Bone

It was the time of the palace banquet in the middle of the night, and the lights were on all night.

A nine-story pagoda towers majestically at the southwest corner of the imperial city, surrounded by a pool of lake water. It was thrown into the lake, hence the name.A pool of fallen flowers drifts with the water, the shadow of the lake tower and the lights reflect each other, and from time to time, a few noctuid moths fly around with their wings, which is as quiet as a picture.

The melodious music from the distant hall was shattered by the evening wind, and the three of Yuyan, who had changed into nocturnal black clothes, hid in the shadows under the tower, holding their breath and waiting for Sanjiu to return from exploring the way.

Not long after, a translucent phantom came down from the cornice, whispering to them: "...There is no one inside!"

...Just now, I sneaked all the way here, but I didn't see any guards on the road. It's because the prince transferred all the people away in advance, but there is no guard in this tower?The three of Yuyan frowned, and the more they raised their hearts, they didn't procrastinate. With a flash of their figures, they carefully rolled into the tower.

It is not as brightly lit as outside the tower, perhaps because of the blindness of the national teacher, it is difficult to find even an oil lamp in the tower, it is completely dim, and it is necessary to rely on the light from outside the tower to barely see.

Ben also suspected that there was a fraud in it, maybe there was some kind of ambush, and after entering the tower, he took a few steps cautiously, only to find that the tower was indeed empty—far from the eerie place he expected Not only is the National Teacher Pagoda very clean and tidy, but there are also few furnishings. The decorations are neither rich nor magnificent. Most of them are wood carvings, or there are a few long landscape pictures hanging on them, which is quite simple and solemn—— — It can even be said to be too empty.

"..." Ye Jin's vigilance was gradually replaced by doubts, and he walked up the wooden ladder step by step, and asked Sanjiu, who was floating beside him and looking around, "...is there any mechanism in front of him?" No?"

"Wait for me to see—" Sanjiu is a ray of ghosts, which can penetrate walls and tiles. It is most suitable for pathfinding. He cautiously stepped forward a few steps, and then pushed against the nearby wall and ground. I went through each of them, and after a while, I brought back a negative answer, "No, it's just some wooden railings and beams... hey——"

His voice suddenly went away, and his figure also jumped away, startling several night moths perched on the beams, and then floated back excitedly, swinging back and forth in front of him, leading the way, "Come on, come on!" , I found the residence of the national teacher! It's over here!"

At first, he was worried that this little ghost would be a burden, but he didn't expect that he was there, which saved them a lot of time. Fu Duanshui's hand on the hilt of the sword was slightly tightened, and the first two juniors followed him one step at a time.

After all, Sanjiu cherished his life very much. He was afraid that the national teacher would set up some kind of formation in the room, and wipe him out without any explanation. When he reached the door, he stopped and saw that the three of Yuyan were all on guard. Pressing the sword, he stepped into the room of the national teacher, and looked around carefully.

only……

As if silently mocking their vigilance, the living room also has no traps, let alone protective formations, but it is nothing more than a simple and ordinary bedroom.

Not aware of any danger, but more frightening... Seeing the senior brother frowned slightly, Ye Yunting and Ye Jinzhu looked at each other, without him giving instructions, they turned around tacitly, and further inspected the room. decorations.

Fearing that the sudden light in the tower would make people outside the tower suspicious, neither of them dared to turn on the light. There is nothing out of the ordinary, not only is there nothing strange, it can even be called unpretentious.

"How could this be..." Ye Jinzhu touched the bed that was as hard as stone bricks, and found neither any hidden compartments nor any mechanisms, and he couldn't help but become more suspicious, "... Could it be that the national teacher calculated that we would meet?" Come to investigate, have you collected it specially?"

"Probably not." Ye Yunting put a glass vase back to its original position, and carefully straightened the plum blossom branches inserted in it, "Otherwise, he just set up traps in the tower and wiped us all out. Wouldn't it be better? Why bother. Well..."

He tilted his head slightly, looked around the whole bedroom, and said thoughtfully: "Do you feel that this room seems a bit small?"

Hearing what he said, Ye Jinzhu hastily walked around the room a few times, "It seems to be—"

Fu Duanshui frowned, sketched out the shape of the entire pagoda in his mind, and compared it to a white wall, he walked a few steps and said, "This is facing south. There should be a window, so you can see the sky below." Liuhua Lake is right."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and tapped lightly on the white wall in front of him, and sure enough, he heard the knocking sound echo slightly, "...the wall is empty."

