[Tianxia 3][Ghost ink X Wumeihou] I can't see the sky

The Ink Condensation Pond was originally the site of the largest academy in Shuzhou. Scholars often used the water in the pool to wash their brushes when they were practicing calligraphy and painting.Later, wars broke out, and everyone fled into the city. This place was abandoned and deserted, but it was very suitable as a place for negotiations.

When Tianlie arrived, the bandit army had already set up a large tent by the Ningmo Pond one step ahead, and the thick curtain covered the increasingly vicious sunlight in summer.The long table was laid out along the edge of the water, and many wine jars were neatly piled up on it, as expected, a grand banquet was about to be held.

Seeing this, all the officers and men couldn't help but secretly slander: I'm afraid this is a Hongmen banquet today.

Zhang Xianzhong did not show up, and only sent an attendant to lead Tianlie to his seat.After all the officers and soldiers sat down, they noticed that a wooden stake more than a foot thick was erected on the open space by the pool ten feet away, and a person was tightly bound by heavy iron chains on the stake.The man was skinny and ragged, with a large piece of naked skin exposed at the broken part, and the wounds on it were densely covered with layers of blood, which looked terrifying.When I had to look carefully, I found that there was a burlap bag on the man's head, and a few small holes were dug out, only the eyes, mouth and nose were barely exposed, and the appearance was completely covered.

Just as he was amazed, a gangster with the appearance of an executioner walked over, holding a basket in his hand, in which were iron hooks, knives and other things, and another group of fishing nets wrapped around it.Seeing this, the experienced Shuzhou sergeant immediately turned pale, and said in a trembling voice, "This is... Ling Chi—"

Tian Lie frowned, turned his head to ask questions, and saw a smile on the face of Zhang Xianzhong's attendant who received them.The man said: "Don't blame the general. This man is a small thief. A few days ago, he sneaked into our eldest brother's tent to steal, but unfortunately he was caught. Although he didn't lose anything, he was still very tight. Therefore, eldest brother So I sentenced him to the deathbed to warn others, and it happened to be carried out today, so I also invited the general to watch it together, how about it?"

Tian Lie couldn't help getting angry, and said: "What's there to look at in such a cruel way of torturing people?"

He was about to get up immediately, but the attendant said: "The general is so excited, could it be that he can't see blood and is afraid?" Then he laughed loudly, and the bandits behind him followed him, laughing and laughing for a while, and the laughter echoed in the valley.

"Of course not—" Before finishing speaking, someone suddenly pulled Tian Lie from the side and persuaded, "Brother Tian Lie, calm down. These gangsters are trying to scare us with bloody scenes and suppress our momentum. Don't be fooled by them for fear of getting in the way during the negotiation!" It was the ancient beastman.

"But--"

"The one who killed was just a small thief. It's not a good thing to think about. What does it have to do with us? Brother Tianlie, if you can't bear it, you will mess up and make big plans. We must focus on the overall situation!"

"The big picture—"

Before there was any room for hesitation, the ancient beastman pushed Tianlie back on the chair.The executioner over there had already walked up to the stake, put down the basket in his hand, picked up the knife from it, and rubbed it back and forth on the whetstone a few times, making rustling noises, the blade sounded extremely blunt.Immediately, the fishing net that seemed to still have a fishy smell was covered over the victim's shoulder and arm, and tightened in all directions until the pale and wounded flesh bulged out of the net.The knife reflected silver light in the sun, and cut down suddenly along the stretched part.A piece of flesh the size of a little finger fell to the ground, and everyone present seemed to hear the slap, and blood gushed out quickly from the damaged part of the wound.

One knife, one knife, another knife.

The wound was not big, the knife was blunt, and the movement was slow, so it should be extremely painful.However, every time the knife was cut, the muscles of the executed person trembled and he gasped heavily, but he didn't make a sound.

After a while, the ground was covered with a thin layer of scraped flesh and blood.The left arm was chipped bit by bit until the bones were visible, and then turned to the right arm, followed by the chest and legs.The blood slid down the man's heel, pooled on the ground, expanded into a large bright red patch, and finally flowed into the pool of condensed ink.

Many of the Shuzhou sergeants present were seeing such capital punishment for the first time, and they immediately covered their eyes and couldn't bear to look any further.The gangsters looked calm, they slapped the wine jars away as if enjoying a show, laughed loudly, and came up to pour a bowl of wine for each of the Shu soldiers.Tianlie watched the pink wine roiling in the bowl, and felt nauseated for a moment, his heart beating fast in his chest.A faint smell of blood wafted from the nose, and even breathing was a bit difficult.

