Looking down from the ridge, the thatched hut reveals a palm-sized thatched roof, which might not be easy to see if the forest hadn't lost its leaves in autumn and winter.

The terrain in this section was flat, and the descent was not too difficult. Yang Qi was still in the mood to grab a thatched pole and hold it in his mouth.

The two entered the mountain forest, the trees were disorganized but very tall, blocking the sky and making it impossible to see the direction, they twisted and fumbled through it for a while before finding the direction of the hut.In the west are continuous mountains, which cover the sinking sun, and the sky is already dark.

There is only one house in the yard of the mountain woodcutter, and the yard is not a big open space.It can be seen that the ground has been carefully tidied up before, the ground is flat and firm, the weeds drilled out are sparse, there are a few pieces of chicken feathers at the door of the empty chicken coop, and there is a persimmon tree next to it. Yang Qi was pleasantly surprised to find that there are persimmons hanging on the treetop on top.

Shen Changliu scanned the surroundings vigilantly, then cautiously pushed the room away, and a burst of dust rushed over.

Yang Qi covered the dust in front of his face with his sleeve, "No one has lived here for a long time."

When the floating soil stopped, Shen Changliu looked around, "Someone turned over here."

Whether it was the bed, the table at the entrance, or a small altar, there were signs of being moved, most likely the government had already been there.

"Tell me, where did the people in this room go?"

Shen Changliu picked up a pair of worn out shoes beside the bed, "Dead."

The sky was completely dark and it was already difficult to see. Yang Qi poked Shen Changliu. Shen Changliu was turning over some scattered wood on the window sill. Turning around, he seemed to be aggressive, "What are you doing?"

Seeing his serious face, Yang Qi felt that he was not cute at all, "Where's your special burnable thing? Take it out and light it, it's too dark."

Shen Changliu took it from his bosom, and Yang Qi went to touch the fire pocket, and he held a fire pocket on it, and saw Shen Changliu blew a breath out of thin air, and the candle wick burst into flames, and after a while, it suddenly lit up.

Shen Changliu held a candle and continued to fiddle with the pile of clothes on the ground. Yao's suet-like face was as brown as the persimmon in the yard. Yang Qi became interested in the candle, and Shen Changliu squatted there looking for something. Yang Qi leaned over to look at the pattern on the candle.

The candle is like a fire pocket, with a base and cap made of a whole section of bamboo tube, fastened when not in use, very thin, not to mention a large flame, but also very resistant to burning, the surface of the bamboo tube is engraved with beautiful cloud patterns.

Yang Qi couldn't help taking a closer look, almost sticking to the person, fascinated by it, "What's that engraved on your candle?"

He was fascinated, Shen Changliu jumped up suddenly, Yang Qi was unprepared, didn't squat for a while, fell back with a bang, and fell to the ground again.

Yang Qi was unable to complain about this, but this time it was probably Yang Qi's fault first, and Shen Changliu did not express any apologies.

"It's the Ascension Map of Zhongnan."

"Ascension?"

Shen Changliu took out another one from his bosom and handed it to Yang Qi. "Yes, it is ascension. A long time ago, a mortal who practiced in Zhongnan Mountain ascended after he cultivated the righteous way."

Yang Qi looked carefully with Shen Changliu's light, and there was indeed a figure with fluttering clothes at the lower part of the bamboo tube, and the surrounding clouds were lingering.

"The Yan court forbids cultivating immortals. You openly engraved the picture of ascension on the candles. Aren't you afraid that the court will trouble you?"

"This is a special candle made by Zhongnan Mountain. It is forbidden to pass it outside the mountain gate. Because I don't know what will happen when I go out this time. This is more convenient than ordinary fire tools, so I brought a few out." Shen Changliu paused, "Not to mention ten Mr. Lou also studies the study of numerology, and folk Taoism also flourished for a time, and the Yan Dynasty's ban is useless to those who are sincere in Taoism."

Yang Qi was terrified, "You Zhongnanshan faction are really cultivators of immortality?"

Shen Changliu seemed to be looking at a mentally retarded person, "I just admire the legacy of the immortal."

Yang Qi let out a sigh of relief, and for some reason, he was afraid of Shen Changliu and determined to become a Taoist priest.

"Then can you give me this candle? It's very useful."

"Of course, I just hope that Senior Brother Yang will be more careful and don't be seen causing trouble."

Yang Qi put it into his arms immediately, "That's definitely not the case, I'll do some research when I have time."

After searching for a long time without finding anything, Yang Qi stopped Shen Changliu's hand who was about to turn over the straw mat again.

"Stop, stop, I'm hungry."

Yang Qi wasn't very hungry, but seeing Shen Changliu being held tightly by that little clue, he seemed to be dazed again.

