Asking about longevity

"Uncle Gu, stop."

Mo Hua shouted immediately.

Gu Changhuai stopped the boat and turned his head in confusion. He saw Mo Hua lying on the edge of the boat with his head in the water, wondering what he was looking at.

At the same time, Mo Hua lowered his voice and shouted quietly:

"Little whitebait~"

The Yanshui River is full of blue waves, with no bottom visible.

After a while, a ray of silver flashed across the water, and a thin, almost imperceptible little fish swam up.

"My benefactor, I am..."

It wagged its tail happily.

It’s really a little whitebait!

Mo Hua looked happy, and then asked doubtfully: "Aren't you in a small fishing village? Why are you here?"

The little whitebait said something, but the voice was very weak and could not be heard clearly.

Mo Hua moved his head closer to the water surface again, and then he heard the soft voice of the little whitebait:

"...Thanks to my benefactor...I have a shrine to live in, offerings to satisfy my hunger, and incense to nourish my spirit. I am much better now."

"The authority of the River God has also been restored to some extent, and it can be integrated with the Yanshui River, but the authority is still very weak, and the scope of its activities is also very small..."

"This river is near a small fishing village."

"I was eating incense in a small fishing village and felt my benefactor's breath, so I swam over to see you..."

The little whitebait was swimming around in the water in front of the ink painting, with a few splashes appearing from time to time, which made it look much more joyful.

Mo Hua nodded.

I see……

The nearby Yanshui River was complicated and difficult to locate. He did not expect that this place was not far from a small fishing village.

But thinking about it, it seems reasonable.

Shui Yanluo led this group of evil cultivators to destroy the Yu family's water village. Near the small fishing village, he was chasing and killing the elder.

Then the place where he is stationed should not be too far from the small fishing village.

Xia Diansi saw Mo Hua lying on the side of the boat with his head on the water, muttering and not knowing what to say, so he couldn't help but wonder:

"Mo Hua, who are you talking to?"

Her consciousness has not yet been enlightened, so she cannot see the figure of the little whitebait.

Mo Hua turned his head, raised his fingers and said "shh" quietly:

"Sister Xia, keep your voice down, I'm chatting with the River God..."

The little whitebait's voice is very small, and if it's a little noisy, he won't be able to hear it.

Xia Diansi: "..."

Her thoughts were a little out of line for a moment, and she didn't understand what Mo Hua was talking about.

What little river god?

Xia Diansi glanced at the water, but there was nothing in the water.

She looked at the ink painting again and frowned.

He is such a good child, why is he suddenly so nagging...

On the contrary, Gu Changhuai was no longer surprised.

only……

Gu Changhuai's eyes narrowed slightly.

He couldn't tell whether Mo Hua was telling the truth or just making up a random reason to fool them.

Based on his knowledge of ink painting, both scenarios were possible.

Gu Changhuai was not surprised that Mo Hua knew some things that ordinary monks didn't know and could see things that others couldn't.

If Mo Hua was lying and talking nonsense, he wouldn't be surprised.

Of course Mo Hua didn't lie.

At this time, he was lying on the side of the boat and asked in a low voice: "Little whitebait, do you know the way?"

The little whitebait in the water nodded, "I know all the nearby waters."

"Then do you know that there is a group of water bandits nearby?"

"What is the water bandit?" The little whitebait shook its tail and asked curiously, "Is it a water demon?"

"No," Mo Hua thought for a while and said, "He is a human being, and a bad one, with blood on his body and murder on his hands."

When Mo Hua said this, Little Silver Fish became excited and nodded repeatedly.

"There are some people whose breath is very dirty, fishy and smelly, and they are haunted by murder... They gather together, and I don't dare to go there because I'm afraid of being dirty."

Mo Hua's eyes lit up, "Take me over there and I'll help them wash away their sins."

"Yeah," the little whitebait nodded repeatedly, "I'll take you there right now."

Although it didn't know how to wash away its sins, since its benefactor gave the order, it was naturally willing to agree.

It's a rare opportunity to repay your benefactor's kindness.

The little whitebait was very happy.

It waggled its little tail, swam forward, and whispered: "My dear friend, come with me quickly."

Mo Hua nodded, then pointed in the direction where the little whitebait was swimming, and said to Gu Changhuai: "Uncle Gu, go this way."

Gu Changhuai was silent for a moment.

Mo Hua said: "The river god knows the whereabouts of the water bandits, and he will lead the way for us."

River God...

Gu Changhuai turned his head, glanced at the empty water surface, and sighed silently.

"Okay..."

