Chapter 24



The two brothers were in charge of buying food and wine and running errands, and were unaware of the conversation between the master and the old friend.

But in the end, the Qin general drank so much that tears and snot were streaming down his face, but he no longer glared at the master. Maybe he drank too much and forgot all his grudges after getting drunk!

After Qiu Xier recovered, Su Yishui proposed to take them to follow General Qin to Wangxiang Pass and practice along the way.

This time the journey was a little longer, Su Yishui gave instructions, and the second uncle, with a distressed look on his face, spent a lot of money to buy a carriage with a horse for people to rest, plus three horses for riding.

The disciples of Xishan did not have to measure the distance with their feet, so they could travel more easily.

The Qin general accompanied them along the way with several of his personal soldiers.

When Ranran and the others talked to General Qin, they found out that this General Qin was also a disciple of Xishan.

Everyone thought Su Yishui was Mu Qingge's last disciple. But that was not true. Before Mu Qingge was executed, he made an exception and accepted another disciple.

This General Qin, who is over 40 years old and has a pockmarked face, is Mu Qingge's last disciple.

It was completely by accident that Qin Yaojiu became Mu Qingge's last disciple.

At that time, Mu Qingge assisted the Daqi garrison in guarding Fan Yao Pass and fought a life-and-death battle with Prince Ping's rebels. It was at that time that she saved the dying Qin Xuanjiu and accepted him as her apprentice.

Unlike other fresh and tender disciples, General Qin, with his stubble and pockmarked face, does not meet the standards of the female demon Mu Qingge for being a disciple at all.

Qiu Xier asked the master uncle with some curiosity, was this Qin general more handsome twenty years ago?

Yuchen shook his head vigorously to indicate that the Qin generals twenty years ago were not as sturdy as they are now, and looked thinner, smaller, more wretched and uglier.

General Qin was just passing by on his way. Hearing this, he glared at Yu Chen and said, "My master doesn't even mind my ugliness. Why are you making such a fuss, you little bastard?"

I forgot to mention that the Qin general actually had a very bad relationship with Su Yishui and his two followers.

It was only later that Ran Ran found out that his master Su Yishui was the illegitimate son of Prince Ping, who had once rebelled.

In other words, if Mu Qingge hadn't interfered, Prince Ping would have been able to succeed in his coup and become the emperor. By then, if Su Yishui was vindicated, he would have been a prince.

It is precisely because of this that Qin Xuanjiu, as a general of Daqi, does not like the illegitimate son and followers of the rebellious prince. Coupled with the fact that his master was betrayed by Su Yishui, it is even more difficult to resolve the new sorrows and old grudges!

The Qin general started to curse, but Yu Chen refused to do anything. After a few words, the two men started to quarrel on horseback.

Yu Chen cursed: "Why don't you take a piss and look at yourself? Look at your appearance. Mu Qingge must have been drunk and blurted out his words, so he killed you!"

Because his teacher was killed just after he entered the sect, Qin Xuanjiu always felt sad that he could not return to his master's family and return to his ancestral home.

Now, hearing Yuchen point out his shortcomings, he immediately became furious. He took out a pair of purple gold hammers from his horse's bag and was ready to fight Yuchen to the death.

Ran Ran sat by the carriage and watched the excitement for a long time. Seeing that they couldn't end it, he quickly smiled and persuaded them: "General Qin, my uncle was just joking with you. You can see that you have excellent bones and bones, and you are a genius in immortal cultivation. Moreover, the five elements of Xishan Sect are wood, and your name contains the word "wine", just like my master's name contains water, which is most beneficial to the wood element. Master Mu must have felt that you are prosperous in the five elements, so he accepted you as his disciple."

This was meant to smooth things over, but Qin Xuanjiu looked at her blankly after hearing this, and with tears in his leopard eyes, he said, "...That's what my master said back then. How did you know, little girl?"

Well...Ranran could only laugh dryly and say that she was just talking nonsense. If it was similar to her ancestors, it was purely coincidental.

Unfortunately, this unintentional remark aroused General Qin's longing for his mentor, so that night he went to the riverside where Su Yishui was camping to drink and got drunk.

