The moon gradually moved from the east to the west, sinking towards the dark horizon at the end of his vision.
As the night progressed, drops of mist began to gather in the city by the river bank.
The night fog was cold and humid. Under the bridge beside the river, there was always a small fire to disperse the humidity. Every day before going to bed, Xue Jin had to drag his sick leg and limp around to pick up wood and firewood. There were not many trees in Jiangning city. Now that people from all walks of life had gathered here, the trade and logistics were chaotic. This matter had become increasingly difficult and arduous.
After going to bed, he was always worried that the fire would gradually extinguish, so he got up and added firewood. In the end, he was too tired and fell asleep in a daze. In his dream, he saw many of his family members who were still alive. His wife, a few concubines, and his children. Yue Niang was also there. It had not been long since he had bought her out of the brothel.
He saw them in his dream. They were gathered at the table or in the house, preparing to eat. The child was riding on a bamboo horse. He smiled and wanted to talk to them, but in his heart, he felt that something was wrong. He kept worrying about something.
When he turned around, a black mass of people surged towards him. Stones hit his head, making buzzing sounds. The women and children were knocked into a pool of blood. They were beaten to death … He lay in a corner, then knelt on the ground and kowtowed, shouting, "I hit the head of the heart demon, I hit the heart demon …" The curious people kept him there.
After that …
He woke up from the cold. The sky was gray, and the morning fog lingered on the waterway not far away.
Xue Jin was in a daze for a while. He recalled the faces of the women and the children in his dream. Over the past few days, every time he had such a memory, it was as if his heart was being cut out of his body. Every time, he would hold his head and want to cry. However, out of consideration for Yue Niang who was lying beside him, he only revealed a sorrowful expression and held his head, not letting it make a sound.
Those memories were actually getting more and more blurry. Most of the time, he could only feel the rolling pain in his mind. It was as if the pain had gradually become concrete and replaced everyone in his mind …
He wiped the tears from the corner of his eyes, turned around, and began to carefully add firewood to the embers of the fire. Yue Niang was lying beside him, in a deep sleep.
On the day when the people under the banner of "King Yanluo" rushed onto the stage, because of her young and beautiful appearance, Yue Niang was dragged into a nearby alley. Because of this, she was lucky enough to survive. When Xue Jin found her … no one could tell whether this kind of life was a good thing or a bad thing. Her mental state was already abnormal, and her body was extremely weak. Every time Xue Jin looked at her, he would feel his heart being tortured.
But he still had to look at her carefully every time. He saw her chest rise and fall slightly, her lips open, and she exhaled weakly. He had to look very carefully to see these traces clearly, but it was enough to tell him that she was still alive.
Every day that she lived was a day of suffering. But apart from living like this, he didn't know what else to do. He knew that Yue Niang's suffering was even worse than his, but if she were to pass away, there would be nothing left for him in this world.
He started a fire, and from the corner of his eyes, he confirmed that Yue Niang was still alive. So, there wasn't much change today … He thought of last night. Last night was the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, and there were fireworks. In that case, he might be able to beg for better food this morning. He wasn't sure about this, but in the past, when the world was still relatively peaceful, beggars seemed to be like this …
After placing a few pieces of firewood on the fire, Xue Jin's gaze passed over Yue Niang's body. He was stunned to see that there seemed to be something placed on Yue Niang's body.
He slowly crawled over, and finally discovered that there were some medicinal herbs wrapped in a piece of paper. There were a total of ten packets of these medicinal herbs, and the number of times they could be consumed per day was written on them. These were for Yue Niang to drink and nourish her body.
Last night, it seemed that someone had come under the bridge to check on Yue Niang's condition, and then left these things behind.
Xue Jin got up from the ground, limped under the bridge, and wandered around in a daze for a moment. Then he walked out, his body trembling. He looked in different directions, but all he could see was fog. "Ah, ah," he said in a low voice. He wanted to say something, but his head had been hit, so he couldn't organize the appropriate words. For a moment, he wandered around the bridge in the fog, and for a long time, he couldn't say anything …
…
In the early morning, Ning Ji had already asked for directions.
