Seeing the old man falling head and feet, Jiang Shuo jumped into the air, grabbed the white rope that hit the old man, and threw it downwards. The silver ball circled around the old man's ankle several times and entangled it tightly. The person was still falling sharply to the ground. Jiang Shuo hurriedly pulled the white rope back and hung it on a horizontal branch. He put his foot down and jumped to the other side of the horizontal branch. The horizontal branch was only seven or eight feet above the ground. Bai Suo was carried on a horizontal branch, with one end wrapped around the old man and the other hanging down on Jiang Shuo to achieve a perfect balance. However, Jiang Shuo stood firmly on the ground, while the old man hung upside down in the air, only a foot or two above the ground.
Jiang Shuo paid no attention to the old man and said happily: "Xiang'er, are you okay?"
The one who threw the silver ball was indeed Dugu Xiang. She rubbed her lower back and said, "It's okay. I was just attacked by this old guy on my acupuncture point. It was very sore, but I already rushed away on my own." As she spoke, she stepped forward. He opened his bow left and right and clicked "ding" and "bang" twice, and slapped the old man who was hanging upside down twice. He said angrily: "How dare this old pig dog sneak attack this heroine? If Brother Shuo hadn't been here, I would have fallen to death!"
It turns out that the reason why the old black crow man was able to sneak up on Dugu Xiang silently was not because of how powerful his Qing Gong was, but because he accurately calculated the path Dugu Xiang would take to climb the tree and hid on her only path, waiting for Dugu Xiang. Throw yourself into a trap. While Dugu Xiang and Jiang Shuo were bickering, the old man suddenly pointed his finger at the Dazhui point on her back. Dazhui is an important point on the Governor's Meridian and the meeting point of the three Yang meridians of the hands and feet. Dugu Xiang was suddenly hit, and his hands and feet were immediately paralyzed and he fell down a tree. Go, if Jiang Shuo hadn't come to rescue him, he would have fallen off the tree and died. Although she couldn't move, she was always conscious, her ears could hear, and her eyes could see. Therefore, she could hear the sound of Jiang Shuo and the old man fighting, and could also see the two fighting on the treetops, so Dugu Xiang also knew It was the old black crow who attacked him.
The old man with the black crow cursed: "You bald thieves have chased me for three thousand miles, but you still blame me for a sneak attack?" His voice was like a whetstone sharpening iron, and it was very unpleasant to hear.
The old man tapped Xiang'er's acupuncture points earlier not to keep her alive, but because he expected that it would be unlucky for her to fall from such a high tree branch, so he did not inject strong internal energy when tapping the acupoints. Otherwise, Dugu Xiang would not have been able to survive for a while. Open the acupuncture points immediately.
Dugu Xiang was stunned when he heard the old man's words and said, "What kind of bald men are you? Old man, please take a good look at me and Brother Shuo. We are not monks or sisters-in-law. How can we be bald donkeys?"
At this time, the flames on the treetops above had spread to the neighboring trees. The fire was getting bigger and bigger, illuminating the ground. Dugu Xiang approached the old man and took a closer look at his figure. He saw that the old man was extremely short. , his figure looks like that of a teenage child, but his skin is wrinkled, his gray-white beard has halberds pointing upright, and his facial expressions clearly make him look like an old man. If you look closely, his eyes are cloudy, and he seems to be covered with a layer of mist. It looked like a white veil, but it turned out to be a blind old man.
Lone Xiang covered her mouth and said, "You... can't you see?"
Jiang Shuo was also shocked when he heard this, and came over to see what was going on, but forgot that he was still holding the white rope in his hand. Someone else walked forward, pulled the white rope to lift the old man up, he hurriedly let go, but this time he forgot The old man fell heavily to the ground. Jiang Shuo said hurriedly: "Old senior, are you okay?"
