On February 15, Zhou Heng had to leave Hangzhou and return to Chang'an.

Because the Qingming Festival is coming, the Tong Examination is after the Qingming Festival, he is determined to win the imperial examination, preparing to go from Tongsheng to Xiucai until Jinshi, and then enter the official career, which is not only his father's last wish, but also a way to explore the cause of the Su family's destruction.

So even if he becomes an immortal, he must solve this matter step by step, otherwise he will not be at peace for the rest of his life.

Passing through Caiyang City, the ancient city is still the same, the city wall is towering, the flag hunting, and the wind is waving. Several young pheasants are placing paper kites in the open space, colorful and flying high in the sky.

Zhou Heng decided to go into the city to have a look, and walked along the street he had walked through, and the further he went, the more deserted he became.

When I arrived at the old site of Su Mansion, there were only a few old people left in the bustling streets playing with small stalls, and there were very few pedestrians passing by.

As far as the eye can see, the original tall mansion of Su Mansion has disappeared, leaving only broken ruins, messy ground, overgrown weeds, and barren, as if to tell people that there are unforeseen circumstances in the sky, and people have good fortune and misfortune.

Zhou Heng rode a horse and stopped in front of a stall selling jujube cakes and pastries.

The old man who watched the stall saw that a guest was coming, and hurriedly beckoned: "This little brother, sit down and rest for a while!"

Zhou Heng turned over and dismounted with his luggage, found a low stool under the stall and sat down, asked for a few delicious pastries, and after the old man at the stall put the pastries together, he asked casually: "Old man, where is the place in front, why is it so desolate?"

The old man glanced at it, shook his head and sighed: "That's the famous Su family, who doesn't know Cai Yangcheng? Who would have thought that this Su family didn't escape because of a fire two years ago." The fire burned for three days! Half a month later, someone went in to inspect it, but when they returned home, they died, and it was not until a year later that the government came in to inspect it. ”

Zhou Hengqiang endured his grief and asked slowly: "Does the old man know where the big family of the Su Mansion is buried?"

The old man was silent, turned sideways, looked at the pedestrians outside the stall, and then beckoned to Zhou Heng, pointed with his hand, and whispered: "See, there, it's in the middle of the original Su Mansion." ”

Zhou Heng couldn't calm down anymore, and his mind was full of white bones.

He casually gave the old man a few taels of silver, and asked the old man to wrap some of the pastries in paper, then turned around and rode away, and went to the distance to buy some incense, candles, and paper.

In the middle of the night, there was a half-moon hanging in the sky, and the sky was not very dark.

He came to the ruins of Sufu, walked among the weeds for a long time, and found a large grave.

The mound is three feet long, and the vines are all over it. He pulled out the weeds and vines, put pastries in front of the grave, silently sprinkled a circle of water and wine, lit the incense paper, and remembered the more than ten years of getting along day and night in his memory, although it was not himself, but he couldn't help but kneel on his knees and burst into tears.

The surroundings are quiet, there is no ghost, I think the family has already been reincarnated.

He took out the turtle mirror from the storage space and used his mana to light the Samadhi True Fire to inspect it.

When I looked closely, I saw that the children who appeared in the mirror were children of one or two years old, sleeping peacefully in the arms of their parents.

He is not a Da Luo Immortal, and he does not have the ability to carefully distinguish which one is his own parents.

If you are reincarnated as a human being, your kinship will be cut off, and you will not know each other when you drink Meng Po tea. He didn't want to disturb his family's peaceful new life, he just wanted to cross them if he was fated again, help them add some Yin Gong, and let them live a safe life.

When Zhou Heng was sad and sad, he suddenly heard the sound of someone approaching in the distance, and a smug laugh came: "Hehe, Lao Tzu has been waiting for so many days in this place where birds don't, and finally someone has taken the bait!haha." ”

In the blink of an eye, five or six men in black came to the front.

A shrill but somewhat familiar voice said: "Hehe, stinky boy, there is a way in heaven that you don't go, and there is no door to hell to come! We have waited for two years, and finally we have waited for a living person!" After speaking, he stabbed him in the chest with a sword without asking.

Zhou Heng reached out and grabbed his wrist, snatched the sword away, and shouted in a low voice: "Who are you?"

A strong man led by raised his hand to release a firework, and shouted: "Sumen Yu, ask so much what to do!" After speaking, he beckoned, and everyone swords came up together, slashing towards Zhou Heng's hands and feet, looking like they wanted to catch a living mouth.

