The distant mountains are gray and gray. No matter what the colors of the mountain vegetation and strange rocks are, they all look monotonous and dull under the early morning fog.
The colors nearby are also very dull. The houses in the village have walls made of loess, a thin layer of thatch is spread on the roof, and the doors are made of black and gray wooden boards, which have some signs of decay, and old peach charms are hung on them. .
There are only occasional touches of green on the ground, which is refreshing.
An old farmer got up early, heated some hot water on the stove, and was busy in the vegetable field outside the wall.
"Old man!"
There was a clear voice. The old farmer looked up and saw two Taoists and a lean man dressed up.
The one who spoke was the Taoist who looked at the younger one. He was wearing a pine and crane Taoist robe, carrying a long sword on his back, with an apricot sword tassel hanging down. He had a whisk in the crook of his right arm, a rosewood crown on his head, and three long locks on his chin. Must be, full of Taoism.
"I am a poor man. I am serving my uncle on his return home with my brother. I was in a hurry last night and missed the time to rest in the city. I had to walk all night. I am thirsty and tired. Can you ask me for help? A bowl of water to drink?”
The old farmer squinted his eyes and looked at it for a while. The sun had not yet come out and he could not see clearly anything that was a little far away. But after taking two steps forward, he saw that this Taoist priest was really a talented person and said quickly: "Okay, okay , you guys come with me, go sit in the house first, I just boiled the hot water."
The lean man next to the Taoist priest said: "Old man, I see there seems to be a well next to your house. If you are willing, I can just go to the well to get water. No need for hot water."
The old farmer showed a simple smile on his face, squeezed out more wrinkles, and shook his head: "You are from other places, you don't know that the well water here is bitter and astringent, and you can't eat it at all. Once it's served, you have to wait for a long time until a film forms on the surface of the water, and then you can peel the film off before you can drink it. It's better to blow on it with hot water, and it will be hot and cold in no time."
Taoist Yiqing nodded, no longer pushing back, and together with the lean man, he supported the old Taoist in the middle who seemed to have stiff limbs and had difficulty moving, and went into the house.
The three of them went to the room and sat down together. There was only an unpainted square table and a bench in the whole room. There was no room for the three of them, so only the old Taoist was allowed to sit.
The stove was set up in a corner of the house. While fetching hot water, the old farmer said, "Although our place is a small place, we actually have Taoist priests."
"On the hill three or four miles away, there is a mountain temple. There is a Taoist priest inside. His surname seems to be Guan. He is very handsome, but he doesn't go down the mountain very often. You rarely see him."
The old farmer murmured and brought three bowls of hot water over one after another.
Taoist Master Yiqing looked down at his own clothes, then looked at the uncle next to him. He was wearing a luxurious Taoist robe and was more conspicuous than himself, and then said: "Old man, I have lost the clothes I prepared for you. I have been running around with my uncle for days. , I only wear this set of clothes, and I feel a little uncomfortable. Could you please ask my husband to bring me two sets of clean old clothes? I would like to use some money to exchange them."
As he spoke, Taoist Master Yiqing took out a money bag from his sleeve and placed it heavily on the table.
But the old farmer just smiled, raised his arm and stretched out his patched sleeves, and said: "Look, I have a second set of clothes at home. If I want to change clothes, I can also go to the village to see who has the old ones. Clothes. No need for money. It will be easier if you have food."
The lean man took off his baggage, took out a stack of dry food noodles, and said, "Is this okay?"
The old farmer was overjoyed. He took one and stroked it gently. He swallowed his saliva and said, "This one is so white and has such a strong oily fragrance. Good, good, good. This is enough."
The lean man took out a few more cakes and said, "This is a thank you gift to you alone, old man."
The old farmer was so happy that he almost cried, and thanked him repeatedly: "What a pity! In the past two years, I heard that the imperial court won another battle, and said that Xixia was destroyed. I didn't see any benefit from winning. I only know that the corvee recruitment , I am getting more and more ruthless in collecting taxes at my door, I haven’t smelled the aroma of such fine grain in a long time.”
He quickly took a bite, stuffed the few that belonged to him into his arms, and then went out holding the other pancakes.
In fact, this kind of flour cake that can be used as dry food cannot be called a delicate thing. Even a lean man who is used to traveling around and often serving in the army and has difficulty in enduring hardships actually doesn't like to eat this thing.
Looking at the old farmer's back and sighing, the lean man picked up the bowl and drank water.
The old Taoist priest had been silent all this time, but now he suddenly said: "Xixia was destroyed. When did it happen?"
"It has been six or seven years since the defeat of Xixia. However, there is no news in the countryside. It is estimated that we only heard about it in the past two years."