The old man with the black crow didn't answer, he jumped up and waved his right hand to catch Jiang Shuo, but he forgot that the five steel blades in his right hand had been cut off by Jiang Shuo. He stretched his hand into the air and saw that the five fingers were bare, so he hurriedly switched to his left hand to catch it. But suddenly his hands and feet became weak, and he fell to the ground. It turned out that Dugu Xiang used his own medicine to treat others, and pinched the Dazhui point on his vest. The old man's hands and feet were sore immediately that he could not stand up.
At this time, Jiang Shuo also walked in, looked at the old man's eyes and said, "Old senior, I didn't know you were blind." Jiang Shuo was first surprised that the old man was blind, but secondly he also realized why the old man was here. There is no problem in moving in the dark forest without seeing anything. The blind man has long been accustomed to the dark environment. To him, there is no difference between being in broad daylight and being in the dark pine forest.
The old black crow said: "As a blind man, didn't I thank you for your blessings? Why am I pretending to be a good person now?"
Jiang Shuo knew that he must have got the wrong person. Although the old man was blind, he was still polite and crossed his hands and said: "Old senior, you must have got the wrong person. My surname is Jiang Shuo, and my surname is Shu. This girl’s name is Dugu Xiang, we are neither thieves nor bald men, and we are strangers to the elders and have never had any troubles.”
The old man cursed angrily: "The two little beasts are either bald, or they are bald lay disciples. You can't hide this from me."
Dugu Xiang pushed hard behind him and said, "What did the old man say? We are not some bald donkey's disciples."
The old man's Dazhui vital point was pinched, and he suddenly broke out in cold sweat from the pain, but he refused to give up and said: "If you are not his disciple, why did you come to break my soul-suspending formation?"
Jiang Shuo had previously wondered why the old man didn't launch a surprise attack after they were stuck in the formation until Xiang'er climbed a tree. In fact, it was because Hang Han accidentally kicked the campfire earlier, which led the old man to misunderstand that they were here to break the formation. .
Seeing that the old man was dissatisfied, Dugu Xiang wanted to use more strength with his hands. Jiang Shuo stopped her in a hurry and said respectfully to the old man: "Senior, we are indeed not disciples of any monk. It turns out that these campfires are called "Suspended Soul Arrays." We also broke in by mistake and couldn't get out after walking for most of the night. "
The old man was talking about the bald donkey, and Jiang Shuo thought he was referring to the monk. He was kind-hearted and courteous by nature, so he changed "bald donkey" to "monk". After hearing this, the old man sneered and said, "If he wasn't a thief and a bald disciple, how could he treat me like this?" Is he so polite? He doesn't even dare to say the word "bald". "When he heard that Jiang Shuo and Dugu Xiang were very young, he expected that they were not the disciples of his opponent, but his disciples. However, to say that they were disciples, Jiang Shuo's martial arts was too high, and it was really difficult to say that they were disciples. Find out.
Jiang Shuo said: "Hey...senior, what do you want us to say to make you believe that we are not your enemies?"
The old man said: "That's convenient, you can curse "thief bald" ten times and listen. "
Jiang Shuo had never cursed anyone before, and he couldn't speak for a moment. Dugu Xiang said, "What's so difficult about this? 'Thief bald', 'thief bald'..." He opened his mouth, not to mention ten times, and cursed twice in a row. Not even ten times.
The old man thought to himself: The sect of Thief Tu has very strict rules, and his disciples and disciples would never dare to insult their master so openly. Could it be that these two people really have nothing to do with Thief Tu? He asked: "The black forest is dangerous. The hunters around here never enter the black forest. What are you three doing here?"
Jiang Shuo said: "The Yan army invaded the pine desert, and the Khitan people hid in thousands of miles of pine forests. And we got news that a group of Khitan people hid in the dark forest to avoid being intercepted by the elite Yan army, so we came to help."
The old man shook his head and said: "It's not like that, it's not like that..."
Dugu Xiang became curious and asked, "What doesn't look like it?"
The old man said: "It doesn't look like it was made up."
Hearing this, Dugu Xiang was about to get angry again, and said angrily: "How come it doesn't look like that?"