Zhou Heng looked at them very arrogant, showing his teeth and claws, he was resentful in his heart, and said angrily: "Then I don't bother to ask again, you miscellaneous things, forgive you for not knowing the inside story." ”

At that moment, ten fingers flicked in succession, and at the empty point to each person's Yin Tang acupoint. Pointing to the wind, several people immediately fell down on their backs to the sky, unable to get up again, and at the same time secretly prayed to the sky: "Dad, mother, grandfather, see that I have avenged you!"

A gust of wind blew through the body of the man who was snatched by Zhou Heng's sword, and the face towel on his face was blown away by the barge, revealing a face full of wind and frost, which was actually the old hawker who showed him the way before.

Zhou Hang didn't have time to deal with these things, I saw him holding up the turtle mirror to observe the surrounding movements, but he saw the shadows of several people in the mirror, and there were ** people galloping here, two or three of them could sweep more than ten zhang with a little foot, and they seemed to be masters in the early stage of fusion or close to the middle stage of fusion.

He carefully inspected and found no masters who had reached the heartbeat period, so he was naturally not afraid, and stood there waiting, secretly saying in his heart: "I will start killing today, and first kill a few livestock sacrifice families!"

In a moment, two people had arrived, one after the other to trap Zhou Heng, and after a while, the rest of the people had also arrived and surrounded Zhou Heng.

Zhou Heng had already prepared to spread a gang qi around his body, his eyes flashed, and he shouted, "Who sent you?"

He asked several times, but no one answered.

The people approached step by step, smiling fiercely as if they were vicious.

Zhou Heng gathered ten percent of the body's protective qi and blocked everyone from the distance.

The first two rushed a few times and failed to break through the gangqi, so they sacrificed flying swords one after another.

Zhou Heng shook his hand and sacrificed his flying sword, which was the Qinggang sword obtained in the world of Lu Ding Ji.

Pyridine!

The three swords flew in the air, sparks striking each other were so bright in the dark of night that in a matter of moments two swords broke into four and fell from the air like dead fish.

Zhou Heng continued to urge the flying sword, turned into a silver light, and went straight to everyone.

Seeing that the situation was not good, those men hurriedly fled in all directions.

The flying sword was as fast as lightning, and it spun around in the air a few times, cutting off several heads! Only two people with higher skill escaped from the circle!

Zhou Heng urged the flying sword to chase after one of them, while he himself hurried towards the other.

He carried the Liezi Wind Mind Method through the air, rushed to the man's side, stretched out the sword from the storage space, poured a large amount of mana, and the sword immediately stretched out three feet of sword light and gently cut it between the neck, the sword was extremely sharp, like cutting tofu.

The man's head had already hit the ground, and his body rushed forward a long way before he fell down.

Immediately, a fist-sized Yuan Shen flew out of the skull, and Zhou Heng naturally shot ruthlessly in the face of this situation, swinging his sword and cutting the Yuan Shen into two sections.

At this moment, a scream was heard in the distance, and the flying sword he sacrificed also slashed another person a hundred paces away.

Zhou Heng's eyes were sharp, and he saw that the person's Yuan Ying was hiding behind a big tree, ready to sneak away.

So he flew over and grabbed it, used his mana to pinch the neck of the Yuan Shen and asked, "Who are you?

Yuan Shen was trembling and saying the words "Xuanyin .....", when he suddenly saw a black cloud floating in the sky, and immediately closed his mouth.

Zhou Heng also looked up at the sky when he saw him like this, only to see that the black cloud was far away in the sky, the form was terrifying, the demonic aura was extremely heavy, and it was coming quickly.

He knew in his heart that he must have more than distraction to be able to transform into a black cloud, so he immediately made a decision, used his mana, pointed to the broken Yuan Shen, and carried ten percent of the Liezi Heart Method, flew out more than a hundred zhang along the shadow of the broken wall, hid in a dark corner, quickly moved the weeds and stones around, set up a small maze array, and his body was full of breath charms, and at the same time ate a large handful of turtle heart pills, which hid the whole body.

As soon as he had done these things, a dark shadow swept in front of him with a dark wind.

The evil atmosphere was pressing, the yin wind was howling, the black shadow flew in the air a few times, and seeing that there was no one around, he had to stop, stand on the broken wall and scold angrily: "Your grandmother's, you escaped very fast!"

