This small village is located on the mountainside, surrounded by lush vegetation and scattered houses.
"What is this place?" Gu Xu asked Qi Ling.
"I am incomplete now, and I am not truly omniscient and omnipotent," Qi Ling shrugged, looking irresponsible, "If you ask me, who should I ask?
"But no matter what, it is definitely not the time and space we had before."
Gu Xu stopped paying attention to him, and with a thought, he threw the "Astrolabe" into the "Xianyun Residence" again, planning to lock up this little bastard for a few more days.
Then he walked warily toward the village.
A thick stack of talismans appeared out of thin air in the palm of his hand - if something unexpected happened, he would be able to respond in time.
On the roadside paved with gravel and gravel, stood a group of poorly dressed villagers.
There were gray-haired old men, skinny children, and women with sad faces.
Only there were no mature men.
These people all had withered faces and haggard expressions, and looked lifeless, like withered reeds in the cold winter.
Seeing Gu Xu suddenly appearing out of thin air in the middle of the road, the villagers first looked at each other, and then someone shouted: "The Supreme Immortal of Yaowang Sect is here again!"
Medicine King Sect?
Hearing this word, Gu Xu frowned slightly.
According to the records in the books he had read, the "Medicine King Sect" was a sect located in a remote area in the southwest of the Daqi Dynasty. Its disciples were extremely good at cultivating medicinal materials and refining elixirs, and they continuously provided medicines to the imperial court and various major institutions. The aristocratic family provides resources for cultivation.
Just a few decades ago, the "Medicine King Sect" collapsed without any warning for unknown reasons, and completely disappeared in the long river of history.
Unexpectedly, I came to this place in person through "Guixu" today.
Immediately afterwards, led by a woman holding a baby, the villagers knelt down in front of Gu Xu one by one.
They begged in hoarse voices. All the men in the family had been taken away, and they really could not spare more people to work in the sect.
Go to work in the sect?
Gu Xu's brows furrowed even more tightly.
He gently raised his hand and used the power of his true energy to help the old, young, sick and disabled villagers up from the ground.
"I'm not from the Medicine King Sect, I'm just a practitioner who happened to pass by here," he said to them in a kind tone, "Can you tell me, what year is this? What kind of village is this? Why do you want to give medicine? Is Wang Zong doing hard labor?"
Seeing the surprised expressions of the villagers at the questions he raised, he made up a temporary excuse and explained: "I have been in seclusion in the cave for many years, and I have not been exposed to worldly affairs for a long time. Now that I am out to relax, I hope you can follow me. Tell me about the situation here."
The villagers were silent for a long time.
Then, the woman holding the baby was the first to answer: "This is the third year of Guangshun, and we are in Shancha Village under the jurisdiction of Yongchang Prefecture in Nanzhao Province.
"The immortals of Yaowang Sect are the patron saints of our mountain. As long as we work for them, they can protect our village from ghosts and monsters."
"This time it happened during the reign of Emperor Guangshun..." Gu Xu sighed silently in his heart.
Emperor Guangshun was the grandfather of the current Emperor Tianxing of Qi.
It seems that this era is not far away from the era he lived in.
As far as Gu Xu knows, Nanzhao Province is located on the southwest border of the Daqi Dynasty. It has crisscrossing mountains and complex terrain, covered with dense primeval forests, and where rare ghosts and tough aliens live.
It took the Daqi Dynasty many years to incorporate this land, known as the "Land of Barbarians," into its territory.
However, due to the deep-rooted local forces in Nanzhao Province and its unique folk customs, it was difficult for the Daqi court to copy the local systems of other provinces here, and it was even more difficult to organize the practitioners and set up exorcism departments one by one. yamen.
Therefore, the imperial court chose to use the power of some large local sects to administer this remote place with a certain degree of autonomy.
Like once
The Duke of Yan can be understood as the leader of the country in charge of Youzhou.
The Yaowang Sect, Spirit Beast Gate, Jiuli Cave, Baihua Villa, etc. in the Nanzhao area can also be understood as small kingdoms.
However, they need to pay taxes to the Da Qi court and be supervised by the court.
Of course, the sky is high and the emperor is far away here, and Daqi officials often cannot control it, or in other words, they are simply too lazy to control it.
Even if a conflict suddenly arises between two sects and they fight you to the death, as long as you give a little money and some training resources to the Nanzhao General Soldier sent by the imperial court, the General Soldier will be happy to turn a blind eye. Just one eye - after all, these local affairs are a thankless mess.
It was not until Emperor Guangshun died and Emperor Xingde ascended the throne that the situation here improved slightly.
At that time, several larger sects in Nanzhao Province rebelled.
Chiyangzi, the current national master of Daqi, has attained the great truth and transcended the world to become a saint.
He took the initiative to ask for a tassel from the imperial court and went south with the counter-rebellion army, killing several rebellious sects in one fell swoop.
Since then, the imperial court's control over Nanzhao Province has increased year by year.
"If I remember correctly, senior Chi Yangzi seems to be from Nanzhao..."
Just as Gu Xu was lost in thought, there was a sound of rapid footsteps and heavy breathing not far away.
He couldn't help but turn his head and look.
He saw two skinny men carrying a corpse, hurriedly walking towards here along the hillside - in his consciousness, the body was still warm, and it was obvious that it had just died.
At the same time, the moment he saw the face of the corpse clearly, the face of the middle-aged woman holding the baby in front of Gu Xu suddenly turned as white as paper.
She opened her mouth slightly and her eyes widened, as if it was difficult to accept the scene in front of her.
Her legs became as weak as sugar syrup, and she suddenly fell to the ground.
"Daniu, A Zhuang, my brother Tiger...he, what's wrong with him?" I heard her asking the visitor in a trembling voice.
Gu Xu had already figured out that the deceased was her husband.
"Sorry, sister-in-law, I didn't take good care of him," a man carrying the body responded with a low expression. "Elder Xiong of Yaowang Sect called him into the house and asked him to fan the alchemy furnace. He couldn't sleep inside. I fanned him endlessly for several days and nights... When I finished my work and went to find him, I found that he had died of exhaustion."
The middle-aged woman's eyes were red, and she said sadly: "This year, our village lost Uncle Chou first, and then Heiwa... Now it's my Brother Tiger's turn... The Yaowang Sect is going to completely force our village away. Are you at a dead end?"
As soon as she finished speaking, she fainted.
Seeing that the baby in her arms was about to fall to the ground, Gu Xu was ready to reach out to catch it.
But there was one person who moved faster than him.
It was a young man of about twelve or thirteen years old with a thin body and slightly dark complexion - he was controlling the real energy to make the baby hover in the air and stop falling.
