Cypress Boat Floating

In this vast desert composed of countless yellow sands and gravel, the scorching sun hanging high in the sky shines like a furnace, and the desert underfoot is like a huge bronze mirror, reflecting the scorching light, making passers-by feel unprecedented heat.

The wind blew the hot sand into the Beiguan City right under the eyes of many soldiers on the city wall.

The soldiers guarding the border city walls are like firm cast iron, mighty and upright, like an eternal statue, tightly guarding the tranquility and peace of the eleven border cities. The weapons they hold tightly in their hands seem to be their support, and the armor they wear is their perseverance.

Beiguan City, the city closest to the border and the desert among the eleven border cities, is the first barrier and the burial place of all the soldiers defending here.

They knew very well that if the North Gate was breached, the eleven cities on the other side would soon be destroyed, so they had to guard this barrier well.

The wind was blowing hard and the people in the border town were walking hurriedly. No one dared to stay on the street for too long. Everyone's face was filled with worry and anxiety.

The attacks in the desert have been very fierce in recent days. Many people have rushed into Beiguan City and almost killed people. Fortunately, they were rescued by soldiers. However, this suicide attack still made the people in Beiguan City panic. Some chose to leave this city face to face with the enemy, while others chose to stay here.

Those who chose to stay placed their hopes on the imperial court and General Ye Honghai, the marshal of the "Flame Army", hoping that they could keep the enemy outside the city wall as they had done in previous years.

Even more people have witnessed the past of this land. Whether it is failure or achievement, they have already integrated themselves into this land and can no longer leave it.

Today's Beiguan City has long lost its former prosperity and has returned to the tense and solemn atmosphere of more than a decade ago, with everyone feeling insecure.

Next to the city wall there is a not-so-big mansion, which stands in front of the people. Its solid body tells the people in Beiguan City that "before the enemy arrives, it will fight for the last chance of survival for the people."

This mansion is the general's residence of the famous Marshal Ye Honghai.

"General, the harassment from the desert has become more serious recently." In the study of the general's mansion, a deputy general looked worried: "After that man died a few days ago, there have been spies heading into the city in the past two days."

Sitting in front of him was a man over fifty years old. Although his hair had already turned gray, he never took off his armor. The wind and sand left many marks on his face, but it did not erase his pride.

"The trade between the two sides has not been interrupted, and transactions must continue. The people still need to eat and drink. During this period of time, you should pay more attention to the people coming and going, especially the things brought in, and check them more often, just in case." General Ye's brows were wrinkled into a small mountain, but his face was unchanging calm, giving people a sense of security. As long as you see his face, you will always ignore his age and white hair.

Everyone at the border firmly believes that as long as General Ye is there, everything can be solved.

"These desert people are so cunning, they attack here and there like rabbits digging holes. Now they even come directly into the city to kill people." Deputy General Dai Xingxian was very angry. When he talked about the desert people, his face was full of anger and his strong body trembled.

"Has anything else happened in the military camp recently?" Da'an and Damu have been on good terms for several years. Although Damu has been behaving himself over the years, Ye Honghai is the one guarding the border. He has fought with those people from Damu, so he naturally knows their tempers and personalities.

They are cunning but strong, they are the immortal falcons in the desert, fierce and brave by nature, which makes people feel scared. There is a certain lack of food in the desert, and they will pay any price to get food.

Dörbert Nar, the most famous Khan in the desert, once fought against a hundred people alone and killed the Khan of the time. He led a team to conquer all the tribes in the desert and made them all his own. He was the man who truly unified the entire desert.

Ye Honghai had been fighting with him for several years, and the two of them had barely managed to tie over the years, maintaining the situation on its current balanced scale. On the surface, they did not disturb each other and used Beiguan City to carry out trade activities between the two sides.

However, in recent days, Da Mo has been harassing Beiguan City frequently. His actions are frequent and very purposeful, which has forced Ye Honghai to be on guard. He suspects that Nar must have other intentions, otherwise he would not do such a boring thing.

"Military camp?" Deputy General Dai Xingxian obviously didn't quite understand what Ye Honghai meant and was quite puzzled as to why he mentioned the military camp.

“Nar is not a simple person. His making troubles may be related to the military camp. He has not been able to beat me over the years. I guess he is thinking about how to kill me or what methods can be used to prevent me from staying in the camp. As long as I leave, no one in the army will be able to defeat him, and it will be a matter of time before Beiguan City is conquered.” Ye Honghai is always patient when dealing with his subordinates, especially this person who has grown up step by step under his nose. His martial arts are good, but his strategy is a bit lacking.