As soon as the black shadow lowered his head and saw more than ten corpses on the ground, he immediately said hatefully: "A group of waste! Yuan Ying didn't escape a single one, not even a single person who replied!"

Zhou Heng hid in the small maze array and looked intently, trying to see the face of the black shadow clearly, but unfortunately the black shadow was caged from head to toe in a black robe covered made of unknown materials, and he couldn't see anything.

The black shadow cursed wildly as it flew around. After a long while, he still didn't see a single figure, and he stomped his feet angrily: "Damn, it's a ruthless shot, it's a character! Don't let me touch it!" After speaking, he walked away.

Three days and three nights later, just as Zhou Heng breathed a sigh of relief and was about to come out of the small maze array, a voice made him pinch a cold sweat.

"Damn, didn't you hide it, this kid is still running really fast, count me on my heels, go back and tell the body about the situation here!"

After saying that, the black shadow turned into a cloud, and disappeared at the end of the sky in a short time.

"Huhuhu!" Zhou Heng was so frightened that he gasped, wiped the sweat beads from his forehead, and still hid for five days and five nights before he dared to come out, after all, there was a first time, and he couldn't come a second time.

This incident sounded a fierce alarm bell for Zhou Heng, and made him successfully realize that there are many dangers on the road to cultivating immortals, and it is true that he can become an immortal.

"During the Qingming Festival, it rains a lot, and pedestrians on the road want to break their souls." Zhou Heng didn't dare to fly with his sword, so he had to ride back to Taiyi Town at the foot of Zhongnan Mountain in the drizzle.

The Zhang family has just returned from sweeping the tomb. Seeing Zhou Heng, Zhang Cheng ran up first, grabbed Zhou Heng's hand and shouted: "Brother Zhou, you are back! Your name has been reported, and we will go to the county for the exam together tomorrow." ”

"Okay. Zhou Heng agreed with a smile.

I just had a light meal that night, and Zhang Yuanwai said: "Rest early, and come back after the show!" The whole family rested early.

The entire Zhang Mansion was quiet, for fear that some sound would disturb the two, after all, in such a small town, it would be a great joy to be a showman.

In the dead of night, Zhou Heng sat on the bed and practiced, he knew in his heart that compared with the man in black, his skills were still too far behind, and this time he was fortunate to escape with the help of the formation and various resources prepared, and it would be difficult to say when he met again. The top priority is one's own cultivation, only by reaching the realm of ascension as soon as possible can there be a basis for advancing and retreating, and at that time, whether to ascend to the immortal realm or stay in the mortal world and kill all the enemies, you can calmly choose.

Immediately, he calmed down his mind, concentrated a little spiritual light on the upper dantian, and managed to open the zenith, merging his body with the entire heaven and earth, and carrying out the unity of heaven and man.

There is no time for cultivation, and the future is boundless. A few hours passed, and suddenly a rooster crow came into my ears, and when I opened my eyes, I saw that the east had turned white. Soon the people from Zhang's Mansion came out, busy inside and out.

As soon as the sky was bright, Zhang Cheng ran over: "Brother Zhou, you're leaving, are you ready?"

"What do you want to prepare?" Zhou Heng smiled slightly.

"It's nothing, huh. Zhang Cheng also smiled, "The pen and ink to be used have already been prepared, Zhang Xiaoqing will carry it for us, and the three of us will walk." After speaking, let Zhang Xiaoqing lead the way, and the three of them set off.

Zhang Xiaoqing is about fifteen or sixteen years old, his legs and feet are numb, a little smart, he was sent by his family to Zhang Cheng as a scholar, carrying a small burden on his back, the burden is very light, and he jumps and jumps when he leaves.

"Zhang Xiaoqing, go steady, don't break the inkstone!" Zhang Yuanwai stood outside the gate and watched Zhang Xiaoqing's steps and scolded loudly.

"Yes, master!" Perhaps under the long-standing obscenity of Zhang Yuanwai, Zhang Xiaoqing hurriedly settled down and walked slowly. But after all, it was a juvenile habit, and as soon as he left the town, his pace immediately became faster again.

In less than an hour, I walked more than ten miles to the examination room in the county.

The examination of Xiucai is also called the children's examination, and the children's examination is not officially considered the imperial examination, but those who pass the examination can obtain professional titles.

