The few people gathered in the teahouse - the white-bearded old Taoist, the hunchbacked old man, the storyteller and the gloomy middle-aged man, are undoubtedly clones of Kongxuan Sanren.
Ever since Gu Xu destroyed the black altar on Yishan Mountain a few months ago and prevented Kong Xuan Sanren's plan to be promoted to the "Ghost King", Kong Xuan Sanren had always held a grudge against Gu Xu and vowed to make him pay the price.
It's a pity that after the disaster in Qingzhou, Gu Xu stayed in Luojing City and rarely came out.
With Kongxuan Sanren's always cautious and scheming character, he would not attack Gu Xu in front of the "Tianlong Formation" under the eyes of the Emperor of Daqi and the saints.
Anyway, as a ghost with infinite lifespan, Kong Xuan Sanren has enough patience to look for a foolproof opportunity.
And the opportunity comes much sooner than imagined.
Even if Kong Xuan Sanren claimed to be resourceful and resourceful, he never thought that a talented monk like Gu Xu, who had attracted so much attention, would turn into a treasonous traitor in one day without any warning. thief.
But no matter what the reason is, this is good news for Kong Xuan Sanren.
At this moment, Kong Xuan Sanren was like a spectator who took pleasure in his misfortune - whether he saw Gu Xu running away in panic when being pursued by the Da Qi court, or seeing the Da Qi court having a headache because they could not find Gu Xu's trace, It can make him feel happy.
Occasionally, he would hide in the dark and use subtle causal spells to slightly add fuel to the fire, making the situation worse and more chaotic.
Despite being negatively affected by "Puppetry" and "Zhaoming Forbidden Technique", the various clones of Kong Xuan Sanren often have different opinions, and even the main body may not be able to control them.
But there was one thing they all held the same view on: Gu Xu's death was approaching.
…………
By the time it was dark, Gu Xu had left Jinyang City and arrived in the mountains several miles away.
He walked through the dense woods and came to a hidden cave. He took out more than ten talismans and set up multiple formations to confuse vision, hide aura, and block divination.
After ensuring safety, he carefully took off his mask, sat cross-legged, and silently waited for the recovery of his true energy.
The night was gloomy and dark.
The atmosphere in the forest was as solemn and silent as a funeral. The tall and lush trees, as well as the wild weeds growing under the trees, seemed to be wearing dark mourning clothes, standing under the vast and dark sky.
Even if he was resting, Gu Xu did not dare to let down his guard at all.
He held the "astrolabe" tightly in his hand and quietly brewed the true energy in his body.
Once there is any abnormal movement outside, he can respond in time.
At this moment, a shrill scream came from outside the cave, breaking the deathly silence in the forest.
Gu Xu stood up suddenly, turned around, and saw at a glance several monsters with heads like apes, lips like cinnabar, eyes like mirrors, horns on their heads, and green wings on their backs, surrounding a young man in a cloth shirt.
Some of these monsters are holding axes and some are holding sticks. They are surrounded by thunder and lightning, and they look particularly scary.
Under the siege of the monsters, the cloth-shirted young man's body was scarred and bleeding. The smell of blood further aroused the ferocity of the ghosts, causing them to make frightening low roars.
Gu Xu knew that this kind of ferocious-looking ghost was called "Thunder Ghost", its strength was at the level of "Wild Ghost", and it had the ability to guide thunder and lightning to hurt people.
And that young man in a cloth shirt only had the first level of cultivation, so he was obviously no match for the "Reggae".
With keen observation, Gu Xu also noticed that a jade pendant hung on the waist of the cloth-shirted young man, with complex formation patterns engraved on its surface, and occasional flashes of light - it was the jade pendant used by the exorcism officials. A magic weapon for recording the task process.
"It's really strange," Gu Xu said silently, "'Thunder Ghost' is an extremely rare existence among ghosts, and it usually only appears in the southern region of the Daqi Dynasty.
"This employee of the Exorcism Department is really unlucky to encounter so many 'reggaes' during the execution of his mission."
This made Gu Xu extremely hesitant.
Rationally speaking, he should stay quietly in the cave, pretend that he is air, and not easily interfere with the battle outside.
A huge state machine like Daqi must have many known and unknown tracking methods.
Once he comes into contact with an official from the exorcism department, his whereabouts are likely to be exposed.
However, sitting idly by and watching a dying man being brutally killed by ghosts would undoubtedly make Gu Xu feel uneasy about his conscience.
