Heavenly Dao Formula

Humans... slaughtering humans?

Xia Fan didn't ask her what she saw.

He only felt repulsion and habituation from the other party's eyes.

——The fox demon doesn't want to elaborate on this issue.

Realizing this, Xia Fan could only suppress the doubts in his heart.

...

Early the next morning, Wei Wushuang had already changed into the alchemist uniform, and appeared at the door of Xia Fan's residence in good spirits.

"Today is the first class for the first batch of new alchemists, we can't be late!"

"I know, I know," Xia Fan yawned and walked out of the gate. In order to make up for the time spent on entraining qi, he sat up until two or three in the morning last night before going to bed. Now that he has become a civil servant working from six to five, he really can't get used to it.

It was not long after dawn at this time, and the sky was still light blue. After a night of filtering, the smell of firewood in the air has faded a lot.

The heat of the summer season is also diluted by the sea, and the morning breeze that rolls across the street is covered with a trace of coolness. If you take a deep breath, you can even taste a little salty.

If there is no such thing as burning salt, Jinxia City may also be a good place to live.

But not far from the courtyard wall, Xia Fan saw something unusual: I saw many people wearing official government uniforms walking back and forth along the street, as if they were searching for something, while the common people stayed far away Yes, pointing to the wall and whispering.

Xia Fan followed the latter's gaze to glance around twice, and soon landed on a touch of brown.

Common sense told him that it was the trace of dried blood.

"It's just what you humans love to do."

What Li said last night suddenly appeared in his mind.

Could this be the source of yesterday's screams?

"Did you hear any abnormal noise yesterday?" He asked Wei Wushuang.

"No, I went to bed very early, and it was dawn when I opened my eyes." The fellow patted his head, "Did something happen?"

He really is a carefree rich second generation... Xia Fan recounted what he heard, but omitted the part about the fox demon.

"So that's what it is," Wei Wushuang was stunned, and then frowned again, "I guess... probably the gang did it."

"Gang?"

"Well, Jinxia City is no different than Fenghua County. It has more people and more forces. When I came here to do business, I was blocked by them, and I only got out after paying some money. As for the specific gangs here, I don't know exactly."

Xia Fan nodded, and turned his gaze back to the bloodstain.

Obviously, this was a hunt that lasted for a long time, blood was scattered along the street, and there should be more than one victim.

After walking hundreds of meters towards the Privy Council, there were suddenly many more people watching, and a dozen or so yamen servants even surrounded a large courtyard of private houses to prevent everyone from approaching.

Obviously this is the source of the case.

"I remember that the Privy Council can also participate in handling the case?" Xia Fan asked in a low voice.

"That's right, but it's only limited to the evil incident. This matter has nothing to do with us." Wei Wushuang also lowered his voice.

"How did you see that?"

"Look," he pointed to a pile of iron objects at the entrance of the courtyard, "that should be the murder weapon found by the government, and it's still stained with blood. I've never heard that Xie Chong can wield knives and sticks."

It sounds like it does.

There were a few swords in the pile of iron, but more hoes, shovels, and kitchen knives—it was clear that the attackers had the upper hand in weapons.

Xia Fan also noticed that the yamen servants kept carrying out the corpses from the courtyard. Through the human wall, he could vaguely see some strange icons embroidered on the clothes of the corpses.

It seemed to be a white flower.

And the shape of the petals... made him feel familiar.

Wei Wushuang may have guessed correctly, this incident should be just an ordinary murder.

The only thing that bothered him was that after the officials noticed the black alchemist robes on both of them, they all leaned inward, making the wall closer, as if they were not civil servants of Qiguo, but Like the murder suspect.

This kind of exclusion made Xia Fan give up the idea of ​​going to find out.

The sun had just climbed over the wall when they arrived at the Privy Council Mansion, and the two walked into the inner hall of Zhiwei Hall with the six o'clock chime. There were already four people waiting for them in the spacious room.

Obviously these four people plus the two of them are the first batch of new alchemists mentioned by the reception officer.

"Flower picker?" A woman asked in surprise.

Xia Fan took a closer look and found that the other party was actually Luo You'er.

As soon as these words came out, the eyes of the other three people suddenly became strange.

"No, what does flower picker mean?"

"Sneaking into an unmarried woman's boudoir is usually a flower picker."

"That's an exam!" He quickly argued, "And I'm not targeting people, the source of the spiritual fire is my goal! Don't you and your senior sister agree on this!"

"Well, it's okay to change it to a soil thief, right?" Luo You'er said with reason.

Xia Fan decided to give up arguing.

"Hmph, what a boring farce." Another handsome man in a fancy dress looked away and found a seat by himself.

"My name is Shangguancai, I came here from Shangyuan City." The woman beside Luo Youer came over generously and said, "It's the first time we meet, please take care of me."

Renamed... Xia Fan couldn't help but look at her twice.

With straight bangs and a single ponytail, he is neither tall nor short, with freckles on his face, a slightly collapsed nose bridge, an ordinary appearance, and no obvious jewelry on his body, and he doesn't look like he was born in a famous family.

The only bright spot is her pair of eyebrows and eyes.

The tall willow leaf eyebrows and slightly raised eyes give people a heroic feeling.

"Yue Feng, from Suzhou." The last person briefly introduced.

Compared with the noble young man before, this man's clothes were much more casual. He didn't even wear a crown, but just tied his hair in a bun with strips of cloth, showing a chic and comfortable look.

It's just that Xia Fan noticed that his forearm, which was exposed outside the alchemist's uniform because he was standing with his chest folded, was quite thick, the knuckles on the back of his hand were raised high, and there were many scars, which undoubtedly had been tempered for a long time.

"I'm Xia Fan, and this is my fellow villager, Wei Wushuang. We are both from Fenghua County." Xia Fan showed a "friendly" smile. No matter what, these alchemists are colleagues he will need to get along with for a long time in the future. Good relationships can never go wrong.

"Oh, you're all here?" At this moment, an old man with half-white hair and about fifty years old walked in—even though he was older than this era, his footsteps were invisible. Not at all sluggish, and his voice is full of energy. "That's right, no fool joined the Privy Council this time. Sit down, everyone. My surname is Zhang Mingya. You can call me Zhang Shi, Zhang Jiaoxi, or Zhang Master, but don't call me Mr. Zhang. Do you understand? You don’t need to call yourself a disciple, I’m just teaching you as part of my job, there’s no teacher-student relationship to speak of. If you remember, please answer this old man!”

It took a long time for everyone to react, and they continued, "I will remember."

Is this the behavior style of Liupin Wendao? Xia Fan was very surprised in his heart. The master-student relationship was to some extent comparable to blood relationship. It was not uncommon for teachers and students to form factions from generation to generation. How could he not care at all?

"Very good, don't forget that you are alchemists of the Privy Council, improving your own strength is more important than any etiquette." Master Zhang nodded in satisfaction, "In this lesson, what I want to teach you is how to further understand your own qi. He flipped through a small notebook, "The alchemists I've named come to the stage."