Qiye copy

A small marching team is stationed in this mountain. After nightfall, the tent lamps are lit one by one, winding like a long snake lying on its side.

The man who looked like an adjutant hurried to the innermost tent with his hand in his hand, and the two men who kept the tent had verified the black iron nameplate with each other before counting.

"General, the medicine is ready." After he notified, he lifted the heavy curtain and entered the general's camp.

General Xuanwu didn't wear soft armor today, he only wore a half-worn undershirt with fringe on the edge, and read the military book at hand with the help of a weak oil lamp.

This is really rare for his identity.Because in more than ten days after expelling the foreign cavalry who burned, killed and looted at the border, they had caught at least a dozen spies who sneaked into the army and wanted to assassinate him, so he and several partial generals spent most of the time Everywhere is lying with the armor, and the slightest disturbance will quickly open the eyes.

"Zizhang, you're here."

He put down the old scroll in his hand, unbuttoned his skirt, and turned his back to the few colleagues he could trust completely.

"Has there been any changes?"

A few pieces of charcoal in the charcoal basin exude a meager heat, which will be washed away by the severe cold of winter if it is a little farther away.General Zuo Xuan Zizhang clearly saw five dark circular marks on the back of the person in front of him by the light of the light, each of which was as big as half a fist, and the bones could be seen deeply, even if the skin and flesh were gouged out will disappear.

From a long time ago, General Xuanwu had seven crimson scars on his back, from the back of the neck to the tailbone, like a dragon, but it looked particularly ominous.

At first they thought it was due to the accumulation of blood due to injuries in the army, but after cold and hot compresses didn't work, the military doctors saw it many times but couldn't explain why, and this matter gradually became the heart disease of several partial generals.

Once someone suggested to let the newly captured barbarian wizards take a look, saying that people like them might know what the scar was, but General Xuanwu thought about it and agreed.

"It's a curse, a very, very vicious curse." The imprisoned barbarian wizard smiled secretly, with endless cruelty and joy in his smile, and after laughing, he jumped out word by word in his unproficient Chinese, "We were still thinking about how to curse you, General, but we didn't expect the nobleman far away in Tianjing to do it first. Very good, very good."

These seven bloodstains were like a dangling knife, hanging on the hearts of each of them.

As if to confirm this ominous curse, General Xuanwu's health continued to deteriorate day by day. In the end, the military doctor directly asserted that if the battle continued, their side would definitely fall first.

"Another one is missing." Xuan Zizhang told him truthfully, "There are still five left."

Some time ago, this bloodstain had somehow spontaneously disappeared, which made him feel a little uneasy, thinking that something bad had happened.

He waited and waited until General Xuanwu's condition improved. Xuan Zizhang was so worried and half happy that he couldn't eat for several days. Looking at it today, there was another one missing.

General Xuanzuo couldn't tell what kind of mood he was in to meet this matter, but General Xuanwu put on his clothes indifferently, as if life and death were not his business.

"I'm sorry to trouble you." Everything in the army is simple. He once had a bronze mirror a long time ago, but he lost it during a march. Since it was not considered a necessity, he never thought about buying it again.If it wasn't for his difficulty in seeing the scene on his back, he wouldn't have repeatedly asked his subordinates.

Xuan Zizhang watched him pick up the porcelain bowl, and suffocated the stench and bitter medicinal juice in one gulp.

"Why do you have to go back to court?"

Even if they slowed down to take care of the general's body, after several months of marching, they were already very close to the foot of Tianjing.

Witnessing the court's deliberate deduction of military pay countless times in the past ten years, and the behavior of letting those supervising soldiers with corpses and vegetarian meals monopolize power, Xuan Zizhang's heart is already full of resentment.

General Xuanwu, who had seen through his thoughts, knocked the empty bowl in his hand on the table lightly and loudly, making him stunned.

"Since it is the emperor's order, we are required to return to Beijing immediately, if we don't go back, we will be against the order."

He hesitated for a moment, and seemed to have something to say, "But..." But are you sure it's really the emperor's letter, not that woman's?

Even if they are not in the court and the opposition, they have vaguely heard that the emperor in the court ignores political affairs, the queen mother hangs behind the throne, and all political affairs are foreseen, and there is a faint sign of changing names in the world.

