Chapter 16 Chapter 91: The Culprit

The small tavern looked the same as the last time I came here, it was still so quiet, simple and deserted, the doors and windows were still open, the old shopkeeper was dozing off behind the counter, even the occasional chatter from the small courtyard inside The crowing of chickens and ducks also seemed to reveal a sense of indifference to the world.Wang Zongjing walked over, sat down at the table against the wall, turned his head to look at the small courtyard outside the window, chickens and ducks were strolling leisurely on the grass, the small pond was as smooth as a mirror, and the poplar tree stood alone.The old shopkeeper lazily raised his head on the counter and glanced at this side. His wrinkled and aging face showed no expression. After a while, seeing that no other customers followed in, he walked over slowly.

"Guest officer, what kind of wine do you want to drink?" Wang Zongjing turned his head the last, glanced at him, and said, "Didn't you never think that it's because your drinks here are so bad that no one comes to patronize you?" Is it?" The old shopkeeper snorted and put a jug of the worst wine in front of him.Wang Zongjing frowned and glanced at the jug, coughed, did not touch it, only lowered his voice, and said softly: "Do you know about the Pangu Palace?" The old shopkeeper tremblingly supported the wine table, With his back to the door, he had an angry look on his face, and said: "Now in this Liangzhou city, is there anyone who doesn't know about this?" Wang Zongjing said: "How much do you know? Is there a way to find it?" ?” The old shopkeeper rolled his eyes and said, “Nonsense, if I could find that place, why should I stay here? I would have made my fortune a long time ago.” Wang Zongjing looked as if that was the case, and the old shopkeeper glanced at him , suddenly showed suspicion, stared at him and said: "Speaking of which, didn't you happen to be in Liangzhou City when the incident happened that day? Could it be you..." Halfway through speaking, he himself shook his head first , snorted and said, "It's impossible for you to get the secret scroll, otherwise you wouldn't be sitting here." Wang Zongjing smiled and said, "You think too much." He curled his lips and said: "After living for most of my life, this is all I have left." Then he said: "What are you asking about this matter, do you also want to find the treasure of the Pangu Hall?"

Wang Zongjing glanced at the empty alley outside the door and window, and said calmly: "It's not me, it's them who also want to find this treasure. It is said that there is an extremely important treasure in the Pangu Hall, and they are bound to get it." The shopkeeper's face immediately turned serious, obviously knowing what the word "they" referred to in the words, and immediately lowered his voice and said in a deep voice: "Do you know what it is?" Wang Zongjing shook his head slightly, and said: "I don't know yet." The old shopkeeper was silent for a moment, and said: "It's better to find out." Wang Zongjing nodded, and looked up at the old shopkeeper, with deep meaning in his eyes.The old shopkeeper frowned, and glared at the young man, but Wang Zongjing's eyes were bright, but he didn't show any sign of backing down.

After a while, the old shopkeeper suddenly sighed, and murmured: "Now I finally know why the boss must send you into the black cloud at such a young age." He stretched out his hand and touched it in his bosom, then slowly took out something and threw it on the table, but it was a piece of broken skin with some curved lines drawn on it, it turned out to be a piece of the secret scroll treasure map that day. debris.The old shopkeeper looked at the fragments. Although it was a bit painful, he didn't feel too reluctant. He tilted his mouth and said, "It was too chaotic that day, and there were too many people. I fumbled outside for a long time, so I just took advantage of the chaos. Saw this one...huh?"

Suddenly, his words stopped suddenly, and with a somewhat incredulous gaze, he watched Wang Zongjing also take out the fragments of the secret scroll from his arms, and it was... two pieces.After a while, the old shopkeeper swallowed his saliva, looked at Wang Zongjing with a little more appreciation, and said lightly: "Good boy, I really can't see it." Wang Zongjing carefully put together the three dilapidated fragments of the secret scroll on the table, compared them with each other, and found that the fragment of the old shopkeeper could be connected with the fragment in his hand, but the remaining third fragment The fragments, no matter the cracks in the corners or the lines on the picture, are completely inconsistent, and they are obviously a piece of the jigsaw puzzle that is quite far apart.The old shopkeeper walked around the tavern slowly with his hands behind his back, looking like he was sweeping the dust. At the same time, he also walked to the side of the outer wall and looked out lightly, then walked back and saw Wang Zongjing Looking at the three shards in his hand thoughtfully, he couldn't help but said, "With these three shards, what clues can we see?"

Wang Zongjing shook his head and said, "No, it's too far away." The old shopkeeper nodded, looking at his expression, he obviously thought of this kind of result, and said, "What are you going to do?" Wang Zongjing was silent for a moment, but With a wry smile, he put the fragments away and hid them in his arms, saying: "Let's play by ear." The old shopkeeper couldn't help but said: "If you want to find the location of the Pangu Hall by finding all the remaining fragments, it would be too far-fetched. , not to mention where the remaining fragments are now scattered in the city, except for these three fragments, you have no idea how many fragments there are and how big the fragments are, maybe some parts have been torn into fingers size, how about you..."

"Nine dollars." Wang Zongjing suddenly interrupted him, glanced at him, and said calmly, "The secret scroll was broken into nine pieces in total, and each piece is about the size of a palm." The old shopkeeper choked for a moment, stared at him, and said, "How do you know..." Wang Zongjing turned his head and looked at the pond outside the window. At this moment, there was a breeze blowing by, causing some ripples on the surface of the pond. "As you said, I was here that day. After the fight started, I kept staring at the scroll, and saw with my own eyes that it was split into nine pieces during the dispute."

The old shopkeeper snorted, as if he still had some disbelief, and said, "There were so many people that day, and you were the only one who could see clearly all the time? You even knew when they made a move?" Wang Zongjing fell silent, with a complicated and strange expression on his face. After a while, he heard him say: "I threw the first stone in the crowd that day, which caused everyone to fight." After pausing for a moment, a bitter self-deprecating smile seemed to flash across the corner of his mouth, and he said softly, "But I didn't expect so many people to die."

The old shopkeeper looked at the young man in astonishment, and was speechless for a while. "How many people died that day?" "I don't know." Ximen Yingrui waved his hand to Ao Kui impatiently, and said, "Swords and swords, ghosts screaming and screaming everywhere, blood rushing like water that doesn't cost money, spraying everywhere, who can tell?" Is it clear? Anyway, what I see is that people are like weeds, and they are chopped down by other people. Damn, they are all like lunatics." At the end, Ximen Yingrui's face also turned a little pale, as if recalling the thrilling and extremely dangerous chaos that day, even he, who has been rolling on the tip of the knife in the Yin Demon Sect for many years, also has some palpitations.After hearing these words, Ao Kui's face also changed slightly, thinking of the tragic chaos that day, although he was not there in person, but only a few words from Ximen Yingrui, he could still feel the blood of that day.These people are also used to fighting and fighting, life and death matters are not too sad for them, who doesn't have a few lives in their hands?

In a chaotic and cruel place like Liangzhou, if one is really weak, he will not be able to survive.It's just that such a bloody chaotic battle is extremely rare even in Liangzhou. He turned his head, looked at Wang Zongjing who was leaning against the door of the Earth Temple and said, "Xiao Wang, you were also in Liangzhou City that day, did you see the same scene?" Wang Zongjing was silent for a moment, then said, "Yes, it's similar to what he said." Ao Kui said "tsk tsk" twice, and stopped talking. I don't know whether the expression was glad that he might have escaped a catastrophe because he was not in Liangzhou city that day, or he was a little disappointed that he didn't witness such a bloody and violent scene with his own eyes. .

Ximen Yingrui only felt some inexplicable irritability in his heart, stood up from the broken futon against the wall, walked a few steps in this dilapidated and narrow earth temple, and said with a frown: "Didn't Sister Hong make an appointment with us at Youshi?" Did you meet here? It's a quarter of an hour now, why hasn't she come back yet?" Wang Zongjing glanced at him, and just about to say something, suddenly his expression changed, he took a step back, and looked outside the Earth Temple. At the same time, Ximen Yingrui and Ao Kui also turned around as if they sensed something.At the door, a figure flashed, and Xu Menghong, who was wearing a red dress and covering her face with a white gauze, had floated in. "Miss Hong." All three shouted.Xu Menghong moved her veil slightly, nodded lightly, walked to the bottom of the dilapidated statue of the God of Earth in the Earth Temple, signaled Ximen Yingrui and Ao Kui to come over, and then glanced at Wang Zongjing again, winking.Wang Zongjing understood, walked out quietly, looked around the Earth Temple, and looked at the way Xu Menghong came, and after making sure that no one was close to spying, he walked back to the Earth Temple and nodded slightly to Xu Menghong After that, he also walked to her side. Xu Menghong glanced at the three of them, and said in a hoarse voice, "Did you hear any news today?" Ao Kui and Wang Zongjing both shook their heads, but Ximen Yingrui hesitated for a while and said, "I heard that the number of dead will be increased by a dozen today." The three of them looked at him together, and Ao Kui couldn't help but asked, "Didn't you say you didn't know how many people died?" Ximen Yingrui shrugged and said, "Yes, but I'm here during the day. When I was inquiring about the news in the city, I heard that someone had found another seven or eight corpses here and there in an alley beside Dongshi Street." Ao Kui frowned, and said: "There are only seven or eight dead people." Ximen Yingrui sneered, and said: "Because besides the corpses, there were more than ten or twenty scattered in the alley." There are more broken arms and legs than the corpses with missing arms and legs." Wang Zongjing stood aside, his face changed slightly, while Ao Kui muttered something in a low voice, and the three people beside him couldn't hear him clearly. They were talking, but after a while, Xu Menghong said, "Okay, don't worry about that, it seems that you have nothing to gain today, but I heard a news that a fragment has appeared in Liangzhou City." As soon as these words came out, Wang Zongjing suddenly raised his head, and the three men surrounding Xu Menghong leaned over at the same time.