I have been slaying demons in the Demon Slayer Division for thirty years

Tap tap tap.

There was the sound of horse hooves on the official road.

A dark face protruded from the grass, with skinny and sunken features and a slender neck.

After a while, I saw a bay-red horse running from far to near. On the horse's back was a young man in brocade robes.

Xilulu!

Zhou Yi tightened the reins and the horse stopped instantly. Anyone with a discerning eye would surely praise his excellent equestrian skills.

"My father-in-law, how far is it from Lihuayi ahead?"

The dark-skinned man stood up slowly. He wore many layers of tattered clothes and was dyed grass green. He spoke in a high-pitched voice, as if squeezed out of his slender neck.

"Lihuayi is long gone."

"When did it disappear? What happened?"

Zhou Yi frowned slightly, but was not surprised. The previous stop, Zhulinyi, had become a wilderness.

"It's been three or four years. I've heard that tigers eat people or something. I'm from out of town too."

The dark face looked at the bulging package on the horse, and prayed: "Do you have any grain and salt? I will trade you the fruit."

"Need not."

Zhou Yi took out a small bag of pancakes, threw it on the ground, shook the reins and continued to drive along the official road.

The packages on the horse's back were just a cover-up, and were mostly distributed to the homeless people on the road.

After a while.

The official road turned a corner and entered a deserted village.

The village has long been overgrown with trees, and the ruins are stained mossy green. When passing by on horseback, you can occasionally find the remaining bones gnawed by wild beasts from the corner of the road.

"This is what Daqian is really like. The prosperity of Luojing and the ease of life are just an exception."

Zhou Yi had already seen this kind of scene from the demon memory fragments, and encountered many of them along the way. However, every time he saw it with his own eyes, he still couldn't help but sigh.

This is the boundary of Jingzhou, one of the three states on the northern border of Daqian.

To the east is Jingchang Prefecture, where the White Lotus Dao is causing chaos. There are often demons and monsters running around causing trouble.

The sixteen prefectures of Daqian are separated from the north and south by the Liangshan Mountains. There are six prefectures of Luo, Jing, Wei, Tai, Feiyun and Jingchang in the north.

Zhouyi went north from Luojing. The further away from Kyoto, the more desolate the population became.

There are still only one post station within a hundred miles in Luozhou. After entering the boundary of Jingzhou, it takes two to three hundred miles to transfer. On the contrary, the interrogations became more and more strict. Fortunately, the Demon Slayer Division's brand was easy to use, and no soldiers dared to make things difficult and blackmail them.

Hengyang is located in Guning County, Jingzhou, and is close to Guning County. It is expected to cross the Shepan Mountain in front tonight and arrive in three to five days.

The deserted village is not large, and the bay red horse quickly passed through it.

Guaguagua——

A series of unpleasant cries came.

On the bare, bare dead trees at the end of the village, rows of crows squatted, forming a black line, and the branches seemed to have turned into minions of a dark demon.

Guaguagua——

When the crow saw the bay horse galloping, instead of flying away, it crowed more cheerfully.

Zhou Yi squinted his eyes and clearly saw the crow's pupils were red, and the blue sky was like red dots shaking in the daytime.

After using Zhanzhan Qi Technique to check, the crow's body was filled with a strong gray and black evil aura.

Crows like to eat carrion, so they only have red eyes when they often eat dead people and transform into demons.

Zhou Yi rode past a dead tree, and the restless crows screamed. Three or four hundred of them flew up like a dark cloud, and all swooped towards him.

"court death!"

A flash of sword light rose into the sky and shuttled among the crows.

Black feathers flew out, blood splattered everywhere, and in an instant the ground was dyed black and red, with crow corpses everywhere.

The bay-red horse's breath was calm, and it was not surprised when it saw many things. It ran towards Snake Winding Mountain calmly and unhurriedly.

The Jingzhou post station was deserted, and Zhou Yi did not change horses for more than ten days in a row. In order not to exhaust the bay red horse to death, he could only use magic power to maintain his strength.

Zhou Yi sometimes wondered whether it was a man riding a horse or a horse riding a man.

The deserted village completely returned to silence.

