Hearing Peony's exclamation, Lu Tao hurriedly looked in through the gap, and the first thing he saw was the girl sitting on the ground, in such a dim environment, Lu Tao could only see a shadow, but he seemed to be able to feel Peony's panic from this darkness.

"What's going on?" Lu Tao asked.

"Yes...... Yes...... Yes, yes, somebody!"

Peony's voice was fast and high-pitched, and the horror in it almost overflowed.

Lu Tao was startled, and got into it through the slightly open gap, this seemed to be a closed secret room, except for this door, there was no window, not even the kind of window that was only the size of a fist outside.

Following Peony's gaze, Lu Tao really saw a vague black shadow opposite her, but all the light sources only came from the shallow moonlight exposed by the open half-door behind her, and Lu Tao couldn't confirm what it was.

Fortunately, Peony's panic did not last long, and after a while, she stood up, withdrew behind Lu Tao, and then took out something from her arms and handed it to Lu Tao: "...... Here you go, use this. ”

Lu Tao nodded, took the cylindrical object she handed over from Peony's hand, pulled off the lid on one side, and then learned the way Peony used it before, and blew hard at the flickering red light for a few breaths.

The next moment, a flame the size of a candle lit up, illuminating a corner of the secret room.

Not far in front of him was a futon, and on top of the futon sat a figure, motionless, not knowing whether it was dead or alive.

But for the time being, it seems that the black shadow sitting on the futon should not threaten his side, Lu Tao has not seen dead people, he picked up the fallen lantern from the ground, and then lit the candle in the lantern with the fire in his hand, as the lantern began to emit a soft white light, Lu Tao approached the futon in the middle.

"How's it going? Is he still alive?"

Peony clinged to the door, as if he was going to flee without saying a word, Lu Tao put the lantern in front of the figure on the futon, but found that it was an old man sitting on the futon.

The old man had a white beard and wore a loose black robe, his eyes closed, and criss-crossed wrinkles covered his face.

Lu Tao observed carefully for a while, then reached out to the old man's neck, and after a while, he put down his hand: "This person is still alive." ”

"Alive?!"

Although the old man's heartbeat was very slow, it had been beating firmly, not only that, but his chest was also slowly rising and falling, but for some reason, all of Lu Tao's movements, including the exclamation made by Peony before, did not wake up the old man.

As if this answer had finally dissipated most of Peony's fear, she leaned over from the half-open door and fixed her eyes on the old man's face.

Lu Tao turned around and asked, "Do you know him?" Since he appeared here, he should be a person from the palace. ”

Peony hesitated for a moment, then shook his head: "I haven't seen it...... But ......"

"But what?"

Peony took the lantern from Lu Tao's hand and took it to shine around: "If I'm not mistaken, this person ...... The old man may have been a member of the royal family. ”

After a pause, Peony continued: "I once heard rumors that there are people in the royal family who are studying the art of immortality and want to obtain the ability of immortality in some way...... If you take a closer look, do you think this old man looks very similar to his father?"

Lu Tao recalled carefully, it was true, and if the scope was expanded, this old man would be more similar to Hongzhen, the Nine Emperor Princes, who had been locked up.

"Maybe he was my grandfather...... That is, the Emperor Taishang. Peony stared at the old man for a while: "Let's see what is here, but I doubt that I can find what we need, at least the jade seal of the country should not be here." ”

"What have you been saying about the jade seal of the country. Lu Tao opened his mouth and asked, "What does the jade seal of the country do?"

"It's nothing, the jade seal of the country represents power. Peony replied casually, "It's just that only the Imperial Family can use it...... Let's not talk about that, I seem to have found something. ”

Peony didn't seem to want to explain too much about the function of the jade seal, Lu Tao was noncommittal, he looked along the lantern in Peony's hand, and the place shrouded in a faint white light was a small cabinet, through the criss-crossing thin bamboo strips, you could see that the cabinet was full of ceramic bottles of various colors.

There was no note on the bottle indicating the use or ingredients, and combined with the word "immortality", Lu Tao was very suspicious that these porcelain bottles were not the so-called "elixir of life".

If there really is such a thing.

Peony took a porcelain vase from the cabinet and shook it, and found that there was nothing inside, so she changed another porcelain vase, but it was still empty, until the fifth porcelain vase, when Peony shook the porcelain vase, she heard the sound coming from inside.