The old man said: "From your accent, it seems that you are Han, but why are you talking about the Khitans..."
Jiang Shuo said: "We are indeed not Khitan people. We are just acquaintances with Khitan Chongshun Khan and came here to help him defeat the Yan army."
The old man still shook his head and said: "It's funny, it's funny..."
Dugu Xiang asked, "Why is it so funny again?"
The old man said: "The Yan army is a soldier of the Tang Dynasty. Since you two are Han people of the Tang Dynasty, wouldn't it be funny if you don't help the Yan army but come to help the Khitan people?"
Jiang Shuo said: "Old senior, I don't know. I heard that An Lushan, the governor of Fanyang and Pinglu towns, had always been rebellious. He first defeated Raole Dudu's Mansion and selected 8,000 warriors from the surrendered Xi people. The elite Yiluohe is now attacking the Khitan. If the Khitan is defeated and divided, he can recruit many Khitan people for his use. What the An thieves do seems to be for the sake of the country, but in fact it is for their own selfish interests, so we must help the Khitan resist the Yan army .”
Although the old man lived in the dark forest, he didn't know much about the military affairs of the Khitan and Yan armies. He hesitated after hearing this, not knowing whether it was true or not. He pondered for a moment and said: "The local Khitan people know the power of the Suspended Soul Formation and will not enter the forest..."
Jiang Shuo said: "Perhaps the Yan army was chasing them so hard that they had no choice but to go into the dark forest. When we found them, we didn't see any people or horses. We only saw a campfire in the distance, so we came to investigate, but we didn't expect the campfire." It’s so weird that I can’t get around it even after walking for a long time.”
The old man said proudly: "Hey, that's right. How could you juniors know how powerful the "Hanging Soul Array" is? I have lived here for ten years, and no one who has entered the array has ever been able to walk out on his own. ".
But Dugu Xiang asked: "It seems that this firewood can only be burned for half a day. How much firewood do you need to burn every day after you have lived for ten years?"
The old man smiled and said: "How can there be so many? I only light campfires when I hear someone approaching. I can't light them more than a few times a year. Besides, the Hanging Soul Array only has nine piles of campfires. I arranged it using the method of Qimen Dunjia. It's ordinary." People are like donkeys pulling mills in the forest, going round and round
Turn around but can't get out. "
Both Shuo and Xiang were shocked when they heard this. They had thought before that there was no continuous campfire in the world. The campfires must have been arranged in a special formation. Taking advantage of the darkness in the forest, the campfires caused people to look wrong and made them unable to get out. , but I didn’t expect that there were only nine places. The old man thought that Qimen Dunjia's method was infinitely mysterious, so he was not afraid to tell the two of them that there were only nine campfires in the formation.
Jiang Shuo said: "Senior set up the formation here to avoid the enemy. It was only when I entered by mistake that I misunderstood him."
While he was talking, he suddenly heard a man reciting the Buddha's name from a high place: "Amitabha... You two young Tan Yues do not need to apologize to this man. This man is a thief who stole things. He only set up this formation to prevent the owner of the theft from coming to find him." It’s just him.”
Hearing this, Jiang Shuo was startled again. He looked up and saw a gray-robed monk not far away standing on a branch with his hands clasped together. The treetop was thin and trembled under his pressure, but the monk stood very steady, illuminated by the firelight. Looking down, I saw that he had a dignified face, looking like a middle-aged eminent monk. This monk was so close, and if he hadn't spoken, few people would have noticed. This shows that his inner strength cannot be underestimated.
The old man chuckled and said, "Lingtan, if these two kids hadn't broken through our formation by mistake, I'm afraid you wouldn't have dared to come in."
The monk named Lingtan put his hands together and said, "I've invited Jing Tanyue. I haven't seen you for many days. Is Old Tanyue in good health?"
The old man still sneered: "I've been restrained, how can I be safe?"
Jiang Shuo suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said, "Old senior, you...are you from the Japanese swordsman Jing Zhencheng?"