That Zhang Xianzhong was really bloodthirsty and brutal as the rumors said.Qian Zhu sent a letter the day before yesterday saying that it fell into his hands, and I'm afraid he will suffer a lot.But since they have colluded before, there is no danger of their lives... right?In that letter, nothing else was mentioned, Qian Zhu didn't even ask Tian Lie to save her.

The thought moved here, and suddenly became more and more uncertain.At that time, he wrote back but said angry words, forcing Qian Zhu to assassinate Zhang Xianzhong, which was really too much.But Qianzhu is an extremely gentle and elegant person, who can't kill a chicken or cut up a fish on weekdays, how could he have the courage to really do such a stupid thing.Probably where he is still locked up now, if he sees the bloody scene today, he will be frightened immediately.

When negotiating with Zhang Xianzhong later, it is best to inquire... But, if the gangster threatens his younger brother as a bargaining chip, won't he implicate the people of the entire Shuzhou City?

Tianlie's thoughts were flying fast, worrying about his younger brother for a while, and thinking about the safety of Shuzhou City for a while. He was extremely irritable, and always felt that something extremely bad was about to happen.There was a sudden "gudong" sound, but it was a sergeant behind him who couldn't watch the scene of Lingchi, and fell off the chair with his feet limp.Tian Lie was startled, and suddenly realized that he was a regular army of the dynasty, how could he allow the gangsters to lynch wantonly?He moved, but was held back by the ancient beastman beside him again.

"Brother Tianlie, don't lose the big because of the small."

"No, I can't let them—"

Seeing that he couldn't stop him, the ancient animal husband suddenly changed his expression, and said in a deep voice: "In that case... sorry, it seems I have to stop you." A flash of light flashed, and the next moment appeared in his place, In exchange for a tall figure with a green face and long fangs, eyes like copper bells, and two animal horns pointing directly to the sky, it was actually a metamorphosis demon.

Tian Lie's eyes widened, but before he could react, there was a scream behind him, and he saw that more than half of the Shu army who followed him also stood up, and they all turned into hideous monsters.

The situation changed suddenly, Tian Lie was surprised, he led the crowd to draw their swords and was about to strike, suddenly someone outside the tent laughed and said: "Long time no see, how is the general?" But it was Zhang Xianzhong who came with great strides and stood beside the ancient animal husband , looking at him leisurely.

All the doubts accumulated in the past few days were easily resolved at this moment, Tianlie only felt his heart sinking, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.After gathering his mind, he turned his eyes to his good brother who had lived and died with him on the battlefield for many years, and said in a daze: "So it was always you..."

The ancient beastman smiled, his expression looked particularly terrifying on the monster's deformed and distorted face, and said, "That's right."

"The spy thing is indeed true, but that person is not Qian Zhu, but you—" Tian Lie said to himself, and suddenly shouted, even his voice was trembling: "What about Qian Zhu? Where is my brother? You, what did you do to him—"

The ancient beastman still laughed when he heard his question, but did not answer.

Tian Lie said again: "Why him? He is just a weak scholar, he can't get in the way of anything, why do you want to frame him?"

"—Because he is talented." Zhang Xianzhong said coldly. As soon as he finished his words, there was a sudden silence around him, "Although that kid can't go into battle to kill the enemy, he has a clear vision and a keen eye. At that time, only one letter was not delivered. The battle report in central Shu can predict the battle situation in Central Shu, and even rode alone on a horse, his actions are extremely courageous. At that time, I heard that this person existed, and I knew that he was talented and would become a serious problem in the future—— Sure enough, he was only a little slow in building the Wenjing River Dam, and he ruined the big deal. Otherwise, the land hundreds of miles below the city of Shuzhou would have been a vast ocean."

Hearing what he said, Tianlie felt as if his heart had been hit hard, and was speechless for a while.The ancient beastman still felt that he was not hit hard enough, and added: "Brother Zhang has his eyes on this person, but it is easy to deal with him. Since the war started, the family letters of the people in the city have been sent away with the military newspaper. I The status in the army is second only to you, so it would be easy to intercept one or two letters. You didn’t read the letter I presented to you that day. The bamboo that was signed was indeed drawn by your brother. But if you look closely, you can still see traces of glue bonding."