I hope this guy isn't kidding.

Gu Changhuai habitually punted the boat forward in the direction pointed by Mo Hua.

Xia Diansi saw this and did not stop him.

However, the confusion in her heart became deeper and deeper, and the look in her eyes at Mo Hua became more and more confusing.

The little whitebait swayed its little body and led the way in the water.

The ink painting followed the faint silver light to guide Gu Changhuai.

Gu Changhuai rowed the famous boat, Xia Diansi remained silent, only the boat broke through the water, and the water gurgled under the boat.

Little Silver Fish is the river god. Although he has only regained a small part of his authority, he still knows the waters under his jurisdiction very well.

No one knows the Yanshui River better than it does.

Naturally, no one is more suitable to lead the way.

After a period of time passed, and after entering a new area of ​​water, Gu Changhuai and Xia Diansi suddenly noticed something, and their expressions changed.

They released their spiritual senses and scanned the area, then couldn't help but look at each other, both of them looking a little surprised.

They actually found it...

On the other side, the little silver fish also stopped and turned back to Mo Hua and said:

"Benefactor, we're here."

Mo Hua looked up and saw a large river beach in front of him.

On the river beach, there were wild weeds growing wildly.

But Mo Hua knew that this was not a simple river beach, but more like a small island formed by the accumulation of silt and the flow of the river over the years.

The swamp on the periphery was like a natural maze, isolating the island.

If it weren't for the little silver fish leading the way, other outsiders would never have seen this island.

Mo Hua looked around again and took a look at the island.

The periphery of the island was overgrown with water plants, and it looked very desolate and uninhabited, but Mo Hua could sense that there were many monks on the island.

These auras were bloody and evil, and they were obviously not good people.

In addition, there is the breath of formations.

As expected, there are many formations near the island, including warnings, traps, and many water and soil defense formations.

"A group of water bandits will most likely not build formations, so these formations should be... built by Guishuimen for them?"

Mo Hua frowned, then turned around and asked:

"The water bandits have been found, what should we do now?"

Xia Diansi pondered for a moment, glanced at Gu Changhuai, and said slowly:

"According to the intelligence, there are no golden elixirs in this group of water bandits. Let's join forces and try to take them down?"

Gu Changhuai thought for a while, shook his head and said: "We can't take them down..."

"This is the second-grade state boundary, a small place, different from the large states in your Daozhou where you don't have to worry about your cultivation."

"When the Jindan realm fights with others in the second-grade state boundary, you must strictly suppress your cultivation and can't be negligent at all."

"Do you have experience suppressing your cultivation to fight with others?"

Gu Changhuai asked.

Xia Diansi was startled, frowned, and said reluctantly: "No..."

"That's it," Gu Changhuai said, "Suppressing cultivation, restricting one's hands and feet, one's cultivation can't be used to a few points, it's impossible to take down these bandits, and even if you are not careful, you may fall into their trap."

"Golden elixir suppresses foundation building, that is when there are no restrictions."

"When you actually start fighting, all aspects must be considered, and the result is difficult to predict."

"What's more, Shui Yanluo is not as simple as you think."

"This person is different from ordinary foundation building, with a lot of skills, unpredictable, and when the cultivation is not dominant, it is hard to find a way to restrain him. Duan, it is not an easy task to catch him..."

After Gu Changhuai finished speaking, he pointed to the island again, "And this island is surrounded by water. Once these water bandits are defeated and dive into the water, how can we catch them if we don't practice water-based skills?"

"This is their lair. If we plan well, it will be a good opportunity to catch all these water bandits. On the contrary, if we act rashly and make mistakes, we will undoubtedly ruin this great opportunity..."

"It is easy to ruin an opportunity, but after ruining it, it will be as difficult as climbing to the sky to find this opportunity again..."

Gu Changhuai looked indifferent and his tone was not polite at all.

I don't know if it was to anger Xia Diansi, but Gu Changhuai, who was not very talkative, said a lot.

Xia Diansi's face was indeed covered with a layer of frost.

She also understood some truths.

But after all, she had little experience in handling cases in such low-level states, and she didn't notice it for a while, and was just caught by Gu Changhuai as a "handle", and was ridiculed openly and secretly.

Xia Diansi was indeed a little angry, and looked at Gu Changhuai with a very unfriendly look, but soon calmed down, and asked in a matter-of-fact way:

"Then according to Gu Diansi, what should I do?"

Her tone was calm, without any other emotions, and she was simply asking.

