Li Chu's confidants who came to report the news recounted what happened.
Li Chu entered the palace to meet the saint, and only saw Gao Lishi. The saint was resting with Concubine Yang. Gao Lishi asked Li Chu to wait in the side hall, but unexpectedly an hour later, Gao Lishi wrote again saying that the saint had gone to bed and should not be disturbed.
Let Li Chu come back first.
"What should we do now?" Murong Bai asked.
"What orders does Your Highness have?" Li Xin'an tried hard to sound less angry, but underneath his calm appearance was burning anger.
"His Highness said, let Commander Li handle it as appropriate."
"Handle it as appropriate. How should I handle it as appropriate?" Li Xin'an said in despair. After a while, he smiled bitterly.
"I originally thought that after Your Highness entered the palace to meet the Holy Spirit and received the order to mobilize troops, he would be able to surround the Immortality Sect's main altar. In that case, they would not have any possibility of escaping when the army pressed in. But now there are no soldiers, so they rely on Yonghefang's
The defenders and us Jianghu people, who number less than thirty, can't wipe them out at all!"
"Perhaps, we can give it a try?" Murong Bai comforted.
Li Xin'an shook his head, "You can't try, you are just kidding with your life! Have you forgotten the information we got? There are more than a hundred Gu masters in the Immortality Sect. It is not a problem for one Gu master to deal with ten soldiers."
"Besides, there are also ordinary people who are bewitched among them!"
This was the most unexpected information that Li Xin'an got from the Gu Master of the Immortality Cult who had taken Diishen Powder. He originally thought that there were only Gu Masters in the Immortality Cult. The number of more than a hundred Gu Masters was beyond his expectation, but
There are ordinary people inside!
The Immortality Religion has more than 2,000 followers in Chang'an, ranging from traders, beggars, and laborers to dignitaries, young ladies, and young ladies. While they believe in the Immortality Religion, they also provide them with shelter invisibly.
"If they are crazy and use the people as a shield, what will you do?"
"When it gets to that point, Li Xin'an, you have no choice but to kill!" Xie Liya sneered.
"How many people are there?" Li Xin'an gritted his teeth and said, "One or two, even ten or twenty...I can kill them, but once there are more than half a hundred followers in the Immortality Sect, it will become a massacre..."
"But you can only kill."
Li Xin'an was exhausted. The life and death issue of the little girl not long ago had now shifted to more ordinary people.
Which one is more important, the annihilation of the Immortality Sect, and the lives and deaths of dozens and hundreds of people?
There are always people who want to do such dirty things. Li Chu is the high-ranking emperor's grandson and the future emperor of the Tang Dynasty. He cannot have the kind of indelible stain like Emperor Taizong back then.
Therefore, Li Chu allowed himself to act as appropriate.
The meaning couldn't be simpler: the Immortality Sect must be destroyed, and it doesn't matter how many people are killed.
Because it's him who takes the blame.
Li Xin'an felt a sense of powerlessness that he had never felt before, and he began to doubt whether all he had done was worth it.
When I first wanted to enter the world, I only wanted two words: freedom!
Obviously, what he is doing now runs counter to his childhood dreams.
For a moment, he wanted to give up all this, to get on his horse and leave Yonghefang, leave Chang'an City, and go to hell regardless of the Immortality Sect or Yang Guozhong!
But after all, it was just a humble and beautiful fantasy. He was not a young man and had things he had to do.
"Without the saint's order, His Highness will not and cannot mobilize troops." Li Xin'an said, "He has already been impeached once and will not take a second risk."
"So, we have to do it all by ourselves!"
He looked at Li Chu's confidants who had come to report the news, "You rush back and inform His Highness that he must enter the palace for the second time and must see the saint. Even if he is driven away by Gao Lishi, he cannot be allowed to come out!"
"Yes." The confidant took the order and left.
Li Xin'an quietly looked behind him. Sun Anguo had left at some point. It seemed that he had completely left the Yonghefang defenders to him.