"You—a demon with no conscience!! As long as I have a breath, I will definitely smash your corpse into thousands of pieces—"

"Blame me?" The ancient beastman sighed and shook his head with an exaggerated expression, "Hehe, after all, it's your own fault! What I did was just a trick that didn't work. If you didn't have preconceived ideas, you became suspicious of him. , how can I not see through? How can I succeed?"

"I--"

"Although you act recklessly and decisively, if you go into battle to kill the enemy, you are indeed a good player. If your brother is also in Shuzhou, he is good at strategizing, and the two of you brothers work together and complement each other's strengths and weaknesses. We will attack the city I'm afraid it will be a hundred times more difficult.—It's a pity that you don't believe him." Zhang Xianzhong said, "You and I both value martial arts and dislike literature. I don't like literati because I know their minds are treacherous and their actions are terrible. And you—— —but you are blindly arrogant and look down on them.”

As soon as Tianlie was said by him, the anger in his chest was gradually suppressed by himself, and his thoughts became much clearer.In fact, what Zhang Xianzhong said was right, deep down in his heart, Tian Lie had never believed in Qian Zhu, and he had always looked down on Qian Zhu.

Since childhood, Tianlie knew that his parents were different from other parents.Back then, my mother was a young lady in the Prime Minister's Mansion, with a high status, but she fell in love with her father, who was a lowly soldier.Later, the two got married, and my father continued this relationship, climbing up little by little, and finally became a general.In fact, the father never loved the mother.In front of outsiders, the two of them behaved intimately and harmoniously, as if they were the most loving couple in the world.However, if they are behind others, they seldom say a word to each other, and they really respect each other like "ice".

At first, Tianlie was quite annoyed by this, but when he grew up, he gradually got used to it, and it didn't matter to him that his father and mother were willing to fight each other.Later, he heard that his father had a woman outside.Tian Lie was quite nervous for a while, he just felt that those short stories from other parents' parents that his nanny told him when he was a child, somehow actually came true to him.He even searched for the rumors and went to see it a few times secretly, and saw an ordinary woman who was not worth mentioning, but the toddler she was bringing was cute as Yuxue.In the following years, my father never looked for that woman, as if there had never been such a person.It seems that her father doesn't love her either, Tianlie thought, the sense of crisis at first disappeared, and gradually almost forgot about it.

Until he saw Qianzhu again.

At that time, the scholar was being pinned down behind a dark alley by several servants, and he was beating him severely with sticks. He vomited blood while struggling, and he was about to die.Tian Lie recognized him at the first sight, and seeing the so-called younger brother so embarrassed and weak, he couldn't help but feel a sense of superiority deep in his heart.

Later, whenever he recalled that time, Tianlie couldn't help but spurn himself.With an enthusiastic look on his face, he hired a doctor for his younger brother, and donated money, but in fact, he was secretly complacent about the gap between himself and his younger brother, and assumed the attitude of a giver.However, Qianzhu is pure and kind-hearted, so she didn't realize these thoughts of her brother, or didn't care when she felt them, and told him seriously that if she needs something in the future, she will go through fire and water to repay it.

Tianlie naturally listened to it as a joke.Useless is a scholar, so what can you expect from him if you want to repay?

In the following years, the two had some contacts with each other, and occasionally walked around each other.Gradually, Qianzhu's goodness was revealed bit by bit, and the malice aroused by the grievances of the previous generation at first subsided.Tianlie began to feel ashamed of his original bad thoughts, and instead seriously wanted to treat Qianzhu as his younger brother, and seriously wanted to be a good brother.It's just that he was born in a family of generals, and the idea of ​​emphasizing martial arts rather than literature has been formed for more than 20 years after all, and it is often revealed by accident when he talks too much.Qian Zhu has always been magnanimous and never really cared.

Moreover, Qian Zhu never forgot her oath, that's why at that time she was worried about her brother's safety because of a military report, and rushed all the way from Jiangnan to Bashu.

However, Tianlie didn't believe him.

he!No!letter!he!

If not, how can those enemies succeed?

Tian Lie just felt that he had never been in such pain, and those annoyances and regrets were about to tear his heart apart.How could he not believe him?Whenever Qian Zhu looked at him, in those deep black pupils, the burning heart of a child never changed.

"Tell me, Ah Zhu... Where is Ah Zhu now?" He gritted his teeth, and the voice almost came out of his throat.

长绝