"There are no buts." General Xuanwu coldly interrupted his unspoken words, "There are some things you can't bring up."

The deterrence gained from many years of fighting and fighting is used here, even if Xuan Zizhang is still a little confused, he should be completely awake.

"This subordinate is offended." He put away the medicine bowl, "Let's leave first tonight."

After Xuan Zizhang left, he originally wanted to lie down and rest, but after closing his eyes, he was still extremely awake.

This is a habit left over from guarding the frontier for a long time. Be vigilant like a herd of deer in the forest, otherwise you will never even have the chance to open your eyes to see the sun tomorrow.

The Yong Dynasty was only a hundred years old, and the fate of the country disappeared visibly with the naked eye, like a giant beast that had passed its prime and was slowly weakening.Although the old power would keep those scavenging hyenas from coming forward, it wouldn't last long, and one day all the accumulated things would explode, and he couldn't even think of any way to solve it.

No matter what outsiders say, he is one of the few people who know the nature of the current emperor best: the man on the dragon chair is unpredictable, moody, weak and suspicious, and even a little surly and paranoid.

It was such a man, who did not look at all like a descendant of the wise and courageous Emperor Gaozu in the legend.But these are not without traces, dating back to his origin, perhaps many things are already doomed.The emperor's mother and concubine were not the first emperor's concubine, but a little maid with no name. After being lucky, she escaped the old mother's Bizitang and hid near the cold palace. Ji Ji gave birth to him.

The crying of the newborn finally made the ruthless harem discover his existence, and also brought disaster to his biological mother.After losing his mother, he moved around in the harem like a dog, barely growing up, but without the dignity and knowledge of a prince.

These alone are not enough for this man to touch the supreme throne.

If before a certain age, not having the blessing of his mother and concubine was his greatest misfortune, then after a certain age, it became his greatest luck.

He met the woman who changed his life, who is now the Queen Mother.

The Empress Dowager is mysterious and precious, even now that she has been in power, few people can see her true face.

Only General Xuanwu knew that he had seen the woman behind the two emperors of the Yong Dynasty on a summer day many years ago, and at that time she was not even the emperor's concubine, at least not in name.

At that time, he was still very young and vigorous, and he made great military exploits and was received by the late emperor in the imperial garden.Because he was hindered by other trifles, the first emperor left him to wait alone in the gazebo. He was used to being free in the army. He ignored the eunuchs' obstruction and walked around. As he walked, he deviated from the original path and came to a building hidden by layers of vines In front of the exquisite pavilion below.

"...is there someone?" The flowers in front of him trembled twice, and he instinctively stepped forward and grabbed the man's wrist.

He had never seen anyone like it, neither in the past nor in the future.

The gorgeous, almost aggressive appearance, was like a strange flame in the scorching heat, even if he was slighted by a strange man, he did not show any weakness or panic.

"What's the matter?" She smiled slightly, but he had been in the army for a long time and had already honed his perception of danger.

This woman is very dangerous, even more dangerous than facing thousands of troops alone. He tried his best to restrain his reaction, let go of his hand quickly, and knelt down on one knee not to look into her eyes.

"The last general Yingzhao came to see His Majesty, and he didn't want to get lost..." He tried hard to wipe off the cold sweat on his forehead, "The last general is leaving now, please forgive me."

"I'm lost." The woman smiled coquettishly, she didn't know if she believed his words, "Little General, this time I will keep it a secret for you. Don't forget to do it again."

He didn't dare to make a mistake, he quickly got up and returned by the same way.After running for a long distance, he looked back and found that he could no longer see the way to the purple wood pavilion.

"Where did Aiqing go?" When he returned to the imperial garden, the late emperor was already waiting there, "Did you see anything unusual?"

The first emperor was ambitious when he was young to middle-aged, and wanted to realize the grand ambitions that his parents had never seen, but when he got older, he realized that he was mediocre in politics and lost his beloved son, so he became more and more addicted to wine and sex, trying to use These come to heal the pain of unfulfilled ambition.

Facing the emperor's quiet suspicion and instinctive sensitivity, he didn't mention the fact that he ran into that woman, only that he lost his way, walked around in a daze and then returned to the same place.