"Without the orders of the Saint and His Highness, these defenders cannot move." Li Xin'an sighed, "Let them guard the four gates of Fang City until noon. After noon, we will move out."
"What do we need to do?"
Li Xin'an stared at Xie Liya with burning eyes and said:
"Xie Liya, are you willing to help me?"
…
The golden sun hangs lazily in the sky, and it is the time when the crowds of people are bustling.
The main street was overcrowded, and a large group of people rushed to squeeze out of Yonghe Square because the market had just opened.
An old beggar was pushed to the street and packed up his shabby robe. Whether he could survive this winter depended on it. The beggar couldn't let this treasure get any more damaged.
The old beggar dragged his dying body and sat by the steps of a shop. Next to him was a hawker.
"Excuse me, let me ask, what's going on this afternoon? Why is the street so chaotic?"
The hawker was kind-hearted and didn't mind that the beggar was old and slovenly. Seeing that there was little business, he started chatting with the old beggar.
"Brother, have you just come out?"
The vendor's "Brother" made the old beggar smile, nodded, and said:
"Yeah, usually I stay in the north until this time and come out to bask in the sun."
"The north side." The vendor smacked his lips. That place was the messiest, and most of the people living there were abnormal.
"You don't know, and you don't know what's going on today. The defenders just won't open the gates of Fangshi. The entire Yonghefang people are surrounded inside, making it seem like we are all infected with the plague."
"have
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These people were eager to do their work and started fighting directly with the defenders. The defenders arrested more than a dozen people before they could calm down. No, they didn't open the door until noon. What's the use of opening the door now? All business was delayed!
"
The old beggar sighed as the hawker sighed, sat for a while, and watched the street gradually clearing up, then stood up, patted his butt, and said goodbye to the hawker.
The beggar's frail body walked northward under the warm autumn sun. He turned into an alley, passed an inn, and walked toward the back of the inn, which was a dilapidated and desolate place.
He was familiar with the way he was walking among the rocks, weeds, and ruins. People kept popping up from the shadows, all wearing ragged clothes, staring at the beggar with green eyes like hungry ghosts.
The old beggar finally came to a dilapidated compound, and two men in black robes came over and stopped him.
"I have seen two immortals!" the old beggar kneeled down respectfully and said.
"Did you find out the news?" one of them asked.
"Yes!"
"follow me."
The man in black robe turned around and brought the old beggar in. It was the first time for the old beggar to come to this place. He opened his eyes curiously and looked around, for fear of missing something.
"Don't look at what you shouldn't, or I'll dig out your eyeballs!" the man in black robe scolded.
The old beggar lowered his head in a hurry, not daring to do it again.
The man in black robe suddenly stopped. The old beggar lowered his head and bumped into him accidentally.
The old beggar couldn't see what the man in black robe was doing. He only felt something click in his ear. Then the man in black robe took out a black cloth, covered his eyes and pushed him to a place.
The clicking sound sounded again, and the man in black robe seemed to have left. This made the old beggar feel a little flustered and asked hurriedly:
"Immortal, Immortal?"
"Take off that black cloth."
A strange voice sounded in the old beggar's ears, which made him jump. But this voice sounded very kind, much gentler than the two immortals just now, so the old beggar carefully took off the black mask that covered his eyes.
Cloth.
Only then did the old beggar realize that he was in a huge room. The room was completely empty except for something like a huge water urn in front of him.
There was a green mist floating in the room, and a figure could be faintly discerned in the mist.
The figure said: "Old man, what news did you find out?"
The old beggar opened his mouth wide, as if receiving some great gift, he knelt down, his body trembling, and hot tears streaming from his eyes.
He heard from a guy who was lucky enough to meet the leader that he was approachable and lived in a house filled with blue mist.
"You are the leader, right...Beggar Wang Liu has met the leader!"
