bag.
"Where does the wine come from?" The ancient sage Chao ordered that those who watch the night are not allowed to drink.
One of them said confidently: "Sir, it's really cold at night. It's so cold in your tent, but we can't bear to drink wine outside to warm ourselves."
Gu Shengchao stretched out his hand, and the man hesitated for a moment before handing over the wine bag.
The wine bag is wrapped in cloth for easy carrying. The embroidered pattern on it is fancy and has a faint smell of powder.
"Where did the wineskin come from if it's not our mission?"
When questioned, another person said calmly: "It was given by the guide. Seeing our hard work, he brought his own wine for us to warm up. Originally, this little wine is not drunk, so it won't be a problem."
"As long as it doesn't get in the way."
Looking up at the stars in the sky, Gu Shengchao muttered to himself, picked up the wine bag and returned slowly.
The figure under the moonlight was elongated, looking cold and lonely.
The ugly time is coming to an end, which is when people are sleeping soundly.
Deep in the desert, a group of people suddenly appeared. Afraid of waking up the people in the tent, they dismounted and walked on foot.
They were all dressed in herdsman costumes. The leader in a green robe waved suddenly, and the others rushed over.
With the sword in hand, he first chopped off the heads of the two people who were sleeping soundly and keeping vigil. While everyone rushed to kill them, they threw the torches in their hands towards the tent, and blazing fire shot into the sky.
They cooperated tacitly, and the archers kept shooting arrows into the tent to gain the upper hand.
During the attack, the man in green robe suddenly felt something was wrong and shouted to stop: "Stop, everyone stop."
The team acted in a well-organized manner. When the leader called to stop, he immediately stayed put and remained on alert.
With a glance, the two strong men checked the tents that were not on fire one by one.
The first one was empty, the second one was empty, and after checking more than ten tents, they were all empty.
Someone came over with the heads of the two people who had been chopped off, and said in a panic: "Boss, we killed the wrong person. One of them is the adopted son of the county magistrate, and his nickname is 'Ghost Jian Chou'. What should we do?"
"No, I've been fooled. Get out!" The man in green robe exclaimed.
In order to avoid making any noise and to facilitate the concealment and suddenness of their movements, their horses were parked far away. At this moment, I wish I could have more legs and run towards the horses as hard as I could.
Five swords flew from the cold night sky, hovering high above everyone's heads, making a sonorous buzz.
The five swords suddenly grew in size under everyone's gaze, spreading out like a five-element array, and finally surrounded everyone in the array.
"Quickly retreat, I'll cut off the rear."
The man in green robe showed a crescent shovel and looked around nervously, asking everyone to evacuate first.
However, the man who was fleeing didn't see anything. He seemed to have suddenly hit a wall, bounced back and fell on his back, with his nose broken and bleeding.
Immediately afterwards, people from behind came one after another, and they were all knocked down by inexplicable things. More than ten people were lying on the ground.
The rest became alert, tentatively moving forward, and finally found an invisible wall trapping them.
The man in green robe didn't believe in evil, so he held the crescent shovel high and rushed in the other direction.
"boom!"
The crescent shovel collided with the "wall" in front of it, causing dazzling sparks.
The person bounced out, but did not rush out.
"Boundary, barrier, there is a barrier in this place."
Someone finally reacted and screamed loudly.
Seeing that they were done, Gu Shengchao and other members of the mission walked out from behind a hill not far away and walked to the trapped people.
The man in green robe was panicked and asked uneasily: "Who are you? Who are you?"
Seeing his scared look, Gu Shengchao smiled and said, "We are members of the mission. Didn't you stand at the door and take a closer look when we were drinking with the county magistrate that day?"
"Do you know him?" Lu Shouwen didn't know this man in green robe.
Gu Shengchao snorted coldly: "The night we first came to the county government office to drink, he stood outside the door pretending to be a guard and peeped at us. The county magistrate thought I was looking for a girl. But by accident, I met my adopted sister, and she also That’s a good thing.”
Unexpectedly, Dong E was behind him and grabbed his arm: "I understand now that my elder brother said this. I have always wondered before that a good person can be full of colorful things. It turns out that he sees all directions and listens to all directions. I just noticed this bad guy. My brother is very good at this, so I will learn this first."
"No, you can't learn this yet. Let's lay the foundation first." Gu Shengchao directly rejected her request.
"Stingy guy." It was a cold night, Dong E put on a hat, pouted and stepped aside.
The men in the mission were all dull, and it was rare for a woman to show off her personality, which made everyone laugh.
"What's your intention of pretending to be herdsmen and secretly intercepting and killing us? If we hadn't found out in advance and evacuated in time, we would have been the victims of your swords by now." Lu Shouwen gritted his teeth with hatred and wanted to kill them immediately.
Seeing that they were silent, Lu Shouwen ordered sternly: "Kill them all, leaving no one behind."
"I said, I said, don't kill us."
Two people rushed over, knelt down and begged: "The county magistrate asked us to come, saying that you brought a lot of gold and silver treasures here, and asked us to pretend to be robbers from Beihu, kill you, and bring the treasures back." Without a guide, you will definitely die trapped in the desert. Even if the emperor comes, there will be no evidence and he will not be able to be punished."
"Sir, everything we say is true. We have never done anything harmful to nature. Please spare our lives." The two men kowtowed and begged for mercy again and again.
Lu Shouwen just felt compassion and wanted to forgive the two of them. Dong E took a few steps forward, took off his hat and said loudly:
"You raise your heads and see who I am?"
As if they had seen a ghost, the two people raised their heads and kept retreating: "Ezi, why are you here?"
Dong E snorted and said angrily: "I was beaten half to death by you two in Cuihong Tower, and you still say that you have never done anything harmful to nature?"
"That was all ordered by the madam. My two brothers were forced to live in Cuihong Mansion, and they were helpless!"
Dong E was so angry that she couldn't stop shaking her raised hand: "Still arguing, who forced those men in Dong Village to take them away? Aunt Liu next door held her son and refused to let go, and who cut off her with a knife? Arms, who forced you back then.”
When the two people saw what had happened, they both retreated silently, not daring to say a word.
The anger hurt her body. Dong E was so angry that she was shaking like chaff, and she was about to lose her balance and fall.
Gu Shengchao quickly helped her: "You step aside, I will take their lives to avenge those suffering people."
Several people around him were also angry and shot a few arrows. Unexpectedly, after flying halfway, the arrows were blocked and fell to the ground.
The people inside were overjoyed. It seemed that this formation only trapped them temporarily, so their lives should be safe.
The true energy circulates in the meridians, and the five soul array in the Dantian slowly activates.
The ancient sage closed his eyes, sensing the people running around in the formation.
In perception, each person is a small dot. It is impossible to capture all these small dots at once. We can only trap one first, then another, slowly one by one, and wait until the last small dot is trapped. Gu Shengchao also counted the opponent's number clearly.
There were thirty-seven people in total.
He opened his eyes, put the five swords hovering in the air into his Dantian, handed the dagger he carried to Dong E and said: "It's fine now, you can take revenge."
Some people in the team are tentatively moving forward.
Sure enough, it just trapped everyone on the other side, and our own people could pass through unimpeded.
Only then did everyone feel relieved, harvesting each other's lives as casually as chopping melons and vegetables.
Dong E found the two men, closed her eyes and stabbed them with all her strength. She cried while stabbing them, crying for her dead family members.
Until someone pulled her: "Little sister, stop stabbing, they will be dead long ago."
Then he threw away the dagger, squatted on the ground, covered his face and cried bitterly.
