Lord of Deception

The north wind howls like a cold blade, causing all things to wither.

On the deserted valley path with only some rocks, Yu Ziqing tightened a large cloak made of several layers of black cloth haphazardly patched together, and wrapped a black dog skin hat on his head. Only a pair of squinted eyes were exposed. He shrank to the middle of the group and quietly raised his head. Take a glance.

Behind the team were 1,780 goats, most of which were skinny and skinny. In addition, there were six long-haired cattle carrying supplies.

On both sides of the team, seven or eight black and skinny men, with their necks slightly hunched, looked after the sheep listlessly.

At the front of the team were four men with shiny dark skin and felt-like hair, riding tall horses. They only wore animal skin vests, but they were still steaming in the freezing weather.

Just getting closer, Yu Ziqing felt that it was not so cold anymore.

The man with snake tattoos on his face on the right seemed to be aware of Yu Ziqing's approach. He glanced back and spoke to his companions in a foreign dialect with a heavy accent.

Yu Ziqing lowered his head and pretended not to understand. Anyway, he knew that these guys would not be able to spit out any good shit.

After listening to a few words, the four strong men changed the topic away from Yu Ziqing and started chatting on their own.

Yu Ziqing lowered his head, as if he was afraid of the cold, and followed closely behind the four big men.

After half an hour, when snow began to fall in the sky, the man on the right with snake tattoos on his face turned to glare at Yu Ziqing and spoke in Mandarin with a slightly stiff accent.

"I'm hungry, let's roast some meat."

"Oh." Yu Ziqing responded and thought to himself, it's a good thing that I learned Mandarin very quickly, otherwise I wouldn't be able to understand such simple words with a slight accent.

When they reached a mountain col with leeward wind, four strong men dismounted their horses to set up tents and drove the cattle and sheep into the innermost part of the col. Then they turned to look at Yu Ziqing.

Yu Ziqing remained expressionless as he went to find some remaining dry weeds in the crevices of the pile of rocks to start a fire.

After a while, Yu Ziqing took out the frozen, hard meat, cut it into slices with a guillotine, and spread it on the hot stone slab. Soon, the fat sizzled and the aroma began to spread.

Four big and thick men pulled their cheeks and stuffed the food hard. Yu Ziqing roasted it for a long time, and in less than half a cup of tea, it was completely eaten.

After eating, and drinking the bad wine from the animal skin wineskins, several strong men continued to speak in the foreign dialect with a heavy tongue.

After having enough food and wine, the three strong men were slightly drunk. They fell down beside the tent, wrapped themselves in animal skins and fell asleep, snoring like thunder. Only the strong man with snake pattern was still sitting by the campfire.

Yu Ziqing looked at the empty stone slab, stepped aside silently, took out a piece of dry naan from his arms, boiled some hot water and softened it, and then swallowed it slowly.

The few chapped men came over quietly, scraped the remaining grease crumbs on the stone slab with dry biscuits, and wolfed them down.

Yu Ziqing sighed secretly, said nothing, and stood up holding his belly. Seeing this, the strong man with snake pattern waved his hand impatiently.

After walking out of the col and reaching the downwind, Yu Ziqing finished draining the water, looked around, and sighed secretly.

It's really unlucky.

To be honest, when I first came to this world and found out that it was an ancient background, Yu Ziqing was quite worried, not for himself, but for others.

I was afraid that if I drank some Ollie, I would create a plague that could wipe out the entire city.

Then, he thought too much.

He had never seen the city at all.

Less than three days after landing, I saw a new sun rising on the horizon, its dazzling light expanding exponentially.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly and found a bunker immediately, otherwise he would have been blinded by the bright light on the spot.

Disaster struck.

After a month of hard work, I still couldn't find the so-called city. When I finally found the villages, they were all deserted and not even a single living person could be found.

It has been very difficult not to die of thirst and starvation for more than a month.

Finally I saw a living person, but it was four strong men who had taken him captive.

After marching in the team for a month, the old scholar who taught him Mandarin in the team had disappeared.

The bastard who wanted to be a bitch and cling to the strong man's lap has also disappeared.

Even several women disappeared after Yu Ziqing woke up.

At that time, according to the strong man with the snake-striped face, anyone who wanted to run could run away, but the land within a radius of three to four hundred miles was desolate, and the weather was so cold. Without the resources in the hands of the strong man, he might not be able to survive for three days. .