Taoist Yiqing replied, "When we fought against Xixia, the officials were still wise and powerful, and their fighting spirit was much higher than that of the Taojun Emperor back then. If he could have maintained his position to this day, we would not have had so many villages fall into disgrace along the way." It’s a wasteland, completely devoid of human habitation.”
The old Taoist seemed to want to frown, but his face was a little stiff, and his expression looked stiff and strange: "The emperor is Zhao Huan now, how old was he six or seven years ago? Besides, I saw it before, Zhao Ji still has some life left, why? Will the position be passed so quickly?"
"The abdication of Emperor Daojun seems to involve some secrets of the Tian family that are not open to outsiders." Taoist Yiqing hesitated, "But now, soon after this official ascended the throne, Cai Jing, Tong Guan, Gao Qiu and many others were involved. The demotion of treacherous ministers really swept away the unhealthy tendencies in the government and the public at first, and was quite popular among the people."
The old Taoist sneered: "Aren't the people who dug me out of the grave Gao Qiu's two cousins, Gao Lian and Gao Feng? If Gao Qiu was really demoted, how could these two guys still show off their power? ?”
Taoist Yiqing said: "These two people know some sorcery. The officials have always looked at practitioners in a different light. They didn't punish them much at first, and even more so in the past two years... Alas, the officials have punished Cai Jing and others again. Released."
The old Taoist said calmly: "It's not surprising that the Zhao family is capricious, but Gongsun Sheng, don't even think about me wearing those ordinary people's clothes."
Gongsun Sheng, who had a Taoist name of Yiqing, said: "Senior, you want to practice to become a zombie, but you have been buried in the ground for many years without really succeeding, and you were disturbed by Gao Lian and others. Now your magic power is not smooth and your limbs are stiff. However, this chaotic magic power is still strong, so Pindao cannot lead his seniors to ride on the clouds, and Brother Dai Zong cannot perform the magic of magic."
"We traveled less than three hundred miles throughout the night. If we didn't disguise ourselves, sooner or later we would be overtaken by Gao Lian and others."
The old Taoist said disdainfully: "So what if I catch up? Even if they lock me up, they can't really hurt me at all. No matter where they want to send me, when I have recovered my health during the journey, I will use Shenxiao Lei." Let’s kill them all!”
Dai Zong, who was drinking water, took a quick sip, drained the water in the bowl, put the bowl down hard, and said angrily: "Mr. Yuanmiao, Chief Lin, you are a little ungrateful. Do you know these two things?" How could the officials oppress many Taoist masters in the year?"
"Longhu Mountain, a place that has been famous for thousands of years, also forces them to hand over all the magic books and books, and make elixirs or help refine weapons according to the official's wishes. If they refuse to obey at all, they will be led by Chen Daozi, who is known as the disciple of the Heavenly Master. The people were killed and returned to the master's gate, with their heads chopped off."
"Mr. Gongsun's master, Erxianshan Luo Zhenren, has such magical power and magical powers. Just because he did not want to accept the order to accompany the emperor in Tokyo, he was surrounded by the army and fought for six or seven hours. The entire mountain was beaten. It broke apart and turned into rubble all over the ground."
"Do you think this is still the past? As long as Gao Lian and the others take you back to the military camp, they will always have a way to control you."
The old Taoist didn't show any emotion when he heard what he had to say. He just looked at him sideways and said, "I have long since left the world. How can I get too involved with these ordinary people in the countryside?"
Dai Zong was so upset that he turned to look at Gongsun Sheng: "Mr. Gongsun, you..."
He suddenly noticed that Gongsun Sheng had a different look on his face.
Gongsun Sheng stood up and said solemnly: "They are chasing us."
Outside the village, two middle-aged men with mean faces and high buns were riding horses.
The two men were slightly similar in appearance. They both carried long swords on their backs and hung gourds on their waists. Fortunately, they could be distinguished by their clothes.
Gao Feng was wearing a vermilion gown. He had worn several layers, and each layer was silky and soft. In this early morning when the sky was not too bright, the fabric on his body seemed to be reflecting thin light.
Gao Lian was wearing a large black dress. Many complicated patterns were embroidered with gold thread on the skirt and corners of the clothes, which looked simpler. In fact, both the weaver and the embroiderer's craftsmanship were more expensive than Gao Feng's clothes. point.
"Those three people have entered this village." Gao Feng said, "What you and I do is let each of us release three hundred flying magic soldiers and search the village. If you don't believe them, they won't show up."
Gao Lian immediately said: "That's not right! Gongsun Sheng is quite good, and the old thief Lin Lingsu was even more famous back then. Now they are hiding in this village, and they don't know what arrangements they will make. The flying magic soldiers are all It was made by you and me through painstaking sacrifices. Wouldn't it be heartbreaking if some of it was damaged if we rashly entered the village?"
Gao Feng said: "Then besiege instead of attack?"