The old beggar kowtowed on the ground. The man in the green mist sighed and said helplessly:
"Old man, I'm asking you something."
"Yes! Yes!" Beggar Wang Liu raised his head, with blood on his forehead.
"Returning to the leader, I learned from a hawker that today the Yonghefang defenders suddenly closed the four gates and opened them at noon. Now the streets have returned to normal. I also heard that the deputy general of the Yonghefang defenders, Qu Lichuyou
After being captured, guard Sun Anguo has disappeared, and now the person in charge is a young man of unknown origin."
The man in the green mist was silent, and after a while, he waved his hand.
"You go down."
The beggar Wang Liu didn't know why, and the scene in front of him gradually became blurry. His body went limp and fell to the ground.
A bright light penetrated the blue mist behind the unconscious old beggar and shone on the man's face.
The man in black robe who brought Wang Liu in dragged the beggar out.
The man touched the eye on the left. It was empty except for one eye socket.
He murmured: "Qu Li was arrested for no reason, and the two from Tongrailfang haven't come back yet..."
"It seems that the two people who escaped have come back with others."
The man clapped his hands and laughed, "Interesting! Interesting!"
He looked behind him, and there was a smooth wall. Behind the wall was the hard work of the Immortality Cult for hundreds of years.
"Although there are still sixteen children left, since you have all achieved this, there is no need to wait. It is not impossible to use unborn children as substitutes."
"Let everything be settled tonight!"
…
The man in black robe dragged the old beggar and threw him to a secluded place.
The place is full of moldy firewood piles, more than enough to hide a body.
When winter comes, this place will be swept away by flames, and the old beggar will disappear completely without leaving any trace, as if he has never been in this world.
The man in black robe moved a pile of firewood and put the old beggar in. A Gu insect flew out of his sleeve and was about to land on Wang Liu's forehead.
A silver needle flew from behind him, pierced the Gu insect, and nailed it to the firewood.
The man in black robe was shocked and turned around, only to see a big hand approaching him and grabbing his neck.
The last sound this Immortality Gu Master heard in this world was the sound of his neck breaking.
Xie Liya put the Gu Master on the ground expressionlessly and took off his clothes.
Zhang Quan, dressed as a beggar, jumped off the wall, cleaned up the entire scene, took the old beggar Wang Liu out of the firewood pile, carried him on his shoulders, and walked out.
Xie Liya changed into a black robe, used the medicine You Sang gave him to kill all the Gu master's Gu insects, and threw it into the pile of firewood along with his body and the clothes he had changed.
Maybe in a few days, this place will be completely burned down.
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Xie Liya wrapped himself in a large black robe and walked towards the main altar of the Immortality Sect.
…
The old beggar was awakened by someone splashing water on him.
Wang Liu opened his eyes blankly, and his mouth and nose were filled with water, which made him cough violently.
"Old man, are you okay?"
Wang Liu stared blankly at the handsome young man in front of him, unable to turn around. Wasn't he meeting the leader? Why did he suddenly become this person?
"Who are you, the leader?"
Li Xin'an's eyes flashed, and the word "leader" caught his attention.
"Old man, what do you mean by the leader? Have you seen him?"
The old beggar Wang Liu did not answer, as if he was stunned, and said to himself: "The leader...the leader..."
You Sang, who was on the side, said: "Maybe he was poisoned and his mind is not clear yet."
When Zhang Quan brought the old beggar over, he was unconscious and Li Xin'an couldn't wake him up no matter how he screamed. Yousang could tell at a glance that there were a lot of poison in the old beggar's body. Although it was not fatal, it could make people sleep for a few seconds.
hours.
It is definitely not practical to refine the antidote now, so Yousang had no choice but to take the simplest method and wake him up.
Seeing that the old beggar was still confused, Li Xin'an felt that the clue they had finally traced could not be broken.
Before dawn, Li Xin'an made a plan to wait and see.