Yu Ziqing didn't plan to run away. When the disappeared old scholar taught him Mandarin, he also taught him some foreign languages. In addition, Yu Ziqing started from scratch and listened to it, and he could basically understand it.

I had nothing to do and eavesdropped on the chatter of the few strongmen who came over. The summary is that these strongmen are traffickers going to the mines. Moreover, the weather this year is abnormal, it gets cold very early, and it is getting colder day by day.

There were some disasters in the past few months, but today, it is difficult to find a village even within a radius of 500 miles or even a thousand miles.

These trafficked people were told that there was no man's land within a radius of three to four hundred miles. Yu Ziqing estimated that these weaklings must have deliberately dug holes to give people some hope of escape.

According to empirical estimates, the temperature is now almost minus 20 degrees, and it is getting colder and colder. He is not sure that under such circumstances, he will be a headless fly and travel thousands of miles into a completely unfamiliar place... No, it may be bigger. No man's land.

Survive first.

Of course, he also knew that he couldn't run away.

Returning to the mountain col, Yu Ziqing hunched slightly, wrapped himself in a patchwork cloak, and lay beside the bonfire.

Not long after, while half asleep and half awake, I vaguely saw a figure moving.

Yu Ziqing remained motionless, breathing evenly. He just opened his eyes slightly and watched quietly.

A man with a black patch of hair on his left face made a small circle around the edge of the camp, picked up a skinny lamb, and wriggled away along the edge.

Through the faint light of the campfire, Yu Ziqing could still see that the lamb had its head drooped, and he didn't know if it was dead.

As soon as this man came out of the temporary camp, he saw several other figures quietly following him, and they quietly left with gestures.

In the camp, even the strong man with snake pattern who kept vigil at the end had fallen asleep.

Yu Ziqing sighed secretly, with a complicated expression. He didn't know whether to admire the courage of these people or lament their next fate.

Sure enough, when these people walked no more than ten feet away, Yu Ziqing saw a black rope on the ground, like a black snake swimming, following it with a thin rustling sound.

The man carrying the lamb stumbled and fell. He put his hands on the ground and was about to stand up. The skinny lamb on his back silently turned into a sheepskin and was draped around him. body.

The black rope that was approaching quietly was also wrapped around his neck at this moment.

A seven-foot man was dragged into the shadows by the black rope without any suspense.

"Baa... baa..."

Accompanied by frightening bleating sounds in the night, the bonfire suddenly became blazing. Under the light, a strong man with snake pattern was already standing in the shadow.

He held a black rope in one hand and a white goat on the other.

There is a round piece of black hair on the left side of the goat's face.

The shape is like the black hairy mole on the left face of the man before.

Seeing the strong man with the snake pattern walking out of the shadows with a sneer, the remaining people, with panic on their faces, waved the knives they got from nowhere and stabbed the body of the strong man with the snake pattern.

"Ding."

There was a sound of gold and iron clashing, but the place where the knife was pierced was still glowing with oil, and even the skin was not broken.

The roaring flames of the bonfire subsided again, and everything was covered in shadow again.

After a short while, Yu Ziqing saw the strong man with the snake pattern coming back, holding a black rope in his hand and tying up seven or eight skinny goats.

Everything was quiet, and everything seemed to be back to normal.

In the second half of the night, it seemed to be even colder than yesterday.

Yu Ziqing was woken up by the cold, so he could only get closer to the bonfire and the human-shaped stoves. Finally, he didn't feel so cold anymore.

But now, there is no sleepiness at all.

Taking advantage of the light of the fire, Yu Ziqing took out a yellowed book, and then used blackened charcoal as a charcoal pen to write and draw on the book.

The strong man with snake print sitting on the night watch sat beside the bonfire. He glanced at it and saw the word "recipe" on the cover of the book. He turned his head with surprise and took out a black scorpion and stuffed it into his mouth.

Yu Ziqing opened the menu and found that most of it contained words with very complicated strokes. In the gaps between the lines, there were small Chinese characters written in familiar Chinese characters.

Code name: Snake tattooed face.

Real name: Holgeda (transliteration), original text **** (blacked out).

Identity: A member of the Bantu tribe (which has been destroyed), Ren Yazi, a cannibal evil cultivator, and an informant on the seventh floor (unknown force).