After a long time, a dark face emerged from behind the broken wall.

Looking at the dead trees at the head of the village from a distance, I found that the trees were bare and there was a large area of ​​visceral remains on the ground.

The dark-faced boy swallowed and slowly touched the dead tree. Sure enough, all the red-eyed crows were dead.

"We have eaten meat, but what should we do next?"

…

Zhou Yi rode his horse all the way into Snake Pan Mountain.

The forest is deep, the leaves are dense, and the ancient trees are towering, blocking out the sun. The light is getting darker and darker.

The mountain road is rugged and has been completely submerged by grass. You can only judge the former official road from the sparse trees.

Zhou Yi originally thought that he would be able to climb over Snake Pan Mountain tonight, and then the road would be smooth and plain, but God was not kind to him.

Rumble——

Dark clouds gathered quickly in the sky, and thunder rolled among the clouds.

The mountain rain came very quickly, turning from blue sky and bright day into heavy rain in a matter of seconds.

Zhouyi's magic power penetrated the body and condensed into an invisible and qualityless umbrella, blocking the rain.

I ran several miles of mountain roads again.

Thunder and lightning flashed, illuminating the rain curtain, and a temple was vaguely visible in the mountains.

Zhou Yi drove his horse over to take shelter from the rain. When he got closer, he saw clearly that it was a mountain temple. However, it looked extremely dilapidated, with wind leaking everywhere, and the white ash on the walls had been blown clean.

The mountain winds and heavy rains made the walls crumbling.

Zhou Yi tied his horse outside, pushed open the temple door and went in. There were already seven or eight people warming themselves by the fire. They looked like they were businessmen.

The head of the businessman kept his hands on his waist. Seeing that Zhou Yi was young and alone, he lowered his head and continued to eat the pancake.

The statue of the mountain god in the temple was half broken and fell to the ground. The merchant used it as a bench and sat under it.

Zhou Yi cleared a clearing and sat silently on the parcel, waiting for the mountain rain to pass.

The leader looked at Zhou Yi strangely. His clothes were soaked and he didn't light up the fire. He was on the road to rest and didn't eat anything. He quietly touched his companion with his foot.

The companion immediately understood and moved to sit facing Zhou Yi.

Rumble——

The thunder continued and the rain became heavier and heavier.

The merchants dried their clothes and boiled water. The atmosphere was no longer so oppressive, and they began to talk and laugh.

The world is tough, and we can’t live our lives crying.

Most of them are about family affairs and dirty jokes, about whose mother-in-law steals a man, whose son is not her biological son, and whose physical strength is so strong that girls who leave the door ajar are not allowed to go.

"Have you heard about Guning?"

The words of one of them attracted Zhou Yi's attention.

"Who doesn't know yet? It's haunted. What's so rare about this kind of thing!"

"Then it can't always be haunted. It's been more than a year and it hasn't stopped. I don't dare to sell goods."

Some people couldn't help but complain: "If we make trouble, if we make trouble, people will be in panic. Can't officials take precautions in advance?"

"Ahem, cough, cough! You kid, what the hell are you talking about?"

The leader kicked the man and glanced at Zhou Yi secretly: "It's not haunted, how can we catch him? He just said nonsense about having a son and not having sex!"

The man seemed to realize that he had said the wrong thing and quickly changed the subject.

Squeak.

The temple door was pushed open again.

What came in was a scholar wearing a Confucian scarf. He was fat and covered in mud, as if he had rolled in a mud puddle.

The book box in my arms had been washed away by the rain, and it was dripping sparsely.

The scholar was very happy to see the light of the fire. He wiped the rain off his face and carefully placed the book box on the altar table.

"I'm Du Si, a native of Hengyang. I planned to travel to Beijing. The road was slippery because of the rain, and I accidentally lost my parcel."

Du Si was in such a state of embarrassment that he still politely handed over his hand and said: "Brother, can you borrow a fire to dry your clothes?"

The leader looked at the scholar, touched the peace charm in his arms, and nodded slightly.

Seeing this, the merchant nearby divided a stream from the fire to ignite it, and helped the scholar fill a handful of dry wood.

Common people will still look down upon scholars.