Every time I wake up, I take the blame for the villain

There were more than 10,000 soldiers when they came, but when they returned, there were less than 1,000.

It was already July, and they parted ways among the rustling autumn leaves in Fenghua Valley. Li Chengen asked Li Yao to take the people back to Tiance Mansion to recuperate, and he was determined to bear all the consequences.

He did not dare to take anyone with him, for fear of the emperor's anger. Qin Yiyan felt uneasy and no one could persuade him, so he went with him to recover his life.

The scenery in Chang'an is still so joyful.

When the leader set out, it was still the twelfth lunar month in the cold winter, and Chang'an could not catch up with the bright lights of the Lantern Festival. The king has orders, and soldiers come first. Now that I'm back, it's the autumn wind with yellow leaves, which makes people's hearts feel extremely desolate.

The Suzaku Gate is still wide open.

The imperial city is still majestic and has not been affected by the wind and frost of Kunlun.

Li Chengen showed his token. The person on duty today was none other than Xu Changhai. He looked at the two generals who had returned alone and sighed in his heart. These two men were already the leaders of the Tang Dynasty who held up half of the sky, but now they are so frustrated. . He had also heard about the Kunlun War. The Valley of the Evil Ones was full of traps, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack. The strategy failed, but the Valley of the Evil Ones was also severely damaged and could no longer produce water. I just hope that His Majesty will not blame them too much.

Xu Changhai said nothing, checked the token according to the rules, and then let him go.

It's past noon.

When they came out of the palace again, the two of them supported each other, their faces a little gloomy.

No one knew what they had experienced. In short, the two of them were thankful that the worst-case scenario of losing their heads did not happen.

They had just stepped out of the palace gate, and before they had even taken two steps, Xia Ziqian appeared from nowhere.

He came very quickly. When he saw these two people, his hurried pace slowed down, and he said in a strange tone, "Hey, isn't this General Li?"

Qin Yiyan frowned slightly after hearing what he said. Even Xu Changhai felt a little impatient when he saw this person.

Li Chengen stood up straight and nodded, "Xia Changshi."

Xia Ziqian's face became more and more gloomy. It's just a second-generation ancestor who was born lucky. Now that he has suffered a defeat, what qualifications do he have to show off in front of him. The first level of official rank is overwhelming. He, a regular servant, is a third-rank official, but Li Chengen is a first-rank general. He thought this in his heart, but he didn't dare to express it publicly. He just said to test, "The general is back from the Valley of the Wicked. I'm very happy to congratulate you."

Li Chengen's face didn't look good either. He glanced at him and snorted coldly. This battle was undoubtedly his most complete defeat since Tiance. He didn't want to mention it. This man seemed to have no expression.

After all, Li Chengen was a man who had fought in the bloody storm. As soon as he showed his murderous intent, Xia Ziqian had cold sweat streaming down his forehead. He could only force himself to smile and said, "The Valley of the Evil is full of institutions. If the general listens to the opinions of the left and right and moves steadily, he will not be able to do anything." The defeat would be so tragic that I might not even be able to return to the court.”

Li Chengen sneered and said, "A layman has come to teach Li what to do. Changshi Xia should just worry about himself! His majesty is happy for a moment with flattery and yin and yang, but can he still be happy with a idiot who does nothing for the rest of his life?"

Xia Ziqian's face froze. Unexpectedly, he spoke so straightforwardly. He stayed silent for a long time before gritting his teeth and replied, "Thank you, General Li, for your advice!"

Li Chengen sneered, took Qin Yiyan and left in two or three steps.

Xia Ziqian looked at the backs of the two men, clenched his fists fiercely, and looked gloomy.

Seeing this, Xu Changhai's frown deepened, and he had no choice but to remind him, "Xia Changshi, His Majesty is singing in the Liyuan with Concubine Hui, and he is waiting for Changshi to go and have fun together."

Xia Ziqian's face twisted, and he said coldly, "Thank you, General Xu, for reminding me!" This emperor only made him a regular servant and did not allow him to participate in government affairs. What was the use of this empty position? He worked hard to adjust back to his usual appearance as a talented bachelor and walked into the main entrance.

Xu Changhai looked at his back and felt inexplicably sympathetic to the upright general.

As the saying goes, it is better to hurt a gentleman than to offend a villain.

In the past few months, Changshi Xia has been wearing small shoes for ministers who are lower than him in the court.

