I am romantic

The mass graves are located on a remote hillside five miles northeast of the suburbs, with tombs everywhere and paper flags everywhere. At night, the fire is erratic, and the sound of the night wind passing through the dry forest is like a devil crying, which is eerie and terrifying.

Ye Yangjing ordered the people to retreat far away, and then released the injured fox from the sack.The fox licked the wound, whimpered miserably, looked around for no one, got up unsteadily, kept sniffing with his nose on the ground, and walked forward.

After a while of hesitation and comparison, it seemed to smell the familiar and dependent smell nearby, dragged its wounded body and ran all the way, finally stopped around a mound of soil, lingered for a moment, and circled blankly.

"That's right here." Ye Yang Jingsu whispered to Wang Zhi, who was behind him, "The Taoist priest probably came here by car, and drove away after digging a pit to bury the body, so the fox couldn't smell where he left."

The soldiers who received the order rushed forward and began to dig three feet under the illumination of many torches.Not long after, someone yelled, "My lord, we found a corpse!"

The corpse was scribbled in half an old straw mat.After moving to the ground, Ye Yang Jingsu and Wang Zhi went up to examine it carefully. It was a boy of four or five years old. There was no obvious wound on his body, except for a circle of stitches on the scalp and a little blood on the head.

Ye Yang Jingsu used the tip of a knife to pick off the sutures, and pulled off the empty cover of the sky, and suddenly found that his brain was empty, just like Zhao Lingan's dead son.

The soldier digging the pit held his nose and shouted again: "My lord, there seems to be corpses down there..."

"Keep digging, regardless of whether it's new or old, dig it out!"

Half an hour later, eight or nine corpses were displayed side by side on the ground, some were swollen, some were half-rotted, and some were almost reduced to skeletons, but they all had two things in common: young children, and the Tianling cover was cut open.

"I've lost my conscience... I've lost my conscience!" Cao Quan retreated again and again, sighing like a groan.

An unprecedented anger surged up in Ye Yang Jingsu's heart, as well as an uncontrollable urge to kill.He gripped the handle of the Xiuchun Knife tightly, and slowly calmed down the turbulent emotions. He turned his head to look at Wang Zhi, and found that although the other side looked plain, his brows were faintly blue, and his eyes were as cold as ice.

"Five-year-old child, what do you know? If you cut down with a knife, the dead will die, and the living will be in pain..."

He heard Wang Zhi murmuring, as if talking to himself, but he didn't know who to listen to.

"What is the murderer trying to do by poaching the brains of so many boys?" Ye Yang Jingsu forced himself not to think about the more disgusting aspects. Covered up by the rumors of "Jingxue", kidnapped from households inside and outside the city?"

Cao Quan said: "In the past two months, the Wucheng Bingma Division has indeed received several reports of missing children. There are rumors among the people, and we all think that we are lost or robbed by human traffickers. The rumors about the fox coming out at night are even more out of control."

"Now we can only take these corpses back first, and let Wu Zuo examine them carefully to see if we can find any clues. After the examination, let those who reported the crime come to identify the corpses." Ye Yang Jingsu said in a deep voice, leaning over and stretching out two fingers , Wipe off the eyelids of young children who are dying.When he stood up, he suddenly noticed something, and raised the right hand of the corpse—the right fist was clenched tightly, stiff as a stone, different from the natural unfolding of the left hand.Using some small internal strength, he opened the five fingers of his right hand, and found that the palm was red and swollen, like a burn, and it was uneven to the touch.

"Torches!"

A Tiqi immediately approached the fire, and Ye Yang Jingsu tried hard to identify the burn marks on the small palm: below were some curved lines, a bit like the thunder cloud pattern on the vessel, and a few words could be vaguely seen above.

"The handwriting is reversed... Wu, Zhi, and Gu?"

Wang Zhi lowered her head to look carefully, and added: "There is still a diagonal scratch between Wu and Zhi, these should be the lower half of a few words."

"The child touched a certain hot vessel before he died, and the embossed lines and writing on the vessel were printed on his palm. Unfortunately, the palm is too small, otherwise the whole line could be read clearly." Ye Yang Jingsu speculated, "He was burned The place where he was killed is very likely the place where he was murdered. Most of the relief vessels are made of copper and iron, and they are hot. What could it be, a teapot? A tableware?"