Ran Ran found the subtle relationship between these fellow disciples, who seemed to be on the verge of life and death, very mysterious.

You have to know that their attitudes towards their former master Mu Qingge are completely opposite, but they can still move forward so peacefully, which is really incredible. I just don't know why these two people are connected together to go to the Northwest Wangxiang Pass together.

But she soon found out the reason.

Su Yishui, who had let his disciples go at leisure along the way, looked at the dark clouds that were gathering in the sky when they were approaching Wangxiang Pass, and asked his disciples, "Do you know the mystery behind the name 'Wangxiang'?"

Bai Baishan never missed an opportunity to shake out his bag of cultivation books, and immediately said in a showy way: "The Three Realms are divided into the Heaven, Earth and Human Realms. Among them, this realm is the Death Realm. It is said that before the dead souls enter the underworld, they have to wander in Wangxiang Valley for three years, waiting for the remnants of the human world to be forgotten, and then they can enter the underworld to reincarnate."

Su Yishui nodded, indicating that what his second disciple said was correct, and then he continued: "Wangxiang Valley originally did not overlap with the human world, but in the Fan Yao battle twenty years ago, there were too many casualties, and the demon world was secretly opened at that time, disrupting the balance of yin and yang, so the yin energy of Wangxiang Valley was released and overlapped with the surface of the earth. From then on, Wangxiang Pass became a place with heavy yin energy. In addition, this is an important border town, and there are always wars. The yin energy is nourished by the resentment, and a lot of yin demons are raised. You came here this time to help General Qin to subdue demons and eliminate monsters."

Gao Cang, the passionate young man, clapped his hands and punched his fists excitedly, looking impatient. But the remaining three disciples were so frightened that their eyes widened.

Bai Baishan asked cautiously, "Master, we haven't learned anything except sitting in meditation to build our foundation and carrying sandbags up and down the mountain! Now that we are in such a dangerous place, what skills can we use to exorcise demons?"

Ran Ran was also nodding her head frantically beside them. Besides refining the elixir, she was also practicing jumping on the lotus leaves. If the master had brought them a little demon to fiddle with, it would be fine for them to practice, but now that they were in a place where there were so many demons, they would probably just be a way for them to fill their teeth, right?

Qin Xuanjiu was a little disappointed: "When have the disciples of Xishan Sect ever been so greedy and afraid of death? My master was so heroic in the past, how could he produce such timid disciples like you? You really don't give her face!"

Yu Chen snorted coldly: "What does the master's apprentice have to do with that female demon?"

But verbal battles obviously don't help improve one's skills. Su Yishui's disciples were not confident at all and had no idea whether they could bring honor to Xishan Lingxi Palace.

Su Yishui tried to comfort his disciples, using Ran Ran's experience in learning the Light Body Technique as an analogy: "If you want to improve your cultivation by leaps and bounds, you must first face death. This death is your chance to improve, so you must cherish it even more."

Ran Ran was a little unsure whether the Master wanted them to cherish this opportunity for advancement or to cherish the limited time left in their lives.

But looking at Su Yishui's serious expression, it was definitely not a joke. The disciples who had been eating, drinking and having fun along the way began to recite the Demon Subduing Art and practice the talisman-sticking body movement.

While Qiu Xier was being carried on her back, she would cry for a while, then wipe her tears and continue carrying her on her back.

Ran Ran also wanted to cry with her, but was afraid of wasting time, so she could only pat the sobbing senior sister on the back and said, "Be good, recite the Thirteen Demon Subduing Moves with me again."

In short, the few ducks that were forced onto the shelf finally swallowed it all before entering the gate of Wangxiang Pass, and learned the general idea of ​​the body movements they were going to use.

They also knew about the strange incident that happened in Wangxiang Pass two months ago. It turned out that two months ago, a battalion of Qin Xuanjiu soldiers went to patrol the camp by the Wangxiang River and suddenly disappeared.

At this time, the border had been stable for a while and no fighting had occurred. Qin Xuanjiu immediately sent people to search for the whereabouts of those officers and soldiers.

But the soldiers who returned were so frightened that their faces turned pale and their speech was incoherent. They just said that they were all in the river.

