Drunken and faintly dreaming

Under the heavy night cover, the outline of Yongwei City in Kyoto, Nanwei Kingdom, looks uniquely tall and majestic. Beside the gurgling moat, a man wearing a raincoat and a bamboo hat is still sitting there leisurely fishing.

.

Out of curiosity, a child on a picnic pretended to catch shrimps by the water and gradually approached the fisherman. Unexpectedly, the "coir raincoat man" was completely unaware of this and continued to be quiet like a stone statue.

Waiting for the fish that belong to him.

The child's sharp eyes, in the hazy night, suddenly discovered that the fishing rod used by the "coir raincoat man" was actually glowing with a golden luster when reflected in the river water! It was not difficult to see that the fishing rod was actually

Made of gold!

At one glance, the child almost screamed out! This obviously finally alerted the "coir raincoat man", who turned his neck slightly - a coir raincoat leaf suddenly shot out!

The astonished child didn't even have time to close his mouth before he was shot in the throat by the coir leaf, and then fell down softly...

"Coirard Man" didn't even turn his head to look, and a smile appeared on his face that was as cold as iron just now - because he found that a fish had taken the bait! After a while, he caught several two fish one after another.

After loading three kilograms of live fish, the "Coirard Man" returned home with a full load of satisfaction.

On the edge of the moat where a river of spring water flows quietly, under the pale light of the waning moon, the green grass swaying in the breeze is still lush, as if lamenting the unfortunate fate of the outing child...

…

Within the thick city wall of Nanwei City, due to the implementation of the curfew, all the neighborhoods and alleys were silent. A small group of city defense officers on night watch walked through a street with clanging steps and neat steps, startling a "

"Night wandering ghost" quickly shrink down and dodge!

After a while, the "night wanderer" who was hiding under a wooden board leaning against the door of a cloth shop finally slipped out with his head peeping out. When he saw no one around, he took out the firebrand from his arms and pulled it out with all his strength.

It blows brightly.

The "Night Wandering Ghost" raised his torch and took a picture of the area. He was suddenly so surprised that he said "Hey!". It turned out that the long wooden board he had just been hiding under had the word "rice" painted on it in the upper right corner.

shaped characters.

Even if ordinary people see the "rice" character, they will either turn a blind eye or think that it is just a child's random graffiti - they will never use their imagination in other aspects. However, the "rice" character

From the perspective of "Night Wandering Ghost", its meaning is absolutely extraordinary!

In the past ten years, Manichaeism, which was originally introduced from foreign lands, has gradually declined due to various reasons, and its leader has also moved westward to the outside world. Later, due to the sudden rise of the Xidi Kingdom entrenched in the deserts and grasslands of the western border,

, the leader of the country respected the "Batong Sacred Religion" which evolved from Manichaeism as the state religion.

The "Batong Holy Cult" of the Xidi Kingdom has always intended to infiltrate the outside world. Its followers are communicating outside, and the code used for communication is the "rice" character seen by the "night wandering ghosts" now!

At that moment, under the light of the fire, the "Night Wandering Ghost" suddenly realized that this cloth shop belongs to him! So, he cautiously opened his eyes and looked around again, and then tiptoed up the steps in front of the shop.

, raised his hand and knocked lightly on the shop door.

"Who is it?" The door of the shop opened with a crack, and a head with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks squeezed out.

"Om mani!" "Night Wandering Ghost" sounded like a hummer, reciting the prearranged joint code.

"Hey! Om mani!" The "monkey head" who came to open the door responded to the code words in a hurried tone, stretched out his hand and anxiously opened half of the door panel, and turned sideways to let the guests squeeze in.

The "Night Wandering Ghost" looked up and found that a huge cloth shop was silent at this time. And the cloths hanging high were swaying slightly under the weak light, adding a bit of shadowy psychedelia.

Feel……

"Come this way!" "Monkey Head" didn't want "Night Wandering Ghost" to see clearly the situation in the shop, so he urged a little impatiently.

The "night wandering ghost" had no choice but to follow the "monkey head" with his head covered. He passed through a secret door and entered a narrow passage with twists and turns. Maybe the "monkey head" deliberately didn't let him see too much.

So I deliberately didn't light a lamp or hold a torch, and relied on my familiarity with the environment to walk in the dark like "wading through water."

In this way, after about half a quarter of an hour, they finally came to the entrance of an underground cave. The torches on both sides of the cave automatically lit up when they "heard" a noise!

Under the light of the fire, "Night Wandering Ghost" saw a stone tablet standing beside the entrance of the cave, with "Qingming's Realm" written in seal script on it - he suddenly felt a little confused...

At the moment when he was stunned for a moment, the "monkey head" had already quietly pressed a hidden switch, and the cave door slowly opened. So they lowered their heads and got into the cave, and turned two more times.

After turning a corner, I saw a slightly spacious world in the cave...

"Hericium" looked up at the sky and bowed several times, then said: "Jun Qingming, there is a messenger coming from the main altar!"

Then a voice echoed in the air - asking him to take out the holy tokens!

Hearing the sound, the "Night Wandering Ghost" hurriedly took off his coat, took out a stone badge polished with soapstone from the interlayer of the close-fitting coat, and handed it to the "Monkey Head".

"Monkey Head" looked at it carefully for a while, then returned the badge to "Night Wandering Ghost", raised his head and said in the air: "Jun Qingming, the identity of the envoy has been verified."

"Hmm -" As a long nasal sound sounded, a tall and thin man wearing a green and black hooded robe slowly turned out from behind a stone pillar.

Seeing Lord Qingming appear, "Hericium" hurriedly pulled "Night Wandering Ghost" and knelt down together to salute. Lord Qingming glanced at "Night Wandering Ghost"'s face and said leisurely: "Tell me,

What is the order from the leader?"

When "Night Wandering Ghost" asked, he immediately stood up, took out a thin piece of parchment from his arms, and presented it to Lord Qingming with both hands. Lord Qingming bowed respectfully to the piece of parchment.

Just now he took it with both hands, but the strange thing is - there is not a single word on the paper!

But Qingming Jun was not surprised at all. With a little movement of his wrist, he let the parchment float flatly for more than a foot in the air. At the same time, he pinched some brown powder from his sleeve and looked at the parchment.

A flick in the direction!

When the parchment fell into his hands, it was already covered with some cuneiform characters popular in the Western Region. Qingming Jun glanced at the paper and immediately understood: This is different from usual

The "Jun's edicts" are no different, they all urge the raising of iron salt and other materials that have always been scarce in Xidi.

After the business was done, Mr. Qingming stopped talking about anything and only said in a deep voice: "Reward——"

The "monkey head" standing at the bottom simply agreed: "Yes!" and took the "night wandering ghost" out of the cave, and once again touched the wall in the dark and walked out...

Returning to the cloth shop, "Houtou" casually gave "Night Wandering Ghost" a bag of broken silver and arranged for him to rest in a small room at the back.

Early the next morning, the dung truck that was passing through this section of the street and rushing out of the city suddenly suddenly had a helper pushing the cart behind it! A few quarters of an hour later, as the dung truck left the city, the

The extra helpers also ended their work and embarked on the road back to the west...