Yang Qi still doesn't understand why Shen Changliu was more nervous than the other disciples of Zhongnanshan in the whole matter, even lost his temper, eager, and lost ground, as if he didn't want to delay for a second, fearing that he would be swallowed by the evil god in the next second, so he urgently After chasing the murderer, he was in a trance and disturbed.But if he cared so much about life and death, it would be even more difficult to explain why he jumped on the altar.

"There will be wild beasts in the forest at night. We will sleep here tonight. I'll go find some wild game first. You can look for oil and salt in the pot on the wall. Your brother is starving."

Shen Changliu didn't answer, and turned his back to Yang Qi. For a moment, he could feel that he was controlled by his heart fire again. If Yang Qi didn't hold him back, maybe he would split the whole room.

After Yang Qi finished speaking, he went out, Shen Changliu stopped by the bed, the scabbard was shaking, the sword body was trembling and jumping out, the blade had already been shaken out, and it seemed to be getting worse.

With a "bang", Shen Changliu clapped his left hand on the hilt of the sword.Everything returned to its original state, as if nothing had happened.

Yang Qi didn't go too far, because he was worried that he might encounter wild animals on the road, and because he was a little worried when he was far away, so he touched two big fat turtledoves on an old locust tree. They were so fat that they were so fat, Yang Qi tied their bird claws with rattan and carried them upside down, these two fat people couldn't even flap their wings.

When I went back, I took another road. I was very pleasantly surprised to find a sweet potato field near the mountain stream. No one harvested it. One can pull out several slender purple sweet potatoes, and I pulled out two with joy.The left and right turtledoves and the right sweet potatoes wandered back.

"Have you found any salt?"

Shen Changliu stood aside with his hands folded, watching Yang Qi play with the fire.Yang Qi was very happy with Sweet Potato's face, and didn't care if Shen Changliu didn't help him.

Shen Changliu went back to the house and took out a jar when he came back. Yang Qi lifted the lid to see that the salt was well sealed.

"There is no oil, there is some oil on the altar table, it can't be used."

Yang Qi felt a little regretful, and muttered to the light-skinned turtledove already strung on a skewer, "Without oil, the skin will be burnt."

"Aren't the candles at your mountain gate made of whale oil and beef? Can you have some?"

Shen Changliu said coldly: "There is also arsenic in it."

Yang Qi: ...

The aroma came out, and the two turtledoves were roasted black on the tongs, but they were really delicious. Yang Qi looked at the game that was about to be baked happily, and the corners of his mouth almost turned up to the sky in satisfaction.

"There are wolves around here."

As soon as Yang Qi finished speaking, a wolf howled from a distant mountain, which was very appropriate.

"I heard."

Yang Qi handed a turtledove to Shen Changliu, pushed aside the charcoal fire, buried a few sweet potatoes in it, and waited for it to be cooked with full expectation.

"Then you are not going to learn some wolf-slaying secret skills or something?"

Shen Changliu looked at him cautiously, and Yang Qi was persuasive, "For example, there is a move 'Slaying Wolf' in the Eight Swords of Heaven, which is very effective. It specializes in killing birds and animals. If you learn it, you can kill a wolf next time in the mountains and forests."

"Then how do you eat the turtledove tonight?"

"Isn't that why I haven't brought a knife..."

Shen Changliu bowed his head and gnawed at the meat and stopped talking.

Yang Qi also felt that saying this was very unattractive. He was a swordsman who didn't even have a knife and wanted to poach the wall.I think back then on the tenth floor, with a wave of a knife, he cut down the big tree he was riding on easily. He fell from the crooked tree and fell directly at the foot of the tenth floor. Bye bye.

At that time, the tenth floor was so majestic, and he immediately threw himself to the ground. Even if he later found out that this person was unreliable, but remembering his chic and easy demeanor when he chopped down the tree, he endured all the way.

After eating the turtledove, there was a pause, Yang Qi picked some persimmons from the tree and threw some to Shen Changliu.

Yang Qi loved the hoarfrost on the persimmons so much, he couldn't bear to blow the ashes, so he started to gnaw, "The persimmons on the trees were never picked except for the ones eaten by birds and the ones that fell to the ground, and the sweet potatoes in the field were all confiscated and still there. Eating persimmons in September, digging sweet potatoes in the fall of frost, and pushing them according to the solar terms, there will be no people here for more than two months. It should be about the same time as Wang Caizi's death. The daily things are still there, and suddenly there are no people. Either be eaten by wolves, or be killed."

"After the arson came out, one of his accomplices was injured, so he came here on horseback for treatment, and then killed the owner here."

