Weird show

※one※

In front of the tombs of Xi Yuanyuan and the other little killers, a small piece of snow was swept away, leaving some traces of burning paper money on the ground.There is a bowl of frozen porridge in front of each tombstone, and the leftover steamed buns and stewed meat are blackened into balls.

Ji Shuliu half-kneeled on the soft snow beside him, touched the buns and stewed meat with his hands, then pulled out his dagger to cut it, and cut it twice.

Qin Songfeng bent down to look at it, understood what he meant, and frowned: "It's completely frozen from the outside to the inside, which means the fire has already been burnt out, so why hasn't he gone back? He won't want to commit suicide again, right?"

"He won't!" Ji Shuliu terrifiedly opened the coffin that Pan Ziyun had prepared for suicide, and stood up after confirming that there was no one inside, "Let's go to Huaishu Village to have a look."

However, in the Su residence in Huaishu Village, the rooms that Pan Ziyun often used were covered with dust and dust, and they hadn't been cleaned for some time, so it was impossible for Pan Ziyun to have been here.

Ji Shuliu gritted his teeth and said, "Go to Taohua Town again and ask Doctor Fei."

When they arrived in Taohua Town, the sun was already in the west. Doctor Fei saw them and said inexplicably that he hadn't seen Pan Ziyun for a long time.

The two returned in vain, passing Wansong Valley between Peach Blossom Town and Hero Town, when a gust of evil wind blew from the direction of the valley, Ji Shuliu shivered... and then he shivered even more, and his expression turned pale. He grabbed Qin Songfeng's hand in fear.

"what happened?"

"Bai Zhi." Ji Shuliu's voice was a little rough, "I also felt such an evil wind when I found Bai Zhi's body. Bai Zhi's body was hidden in a crevice on the mountainside, and no one found it for many years. Do you think Pan Ziyun will... be there too?"

"No way. How could he go there for no reason?"

Ji Shuliu insisted, "I want to go and have a look."

Qin Songfeng had no choice but to tie up his horse and follow him into the pine forest, only to see that the path leading to Wansong Valley was messy with footprints, which really seemed strange.They quickened their pace, and within a short distance, they saw a thin woman in common clothes lying on the side of the road, her chest was pierced by a sharp weapon, and she was already dead.

The woman was in her twenties, plainly dressed, with a tear mole under her right eye, and her appearance was plain and slightly bitter.Qin Songfeng's eyes fell on her hands, which were very rough, which should be caused by frequent rough work, but there were traces of holding a pen in her right hand, which showed that she also often wrote.Qin Songfeng said: "There are not many women who can write, and they are probably from a family of scholars. It is impossible for such a person to go out alone. Could it be that the family met a robber or killed him?"

There were several puddles of blood on the ground, and it seemed that she was not the only one who left it.

"Chasing forward." Ji Shuliu pursed his lips, and drew out the Yanhui sword.

The footprints ahead were interrupted halfway. Qin Songfeng searched the vicinity for a while and found subtle traces on the trees on the side of the road. It seemed that someone was walking on the top of the trees following the example of Su Yulong, hiding the footprints on the snow.

— Could it be Pan Ziyun?

Qin Songfeng flew up the tree and chased for a short distance. The traces on the tree disappeared, but there were footprints on the ground again.In this way, the traces appeared alternately on the tree and on the ground. Ji and Qin tracked along the way, saw through several fake traces deliberately going around in circles, and finally came to the top of the cliff where they fought against Su Yulong in the past.

There are not many people who know this place, and Pan Ziyun is one of them.

Qin Songfeng said: "Don't move, I'll go down and have a look."

He leapt down the cliff lightly and was soon completely invisible from the top.As the sky was getting darker, Ji Shuliu looked at the shadows of pine trees on the snowy ground under the setting sun. At one moment, he felt that he was overthinking, and at another moment, he had an unspeakable fear. He suddenly regretted letting Qin Songfeng leave alone, and called out, "Songfeng?"

"Yes, wait." Qin Songfeng said after a while, "There are traces of being stepped on here recently, and there is a—"

His voice stopped suddenly.

Ji Shuliu felt his heart was seized by something: "Songfeng!"

Before Qin Songfeng could reply, a weak and trembling male voice came from below: "My lord, spare my life, my lord, spare my life..."

Ji Shuliu felt that things were weird, so he stepped out with his right foot, and landed on the stone platform outside the place where Bai Zhi was buried below, using two pine trees with both hands and feet.Qin Songfeng had already got into the crevice of the rock, where there was still a disgraced young man paralyzed, his breathing was disordered, but he didn't seem to be injured, and he should be a scholar by his clothes.Qin Songfeng hurriedly asked him why he was here, whether anyone else was in danger, and whether he saw a thin young man in white, but the man only knew how to tremble and shout for mercy, and didn't say anything else.