He continued to check upwards along the palm of his hand, shook out some gray powder from the seam of the cuff, sniffed it and said: "Sandalwood scent, it's incense ash."

"Incense ash, Taoist priests, temples." Wang Zhi said, "The utensil that scalded him...is the Dan Ding."

"Ding Ding? Alchemy?"

"That's right, alchemy is prevalent now, and even the emperor is taking the red pills tributed by alchemists. Generally, external alchemy is made with cinnabar and mercury, and some folk remedies use virgin blood as medicine—" Wang Zhi suddenly stopped , A cold light flashed in his eyes.

A chill also rose from Ye Yang Jingsu's face: "Young children's brains... are used to refine elixir?"

Wang Zhi pursed her lips and did not answer, her fingertips stroked in the palm of her hand: Wu, Zhi, Gu.

No, the handwriting is reversed, and the left and right directions are also reversed. It should be Gu, Zhi, Wu.

There is a diagonal scratch on the back of the lock, assuming it is a diagonal hook.

Then with the unknown first half, these three words may be...

"Zhen, Wu, Ling." Wang Zhi said clearly and authentically.

"What?" Ye Yang Jingsu asked.

"The embossed characters on the tripod have the real martial spirit in the middle, plus the front and back, the complete line should be 'Zhentian Zhenwu Ling Yingbless the Holy Emperor'."

"Emperor Zhenwu?" Ye Yang Jingsu immediately realized, "The place where people kill and refine alchemy is a Zhenwu temple!"

"Cao Quan," Wang Zhi called his name directly, "How many Zhenwu temples are there in the capital?"

Cao Quan replied in a bad tone: "Inside and outside the five cities, including those built by the imperial decree, there are dozens of them, large and small."

"Ye Yang, is the fox still alive?"

"Alive, no heavy hand."

"The death of a fox will lead to the head of the hill." After Wang Zhi finished speaking, she turned and mounted her horse.

Cao Quan was still confused, but Ye Yang Jingsu explained helplessly: "The fox is the animal that loves its homeland the most. Even if it dies outside, it will turn its head towards the hill where the cave is. Using this, we can quickly find the real cave. Wu Temple."

North City.

At Maoshi, the sky was slightly bright, and Ye Yang Jingsu and Wang Zhi galloped on the streets of Rizhongfang, followed by a small group of Jinyi Weiti cavalry and more than a hundred Dongcheng soldiers and horsemen.

Cao Quan wanted to fight for his success, but it was a pity that his wish was not fulfilled. His horse was frightened on the way, and he was thrown off the horse's back and injured a calf.The pain was so great that he couldn't move, so he could only admit that he was unlucky, and said unwillingly to Wang Zhi: "There is hard work without credit, I just ask Mr. Wang to say a good word in front of Lord Shangshu. I am grateful for my humble position." To Wang Zhi for instructions, in the end only two soldiers were called to carry him back to the mansion for medical treatment.

After crossing Haizi Bridge, there was a small-scale Zhenwu Temple. Wang Zhi ordered soldiers and horses to surround the temple, and no one could get away. He and Ye Yang Jingsu led more than 20 guards in Jinyi to rush in.

Tiqi drove all the Taoists in the temple to the atrium, and then searched one by one, but found no alchemy place and the suspect Taoist, so he began to interrogate and torture the rest of the Taoists under the instruction of his superiors.

Ye Yang Jingsu and Wang Zhi sat on the grand teacher's chair, watching the trial in court, a clever Jinyiwei Xiaoqi came over with freshly brewed tea to pay respects.Wang Zhi picked up a cup and was about to drink it when Ye Yang Jingsu said, "A gnat landed in the tea."

Wang Zhi looked down, and with a flick of her wrist, she poured the whole cup of tea on the little flag.Xiao Qi grinned his teeth from the heat, but he didn't dare to defend himself, and repeatedly said: "You will die in a lowly job, so go get a new pot."

Not long after, new tea was brought, and the two drank a cup each.At this moment, a Jin Yiwei hurriedly came to report: "I found a secret room in the back hall. There are Danzao, Danding, etc. in it, but there is no one there."

Ye Yang Jingsu and Wang Zhi exchanged glances, got up and went to the secret room in the apse.