Main experience: The tribe was destroyed, wandering in the wilderness, and accidentally obtained a fragment of the Dharma Book called "Five Poisons Often Heared", which opened Ren Yazi's path to evil cultivation.

Often eat poisonous substances (there are many poisonous insects, snakes and ants in the supplies, which are necessary for spiritual practice).

Practice evil laws and create animals.

Controlling the rope, the black rope is actually made of hair mixed with wool of an unknown type, and is an essential magic weapon for making evil animals.

After that, Yu Ziqing continued to add:

Invulnerability does not require physical training or Qi resistance. It requires the consumption of poisons to nourish and practice. Poisons can also be used as blue medicine.

This is what I just saw. I have seen it many times before using poison to practice. But eating poison immediately after taking action and using it as blue medicine to quickly replenish and consume it was his speculation.

After writing this page, information about the snake-printed brawny man was written in small characters in the gaps of the entire page of recipes, densely packed and extremely detailed.

After doing all this, Yu Ziqing put the recipe in his arms and took a look at the rusty sword in his arms. The sword body and scabbard were rusted to death and were completely scrapped.

But at this moment, in the gap between the rusty dagger blade and the scabbard, there was a faint trace of rust that turned into dust and fell off silently.

Yu Ziqing's heart suddenly relaxed, and it seemed that at this moment, his body that had been tense and curled up finally dared to relax a little.

Collecting information bit by bit and understanding those strong men is very necessary under normal circumstances, let alone now it is related to his trump card to save his life.

Although he is just an ordinary person, no, now he is a hungry, frozen and half-dead weakling who is not even as good as an ordinary person who has enough to eat and drink.

But as long as he knows some necessary information about his opponent, he will be almost invincible to his opponent as long as he takes action.

After months of exploration, today, I finally reached the triggering conditions for the snake-skin man.

Unfortunately, the current classification is still relatively rough.

It can only be temporarily classified as true name, identity, origin, major method, specialty, or trump card.

But it is still uncertain how specific each requirement is. Yu Ziqing even thinks that there may be some requirements that he has not classified.

Yu Ziqing raised his head and looked at the strong man with snake pattern. He narrowed his eyes slightly. The tense nerves finally relaxed a little. At least from now on, his life would not be completely in the hands of others.

Take out the charcoal pencil and blacken out all the small words, only filling in the beginning.

"Snake print man, harmless."

Continue to the next page. All the information on this page has been blacked out, leaving only one sentence.

"Scarfaced man, harmless."

Turn two more pages, same thing.

Yu Ziqing tightened his cloak and fell asleep leaning against the bonfire.

This time, he slept much more peacefully.

Suddenly it was dark and Yu Ziqing was woken up.

It’s time to continue on our way.

After a quick glance, sure enough, the few chapped men who were left yesterday were all gone.

And among the sheep in the flock, if you count them carefully, there are a few more.

After marching into the night again, and continuing to find a place to rest, the strong man with the snake pattern seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, pointed at the looming mountains in the distance, and said with a big smile.

"We'll be there soon, the mine."

Yu Ziqing also seemed to be relieved and grinned.

According to what these strongmen said when they communicated in foreign dialects, since the disaster struck, and to this day, it is conservatively estimated that this mine is the only inhabited place in the area of ​​more than a thousand miles.

Or, this is the only place that can be considered relatively stable. At least there is food, drinkable water, and shelter from the wind, snow, and cold.

This mine can mine an ore called Jinlan, and its output accounts for more than 50% of all the ores produced in the world. The remaining less than half is scattered throughout the world.

Yu Ziqing didn't know what the specific function was. He just heard that this thing was a necessity for the extremely high-status and arrogant monks in the southern Daqian Dynasty, and the demand was always in short supply.

With this kind of interest, it is impossible for the mine to become an uninhabited place.

It's just that the more than a thousand miles of desolate and uninhabited land below me was not officially included in the territory of the Daqian Dynasty for various reasons that Yu Ziqing has not yet figured out.

Yu Ziqing guessed that this might have given those strongmen the basis for kidnapping and selling people.

It's a pity that the overall environment is getting worse and worse. Even these strong men plan to go to other places after finishing this job. There is no oil and water here anymore. Just like this time, the sheep herding takes the longest time and the number is On the contrary, it is the least.