When Qin Xuanjiu led people to see, they saw the bodies of thirty-six officers and soldiers floating on the river, while their helmets, armor, underwear, and shoes were neatly stacked and lined up on the river bank.

It looked as if they had all gotten so upset that they jumped into the river.

But Qin Xuanjiuyi didn't believe it at all. Among these 36 officers and soldiers, several were trained by him. All of them were upright and honest men. Two of them had families in Wangxiang Pass, and they were even going to be fathers soon.

Moreover, before leaving, they were laughing and drinking together and sharing meat, and said that they would continue drinking when they returned. How could they do such a stupid thing for no reason?

The mystery of the drowning case had not yet been fully investigated, and several similar bizarre incidents occurred afterwards, all of which were caused by chaos in Wangxiang Pass.

Rumors gradually spread, and some people began to say that Qin Xuanjiu treated his men too harshly, so that the soldiers could not bear the humiliation and committed suicide by jumping into the river.

Qin Xuanjiu was speechless, so he took his men to guard the river for three nights, but nothing unusual happened. This seemed to confirm that Qin Xuanjiu treated the soldiers harshly.

Just when he was being slandered inexplicably, he suddenly remembered something and hurriedly took out an eight-diagram compass from behind the portrait of Mu Qingge that he was worshipping.

Looking at it this way, one can see that the yin and yang on the compass are reversed, and the order is completely messed up.

Qin Xuanjiu remembered the instructions his mentor gave him when he gave him the compass, saying that when the compass showed unusual signs, he must look for Su Yishui. Only then did he temporarily put aside his grudge with the Su and went to Xishan to look for him, asking him to come and solve the crisis in Wangxiang Pass. He also scolded him a few words to vent his years of pent-up hatred towards Su Yishui.

If his master had not made him swear an oath that he would never make things difficult for Su Yishui, he really wanted to chop this ungrateful bastard to death with one blow!

But Qin Xuanjiu didn't expect that Su Yishui was a bastard when he was his disciple, and even more of a bastard when he was his master. He actually pushed several of his newly-minted disciples out to sacrifice to the evil spirit.

In the yellow sands of the northwest, looking at the young men wearing borrowed military uniforms and wrapped like dumplings, standing by the Wangxiang River like abandoned children, Qin Xuanjiu asked uncertainly: "Is it really okay to leave them... here for one night?"

In the past two months, there have been three strange incidents of soldiers jumping into the river for unknown reasons. Is it really okay to leave four newbies of cultivation beside a dark river?

Su Yishui nodded, took out a stack of things from his arms and handed them to Ranran.

Ran Ran took it and looked at it. It turned out to be a pile of lotus leaves cut out of green paper...

Su Yishui said: "If you think the situation is not right, throw these into the river."

"Master, these are thunder talismans. Can they exorcise demons and monsters?" Ranran asked with hope.

Su Yishui shook his head: "It's too cold here, and there are no lotus leaves in the river. With these, it will be convenient for you to perform the light body technique to avoid drowning..."

This answer made Ranran's face fall - she was afraid that she would be bewitched by some evil spirit and lose her mind, and would not even remember to use the light body technique to step on the lotus leaves.

Besides, these lotus leaves cut out of green oil paper are too perfunctory, right? As a master and apprentice, at least give them some real lotus leaves!

After Su Yishui gave these instructions, he waved his sleeves, and went into the city without taking any of his disciples with him.

Although Qin Xuanjiu sympathized with these young men, he could not persuade Su Yishui, so he shook his head and left with his soldiers.

The imperial emissaries had already entered the pass, and Qin Xuanjiu still had to deal with those annoying lawsuits. However, he comforted himself a little bit because if Su Yishui's apprentice also drowned, then at least it could be proved that it was not because of his harsh treatment of the soldiers that they committed suicide by jumping into the river.

Coffins are in short supply in the nearby towns these days, and I wonder if their master will be willing to spend a lot of money to prepare some good coffins for them...

Second Master Yutong felt sorry for her nephews and left them two tents to keep out the cold, a fire starter and a bundle of wood for making a fire to keep warm at night. Before leaving, she sighed helplessly and told them to take good care of themselves and try to have a reunion breakfast the next day.