"is it?"

It's not that he didn't suspect that this was his own fantasy. Until later, when the dust settled, this woman was already the most honorable woman in the entire Yong Dynasty, and the little prince who took refuge in her was also more capable than him. He was finally sure when his brother's corpse sat in that position.

There were dark rumors of his shady intimacy with the Queen Mother, but he always recalled that summer glimpse.

What kind of thinking did she choose for the weak prince who seemed unable to support the wall?And who is she?

He slept very restlessly. In his dreams, there would be vicious nomadic cavalrymen for a while, and the charming concubine of the late emperor for a while. They turned into nightmares and appeared in his dreams alternately, making him struggle to wake up. , so that you can't see the weird things happening in the tent.

The guards outside the door were all his most trusted soldiers. They claimed that they would not even let a fly in. Even so, none of them saw a black shadow rushing in with great agility.

This black figure is vaguely in the shape of some kind of slender animal, and it seems to be missing a tail behind it.It raised its front paws and sniffed the air keenly. When it found its prey lying on the bed, it jumped a few times briskly, jumped onto the small table next to the bed, and looked down at General Xuanwu's old sleeping face.

Just as it was about to lay down its claws, a faint golden light radiated from the chest of the sleeping general Xuanwu.

The golden light was weak and unstable, flickering occasionally.The black shadow watched cautiously for a while, and when it saw the golden light go out, it shook its head triumphantly before attacking.

It didn't notice that the spear body on the other side of the bed leaning against the wooden frame shone slightly, and the next moment, the tent was full of blood.

The first snow of this year came very early. On an evening just a few days after Xiaoxue, the clouds were mixed with an ominous dark red, which piled up in the sky darkly, but the central part was abnormally bright. Yes, gray shadows descended one after another.

At first, it was just a little damp sporadic light snow, but in a blink of an eye, it tended to get bigger and bigger.The snowy night is wet and cold, and the road is slippery. Those who are on the road have to take advantage of the last bit of time before dark to find a place to rest.

In the ruined temple on the outskirts of Licheng, Muzhou, Shi Yongfu could hear murmured conversations and the crackling of fire tongues licking dead branches from a long distance away. It seemed that someone came first.

He knocked on the dilapidated firewood door that was barely able to block the wind and snow, "Is there anyone? Can I add someone?"

For an unowned land like a ruined temple, unless there is really no more open space, the first comers are not qualified to reject the later ones.

But on a snowy night like this, it would be too much to ask someone to find another place. Sure enough, there was no objection from the people inside, but it was acquiescence.

Shi Yongfu pushed the door open, stomped his feet and chopped off the snow on his shoulders and the top of his head, found a corner where no one was around, and sat down after simply pawing twice.

Spending the night here were two well-dressed young men, the one in black was concentrating on cooking the animals in his hand, while the one in white was just looking up at her.

A handsome young man.Shi Yongfu exclaimed in his heart, and then he saw that the man's complexion was not good-looking, as if he was seriously ill.

"excuse me."

He didn't have the hobby of meddling in other people's business, so he put his luggage within sight, picked up some straw left by his predecessors from other places, and planned to lie down with his clothes on.

He was tired from walking all day in the daytime, but the smell of roasted pheasant wafted over there when he was half asleep, it was really attractive.

"I don't have to."

He quietly opened his eyes and saw that the man in white rejected the grilled pheasant offered by the man in black with a look of lack of appetite. He secretly sighed in his heart that some people just don't know their blessings in the midst of blessings.

After a while, the man in white actually called him, "Are you still awake?"

He tried to pretend to be asleep, but he didn't know where he showed his flaws. The man in white turned over and sat up with a determined look, "Is there something wrong?"

"Have you had your supper yet?"

Wandering outside for so long, he didn't know how to take advantage of people's soft hands and eat others' short mouths. Sometimes what is delivered to the door may not be a good thing, so he repeatedly waved his hands and refused, "I have eaten dry food before, and I am not hungry or hungry."

After he said this, there was an extremely shameless sound in his stomach, and he panicked with shame even if he was as thick-skinned as him.

The white-clothed man smiled slightly, "My surname is Mu, and I'm named Jiu, from Jiangzhou. That's an old friend of my family. His surname is Xue Mingzhi. What's your name, sir?"

