Old Wu's instructions did serve as a reminder to Shao Xi. Shao Xi originally regarded this trip as extremely important. Now that he saw Old Wu being so nervous, he also knew that the Ghost Emperor's Mansion he was facing might have been simpler at the beginning. .
Now that Old Wu has warned him, he has to be more careful. Old Wu will never scare him as a prank on this kind of thing.
Shao Xi rode alone to the front of Xinjing Tea House. He handed the horse to the waiter as he did last time and then went to the front hall of the tea house.
When the shopkeeper saw Shao Xi arriving, he hurriedly greeted him. This time, he didn't need to test with words like last time, and directly took Shao Xi into the square hall where he was last time.
As soon as the two of them entered the door, they saw a person sitting at the table in the square hall. He looked to be in his early fifties. When the shopkeeper brought Shao Xi in, the person quickly stood up.
After the shopkeeper's introduction, Shao Xi found out that although this person was from the Ghost Emperor's Mansion, he was just a guide. If he wanted to meet the real people from the Ghost Emperor's Mansion, he would not be able to see him in this teahouse, so he had to find this person. Lead the way and take Shao Xi there.
Shao Xi was mentally prepared for this. Thinking about it, he knew, how could the people from the Ghost Emperor's Mansion meet him in this Xinjing Teahouse?
If you want to discuss the murder business, you must go to the grounds of the Ghost Emperor's Mansion. And this Daliang City in Kyoto is at the feet of the emperor. How could it be so blatant?
So after the two sides exchanged a few polite words, the man said to Shao Xi: "Sir, since you have the brand in your hand, can you let me take a look at it?"
Shao Xi felt that this request was not excessive. Since he wanted to discuss business with someone, it was necessary to check his identity.
Shao Xi handed the life-killing sign from the Ghost Emperor's Mansion to the person who came. The person received it and looked at it briefly before nodding to confirm the authenticity of the sign. After returning the sign to Shao Xi, he spoke to the shopkeeper. A look.
The teahouse owner understood, and when he came to a wooden frame, he didn't know where the mechanism was touched. He saw the wooden frame moved to the side to reveal a passage, and then he raised his hand in a gesture of invitation.
The person who led the way glanced at Shao Xi and then turned around and walked into the passage first. Shao Xi knew that leaving Xinjing Teahouse through this secret passage would not attract the attention of people outside, so he followed without hesitation.
The passage is not long, and in Shao Xi's mind, it probably leads to the backyard of Xinjing Tea House.
When several people left the passage from a staircase and came to the ground, just as Shao Xi thought, this was a warehouse in the backyard of the tea house. They entered the alley in the backyard through the small door and saw a carriage parked outside the door. .
After the teahouse owner asked the two of them to get on the carriage, he closed the door of the carriage and returned to the teahouse.
At this time, there were only Shao Xi and the person who led the way from the Ghost Emperor's Mansion in the carriage. This person politely said to Shao Xi, "This young master, according to our rules, you must check the young master's eyes before arriving at the place." Cover it up, I hope the young master won’t be offended.”
Shao Xi smiled and replied: "Guests do as they please. Since there are rules, you should abide by them."
Seeing that Shao Xi had no objection, the man took out a black cloth belt and covered Shao Xi's eyes. The two stopped talking and just sat quietly facing each other in the carriage.
Although his eyes were blindfolded, Shao Xi's ears could still clearly hear the movement outside the carriage. He could tell that the carriage passed through a relatively prosperous section of road after leaving the alley, and he heard the soldiers guarding the city gate inspecting the carriage. The voice of Lu Yin.
Shao Xi knew that they were leaving the city, and judging from the time it took from Xinjing Tea House to the city gate, they should have gone directly out of the east gate, otherwise they would not have been able to reach the city gate so quickly.
Listening again after leaving the city gate, there are fewer and fewer people outside, which proves that we are getting farther and farther away from Daliang City. It seems that the Ghost Emperor's Mansion is not in Daliang City, but on the outskirts of the city.
The carriage traveled with some bumps for a long time. Shao Xi estimated in his mind that it must have been at least nearly an hour. The carriage did not go very fast along the way. A rough estimate was that it had traveled at least more than ten miles.
Finally, it slowly stopped. The person who led the way got off the carriage first, then carefully helped Shao Xi out of the carriage. After holding Shao Xi's arm for a short distance, he reminded Shao Xi that there was a threshold.
Shao Xi secretly thought to himself, which house on the outskirts of the city did he come to?
After passing the first door, he reminded Shao Xi to pay attention to his steps before walking too far. Shao Xi knew that he was about to enter the house.
As soon as he crossed the threshold, Shao Xi realized that this place was not a private house as he had guessed before, because except for the voice of the person who led the way, he heard no other people's voices.
In addition, there is obviously the smell of incense here. If the guess is correct, this place should be a temple.
But what Shao Xi is wondering is why the sound of wooden fish chanting cannot be heard in this temple?
Judging from the height of the threshold just crossed, the size of this temple should not be too small. From the quietness, it can be concluded that this should be a remote and abandoned temple.
But such a strong smell of incense proves that someone has been offering incense. It seems that the Buddha and Bodhisattva here are worshipped, and at this time, I am standing in the main hall of this temple.