He set off from the old house of the Su family, and jogged all the way in the direction of the Qinhuai River.
This was what his father had done in the past. If he repeated this a few times, he might be able to find the place where Grandpa Qin had set up his chess stall, and the small building by the river where Aunt Zhu and Aunt Jin used to live.
At his age, although he was curious about his parents' life, there was a limit to it. But now that he had arrived in Jiangning, after all, he didn't have too many specific goals. Right now, he was just doing this kind of thing and connecting everything together. In the process, perhaps he would naturally find his next goal.
The milky white morning fog was like a mountain range, like a maze, swimming leisurely in the breeze in this city. Without the embarrassing distant scenery, Jiangning in the fog seemed to return to the past for a short time.
It was still too early, and there were not many pedestrians on the road. When he ran to the bank of the Qinhuai River, he saw the fog flowing on the calm water surface. As he ran forward, the eaves and silhouettes of the houses gradually "sailed" out of the fog, like a large ship floating on the water.
This peaceful scene only lasted for a short time. After running for a while, he could feel the incongruity in the city: there was no sound of chickens and dogs, and such living creatures had disappeared in the city. On both sides of the road, most of the trees originally planted by the river had been cut down, and some only left behind stumps that were too difficult to dig. Many tents were set up by the road, and sometimes he could hear coughing in the fog. Some people started a fire next to the tents in the morning to resist the thick humidity.
He ran along the dilapidated road by the river for a while, and almost stepped into a muddy puddle. Then he heard strange music.
After walking for a while, strange people and banners appeared in front of him in the fog. Some were blowing trumpets, and some were playing flutes. Many people in the procession were dressed strangely, like gods from heaven or messengers from hell. This was a group of pilgrims under the banner of the "Chakra King", and they had begun their procession early in the morning. After Lin E Chan arrived in Jiangning, there were more and more believers. Ning Ji knew that they were arrogant at the moment, and they were fighting for territory with the other four families.
He ran to the side and stood there, weighing the quality of these people. The people in the group were humming and chanting the Wisdom King's Advent Sutra and other such messy scriptures. There was a guy dressed as an angry Vajra who was singing and dancing as he walked by, staring at him. Ning Ji curled his lips and thought, "It's better if you beat your brains out. I won't argue with fools. "
This procession was about a hundred people, and they should be collecting believers along the way. Ning Ji watched them pass by. After walking for a while, he heard faint sounds in the fog.
"Wow …"
"There's a pit here …"
"Where …"
"Be careful …"
"Puff —"
"Don't step on me …"
"Your mother …"
After a series of chaotic noises, the music of trumpets and flutes gradually returned.
Ning Ji laughed like a pig.
He continued walking, but he had no idea where the chess stall might be or where the small building might be. Perhaps his father ran in the other direction every morning, but of course, that was not a big problem. He ran for a while more, and gradually he could see an abandoned house that had been burned by fire by the river. This was probably an area that had been ravaged by the war after the city was breached. On the road by the river in front of him, there were several figures warming themselves by a fire. Someone was poking around with a long stick and fishing for something.
Seeing Ning Ji slowly running over, someone stood up and stretched out his hand to stop him.
"Which … mountain …"
This person had a mouth full of decayed teeth, and he dragged the word "which" very long, which was very charming. Ning Ji knew that this person was telling him about the Jianghu opening, which was usually a poem. The person in front of him seemed to see that Ning Ji looked kind, so he asked casually.
"I can't pass here?" Ning Ji looked ahead. The road by the river was desolate, and there were a few tents there. He didn't want to go there anyway.
Someone came over and stopped him from behind.
"Young man, you're dressed very well. Which family's childe are you from? You must be confused."
"You call this well-dressed?"
Ning Ji widened his eyes and tugged at the patched clothes on his body.
