Upon entering the room, Zhao Zhilan discovered that there were already more than thirty people inside.
Upon closer inspection, everyone was very young, the vast majority of them were teenagers of sixteen or seventeen, and the oldest was no more than twenty-five.
They sat around a brazier in the middle of the muddy ground, water flowing down their boots and pooling into small puddles.
Despite the heavy smell of smoke, the air remained damp. Rain seeped in through the chimney in the roof. The entire house consisted of only this one room, plus an attic on top that served as a bedroom, connected by a rickety ladder.
An elderly man in his sixties leaned against the brazier; he was the only person in the room with a chair to sit on.
Upon seeing He Xiao, the old man raised his head and asked coldly, "He Xiao, have you changed your face again?"
At this moment, Zhao Zhilan noticed that this person seemed to be nearing the end of his life, his hair had turned from gray to white, and his days were probably numbered, but without a doubt, he was still a very powerful person.
His flat nose and downturned lips gave him a somewhat dignified appearance.
"Elder Gu, hello!" He Xiao said with a slight smile. "It's not my wish to greet you with this new face!"
"Oh? You've run into trouble?" Elder Gu asked.
“It wasn’t just me, He Xiao, but the entire Xuanhua Palace!” He Xiao replied. “The Lone Wolf’s men used some despicable means to kill Mr. Yao.”
"All men must die!" Elder Gu cried out, his face filled with sorrow.
"It's not easy to have a good heart!" came the reply from inside the room.
"How did Mr. Yao die?" Elder Gu asked, seemingly already guessing that Mr. Yao had met an untimely end.
"He died from some kind of deadly poison I've never seen before! It was the Lone Wolf's men who poisoned him," He Xiao said. "At the same time, before Mr. Yao died, the Lone Wolf's men staged a charade of the descent of the Faceless God!"
Upon hearing this, Elder Gu frowned.
“It was that self-proclaimed wolf who started the war!” he said. “Don’t worry, He Xiao. I am also a member of Xuanhua Palace, and I will not stand idly by. But this time, we must do it my way. We can’t rush it!”
"Understood!" He Xiao nodded. "Elder Gu, if it's possible, would you be willing to accept this...Miss Zhao beside me as your disciple?"
Elder Gu raised his head and scrutinized Zhao Zhilan. "Her?" he questioned. "Putting aside her age, which makes her unsuitable for training, if I'm not mistaken, she's of royal blood!"
He Xiao nodded again, "That's right, she is the daughter of Empress Wei Maozhen, the princess of Great Xia!"
Elder Gu narrowed his eyes. "I'm afraid I can't comply with this request!" He replied, "Your Highness, you should return to the capital."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Zhilan shook her head repeatedly. "No, I don't want to go back." She said, "Elder Gu, please, you must accept me as your disciple. I can endure any hardship, and I'm willing to do anything!"
"Is this true?" Elder Gu pressed.
"really!"
"If you want to become my disciple, you must live here like all the other disciples," Elder Gu said. "If you truly wish to become my disciple, go to the vegetable garden outside and find Luo Yan. She will arrange tasks for you."
"Thank you, Master! Thank you!" Zhao Zhilan immediately bowed in gratitude.
"I still have some things to discuss with Elder Gu, you should go ahead!" He Xiao said with a meaningful smile.
"Yes, Lord He...Lord He!"
After leaving the room, Zhao Zhilan arrived at the so-called vegetable garden.
It was a fence with a small open door, and at the entrance to the vegetable garden were two long poles with animal skulls stuck in them: one a pig's head, the other a sheep's head.
Looking up, I could see a little bit of flesh and blood still remaining on the pig's head.
Next to the vegetable garden was a pigpen, where a large group of piglets huddled around three fat sows.
In the vegetable garden, a little girl of thirteen or fourteen, dressed in thin clothes, squatted in the rain pulling radishes, while two young boys were preparing to slaughter a pig.
The livestock screamed in agony, high-pitched and terrifying, like the cries of a person in deep sorrow.
Zhao Zhilan walked into the vegetable garden and asked the little girl, "Excuse me, which one of you is Luo Yan?"
The little girl pointed to a spot not far away, "There!"
Zhao Zhilan looked up and saw that it was a woman in her fifties.
This person was extremely tall with very broad shoulders, but had a flat chest. Her face was round and rough, with a row of protruding and uneven teeth, a horribly wide mouth, and lips that were as fat as caterpillars. Her hair was messy.
Upon seeing this person's appearance, Zhao Zhilan subconsciously took a deep breath, then stepped forward, "Excuse me, are you Luo Yan? Luo..."
For a moment, she didn't know whether to call her Aunt Luo or Elder Luo.
Unexpectedly, Luo Yan didn't even glance at her, but simply replied in a flat tone, "Come with me."
Zhao Zhilan had no choice but to follow closely.
Soon, Luo Yan led her to the entrance of a cellar.
Before Zhao Zhilan could speak, Luo Yan plunged inside.
The cellar was bottomless and eerily terrifying.
But since things had come to this point, Zhao Zhilan was unwilling to give up, so she took a deep breath and entered it.
The passage was narrow, allowing only one person to pass at a time.
The torches on both sides were lit, but they could not dispel the cold.
Zhao Zhilan walked forward shivering, and soon came to a carved wooden door that was seven or eight meters high.
The left door is made of massive cedar wood, painted white, as white as bones, while the right door is made of slightly gleaming ebony. Between the two doors is a carved moon, but the cedar wood is inlaid with ebony, and the ebony wood is inlaid with cedar.
The door was watching me. She thought to herself as she reached out to push, but neither door would budge. They were locked tight.
"I can't push it away!" Zhao Zhilan said instinctively.
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