On the Ancient Tea-Horse Road going south, a young man leads a horse.
The young man carries a sword with a green scabbard on his back, a wine gourd hanging on his waist, holding the reins in one hand, and leaning on an emerald green bamboo pole in the other.
It was Shi Yu who headed south after leaving Soul Broken Cliff.
After leaving the town, he used the little money he had left to find a farmer and buy the skinny horse.
Then, one man and one horse, dining and sleeping in the open.
When you are hungry, you will hunt wild game to eat; when you are thirsty, you will drink from the mountain spring water.
The wine in the wine gourd has been drained long ago, leaving only a gourd of water.
A young man, a long sword, a skinny horse, and a bamboo stick.
Shi Yu went south alone.
Before this, I didn’t really think I had walked through the world, but now I finally had the opportunity to walk alone.
In less than half a day, we have almost reached the border of Daxia Kingdom.
We passed through many large and small towns along the way. If we were ordinary people like him, without the customs clearance documents from the secular dynasty, let alone leaving the city, if we were discovered by the officers and soldiers, it would not be an exaggeration to arrest them as refugees.
Of course Shi Yu didn't, but he was not an ordinary person after all, and a small city wall couldn't stop him.
But every time I had to enter the city, I had to go around it on horseback and tie myself to the exit at the other end, which was a lot of trouble.
This led to the fact that although Shi Yu was riding a horse, he was not moving very fast.
It's just a big regret that I couldn't leave the seals of each city on the document.
The southernmost point of the Daxia Kingdom is a large river. The northern end is Daxia and the southern end is the Jinpan Kingdom.
There is a lonely city standing by the river, which is the southern pass of Daxia Kingdom.
Although it is said to be a pass, there are actually not many people stationed there. The neighboring Jinpan Kingdom has shown enough sincerity. Rather than putting all its manpower in this city, it is better to be more prepared for the sloppy pass in the north.
It is not difficult to leave the country from the southern end of Jinpan Country. You have to cross the pass and pass through a dangerous rope bridge.
The rope bridge was crumbling on the river. If Shi Yu was alone, there wouldn't be any problem, but the horse he was holding had to waste a lot of effort to cross the bridge.
After that, it’s all the way south.
During this period, I met officers and soldiers passing by, but no one paid any attention to the young man.
So, Shi Yu arrived at Beiyue of Jinpan Kingdom without any hindrance.
Unlike the southern mountain called Kunwu Mountain, the northern mountain in Jinpan State is much more desolate. The mountain is bare, and in the beginning of spring, there is still no trace of spring.
If we skip this mountain, we have to walk an extra day.
Shi Yu still has some heart palpitations after what happened to the female ghost in red last time, but he still chose to climb the mountain, not simply to take a shortcut. Since he was out for experience, he must face the difficulties like many others.
Although the mountain is desolate, the road is not as rugged as Kunwu Mountain. Instead, it is a broad avenue.
Moreover, there are many footprints and horse hoof marks on the ground, obviously people often climb the mountain.
Seeing this situation, Shi Yu was actually relieved a lot.
Roads crisscross the mountain.
We went up the mountain smoothly.
But after going up the mountain, Shi Yu's expression tightened.
On the top of the bare mountain, there is a stone pavilion standing unexpectedly.
There is a chessboard in the center of the stone pavilion, and four people are sitting there, an old man and a young man sitting on both sides of the chessboard. The old man has gray beard and hair, is wearing embroidered bird clothes, and has a gray scarf on his head. The young man is a scholar, dressed in plain clothes, with his hands
Twisting the flag, with a faint smile on the corner of his mouth, he was gentle and elegant.
Standing next to them were two women, an old one and a young one. The older one was wearing a white gauze skirt, a conical hat on her head, and her face was covered with white gauze. The younger one was about ten years old, wearing a pink skirt, and had one foot on the stone bench.
, pointing at the chessboard.
There was a carriage parked next to the stone pavilion. The white horse pulling the carriage lowered its head and picked up grass roots on the ground to eat.
I don’t know if it’s a human being or a monster from the mountains and rivers.
In line with the principle that doing more is worse than doing less, Shi Yu did not lean over, he just stopped where he was, sat on the ground, untied the gourd and took a drink of water.
The woman in gauze glanced at Shi Yu.
Shi Yu felt something in his heart, made eye contact with him, nodded slightly, and said hello.
The woman nodded in return.
The young scholar, who had his back turned to this side, saw the woman's movements and turned to look at Shi Yu with dark eyes.
However, Shi Yu clearly felt a fleeting hostility.
He has some judgment about this scholar. He is definitely not a simple character.
After taking a short rest, Shi Yu took the reins and walked towards the stone pavilion.
It's not that I want to say hello to those people, but that stone pavilion is the only way to go down the mountain.
When passing by Shiting, the old man glanced at him and stopped paying attention to this ordinary young man. He twirled a flag and played chess with the young scholar.
I walked through the stone pavilion safely and soundly.
Looking up, it was getting late. Shi Yu got on his horse and walked slowly down the mountain without urging him.
The border towns of Jinpan State are not as under martial law as those in Daxia. The officers and soldiers stationed there never ask about documents. However, in the border towns, body searches are unavoidable.
Shi Yu knew this when he first arrived in Kunshi Town.
This time when he went down the mountain, he planned to buy some necessities in the town closest to Beiyue. However, he didn't have much money, so he could only buy what was necessary right now, such as Huozhezi.
Whether grilling fish or game along the way, Huozhezi will be used every day.
When Shi Yu was in the Nine Swords Sect, he knew that the coins used by practitioners were actually different from ordinary coins. However, following Li Xiao, he had little interaction with the sect on the mountain, so he had never seen what the money on the mountain was.