Nowadays, after walking for dozens of miles, not even a rabbit can be seen. The edible plants are either frozen to death or withered. Even if some of them are dry and buried in the soil, most of them cannot escape the fate of being eaten clean by the fleeing animals.

Along the way, it was rare to see anything but dry bones. At least it wasn't like this before.

At night.

Yu Ziqing stood at the edge of the sheep flock, with his back to the four strong men, holding a palm-sized piece of naan bread in his hand, and handed it to the mouth of a skinny old sheep, murmuring.

"Eat some, survive first, then there is hope."

The old sheep bleated twice, took a few bites of the pancake, and drank some water from Yu Ziqing.

At this moment, a strong man with snake patterns came over, pointed at Yu Ziqing, pointed at the skinny old sheep, and yelled twice impatiently.

"Hurry up, bring me here."

Yu Ziqing paused, and his eyes changed instantly.

It's a pity that he kept squinting his eyes, his face was covered with black ash, and the dead skin stuck to his face since he hadn't washed it for a long time, plus the dog-skin hat wrapped around his head, no one could tell from his face. What.

Yu Ziqing sighed secretly and turned around slowly.

said softly.

"This sheep is old and thin. It can't cut off two kilograms of meat. It doesn't taste good. Aren't there a few fatter sheep?"

To be honest, under normal circumstances, Yu Ziqing really couldn't tell which of the sheep were victims of the evil animal-making method and which were real sheep.

But here, he can really tell the difference at a glance.

Nowadays, in this freezing wasteland, except for strong men like strong men, it is impossible to see ordinary people who are fat and strong.

After a few months, no matter how it was before, no matter whether they are alive or dead, they will definitely become thinner than the last one.

As for those who are not thin, they will not become victims of animal breeding.

When the strong man with the snake pattern heard this, he grinned and pointed at Yu Ziqing and laughed.

"You're right, there are indeed fatter ones here."

While he was talking, the black rope tied around his waist disappeared without knowing when.

Hearing this, Yu Ziqing immediately understood that this guy did it on purpose.

We are about to reach our destination, and my value as a chef is no longer as good as that of a sheep.

The plan that I wanted to find a relatively stable place to stay first and then make plans could not proceed smoothly after all.

Yu Ziqing gently pushed Lao Yang and said directly.

"Old sir, stay away. Blood will be spattered on you. In this damn weather, if you get wet, it will be fatal."

The old sheep bleated twice, and when he saw Yu Ziqing's eyes filled with sorrow and howling, he understood that Yu Ziqing didn't want to get involved with him even if he died.

Unfortunately, he couldn't defeat Yu Ziqing, so he was pushed into the flock of sheep and carried away by the sheep.

Yu Ziqing turned around, slowly walked out, and slowly took out the rusty dagger from his arms.

The strong man with the snake pattern couldn't help but laugh. He was not afraid that Yu Zi would see anything early in the morning, and he didn't even want to hide anything deliberately.

The black rope had already dragged a sheepskin and appeared behind Yu Ziqing.

The black rope dragged the sheepskin and swooped up. Yu Ziqing drooped his eyelids, holding the scabbard in his left hand and the dagger in his right hand, and pulled it out with all his strength.

In an instant, a sword light flashed across the rusty dagger, and with its afterimage, the dagger directly cut the sheepskin and black rope into two pieces.

Accompanied by the black rope's struggling and howling like a living creature.

The rust on the dagger fell off layer by layer, and the dagger instantly turned into a silver frost sword covered with water patterns, exuding a cold light.

And Yu Ziqing's slightly hunched body slowly straightened up. Inside the frail body, cold murderous intent burst out of thin air, accompanied by hot blood and energy.

The eyes that had been slightly squinted suddenly opened, and in the eyes like stars, there seemed to be a dazzling sun shining.

Without saying a word, Yu Ziqing drew his sword and stepped forward. His body looked like a sword unsheathed. When he saw the light of the sword, he had already passed by.

A human head rose into the sky along with hot and smelly blood.

The face of the strong man with snake pattern still showed the shock and confusion before his death.

Until his death, he never understood why the temporary cook was so depleted of vitality and blood, as skinny as firewood, and unable to tie a chicken with his hands.

How could such terrifying power suddenly burst out?

After spending so many days together, neither of them felt the slightest bit strange.