The mountains outside Chang'an City are densely forested. The mountains are not big, but there are many.
Li Xin'an rode his horse through the winding trees and finally emerged from the woods. His body was already covered with the green sap of the leaves and small insects.
Murong Bai shook off the dead leaves from his head and said: "I never expected that there would be such a dense forest outside Chang'an City. There is no such majestic scenery in the south of the Yangtze River. I think only southern Xinjiang can compare with it."
"I don't know what's going on in southern Xinjiang, but this forest is far from dense. If you follow me on a trip to Khitan, you will see vast tracts of forest. Many Khitan tribes are located in it. In order to drive them away, we spend a lot of time
Many methods have been tried, but with little success.”
"When you say that, I really want to see the forest on the Khitan prairie."
Li Xin'an smiled and said: "Then you have to be careful not to be taken off by the wolf!"
"drive!"
He rushed down the hillside on horseback, and in front of him was a streamer with rippling blue waves.
The horse ran happily into the water, and Li Xin'an landed on the river bank ahead of time, squatting down and grabbing a handful of river water.
"This river is not very long."
Murong Bai came to him and let his horse go into the river to flush the water.
"Yes, the main branch of the Yellow River is the Cao River. There is a small lake along the river. There are no people there."
Looking at the turbid river water in his hand, Li Xin'an hesitated and took a sip.
"Hey -" Murong Bai had no time to stop him and could only watch Li Xin'an drink the river water.
"Bah...bah..." Li Xin'an's face twisted, and he quickly spit out the river water and said bitterly:
"Yes, that's the smell. The river water is fine."
Murong Bai couldn't help but laugh, "I didn't expect Brother Li's tongue to be so sensitive that he can actually identify whether the river water is toxic or not."
"When I was a child, I fell into the Cao River and drank a lot of Yellow River water. The taste... Tsk! I will never forget it in my life."
Li Xin'an put his fingers into his mouth and whistled. The horse ran over happily and rubbed against Li Xin'an, making him wet all over.
Li Xin'an took off the wine bag from Ma'anshan and took a big gulp of wine to drive away the sour feeling in his mouth.
"His Highness gave Fanxue to you?" Murong Bai enviously looked at the horse beside Li Xin'an.
"No, but His Highness seems to have forgotten to go back. If he doesn't tell me, I won't do it." Li Xin'an touched the horse's neck and got on the horse.
"This is the lower reaches of the river. There is only one village nearby. We don't know what the situation is like upstream yet. Let's go and have a look."
Murong Bai called back his mount, a snow-white "Zhaoye Jade Lion".
The two of them walked up the river and passed two villages along the way, but neither of them had the strange disease in the previous village.
And when Li Xin'an talked about that village, the villagers in the two villages looked frightened. It seemed that there was something ominous in that village. They even looked at Li Xin'an and Murong Bai with guarded eyes.
In the evening, the two of them were tired from riding, so they found a high ground along the river and sat down.
"There are only five villages up and down the river. Except for Chenjia Village, the remaining four villages are all normal. It seems that those people from the Western Regions did not poison the river water, but tampered with the wells."
"The problem is, that caravan from the Western Regions settled in five villages, and the villagers treated them kindly at first. Why did they only poison the last one, Chenjiazhuang?" Murong Baifa asked.
"I'm also puzzled. Let's call their poison poison. Is there something wrong with their poison, or is there something special about Chenjiacun?"
Li Xin'an said to himself, "Chenjia Village is downstream, the most isolated place. If you want to harm Chang'an, there is no reason to choose here."
"If the goal is not Chang'an, then why did you choose Chenjiacun? Chenjiacun is closed. There is only one road out of the village. If that road is blocked, it is surrounded by mountains and it is difficult to travel. In this case, Chenjiacun is completely isolated from the outside world.
In this place, no one outside will know what happened.”
"Hiss..." Li Xin'an suddenly stood up, his chest beating rapidly."
"Bai Momu, I seem to know their purpose."
"Brother Li, you know
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Is it? What is it?”
"Test the poison!"