Qin Songfeng wanted to pull that man out.The stone platform is narrow, and it would be inconvenient for three people to squeeze in. Ji Shuliu warned "be careful" and jumped from the side to the bottom of the valley.When he landed, he accidentally stepped on a piece of ice, and he fell on the ground, his knee hit the ground hard, and his face fell right next to a trap at the bottom of the cliff.

He glanced into the dim trap, and immediately his mind was blown away, forgetting the pain in his knee.

The spikes in the trap had already been flattened by Ji Shuliu, but at the bottom of the trap, the thin and short Pan Ziyun was lying on his side in a large pool of blood, his right hand was still tightly grasping his dagger, his head was turned sideways, His face was facing the sky, his eyes were closed tightly, his hair and eyelashes were covered with ice, he couldn't hear his breathing, and he didn't know whether he was alive or dead.

Ji Shuliu could hardly tell whether he jumped into the trap or fell into the trap.

Trembling, he pressed his hands on the blood vessels in Pan Ziyun's neck, the tentacles were icy cold, and he felt that his own blood would also be frozen.

At this moment, he felt the slow and weak pulse of the blood vessels.

※two※

The setting sun had already set, and the afterglow was reflected, falling on Pan Ziyun's pale as death cheek.

He suffered several sword wounds, and the pool of blood under his body should have flowed from the abdominal wound. The wound was not long, but extremely deep, and had already pierced his skinny abdominal wall, which he had torn off. A piece of sleeve was wrapped around the wound to stop the bleeding, and now the sleeve was soaked in blood, freezing into a stick of blood wrapped around his waist.

His cold hands were stained with blood, almost all the nails were peeled off, and there were countless grinding wounds on the fingertips; there were many scratches and rubbed blood on the side wall of the trap, with many low places and few high places.

Obviously, he didn't faint immediately after falling into the trap, but tried to climb out again and again, only to fall again and again...

He wants to live.

In the past ten years, this may be the moment he most wants to live.He must not be allowed to die. If he really died, what Ji Shuliu had done before would have caused him to suffer more before he died!

But he is almost dead now.

Ji Shuliu didn't dare to touch him for a moment, he only hoped that everything in the world would freeze at this moment, so that he wouldn't have to face the most frightening possibility in the future.He closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and called Qin Songfeng to come down to help.

The scholar was still begging for mercy like a ghost, Qin Songfeng simply knocked him out, then jumped into the trap, bent down and picked up Pan Ziyun's frozen body, stepped on the wall of the trap side by side, and sent him up steadily.He took off the scholar's belt and hung it into the trap, and pulled Ji Shuliu up.

Qin Songfeng held Pan Ziyun in his arms, and Ji Shuliu carried the scholar on his shoulders, stumbling and galloping on the snowy ground one after the other.After leaving Wansong Valley, they mounted their horses and rushed towards Taohua Town.

On the way, the sky was as black as ink, the ground as white as chalk, and the wind as cold as a knife.

※three※

When Miracle Doctor Fei took Pan Ziyun, his blood pulse seemed to have disappeared. Ji Shuliu was lying on the bed in the guest room in a daze, and Qin Songfeng was sitting on the edge of the bed, also in a daze.

The night was extraordinarily long.Dawn never came, and Doctor Fei pushed the door open in the dark night, shaking his head with a sad face.

Ji Shuliu's heart sank, Qin Songfeng reluctantly asked: "How is it?"

"The bleeding has stopped, and the person is still alive." Doctor Fei poured a bucket of ice water on him without waiting for the two to breathe a sigh of relief, "But the injury is too serious, and it is difficult to tell the truth in the future. First, he lost too much blood, and second, The wound is easily infected by external poisons, both of which may have killed him; three times he fell from a height and hit his head, and there seemed to be blood congestion in his brain...meaning, even if he finally woke up, his mind would be very difficult Back to normal."

Ji Shuliu had already sat up, but he lay down again when he heard the words, and grabbed Qin Songfeng's hand, looking a little helpless.

Qin Songfeng didn't have time to comfort him, so he told Miraculous Physician Fei first: "Now the enemy is in the dark and we are in the clear, and no one knows who the murderer is. Don't hide the news that Brother Pan is here with you, otherwise you may be in danger."

"I know, I've already told my disciples not to tell anyone, and I'll move him to the secret room of my house after dawn." Miracle doctor Fei often treats injuries of people in the world, so he is very vigilant in this regard.