Opening the stopper on the porcelain bottle, Peony poured out the pill in the porcelain bottle, Lu Tao also came up, and saw a black pill lying quietly in the palm of Peony's hand, and there was a faint fishy smell coming out of the pill.

"Do you know what this is?" Lu Tao asked Peony.

"I don't know......" Peony put the pill under her nose and wrinkled her nose: "I don't know what this thing is, but I definitely don't want to eat this." ”

As he spoke, Peony stuffed the pitch-black pill into the porcelain bottle again, and then threw it to Lu Tao: "Give it to you." ”

Lu Tao caught the porcelain vase thrown by Peony, but he was a little speechless, it was useless for him to ask for this thing?

After thinking about it, Lu Tao still stuffed the porcelain bottle into the pocket of his clothes, regardless of whether it was useful or not, it should be regarded as a souvenir of this trip.

Peony took out another porcelain vase from the porcelain vase in the cabinet, and then poured out a golden pill from it.

"Oh, I know this. Peony put the golden pill under his nose and sniffed: "This is the Immortal Pill, made by those alchemy masters in the palace, but it shouldn't be of much use, there are a lot of these things piled up in the underground warehouse of the palace." ”

He stuffed the golden pill into the porcelain bottle again and threw it to Lu Tao: "I'll give you this too." ”

Lu Tao: "......"

took the porcelain vase thrown over, and Lu Tao stuffed it into his arms.

Well...... +1 souvenir?

Peony rummaged through the remaining porcelain vases again, and never found any more porcelain vases with things inside.

With the lantern in Peony's hand, it shone on the wall on the other side.

On the other side of the wall, there is still a whole bookshelf, the books on the shelves are no different from those outside, there is no handwriting on the spine and cover, Lu Tao opened these books, but found that most of the books were blank, and there was no handwriting on them.

Finally, on the door where Lu Tao and Peony came in, there was a picture scroll hanging there, and on the picture scroll was a girl, the girl didn't look big, but there was a special charm blooming from it.

Before Lu Tao could ask, Peony said in advance: "I don't know anyone here...... Never seen before. ”

Shaking his head, Lu Tao looked around at the small space again: "In other words, what you are looking for is not here?"

Peony sighed: "It seems so, I suspect that this is a secret place of retreat, there is nothing to see, let's continue to the next cave to see, maybe we can find something." ”

......

This time, after returning to the wider part in the middle, the two chose the middle passage.

The passage in the middle is not as tortuous as the two passages on the left and right, no matter how you go, the height and size of the passage have not changed, which can also make Lu Tao and Peony straighten their waists without bending over through some narrow parts.

After about half a kilometer, the passage began to extend downward, and the downward part was flooded with spreading water, just like the one on the left.

Peony looked at the water surface in front of him reflecting the light of the lantern, and turned his head to look at Lu Tao: "What about the kind of magic you used last time that can make people pass underwater?"

Lu Tao: "......"

Well, evil magic is evil magic.

Lu Tao tried to drive the spiritual power in his body, but found that those spiritual powers were still unable to move, so he had to look at the peony stall: "No, I can't use that for the time being." ”

Peony looked at the reflected light on the water, and said helplessly: "I can't swim......"

"Then I'm afraid I'll have to come back tomorrow. Lu Tao didn't have much to do, he didn't know if he could go back to the courtyard of Yunxi tonight without spiritual power to drive.

"Okay, that's all there is to it, then we'll look into the middle passage tomorrow night and see what's on the other side. ”

After making a decision, the two returned to the wine cellar one after the other, and arranged the furnishings in the wine cellar, and Peony found the "little eunuch" who was tied up and still not awake from another room, and asked Lu Tao: "What next? Are you going back with me or where are you going? I wonder where you have run all day today." ”

Lu Tao thought about it and decided to tell the truth: "I've been there in Yunxi all day today. ”

"Yunxi?" Peony looked up at the sky suspiciously, and suddenly reacted: "Oh, you mean the eleventh imperial concubine, why are you there?"

Lu Tao was about to explain, but Peony suddenly showed a sudden expression: "I understand, I have seen the Eleventh Imperial Concubine before, and she can be regarded as a beauty who captivates the country and the city." ”

As he spoke, Yunxi looked Lu Tao up and down, his eyes full of banter.