Kind of.
I heard it before, it seems to be similar to a banknote, just a piece of paper with different denominations.
Of course, these are still out of reach for Shi Yu today.
When he reached the foot of the mountain, Shi Yu saw the outline of a small town in the distance. He took a drink of water and was about to ride his horse forward, but a group of people blocked the way.
There are five horses in total, and the leader is a man with a broad sword, a beard, eyes raised, and a bare chest.
It's strange that I don't feel cold at all on this March day.
Shi Yu's face was solemn, he was probably a bandit who was robbing people's homes.
But when several people saw Shi Yu, they didn't act rashly. The leader frowned and asked the person next to him, "What's going on?"
The person in question is a middle-aged man wearing white clothes and a gauze hat. He looks like a scholar.
He smiled helplessly and said: "Master, I don't know what's going on. If you want to blame it, blame our spies. They gave us the information."
"Is it possible that he hasn't come yet?" said a Taoist priest wearing Tai Chi clothes next to him.
"possible."
The big man with the beard nodded, pointed at Shi Yu and said, "Well, boy, don't leave yet. How about you stand aside and wait for the gentlemen to finish their business before you leave?"
Shi Yu breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he was not a vicious desperado.
He immediately grinned and echoed in a very silly way: "Brothers, whatever you say is whatever it is."
In the world of martial arts, it is always better to be careful. Although these people appear to be ordinary people on the surface, he cannot guarantee that the other party is not hiding their clumsiness.
Seeing Shi Yu holding the horse with interest, the people stopped paying attention to him and just regarded him as a passerby.
Shi Yu got off his horse, found a dead tree, tied the horse, and rested against the tree stump.
Shi Yu had some guesses about the purpose of this group of people. They were probably the group of people he met in the stone pavilion on the mountain.
Sure enough, after half a stick of incense, a carriage pulled by a white horse slowly came into view.
The driver was the scholar in plain clothes who was playing chess with the old man on the mountain.
Seeing five people lined up blocking the way, the scholar also reined in his horse and stopped.
"Liang Sheng, what's going on?" The old man put his head out.
After seeing the few people blocking the front, the old man's face hardened and his brows furrowed.
"But Mr. Situ, who has come from afar?" The bearded man clapped his horse forward and looked at the old man with a smile.
Hearing this, Shi Yu stopped the gourd he was about to put to his lips and looked at the bearded man. It seemed that this group of people was not just robbing families and homes, but had already planned it.
But no matter what, he is just a little fusion realm monk, and he has made up his mind not to get involved in this muddy water.
Shi Yu took a sip of water and looked away.
"Exactly, what are you guys doing?" The old man nodded and looked at a few people with doubts on his face.
"Someone is offering money to buy your life." This time it was the man dressed as a scholar in white clothes and gauze hat who spoke.
The bearded man glared at him, and the scholar in white smiled dryly and took a step back. It turned out that he had stolen the eldest brother's limelight.
The old man who took the supplement did not panic, as if he was confident, and asked without changing his expression, "I wonder how much my head is worth?"
“Very valuable.”
The bearded man smiled, but his eyes fell on the plain-clothed scholar driving the carriage, "This must be the jade-faced young scholar next to you, Mr. Cao Jun, right?"
The scholar in white turned a deaf ear, but the expression of the old man in scholar's robe changed slightly.
This jade-faced little scholar was his personal bodyguard. He was also a member of the martial arts community in his early years, but he didn't practice swordsmanship. He specialized in concealed weapons and was somewhat famous.
Later, he hired him with a large sum of money and served as a retinue. After that, he disappeared from the world, and very few people knew about it.
This group of people knew the true identity of the jade-faced little scholar, so they were obviously well prepared.
Moreover, the people in the world are all wandering clouds and wild cranes, with a high and arrogant heart. Those who can be asked to sacrifice their lives for the people in the court are actually not very skilled. Just like this little jade-faced scholar, who is good at using hidden weapons, he is really right with others.
In fact, there is not much advantage in fighting. This is what the old man is most worried about.
"Actually, it's more valuable to capture him alive. Why don't you come with Mr. Situ? Maybe he will give in and save his life. After all, the man who paid for it admires Mr.'s talent very much." The bearded man rolled up his sleeves.
, holding a knife in his arms.
The Lord Situ mentioned by the bearded man narrowed his eyes and looked uncertain.
He was originally a very virtuous and highly respected old man in Daxia, but he failed in the court and was demoted to serve in the northern battlefield by the monarch of Daxia.
From time to time there were rogue bandits in the north, and as an old man, he could only die.
The Prime Minister of Jin Pan State was his old friend for many years. After learning about this incident, he sent a message to him, telling him that His Majesty the Emperor of Jin Pan State admired him very much and hoped that he could take up a position in the Jin Pan State court.
The old man kept busy and took only two of his closest relatives with him, and went south in the name of traveling. He planned to meet the Emperor of Jin Panguo first, and then pick up his family after the matter was finalized.
He had long heard that the Emperor of Jinpan State had a huge backing. Although he was a vassal state of Daxia, the Emperor of Daxia was very jealous of, even afraid of, this person. If he could gain a foothold in the Jinpan State court, then his
At least the family's lives are safe in Daxia.
The old man actually had some guesses about the identities of these people blocking the way. They were probably enemies of the Great Xia Kingdom, or simply the monarch knew his purpose and adopted clumsy methods.
Before leaving, the old man had already anticipated this, otherwise he would not have taken the jade-faced little scholar with him.
But the other party is so confident that it is inevitable that he will feel a drum in his heart.
The old man is not worried about the life of his old bones, but is afraid that his family will be harmed later.
In the smoky court, there is no harm to the family.