I'm afraid there is a secret room!Ye Jinzhu turned his head overjoyed, and wanted to tell the little ghost to go through the wall to find the mechanism, but saw that Sanjiu who had been standing by the door disappeared at some point, and panicked, "Where's the little ghost!?"

But I heard Sanjiu's child's voice coming from behind the wall, "Hey, is there another room here? - Ah, there's a casting furnace!"

Fu Duanshui took a few steps back, did not find a gap in the wall, saw that the entrance was not here, so he tapped on the wall again, and asked Sanjiu through the wall, "How did you get there?"

"At the corner of the stairs is a painting of walking in the snow and looking for plum blossoms, and there is a secret passage behind it—" He was bored waiting by the door just now, and wandered a few steps closer, just looking at the painting with mountains and rivers in it Huhai touched it curiously, but unexpectedly the rear was empty, "There is no mechanism, just walk in and you will be there!"

"..." Everything seemed too easy and smooth... Fu Duanshui frowned again, and quickly walked into the secret passage with his two juniors according to his guidance.

Exhausting all the dark passages, what you see in front of you is nothing special—but there is a forge near the window, cold and silent, reflecting the lights of the lake outside the window, and there are all kinds of completed or half-finished weapons piled up next to it. There are also many hanging on the wall.There is a desk at the hem, on which there are many tools scattered, high and low drawers are nailed to the side, and wooden boxes of all sizes are piled up in an orderly manner.

"..." Ye Jin stared at the forging furnace and weapons, all surprised, "He can also forge swords?!"

Since he was a child, he saw his father painstakingly studying the method of casting beside the furnace. Ye Yunting was very familiar with this scene, and he was also very surprised, "This..."

Sanjiu was more aware of the secrets of the national teacher than they were, and had known that he could forge swords, so he was not surprised by this, and trotted to the furnace, trying to find some clues on the furnace.

I never expected that the seemingly weak national teacher would have such a laborious hobby... Ye Jinzhu and Ye Yunting only thought it was absurd, so they moved over curiously, and looked at the various things piled up beside them. Sample weapons.

"If these weapons are all from the hands of the national teacher... then his craftsmanship is not bad." Ye Jinzhu casually picked up a soft knife, swiped it left and right twice, then shook his head, "It's just that the lack of It’s not as good as what my father made—”

"That's not what I said..." Ye Yunting carefully glanced at the swords and forks hanging on the wall, and said in a more pertinent way: "After all, the national teacher is blind and weak, and it is very good to be able to make such a thing—— —Look at the handles hanging on the wall, they are more delicate, maybe they were cast when he was still blind..."

"Tsk!" Ye Jinzhu glanced at him when he heard the words, "You still helped him speak! Weak? Did you forget how hard he was when he grabbed our wrist?"

Right now is not the time to argue about these things, Ye Yunting reluctantly gave in, "Yes..."

Wanting to be perfunctory by him like this, Ye Jinzhu turned around and wanted to argue with him a few more words, but his attention was taken away by the two straight swords reflected in the corner of his eye.

Sure enough, as Ye Yunting said, the several weapons hanging on the wall are more delicate, especially the two straight swords hanging in one place - it seems to be a pair of double swords, one is longer and the other is The hilt is shorter, and there is no scabbard outside, and the body of the sword is engraved with extremely exquisite dark lines.The long sword is engraved with sunshine, mountains and rivers, the short sword is engraved with the moon reflecting clouds, and the hilt is as white as jade, but not like jade...

With such a precious sword, Ye Jinzhu could hardly move his eyes away, and couldn't help touching the hilt of the sword, "Is this... ivory?"

Ye Yunting also moved closer to take a closer look, and couldn't help boasting: "One sword breaks the sun and shakes the sky, and the other sword night moon stops the clouds. When both swords come out together, the sun and the moon will shine together... Really good meaning."

"..." Xindao why his younger brother always speaks to the bad guys, Ye Jinzhu's appreciation for the sword has been reduced by seven or eight points in an instant, he glanced at him dissatisfied, took off the pair of swords, weighed them, and concentrated again After feeling it for a moment, "Hmm... there is no aura in it..."

No matter how beautiful the sword is, if it cannot gather spiritual energy, it is just a piece of scrap iron.He snorted disdainfully, and hung the pair of swords back on the wall, "Just say how could the master of the state forge a spirit sword—beautiful is beautiful, it's not a sword against death, it's just a show."

It's a pity that such a pair of precious swords has no spiritual energy.Ye Yunting sighed regretfully, and heard Sanjiu angrily reprimanded: "Oh, why are you two still chatting! Find the secret box, find the secret box!"

... Really almost forgot the business!As soon as he reminded him, the two little leaves panicked and fell silent, and peeked at Fu Duanshui who was standing in front of the desk, frowning and thinking——

Fu Duanshui didn't care about the distraction of the two of them, he just kept thinking.

While the two juniors were distracted and chatting, he had searched through the house, high and low drawers, large and small wooden boxes, all of them were checked one by one, and there were only some gold scraps such as silver, copper and iron inside. There is no trace of the "national treasure secret box" that Ji Zhuoran said.

... Could it be that it is not here, but hidden somewhere else?

...But the status of the national teacher is honorable. If you want to set up a furnace to cast swords, you can just set up the furnace in the tower. Why hide it in this dark room? Since it is hidden, there must be something hidden in it. yes……

Mistaking his silent thinking for something strange, Sanjiu quickly jumped over, "But there is something wrong with this table?"

Fu Duanshui came back to his senses, and was about to shake his head, but his movements suddenly stopped. He looked at the desk in front of him intently, then bent down a little, and looked sideways at the desk full of tools and sundries, " ...Is this countertop too smooth?"

The entire dark room is not very spacious, the desk alone takes up half of the space, since weapons are to be cast, sharp weapons need to be put on the desk or carved or painted, not to mention the state teacher is blind, no matter how sensitive his senses are, It is no different from ordinary people. When moving casting materials, this table will be bumped to some extent. However, there are indeed marks on the four wooden legs of this table, but there is no trace of mottle on the table, as if it is brand new, even a scratch. None—

Noticing that the mortise and tenon joints between the four corners of the table top and the table legs seemed to be loose, Fu Duanshui pursed his lips slightly, stretched out his hand to reach the bottom of the table, after a moment of silence, he said briefly: "He turned the table top upside down. The imprints are all underneath."

If you want to hide, it means there is something strange, if you hide something strange, it means that the national teacher has taken precautions...

He frowned deeper, did not rush to touch the table, just took out a piece of white silk from his sleeve, turned his head and said to Sanjiu: "Thank you—"

Sanjiu has always been clever, before he finished speaking, he went to the casting furnace and took out a handful of black ash, and took the piece of white silk from his hand, "I'll come, I'll come, you all stay away , don’t let Hui Yang get his clothes dirty.”

Once again secretly sighed for the presence of this brat, Ye Yunting pulled Ye Jin back a little further as he said, and watched Sanjiu get into the bottom of the table like smoke, spread it out swiftly, and spread it with ashes The imprint under the table was expanded with white silk.

Waiting for Sanjiu to work under the table, Ye Jinzhu lightly tugged at Ye Yunting's sleeve, and whispered to him: "...Since there is something wrong with the imprint on this table, why doesn't the national teacher just change it for another?" A table?..."

……really.Ye Yun stopped thinking for a while, "To carry a desk from the dark room out of the tower and into the tower, the movement will inevitably be too loud... Besides, the national teacher can't see things..."

Ye Jinzhu said again: "...Then just smash the table into pieces and throw it in the furnace to burn it?"

"..." Ye Yun couldn't answer, "...Maybe the national teacher still needs this table for something?"

"Hmm... Maybe. Then—" Ye Jinzhu wanted to ask again, but when he heard Sanjiu under the table hiss lightly, he hurriedly bent down to ask him worriedly, "What's the matter?"

Sanjiu was not in a hurry to answer him, bit his lip after a long while, got out from under the table with a strange face, handed the stretched white silk to Fu Duanshui, and then spread his palm in front of the three of them.

I saw a few rough shards lying quietly in his palm, which was stained black by furnace ashes, and they were rubbed carelessly, revealing the gray-white background covered by the black ash--gray and cool.

"..." Ye Jinzhu's eyes widened in disbelief, "...is this... bones?"

Almost in an instant, he thought of the gossip he had heard before, and Ye Yunting also showed a bit of surprise, "Didn't it mean that those little eunuchs came and went - if these are those little eunuchs...then who is going back?" ?”

"..." Fu Duanshui's expression on the surface was extremely cold, and he put the white silk in his sleeves, "The palace banquet ends in the middle of the night, there is still an hour. After exploring the pagoda, find the secret box."