The children's examination is held once a year, in the prefecture, state or county, the candidate is a child, by the county, the prefect, the school and the government of the main examination, the examination is awarded to the student or the title of the student, commonly known as Xiucai.

There were about seventy or eighty people in the examination room, most of them in their twenties and thirties, and some in their forties and fifties.

Like Zhou Heng and Zhang Cheng, they are relatively young, and of course there are fifteen or sixteen years old, and the older ones generally sit in the back, probably a little embarrassed.

This year's children's test was conducted by Li Zhixian himself. Li Zhixian is said to be a jinshi many years ago, and he is relatively honest as an official, but he doesn't know who he has offended, and he has not been promoted after ten years of being a county magistrate.

Today, he is not shocked on the surface, but in fact he has been secretly praying to Kong Rusheng, hoping that there will be outstanding young people among these people, because this county has not produced a single jinshi for five consecutive years!

At the beginning of the exam, Li Zhixian first solemnly announced: "Candidates, do your best, no plagiarism, violators will be expelled from the examination room, and you will not be allowed to take the exam for ten years." ”

Immediately, Li Zhixian asked a young man in Tsing Yi next to him to distribute the test papers.

The exam paper was sent down, Zhou Heng looked at it, and the questions on the exam paper were mainly composed of two parts: "Tijing" and "Moyi".

"Tijing" is to paste a few words on a certain line in the book, and ask the test taker to fill in the words pasted, similar to fill-in-the-blank questions.

"Moyi" is equivalent to a short-answer question, which is a simple answer to the meaning of the scriptures, and candidates can answer as long as they are familiar with the scriptures and various annotations.

Since it is a talent exam, the test is all basic knowledge, so there is no question and poetry.

Zhou Heng was really familiar with these things, so he finished answering the tea, handed in the exam papers and walked out, because Zhou Heng didn't have a golden finger in those times when the system was updated, so he frantically recharged himself, supported by cultivation, so even knowledge could be stuffed.

Immediately, Li Zhixian was a little surprised, after ten years of main examination, it was the first time he saw someone who handed in the paper so early, and said in his heart: "A person like this is either a fool or a genius, could it be that God has opened his eyes?"

When he opened the test paper and looked at it, he couldn't help but be stunned! Sure enough, his conjecture was confirmed, there was not a single mistake in this paper from beginning to end!

However, Li Zhixian did not make a noise, and still sat silently in front of the stage to invigilate.

It took another two hours for the exam to end, and all the personnel came out to wait.

Li Zhixian reviewed it in court, and after another hour, the results came out.

As expected, Zhou Heng ranked first, and unexpectedly Zhang Cheng was in the third place, and according to the rules of the children's examination, the top ten were all entered and awarded the title of student.

Immediately after conferring the title of student, Li Zhixian himself was also bleeding profusely, and arranged a banquet at the most famous Zhongnan restaurant in the county to invite ten talents.

This Zhongnan Restaurant is also not ordinary, it is said that it is cooked by the master master who has studied art in Zhongnan Mountain, and Zhongnan Restaurant is located on the bank of the Qingyun River, above the attic, surrounded by screen windows, accompanied by green bamboo, looking up is the sunset speechless Zhongnan, looking down is Qingyun Hao is no longer returning, the scenery is extremely beautiful.

When the ten talents arrived, Li Zhixian first opened his speech: "It is rare for you to win the show this time, this year is the year of the big competition, I hope to work harder, even in the middle of the lift, Jinshi, so that the county is not without merit." ”

Then ask everyone to introduce themselves one by one, when they heard that Zhou Heng and Zhang Cheng were cousins, Li Zhixian praised repeatedly: "Okay! Two talents in a family are rare! Zhang Yuanwai is a good godson!"

Then everyone pushed the cup and changed the glass, and after three rounds of wine, Li Zhixian said: "How can there be no poetry for such a beautiful day?" Come, please write a poem, and it can be regarded as a good story for this children's test. ”

Everyone, you pushed me, but no one would open their mouths.

After a while, Li Zhixian named Zhou Heng: "Zhou Xiucai, you are the first in this year's children's exam, or you should come first!"

Everyone chimed in: "Yes, it's better for Brother Zhou to come first!"

Li Zhixian also wanted to know if the person in front of him who handed in the papers early was really a genius, and hurriedly ordered the restaurant: "Hurry, pen and ink wait!"

The man hurriedly fetched pen and ink and spread rice paper on the table next to him.