Pawn Crossing the River

Qi Xuansu had a long dream.

In his sleep, Qi Xuansu saw a mountain, a very tall and dark mountain, like a landscape in a splash-ink painting coming before his eyes.

He stood at the foot of the mountain, with a rugged path in front of him. There were grasses and trees on both sides of the path. Colorful flowers were blooming in the grass, and he couldn't name them. The same colorful silk ribbons were hung on the trees, as if they were holding some kind of ceremony. Celebration, but the sky is very dark, which makes people feel depressed.

The path winds upwards and disappears into darkness with no end in sight.

Qi Xuansu stepped on the path in a trance and walked towards the top of the mountain. He heard the whistling wind in his ears. There was a woman's voice in the wind, which seemed to be murmuring or singing softly. The silk ribbons on the trees on both sides of the path are swaying in the wind, like countless arms dancing wildly. The path is covered with many petals, exuding a strange fragrance.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, the woman's voice in Qi Xuansu's ear became clear. It was a language that Qi Xuansu had never heard before. It was very difficult to pronounce, obscure, ancient and mysterious, and contained indescribable weirdness.

Qi Xuansu suddenly felt a huge panic in his heart. He heard his master's cry, telling him to turn back.

But he couldn't look back, his neck seemed to be frozen, and he couldn't help himself.

He heard Qiniang's whisper again.

He tried hard to listen to Qiniang's words, but he couldn't hear clearly what Qiniang said.

Qi Xuansu didn't understand what was going on.

Suddenly, Qi Xuansu saw a woman walking towards him. Half of her face was covered by her long hair, and the other half of her face was exposed. She was extremely beautiful.

The woman was the messenger who led the way. She stood not far away from him, waving to him and leading him the way.

Qi Xuansu couldn't help but follow the woman, walked the long path, and reached the top of the mountain.

There was a huge open space on the top of the mountain, with a big fire burning in the middle. Behind the fire stood a tall figure, and the light of the fire cast a long shadow on it.

Qi Xuansu also saw that behind the tall figure, there were many dark shadows hidden in the darkness outside the firelight, shadowy and whispering.

He opened his eyes wide, trying to see the face of the tall figure clearly.

But this tall figure was shrouded in a layer of shadow that was so thick that it couldn't be removed. No matter how hard Qi Xuansu tried, he could only see a vague outline.

Qi Xuansu went to look for the woman who led the way again, but found that she had disappeared at some point.

At this moment, Qi Xuansu heard the voice of low singing again.

The fire became brighter and brighter, making the surroundings appear darker.

The whispers gradually grew louder, as if they had traveled through the long and distant river of time and arrived in the present world.

Qi Xuansu took a few steps forward, wanting to approach the tall figure.

The tall figure's eyes lit up with two points of blood-red light.

Qi Xuansu vaguely saw that the black figure had long white hair, a robe that seemed to be studded with stars like the night sky, and scarlet eyes.

At this moment, the originally dazzling fire suddenly disappeared, the fire was extinguished, and there was darkness between heaven and earth.

The ground under Qi Xuansu's feet shattered, and a hole appeared. Qi Xuansu fell uncontrollably, and was drowned by the blood that followed, leaving only a bright red as far as the eye could see.

In an instant, Qi Xuansu woke up with a start.

This was not the first time he had this dream, but every time he couldn't help it, and every time he couldn't see the face of the tall figure clearly.

At this time, Qi Xuansu was lying in the guest room on the second floor of an inn. Qiniang sat beside the bed. When she saw Qi Xuansu woke up, she asked, "Have you had another nightmare?"

Qi Xuansu said "hmm" and didn't want to talk in depth.

Qiniang didn't ask deeply, she just smoked a long cigarette, and the curls of smoke obscured her face.

Qi Xuansu asked: "Where is this?"

Qiniang said calmly: "Fengtai County."

Qi Xuansu immediately understood: "It's dark under the lamp?"

"Absolutely." Qiniang blew out a smoke ring, "The key is that there are some things to deal with."

Qi Xuansu asked again: "What's the matter?"

Qiniang glanced at him: "Instead of cleaning up the mess for you, did you use your real name in the 'inn'?"

"Yes." Qi Xuansu was startled for a moment, and then he understood that this inn was not the one he was staying in now, but the "inn" hidden underground.

Qiniang smoked her cigarette and said, "I have to go to the inn and settle this matter completely. Neither Qingluan Guard nor Tiangang Hall will find anything in the future."

Qi Xuansu didn't ask Qiniang how she planned to deal with it, but just said: "Then it will be up to Qiniang."

Qiniang unceremoniously hit Qi Xuansu on the head with the long cigarette in her hand: "How many times have I told you, don't reveal your true identity at will, let alone let others know that you are a member of the Qingping Society, Have you forgotten what you have done? It is true that your enemy is dead, but he still has friends, masters, and brothers. Do you want to recruit them to settle accounts with you? "

Qi Xuansu lowered his head and did not refute.

His master died at the hands of others, Qi Xuansu avenged his master, and it was Qiniang who cleaned up the mess for him.

He was very grateful to Qiniang.