When everyone had left, only four fellow disciples were left staring at each other.

Qiu Xier said with a sad face: "My mother said she would send me to the mountains to cultivate immortality, but she didn't say I would be fed to the evil spirits! Senior Brother, Second Senior Brother, should we think of a solution ourselves?"

Gao Cang drew out his family sword with a clang, and said with full energy: "Don't be afraid, Third Junior Sister. If there really is an evil demon, I will definitely protect you at all costs!"

Ranran was more practical. She asked her senior brother to borrow a sword, untied the bundle of firewood, built a fire to keep warm, and then roasted some sweet potatoes and chicken legs that she brought with her to help pass the long nights in the northwest.

When the firewood was burning, the sweet potatoes were slowly thrown in, and after a while, the sweet smell filled the air. The chicken legs marinated with coarse salt and soju were put on the grill, and the boys and girls who had never known the taste of sorrow temporarily put their fear aside and kept swallowing their saliva.

After the chicken legs were cooked, Ran Ran took out a wine bag from his pocket mysteriously and said, "You are in for a treat. I brought this from Xishan..."

Gao Cang took it and smelled it. The aroma of wine filled his nose. He took a sip and his eyes widened immediately: "It smells so good? What kind of wine is this?"

Ran Ran smiled and said, "I brewed it myself. If it tastes good, you can drink a few more sips, which will warm you up."

This wine was the "Mi Tian Xian" that she brewed according to the "Wan Jing". She didn't dare to take it out because she was afraid that her master would recognize her after drinking it.

Now there are only a few fellow disciples left, which is just the right time to drive away the cold and strengthen our courage.

The nights in the northwest were very cold, but Ranran was dressed warmly. She wore a small flowered jacket made for her by her mother underneath her thick cotton military jacket. Although it was round like a tumbler, it was very warm when she tucked her neck into the wool bib.

When the wine, roasted sweet potatoes and chicken enter your stomach, your dantian will feel warm.

Bai Baishan told some jokes at the right time, making everyone laugh. This didn't look like exorcism at all, but more like a picnic. Ran Ran began to sing a wild song, and the beautiful and clear voice echoed in the countryside, making people feel soft in their hearts.

Coupled with the unusually sweet wine, people completely forgot what fear was and immersed themselves in the excitement and playfulness that only teenagers could have.

Gao Cang came from a military family. After taking a sip of "Mi Tian Xian", he did not forget to pour a cup into the river to pay tribute to the dead souls in the army.

These heroes buried in the mountains all sacrificed their lives for the country. How could he drink alone?

It was too dark and Gao Cang did not notice that when his glass of wine was poured into the river, bubbles suddenly began to appear on the surface of the river which was originally flowing smoothly.

After Ranran and the others finished their meal, they returned to their military tents and went to sleep in their clothes.

But no one could sleep in such a situation, so they simply meditated in the military tent to regulate their breathing and calm their minds.

Ranran had taken the Qingxin Pills that he had made himself some time ago. After fasting for more than ten days, he suddenly became more knowledgeable.

When she meditated, she no longer felt the unbearable pain in her back. When her breathing was in harmony with the energy flowing through her body, she felt as if she was in touch with the universe.

And my hearing has become much more sensitive. I can hear the howling of wolves in the distant mountains, and the sound of gophers digging holes in the bushes not far away and scratching the soil with their little claws.

In short, the sounds of all things are infinitely amplified, and I gradually return to peace in this noisy sound...

Suddenly, Ran Ran opened his eyes and whispered, "There is a sound in the river..."

To be precise, it was a faint singing voice. The lyrics seemed to be something like "Returning home..."

When she looked at Qiu Xier beside her, she found that Xier had opened her eyes and was staring blankly at the river outside the military tent.

Ran Ran saw that she didn't respond, so he called her a few more times. But she was still in a daze, completely ignoring him.

At this moment, Ran Ran heard the gurgling sound of the river water seemed to be getting louder and louder. Qiu Xier suddenly stood up and walked out of the tent.