"Shi Yongfu, the eternal of Yongning, the blessing of Fu Lu Shou Xi."

"Mister is a fortune teller?"

This Mu Jiu's eyes were sharp, and he saw the flag that read "The iron mouth is broken" at a glance.Shi Yongfu agreed, "The craftsmanship passed down from generation to generation." Speaking of his old profession, he let go a little bit, "Divination and fortune-telling for people, everything can be counted, and it can be counted as close as possible."

"Anything counts?"

Ordinary people's fortune-telling and divination are nothing more than wealth and marriage, official career, life and death, so he didn't take the question of the man in white to heart, and nodded, "It's almost the same."

"Then make a deal with Mr., Mr. will do a fortune-telling for me, and I will borrow flowers to present Buddha, and ask Mr. to eat something to fill his stomach. Is this all right?"

"You ask."

"How many days does someone have to live?"

Shi Yongfu gave him a weird look, thinking that he didn't want to live anymore, "Are you sure you want to count this?" He paused, and advised, "If I were you, I would go to the city and find a better doctor instead of A waste of time with the fortune teller."

"It's the junior who is abrupt." I don't know if the white-clothed man listened to his words, at least he has done enough on the surface, "Then please trouble me to tell my family Ah Zhi a fortune."

"What is it?" Shi Yongfu's eyelids twitched, not a good omen, he said to himself.

"Let's count the relatives, such as where he is from, how many people are in the family, how they live, and where they are. Can you count?"

Shi Yongfu thought that he didn't trust himself, and thought he was a charlatan. He deliberately chose the simplest and most difficult question to answer, and his heart was filled with unknown anger, and he said forcefully, "Let him come over and show me the palmistry." .”

"Azhi, please show this gentleman a palmistry."

The man in black resignedly walked up to him and held out his hand.There are obvious sword calluses on the palm of his hand, and he looks like a martial arts practitioner.

Having to take care of this white-clothed man, and to be tossed around by him like this, Shi Yongfu subtly felt a little sympathy for the tall and handsome young man surnamed Xue.

"Do you remember your birthday?"

The man in black frowned and said his birthday in a deep voice after a long time.

"You wait, I miscalculated, and I, Shi Yongfu, will take your head off!"

Shi Yongfu's expression changed shortly after he pinched his fingers.His face turned red and blue, and finally turned pale, looking up at the man in black in horror, "You..."

As soon as he spoke, he saw the long shadow stretched by the feet of the man in black, and remembered the unmistakable body temperature when he looked at the palmistry before, and immediately yelled like a cannonball, "Forget it, forget it, this horoscope is not right , forget it!"

"What's wrong?" The man in white took over the conversation and casually stabbed him with his words just now, "Didn't everything count before?"

"Young master, don't tease me. You can count, of course you can count, but you don't have any points in your heart?" Shi Yongfu flushed with anger, "Tell me yourself, is this the horoscope of a living person? "

"What do you mean?"

Even the man in black beside him couldn't help but take another look at Shi Yongfu.

Where did Shi Yongfu suffer this kind of anger, "I figured it out, the owner of this horoscope is a man from Suizhou Prefecture, male, and his family is dead, but the reason why I say this is not a living horoscope is that the owner of the horoscope has died more than ten years ago In the first year, even the fetus was cast. Are you making trouble!?" He was a little bit afraid at first, and he looked at the face of the man in white while talking, and when he saw that he didn't show anything unusual, he calmed down a little, "You also look at it. How can a person with a head and a face make fun of people over and over again?"

"How did you die?" The man in white didn't take what he said to heart at all, and asked another seemingly irrelevant question.

"How could he die? The owner of this horoscope was naturally deficient and died early. His parents couldn't bear the blow and died of illness one after another. Within a year, his family was wiped out." Shi Yongfu was so angry that his forehead was smoking, and he taught the little bastard angrily. "Young people, don't always think of older people as fools. I have eaten more salt than you have eaten. Can I see through your little trick?"

……

The snow outside was getting bigger and bigger, and after a while, a thick layer of water mist formed on the windows, and a vast expanse of whiteness could be seen through the mist.