He lay in ambush around the Yonghefang slum, waiting for the people inside to come out, and then followed them in.
The old beggar is the one they follow.
Yousang gave them Gu worms. After taking them, all their traces will not be traced by the Gu masters inside.
Now that there are twenty-one "celestial beings" inside, as well as Xie Liya, the deputy commander who is disguised as a Gu master, Li Xin'an wants to cooperate with the inside and outside to defeat the Immortality Sect in one fell swoop.
But right now, this old beggar obviously has more important information in his mouth.
"He's not awake, what should we do?" Li Xin'an habitually turned to You Sang for help.
"There are too many poisons in his body, and they can't be driven out for a while." Yousang shook his head helplessly.
"How about feeding him Diishen Powder again?" Zhang Quan asked tentatively.
Li Xin'an said helplessly: "That's the only thing we can do. It's just going to make the old man suffer."
Zhang Quan took out the prepared "Dianshen Powder" from the medicine bag he carried with him and poured it into the old beggar's mouth.
After a while, the old beggar stopped mumbling to himself.
"Old man, who is the leader you are talking about?" Li Xin'an asked after knowing that "Dian Shen Powder" had taken effect.
"I don't know," said the old beggar, "I can't see what he looks like."
Li Xin'an was a little disappointed and asked again:
"Then where did you see him?"
"In a house, I was stunned. I couldn't see anything. I only heard a clicking sound. Then the leader asked me to take off the black cloth. I only saw a blue mist filling the room.
There is only a big water tank, and the leader cannot be seen clearly."
"Mias?" This was the first time Li Xin'an heard this word.
"There is a kind of natural poisonous insect in southern Xinjiang. It is extremely small and invisible to the naked eye. It forms a swarm of millions and takes up residence in the mountains and forests. It is a miasma."
"This kind of natural Gu is extremely difficult to raise, and once the Miasma Gu takes shape, it is difficult to control. Once the Miasma Gu people in the dense forests of southern Xinjiang enter, they will fall to the ground and die instantly. No one in the Five Poison Sect can refine this Gu. It is impossible to imagine immortality."
Those who teach are raised.”
"Miasma Gu, it is another step difficult to destroy the Immortality Sect..."
There was basically nothing to gain from further questioning, so Li Xin'an had the old beggar taken away and sent back to the Huangsun Mansion to be rehabilitated.
Li Xin'an breathed a long sigh of relief and looked at the people behind him, You Sangsang, Murong Bai, Zhang Quan...
"Everyone, wait until dark, and we will destroy his main altar!"
…
Another night, no news from Li Chu came.
Li Xin'an couldn't wait any longer and led people along the flow of people into the center of the slum.
There is the main altar of the Immortality Sect. It is not underground as Li Xin'an expected, but it is displayed openly in the open.
He didn't understand why these people flocked to the Immortal Cult General Forum, but he could tell from the unprecedented solemn look in Yousang's eyes that this situation must be very bad.
"These people have poison on them."
"Is it miasma Gu?"
"No, it's probably a malnutrition Gu. I'm not sure what kind of malnutrition it is. But what is certain is that as soon as the Gu Master takes action, these people will die immediately!"
Li Xin'an's face was stiff, and the worst-case scenario that he expected had happened.
They were surrounded by the crowd and dispersed. This was a strategy that had been agreed upon long ago. Li Xin'an squeezed to the edge of the crowd and saw that the huge courtyard was brightly lit and surrounded by men in black robes.
"I don't know if Xie Liya is in here."
A burst of blue mist floated out, and the crowd suddenly burst into cheers like a mountain roar and a tsunami.
"Leader! Leader! Leader..."
The fog gradually gathered into a human shape on a wooden platform in the front. Then the fog dissipated, and the leader of the Immortality Sect made a grand appearance.
Li Xin'an looked at the man who had lost one eye. Apart from this, he looked no different from ordinary people.
"Everyone!" the Immortal Cult leader opened his arms and shouted: