Chapter 7 Chapter 7 Five-Color Peach Forest

Just above the river bank is the easternmost side of Shura Town, with the majestic mountains on the left and the vast river on the back.There is a small ferry in front of you.A row of green bamboos is tied into a pergola, and seven boat stakes made of elm wood are erected underneath. Most of them have been decayed, and it seems that no one has used them for a long time.After crossing the ferry, and going forward, the mountains and rocks on both sides are squeezed, and the road is getting narrower and narrower. A line of sky, thick vines hang down, blocking the light, and can only be passed by groping, and then turned around. At the big bend, a silver light suddenly jumped out in front of my eyes, and I saw the full moon in the middle of the sky, shining bright red everywhere.

In front of my eyes was a big green peach forest. There are five types of green peach here: crimson, magenta, pink, white, and light green, spreading slowly along a gentle slope, with no end in sight.The five-color green peaches seem to be planted together in a chaotic manner, and they seem to follow some inexplicable rules, deliberately arranged.The dense peach trees extend towards the gentle slope and form a single piece, as if countless colorful silks are carefully intertwined on the ground. I don't know the true face of Lushan Mountain, just because I am in this mountain.Perhaps, if you look down from the sky, you can find that what is laid out in this valley turns out to be a magical picture scroll with scattered colors.

Nie Yinniang just stepped into the peach forest, but her heart trembled inexplicably.She looked up at the peach trees full of flowers and leaves in surprise, and felt a strange feeling in her heart—as if the picture scroll was like a reflection in the water, trembling slightly as she stepped on it, and returned to its original appearance in a moment . She looked at Liu Yi, as if he also sensed some kind of danger, and was frowning, carefully checking Bi Tao beside him.The peach trees are luxuriant, and the peach roots are knotted, but there is nothing special about it. The moon was brighter, and a gust of night wind came from the depths of the peach forest, and the sky was full of peach petals, red and white, and the two fell together.Suddenly, the eyes of the two of them blurred, and they saw five black shadows whizzing up from the roots of the tree in the shadow of the flowers and the moon, and ten forest green eyes lit up in the night, like will-o'-the-wisps in the grave. Nowhere to be seen.

Nie Yinniang scolded: "Stop!" She was about to catch up, when suddenly a peach branch swept over her, she couldn't help but stop abruptly, looked in surprise, but it was Liu Yi blocking her. Liu Yi smiled lightly and said, "Don't be nervous, maybe it's a cat raised by someone nearby." Nie Yinniang sneered: "There are no houses nearby, and those are not cats at all." She stared at the shadows that were about to move in the depths of the darkness, and said word by word: "It's a fox." Liu Yi put aside the peach branches, shook his head calmly and said, "It's not surprising that there are foxes in the barren mountains and wild mountains."

Nie Yinniang said: "That's right, it's not surprising that there are foxes in the barren mountains, and it's not surprising that there are large peach forests. But have you ever seen five-color peach blossoms blooming in one place? And there happens to be five-color foxes living under the peach roots?" Liu Yi smiled and nodded, "It's indeed rare." Nie Yinniang said: "As far as I know, except for the yellow fox that comes from the Central Plains, the blue fox, red fox, white fox, and black fox are all rare alien species. They are aloof and arrogant, and they are definitely not compatible with other tribes. What's more, these few foxes With a strong body and mature fur, they should all be the leaders of a fox clan, and they would never gather here at the same time if they are not tamed by someone specially assigned to them."

There was an approving smile in Liu Yi's eyes: "Miss Nie has such sharp eyes, it seems that I really made the right choice." Nie Yinniang's face darkened: "Are you testing me on purpose? Testing whether I am qualified to be your partner?" Liu Yi shook his head, looked into the depths of the peach forest and said: "When I first arrived in Shura Town, I bought a map of this town with a lot of money. I knew there should be a mountain temple at the end of the peach forest. If these foxes were domesticated by humans, I think their owner should be in this temple."

Nie Yinniang stopped answering, turned around and walked towards the peach forest, Liu Yi brushed the peach blossoms that fell on the skirt of her clothes, and followed behind her. After walking a few steps, Nie Yinniang suddenly stopped and asked, "If the owner of these foxes is also one of the legends, would you kill him?" Liu Yi was silent for a moment, then said: "Yes. If he wants to kill me." Nie Yinniang sighed, said nothing more, lowered her head and brushed away the peach branches in front of her eyes, and walked through the dense peach branches. As they moved forward, the pattern of the peach forest seemed to have changed, and a narrow path appeared in the originally impenetrable forest, winding and stretching forward.

And just a moment ago, there was no road at all. Under the moonlight, the path showed a phosphorescence-like faint color, as if it was going to take them to some unknown place, and an inexplicable danger was waiting for them at the end of the path.Both Nie Yinniang and Liu Yi noticed the strangeness of this peach forest, but neither of them stopped, but walked down step by step along the path. I don't know how long I have been walking through the forest. The path seems to have come to an end. A thick black mist hangs down from the sky in front of me, covering everything in front of me.

Just as Nie Yinniang was about to stop, she heard a slight sound from behind her. Her heart moved and she turned around in astonishment, but there was no one behind her.It's just that the small road from when I came here has disappeared, leaving only endless peach branches and leaves shaking rustlingly under the moonlight. Nie Yinniang took a deep breath, turned her head, and saw that the black mist in front of her eyes was slowly dissipating, and the moonlight penetrated down, casting a light and shadow of swaying flowers and branches, and a small temple made of mountains and rocks gradually protruded from the depths of the peach forest come out.

I don't know how many years this temple has gone through, it looks dilapidated and crumbling.The red tiles on the roof of the temple have turned dark black, covered with bird trails and weeds.A thin wooden plaque hanging on the temple gate has also tilted more than half, with three large characters written on the dim gold lacquer: "Mountain God Temple".Although these three characters are written in the big seal script of Shi Zhen, the calligraphy is very crude, obviously from the hands of the countryside. face, and added the words "Fox Fairy Temple" to the side. In this way, the extremely mediocre mountain temple was forcibly turned into a fox fairy temple.It seemed a bit funny, but Nie Yinniang couldn't laugh at all.She frowned and looked at the plaque not far away, the ink was still wet, showing a bright red color, as if it had just been inscribed.However, there is no one in the small temple, and the altar table is empty, and there is no incense to offer.

On top of the scarlet shrine sits a statue of a god, life-sized, whose face is not visible under the hazy moonlight, only a white dress, dazzlingly white, as if it had just been put on. Nie Yinniang turned her eyes back, and there was a small open space in front of her, with a few thick spruce trees on the left, and a bronze bell under the shelf.The bronze bell is as tall as a person.On the bell button is cast a statue of Pulao, one of the nine sons of Longsheng. The statue is simple and crude, and most of it has been damaged.A spruce supporting the bell had recently been broken, revealing white splinters.The copper bell lost its support and fell to the ground. The mottled green edge sank deep into the soil, and the surrounding grass was dense, burying the edge of the copper bell. Liu Yi carefully looked at the bronze bell, his eyes gradually fell on the soil at the foot of the bronze bell.The soil is moist, and a few stones are turned upside down, as if they have just been moved.With a glint in his eyes, he walked towards the bronze bell. Liu Yi stepped barefoot in the soil around the bronze bell. The soil was soft and damp, as if it had rained here not long ago.His gaze swept across the ground one by one, then stopped suddenly, picked up a handful of soil from the edge of the copper bell, crushed it lightly, put it on his nose and sniffed it. The dark soil is mixed with a dark red color, exuding a familiar atmosphere. It was clearly bloody. Liu Yi's complexion sank, he tapped on the bronze bell and said, "There is something inside." Nie Yinniang was startled, and reached out to tap the clock a few times.The copper bell made several light rings of different lengths, and the sound of the east clock wall was particularly dull, as if something was really leaning on that clock wall.She tried to push the body of the clock outward, but the bronze clock remained motionless. Liu Yi said, "Let me do it." Nie Yinniang didn't want Liu Yi to help, she shook her head, reached out and took off the half of the spruce, inserted it into the soil on the edge of the copper bell, and pried it up hard.The copper bell made a muffled hum, and moved aside a crack. Accompanied by a cloud of flying black clouds, the acrid smell of corruption came head-on, choking people to the point of vomiting.Nie Yinniang instinctively turned her face to the side, but she couldn't help but let go of her hand, and the bronze bell fell down again. The black cloud stayed in the sky for a moment, and then dispersed like smoke.Under the moonlight, Nie Yinniang was surprised to find that it was actually a group of tiny blood-sucking mosquitoes. She didn't have time to take a closer look, and her eyes were fixed on the land after the copper bell was removed. The blue soil has been dyed dark red, and a broken dead branch is pressed against the edge of the bronze bell, which seems to have been cut off.The dead branches have turned maroon-purple, emitting a strong rancid stench. The shadow of the moon was hazy, Nie Yinniang stared at the dead branch, her face gradually changed color - it was not a dead branch, but a rotten arm of a person! Liu Yi was also taken aback, and he didn't care about anything else, he stepped forward and knocked down the bronze bell with a palm.A large cloud of turbid air soared into the sky, making people unable to open their eyes! A mass of human-shaped flesh and blood lost the support of the clock wall and collapsed completely. This is no longer a corpse, every bone and flesh of its body has been crushed by great force, and no outline can be seen.The bloodstains on the ground had turned into a frightening black color, and what was even more strange was that the corpse was so damaged to such an unbearable extent that there was not much bleeding. Liu Yi shook his head, and said to Nie Yinniang, "Can you recognize who he is?" Nie Yinniang forcibly calmed down the fear on her face, took a deep breath and said, "It's Pei Hang." Liu Yi said: "How do you know?" Nie Yinniang didn't answer, she took out a black stone from her bosom and carefully hung it over the corpse.She slowly mobilized her inner strength and pierced down on the stone, only to hear a light bang, a five-inch long silver needle jumped out through her body, and stuck tightly to the black stone. Nie Yinniang stared at the blackened silver needle, and said: "This blood shadow needle was injected into his body by myself, there is absolutely no mistake." She paused and said: "This kind of pure poison The blood shadow needles are too poisonous, I rarely leave them on the enemy's corpse, but the red thread came too fast at that time, and I haven't had time to take it back." Liu Yi shook his head and said, "As you said, Pei Hang's body should still be in that attic, so who the hell moved him here and destroyed him like this?" "I don't know..." Nie Yinniang shook her head, frowned and thought for a while, and said, "The other party put the corpse here clearly for us to see, but how does he know that we will definitely come here? Why do you have to work hard and put the corpse under the bronze bell? What is the significance of the bronze bell, the five-color fox, and the mountain temple?" She let out a long sigh, raised her head weakly, and looked up at the empty moonlight, as if she wanted to find the answer from the vast night sky. In the ten years of hunting career, she also set one trap after another, which made the other party puzzled, and finally caught her without a fight.But now, it was herself who was caught in the trap.She also could only look up at the blue sky feebly, unable to find any clues. Haoyue was speechless, looking down at time coldly, like a god aloft, sympathetic to all suffering in the world, but never rescued. A breeze blew by, her heart moved inexplicably, and she turned her head almost instinctively. Her complexion suddenly changed. Pushed aside on the bronze bell button, the dilapidated statue of Pulao was still flying, but a jade bottle with the length of a human arm was hung on the neck of the statue! The jade bottle has a strange shape, with a long and narrow body and an oval bottom, like an elongated drop of water, which is particularly dazzling in the moonlight. However, just now, when the two pushed the bronze bell away, there was clearly nothing on the bell button! Nie Yinniang was shocked and couldn't help but look around.The peach forest is luxuriant, and the shadows of the trees are whirling, as if to cover up all the secrets. Liu Yi's smile has also froze on his face.How terrible is it that the enemy can hang this jade bottle on the bell button like a ghost, but make them unconscious when they are close at hand?What if the enemy is not holding a jade bottle, but a long sword or a giant axe?What if the enemy's goal is not the prison on the bronze bell, but the necks of the two of them? Looking around at the empty night, Liu Yi couldn't help feeling an inexplicable fear and anger in his heart. The fear was because of the strength of the enemy, but the anger was because of his own powerlessness.This has never happened in his many years of assassin career. Perhaps like other legendary members, Liu Yi has never understood why the master would be willing to destroy the most prestigious assassin organization in the arena and discard these twelve assassins with their own unique skills like garbage, but now he is beginning to understand Yes, because in the eyes of the owner, they are garbage that can be thrown away at any time. He remembered that many years ago, when he was an ignorant teenager, he had already received this kind of lore training.At that time, children who had just mastered martial arts were ruthlessly thrown to deserted islands, forests, and deserts, and they killed each other in the same way.Just like the Gu technique refined by Miao Jiang, put a group of insects and snakes in an airtight jar, bite each other, and only one survives, and then feed the winner with painstaking effort, making it a murderous weapon. At that time, he was not confused, because he firmly believed that no matter how many people died, he would be the last one to get out of the desperate situation. It's just that now... those Gu worms that have been cultivated are gathered together again, and this time, the master no longer wants to select better Gu worms, but just wants to watch them become one in the midst of cannibalism. Spread blood and mud. There was a wry smile on Liu Yi's face, and he looked up at the mountains and rocks all around that were glowing with moonlight. What could he do in such a lore?His struggles, his management, his efforts, are they just adding some tidbits to the master's game?The shadow of the moon was swaying, and he felt that his confidence for many years began to crumble like a precarious fortress. At this time, a hand was placed on his shoulder.Nie Yinniang. Liu Yi turned his head, and the eyes of the two intertwined.From her eyes, he could also see her fear and confusion, but what couldn't hide even these was the strength in her heart and her encouragement to her companions. At that moment, the two people under the moonlight seemed to be illuminated brightly, and they got so close like never before.He stretched out his hand, and their hands were held together again. The difference from last time was that this time the two really lost their other support, only each other. For the first time in more than ten years, they also felt that only by relying on cooperation can they have a chance of survival. Nie Yinniang and Liu Yi gradually calmed down, and they stepped forward together to remove the jade bottle.The body of the bottle is clean and flawless, but the whole body is smooth and there is no opening. Without an opening, it's certainly not a bottle. Liu Yi frowned and said, "It's not a bottle, so what is it?" Nie Yinniang also shook her head, the silent moonlight glides over the two of them like water, illuminating the earth like a layer of silver frost. Nie Yinniang suddenly raised her head and looked at the bright moon in the sky like a silver plate. A slightly yellow picture scroll slowly unfolded in her mind, and she lost her voice: "I understand!" Liu Yi said: "What?" Nie Yinniang said: "This is not a jade bottle, but a jade pestle—a jade pestle for pounding medicine!" Her voice trembled suddenly, and a chill came up her spine: "And this bell... The bell is actually an overturned mortar!" Liu Yi's eyes began to shrink: "You mean, Pei Hang was smashed in a copper bell?" He couldn't help turning his gaze to the jade pestle in his hand. How could this jade pestle be so delicate that it could crush a person? Liu Yi shook his head and said, "Impossible, those huge scars on Pei Hang's body would have been extremely difficult to cause without a heavy weapon!" Nie Yinniang shook her head: "It doesn't matter how the wounds on the corpse were caused, what is important is that he must look like Pei Hang being crushed in a mortar. This is just a hint, a symbol." Liu Yi was startled: "What does it symbolize?" Gritting her teeth, Nie Yinniang took out a piece of pale yellow human skin from her body.This is exactly the tattoo on Pei Hang's body. The tattoo is exactly the scene of Pei Hang meeting Yunying at the blue bridge in the legend of Tang Dynasty "The Legend of Yunying". Pei Hang is smiling and accepting a spoonful of fine wine from Yunying.At the bottom of the picture, a white rabbit is holding a jade pestle to pound medicine, but the stone mortar is accidentally overturned, and a Qiongzhi is just pressed under the stone mortar.The painting is light and meticulous, and against the yellowish skin, it really looks like an illustration caught in an ancient scroll, ancient and lively. Nie Yinniang smiled bitterly: "This is what the murderer wants to tell us." Liu Yi stared at her and said, "You are the one who killed Pei Hang." Nie Yinniang shook her head and said, "I'm just one of his pawns, a tool for him to kill people." She sighed heavily, her voice becoming more bitter: "I think this is just the first step. He can make Pei Hang's body and his The tattoos on the body fit together and treat us the same way—that's the real fun of the game." Liu Yi said in a deep voice: "You mean that all the killings have already been arranged, and the person who arranges all these is the master?" Nie Yinniang nodded weakly: "In all fairness, it would be easy for the master to kill us, but he doesn't want us to die too quickly. What he wants is to hide in the dark and watch us kill each other, and then put our corpses as his own." The way you want." Liu Yi was silent for a while, and finally nodded: "What you said is very true, but I think the master's toys are more than these - this jade pestle should not be so light." His hand suddenly tightened, With a crisp bang, the jade pestle shattered into pieces, and a soft object fell out. That's a dirty doll. Dolls made of cloth.Because it was forcibly stuffed into the long and narrow jade pestle, it looked a little deformed, but on its gray face, there was a vivid portrait of a person. Nie Yinniang was startled, and couldn't help blurting out: "Wang Xianke!"