Shi Yongfu took half a pheasant from Xue Zhi's hand with peace of mind after he finished his calculations and got angry.

Mu Liya, on the other hand, was sitting near the fire, playing with his dagger in his hand, several times the dagger gleaming with cold light seemed to be about to fall into the fire.

"Do you believe what the old man said?"

Xue Zhi closed his eyes and didn't respond for a long time, he seemed to be asleep.

But Mu Liya knew that he was not asleep, so he just waited quietly.

In the half an hour after taking the medicine, Xue Zhi's reaction to the outside world was the slowest.It took him a while to realize what he had said, "I don't know."

That fortune-telling old man is definitely not a charlatan.Before asking him to do a fortune-telling, Mu Liya had closed his eyes and looked at him with his mind, and he could see something different from ordinary people in him, like a faint fire, but also like a gathered energy.

"Whether what he said is true or not, I can't judge."

He doesn't have all the memories of the first few years of his life, except for the scene submerged in the sea of ​​fire and the lotus brand.

All the things about the past were told to him by Mu Yixuan later, which naturally included his name and birthday.

He said that he was the son of his old friend, that his surname was Xue Mingzhi, that all his family members died in that disaster, and that he lost his soul and soul because of the fright. Fortunately, the sword soul appeared and saved his life. ...

To this day, the things he believed in in the past seem to no longer hold water.

It is said to everyone that there was no family named Xue in Suizhou 16 years ago that was wiped out, and the owner of the birth date seemed to be someone else.Is he really the son of Mu Yixuan's deceased?

If not, then why is his soul-leaving disorder?For the next 13 years, what exactly was Mu Yixuan looking for? Is it really his lost soul?

Who is he and what is he?

"That day, I dreamed about the past, and your father. He said a word to me."

Mu Liya's dagger fell to the ground with a ding.He didn't bother to pick it up, because he had an intuition that it was not a trivial matter.

Until now, he still can't fully understand what his father was thinking at that time, and what kind of things he was fighting against.

If he hadn't been so naive back then, and was willing to sit down and have a good chat with that man who was always tired, would the ending have changed?

"When did this happen?"

"I don't remember clearly, it was probably when I first realized that I was towards you...that's when." Xue Zhi spoke very vaguely.

"At that time, I should have spent most of the time in the sword hut." Mu Liya still roughly understood what time it was.

It was at that time that a trace of bitter sweetness appeared in his heart.The heartbeat in my youth is always ambiguous and vague. When I think about it later, I only remember the thrilling moment.

"What did he tell you?"

"He said if I found out that something was different from what he told me, would I resent him."

"Do you know?"

"I don't know." Xue Zhi smiled wryly and shook his head, "I think... probably not."

He who was still young at that time did not answer, but now he has grown up and has to admit that he can't hate this person.

Because he has so many outrageous behaviors, but this person still treats himself as his own son.

And most importantly, he couldn't bear to see the person in his heart sad because of this bit of resentment.

The night was getting deeper and deeper, and the surroundings were quiet, only the crackling of the burning fire and the rustling of the heavy snow falling outside could be heard.

Mu Liya opened his eyes without any sleepiness, staring at a certain open space in front of him.The windows of this dilapidated temple are nothing more than a layer of bamboo strip paper. After being damaged by the wind and sun for a long time, it was repaired a few times by nearby villagers and kind people passing by, and the shadows they cast are somewhat mottled.

Unable to overcome the drowsiness brought about by taking the medicine, Xue Zhi fell asleep next to him. Before falling asleep, he clasped his wrist intentionally or unknowingly.

Mu Liya didn't have the will to break free, so he just went along, maintaining this posture and sitting, occasionally stirring the fire in front of him twice, adding a little wood into it, so that the fire would not simmer.

They have been consciously or unconsciously avoiding talking about that night.He knows better than anyone else that Xue Zhi has him in his heart, just like he has for Xue Zhi.He has always been lonely, and only the boy who copied the scriptures day after day in the side courtyard can make him not so lonely.

But what piled up between them was not such a simple problem. The massacre three years ago, the journey they were forced to embark on, the unclear future, and the mysteries all weighed them down. , and so little time can be theirs.

The more they tracked down, the more they understood that many years ago, they were involved in the turbulent undercurrent of this world, and they couldn't get out easily.