Qin Songfeng watched him leave, and turned to look at Ji Shuliu, suspecting that he was about to cry.But Ji Shuliu jumped up suddenly, with a murderous look on his face: "Go and ask that Ai Xiucai."

※Four※

"Where is this... Peach Blossom Town? Who are you? Help!" Ai Xiucai, who was picked up by Ji and Qin, lay limply on the bed, trembling all over, and shouted towards the window, "Help! Chen Niang, Chen Mother help!"

——Just now he was recognized as Ai by the disciples of Miracle Doctor Fei.This person lives in Lulong City, wandered around Taohua Town a few years ago, and when he and Wen Chen had known each other for a long time, he once swore with great fanfare that he would not marry Wen Chen in this life, but after being scolded by his parents, he died down, obediently went home and married a well-matched man woman; but he is still reluctant to let go of Wen Chen, and often asks people to send some cheap gifts to him.Because he vowed too firmly at the beginning, and then persuaded him too quickly, he was a famous laughing stock in Peach Blossom Town.

There was a strong smell of urine in the room.Ai Xiucai probably pissed his pants in the crevices of the rocks, but the weather was so cold that the urine was frozen, and the smell gradually came out when he returned to the warm room.

This is just a timid ordinary person, but Ji Shuliu's patience was lost. He stared at him and asked coldly, "Why did you appear in the wilderness?" .

Ji Shuliu raised his voice: "Do you recognize the woman who was killed on the road, the one in the light blue cloth?"

Ai Xiucai's "Chen Niang Help" suddenly stopped, a momentary daze appeared on his face, and then he screamed "Aww" and wailed loudly.

It seems that the dead woman is probably Mrs. Ai.Seeing this man crying and crying, Ji Shuliu showed no sympathy. Instead, he pulled his skirt and held his chin with the other hand, forcing him to face himself: "Who hid you in that crevice? Is it me?" Brother? Why did my brother fall into the trap, and who hurt him?"

Ai Xiucai didn't know martial arts at all, so it was impossible for him to fly from the place where his wife was killed to that unknown rock crevice, so it was naturally Pan Ziyun who hid him there.Pan Ziyun fell into this situation probably because he wanted to save Ai Xiucai, how could Ji Shuliu stay calm!

Ai Xiucai took a deep breath, held it back for a while, and then hesitantly said in a hoarse voice: "That, that hero, is, is your brother, brother, is it..."

Ji Shuliu glared at Ai Xiucai and shouted, "It's my brother!"

In his heart, he actually regarded Pan Ziyun as his younger brother, but Pan Ziyun was several years older than him, and he himself was small in appearance, so if it was too difficult to win people's trust as his younger brother, he had to say it was his elder brother.

He was not lying in vain, the simple word "my brother" made Ai Xiucai, who had lost his wife, instantly understand his inhumanity.The scholar sobbed and said: "I'm sorry, Brother Ling was trying to save me, so... I don't know what to do. My wife was also killed by the strongman to save me. I don't deserve to live, so kill me..."

Ji Shuliu let him go, and took two steps back to lean on Qin Songfeng: "Who is the murderer and why did you kill your husband and wife, please tell me."

Ai Xiucai wiped away his tears and snot, and said intermittently that today he was going to send his wife back to her natal home in the countryside.Although the weather is very cold, the father-in-law has recently contracted a serious illness, and the mother-in-law is old and needs the help of the only daughter to take care of her.

Ai's family is not rich, and there are no thieves who cut paths nearby, so only the husband and wife are traveling together, each riding a donkey. Mrs. Ai covered her face to avoid people.Unexpectedly, the robbers did not find them, but a man in his thirties covered in blood did find them. He stopped the donkey without any explanation, knelt down in front of Ai Xiucai, took off the jade pendant around his waist and broke it into two halves. Pass it to Ai Xiucai, and swallow the other half.

The scholar couple who had never seen such a big "world face" stayed on the spot. They thought that they had been frightened by the sky, and the real horror of the clinker had just begun.The seriously injured man was about to turn around and run away, when a masked man appeared behind him like a ghost, and killed him neatly, then, the bloody sword pointed at the scholar couple who didn't even dare to run away.

Ai Xiucai wanted to say that he didn't know anything, but his tongue was tied up, and he could only utter a few "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh;

Mrs. Ai finally came to her senses and shouted for help.Ai Xiucai thought it was useless, no one would come to rescue him in the wilderness, but there really was a "passing-by knight" who descended from the sky - it was Pan Ziyun who paid homage to his wife's return.

Pan Ziyun glanced at the corpse on the ground and the attire of the three living people, and asked where the masked man came from.The masked man didn't answer, and suddenly drew his sword, intending to finish off the scholar and his wife first; Pan Ziyun drew a knife to hold the masked man's sword, and told the scholar and his wife to run first on a donkey.