"After the poison is refined, something must be selected to test the poison. Usually the test objects are animals such as pigs, cats and dogs, but it is obvious that the poison of the Westerners has a specific target and will only be used on adult men.
If there is an attack, then the thing used to test the poison cannot be an animal, it must be a qualified person!"
"That's why they chose Chenjia Village, which is the farthest and most isolated place from Chang'an. No matter what happens here, as long as the mainland is cut off, no one can get out and no one can get in."
"To be honest, Brother Li, your inference makes me very uncomfortable." Murong Bai, who had been listening quietly, suddenly said.
Li Xin'an opened her mouth slightly and looked at him innocently, not knowing how she offended Murong Bai.
"Using people to test the poison and using people to refine the gu, isn't this another immortality gu?"
"……yes……"
"Another immortality Gu."
Li Xin'an squatted down, looking a little tired. The evening breeze blowing from the river ruffled his hair, and the hair fell to his face, which made him feel like he was sleeping well without caring about anything.
"Let's go." Li Xin'an said softly, "Go back and report to His Highness. He is now in the limelight, so he must be very happy to take over this case."
"Um."
The two stopped talking, got on their horses and walked in the direction of Chang'an City.
The nearest road had to go over a hill. Li Xin'an and Murong Bai joked that whoever went up behind them would treat them, as usual, Tianxiang Tower.
Murong Bai naturally agreed. Li Xin'an had been taking care of him since he came to Chang'an, so it was time for him to ask for help.
Seeing Li Xin'an galloping, Murong Bai slowly pulled the reins and admired the surrounding scenery along the way.
He looked at the small river that was winding and extending, and in the middle section, it seemed that there was an extra branch.
"Brother Li." Murong Bai hurriedly called to Li Xin'an.
"What's wrong?" Li Xin'an, who was about to rush up the hill, reined in the reins. Seeing that Murong Bai was still a long way away from him, he immediately understood what Murong Bai was thinking.
He rode back and said with a cold face, "Bai Mumu, you want to treat me, and Brother Wei is very happy. But you deliberately don't want to win, and Brother Wei doesn't like it."
Murong Bai stared straight at the branching tributary, hidden in the woods, unable to see the specific scene clearly.
He pointed to Li Xin'an, "Brother Li, was that tributary there from the beginning?"
Li Xin'an poked his head over, his expression gradually becoming serious.
"No, I haven't seen it before, never."
The two looked at each other and rushed off in unison.
…
As he rode over the hills and followed the tributary that had serious traces of man-made excavations, Li Xin'an saw an apricot forest.
Golden ripe apricots were hanging on the branches. Li Xin'an rode in carefully, pulled two ripe apricots from the tree, wiped them on his hands, and threw them into his mouth.
"Did this apricot forest appear recently?"
Li Xin'an shook his head, "No, this apricot forest has been around for a long time. It's wild, but it's just not so lush, and the apricots produced are very sour."
Murong Bai watched the tributary flowing into the apricot forest. He couldn't see anything behind the dense golden treetops.
"It seems that someone deliberately led this small river here to irrigate this apricot forest."
"Who would be free to do such a thing?" Li Xin'an disagreed.
"Young master, what you said is wrong. Our master chose this place because he loves this apricot forest."
An old voice suddenly came from behind the two of them. Li Xin'an was frightened and unconsciously touched the scabbard.
"Haha, sir, please don't draw your sword. The old man has no ill intentions."
Not far to the left of Li Xin'an, the treetops suddenly started to sway and swayed, and someone was walking towards them.
Li Xin'an and Murong Bai looked at each other and dismounted.
Without the obstruction of the treetops, Li Xin'an could finally see the old man's face clearly.
An old man dressed as an old farmer, with a broken one on his head
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He wore a bamboo hat, his face had deep furrows and wrinkles, he had a hoe on his shoulder, and one hand was missing all five fingers.
"Old man, we two brothers came in rashly and disturbed you." Li Xin'an cupped his fists and saluted, looking apologetic.
"Young master, you don't have to be like this." The old farmer smiled and bowed to his fingerless hand, and said with a smile:
"The old man listened to the young master earlier. Has the young master been here before?"