It is really terrible to be hated by such a person.

The pear garden is located in the southeast corner of the inner courtyard of the Daming Palace. There are rockeries, small pools, pavilions, and bamboos in the middle. Everything is perfect and the most noble in the world.

Lotus flowers bloom everywhere in July.

The leaves are green and the water is sparkling.

Before reaching it, the sound of singing and dancing could be heard in the distance.

Xia Ziqian's face also showed a slightly relaxed look, and he walked happily through the arch, crossed the White Jade Bridge, and arrived at the Liyuan.

Li Longji sat on the main seat with a serious expression. Concubine Wu Hui stretched out her delicate hand, picked up a grape from the fruit plate, peeled it and fed it to him. She comforted him in a sweet voice, "Your Majesty, don't be angry. If you are angry, your health will be bad." Concubine, I see that it is General Li who is doing things poorly. Your Majesty has always been diligent and caring for the people, and is deeply loved by the people. General Li took the initiative to ask for help, and Your Majesty agreed for the sake of the peace of the people. However, these two people have failed to live up to His Majesty's expectations for many years. , It’s understandable that the start of the mission was not good.” Concubine Wu Hui smiled slightly, then mentioned the princes, and reminded her casually, “General Li is also past his hot-blooded age, but the newly grown princes, all of them. They all want to go to Tiance Mansion to share His Majesty’s worries!”

Li Longji pushed her hand away, his anger not gone, and scolded, "...Share the worries! Look at this Li Chengen! How dare he ask Tiance to go back in advance! How dare he come with Qin Yiyan to apologize! A common man! A reckless common man!"

He paused, looked at Concubine Hui, and thought of his innocent and straightforward son Li Hao. He immediately became even more dissatisfied with Li Ying as the prince, "As for the prince, I don't know what they want to do yet! Nothing has happened to me yet. Everyone wants to sneak into the military camp! Look at Li Ying, he doesn’t dare to say a word! As a prince, how can Datang trust him? "

After hearing this, Concubine Wu Hui's displeasure at being brushed away by Li Longji disappeared immediately, and a gentle and understanding smile appeared on her beautiful face, "Your Majesty, you are worrying too much. His Royal Highness is gentle and polite, honest and simple, and friendly to brothers." , He is a model for the world, but he is still young and energetic, so he always behaves inappropriately.”

Li Longji looked at her beautiful face and listened to these appropriate words, and his anger finally subsided, "My beloved, please don't excuse them... I don't know the virtues of my sons yet. As a The prince is already over the age of 10 and still acting inappropriately!" He turned away and was angry for a while, but when he mentioned Li Hao, he softened his tone and said, "On the other hand, Mao'er, he will be fourteen now, so what's the point? Miss Yue? My dear wife, please take care of her. I will personally give you the decree later."

Concubine Wu Hui's eyebrows were filled with joy, and her tone became high-spirited. If Mao'er's wedding can meet His Majesty's will, it will be a great honor. She quickly left her seat and bowed to Li Longji, "I would like to thank Your Majesty for your concern on behalf of Mao'er."

Li Longji also left his seat, stretched out his hand to help her up and said with a smile, "Concubine Hui, there is no need to be polite. Mao'er is innocent and straightforward. He is your beloved son. How can I not care about this important matter of marriage?"

Concubine Wu Hui stopped talking, "Your Majesty..."

Being viewed with such admiration by his concubine still greatly satisfied Li Longji's vanity. His anger when he saw the defeated Li Chengen finally subsided, and he hugged Concubine Wu Hui with great satisfaction and excitement. Xia Ziqian said to Xia Ziqian, "My dear! Why don't you write a song for me to commemorate this beautiful occasion?"

Although his questioning tone left no room for doubt.

Xia Ziqian panicked. When he saw the pool of brilliant lotus flowers, he immediately followed the voice in his mind and said, "The lotus leaves that connect the sky are infinitely green, and the lotus flowers that reflect the sun are exceptionally red."

Li Longji touched his chin for a long time, and then praised loudly, "Good! What a beautiful lotus flower in the sun, so red! Xia Aiqing is very talented and knowledgeable! Good!"

There was nothing more to say. Before Xia Ziqian could speak, Li Longji and Concubine Hui walked away laughing.

From a distance, I heard someone say, "My beloved concubine is much more unique than the lotus flower."

Xia Ziqian:......

Gao Lishi:......