The person who led the way asked Shao Xi to wait for a moment. Shao Xi could tell that this person was walking in the direction of the confession. After a while, he heard the sound of stone slabs rubbing together. He guessed that there must be a secret door here. This stone slab The scraping sound was made when the secret door was opened.
Immediately afterwards, under the guidance of the guide, the two walked into a narrow door, followed by a long flight of stairs.
I don’t know how long I walked downwards, but I finally changed to move forward in parallel. After walking for a long time, I opened a trap stone door again. After passing this door, I walked forward again for a while.
At this time, Shao Xi felt a strong sense of coldness. If his guess was correct, the two of them should be deep underground at this time.
After a lot of twists and turns, he finally stopped and the man took off the black cloth belt covering Shao Xi's eyes.
Under normal circumstances, after being blindfolded for a long time, people will be blinded by the surrounding light when they just take off the cloth belt. However, Shao Xi did not feel the slightest discomfort, just because of the surrounding environment at that time. It was also dark.
There are many iron basins with burning flames on wooden stands beside and in the distance. It seems that these are used for lighting.
Under the flickering firelight, Shao Xi saw a narrow stone road in front of him, and then looked around. Although it was dark, it was extremely open.
If he hadn't walked down such a long flight of stairs before, coupled with the cold air he felt in his body, Shao Xi might have thought at the first moment that he was standing in a wilderness with dark moon, high wind, and no stars or moon.
It's just that this wilderness seems to have no grass or trees, and it looks extremely desolate.
At this time, Shao Xi knew very well that he was in a place deep underground, but he could vaguely hear the sound of running water.
This reminded Shao Xi of the underground river where he accidentally broke into Wulong Valley when he was in Wulong Mountain, jumped into Wulong Pond, and then rushed into the underground cave.
Judging from this, the environment he was in at this time should be similar to that in Wulong Mountain before. However, when he looked up, the cave was a bit ridiculously big, far beyond the cave under Wulong Pond.
Shao Xi knew in his heart that he should be in a huge underground cave naturally formed under a certain mountain range.
Before Shao Xi could think any more, the person who led the way said to Shao Xi: "Sir, I can only send you here. You have to walk the rest of the way on your own. You can follow the firelight and go all the way along this stone path. There will be people ahead of you who will continue to guide you, so remember not to deviate from this path, otherwise it will be none of their business if something happens.”
After speaking, the man turned around and walked back in the direction he came from without waiting for Shao Xi's reply.
It seems that the highest authority of this guide in the Ghost Emperor's Mansion is to bring people here, and the person who leads the way for him should be someone with higher authority.
Shao Xi watched him disappear into the darkness, turned back and glanced at the direction pointed by the two rows of braziers, and without much hesitation, he lifted his legs and walked forward.
It was vaguely possible to see denser firelight in the distance ahead, and Shao Xi walked along the stone road illuminated by the fire toward the dots of firelight in the distance.
The distance was not too close, and Shao Xi was not in a hurry. He just walked forward leisurely. He walked like this for a while, and finally came to the place with more fire.
When he got here, Shao Xi saw clearly that there was indeed a wide underground river in front of him. The sound of flowing water he heard before was coming from this underground river.
There were also fire pots with wooden frames at regular intervals along the river bank. Shao Xi looked around again and couldn't help but sigh. How could this be a simple underground cave?
At this time, the surroundings looked even more empty, as if the entire mountain was empty. These lighting braziers were just like dots of starlight in the vast night sky, and seemed insignificant in this huge space.
The braziers placed along the river can only illuminate a small section of the underground river, and the brightest place is the other side of the river. It seems that there are many more braziers on that side than on this side of the river. Times?
By the firelight, Shao Xi took a closer look and found that in addition to various strangely shaped rocks, there were also some strangely shaped flowers and plants growing on the ground along the river bank.
Shao Xi couldn't help but feel a little strange. Not only did there grow weeds in this place that never saw sunlight all year round, but there were also wild flowers?
This Ghost Emperor's Mansion is truly worthy of its name, and it is actually located underground! A group of living people live in a place like this all year round. No wonder they make themselves look like humans and ghosts!
When Shao Xi was a little surprised by what he saw, he suddenly heard the sound of paddles beating water in the distance, as if someone was rowing towards where he was. If his guess was correct, this should be the place where he was. The next person to lead the way.
However, the light was really dim at this time, and Shao Xi could only rely on his hearing to judge that the ship was coming from upstream. Hearing the sound of it breaking through the water, it must be extremely fast.
Although it is going down the river, it sounds a bit abnormally fast. After all, the flow of water in this underground river is not fast. Breaking the water like this shows that the boater's arm strength is amazing, and he can row a small boat so fast. quick.
Just when Shao Xi was guessing who the visitor was, he saw a black shadow on the river quickly heading towards his footing.
Only then did Shao Xi see clearly that an old man with a stooped figure wearing a raincoat and a bamboo hat was paddling a small boat towards him quickly.
The reason why he was sure that the other party was an old man was firstly because of his body shape, and secondly because of the long snow-white beard on his chest.
The old man rowed the boat in front of him and stopped. He neither anchored nor cast a cable. The wooden boat just stopped in the middle of the river and did not continue to follow the current.
It can be seen that the person who made the boat relied on his vitality to offset the force of the water flow and stabilize the boat in the middle of the river. It seems that the extremely fast speed of the boat before was also due to his vitality.
I just heard the old man on the boat say in a low and hoarse voice, "Get on the boat!"