Drowsiness gradually rose, and his head slowly sank until it almost reached his chest. He suddenly raised his head and looked in the direction he was looking at before.

Generally speaking, it is so warm indoors with a fire burning, but it is a cold night outside where dripping water turns to ice, and a thin layer of white mist is condensed on the window paper, so it is impossible to see the scene outside.

But he saw it, and what he saw made his little drowsiness fade away quickly, and the blood all over his body was frozen like ice.

From a short distance, he clearly saw a pair of black eyes without whites, through the translucent window paper, silently staring at the room.

Outside the ruined temple, someone was standing by the window watching them silently, or looking at Xue Zhi alone.His first reaction was that the demon monk Langxue or the old fox's accomplices were coming again, and then he denied this guess.

Because he didn't feel the slightest breath of a monster, but instinctively felt a little fear, fear of the mysterious visitor.

He couldn't describe how to describe the emotion contained in those eyes, like hatred, like mockery, and like wordless compassion, which fell tightly on Xue Zhi.He always felt like he had seen these eyes somewhere.

After a while, the owner of those eyes realized that he had been spotted by the people in the house, and his eyes slightly deviated a little, and fell on Mu Liya.

Mu Liya was caught off guard by meeting those pitch-black eyes, and his brain buzzed as if he had been slammed by something. Countless gold stars appeared in front of his eyes, and his chest was burning like a fire, and it began to burn violently. Cough.

The snake venom that was suppressed by Qinglong earlier began to spread in his body again, he tightly suppressed the pungent blood in his throat, for fear that he would spurt blood when he opened his mouth to speak.

When he let go of his hand, the palm was covered with black blood clots, and the black and red gore dripped along the palm onto the floor tiles.He was going to die, he had clearly realized it countless times, and the man outside should have seen it too.If he didn't follow what Lang Xue said and completely abandon the human part, he would die from this snake venom sooner or later.

In the moment he coughed, those eyes disappeared without a trace.He had to catch up, and that was the only thought left in his mind.He wanted to find out the true identity of this mysterious visitor and ensure that the other party would not hurt Xue Zhi.

When the burning pain slowly subsided, he bit by bit broke away from the hand that Xue Zhi was clasping him, because Xue Zhi clasped it tightly, he still used a little strength, then stumbled to his feet and chased after him.

He didn't even notice the abnormality in the house.As long as he wasn't so weak and exhausted, and he was [-]% sober and calm as usual, he should have realized that the room was too quiet.

Neither Shi Yongfu's muffled snoring nor Xue Zhi's death-like slumber are what they should be like in normal times, especially Xue Zhi, he should have woken up the first time he felt his pain, but he didn't.

The moment the door was pushed open, the bitter cold wind rolled towards him with goose-feather-like snowflakes, rushing like a knife along his mouth and nose into his still fragile lungs.

He lived in a humid and warm place like Jiangzhou when he was a child, and now he is injured again. This winter night with heavy snow in the north is tantamount to torture for him, and it took him a long time to open his eyes.

There was a gray and reddish sky above his head, and an empty snow field with glaring white light under his feet. He looked towards the window, and it was so quiet that there were not even any footprints left.

It is this lonely sky and earth, snow and night, he is alone, where is there any trace of the uninvited guest?

……

He stood in this heavy snow for a long time, until the last bit of heat dissipated from his body, leaving only a faint beating in his chest.

It was in this almost self-torture torture that he suddenly remembered where he had seen these eyes.

He was assassinated once when he was a little over ten years old, and almost lost his life in it.

He came out of the sword hut that afternoon, because it was already dark, and he didn't let others follow him, saying that he was able to go home alone.

Mu Yan was worried, and said that he would come over to see him off after he dealt with the trivial matters at hand, but he was worried about the other person, why would he wait so long, and ran out the moment the other person turned around.

Is it an illusion, the road down the mountain that I am used to on weekdays is extremely long, and the sun sets before I know it.

At night in the mountains, it would be fine if the trees were sparse and the moon above the head could be seen, but in places with lush branches and leaves, the shadows would be so thick that it would be hard to detect the dangers nearby.