The secret room is a huge alchemy room, complete with alchemy equipment such as alchemy tripod, sweet crucible, Huachi, and silk sieve.The tripod is made of brass, with thunder cloud patterns and a circle of characters embossed on it, among which there are indeed the words "Zhentian Zhenwuling should bless the Holy Emperor".The residual temperature of the tripod wall was still there, Ye Yang Jingsu lifted the lid to see, there were still some unrefined pills inside, with a pungent smell.

Wang Zhi found several prescriptions in the secret box of the medicine cabinet, and when she saw the last one, she suddenly burst out laughing, and it didn't stop for a long time.

Ye Yang Jingsu had never seen him lose his composure so much, his smile was unrestrained, but also revealing an indescribable coolness and irony.

How does this sound like the laughter of a fourteen or fifteen year old boy... He thought to himself, and couldn't help but ask, "What pill?"

"A pill made from children's brains." Wang Zhi stopped laughing and said expressionlessly, "Do you know what the effect of the medicine written on it is? One yang is revived, and the fire of desire is revived!"

"Is this medicine... for eunuchs?"

"It's so ridiculous! The thing that was cut off is still thinking of growing back. What do you do when it grows back, to give the emperor a cuckold?" Wang Zhi sneered, "I don't know if it is possible to have such a layout and handwriting. The big guy in prison, or more than one?"

"You mean, the person behind the scenes is an eunuch, in order to refine the elixir of Huiyang, set up this "demon fox night out" puzzle, and ordered Taoist priests to abduct children to obtain marrow?" Ye Yang Jingsu frowned, "It involves the inner prison , this case is a bit troublesome..."

"No matter how troublesome it is, I won't bother you two anymore." A familiar voice said half-yin.

Ye Yang Jingsu turned his head and saw Cao Quan and the suspect Taoist priest walking in side by side, and the iron door of the secret room was closed behind them.

"you--"

"Don't move, the more you move, the faster the attack will happen." Cao Quan said with a smile, "The poison in the tea is enough to make the tendons and bones of the masters of internal energy crisp and weak, and the limbs are weak. You can feel it, Mr. Ye Yang, Mr. Wang. "

Ye Yang Jingsu tried to raise his hand, but he fell limp on the ground uncontrollably, "You bought that Xiaoqi!"

"Your men, I bought more than one person, otherwise how would I know your Jinyiwei's movements? Even if they don't give me face as a sixth-rank sesame official," Cao Quan patted his cheek lightly, "Could it be that even the internal officer You don’t even give face to the eunuch with palm prints? He’s the godson of Eunuch Shang, the governor of the East Factory.”

Wang Zhi leaned against the medicine cabinet as if struggling, with a glint in his eyes: "Wei She? Is he the instigator behind this case? Is Dongchang Shangming also involved? Such a 'good thing', the godson will never be reluctant Do you honor your godfather?"

"Don't sow discord with me. The two father-in-laws are not here. It's useless to talk about it! Do you think you can still get out of this secret room? I didn't want to make troubles. I just fooled around and closed the case. It's you who are single-minded on your way to death." Break through." Cao Quan complacently opened the cloth bag in the Taoist priest's hand, pulled out a huge claw hook made of stainless steel, and put it on his right hand, "I have brought down all the Jinyi guards outside, wait until I scratch you to pieces , Throwing corpses in the night alley, it's just two more victims under the claws of the demon fox. As for the officer, he was injured on duty and was not at the scene. There are many people who can prove that no matter how much the Ministry of punishment investigates, it can't find me. .”

"You were responsible for the case of Zhao Zhai's extermination?" Ye Yang Jingsu asked.

"That's a lot of nonsense!" Cao Quan said impatiently, approaching step by step, "I'm a commanding officer of soldiers and horses, going to kill a family of drug dealers who are not well-known? Price drop! But you said they died under the claws, but you gave it to me." I was inspired and ordered the craftsman to create this pair of giant claws. How about it, is it scary to think that I will die in pain and ugly? Did you think of this moment when you shouted at me before?"

"No." Ye Yang Jingsu said coldly.

A cold light flashed, and Cao Quan felt a chill on his wrist, and the steel claw and his right hand fell to the blue brick floor with a bang.Blood spattered out, and because he was too shocked, it took him a few breaths to feel the severe pain, and he wailed while covering his severed wrist with his left hand.

Ye Yang Jingsu was tall and tall, the Xiuchun knife in his hand was bleeding sharply and bursting with energy, he didn't look half poisoned.Cao Quan trembled in pain and moaned, "You didn't drink..."

