Embrace the blade

The Sunset Clouds Valley is close to the East China Sea, the climate is humid, the snow has not yet fallen, and the yellow leaves in the forest have not yet fallen.

Qi Zhaoxi is no stranger to the scene at Taniguchi. In the past, he sought the "Secret of Longevity" for the old leader. He stayed here twice to ponder the formation of entering the valley. , and it was indeed the first time that he really wanted to break into this valley in person.

He suddenly shook his head and laughed, sighed: "If I knew it earlier, I should have asked you how to break the formation."

Having said that, Qi Zhaoxi walked into the forest without any hesitation.

Everything was silent, except for the sound of his footsteps, only the rustling of yellow leaves.Qi Zhaoxi walked very slowly, with five fingers clasped in his palms silently calculating the direction, each step was carefully considered, and the journey was indeed peaceful.After walking for more than an hour, the surrounding scenery changed accordingly. He didn't see the trees he had marked appear, but he felt vaguely uneasy in his heart.

Qi Zhaoxi took a deep breath, looked up at the darkening sky, and continued walking.The night fell in a blink of an eye, the moon was hidden behind the clouds, and the time could no longer be calculated, and the trees stood up, like ghosts peeping at him from the dark.

Qi Zhaoxi stopped suddenly, he raised his hand as if he was going to rest on the tree trunk next to him, he paused slightly, but punched it hard, the calmness he had been trying to maintain finally couldn't hold on, so he had to press hard Take a deep breath.

The distance he has traveled is enough to pass through the entire Sunset Cloud Valley, but now he is still circling in this forest.The forest seemed endless, but it was so calm, without any vision, and this was the really tricky part, because it meant that he had no clues or clues to start with, and had no choice but to walk down.

Qi Zhaoxi exhaled slowly, closed his eyes, and said in a low voice, "Wait a little longer, wait a little longer for me."

He raised his hand and pulled the hairband, covered his eyes, trying to get rid of the interference of blindness. It is undoubtedly a risk to abandon his eyesight in the deep forest under the night, but he can't care about these at the moment.

Relying on his feeling, Qi Zhaoxi walked tentatively step by step. Hearing the soft rustling of leaves in the wind, he felt that the time had passed for a long time. Suddenly, he smelled a vaguely familiar smell mixed in the cold air. His heart skipped a beat, this was exactly the bitter fragrance of the deworming medicine sachet he had prepared for Jiang Li.

Qi Zhaoxi hurriedly gathered himself together, pointed out the key points, forcibly stimulated his sense of smell, and then walked quickly following the fragrance of the medicine.

Not long after, Qi Zhaoxi suddenly felt a cold wind blowing towards his face. He tore off his hair tie and opened his eyes to see that the dark clouds were blown away by the wind. The bright moonlight shone down, and the valley was shimmering with silver light. suddenly see the light.

Under a bamboo grove in Luoxia Valley, a stone wall rises up, revealing a deep and wide stone room.

"Are you sure that the "Secret of Longevity" is hidden here?" Meng Sifan probed his head to look at the dim interior, and there were several corridors leading to other places, so he was very cautious.

"This is the basement of the Taihua School, and Gu Si's coffin is also inside." Jiang Li said, his voice was light and light, not only because his body had not recovered from the backlash, but also because he had no strength.

Meng Sifan needed to control him, and said that he would not hurt his limbs as a show of sincerity, so he only gave him water to drink and didn't eat anything along the way. Right now Jiang Li is standing here, only feeling weak all over, his wrists The iron chain on it was falling heavily.

Hearing Gu Si's name, Meng Sifan stopped hesitating immediately and walked in first. He held up the fire pocket and scanned for a week, then looked at Jiang Li and Wei Ke who followed, and asked, "Where is it hidden?"

Jiang Li said: "Give me the Sword of No Doubt."

Meng Sifan drew out the sword on his back, but only showed it to him, and did not hand it out: "It's the same if you tell me what to do."

Jiang Li didn't say anything else, he just stepped back a few steps and leaned against the stone wall. Wei Ke followed suit and quickly retreated.Seeing this, Meng Sifan took a deep breath, straightened the long sword in his hand, and waited nervously.

The ground shook suddenly, the stone wall fell down, and the stone room was plunged into darkness.

Meng Sifan was startled, but before he could react, Jiang Li had gathered enough strength to rush up and kicked him on the wrist. No doubt the sword flew out of his hand, and Jiang Li immediately grabbed the iron chain between his wrists. Going forward, the Buyi sword cut through the iron chain without any hesitation, and fell to the ground.

Jiang Li's hands were free, so he drew his sword, but he was so weak that he couldn't lift the sword of no doubt.

Meng Sifan understood, cursed angrily, rushed forward to grab the sword, Jiang Li kicked Buyijian far away, dodged Meng Sifan's fist, and ran towards the position of Buyijian go.

The two iron chains on his wrists were still clanking, Meng Sifan followed the sound and chased after him.

At this time, Wei Ke, who was standing on the side, gradually adapted to the darkness, and quickly approached from the other side, picking up the No Doubting Sword first.Jiang Li just ran up and grabbed his wrist, but Meng Sifan followed closely. Jiang Li had to deal with it hastily and was exhausted. He couldn't take the sword from Wei Ke's hand, but just twisted it His wrist flicked away.

Wei Ke rushed forward involuntarily, but clenched the No Doubting Sword even tighter in his hand. He heard the sound of the iron chain behind him, wondering if Meng Sifan had taken advantage of it with his bare hands, and in desperation, he slammed the long sword Passing it back, there was a muffled sound of sharp blades piercing flesh, and he felt the weight on the sword.

Wei Ke's scalp exploded, and he turned his head stiffly to look.