It was under the cover of such a thick night that the assassins approached silently. It was not until the sharp blades slid past his throat that he suddenly realized that the danger was approaching.

At first he thought it was a good show directed by those who failed to ask for a sword, and wanted to threaten his family members to submit, so he didn't panic too much.

Because if it's just ordinary people, he can subdue them with a little bit of tricks.But soon, he discovered that something was wrong with those who chased him down.

They couldn't speak, felt no pain, and didn't even bleed from the wound cut by the dagger, just like puppets manipulated by someone.

When the moonlight was slightly brighter, he saw their appearance clearly: their bodies were all hidden in the thick black mist, the sharp blades protruded directly from the bones, only the dark red eyes were bright, Just like a ghost crawling out of hell.

Under the extreme fear, he managed to maintain his sanity, whispered the name of the maid Axiang, called his father and grandmother, and hoped that they were all well and came to rescue him quickly.

The mountain road that usually takes less than an hour is so long that there is no end in sight, no matter how slow he is, he should know that he has encountered a ghost hitting the wall.

In front of him is the long road of ghosts hitting the wall, and behind him are those weird assassins chasing him. He stumbled and ran in the dark. It almost made him fall again.

No matter how fast he ran, those terrifying assassins followed closely behind him, not to mention that he was almost unable to move at this moment.

He really thought he was going to die, and even closed his eyes in resignation.

Just when they were about to touch him, a sharp sword blocked his head.

It was the boy from the side courtyard.He held the sword in an unprofessional posture, barely parrying the fatal blows of those ghosts.Just like that, his hands started shaking.

If he had been older, he would have wondered why a boy in his teens could single-handedly fight against these ghosts, but at that time he was really terrified, looking at Xue Zhi, his eyes were filled with sour mist.

"Come up."

When Xue Zhi was young, he withdrew his sword and stretched out his hand towards him.He hesitated for a while, seeing that those ghosts were about to make a comeback, he still held that hand.

Leaning on Xue Zhi's not-so-broad shoulders, feeling the body temperature through the thin fabric, there seemed to be a hole in his heart, and some sour feelings leaked out.

"I... I'm scared," he whispered.

He didn't actually expect how the boy would respond to him.

Because in the long time of getting along, he has become accustomed to this person's silence.He just wanted to tell him that he was scared.

"I am here."

It took a long time for the taciturn Xue Zhi to answer him like this.

I'm here, so please don't be afraid anymore.Because I will protect you.After understanding the things behind Xue Zhi's words, the tears he had endured with all his strength finally leaked out uncontrollably.

Because Xue Zhi had to carry him on his back, he didn't walk too fast, but those ghostly assassins were chasing after them, but they didn't dare to take a step closer.

Maybe it was because he had run too hard before, and he had worked too long in the sword hut during the day, and he was so tired that he wanted to sleep in a daze.

Fighting against drowsiness while forcing himself to be alert, he suddenly saw a figure standing in front of him while he was struggling left and right.

"Did you see it?" He whispered into Xue Zhi's ear, his breath was warm, "There is someone over there."

As usual, Xue Zhi did not speak.

From the corner of his eye, he saw the beads of sweat on Xue Zhi's forehead and his tightly biting lips.It was as if his heart had been cut by a blunt knife, and all figures were left behind.

Xue Zhi is protecting him.

"sorry."

He apologized a little jerky.

Xue Zhi is just an ordinary person.

Even ordinary people don't have one soul and one soul like him, and need to rely on other things to hang their lives.

If it wasn't for him, Xue Zhi wouldn't have accompanied him as he staggered forward in this dangerous mountain, and he might be chased by those terrifying assassins at any time and lose his life.

"Go to sleep." Suddenly he heard Xue Zhi say, "I'll be home when I wake up."

Xue Zhi's voice seemed to have magic power, and his eyelids, which were holding on tightly and refused to fall, had no resistance, and fell heavily, as if stuck together by glue.

The moment he was really about to fall asleep, he saw a young man in a loose robe who was slightly taller than Xue Zhi, flying past them against the direction of the mountain road.

The boy didn't have his hair tied up. His long black hair was blown back by the wind, revealing a face that should be pretty.

The reason why he said this is because no matter how much he recalled in the years to come, he couldn't remember what happened to this young man.