Gu Changhuai was slightly stunned, with a look of surprise. After a moment of silence, his tone unconsciously calmed down:

"First, find out the enemy situation, know how many people they have, confirm whether there are golden elixirs, and verify the terrain nearby. Then go back to mobilize people and make proper plans..."

"The more critical the moment, the more you can't be greedy for a moment."

Xia Diansi's eyes flashed slightly, glanced at Gu Changhuai, and nodded slightly.

Mo Hua was beside him, looking at Gu Changhuai for a while, looking at Xia Diansi for a while, and nodded with satisfaction.

After the discussion, the next step was to investigate.

It was already evening, dusk was falling, and the sky was getting darker.

The three of them took a small boat, using the dense water plants as cover, and sailed around the island.

Gu Changhuai and Xia Diansi were Jindan, and their spiritual consciousness was strong.

Although Mo Hua was at the foundation building stage, his spiritual consciousness was also close to the peak of the foundation building stage, and he was only one line away from the Jindan stage.

Although this line was still out of reach at present.

But that was also compared with the Jindan stage.

Compared with this group of foundation building water bandits, Mo Hua was naturally "far ahead" in terms of spiritual consciousness.

Therefore, the three of them were careful and were not afraid of being discovered.

There were also scattered sentries around the island, but because of the large difference in spiritual consciousness, Mo Hua could find these sentries, but these sentries could not detect Mo Hua and them.

In addition, there was a small silver fish leading the way.

The formation left in the water for early warning was identified by Mo Hua.

So until more than an hour later, the three of them finished their reconnaissance and did not alarm the water bandits on the island.

By this time, it was already dark.

The night merged into the water, the sky and the water were all pitch black, with only a few stars twinkling in the sky.

On the originally silent island, there was suddenly movement.

A little green fire was lit.

Then there was a noise of people, some people were shouting and cursing, the sound came from far away, from the inside of the island to the shore.

Then, there was the sound of boats launching.

The voices of people and the sound of water mixed together, making it noisy.

"Damn, it's finally night..."

"I don't know what I can rob."

"I haven't killed anyone for several days, and my knife is rusty."

"I haven't touched a woman for a month, and I'm rusty too..."

"Fuck you, you're not serious..."

...

A group of people were arguing, boarding the boat and launching the water, lighting the dark green ghost fire, like a night demon, hunting on the Yanshui River.

Gu Changhuai counted the heads silently.

When this group of pirates went far away on the boat, the surroundings became quiet again.

Gu Changhuai said: "There are about 200 people who went out. According to the habit of the pirates, half of them go out and half stay. It is estimated that there are about 200 pirates left on the island."

"Total, it should be about 400."

"At present, there is no golden elixir. Of course, it is also possible that the golden elixir is not on the island."

And Mo Hua has also roughly drawn the formation map of the island.

"Should we go back now?"

Gu Changhuai pondered for a moment and shook his head and said: "No hurry, wait until dawn, these pirates will wander on the Yanshui River. If we go out now, it is easy to run into them."

"When the time comes, it will be wrong to kill them, and it will be wrong not to kill them."

Killing them will alert the enemy.

If they are not killed, with the temperament of this group of pirates, they will not give up.

So the three of them waited in the boat.

Gu Changhuai and Xia Diansi took turns to be on guard.

Mo Hua took out a small blanket, wrapped himself up, and slept in the cabin. His consciousness sank into the sea of ​​consciousness and practiced the formation on the Taoist stele.

The way of formation is to make water drip through stone, so you must be diligent and unremitting.

Nothing can interrupt your life habit of practicing formation, unless you really have to.

As for safety issues.

In the second-grade state boundary, there are two Jindan realm Dian Si as bodyguards for him, so Mo Hua is very relieved.

Gu Changhuai and Xia Dian Si looked at Yanshui River with alert expressions, and turned their heads to see Mo Hua curled up in the bed cabin, sleeping quietly like a cat, and they couldn't help but sigh.

This child is really bold.

How can he sleep in this situation?

Both of them stared at Mo Hua silently, looked for a while, and raised their heads together, just when their eyes met, they were stunned for a moment, and then they didn't say a word, and they all looked away silently.

In this way, Mo Hua practiced formation all night.

When it was almost dawn, Mo Hua opened his eyes, folded the small blanket in a serious manner, put it in the storage bag, and then took out a pot of fruit wine and two pieces of dried meat to eat.

As he was eating, he found two pairs of eyes looking at him.

Mo Hua grabbed another handful of dried meat and handed it over, "Uncle Gu, Sister Xia, do you want to eat it?"

"You eat it..."

The two looked complicated.

"Oh."

Mo Hua didn't force it.

