Lights on the other side

Li Ruoci stepped into the underground palace slowly.

The hall was empty, with dim candles flickering around it. At the end, a man wrapped in black was sitting on a stone seat, his body half immersed in the shadows.

He looked at a map on the table without moving, and said without raising his head when he heard the movement, "You're back?"

The voice was low and steady.

Hearing this, Li Ruoci quickly bowed his head and saluted, "Yes, my subordinates will see the suzerain."

"Ah."

The people in the seat didn't move. After a long while, they finally looked away from the table and looked at Li Ruoci, who had been standing still for a long time.

"injured?"

"Yes, but the subordinate is fine."

"It's fine, I still have some things for you to do."

Under the faint blue candlelight, Gu Ling raised her head, her face half-bright and half-dark.

"This subordinate is determined to die without hesitation."

Hearing this, Gu Ling glanced down, and then chuckled.

Li Ruoci lowered his eyes, and suddenly heard the voice above: "Do you know what I have been doing these two years?"

"Subordinates know."

"Guili Sword, Qu Xuese has searched for it for two years without any results, and I have been disappointed again and again."

Li Ruoci remembered what Qu Xuese said that day when the city was closed.

"Once a millennium comes out, the yin will return to the yang."

Is there such a thing?Can you give birth to human bones and return human souls?

"Returning is hard to find. It is reasonable, after all, it is not an ordinary thing, so the suzerain does not need to worry."

"Worry? I've been waiting all these years, so I'm not in a hurry. However, Yunlu recently brought back news that there may be traces of returning to Jingzhou from Jiuyun in the north."

"So the suzerain wants his subordinates to go to Jiuyun Prefecture?"

"That's right, Qu Xuese is in Lingzhou and has no time to clone, and you are always cautious, so I rely on you so much, that's why I asked you to come."

"My subordinate understands."

"Jingzhou is still in Santian's hands. Take it if necessary, no need to worry about the price."

After finishing speaking, Gu Ling got up and walked down the stone steps slowly, his black robe dragged the floor, his face emerged from the shadows, and a few strands of hair scattered on both sides of his face.

A face about thirty years old, with fair complexion and soft almond eyes.

He said: "Go, discuss the specific matters with Yunlu, and he is back."

"Yes, my subordinates retire."

Li Ruoci turned and left the hall, and the hall fell into silence again.As soon as he came back from Lingzhou, he hurried to see Gu Ling.Gu Ling gave the order, and he didn't want to delay, but before he left, he had to meet Yunlu.

Li Ruoci walked through the underground palace, which was dark, with only a little bit of skylight pouring down from above.

Footsteps sounded behind him.

Li Ruoci turned around and saw a man in white with a strange mask on his face.The voice behind the mask carried a frivolity, unhurried, with a slight rise in the end.

"Third Young Master, long time no see, how are you doing?"

"Young Master Lao Yunlu misses you."

"Are you going alone this time?"

"Otherwise? Master Yunlu is going too?"

Yunlu laughed a few times and said, "Nothing, nothing."

Li Ruoci ignored his refusal, and instead asked, "Is it true or not?"

"what?"

"That sword has always been regarded as a legend. Can you really find out where it is?"

"Half of the legend comes from the truth, and if you can't find it, it's because of people."

Behind Yunlu was a road so deep that it was impossible to see at a glance. Li Ruoci could not see his expression, nor could he detect the truth in his words.

"Since that's the case, please let Mr. Yunlu know if you have any useful news, and leave."

Li Ruoci had no intention of staying any longer, turned around and left.

"and many more."

"What else?"

"Although I won't go with you this time, someone will go with you."

Li Ruoci frowned: "Who?"

"You know him, he is waiting for you at the gate of the underground palace."

After finishing speaking, Yunlu walked in the opposite direction, and said as he walked: "Yin and Yang are divided into two sides, and the heaven and the earth are created. Third son, the world is magical, so don't be obsessed with truth and falsehood, because it is meaningless in itself."

Li Ruoci looked at the back, and after a while, walked towards the original direction.

It was a bright day outside, and Li Ruoci couldn't bear the sunlight, so she pulled up the hat on the cloak.

At the gate of the underground palace, there were already people waiting here.

The leader, Li Ruoci, looked a little familiar.

"what's your name?"

The gentle and handsome man in his life did not wear black clothes embroidered with silver lotuses like everyone else, but instead wore a dark blue long dress. It seemed that he was a person with some status in the night sky.