"Of course not." Wang Zhi said.When Ye Yang Jingsu said "a gnat fell into the tea", he looked down at the teacup, but there were no gnats. Thinking of the other party's extraordinary eyesight, he immediately realized that it was a reminder that the tea was poisonous.In order not to scare the snake, he didn't expose it, and threw the little flag on him to change the tea, and took the opportunity to make a plan with Ye Yangjingsu to lure the snake out of the hole, and fished out Cao Quan, who was pretending to be stupid.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Taoist knew that they were not opponents, so he rushed towards the door of the secret room.Wang Zhi casually grabbed the copper mortar on the medicine cabinet, breathed out his true anger, and it shattered into countless pieces, and the sharp copper pieces hit him head and face like ice shards.

The Taoist drew his sword and tried his best to block it, but he was still hit by more than a dozen pieces, and fell to the ground covered in blood.

"I have suspected you for a long time, but there is no definite evidence." Ye Yang Jingsu pointed at Cao Quan with the tip of his knife, "Your soldiers spread rumors and spared no effort; Ji Lin died without warning in Bingmasi prison Middle; the Taoist escaped from the golden cicada under your knife... Every time the case is investigated to a key point, you deliberately do bad things. That sorcery of turning a living person into a yellow talisman is a scam at all. You and seven or eight soldiers under your command are together Lie. The truth is that while we were talking outside, the Taoist priest took off his clothes for you and hid himself in a secret place in the temple. As for the bleeding of the yellow talisman, it was because the talisman was soaked in turmeric, and your waist knife was smeared with lye. In response, there were blood-like red marks."

"Where were you hiding at that time?" Wang Zhi asked the priest, playing with the bronze fragment between his fingers, and a sneer sneered at the corner of his mouth.

The Taoist priest replied with a pale face and trembling lips: "On the shrine, inside the hollow statue..."

Cao Quan suddenly shouted at the top of his voice: "Even if you kill me, you won't be able to escape! The five hundred soldiers I brought have surrounded the entire Zhenwu Temple! If I don't get out safely, all the rockets will be fired at that time." , if you are not shot, you will be burned to death! And the internal officials, Dongchang, will not let you go! You two bastards who look down on people, you still have to be buried with me in the end..."

With a flick of Wang Zhi's fingertip, the copper piece shot out, smashing his teeth and blood spattering.

"There's so much nonsense." Wang Zhi took out half of the Tiger Talisman from her waist, and waved it in front of Cao Quan's eyes, "Do you understand? If you understand, go to hell."

"...Tengxiang Four Guards Talisman!" Cao Quan squirmed with blood on his mouth, and said in disbelief, "You, you are—" He tilted his head and passed out.

Ye Yang Jingsu was stunned.

He stared at Wang Zhi, as if looking at a stranger he had never seen before, with an extremely complicated expression: "Habayashi Forbidden Soldiers, Tengxiang Four Guards, you are..."

"Yu Ma Jian is in charge of the eunuch, Admiral Teng Xiang's four guards, Wang Zhi." The young man in Tsing Yi turned around and looked at him with a smile, the corners of his eyes slanting and arrogant.

Ye Yang Jingsu stood there stunned, countless fragments of memories swirling in his mind, seemingly trivial details, but turned out to be grass snake gray lines: fourteen or fifteen years old.A temperament that does not match his age.High and cold.Extraordinary intelligence.Excellent internal strength.Raised orchid fingers.Indisputable female makeup.Beautiful and murderous.

Together with the inexplicable words on the mass grave, there is the most reasonable explanation: "Five-year-old child, what do you know, if you go down with a knife, the dead will die, and the living will feel the pain..."

He had read Jin Yiwei's files on important internal officials, and if he remembered correctly, Wang Zhijing was five years old when he entered the palace.

Entered the palace at the age of five, and was promoted to the eunuch of the imperial horse supervisor and hand seal before the age of ten, directly skipping more than ten levels.In name, he is the second in command among the internal officials, but his power is no less than that of the Supervisor of Rites and Dongchang.

It is said that even Wang Yue, Minister of the Ministry of War, is his confidant, no wonder he is rushing to be this cheap uncle.

Such a powerful figure in the palace, wearing a white dragon fish suit, wandered around the market, and joined hands with a hundred households of Jin Yiwei to investigate the case?