Yang Qi took a bite of the persimmon, "it fits their style of murder and arson." He continued, "but it seems that we can't ride horses on the way down. When I looked down from the mountain just now, I felt that I might want to wrong."

"This mountain is like a barrier, enclosing Xu's house. As far as the eye can see, you can only run up with your feet. There is no direct way to run a horse. It is either a stone, a cliff, or a forest, all blocked. , so I guess it might not work for them to ride a horse, unless it is Guan Erye's red rabbit horse, which can jump over the cliff in one jump, otherwise, riding a horse will not work at all."

Shen Changliu stopped playing with the persimmon.

Yang Qi was afraid that the sweet potatoes would be burnt, so he stopped the fire at that moment, and it would get cold after a while, so he threw in another handful of firewood.

He said calmly: "If you are the general leading the troops of the Yan Dynasty, and you have a fight with the barbarians in the north, the barbarians are accustomed to using machetes. After the battle, not many people were killed in our army, but most of them broke their hamstrings and were unable to march, and every wounded patient needs to be accompanied by two capable soldiers, and the barbarians are about to attack again, what should you do?"

Shen Changliu didn't even think about it, "Transfer the injured and organize the remaining troops to resist."

"Each injured person needs the support of two alive and kicking people to walk."

Shen Changliu understood what he meant, "You mean you might be given up?"

"What determines a war is the ratio of battle losses. When the previous dynasty was in ruins, there were enough soldiers. Why was it defeated by Gaozu? At that time, when [-]% of the soldiers were killed or injured, the opponent's generals began to retreat, and Gaozu led the army to fight, stepping on the corpses of his companions along the way. Go forward, and never come back until the last one dies."

"If you think this way, the injured person is likely to be dealt with after dragging his companions down."

Yang Qi asked with a smile, "Then where will they choose to deal with it?"

Shen Changliu looked up at the mountain that was almost pressing on top of his head, half of the sky was covered under the night, "It's on this mountain."

Yang Qi pulled out a sweet potato from the ashes, rubbed the leaves with the ashes and threw it to Shen Changliu, "To bake sweet potatoes and potatoes, you need to stuff them with burnt charcoal fire, even if they turn into white ashes after cooling down, as long as they are buried in them for a long time, they will be cooked naturally." It will be soft and fragrant from the inside to the outside, and the thin layer of skin does not change much in color, and it is easy to separate from the inner meat, peeling off a complete one. The most fearful thing is that the fool is impatient, While burning a big fire, I can’t wait to burn sweet potatoes on the fire like firewood. The skin will soon be blackened into charcoal. When I break it open, the inside is still crunchy. I put it in the fire and burn it. When I wait, the outside will be mushy. The charcoal is burning, thinking that the inside is finally ripe, and then I opened the inside to take a look, hey, it’s empty. So, even if you bake a sweet potato, you have to take your time, don’t be impatient, you can’t eat sweet potatoes.”

Shen Changliu took the sweet potato that was stuffy and intact, and broke it open from the middle. It turned out to be a sweet potato. The golden and soft sweet potato flesh was stuffed just in time, and the sweet and greasy smell wafted in the air. Yang Qi also broke one by himself. , and threw another handful of firewood on the charcoal fire, "Let's go to the mountains tomorrow to have a look."

It had already snowed, and it was so cold that no one wanted to sleep on the table, so the two squeezed into the same bed to sleep.After closing his eyes, Shen Changliu suddenly asked why they wanted to kill the woodcutter.

The wall was placed against the wall on both sides, Yang Qi slept outside, closed his eyes and replied, "Maybe the woodcutter was killed by the wolf on the mountain, they didn't kill him at all, or they came here before and killed the woodcutter , as a rest base, after all, there is still a long way from here to Xu’s house, and it’s a long journey, so how can we be quick if we don’t rest and do things well.”

Shen Changliu turned over with a hum. Yang Qi was still sleepy just now, and couldn't fall asleep again. He turned over and continued to sleep facing Shen Changliu's back.

Both of them didn't take off their clothes, Yang Qi smelled a scent in a daze in the middle of the night, like the incense burnt in the incense burner of a rich family, very light and distant, when all the hustle and bustle calmed down, the scent would float out leisurely Now, that fragrance seems to be a tentacle that seems to be there, seduce him, and confuse his dreams and memories. He walks along the corridor following that fragrance, passing peonies, roses and a fat orange basking in the sun. Cat, push open the door at the end.The inside is the study room, the windows are bright and clean, the bookshelves on the surrounding walls are full of books, and the fragrance is wafting from the censer flowing backwards from the table. Yang Qi is full of curiosity about the censer, and slowly approaches it step by step.

One step, two steps... just a little bit...

"哐", in reality, Yang Qi was kicked off the bed.

The author has something to say: the 15th and 16th...

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