The sleep was not restful. He didn't know how long he slept before he started dreaming. First, he dreamed that the hundreds of ghosts he had led to the courtyard followed him all the way down the mountain. Among them, there were even Baiying and Yan Baiheng, and they were lingering near the hut while he was sleeping. A piece of dark green, like the underworld.
In his dream, he felt that this scene might be true. When he used the Yin spirits without drinking them away, those things would usually follow him for seven or eight days. Baiying and Yan Baiheng died because of themselves, so it was normal for them to haunt them for a few days. But that didn't matter, they slowly dispersed after that.
But the other dream was a little weirder.
He dreamed that a man with a blurry face and a big red leather coat walked in from outside the hut. He bowed to him respectfully, and then said: "This True Lord, this little god is about to suffer a great disaster. Please save me, True Lord." !”
After repeating this three times, the figure dispersed.
Li Bochen woke up suddenly, sweating profusely from his sleep in this cold northern land. Unknowingly, it was getting dark. He sat on the ground for a while and thought about the dream he had just had. He didn't know what the meaning was.
But when he inadvertently looked at the trap in front of the door, he found that the trap had been triggered at some point.
As soon as his heart raised, he immediately lifted the net on his body, held the dagger and walked to the door to look out carefully. The moon was very big tonight, and the snowfield was reflected brightly, so we found footprints. They were not human footprints, but a row of small animal footprints - extending from the distance to the door, as if the mechanism had been touched, and then extended to the bedside and circled, mixed with the footprints he had stepped on.
When he was in the army, he and his companions would occasionally go into the mountains to hunt for tooth sacrifices, so he could tell that the footprints belonged to a little fox. Just as he was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he frowned again——
There are only footprints of the little fox coming in, but no footsteps going out.
Thinking back to the dream just now, he realized that he might have seen some mountain spirit. Dangtu Mountain, which lies across the snowfield, is a large mountain running east-west. However, there are many criss-crossing mountains to the south of Dangtu, which are called the Siheng Mountains.
This mountainous area is vast and occupies almost a quarter of the Sui Kingdom. Naturally, there are many mountain spirits. Under those spiritual gods, most of them will be mountain generals, and most of them are intelligent beasts.
Maybe the man in red in his dream is one of them. Li Bochen knew that it was actually dangerous to deal with these things. These mountain spirits were moody and sounded like they were asking for help or perhaps wanting to harm people. The best choice was not to provoke them.
So he no longer thought about it, just cut the broken net in the house with a dagger, twisted it into a long hemp rope, wrapped it around his waist and walked out of the wooden house. Because of his dream about the man in red, this time he stayed up day and night. When you are hungry, you can catch some birds and hares to eat; when you are thirsty, you can chew some snow.
His destination was a small town in the Siheng Mountains called Beikou. Beikou Town has an important road leading into Siheng and Dangtu. The supplies in Wuliang City are usually transferred through this town, so there are more than a hundred troops stationed all year round. If Sui Buxiu regretted his decision and sent people to hunt him down, he would never have imagined that he would end up in such a dangerous place.
He could get some money and clothes from Beikou and throw them into the hinterland of the Sui Kingdom, where he would be hard to find.
By the evening of the third day, Li Bochen saw Beikou Town between white mountains and black waters from a distance. Since the morning, he had been walking while cutting some branches from the tree with a dagger, and then tied the hemp rope around his waist to carry it on his back. By this time, he was already carrying a heavy bundle of firewood.
He walked into the street from the east side of the town without encountering any obstruction. There are still many fur traders in Beikou Town at this time, and these people come mainly for the snow roe deer in the Siheng Mountain. The fur of the snow roe deer is yellow-brown in spring, summer and autumn, but becomes snow-white, dense and soft in winter. It is extremely popular in affluent areas in the south.
Although most of the fur traders in the town had fled because of the fighting in the past few days, but because it had snowed heavily in the past few days, there were still some who couldn't leave, so they had to stay in fear. Now that the monsters have retreated after breaking through Wuliang City, these people have gotten a blessing in disguise. They can purchase a large amount of furs and lower the prices.
