Mountain and River Festival 179. Secrets of the Past Dynasty

"Who...who is it?" Seeing his companion suddenly fall silently on the window, the middle-aged man stared at the window vigilantly, his voice trembling unconsciously. He glanced at Doctor Lin standing on the side, stepped forward quickly, held him in front of him, and walked forward slowly, "Who is outside, come out!" The middle-aged man began to sweat on his back. Originally, this time it was just for the master to go back and forth, which was not a difficult task. So they did not bring too many people, but they did not expect that there would be hidden masters in such a secluded mountain village.

"Come out! If he doesn't come out, I will kill him!" Pulling Doctor Lin, the middle-aged man stared at the window but did not move forward. Instead, he slowly moved towards the door of the study.

Swoosh——

A gray shadow passed by the window. The middle-aged man's eyes widened. The gray shadow passed by too fast. He didn't see clearly what it was. He tightened the dagger in his hand, swallowed quietly, and led Doctor Lin to retreat to the door. Just as they were about to reach the door, the window creaked and shook. The man was startled and quickly pointed the dagger at the window, but saw a dark light shooting out. The man opened his mouth and lowered his head weakly, only to see a rough wooden hairpin stuck in his throat. He blinked his eyes, but found that he was powerless and could only let go of Doctor Lin and fall backwards.

Doctor Lin looked down at the middle-aged man lying on the ground with eyes still wide open. He knew who the wooden hairpin on his throat belonged to. He looked up at the window, but Ye Li was not there. After a while, heavy footsteps were heard outside the door. Ye Li appeared at the door of the study. Seeing Doctor Lin's absent-minded look, he asked worriedly, "Master...are you okay?" Doctor Lin shook his head silently and looked at Ye Li. Ye Li forced a smile, "Did you scare the master? I..."

Doctor Lin sat down in a chair at the side with some fatigue, and said after a while: "At the beginning, I felt that you were not simple, but now I know that I was wrong. I won't ask you where you come from, go back by yourself, it's not safe here." Ye Li frowned as she looked at the corpses on the ground and by the window. It was not a good idea to talk in a room with two corpses, but she didn't have the strength to deal with the two corpses now. She found a place to sit down, comforted the baby in her belly who was a little uneasy, and frowned and smiled bitterly: "Master, I am like this now... where do you want me to go?" Not to mention the venomous snakes and beasts that might be encountered, she couldn't stand the fatigue of crossing mountains and ridges.

Doctor Lin sighed and shook his head, saying, "Do you think I'm chasing you away? I'm leaving too. If I don't leave now, I'm afraid I'll implicate innocent people in this village." At this point, the old man looked a little sad. It's not a happy thing for an old man over 60 to leave the place where he has lived for decades alone.

"Is it... Lin Yuan?" After a moment's silence, Ye Li asked softly.

Doctor Lin was startled, and was silent for a long time before he let out a long sigh. Doctor Lin was unwilling to say, and Ye Li didn't want to force him. Although she didn't know what Lin Yuan wanted to ask Doctor Lin for, she didn't want Doctor Lin to think she was someone who coveted his treasure. After thinking for a while, she said, "If Master really doesn't want to give it to him, why don't you destroy it? To put an end to his thoughts? If... he was raised by Master since he was a child, who else can Master give it to?" Doctor Lin forced a smile, shook his head, stood up and walked towards the door.

Ye Li did not move. She looked at the two corpses with some annoyance. If it was in the past, it would not be difficult for her to deal with these two corpses, but now it was not possible. Doctor Lin was too old to be asked to deal with these. Just as she was thinking, Doctor Lin had come back with a simple and unadorned small porcelain bottle. He walked to the middle-aged man lying on the ground, opened the porcelain bottle and shook out some of the powder inside. Then Ye Li was surprised to find that the powder emitted a pungent smoke the moment it touched the corpse, and then began to corrode the corpse on the ground. In less than a moment, the original burly man was reduced to a puddle of water on the ground, and not even a trace of clothes and fabrics were left. Then she watched Doctor Lin walk towards another corpse and shake off some powder in the same way. Seeing that corpse corroded and melted without any accident, Ye Li couldn't help but wipe her nose. After being together for so long, she realized that her unknown master was so cruel.