After he finished breakfast on time, the sky was already white, and there was movement in the distance. The pirates who went out came back again.

They couldn't hide their excitement on their faces, and they were covered with blood, not knowing whether it was human blood or the blood of water monsters.

Dozens of ships returned with full loads.

Some were loaded with the bodies of water monsters, bloody.

Some ships had a deep draft and were filled with gold-plated storage boxes, which seemed to be robbed from merchant ships.

Several other ships were loaded with fresh corpses, both men and women, piled up like dead fish, and I didn't know what they were used for.

Xia Diansi's face was pale, his eyes were cold, and there was murderous intent in his eyes.

Gu Changhuai looked at her silently and said softly, "Don't be impulsive."

Xia Diansi didn't answer, but his fingers were clenched white.

In this way, Mo Hua and the other two took cover of the water plants, silently watched the group of pirates, and returned to the island.

They seemed to be reluctant to leave.

"It's dawn again, damn, I haven't had enough fun yet."

"I didn't do much..."

"The damn Dao Tingsi's lackeys, it would be great if they died one day, and we don't have to hide like this."

"Or there's no sun, twelve hours a day, all night, so there's nothing to worry about..."

"The damn sun is out again..."

Mo Hua also looked at the group of arrogant pirates with cold eyes, and said silently in his heart:

"Don't worry, you won't see the morning sun soon..."

...

After the pirates entered the island, Mo Hua and the other two waited for a while, and found that there was no movement around, so they quietly rowed away.

The little silver fish led the way and led Mo Hua and the others to the shore.

Stepping onto the shore and the land, he felt "down to earth", and Mo Hua's heart was inexplicably more at ease.

He turned his head, came to the shore, waved to the little silver fish by the river and said:

"Thank you for this time, go back early, I will see you next time and bring you delicious food."

The little silver fish happily turned twice, said "goodbye, benefactor", and turned into a silver light, swam to the depths of the Yanshui River, merged with the green waves, and disappeared.

Gu Changhuai followed Mo Hua's gaze, still saw nothing, frowned, and couldn't help asking:

"Are you talking to the River God? Why are you talking to a 'pet'?"

Mo Hua said: "I have a good relationship with the River God. Also, Uncle Gu, your words are so disrespectful to the River God. Be careful next time you take a boat, the River God will capsize your boat."

Gu Changhuai shook his head, feeling helpless.

Afterwards, everyone returned to Qingzhou City and discussed in the private room of Gu's teahouse.

Xia Diansi's face has not looked good since he came back. At this time, his eyes were also cold and he said in a deep voice:

"No one of these bandit cultivators can be spared!"

"And that Shui Yanluo also deserves death!"

"I'm going to mobilize people right now, and we'll kill all these villains in three days!"

Gu Changhuai didn't have any objections this time, he just reminded her:

"Although your Xia family is a big family, this is the border of Qianxue State after all. You may not be able to make it within three days."

"And in a hurry to transfer people, some of them may not be reliable..."

Gu Changhuai's eyes narrowed slightly.

Xia Diansi said: "No problem, leave the manpower matter to me."

Seeing her calm expression, Gu Changhuai obviously knew what she was doing, so he said nothing.

"Also, there is the issue of formation..."

Gu Changhuai continued: "We need to keep secret and break the formation on the island in secret..."

"Besides that, it is best to set up formations around the island to trap this group of water bandits. Otherwise, there will be a melee and the water bandits will run around. We will be overwhelmed and some fish will definitely slip through the net."

"If the other water bandits escape, the problem won't be too big, but if the water bandits escape, then the success will be in vain."

Xia Diansi pondered for a moment, frowned and said:

"I'm afraid it's not that simple..."

"I've seen it before. The terrain of this island looks desolate and rough, but it actually implies the Bagua pattern. The formations inside are divided into eight categories."

"The eight gates are not so much for defense as for escape. These water bandits live on the island. As long as they are not blocked, there will always be an exit for them to escape."

"How do you want to break the formation? How do you block it?" Xia Diansi looked at Gu Changhuai.

Gu Changhuai stopped talking.

How does he know how to break the formation and how to block it?

His monastic knowledge system is almost "insulated" from the formation.

Of course, it is not considered "insulated". He can still recognize the formations commonly used by most monks, and he also knows some basic common sense of formations.

In the past, he would have felt that he "somewhat understood" the formation.

But that was all in the past.

Gu Changhuai silently looked at the ink painting.

Mo Hua accepted Gu Changhuai's "ask for help", nodded and said:

"Sister Xia, don't worry, leave the formation to me!"