Gao Lian took off the gourd from his waist and said: "Let the flying divine soldiers guard the surroundings first, and then we will release the smoke from the sky to force them into the light."
Gao Feng nodded and praised: "What a good idea. Why don't you and I take advantage of the situation and compete to see who has more smoke in the gourd and is more poisonous?"
The two of them each pulled out the stopper, threw the gourd up, and hung it high in the sky. The mouth of the gourd was tilted downward, and they were muttering something in their mouths.
As the spell spread, two black jets of turbidity spurted out from the gourd, spread instantly, and turned into a condensed smoke and haze that surrounded the entire village, and then gradually swallowed up the middle.
The black smoke looked like the closing night to the villagers. They were so surprised that they opened the doors and windows to have a look.
The rolling, rich black hadn't really pressed down on the top of the head, but it was already as if a big stone had fallen on one's chest, which was very uncomfortable.
The old farmer changed into two sets of old coarse cloth clothes and came back. He saw three passers-by standing outside the door, looking up at a circle of "dark clouds" that suddenly floated in the sky.
"It's Hun Hai Tian Luo Yan."
Gongsun Sheng said bitterly, "Wherever this poisonous smoke passes, no matter humans or animals, if they inhale even a trace, they will be seriously ill for seven days. If the people in this village take a puff, they will probably die on the spot. This is still under the jurisdiction of Gao Lian and the others." Inside, people’s lives are so disregarded.”
Lin Lingsu raised her feet and left.
Dai Zong said quickly: "Where are you going?"
"They just want to force us out." Lin Lingsu said with an indifferent expression, "Do you want to see them slaughter all the villagers?"
"Of course that's not what I meant." Dai Zong followed, "Taoist Priest, didn't you look down on these 'ordinary people' just now?"
Gongsun Sheng also followed and explained: "Senior's words about not being attached to the worldly world refer to having no kindness or enmity."
Lin Lingsu walked past the old farmer without even looking at the old man. She said to herself: "I have never shown any kindness to anyone in my life. How can I bring death to them? Because of these rural villagers." My rules?”
Gongsun Sheng told the old farmer that he didn't want any more clothes, and told him to go back to the house and hide. Then he discussed with Dai Zong in a low voice: "Although this poisonous smoke is a big disaster, it is nothing to us. After leaving the village, I find the gourd where they smoke, and Pindao wields his sword and casts a spell to force the smoke back."
"But the flying magic weapons that the two brothers Gao Lian and Gao Feng sacrificed should not be underestimated. They are all made of iron and have red hair and red eyes. They can lift four or five feet off the ground. They fly and bite, suck blood and release poison. They are very dangerous."
"Pindao will be able to hold them back later. Brother Dai Zong, you should seize the opportunity to use the art of divine movement and send your seniors some distance away first."
Dai Zong was a little nervous: "The technique of divine movement is very inconvenient to use on Taoist Lin. It fails frequently. I don't know how far it can send him."
Gongsun Sheng said: "I think senior's aura has been able to restrain a little. You can support at least ten miles."
As he spoke, Gongsun Sheng raised his eyes and looked around.
He had just heard from the old farmer that there was a mountain temple nearby, which he could borrow some help from.
Sure enough, there is a lonely black-tiled temple standing on the hill not far to the northwest. Although it is not big, the walls are bluestone bricks that are rare in this area. When it was built, it must have been one of the most popular temples in the country. This is a major event that has entrusted the wishes of many villagers.
Gongsun Sheng pulled out the ancient sword with pine patterns on his back and pointed towards the temple in the distance.
"Being a god in the mountain, the most majestic, subduing the demons and monsters, frightening the corpses and evil spirits. Please, mountain god, go on a trip!"
There was a statue of a god standing in the small temple, holding a broad-bladed sword in his hand and riding a one-horned tiger on his crotch. He was standing on a three-foot-high altar, which was somewhat majestic.
Unfortunately, the paint on the clay sculpture has faded, and there are many cracks where the sword connects to the palm. In a few months, the statue may be disconnected from there.
It has been almost ten minutes since Guan Luoyang appeared in this temple. His current identity is the Taoist priest who manages this small temple.
During this time, he inspected it back and forth. It was just a short mountain with a path leading down the mountain. There was no one else in the temple except him. It was ordinary, old and leaky. It didn't look like a snow-clearing Taoist temple. , there is something about hiding the background.
Suddenly, some strange movements were heard at the foot of the mountain. Guan Luoyang was about to go out to see it when another muffled thunder sounded in the sky.
The statues in the temple seemed to be commanded by thunder, and their bodies glowed with a layer of golden light.
The illusory and transparent god in golden armor walked out of the statue, raised his sword and roared, then flew three or four miles away and fell into the shrinking circle of black smoke.
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