Ran Ran quickly got up and followed her out, and found that the two senior brothers in the other small military tent had also come out.

Their eyes were dull, obviously in the same situation as Qiu Xier, and they also walked straight towards Wangxiang River.

Ran Ran followed them and called out repeatedly, but they still did not turn back. When they reached the river, the three of them began to take off their clothes and fold them up, and began to pile their coats and clothes on the shore.

Such neat and uniform movements can only make people shudder and make their pores stand up.

This situation is exactly the same as General Qin Xuanjiu's previous description!

Ranran knew that if she didn't do something, they would jump into the river after taking off their clothes and shoes.

Thinking of this, Ran Ran turned around, picked up a new piece of firewood, started a fire from the unextinguished firewood pile to make a torch, and then ran to the river to light it.

When the firelight illuminated the river, she found a lot of bubbles coming out of the river surface, and she didn't know what was in the water.

She looked back at the possessed people, bit her lip, and suddenly seemed to remember something. She took out the Qingxin Pills she had made from her pocket. Then she poured three pills into her mouth, bit them into pieces, spit them out, and stuffed them into their mouths.

Ran Ran wasn't sure if it would work, but she remembered her master saying that the simpler the pill, the purer its medicinal power.

For example, the entry-level Qingxin Pills can not only help build the foundation for fasting, but also, as the name suggests, help one hold the breath and concentrate the energy to resist the troubles of the inner demons.

Although the master never explained it, Mu Ranran made a wild guess that she was using the alchemy furnace that Mu Qingge had used before. It was a magical object that condensed magical power, and it had higher requirements for the person who used the furnace. No impurities must be mixed in, otherwise the power of the refined pills would be completely uncontrollable.

Perhaps it was because of this that the pills she had mixed with impure thoughts earlier were so overbearing and ruined her master's three years of fasting.

The pills she was refining now were all made during her meditation, so they were relatively free of distractions. Now, she could only give them these pills as a desperate measure.

The crushed pill melted in the mouth and flowed all the way down the throat even without swallowing. Just as they were about to take off their underwear and then their shoes, the medicinal power of the Qingxin Pill finally took effect.

Bai Baishan was the first to wake up. He shivered in the biting cold wind, then looked down at his neatly stacked pile of clothes and was dumbfounded.

Soon after, Qiu Xier regained consciousness. She first saw the two brothers who were in dishevel, then she looked down at herself, who was only wearing underwear. She immediately let out a deafening scream of shame and anger, then quickly squatted down, picked up her coat and put it on again.

The eldest senior brother also woke up after being called by the third junior sister. He looked at his fellow disciples stupidly and stammered, "What...what's going on?"

Xue Ranran had no time to explain, so he could only point to the river and said, "There's something strange in the water, get away from it quickly."

At this time, the three people who had just woken up also saw the boiling bubbles on the water surface. They quickly picked up their coats and shoes and retreated hastily.

Perhaps because the three controlled people resisted the evil power and woke up in time, the river boiled even more violently, and even began to splash water, gradually turning into countless rising currents, rushing towards the shore, as if to drag the teenagers into the water.

"Hurry up and form the formation!" Ranran shouted hurriedly.

The other three people quickly formed the demon-subduing formation taught by their master, and drew talismans with their hands in front of their chests. At the same time, the four of them formed a "品" formation.

According to the master, once the formation is arranged, they can back up and reinforce each other, and fight the enemy more easily. The so-called demons are nothing more than alien species that have absorbed Yin energy.

As long as we respond calmly, observe carefully, and discover their vital points, we can wield the sword to defeat the demons and uphold justice.

Unfortunately, these rookies were all using this move for the first time, some were fast, some were slow. Qiu Xier was flustered and clumsy, and in the end she failed to get to the right spot and even tripped to the ground.

When she fell with a cry, a gap appeared in the Demon Subduing Formation. The water seemed to have noticed the flaw and suddenly rushed towards Ran Ran.

"It" had just used a spell to bewitch people's minds, and the other three people were all affected, but this little girl was not affected at all, and she even managed to wake up the three people.

So "it" decided to deal with this troublemaker first, and then deal with the remaining three people.


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