Ye Yang Jingsu felt that his mind was buzzing, and he felt dizzy with unpredictable misfortune.

Wang Zhi ignored his surging heart, went straight to Cao Quan and the Taoist priest, searched for his belongings, and found a letter from the Taoist priest.After browsing, he handed the letter paper to Ye Yang Jingsu: "This Taoist priest is one of Li Zilong's apprentices, who teaches the teaching of the Dharma and Li."

Ye Yang Jingsu forced himself to calm down quickly, and put his thoughts into the case: "Li Zilong, the name sounds familiar... is that the famous alchemy master at the moment?"

"It's not just that he's famous, he's got his feet in the palace, he's very good at pretending to be a ghost, many people in the inner prison worship him as a living god, and even the emperor has summoned him." Wang Zhi said disdainfully, " In the letter, he instructed his disciples to speed up the refining of the elixir and send it to Wei She and the others in full and on time, and the relevant people must clean it up without leaving any traces."

"Relevant people refer to Zhao Ling'an, Ji Lin's and the like. Zhao Ling'an sells medicinal materials, and has a good chance to meet these alchemists, so they colluded to buy boys for profit. But Li Zilong didn't trust him, so he was silenced from all over the house. , as a sacrifice to expand the rumors of the demon fox. For this reason, he took great pains to make the murderous weapon and giant claws, and poisoned the poultry and livestock, all in order to exaggerate the strange appearance of the demon fox killing people to deceive people. Oh, his son's brain should be like this He Yaodao dug it away. Afterwards, the scalp was stitched up and buried in the ground, probably because of the exquisite alchemy, so that the ghost of the dead would linger." Ye Yang Jingsu speculated fluently.

Wang Zhi nodded and said: "It's reasonable. But there is one thing I don't understand. Li Zilong has a great reputation, and the palace rewards him a lot. As long as he coaxes the emperor well, he can't succeed, but he wants to help Wei She and his group refine the elixir of recovery." , once it is discovered that it is a capital crime of deceiving the emperor and killing the clan, why would he take such a risk?"

Ye Yang Jingsu was also confused: "Could it be that he wants to use Wei She and other ministers to get something that even the emperor can't bestow? What is it?"

Wang Zhi pondered for a moment, then took the letter paper over and looked it over carefully, but found no more clues, and said, "It doesn't matter, I will arrest this group of heretics and Wei She and others to torture them, and I am afraid that there will be no beans in the bamboo tube." .”

Ye Yang Jingsu put the semi-finished product in the alchemy tripod in a porcelain bottle, and picked up the alchemy recipe, all these are physical evidence.

The Danfang was written on a piece of yellow silk, which looked old and there were small wormholes here and there, but it didn't affect the handwriting.

When he saw the wormholes, Ye Yang Jingsu suddenly had a thought: How come these holes are so well wormed, it's not even in the words...

"Give me the paper!" he cried without looking up.

Wang Zhi knew that he had made some important discovery, so he didn't care about his attitude, and handed over the letter with a slight smile.

Ye Yang Jingsu neatly covered the Dan Fang on the letter paper, and a secret word emerged from the hole: Yisi Youshi will go north to Wansui Mountain.

"Yisi is at the end of the unitary time, and we will go north to Wansui Mountain... Today is the sixth day of the ninth lunar month, and Yisi day is the eighth day of the first lunar month. The key is locked at the gate of the palace, and no one is allowed to enter or leave." Wang Zhi raised his face abruptly, his eyes glowing brightly: " Li Zilong and his gang are going to enter the Forbidden Palace at night and climb Longevity Mountain with the support of Wei She and others!"

"The next day is Bingwu Day, the Double Ninth Festival. It is a custom for the emperor to climb the Longevity Mountain on Chongyang..." Ye Yang Jingsu felt that he had glimpsed the truth of a deep conspiracy, and this The conspiracy is enough to cause an uproar in the whole world!

"I see! No wonder Li Zilong wanted to use pills to win over Wei She and the others. He was delusional to collude with the eunuchs to plot rebellion and launch a coup against the palace, so that the old events of Tang Suzong and Jingzong in the previous dynasty would repeat themselves." Wang Zhi took a deep breath, like this A major case, even for him who is used to seeing scenes, he is still in a state of mind.

He patted Ye Yang Jingsu's shoulder vigorously, and said with a smile, "You are also responsible for the anti-insurgency escort."