Ai Xiucai actually couldn't tell what happened after that.

His spirit seemed to be driven out of his senses by fear, he only knew that he was galloping on the donkey, and the sound of swords and swords intersecting behind him continued. Whether it was him, his wife, or the donkey they were sitting on, they all panicked and ran away without knowing when. On the path in the pine forest.

Another masked man stopped in front of them without a sound.That person was dressed similarly to the last masked person, and his figure was roughly similar, but the mask was of a different color.The sound of swords and swords behind her could no longer be heard, so Ai Xiucai didn't know if the person before had changed the mask, or it was not the same person at all.

All he knew was that this person was also holding a shining long sword, and wanted to kill him. At a critical moment, Mrs. Ai jumped off the donkey's back, rushed to the tip of the sword, and blocked the fatal stab with her own life.

The masked man seemed shocked by the fierceness of the thin woman, and was stunned.

At this time, Pan Ziyun also rushed to the place, and made a sneak attack, stabbing the masked man's leg; the masked man fought back with a sword, hurting Pan Ziyun's lower abdomen.Pan Ziyun didn't dare to pester her, so he grabbed Ai Xiucai and fled to the depths of the pine forest. The masked man's leg was inconvenient, and Pan Ziyun jumped onto the tree from time to time, and walked among the trees for a while to hide his tracks. Finally, they escaped the mask in a thrilling manner Chased by others, he jumped off the cliff of Wansong Valley and hid in the hidden rock crevice.

I don't know how long it took, but there was still no sound outside, so Pan Ziyun decided to go out and have a look, and if there was no one there, he tried to return to the town.Unexpectedly, when he was trying to leave on the stone platform, due to excessive blood loss, he suddenly became dizzy and fell into the trap below.

His serious injuries aggravated a lot. He tried to climb up to the ground many times, but failed. Finally, he fainted at the bottom of the trap and didn't know his life or death.Ai Xiu was clumsy and timid, she couldn't even jump off the stone platform, let alone help him, she could only lie on the stone platform and cry bitterly, then she was cold and afraid, she retreated into the crevice of the stone until Ji and Qin found him.

Ji Shuliu recalled what Ai Xiucai had said, and asked him, "Where's the jade pendant?"

Ai Xiucai took out half of the jade pendant stuffed into the sachet around his waist.

Ji Shuliu didn't know much about the fineness of jade, but he could also tell that the jade pendant was mediocre in quality and rough in workmanship, so it was difficult to find any clues by following it.He sighed, and asked again: "When the deceased handed the jade pendant to you, didn't he say a word?"

"No. No..." Ai Xiucai's two faint eyebrows were tangled together, and she scratched her hair in pain, "He seems to have said who he is. But I really forgot, I didn't mean it, I... …really can’t remember.”

The fire in Ji Shuliu's chest exploded again, and he had nowhere to vent. He picked up a teacup from the table, rushed out the door, and fell hard on the ground.

Qin Songfeng stayed indoors and said to Ai Xiucai: "Don't worry, think slowly. You said that the second masked man wanted to kill you with a shining sword, but before he killed your wife, there was blood on that shining sword. No?"

Ai Xiucai hesitated and said, "It seems not."

"So the second masked man may not be the original one, but his accomplice. You see, you actually remember." Qin Songfeng stood by the bed, looked down at Ai Xiucai, with a serious expression on his face, "The more you remember The more you have, the greater the chance of finding your enemy. I hope you can help. Think again, when you were walking on the road with your wife, suddenly a stranger covered in blood rushed over. Did he come from in front of you, or Come from behind?"

"behind."

"When he handed you half of the jade pendant, shouldn't he tell you his name and the name of the murderer who killed him?"

"Ah, yes," Ai Xiucai said hastily, "He said a person's name, saying that person was the murderer, but I didn't catch it clearly. It's not that I forgot, I really didn't catch it. His accent is very strange."

Qin Songfeng did not show any disappointment, and continued: "He asked you to report to the official, or did he bring the news to someone else?"

"Ghost in the Sword!" Ai Xiucai said excitedly, "I remembered, he asked me to find a hero named Ghost in the Sword."

Qin Songfeng said "Thank you" with a blank expression and surprise in his heart.

"Ghost in the Sword" was Xiao Jiu's nickname a long time ago. In recent years, her swordsmanship has gradually matured, and she is no longer limited to weirdness. It has been a long time since no one mentioned it.

Who would call her this nickname, and who would bring her the news before dying?Could it be... other descendants of the Heaven's Punishment Sect?