Seeing Doctor Lin calmly handling the two corpses, Ye Li now believed that her actions did not scare the old doctor. Looking at his skilled and calm appearance, he obviously did not look like a novice.

After all this was done, the two unfamiliar masters and apprentices looked at each other for a long time before they remembered to move to the outer room. Although there were no more things that were unsightly in the room, to be honest, the smell that remained was not very pleasant.

Sitting outside, Doctor Lin calmly served two cups of tea to Ye Li and himself. After two sips of tea, he seemed to have calmed down a little, and then Doctor Lin said, "I can't implicate these innocent people in the village. We can't stay here any longer..." Ye Li was silent for a moment, and then said, "From what Master said, that person... is not a kind-hearted person. How can Master guarantee that he won't harm these villagers if Master leaves? If so... why would Master persuade me to leave? Although I haven't been with Master for a long time, I always think that Master is a good person."

Doctor Lin was speechless. He really couldn't guarantee that after he left, the man wouldn't get angry and attack innocent people when he couldn't find the things. Otherwise, he would just need to place Ye Li in any family in the village, and there would be no need for her to leave here with a few months of pregnancy.

In any case, the roads outside are too dangerous for a pregnant woman who is several months pregnant.

After a long while, Doctor Lin asked, "What do you think?"

Ye Li shook her head, looked at Doctor Lin with some regret and said: "I don't even have the ability to protect myself now, unless I can leave here and return to Hongzhou as quickly as possible..."

"Hongzhou..." Doctor Lin looked at her, "Why do you think I can do it?"

Ye Li smiled and pointed to the study room full of books. "The villagers told me that you have never left here in the past thirty years. But... they also said that you only brought some simple gifts and a child to live here. Those books are obviously not something that can be sent here easily, so you must have left here many times over the years without them knowing. And it definitely doesn't take several months to come and go."

Doctor Lin looked at her and sighed, "You are indeed very smart. You saw it from the beginning, right?" Ye Li smiled faintly and said nothing. Doctor Lin looked at her and shook his head, "It's useless. I haven't walked that road for more than 20 years. You can't walk it now, and I can't walk it either. I'm old." Ye Li had already figured it out in her mind and was not too disappointed. She tilted her head and thought for a while and asked, "I guess it was the water route. I fell off a cliff near Hongzhou and was caught in a whirlpool in the dark when I fell into the water. Then I was washed here by the underground river. "Dr. Lin nodded in appreciation, "You are very lucky. You were not drowned, nor were you killed by the rocks in the water. Even your child was fine." Ye Li raised her eyebrows and smiled, "I don't think it's because I'm lucky, but because the people who built the underground river built it so carefully. That's why I wasn't blocked or killed by the rocks in the river. So, Master... what kind of person would spend so much effort to build such a secret passage? Or... is there some secret hidden in this village itself?"

Doctor Lin was stunned for a moment, and his eyes towards Ye Li were more inquiring and dangerous. Ye Li stopped pressing him, and quietly sat at the table, looking down at her fingers, which were now thinner but still slender. These hands had just easily broken a person's neck a quarter of an hour ago.

"Girl, who are you?" Doctor Lin stared at her for a long time and finally asked.

Ye Li pondered for a moment and said softly, "If you really haven't left here for more than 20 years, then who I am doesn't matter to you, right?" Doctor Lin looked at her and said, "I must at least know that you are not from the royal family of Great Chu." Ye Li sighed softly in her heart. Doctor Lin's question itself revealed many answers. Shaking her head, Ye Li said affirmatively, "I am not from the royal family of Great Chu." Although Mo Xiu Yao also has the surname Mo, and although he has the same ancestor as the founding emperor of Great Chu, in terms of blood relationship, they are actually very distant. If it weren't for a hereditary title, they can be said to have basically no relationship with the royal family. In everyone's cognition, it seems that the Mo family army and the royal family of Great Chu have always been clearly distinguished. Therefore, Ye Li felt no burden in thinking that she had no relationship with the Great Chu royal family.