"Third Young Master, Xu Wan is my subordinate."

The voice is gentle and gentle, with a slight smile.

"Yes, I remembered." Li Ruoci nodded slightly.

"I don't know if the young master is going to go to Jiuyun Prefecture now?"

"Well, let's go when you're ready." Li Ruoci didn't look at Xu Wan again when he was speaking.

Jiuyun is a very desolate state, there is no trade with the outside world, and farming can't grow anything because of the climate. People here basically rely on hunting and digging medicinal materials for a living.

Drinking the plum wine sent by Yun Liujin in Jiuyun Prefecture is like drinking white water, it has no taste at all, very bland.Li Ruoci then asked Jin Xiaoxue to find shochu to drink, after a few sips, her heart warmed up.

Here is Jingzhou, and Jingzhou has been unable to attack for a long time.Right now, the battle is getting harder and harder, and the time is protracted, which is not good for anyone.He licked his lips, thinking, maybe this kind of time will last a long time, and it is uncertain when the war will end.

However, it is much more leisurely here than in Beiyizhou and Lingzhou. Apart from sending troops to defend on weekdays, and then attacking Jingzhou and finding Lijian, there is no big deal.Jiuyun is not an important strategic place, so there are not so many life-and-death situations.Besides, as a Taoist, Li Ruoci's focus is not here. He is more inclined to clean up the small sects here. Those who are willing to cling to Lian Yetian will cling to them, and those who are unwilling will force you. As for those who voluntarily die for the righteous way of the world , then it just happened.

In this way, it was summer in a blink of an eye.

Here in June and July, it can be called cool at best, but this is exactly what Li Ruoci wants, neither hot nor cold, just wear a single piece of clothing.

Yesterday he received another letter, written in blood, to the effect of cursing him to die.

Ever since he started purging the sect, such letters have been sent one after another.

"It's still a dead word, nothing new, maybe they still think it's better to live?" Li Ruoci smiled indifferently, and threw the letter aside.

A few days ago, he went up the mountain to catch a little fox to play with, but later he felt that it was too troublesome to keep it, so he let it go again.Speaking of which, he was really too free these days, so he almost called Jin Xiaoxue to play cards with him.I heard from Yun Liujin that the Leaf Opera seems to be very popular recently, and he won a thousand taels of silver after a night in the casino.However, Li Ruoci has never done much research on this, so he doesn't play much. He thinks that if he is going to enter the casino, he may be one of the unlucky ghosts who lost to Yun Liujin.He thought about it, and decided it would be better to do something else.

After two or three days, they reorganized the army with the Jiuyun Xinzhou government, and then began another round of attacks on Jingzhou.The two prefectures of Jingzhou Jiuyun are not so close to each other, and the distance between each other's towers is at most half a mile.It's just that there is no grass in this half of the mile, just a piece of loess.This time the fight was extremely fierce, it seemed that there was also an order from the other side to defend Jingzhou to the death and not retreat a step.

The blood stained the yellow sand, and tens of thousands of people died in a blink of an eye.Even if he is used to seeing death, he will feel that this place is desolate.

If you fall down here, you can count it as a direct burial.

Li Ruoci had urgent letters in his hand, reporting the situation on the front line.He supported his forehead and said: "If the beating continues, the person will probably die."

"Then... it's better not to fight."

He looked up at Jin Xiaoxue and said, "Yes."

In the past few days, his subordinates have reported that there is nothing abnormal about Jiuyun, which means that if the sword is not in Jiuyun, it is likely to be in Jingzhou, and Jingzhou is still in the hands of others, so it is not easy to move.Just as he was thinking, someone outside said that Xu Wan asked to see him, and he nodded in agreement.

Xu Wan pushed open the door, stood in front of Li Ruoci respectfully, and said, "Third Young Master."

Li Ruoci flipped through the letter casually, and asked lightly, "What's the matter?"

"I'm here to plead guilty."

Li Ruoci frowned, puzzled.

"I didn't listen to your son's order, so I brought someone into Jingzhou to see what's going on inside."

"It's nothing, I don't blame you."

"Thank you sir."

"However, you are following Yunlu's order, right?"

Xu Wan replied in a low voice, "Yes."

"What did you find?"

Xu Wan raised her head and said, "My subordinates have discovered a place where night is yin and day is yang, and yin and yang alternate between dusk and morning, and I've seen the terrain there too, and the mountains and rivers fit very well. characteristics."

"where?"

"Six kilometers north of Jingzhou, Xiuyuan Town."