The distant mountains are gray and gray, and no matter what the colors of the mountain vegetation and strange rocks and rocks are, they all look monotonous and dull under the early morning fog.

The color nearby is 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 with 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, and the old farmer looked up and saw two Taoists and a lean man dressed up.

The one who spoke was the Taoist who was looking at the younger one. He was wearing a pine and crane Taoist robe, carrying a long sword on his back, with an apricot-yellow 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 Tao Qi.

"My father-in-law, I am a poor man. I am serving my uncle back home with my brother. Because I was in a hurry last night and missed the time to go to the city to rest. I had to walk all night. I am thirsty and tired. Can I ask my father-in-law for help?

A bowl of water to drink?”

The old farmer squinted his eyes and looked at it for a while. The sun hadn't come out yet and he couldn't see clearly anything that was a little far away. But after taking two steps forward, he saw that this Taoist priest was really talented and said quickly: "Okay, okay.

, you guys come with me, go sit in the house first, I just boiled 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 a short 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 beeped and delivered three bowls of hot water one after another.

Taoist Master Yiqing lowered his head and looked at his own clothes, then looked at the uncle next to him. He was wearing a Taoist robe that was luxurious and more conspicuous than himself. He 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, 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 and see who has the old ones.

There is no need for money for clothes. 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 noodle is so white and has such a strong aroma of oil. Good, good, good. This is enough."

The lean man took out a few more cakes and said, "This is a thank you gift for 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 have heard that the imperial court won another battle, and also said that Xixia was destroyed, but I didn't see any benefit from winning. I only know that the corvee was collected.

, the tax collectors are getting more and more ruthless in collecting taxes, and I haven’t smelled the aroma of such fine grains 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 enduring hardship 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 little news in the countryside. It is estimated that we only heard about it in the past two years."

Taoist Yiqing replied, "When we were fighting 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, so many villages would not have been destroyed 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 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 both the government and the public at first, and was quite popular among the people."

The old Taoist sneered: "The people who dug me out of the grave were not 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 the clothes of ordinary people."

Gongsun Sheng, whose Taoist name is Yiqing, said: "Senior, you want to practice to become a corpse and an immortal, 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 and powerful, making it impossible for Pindao to lead his seniors to fly in 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, I will use the Divine Thunder after I have recovered my energy halfway.

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?"

In the year, how could the officials oppress many Taoist masters?"

"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 manipulate you."

The old Taoist didn't show any emotion when he heard what he said for such a long time. He just looked at him sideways and said, "I have already 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 something strange in Gongsun Sheng's expression.

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 their horses back.

The two men are slightly similar in appearance. They both carry long swords on their backs and have gourds hanging on their waists. Fortunately, they can be distinguished by their clothes.

Gao Feng was wearing a vermilion gown, which he wore in several layers. 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 is wearing a large black dress. There are many complicated patterns embroidered with gold thread on the skirt and corners of the clothes, which looks simpler. In fact, both the weavers of the clothes and the skills of the embroiderers are more expensive than Gao Feng's clothes.

Three points.

"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 virtuous, 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 out into the open."

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 murmured something in their mouths.

As the spell spread, two black jets of turbidity spurted out from the gourd, spreading instantly and turning into a condensed smoke and haze that surrounded the entire village, and then gradually engulfed the center.

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 thick black color has not really pressed down on the top of the head, but it has already made people feel as if a big stone has fallen on the chest, which is very uncomfortable.

The old farmer changed into two sets of old coarse 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."

He actually cares so little about human life."

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 watch 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 up and explained: "What the seniors said about not being touched by the worldly world means 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? It's because of these rural villagers."
To be continued...