"I think your shoes are good …" The person in front of him smiled, "You're probably …"
With a loud bang, the body of the person in front of him flew backward like a cannonball. His body rolled on the road, and then crashed into the burning bonfire. In the fog, firewood splashed all over the sky, and fire flew everywhere.
At this moment, Ning Ji kicked him in the stomach with almost all his strength.
On the road ahead, the flag of "Avici Yuan Tu", one of the "Seven Kills" under the command of "King of Hell", was fluttering slightly.
Ning Ji's eyes were cold. He landed on the ground and tilted his head.
The person in the back who stopped him was slightly stunned, and then suddenly pulled out his knife. "Wah —" The sound rang through the morning fog.
He took a step forward, and Ning Ji took a step back. He turned around, grabbed the knife in his hand, and swung the back of the iron knife at the man's head. The man staggered a few steps and fell to the ground. In front of him, the rest of the people had already rushed over. The person in the front also turned into a rolling gourd with a bang, and dispersed the fog around him.
The fog beside this section of the river became wild. Some people were knocked into the ruins of the fire next to them, and some rushed into the Qinhuai River. There was a flurry in the fog, and someone knocked open a tent. Screams and shouts rang out nearby, and a figure crawled backward on the ground.
"Who are you … Tell me your name if you have the guts! Tell me your name if you have the guts … I, 'King of Hell', will not spare you! I will search to the ends of the earth to kill you and your family — "
Ning Ji walked forward with the knife in his hand. He saw a woman and a child in ragged clothes crawling out of the tent ahead. The woman also had a knife in her hand, and it seemed that she wanted to fight against the strong enemy with the others. Ning Ji looked at all this with cold eyes, and his footsteps came to a halt.
He glanced around and saw some people crawling out of the ruins, and some still rolling on the ground, wailing. He walked to the side, picked up a still burning wooden stick from the ground, and walked to the flagpole of 'Avici Yuan Tu'. He chopped down the flagpole with his knife, and then stretched out the wooden stick to start a fire.
The surrounding people saw this scene and wailed again. In fact, it wasn't easy for them to obtain this flag in Jiangning City. It was just that they didn't expect to encounter such a fiend before they could expand their territory.
"Go back and tell your father, from now on, if I see you evil people again, I will see one! Just one! "
"I will not change my name, nor my surname. I will be called — Long! Ao! Tian! "
The flames burned the flag, and then it burned fiercely.
…
When more 'King Yama's' troops rushed over, Ning Ji had already turned around and ran away.
When he said "Long Aotian", his aura wasn't strong enough. Most importantly, he shouldn't have said "I'll never change my name or my surname" in the beginning. After he said that, he suddenly felt a little guilty. He reflected on himself a few times and decided that he couldn't say that in a serious manner anymore. He would just say "Long Aotian" instead.
But no matter what, his handsome name was finally going to make a name for himself in the Jianghu!
This was the first day that he, 'Master of Wulin', Long Aotian, was going to be a tyrant in the Jianghu!
That's right, he had already thought of a nickname, 'Master of Wulin'. If others had any objections, he would say that his sect was called 'Wulin Union'. As the boss of Wulin Union, wasn't it a very reasonable thing to call himself 'Master of Wulin'? When that time came, no one would be able to refute this, and the thought of it was very interesting.
Of course, the main reason why he had attacked so violently earlier was naturally not because he wanted to become famous, but because he had seen Xue Jin and the woman beside him the previous night, and the anger that had accumulated in him needed to be unleashed.
Before coming to Jiangning, he had first thought of getting rid of the big idiot, He Wen. Of course, this was a dream that belonged to a stage of his life, and he did not insist on killing him. Along the way, he had also made enemies with the sh * t baby of 'Baofeng Cruise Ship', and he had also thought of getting rid of 'Monkey King' Li Jiafeng, who was inextricably linked to the Great Radiant Sect. But at this moment, it was the group of people under 'King Yama' Zhou Shang who had especially provoked his anger.