"I was naughty when I was a kid, and people in the neighborhood came to make trouble. This apricot forest was also disturbed by me before."
"The wild apricots in the past were indeed sour and unbearable. After our master came here, we diverted river water for irrigation. Are the apricots still delicious now?"
"Sour and sweet." Li Xin'an said with a smile, "I picked two without saying hello to the old man. It's our fault."
"It doesn't matter! It doesn't matter!" the old man said with a smile, "Since the two young masters are here, it is fate. Why don't you go with the old man to the village to meet our owner? He loves making friends in the world most. I think the two young masters
With a majestic figure and an extraordinary aura, he is a man of great talent, so I am sure that the owner of our farm will want to make friends with you."
Li Xin'an rolled her eyes, raised her hands and said:
"May I ask, old man, who is the owner of your village?"
The old man smiled and said: "If you go, you two will naturally know."
There was a trace of hesitation on Li Xin'an's face, and he was a little more wary deep in his eyes, unable to make up his mind whether to go or not.
Although this old man looks like an old man, judging from his speech and behavior, he is undoubtedly a powerful person who has been in the world.
Now that he was in such a state of desolation, with all the fingers on one hand chopped off, Li Xin'an couldn't help but suspect that he was not on the right path.
So who is the owner of the village mentioned by the old man?
Before he could refuse, Murong Bai already spoke:
"It's hard to reject a warm welcome. We brothers are new to the world, and we just wanted to get to know the famous seniors in the world, so we asked the old man to lead the way."
"Haha, you two gentlemen are coming with me."
The old man said this and walked forward with the hoe on his shoulder.
Li Xin'an looked at Murong Bai in astonishment, his blinking eyes telling his confusion.
Murong Bai's voice sounded in my ears:
"Brother Li, please be patient."
"I felt uncomfortable from the moment I entered this apricot forest. Looking at the direction of the river and the arrangement of this apricot forest, this is the method of nightmare suppression in the art of Feng Shui."
"I traveled with the Feng Shui Warlock of the Dikui Sect back then, and I learned a lot of Feng Shui techniques from him, so I can recognize it. The method of Nightmare Town and its dangers are methods to suppress the soul.
The people in this town will never be reincarnated."
"Besides, I more or less guessed the identity of the old man."
Knowing that Li Xin'an could not transmit the message, Murong Bai continued speaking on his own.
"All five fingers on his left hand are severed. He is carrying a hoe on his shoulder, but it looks like he is carrying a knife. His right leg is slightly lame. I think he is the first Qubao, the horse bandit who caused trouble in Hebei Province."
"Qu Bao?" Li Xin'an frowned slightly, as if he had heard this name before.
"Qu Bao was born in the border area and later joined the border army. He had many military exploits. However, due to unfair rewards, he had a conflict with an officer. In a rage, he killed the army general and fled with more than a dozen people to become horse bandits. He committed suicide
Named General Tianbao." Murong Bai explained.
"But Qu Bao never went to a private school and didn't know history. He didn't understand what General Tianbao meant to the Tang Dynasty. The former Tianbao General Yuwen of the Sui Dynasty was a mortal enemy of Chengdu and the Tang Dynasty, so Qu Bao's incident violated the imperial court
Taboo."
"Although Qu Bao's men had gathered thousands of troops at that time and looted prefectures and counties along the way, they were still defeated by thousands of elite soldiers of the imperial court. Qu Bao fled with his life in the chaos. After that, Hebei Province lost his
information."
"Later in Jiangnan, there were rumors that Qu Bao was involved in rebellion. This is how he was described. At that time, he was only slightly lame in his right leg. Later, it was said that Qu Bao offended a certain wealthy family and was cut off the five fingers of his left hand and was imprisoned.
.Later, that family was suspected of slandering the saint and... Li Linfu, and was exiled by the Manchus. Qu Bao was released and has disappeared since then."
"Unexpectedly, I saw him here."
Li Xin'an stared closely at the aging figure in front of him, remembering where he had heard this name.