Alienated Martial Arts

The gold tanning farm is like a town.

In fact, it can only be regarded as a chaotic gathering place of people at best.

At first, it was only because the river beach here could sift out gold sand that it attracted a large number of people to come here to pan for gold.

Gradually, more and more people came, and I don’t know if they found gold sand, but it actually promoted the development of the sand mining industry.

Even many wealthy families in Luoshui City like to use the sand excavated from the gold tanning field to build their houses.

There is also bluestone produced from the nearby hills, which is of equally good quality. Once mined, it is directly shipped and sold to other places, and the annual income is not a small amount.

The wheels of the carriage turned slowly, and finally stopped in front of an already dilapidated archway.

"Sir, there is a gold tanning field ahead."

Gan Liang's voice sounded quietly.

Wei Tao opened his eyes, lifted the side curtain and looked outside.

There are high piles of sand everywhere outside, as well as broken bluestones, just thrown casually on the roadside.

Further away, there is a forest growing, looming in the rain, making it difficult to see clearly.

He withdrew his gaze and looked towards the town behind the archway.

The scale here is not small, but the various houses and buildings lack planning. Except for a few main streets, everything else is in a mess, like gray moss growing wildly, spreading out and occupying a large area of ​​land along the river bank.

Perhaps because of the rain, there were not many pedestrians on the main street.

The shops were all open, but except for a few restaurants which were quite busy, the rest of the places were empty and there was not much customer flow.

The carriage had just stopped.

A group of people had already rushed up to meet him.

They were stopped by Gan Liang ten steps away.

The middle-aged man at the head seemed to know Gan Liang, and after saying a few words, he was let go to the car.

"I met Deacon Wei in Linyuan, the lower room."

The middle-aged man took off his bamboo hat and bowed deeply.

Gan Liang added from the side, "Besides the housekeeper is the owner of several sand and stone quarries here. The last time someone went missing, it was him who reported it."

Wei Tao opened the door curtain and glanced at Fang Linyuan.

His eyes were sunken, his face was haggard, and his hair was messy. It was obvious that he had not had a good rest for a long time.

"I have prepared a residence for the deacon, and also prepared a table to welcome all the masters."

Fang Linyuan and Wei Tao looked at each other, then lowered their heads and said in a respectful tone.

"Then just follow the arrangements made by the room attendant."

Wei Tao nodded slightly, "We will discuss the specific situation while eating later."

He turned his eyes away from the pale and haggard face outside the room and looked at the servants waiting not far away.

These people had rosy faces and bright faces. Not only did they not have any dishes, they also formed a sharp contrast with the room attendant himself.

"The living conditions of the servants in this family seem to be good, and their appearance is even better than that of the Taoist boy at Qingfeng Temple."

Wei Tao thought in his heart and lowered the carriage door curtain.

Passing the dilapidated gatehouse, the carriage slowly entered the town.

After walking for some distance along the gravel-paved street, we stopped in front of a high-walled compound.

On both sides of the gate, there were several servants waiting with umbrellas.

There was also a slim girl with short hair standing on the steps outside the porch.

She looked about fifteen or sixteen years old.

Wearing a green outfit, with a long sword hanging on his waist, he stood above the steps of the door and looked down from a high position.

When Fang Linyuan saw the girl, his already haggard expression suddenly became even more painful.

He opened his mouth to scold her, but in the end he sighed, turned around and smiled at Xiao Xing, "This is a little girl. She has been spoiled by me, and she has no knowledge of the world. I hope the deacon won't blame her."

"It doesn't matter."

Wei Tao nodded, took an umbrella, and walked slowly up the front steps.

"Are you the warrior sent by Qingfeng Temple?"

The short-haired girl's eyes fell on Wei Tao.

Looking at his not-so-strong body under the moon-white gown, there was a heavy look of suspicion in his eyes.

Wei Tao walked past her, as if he didn't hear the girl's words.

She snorted coldly and kept talking.

"Don't be like the two people in front of you. They were arrogant and domineering when they first arrived, and they seemed to have a lot of airs.

As a result, he couldn't survive even a few days, so he was so scared that he ran away all night without daring to look back. "

Click!

He stopped without warning.

He turned around and looked over.

Together with Ou Yinglian and others on the side, they stopped at the same time.

Several people looked at the girl at the door with cold eyes.

The short-haired girl caught several glances and shivered involuntarily, and her body tensed instantly.

Wei Tao only glanced at it and then looked away.

