Sealing Sword

There are three things in Wulin that are innumerable.

The miscellaneous fish of the three religions, the love and hatred of the disciples of the various sects, and the desperate people in the Buried Soul Palace.

The so-called outlaws refer to the large number of dead men under the command of Burying Soul Palace, and refer to the people who died in their hands.

The former Gu Xiao has never met, but the latter has seen a lot.

There is a village called "Taoyuan Village" at the foot of the mountain where he lived when he was young, because the village is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the villagers do not communicate with the outside world often. , the villagers live and work in peace and contentment, as if they are in a fairyland of Taoyuan, but now, it has changed.

After Gu Xiao went down the mountain, he went to visit his old place again. He originally planned to see the scenery of his childhood and look for the playmates of the villagers who took care of him when he was young. But when he got there, he saw that the originally peaceful and peaceful village was much more desolate. Many people's houses are dilapidated, and many new graves have been added at the head and tail of the village.

In particular, those who died had all had more or less friendship with the three of them, the master and the apprentice.

The cow doctor in the village is kind and generous, and he runs the only pharmacy within a radius of [-] miles. When Gu Xiao was a child, he always went to see a doctor to get medicine when he had a headache. But one night five years ago, someone chopped off his head. The whole family didn't even let the watchdog go, a total of eight heads were neatly placed at the door of the pharmacy;

Mrs. Xu, who sells tofu nao, is young and widowed. She serves her mother-in-law with disabled legs and her son who is only seven years old. She especially likes Gu Xiao. Every time she sees her, she will send a bowl of hot tofu nao. The woman's face was stripped off and stuck on the earthen wall of her home, scaring her early-rising son crazy;

Sister Lian, who grows flowers and raises bees at the end of the village, is a cowardly and gentle woman. Whenever she sees Duanqing, she will blush. She only dares to send a bouquet of flowers with dew. She never had a bad heart, but her eyes were gouged out and her hands were chopped off, and she was pushed into a bush full of thorns...

Twenty-five people in Baihua Village were brutally murdered overnight, and even if they had grievances or grievances on weekdays, it was only a small quarrel, how could such a catastrophe be caused?

Not to mention, those who died were all people who had intersected with the three of them, the master and the apprentice.

Gu Xiao thought of the besieged and slaughtered when he and Duan Qing went down the mountain, and remembered that Gu Jufang had returned here after moving, but when he returned, his face was shattered, and the blood on the Jinghong knife in his hand was still wet.

That was also the first time he saw Master really angry.

Gu Xiao had an intuition that the murderer was after them, but they just happened to take a step first, and the murderer who couldn't find the target took these innocent people to vent his anger.

That day was cloudy, Gu Xiao went to pay homage to the tombs of the dead, kowtowed respectfully, then turned around and went to their former residences to check one by one.

There are not many people in the village, and the house where someone died is probably unlucky. It has been abandoned all these years. Gu Xiao tossed himself into a gray monkey jumping up and down, and then found a dagger left in Mrs. Xu's house. .

The dagger is fashioned with blood grooves and barbs, and it is not difficult to imagine how its owner would use it to peel off the face of an innocent woman.Gu Xiao looked at it carefully for a while, and found a small pattern engraved on the handle.

The flower looks like a poppy, and it is a unique prajna flower in Mizong Ridge in the southwest. Because it grows bloodthirsty and feeds on dead animals, it is also called "flesh and blood flower".

And there is only one faction in Mizong Ridge - Burial Soul Palace.

Gu Xiao has been chasing the Burial Soul Palace for half a year. Although he walked and stopped all the way, the other party acted cunningly and seldom left a tail, so that he has not formally fought with the people from the Burial Soul Palace, but he did not expect to be caught here. Chance.

No matter what old enmity the Buried Soul Palace has with Master and Mistress, since they can vent their anger on others to this extent, once they find Feiyun Peak, it will be another big trouble.As soon as Gu Xiao thought about this, he finally became serious and asked, "Where did you escape?"

Chu Yao was young and didn't remember very well, so he had to pour beans out of a bamboo tube. It took Gu Xiao a while to find out the clues from these nonsense - he was tied up in Mianfeng City, traveled by land for three days, and was in Jinshui Town. Escape at night.

Gu Xiao calculated in her heart, and found that the group's route was all the way to the west, that is to say, that is to say, they were probably going to Mizong Ridge.

After making up his mind, Gu Xiao stopped talking. After waiting for a while, Chu Yao moved restlessly in his arms and asked carefully, "What's wrong?"

Before Gu Xiao came back to her senses, her mouth subconsciously opened a yellow accent: "Don't rub the bloody young man casually, be careful to wipe the gun away... Poof, I didn't say anything."

He suddenly remembered that he was holding a seven or eight-year-old baby in his arms, and immediately felt that the yellow accent was too beastly, so he quickly reined in.

Chu Yao: "...what did you say?"

"A good boy should learn to pretend to be deaf and dumb." Gu Xiao lovingly patted his head, "Come on, go to sleep, or do you need me to tell you a story?"

Chu Yao hesitated for a while before saying "Hmm".