"This Nar is really insidious." Dai Xingxian felt cold in his heart when he heard this. He was not smart enough and did not think as comprehensively as General Ye. But if he really did what the general said, could it be that...

"General, do you think there are spies in the army?"

"We must be on guard." Ye Honghai's face was heavy. There were more than 10,000 people in the Flame Army, and not all of them were innocent. All he could do was to investigate these important people around him.

The main reason was that he couldn't figure out why Nar was suddenly doing all these things now. If he really wanted to get into trouble, now was not the best time.

Da'an was prosperous, and the rulers were considerate of the people. They praised the military camps guarding the border, and the food and wages were never cut off. The princes of Da'an were all trained on the battlefield.

In this situation, even if Ye Honghai really fell, there were thousands of Ye Honghai behind him. Damo might be able to invade Da'an in a short period of time, but it would not be able to occupy it for too long. The emperor of Da'an would not give him this opportunity.

So he couldn't understand why Nar did this.

Could it be that something happened in the capital?

When Ye Honghai thought of this, his face changed instantly. After driving Dai Xingxian away, he sat alone in the study, thinking for a long time, and finally took out a different piece of paper from his side, wrote a few lines on the paper, and after the ink on the paper dried, he folded the paper and sealed it in an envelope.

He is not a person who will sit and wait for death. Since Nar is determined to destroy the rare peace now, he should prepare in advance no matter what. If that day really comes so soon, he will be able to be prepared.

As for this letter, it will reach the hands of the person to whom it belongs.

Beijing.

Ye Jianqing got Lu Ci Qiu's token and felt quite fearless. Seeing that the time was almost up, he swaggered out of the palace gate and walked towards the Liu family's location.

In the blink of an eye, they arrived at the backyard where Liu Miao lived.

She had not taken a close look when she came here before, but now that she was here to settle a score, she was not in a hurry. She knocked out the disciples who were guarding the yard for Liu Miao, and then slowly admired it by herself in the yard.

However, Liu Miao was really boring. The only things placed in the yard were tools for training apprentices, and there weren't many good-looking ones. After looking for a while, Ye Jianqing lost interest and walked straight into Liu Miao's room.

She moved gently, opening and closing the door without making any sound, and walked like a cat, quietly approaching the bed. She wanted to scare Liu Miao, but who knew that Liu Miao's vigilance was not strong enough. Ye Jianqing had already walked to his bedside, but he was still lying like a dead body, snoring.

Ye Jianqing looked at him for a while at the head of the bed and found him boring. The injuries on this man's body did not look serious, but Ye Jianqing always had the habit of hitting people on vital points. After the beating, there would be no visible wounds on the body, but in fact, the internal injuries were very serious.

Seeing that Liu Miao showed no signs of being awake, she was not in a hurry. She walked slowly to the table, grabbed a handful of melon seeds from the bag she carried with her, poured herself a cup of tea, and ate the melon seeds and drank the tea as if she was at home.

Now she didn't bother hiding her traces. She was hoping that Liu Miao would wake up earlier so that she could finish the matter quickly and go back to sleep. Naturally, she wouldn't speak as softly as she did when she first entered the room.

I don’t know if Liu Miao woke up because of the pain from the injury, or if it was really because the sound of Ye Jianqing cracking melon seeds was too loud. After turning over impatiently, he finally woke up.

When Liu Miao woke up, he opened his eyes and saw a person sitting at the table eating melon seeds. The moonlight refracted on the ground and the faint light appeared at her chin. He couldn't see the upper half of her face clearly, which made her look even more terrifying.

Liu Miao opened his mouth wide, and it looked like he wanted to call out to someone outside, but he was so frightened that he couldn't shout out.

"Oh, you're awake." Seeing that he woke up, Ye Jianqing smiled at him and took out a handful of melon seeds and continued to crack them without any hesitation.

"You..." At this moment Liu Miao recalled the scene of being pressed to the ground and beaten by the woman in front of him last night. He felt helpless, with veins on the back of his hands bulging because he was holding the quilt too tightly. He opened his mouth and wanted to call the disciples at the door to come in and save him.

But then he thought again, the people were in front of him, and it was still very quiet outside. Those disciples who were keeping watch were probably in danger. Cold sweat slowly flowed down from Liu Miao's head. At this moment, he thought about his last words in his mind and thought about how to leave his last words at the last moment of his life.

