In autumn, in the morning in the mountainous area of northwest Shu, the fog is heavy and the sunlight is dazzling.

Jiang Chengzi led more than a dozen people to the deep mountains in the north of Heyun Town. The first stop was to Huojing Village, where Ma Laosan was located.

Huojing Village is not far from Heyun Town, but because it is hidden in the mountains, Heyun Town is considered to be the end of the official road, so the road to Huojing Village is a mountain trail.

The trail is lined with wild grass, and on one side of the path is a cliff, and on the other side is a murmuring river, and on the other side of the river is a tall mountain, which obscures the sky and the sun. Although the autumn sun is still brilliant, in such a deep mountain, it still makes people feel that their realm is too clear.

"Although it is autumn, there are still autumn tigers on this day, and there are many snakes and insects in the mountains, so please be careful with the nine girls. Ma Laosan, who was walking in front, turned around and said to Jiang Chengzi.

Jiang Chengzi nodded and said, "Thank you Third Master Ma for reminding me." ”

Ma Laosan was thanked by the girl from a famous family, and his face was full of embarrassment, so he had to touch his head and smile honestly, and walked straight forward.

Yao Ziqiu often walks in the mountains, has been living in the mountains for a while, is quite familiar with the situation in the mountains, knowing that Ma Laosan is right, he carefully walked in front of Jiang Chengzi, vigilantly looked around, in the grass, on the branches, he looked carefully. And Xiaohong thought that Yao Ergongzi and they were all noble people, so she volunteered to walk behind several guards of Turning Cloud Village, but just before Yao Ziqiu, she also carefully watched the surrounding movements.

Xiao Jiu naturally followed Jiang Chengzi closely, watching the movements around him. Of course, Xiao Jiu, as a guard, wants to see not only snakes, rats, insects and ants, but also the crisis lurking in the shadows. Though. He followed his own nine girls last night, and he already knew that the nine girls' kung fu was outside of him, but he had already figured it out after last night: although the nine girls were powerful. However, two fists are no match for four hands. If there is danger, if you can't eliminate it, you can at least do your best to block it with your own life.

Xiao Jiu himself planned to do so, of course, he felt that Nine Girls was not just his master. It's more like his own sister, no matter how powerful he is, he still wants to protect her.

The group walked for about an hour. You will arrive at an open flat land surrounded by mountains. The autumn sun pours down on the fields, and the yellowing crops and the mountains and forests in the distance are all glowing with a layer of gold.

Huojing Village was originally a large village, because in the past two years, Huojing has frequently caught fire, burning the mountains and forests several times. In addition, this belongs to the territory of Chuyun Village. All the villagers in Huojing Village who were able to move have already moved out. The rest are those who do not want to move their nests and those who cannot afford to move them.

In the end, the village is much wider than the mountain road, Yao Ziqiu and Jiang Chengzi walked side by side, and Ma Laosan and Xiaohong walked in front of them, while turning back from time to time to introduce, pointing and pointing, introducing the situation of Huojing Village.

"Well, there's a fire well on the hill over there. There were more than a dozen mouthfuls, for fear of sudden fire. We cut down all the trees in the neighborhood, and we usually cut the grass in three or two days. This season. The weather is dry and dry, and everyone is busy with farming, but also to remove grass. Ma Laosan introduced.

Jiang Chengzi followed his finger and looked over, and sure enough, he saw that the mountains over there were bare, and there was a film-like thing wafting in the air over there, it seemed that it was indeed natural gas.

"Well, it looks like there's plenty of biogas in the fire well. Everyone needs to be cautious lately. Jiang Chengzi nodded.

Ma Laosan responded very respectfully, and then shouted loudly, beckoning the old and young people in the village to come to the ancestral hall, and there were distinguished guests to visit. When everyone heard this, they also put down their work and came one after another.

Jiang Chengzi hurriedly said: "Third master, this can't be helped, this can't be helped. How can I delay farming because of me? This weather is not kind to people, and if the weather turns bad and the crops in the field are not harvested, then it will be bad. ”

Ma Laosan waved his hand and said, "It's okay, this weather can't be broken for a few days." Besides, the girl also stayed for a while, and I just asked everyone in the village to come and meet the ninth girl and talk to you about this Baimaoziyan. ”

When Jiang Chengzi heard this, he also felt very good, so he said, "Then I will delay everyone's efforts for a while." ”

"Nine girls are polite. Ma Laosan said as he took Jiang Chengzi to the ancestral hall.