As a result, the town is now quite lively, and the streets have been smoothed and shiny by the wheels and people, and even the ashes of plants and trees cannot be removed. It was just evening, and the restaurants on both sides were already filled with the aroma of wine and meat. Rich businessmen and wealthy guests were drinking freely, and occasionally the sound of pipa and wooden flute could be heard rising to the sky.
After smelling this smell, Li Bochen's stomach growled and his body became weak. It’s not only because of traveling day and night, but also because of my own cultivation state. Ordinary people who don't practice can satisfy their hunger with two meals a day, but even if he is in the realm of spiritual enlightenment, the vitality in his body is still wandering endlessly, and he gets hungry faster than ordinary people. I haven't eaten much these days, and I'm almost out of gas. I have to find a way to offer a sacrifice to the five internal organs temple.
But there was nothing he could do about the jade pendant in his arms—it was impossible for anyone in Beikou Town to come up with so much cash. Even if it could be obtained, it is unlikely to be a gold collar. If it were five hundred silver collars or five hundred thousand copper coins, he might not be able to pull it away even if he hired several carts.
So he walked along the roadside and looked at both sides. When I walked to the door of a restaurant called "Gui Lin Ju", I found that all the horse posts in front of the door were tied up, so I walked around the door a few times. Sure enough, soon a waiter came out in a hurry. As soon as he saw it, he hurriedly stopped him: "Hey, little brother, do you want to sell this firewood?"
Li Bochen wiped the sweat from his face and stood aside: "For sale."
The waiter walked down the steps and reached out to touch the firewood on his back: "It's wet firewood...forget it, you caught up today. Your load is quite heavy, so I'll give you thirty cents, okay?"
Li Bochen knew that a load of firewood cost about twenty yuan, but his load was indeed double the usual amount. Thirty yuan was neither too much nor too little. He breathed a sigh of relief: "Okay."
"Okay, come with me."
The waiter led him into the backyard through the side door, asked him to put firewood in the kitchen yard, and counted thirty coins for him. Then he said to him: "If you go to collect firewood later, you can bring it back and charge the same 30 yuan."
Li Bochen nodded. But he only sells firewood to relieve his temporary difficulties. How can he really make money by doing this? He pretended to tighten his belt and waited until the man left before taking a step forward. But instead of going out through the back door, he entered the restaurant lobby through the kitchen courtyard door.
The lobby was bustling with activity and the aroma of wine filled the air. Most of the people sitting here are bodyguards and assistants brought by the wealthy businessmen upstairs. Dozens of people occupied several tables, and the laughter and laughter threatened to lift the roof off.
Li Bochen took a brief look and took a wine cup from the wine cabinet that had not yet been confiscated. He pushed his broken hair back from his face and strode to a lively banquet. He squeezed a stool next to someone and sat down. .
The man was chewing a lot of wine and drinking a lot of wine. He only looked at him with drunken eyes. Li Bochen unceremoniously reached for the jug to add wine to himself, raised the cup high and said, "Everyone, everyone, listen to what I have to say!"
The dozen or so people at the table were all enjoying themselves eating, drinking, and noisy, but they looked at him subconsciously.
Li Boxen said: "Last year when I was walking to the north entrance, something happened to my shopkeeper. Fortunately, you helped me. Today, I'm here to toast you all. If you don't do it, you won't be giving face!"
After saying that, he raised his head and drank three bowls in a row.
No one at the table recognized him at first, but looking at his behavior, they didn't know which store in the hall he belonged to. Seeing his extraordinary appearance with sharp eyebrows and starry eyes, and being drunk himself, how could he think of anything else. All of a sudden, they all cheered and did it.
Li Bochen stood up and said, "Brother, let's go first -"
The man next to him grabbed him and said with drunken eyes, "You're leaving now? You don't want to give me face! I remember you owed me a few drinks last year!"
The people at the table shouted loudly and came to pull him away one after another. Li Bochen sat down, greeted with a smile, drank a few bowls of wine, and ate.