Qiniang stretched out her hand to pull down the sunglasses on the bridge of her nose slightly, raised her eyes to look at Qi Xuansu, and continued: "I have thought about it, you should have a pseudonym. When encountering such situations in the future, use a pseudonym. Your The pseudonym is 'Wei Wugui', remember?"

Qi Xuansu nodded to note it.

Qiniang pushed up her sunglasses again, covering her beautiful red phoenix eyes again, and babbled: "You were seriously injured this time. I prepared medicine for you. The prescription is in your bag. You must remember to take the medicine on time. , one meal a day, for half a month, try not to do anything with others, heal the injury by yourself when nothing happens, pay special attention to the acupuncture points of Zigong, Yutang, and Zhongting. If you feel pain, don't force it. Come on, just bypass it.”

Qi Xuansu felt that Qiniang was very nagging, but since his master left, he had no friends and he was reluctant to interrupt the nagging, so he could only nod in agreement.

After Qiniang finished speaking, Qi Xuansu changed the topic and asked: "Qiniang, since you are here, why don't you do it yourself?"

Qiniang said confidently: "Gentlemen from wealthy families can dress and eat by themselves, so why do they need a maid to do it for them? If you do everything yourself, why do you need a maid? Should you raise her to be a young lady?"

Qi Xuansu laughed dumbly.

Qiniang paused for a moment and then said: "This time there are people from Taiping Dao, Quanzhen Dao, and Zhengyi Dao. I can't do it alone. Take the Taoist priest from Quanzhen Dao as an example. If you hadn't attracted With his attention, I can't easily attack him by surprise."

Qi Xuansu had seen Qiniang take action, so he didn't believe her excuse, but he didn't point it out and asked instead: "Where is 'Xuanyu'?"

Qiniang said: "Take it first and go to the contact point in Fucheng. In addition, I will pay for the house this time. Fifty Ruyi coins, please remember to pay me back. There is also a life-saving money of 100 Taiping coins. You can't miss any of it." ”

After saying that, Qiniang stood up, took out a black cloak from the Xumi treasure, put it on her body, turned around and left.

Qi Xuansu took his shoulder bag from the bedside and took out the prescription left by Qiniang. His delicate handwriting in small regular script with hairpins made people think of a gentle and quiet lady, but they couldn't believe that it was written by a murderous and moneylending woman. hand.

Qi Xuansu put away the prescription, stood up and went to the window, opened it and looked out.

God finally no longer has a gloomy and dark face, and the sky clears up after the rain.

Qiniang, wearing a cloak, sat sideways on a donkey and staggered out of the city.

After Qi Xuansu watched Qiniang go away, he left the inn through the back door.

Although Qiniang's departure and return this time was an act of darkness, Qi Xuansu still acted cautiously. With the Qingluan Guard's style of conduct, so many people have died, even if it is believed that the so-called "rebellious party" has escaped from the city, martial law will still be enforced in the city, and it will be loose on the outside and tight on the inside, so as not to cause too much panic to the people in the city. , also to prevent darkness under the lamp.

However, Qi Xuansu had specially studied the layout of Fengtai County before entering the city, so he chose a section of the city wall that was rarely visited by people instead of going through the city gate. After dark, he climbed to the top of the city like an ant, and jumped over After that, he settled down at the base of the wall outside the city, and quietly left Fengtai County under the cover of night.

Fengtai County belongs to Huainan Prefecture, and the "Fucheng" mentioned by Qiniang is Huainan Fucheng.

The Qingping Society has a contact point in Huainan Fucheng, where Qi Xuansu can stay for a while and is very safe.

…

Maoxian Mountain, ruined temple.

Zhuge Yongming's body has disappeared. It must have been disposed of by Qiniang. Even the traces of the fight last night were erased by Qiniang one by one. However, the method was very crude and she directly cut down a dense forest outside the ruined temple. Remove most of it, so that it seems like there are traces everywhere, but in fact there are no useful traces at all.

Moreover, this can also disturb the local atmosphere of the place, making it difficult for others to trace the past based on the local atmosphere.

In this regard, I have to say that Qiniang is as sophisticated as the veteran Qingluan Guard.

Outside the ruined temple, there was an old man holding a white paper lantern with a solemn expression.

Not far behind him, Jiang Bieyun said slowly: "Zhuge Yongming is the disciple of Master Shenxiao. Although they are both Quanzhen Taoists, Master Donghua and Master Shenxiao are not the same people. This matter concerns Master Donghua, and then Small things are also big things. We thought he was alone, but in fact he had helpers. The reason why Zhuge Yongming died is already clear. "

The old man did not want to dwell on this matter, so he avoided the topic and asked: "Who is the person who took action? It is unlikely that he is an unknown person who can put Zhuge Yongming to death."

Jiang Bieyun said coldly

Said: "At least it is the cultivation level of the Yuxu stage. It is also the stage of returning to the true state. It is not impossible."

The old man nodded and said, "Since Master Donghua is involved, I'm afraid this matter will be difficult to resolve."

Jiang Bieyun said nothing.

The two are old acquaintances, but their relationship is not good enough to talk about anything, not to mention that they have their own masters. If Zhuge Yongming had not died, the two would not have met.