Gao Lishi: "Xia Changshi, do you think you should stay in the side hall or return home first?"

Xia Ziqian stretched his head and looked past Gao Lishi at the teasing backs of Li Longji and Concubine Hui hugging each other. His face was ugly, and he turned away without saying a word.

Gao Lishi:......

He was called into the palace after being urged and summoned four times, only to have to leave without even saying a few words to His Majesty. He felt uncomfortable even for him.

Xia Ziqian sat in the sedan and went to Chang'an West Market. When he passed by the pawn shop, he showed great interest and went in to check it out. The shopkeeper said, "What do you want, sir?"

Xia Ziqian took out a cloth bag from his sleeve and said, "Glaze green, Wushou stem."

Liuliping, a quarter of a century ago.

The shopkeeper raised his eyebrows and his tone became more serious, "Come on, sir, I keep the things here and there is no problem in keeping them. You won't suffer any loss!"

The message will definitely be delivered, please rest assured.

After hearing this, Xia Ziqian nodded with satisfaction.

As night falls, the noisy pear orchard gradually returns to calm.

Xia Ziqian blew out the candles in the room, and the figure on the window disappeared, obviously having fallen asleep. In the dark, he put on his night clothes in the blink of an eye, opened the window, and flew past the long and silent wall and street corner under the dark night.

No one would have thought that Chang Shi, who usually showed great literary talent but low martial arts skills, could barely be considered a martial arts master.

The night grew darker.

The trees on the outskirts of the city are covered with yellow leaves, especially in Liuliping.

Xia Ziqian climbed over the city gate, landed in the darkness, and imitated three bird calls.

Not long after, a tall figure walked out of the shadows, and the moonlight fell, vaguely taking care of the human face.

Xiao Sha!

When Xia Ziqian saw him, the depression accumulated in his heart due to the failure in the Valley of the Evil and the slight treatment by Li Longji these days suddenly burst out. Without thinking, he blurted out, "Didn't we agree that Wang Yifeng would definitely die?" Among those 30,000 people, many of them were fooled by the killers paid by Xiao Sha, and their ultimate goal was to kill Wang Yifeng.

Xiao Sha was obviously not very happy either, "How could I have thought that Li Chengen was such a waste! Thirty thousand people couldn't even capture the Valley of the Evil with less than 10,000 people! Those killers had no training, and even Wang Yifeng's worldly The secret can't be blocked." He changed his words and said coldly, "Huh! Didn't your broken medicine kill my cute little junior brother?"

Xia Ziqian almost jumped, "You doubt me? Don't forget, we are grasshoppers on the same rope. Unless Wang Yifeng dies, we will not even think about living in peace! I will lie to you!?"

"……snort."

Xia Ziqian calmed down a little, "...How did the two lovers of Mingjiao use it? Did they hide it from the truth and couldn't tell at all?"

"Then why is it useless to Wang Yifeng?"

"How do I know?"

"……waste!"

"I want Wang Yifeng to die more than you do!"

"Why are you in such a hurry? I bought the news from the Hidden Yuan Society. My good master has helped us a lot this time!" Xiao Sha sneered, "Wang Yifeng has been expelled from the sect and his skills have been completely destroyed!"

Yan Lun, Yan Lun, this old man seems to be addicted to abolishing martial arts.

Xia Ziqian was panicked, but he was relieved after hearing the second half of the sentence. He said coldly, "Humph, I thought you were going to fight against the enemy."

Xiao Sha sneered, "In a situation where there is no end to life, you still fight against the enemy? Ridiculous. Has your brain been chewed by a pig?"

Xia Ziqian: ...

I can bear it. If you are not still useful, I will kill you.

He pretended not to hear it, "What other plans do you have?"

Xiao Sha touched his bloodstone ring that represented the status of the Dharma King of the Ming Cult and smiled coldly.

Xia Ziqian immediately understood and nodded with a smile.

...

Why does the Hidden Yuan Society exist?

First, it is for Jiutian to control the general situation of the world, and second, buying and selling information to balance the black and white forces.

After the Evil Valley defeated Tiance and the eight major sects, it was obviously seriously injured, but in fact, its reputation in the world was "glorious".

Although this scenery is not simply scenery.

Not to mention those who directly joined the Evil Valley to guard Kunlun, there are also many rebels in the world who yearn for it and their names are on the secret list of the Evil Valley. Of course, on the surface, they are still heroes in the world, and no one knows their second identity.