Just as Gu Xu's reason and emotion were fighting in his heart, the cloth-shirted clerk outside the cave had obviously recognized the fact that he was bound to die.
This petty official's name is "Sima Chang" and he belongs to the Jinyang Exorcism Department.
The task assigned to him by the Exorcism Department was to deal with the weakest group of ghosts - "ghosts".
With a stack of "fire characters", it can be easily solved.
According to Sima Chang's expectation, after completing this mission, he would be able to accumulate enough merit and exchange it for a bottle of "Jingxin Pill".
Unexpectedly, after he entered the mountain, he didn't see any sign of "Monster", but he was smelled by a group of "Reggae" who appeared out of nowhere.
Under such circumstances, Sima Chang's identity instantly changed from a hunter to a prey.
As a novice clerk who first joined the exorcism department, Sima Chang was not only of a low level, but also mastered very few spells. In his daily ghost-killing tasks, he basically relied on the talismans he received from the yamen.
Facing these powerful "reggaes", he knew that he would definitely die.
Thinking of his newly married wife waiting for him at home, Sima Chang couldn't help but his eyes were wet and tears were streaming down his face. He murmured: "I'm sorry, Yu'e, your husband is too incompetent and can't stay with you for the rest of his life." …”
However, when Sima Chang closed his eyes and waited for death, the lightning controlled by the "Reggae" did not fall on him as expected.
Instead, he heard the shrill screams of the "Reggae" and felt the temperature in the forest rising sharply.
He opened his eyes in confusion.
What came into view was an overwhelming sea of golden-red fire.
The scorching flames were like countless wildly dancing dragons, roaring and leaping. They regarded the ferocious "reggaes" as prey and quickly swallowed them up.
The "Reggae" were struggling in the flames, powerless to resist.
It's like a ghost in hell, being tortured in a frying pan.
In the middle of the sea of fire, Sima Chang saw a figure of Mo Hu——
The man was tall and tall, wearing a black robe and a mask, standing with his hands behind his back.
He is like a flaming king punishing his disrespectful subjects.
The sudden change in the situation made Sima Chang suspect that he was dreaming.
At first, he thought that maybe a senior in the exorcism department had calculated the danger he would encounter during this mission and came to the rescue in time.
But in his impression, there were no high-level monks who were good at fire-attribute spells in the Jinyang Exorcism Department.
After a few seconds, the flames died out.
The "reggae" people who had previously bared their teeth and claws have turned into black and gray.
The expert who destroyed the "reggae" seemed to have a high moral integrity of "doing good deeds without leaving a name". As soon as the flames disappeared, he turned around and left.
"Senior, can you please leave your name?" Sima Chang shouted hurriedly, "Senior's life-saving grace will never be forgotten by this junior. If there is a chance in the future, I will definitely sacrifice my life to repay him."
The man in black robe looked back at him, said nothing, and continued to move forward.
However, at the moment when he turned back, a strong wind roared past, making the leaves rustle like cries at a funeral.
The black mask on the face of the man in black was blown to the ground unexpectedly.
When he saw the face behind the mask, Sima Chang was suddenly stunned.
It's not because he is too young.
It's not because he's too handsome.
But because he had seen this face before.
This person's portrait is everywhere in the yamen's documents and on the wanted notices posted on the wall.
…………
The man in black who killed "Reggae" was naturally Gu Xu.
He hesitated in the cave for a while.
When he heard Sima Chang crying and talking about his new wife, he couldn't help but think of the situation in which he and Shi Xiaohan were forced to separate.
He thought that if nothing unexpected happened, he would have married that silly greedy girl home.
Emotion suddenly overwhelms reason.
To be precise, there was a rush of heat rushing into his heart, driving him out of the cave.
As a person who thinks rationally and works steadily, Gu Xu rarely experiences the feeling of "impulse".
But today, he was unusually hot-headed.
Because of the "wife", the "impulse" to develop empathy with the other person seems reasonable and reasonable.
He came in front of the "Reggae", manipulated the spells, and solved them effortlessly in the simplest and crudest way.
Then, just as he was about to leave, a strong wind came at the right time.
Because when the wind blew, his attention temporarily fell on Sima Chang, and he "reasonably" ignored it for a moment.
The mask fell off.
His identity was exposed in front of Sima Chang.
According to the logic of a normal fugitive, he should immediately silence this witness to prevent him from reporting it to the police.
However, killing an innocent human monk was not only unforgivable to Gu Xu's conscience, but the Daqi court might also discover him through divination or horoscopes during the investigation of the cause of Sima Chang's death.