"What's wrong, Mr. Liu, seeing that I'm so scared, have you done anything to let me down?" Ye Jianqing had a slight smile on his face, but his eyes were terribly cold, without a trace of smile.

"Miss Ye, what are you doing in the middle of the night?" Liu Miao took a deep breath and calmed his wildly beating heart. After all, he was an old fox who had been around in Washe for many years. After hearing what Ye Jianqing said, he understood why Ye Jianqing came to look for him in the middle of the night.

After knowing the reason and calming down, he had more capital to negotiate with Ye Jianqing.

"I went back and thought about it again and again, and felt that you, Boss Liu, were a kind-hearted person and agreed to help me find the shrine. But I was afraid that you, a noble man, would forget things easily, so I thought that we should do it today. Please take me there today." Ye Jianqing put down the melon seeds in her hand and looked at him sincerely and kindly. She was obviously not very old and was not even as tall as Liu Miao when she stood up, but the innocent expression on her face made Liu Miao feel numb.

During the time when Ye Jianqing was in a coma, the shrine had already been advertised everywhere. There was no need to go out of your way to find it. Just ask anyone on the street and you would know where it was. Liu Miao took advantage of the time difference when Ye Jianqing just woke up and knew nothing yesterday to deliberately deceive her and send the big Buddha away.

Who would have thought that she would react so quickly and come to me in the middle of the night.

"Miss Ye, you asked me to find the shrine for you last night. You beat me so hard that I can't even move. It's only been a day. How can I find it just like that? And it's not easy to find it at this late hour..."

"It's okay. Although it's curfew now, I got a token from the prince so I can walk outside. Don't be afraid." Ye Jianqing saw his panic, but didn't intend to let him go.

"No....."

"No what? Don't want to go?" Ye Jianqing put away his hypocritical smile and looked at him coldly, not giving Liu Miao any chance to speak.

"How dare I disobey the young lady's request? It's not a question of whether it's too late or not. The fact is that I haven't gone to find out where the shrine is. Wouldn't it be better if I could find out clearly and then take you there?" This frightened Liu Miao so much that he didn't care whether his internal organs were still aching and quickly got up from the bed.

"Then I wonder when Captain Liu will be able to find out where the shrine is? I heard that everyone from a 70-year-old woman to a three-year-old child knows where the shrine is." Ye Jianqing glanced at him and continued, "For more than a month, I don't believe that Captain Liu really hasn't asked about the location of the shrine."

"This..." Liu Miao was speechless. How could he say this? He knew it very well. He actually hoped that Ye Jianqing would go over there quickly, but in his current state of health, how could he leave? He still valued his life very much.

His body, which needed rest, felt pain three times with every step he took. If he really followed Ye Jianqing to look for the shrine, he would probably die on the way before they found it.

"Girl, you see, I haven't recovered yet, so I'm afraid I can't help you find it. I have heard of where the sacred house is. How about I tell you directly and you can go there by yourself." Liu Miao smiled apologetically in front of Ye Jianqing, hoping to make this devil take back this damn idea.

"Master Liu~" Ye Jianqing said slowly, "Last night we agreed that you would take me to find the shrine, but now you've changed your mind. How do I know if what you said is true? If you've set up an ambush in the place you said, then I'll never come back."

Liu Miao was sweating profusely. "Miss, you are joking. How dare I do this? If something really happens to you, the Eighth Prince will tear my tendons and skin me alive."

"Boss Liu, which side are you on?" Ye Jianqing sat back on the original chair, crossed her hands and supported her chin, looking at Liu Miao curiously. Her movements seemed casual, but her aura was just right. Although she was not very old, Liu Miao was sweating and his heart was beating fast.

"Mr. Liu doesn't know what the lady means." Liu Miao smiled fakely.

Ye Jianqing no longer cares about the shrine or not. Everyone knows where the shrine is. She didn't come here tonight to find out anything about the shrine. She just wanted to find out who was behind Liu Miao.

From the very beginning, Liu Miao used the actor who looked somewhat similar to himself to attract Ye Jianqing, making Ye Jianqing always wonder whether Liu Miao was related to the shrine.

They didn't find anything during the first investigation, but after returning, she was tricked and almost lost her life. This incident made her feel that there was something wrong with Liu Miao.

But when we met last night, this man didn't behave like the kind of person who would attack me. When I came again tonight, he didn't seem to care about the location of the shrine, and it seemed as if he was eager for me to find the shrine as soon as possible.

I’m afraid this Liu Miao is not that simple.