Since leaving Fenghua Valley that day, Jiang Chen drove on the road. He was not in a hurry, just to appreciate the mountains and rivers. Many roads have become blurred in the changes of the times. Even though Jiang Chen has walked through these mountains and rivers thousands of times, everything has become different after all.

Yellow leaves fell all over the mountain road, and the mountains and fields were full of fiery red autumn colors. The birdsong in the woods has gradually disappeared.

Jiang Chen rode his red horse, seemingly not noticing these unusual changes.

The mountain road was long and uninhabited, spiraling down, with no end in sight.

On one side was a golden-red mountain, and on the other side was turbulent water.

Quiet.

A sound of breaking through the air came, and Jiang Chen lowered his eyes and patted the horse's back comfortingly.

A brilliant knife light exploded behind him, followed by a peculiarly shaped turquoise snake-shaped scimitar.

The sun was reflected on it, and the hilt was shining with a green light. With such light, even the knife shadow became blurred, as if it was a deadly weapon flying out of thin air.

If there were other people who could see this scene, they would probably think they saw a ghost in broad daylight. Because there was no figure behind the scimitar.

The shadow was almost nothing, and the real position could not be seen clearly.

Jiang Chen was still motionless.

The person following behind him could not bear it any longer, and a flute flew over and collided with the scimitar, blocking it for a moment.

It was just a wooden flute, but it knocked the fine black iron scimitar away.

The attacker was completely exposed at this moment. He was dressed in cloth, but his heterochromatic pupils still exposed his identity as a non-Central Plains person. He looked around with a grim face, but found no other traces except Jiang Chen.

He asked in the Central Plains dialect with a strange emphasis, "Who are you! Hiding your head and showing your tail!"

No one answered.

The visitor felt cold in his heart, knowing that there were other masters still here today.

Jiang Chen rode his horse and looked at the color of maple fire in the distant mountains. He completely ignored what was happening behind him.

A member of the Ming Cult.

And he was a high-level person.

Otherwise, he would not have such a body movement.

Jiang Chen thought.

Xiao Sha really had too little patience.

Although there were many people in ambush, he should not be unaware of the secrets of the world and be good at controlling people's hearts.

However, when he saw several shadows appearing on the road in front of him, saw the other party's tightly protected ears, the actions that were almost integrated with the knife, and the eyes that were almost emotionless, he also realized. Perhaps these are good knives specially prepared for Wang Yifeng.

How much did Xiao Sha want to make the original owner sad...

How much hatred did Wang Yifeng draw on him?

Such a killing blade, I don't know how many years Xiao Sha has prepared for him.

A cool breeze blew around, and the chill deepened.

Jiang Chen retracted the horse's stiffness, and the chestnut horse stopped very humanely.

A vague phantom exploded, and six people blocked all Jiang Chen's retreat routes from the top of his head, chest, back waist, and legs and wrists with the momentum of chopping, slashing, and sweeping.

The coordination was seamless.

This is undoubtedly a sure-kill move.

At the critical moment, a sharp and rapid flute sounded, and the sound waves exploded. Those who heard it all had their scalps tingling, and a wave of chills surged in their hearts. They couldn't help but think of the dark years in the past and couldn't help themselves. It was like being hit by a cold shower on a cold winter day, making everything seem to be silent and stagnant for a moment.

In this moment, Yan Lun had jumped down from a treetop and followed, and there was only a crisp sound of ding-ding.

Those people seemed to come to their senses, and the long swords with cold gleams were hit on the tip of their noses, which were red and swollen. Those people were hit back a few steps by this force, and faced Yan Lun, their hearts became more cautious.

Jiang Chen had a blank expression on his face, and he didn't even turn his head. As soon as Yan Lun made a move, Jiang Chen knew it was him. He had always felt that someone was following him all the way, and it was indeed Yan Lun.

He thought about it and got off the horse.

Yan Lun frowned and scolded, "What are you doing here?" Hurry up and run.

Jiang Chen straightened his sleeves, and there was no hesitation or retreat on his face.

Someone wanted his life so clearly, was he going to turn a blind eye for the sake of a moment of peace?

It seems that if the incident at Guangming Temple hadn't happened and the Ming Cult was thriving, Xiao Sha would have become quite free, and would have "cared" for his junior brother all the time.

Jiang Chen thought about it, and calmly gave Yan Lun a practical answer, "Kill someone."