He said in a low voice, "Outside the room, what you told the Taoist temple last time was about peeling off the skin and making sure the grass is strong, but now what I hear is about escaping at night."

"So, which sentence is true and which sentence is false?"

Gudong!

The room attendant swallowed hard.

His face turned a little pale, and a thin layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

Wei Tao paused and his tone became colder.

"You have to understand that although this view protects one's safety, it is not a fool who can be deceived by others."

"Master Deacon, this is all the villain's fault. It's all the villain's failure to speak clearly!"

The room attendant's voice trembled, "Those two masters are indeed dead. I was just afraid of causing panic, so I blocked the news in a small area and did not spread it on a large scale."

"As for my naughty daughter."

When he said this, he couldn't help but shake his head and sigh, "She always comes to ask about this matter. In order to deal with it and not want to scare her, the villain made up lies casually..."

Wei Tao was silent for a moment, then walked towards the courtyard.

"Don't be nervous except for the room staff. Just explain the matter clearly. After all, we are here to solve problems, not to create new ones unnecessarily."

"The deacon is so magnanimous, and I am so grateful!"

The room attendant wiped away the sweat and finally let out the stale breath that he had been holding in for a long time.

Immediately afterwards, they shouted, "Hurry up and set up the table, don't let the deacon wait too long!"

Half an hour later.

After a few glasses of wine, the room attendant's face became much rosier.

Looking at Wei Tao sitting beside him, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

He toasted repeatedly and said small flattering words from beginning to end.

“In the past, under the protection of Qingfengguan, the entire gold tanning farm was always safe and sound.

Even if there were bandits that escaped several times, they were eliminated by the warriors stationed on the scene without causing much impact. I am really grateful beyond words. "

"Only this time, not only were the warriors stationed alive and dead, but their bodies were not found, even the two martial arts masters who came from the temple to deal with the matter were skinned and killed miserably.

I was already a little desperate, and even had the idea of ​​abandoning my family business and fleeing from here.

Unexpectedly, just by passing the news on, the deacon rushed over immediately with strong reinforcements.

This time, the big stone that weighed down my heart finally loosened a lot. "

"Okay, we're not here to have a drink this time, and there's no need to say anything else that doesn't matter.

The room attendant should first describe the incident in detail, so that we can have a general understanding and determine the target direction of the investigation. "

Wei Tao ate a few bites of food and drank a few glasses of wine, then put down the tableware and leaned back on the chair.

"The specific situation is this."

The room clerk was lost in memories, thinking slowly and slowly, "On that morning eight days ago, as usual, each foreman went to the site one step ahead to count the tools and prepare for the day's work."

“Only when they arrived did they find that the people who stayed at the battlefield hut and kept watch were missing.

And it’s not just one battlefield, the same situation happened in several places. "

“At first I thought it was the people stationed at the vigil who ran away, but after thinking about it for a moment I realized something was wrong.

First they didn't even receive this month's wages, and now they would hate to suffer a loss if they ran away;

Secondly, it is still possible if a single person ran away, but it is unlikely that several people ran away together..."

Wei Tao opened his eyes, "Did you find any traces of fighting in the battlefield?"

"No, not to mention the body, not even a trace of blood was found."

"Well, I understand, go on."

He nodded and closed his eyes again.

Fang Linyuan said, "Later, the martial arts stationed at the Taoist temple rushed over, but found no clues.

So I left two nursing homes here, along with a few rough servants, and stayed there at night.

I want to see if anything unexpected happens. "

"Standing back and waiting is a good way to solve the problem."

Wei Tao picked up a chopstick of bacon, put it in his mouth and chewed it slowly, "So, they stayed there at night and then disappeared as well?"

"What the deacon said is absolutely true."

Fang Linyuan's eyes were wandering, with a flash of panic, "I went there the next morning, and they were indeed gone."

"What's even more terrifying is that this time the stone house on the battlefield was covered in blood, as if someone was painting with the largest brush dipped in blood."

"Later, the two martial arts masters named Men came. They were obviously stronger. After coming over, they searched and searched. They seemed to have found some clues, so they chased them directly along the woods by the river. As a result, since then Then the trace was lost.”

Wei Tao frowned slightly, "Since the trace has been lost, where did you find their bodies?"

Fang Linyuan suddenly shuddered, "The next day, a cross wooden stake appeared on the edge of the woods, and the bodies of the two martial arts masters were penetrated and hung on it."