In the thick darkness, Jiang Li looked down in disbelief. There was a ray of silver light in his chest, and there was a warmth in his chest. He groped with trembling hands, it was warm and sticky blood.

Wei Ke retreated a few steps in a panic, and drew out the Buyi sword, Jiang Li lost his support, and fell limply on the ground.

"Eldest brother... I... I killed someone..." Wei Ke said blankly.

"Good kill." Meng Sifan sneered, "I've come to this place, I don't believe that without him, the two of us wouldn't be able to find the "Longevity Formula"!"

Wei Ke couldn't stop shaking, but didn't answer.

"Don't be afraid, no one will know." Meng Sifan said, "Check to see if he is really dead, and don't be fooled by him again."

Wei Ke swallowed his saliva, boldly approached him, and checked Jiang Li's breath: "Yes, I'm dead."

"Don't worry about it, let's go, let's take a look." Meng Sifan turned around and walked deep into the stone room.

Wei Ke nodded, and was about to back away, when he suddenly felt a faint light in the darkness, he stopped in his tracks, squinted his eyes, and was instantly stunned.

Jiang Li's long hair was loose, and it was rapidly turning into snow white, like frost had condensed to the ends of his hair, covering the ground with frost and snow.

"Why don't you leave?" Meng Sifan urged.

Wei Ke was tongue-tied and wanted to answer, but he clearly saw Jiang Li's chest heaving violently. The next moment, those eyes opened, and he stretched out his hand to hold his head.

Relying on Jiang Li's rough description when he mentioned the past, Qi Zhaoxi searched for a long time in the bamboo forest, and finally found the narrow stone steps hidden in the withered yellow bushes. When he reached the bottom of the steps, he faced a thick stone wall .

Qi Zhaoxi listened carefully, but did not hear any fighting sounds coming from behind the stone wall. He tried to knock on the stone wall, but there was no response.

There was an unexplainable anxiety in his heart, and he didn't want to go to search for the mechanism again, so he directly pulled out the Wenshui sword.The scene of breaking the wall with Jiang Li in the sea of ​​flames in Juyi Village clearly emerged. Qi Zhaoxi concentrated his energy and poured his inner strength into the sword. Hearing the buzzing of the sword, he swung the sword and slashed up, and the stone wall rumbled After getting up, Qi Zhaoxi didn't stop for a moment, and immediately changed his moves, imitating what Jiang Li did that day, turning around and slashing out with all his strength, the azure sword edge pierced into the wall, and cracks stretched across the wall as if struggling.

Qi Zhaoxi took two quick steps back, and the stone wall suddenly collapsed amidst a loud noise like a landslide.

The moonlight shone in obliquely, and two dead bodies with broken necks lay crookedly on the ground. A young man sat on the ground with his knees hugged. Hearing the sound, he turned his head slowly. The moon fell into his pupils, and he could see clearly come.

Jiang Li stood up abruptly, his body swayed slightly, still a little unsteady, his long white hair dangled behind him, he clutched his sleeve nervously, his pale face was still stained with bright red blood , exceptionally clear.

Qi Zhaoxi didn't move for a while, only felt that her heartbeat had stopped.

Jiang Li looked at him, lowered his eyes again, thousands of words welled up in his throat, and the last thing he said was: "...I'm sorry."

I'm sorry, he has said this sentence to Qi Zhaoxi too many times, but apart from that, what else can he say now?

Qi Zhaoxi didn't make a sound.

Jiang Li became more and more at a loss: "I didn't expect it to become like this. I'm sorry, I promised you, but I didn't do it..."

As he was speaking, Qi Zhaoxi suddenly stepped into the stone room, bent down and picked up the No Doubting Sword on the ground, when he raised his head, he grabbed Jiang Li's wrist, turned around and pulled him onto his back, and carried him on his back.

"You..." Jiang Li was startled, and wanted to struggle, but Qi Zhaoxi's force on his knee was irresistible, not to mention he had no strength right now.Jiang Li had no choice but to lean on his back and whispered, "Let me down. I know you won't be able to kill me, so just leave me here."

Qi Zhaoxi carried him on his back across the broken stones, and slowly walked up the stone steps.

"Are you angry?" Jiang Li asked, "...I was quite afraid that you would be angry.

"..."

"I'm satisfied to see you for the last time. Sunset Cloud Valley is the place where I grew up. My mother and many clansmen also died in the valley. I will be with them, so it doesn't matter."

Qi Zhaoxi never answered, so Jiang Li had no choice but to continue talking on his own: "You still have a long life, and you can live it well. Like before you wanted to leave the rivers and lakes to live in seclusion, after you leave the valley, you can go find You want a small courtyard near mountains and rivers, and every day you open the window, you can see the lake reflecting the glow of the sky..."

It seemed that it was the first time for him to talk so much, perhaps because he was afraid of the silence at this moment, but when he said this, he gradually became speechless.

"You can plant some more flowers in the courtyard." Qi Zhaoxi said suddenly.

Jiang Li came back to his senses, but couldn't see his expression clearly.

Qi Zhaoxi seemed to smile, and asked, "My sweetheart, what flowers do you like?"

"..." Jiang Li was stunned, his throat suddenly choked up, unable to say anything, he buried his face on the back of Qi Zhaoxi's neck, tears poured out of his eyes for no reason, wet Qi Zhaoxi's back collar, his hands slowly Slowly hugged Qi Zhaoxi's neck tightly, endless grievances and sadness rushed against his chest, and finally wept uncontrollably.

Qi Zhaoxi felt the tears falling on his neck, they were hot, he carried Jiang Li steadily on his back, and walked out of the valley, step by step, without rushing.

It's the darkest hour of the winter night, but it doesn't matter, the sky will always be light.