So he picked up the mask, put it on again, then used his body skills, turned around and left.
…………
Sima Chang stood there stunned for a long time before finally coming back to his senses.
After he recognized Gu Xu's identity, the first thing he thought of was not the other person's amazing talent for cultivation, nor his various legendary experiences, but the valuable bounty on the wanted order.
According to the description on the wanted order, if someone kills or captures Gu Xu alive, he can be promoted several levels and advance to the top of his official career.
Even if you just discover a clue and report it to the Yamen, you can get a generous sum of money as a reward - which can also be replaced with an equivalent amount of training resources.
Sima Chang went through life and death many times to perform tasks, but the rewards he received were not even one-tenth of that reward.
Not surprisingly, Sima Chang was moved.
He couldn't help but daydream that if he could get these resources, his strength would increase a lot. He would be able to access higher-level tasks in the future, and would have a better chance of participating in the next promotion assessment...
If he successfully passes the examination and officially becomes a court official, not only will his salary be much higher than it is now, but he will also be more face-saving, and Yu'e will definitely be happy for him.
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that a better life was beckoning to him.
As long as he returns to the Yamen and truthfully reports what he saw and heard today to his superiors...
"But he saved your life," a voice suddenly sounded in his mind, "If you do this, aren't you repaying kindness with hatred?"
"But..." Sima Chang took a deep breath.
At this moment, he lowered his head and caught a glimpse of the jade pendant around his waist still flashing.
Everything that just happened was obviously recorded by the jade pendant.
"No matter what, I have to hand this jade pendant to my superiors when I get back and report the status of the mission," he thought silently, "I'm just reporting on my work, not repaying kindness with enmity."
Thinking of this, he walked tremblingly towards Jinyang City with scars all over his body, holding on to the tree trunk beside him.
…………
Everything seems to be running quietly according to a pre-written script.
Sima Chang returned to the Yamen and handed the jade pendant to his immediate superior, Wei Xinxun.
When Inspector Wei saw Gu Xu in the image, he immediately reported the situation to Pu Shilong, Qianhu, Jinyang, without daring to delay for a moment.
There is just one thing that makes Inspector Wei a little confused——
According to the description in the official documents of the imperial court, Gu Xu is a cold-blooded and unscrupulous careerist. In order to achieve his own goals, he can collude with ghosts and let the ghosts massacre the people of Luojing City.
A person like this would actually risk his whereabouts being exposed in the process of escaping to rescue a petty official he had never met!
It's unbelievable.
After hearing the news, Pu Shilong of Qianhu in Jinyang also immediately interrupted his practice and went straight from the underground retreat room to the attic of the Yamen. He used the communication array to inform Princess Zhaoning who was far away in Luojing City.
…………
Luojing, Princess Mansion.
Princess Zhaoning, Xiao Wanjun, sat at the marble table, staring at an urgent document in front of her, frowning slightly.
After the disaster in Luojing City, she had spent many sleepless nights.
As a mortal without the talent for cultivation, she could not use cultivation to replace sleep like the monks.
She was undoubtedly exhausted at the moment.
She leaned forward, holding her forehead with her right hand, and the turbulent waves in her chest were pressed heavily on the table. Her posture was lazy and casual, lacking her usual dignity and elegance.
To be honest, to this day, Princess Zhaoning is not willing to believe that Gu Xu would collude with ghosts and harm Luo Jing.
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
A talented monk like him will have an extremely bright future as long as he stays in the Exorcism Department and practices quietly.
Why do you need to do such a risky and thankless thing?
But now, Princess Zhaoning doesn't dare to question her father's plan to punish Gu Xu by name. She knew that the governing power in her hands came from her father. If the father is not satisfied with her performance, he may take back these powers at any time.
"Actually, I have always wanted to find an opportunity to discuss with you and compare the depth of each other's knowledge." She stared at Gu Xu's name on the document and said silently in her heart, "It's a pity that fate has a way with us. The competition can only be conducted in this way."
Then she stood up and told the maid guarding the door: "Immediately use the communication formation for me to contact Pu Shilong of Qianhu in Jinyang, Zhu Qiuyi, the commander-in-chief of Hedong Province, Que Juchang of Qianhu in Liaozhou Prefecture, and Qianhu of Fenzhou Prefecture. Hu Shangwei and Qinzhou Prefecture Qianhu Shen Guangyao.
"Even if they fall asleep, wake me up."