Gu Xiao actually didn’t read any stories when he was a child. Normally, if he couldn’t fall asleep, he would either be hypnotized by his teacher’s voice reciting poems and scriptures, or be picked up by his master to make a fuss all night until he fell asleep exhausted. He has read the most stories since he was a child. Miscellaneous books are also short story books dug out from the master's house, but those things that record the colorful speeches of the market are definitely not suitable for children to listen to. Gu Xiao asked himself that he is still a person who is not as good as a beast, and he can't be such a beast Wicked thing.

So he decided to collect materials from life, compile and sell now——

"In a place far, far away, there is a ferocious and terrifying female bandit. She is eight feet long and has a butcher's knife hanging from her waist. She eats children's hearts every day and always likes to go down the mountain to snatch men. Later, she snatched a good-looking man up the mountain..."

Chu Yao trembled in his arms: "Is she going to peel the skin to make clothes..."

"You're a ghost story, it's not true at all." Gu Xiao curled her lips, "Later, this man became her Mrs. Yazhai, and the female bandit picked up another child. Since then, she has changed her ways, and the family of three has a happy reunion. ending."

Chu Yao: "..."

After all, he fell asleep in Gu Xiao's arms, and when he woke up, he found that the sun was already high and Gu Xiao was carrying him on his back. .

Chu Yao blinked, and saw that the surroundings were full of people in the neighborhood. He couldn't help being stunned, almost thinking that he was dreaming.

"...Where is this?"

"Golden Water Town."

Chu Yao was startled. He had just escaped from Jinshui Town and hid in a peddler's car all the way. It took a bumpy day before he got out of the city, and he ran for more than a day in the wilderness, but he didn't expect to just take a nap. After a while, he returned to this place.

Gu Xiao explained: "Shortly after you fell asleep last night, the rain stopped. I thought about leaving early, and seeing that you were sleeping like a dead pig, I just let the horse go and took you on the road with light work. Into the city early in the morning."

While speaking, he put Chu Yao down, and as soon as the little baby landed on the ground, he crawled behind him, wishing he could bury his face in his clothes.In the end, this guy pulled him in front of him instead, exposing his chubby little face in broad daylight, as if he was afraid that others would not see clearly.

Chu Yao: "... What are you doing?"

"I took you around Jinshui City for a long time, but let alone someone finding fault, I didn't even meet a sneaky person." Gu Xiao patted his head and lowered his voice. Do you take you seriously, or...their goal has been achieved, and a child like you is insignificant to them?"

Chu Yao couldn't quite understand it, but he faintly smelled something unusual from Gu Xiao's words.

Gu Xiao smiled lightly, but his heart was not at all relaxed.

Chu Yao's dress is either rich or noble, and he doesn't speak like ordinary children. He has a bearing that ordinary rich people can't support. It can be seen that he and the so-called elder brother are not simple; besides, Burial Soul Palace is not a house of robbers. The bandits just tied up two rich kids and started extorting money. Since they took all the effort to take them away, why did they not delay their trip after losing one of them? There were no tricks left, which was too strange.

Unless... the real target of Burial Soul Palace is only his brother, and he doesn't intend to take the child's life, let alone leak the news from him.

Seeing the smile disappear on his face, Chu Yao was inexplicably scared, carefully tugged at the corner of his clothes, and asked, "Then... what should we do?"

Gu Xiao looked down at him and asked, "Are there many people who kidnapped you?"

"Not much, I count twice with ten fingers is not enough." Chu Yao thought for a while, "But they drove four cars, and my brother and I were tied up in the middle car, but only two people guarded them."

"When your brother let you go, did he say anything or give you anything?"

Chu Yao bit her finger and thought for a long time, forcing herself to look back at the panicked and shattered memories of that night. Gu Xiao also waited patiently.

"He said...'the wind is blowing from the north', and he gave me a small cloth bag." Chu Yao touched his body, but the journey was bumpy, and the thing wrapped in rags was lost long ago. He could only try to recall what was inside, "There is a pinch of black powder in the cloth bag, which smells bad, like... well, like the smell of firecrackers during the Chinese New Year!"

"North, is it windy?"

Gu Xiao frowned, his thoughts changed sharply, and at a certain moment, like a thunderbolt, his mind suddenly exploded, and his expression changed drastically!

Jinshui City is the place where the north and the south meet. From Mianfeng to Jinshui, the route is one line to the south. Therefore, he speculated in advance that the people from Burial Soul Palace wanted to return to Mizong Ridge, but... there is another possibility that they are here Abandon the horse and change the boat, and go north by water!

Although Gu Xiao didn't go to many places during this period, he had heard about the war at the border. He heard that there was a vassal king in the north who rebelled and colluded with the barbarians to attack the border. Fortunately, the border guards resisted to the death. The rebels were not allowed to succeed by becoming a line of iron barrels, so they had to retreat for seven miles and garrisoned across the river, still watching covetously.

The war in the north is urgent, and the inner city is also undercurrent.I heard that some unscrupulous people have started to smuggle salt and iron, taking advantage of the troubled times to make huge profits, and not hesitate to collude with the rebels. Some unscrupulous forces in the martial arts have even begun to take over the assassination of dignitaries in the court, as well as the use of gunpowder and weapons. looting.

A pungent black powder, most likely gunpowder, and the two boys...

Gu Xiao squinted her eyes, and looked deeply at the bewildered little meatball in front of her——

He was negligent. There are quite a few people surnamed Chu in this world, but there are not many who are really worth the trouble of Burial Soul Palace, and the most expensive one among them is... the Tianhuang nobleman whose surname is Guo.