If there was a chance, he would get rid of Zhou Shang, or kill a few of the so-called 'Seven Kills' under his command. After all, no one was innocent.
Apart from this, only then would Long Aotian be able to make a name for himself.
He thought of the little monk that he had met outside the city.
After some time, the little monk would hear the name 'Wulin League' Long Aotian in the city, and he would definitely be extremely shocked, because he did not even know that he knew martial arts. Hehehe, when they met again, he would definitely make him kowtow and call him 'Big Brother' …
After some time, when his father heard the name 'Long Aotian' in the southwest, he would then know what kind of achievements he had made when he came out to Jianghu. Of course, it was also possible that when he heard the name 'Sun Wu Kong', he would ask someone to catch him, but accidentally catch the wrong person …
Hahahahaha —
With his hands on his waist, Ning Ji laughed silently on the road in the morning fog for a while. Because there were many people sleeping on the roadside not far away from the fog, he did not dare to really laugh out loud.
The Great Devil's rampage was about to begin, and Jianghu would be full of trouble from now on … (Long Aotian thought to himself)
…
The morning light dissipated the thick fog, and the wind pushed the waves away, making the city brighter. At the west gate of the city, the little monk with a rice bowl rushed into the city at the earliest time. He stood in front of the breakfast shops and began to beg alms.
In fact, he still had some silver in his pocket, which was given to him by his master for emergencies before they parted. There were not many silver taels, and the little monk was very stingy in saving them. He would only spend a little when he was really hungry. In fact, the fat master did not care how he got money. He could kill, rob, beg, or even beg. But the important thing was that he had to solve these things by himself.
At this moment, he really missed the little brother Long whom he met the day before yesterday. It would be great if someone could invite him to eat roast duck …
Besides, he did not know how his master was doing in the city.
However, after a while, when he was eating half a bowl of porridge in front of the charity table of a 'King of Chakravarti', he also heard news about his master …
…
In the Dongsheng Inn in the south of the city.
"I'm looking for Chen San."
A woman dressed as a man walked into the inn and told the waiter of the inn what she wanted.
After a while, You Hongzhuo came down from upstairs and saw Liang Siyi in the hall below.
Liang Siyi saw him and turned to leave. You Hongzhuo followed her all the way. After turning a few streets like this, he saw Wang Juyun's trusted assistant, An Xifu, in a house.
"General An …"
"Hero You, I've heard a lot about you." The two of them cupped their hands. An Xifu smiled and said, "Siyi said that she saw you in the city. Due to some reasons, she could not reveal too much information to you. However, I've been in contact with Hero Shi and he mentioned you before. He said that although you have not entered the army, you are a trustworthy person."
You Hongzhuo nodded. In the Jin Land, the Eight-Arm Dragon King had taught him many things. He had told him many things, so there was no need for him to be pretentious.
"I heard that the situation in the Jiangning meeting this time is complicated. I originally thought that the Jin Land was far away from here, so they would not send anyone here. I wanted to come and find out more about it, then go back and talk to Prime Minister Lou and Hero Shi in detail. I didn't expect General An to come in person. Could it be that the Jin Land and the Equity Party have such a big connection? "
Although You Hongzhuo traveled the Jianghu, he was quick-witted and had seen many things. The fairness party's conference this time was very important, but according to their usual behavior, this area was closed off and chaotic. The neighboring parties all had important reasons to send people here. Only the Jindi side was far away from here. Even if they were connected, it was likely that there wouldn't be any strong relations that could happen. Thus, he really didn't expect that the person coming this time would actually be such an important person as An Xifu.
An Xifu smiled and said, "The Prime Minister and Zou Xu are in contact. They are now in the arms business. If Zou Xu wins the battle of Bianliang this time, we might not be able to have a trade route between the Jin Land and Jiangnan."
"Oh." You Hongzhuo thought of the situation in the Central Plains and nodded.
The two of them sat down and chatted about the complicated situation in Jiangning City.
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