After getting Ye Li's answer, Doctor Lin's expression eased a lot. Ye Li looked at him seriously and asked unexpectedly: "Master, what is your relationship with the royal family of the previous dynasty?"

Doctor Lin stared at Ye Li in a daze, obviously not expecting Ye Li to ask such a question. After a while, he asked, "Why do you think I have any relationship with the royal family of the previous dynasty?" Ye Li smiled lightly, and casually played with the rough teacup in her hand and said, "Master is so concerned about whether I am related to the royal family of Da Chu, and he lives in seclusion here. It is obvious that he has no good feelings towards the royal family of Da Chu... Even if we can't say that he has an irreconcilable hatred, he definitely has no good feelings towards them. Considering that this place is still within the territory of Da Chu, and Master, you don't look like a foreigner. In addition... from the river where I fell off the cliff to the place where Master rescued me, I estimate that even if it is a straight line, it is at least 100 meters. At least more than twenty miles. Such an underground artificial waterway is not something that anyone near the water can build. And the exit is in such an isolated village, which is very strange. Finally, it is said that this village has a history of nearly five hundred years, and the ancestors stipulated that the villagers must not be literate from generation to generation. I think... they did not escape here by chance, they are... guarding something. Although it is very likely that most of these villagers don’t know it, there must be someone who knows it, right? "

Looking at the woman who was talking so eloquently in front of him, Doctor Lin couldn't help but sigh, "You know too much."

Ye Li blinked innocently, looking at the old man in front of him eagerly, "Master, are you going to kill me to silence me? Just like the two people just now?" After saying that, Ye Li pointed to the study room inside. Doctor Lin couldn't help but twitch his mouth. Who killed those two people? !

Shaking his head helplessly, Doctor Lin said, "You don't have to test an old man like me. I can see from your actions just now that it's still a long way to go as to who will kill and who will silence each other." Ye Li picked up the teacup with a smile, making her smile more innocent and kind. "Once a teacher, always a teacher. I will never do such a rebellious thing. Master, let's think about what we should do in the future, right? Since we all want to live a good life."

Doctor Lin glared at her unhappily and said, "It's you who wants to live. I, an old man, have lived enough."

Ye Li smiled and filled a cup of tea for him, saying, "The neighbors in this village haven't lived enough." Speaking of these simple villagers, the old man clenched the teacup tightly, with a knotted and apologetic look on his face, "These people... they are all descendants of loyal ministers... but after so many years, I'm afraid they have forgotten their ancestors. In fact, there's nothing wrong with this. Isn't it a hundred times more comfortable to live a peaceful life than those people outside? But... if they lose their lives because of those old things... I really..." I can't bear it.

While listening to Doctor Lin's words, Ye Li tried hard to recall what he could remember about the past dynasties. A place like the Northwest has been considered remote since ancient times. At least compared to the prosperity of Chujing and Jiangnan, it is not a good place. Ye Li really couldn't figure out what the past dynasties had to do with this place. After a long time, a thought flashed through his mind. Ye Li blinked and asked tentatively: "Is the imperial tomb of the past dynasty here?"

Looking at Doctor Lin's astonished expression, Ye Li knew that she had guessed correctly.

The imperial tomb of the previous dynasty!

Ye Li quickly flipped through the history books in his mind. The previous dynasty lasted for more than 370 years and had 21 emperors. Except for the last emperor who was buried with royal ceremony by the Great Chu Taizu, the tombs of the other 19 emperors were either destroyed in wars or looted by tomb robbers. However, no one knew the whereabouts of the tomb of one emperor. That was the tomb of the founding emperor of the previous dynasty. Ye Li suddenly remembered one thing. The royal family of the previous dynasty seemed to be Lin.

As if sensing Ye Li's gaze, Doctor Lin looked at her and said calmly, "Don't think too much. I'm not a descendant of the previous dynasty."

"Could it be Lin Yuan?" If Lin Yuan was looking for the tomb of the previous emperor, it would make sense to say it was his.

Doctor Lin kept silent, and Ye Li asked the sky in silence. So... he guessed right again?