In this Huojing Village, half of the villagers are surnamed Ma, and half of the villagers are surnamed Wang. The ancestral halls of the Wang family and the Ma family are side by side, and because it is a mountain village, even the ancestral ancestral hall is not grandly built. However, it can be seen from the selection of building materials and the carvings on the lintel archway that the villagers are pious and reverent for their ancestors.

Ma Laosan is a member of the Ma clan, so naturally let the Ma caretaker open the Ma ancestral hall and entertain distinguished guests in the courtyard of the ancestral hall. The guard of the Ma ancestral hall was a lame old man, with goosebumps and crane hair, wearing a clean patch gray short robe, and moved a pony to bask in the sun under the wall in front of the ancestral hall.

Ma Laosan respectfully stepped forward to bow and said, "Eighth Master, these are distinguished guests from the city, and they have something to do in the mountains, so please open the door and let the guests rest." ”

The old man Shi Shiran opened his eyes, Jiang Chengzi thought that he would see his cloudy eyes, but he didn't expect the old man to look over, and his sunken eyes were shining.

Jiang Chengzi frowned slightly, and the old man slowly got up, dragged a lame foot, and took the key to open the door of the ancestral hall.

"There is labor. Yao Ziqiu saluted.

The group cautiously entered the ancestral hall, and in the courtyard in front of the ancestral hall, they picked up the stones under the eaves and sat down. Ma Laosan wanted to move a straw mat for Jiang Chengzi, but was stopped by Jiang Chengzi. She also sat on the polished stone under the eaves.

After a while, the entrance of the ancestral hall was crowded with villagers from Huojing Village, looking into this house curiously.

Jiang Chengzi Shi Ran got up and said loudly: "Villagers, the younger generation is a person from the sixth room of the Yang family, and he was ordered by the imperial court to go into the mountains to find salt. When I first arrived, I was fortunate to have Ma Sanye as a guide to reach this blessed cave. ”

"You say this Huojing Village is a blessed land cave?" the old man asked rhetorically, his tone full of sarcasm.

"It's a blessed land. The fire well is an excellent gift from heaven, although it is inconvenient, but it has its own blessings. Jiang Chengzi didn't want to explain more, so he only dropped this sentence.

Ma Laosan hurriedly rounded the field and said, "Eighth Master, the ninth girl studied under the immortals, and said that she would be able to subdue the monster under the fire well." ”

"Apprentice to the Immortals?" the old man suddenly looked at him again, his eyes were very scrutinizing, and then he sneered, "It's just a means." ”

Then, with a lame leg, he dragged his way through the crowd. Jiang Chengzi knew that the old man didn't trust her and felt that she was fooling the public. She didn't pay attention to it, but Ma Laosan kept apologizing, saying that the eighth master was such an eccentric person, please don't be annoyed.

Jiang Chengzi waved his hand to show that he didn't care, and continued to ask about this Baimaoziyan, or if there was something strange in this mountain. Everyone talked about it, and finally, a rickety and thin old man surnamed Wang stepped forward and said: "There is Baimaoziyan near Jiashan Mountain, and there is also Luojiang Mountain. ”

"Luojiang Mountain also has it? It's a deep mountain over there. Someone exclaimed.

"Old man Pan, have you been to Luojiang Mountain? There are deep mountains, cliffs, and fierce beasts. Someone asked in surprise.

"A few decades ago, young and vigorous. The eighth grandmother went to collect medicine for my mother's treatment, and the eighth grandmother also went. My father didn't feel at ease, so he asked me to accompany the eighth master to take care of one or two. I followed the traces of their picking herbs all the way, leaving marks along the way, and before I knew it, I arrived at Luojiang Mountain. The old man was silent for a moment.

Xiaohong listened carefully and immediately asked, "How?"

The old man sighed, and Ma Laosan asked, "Could it be that the eighth master was killed?"

The old man nodded and said, "That's exactly that." I searched along the way, near Luojiang Mountain, the clouds are deep and the mountains are high, the cliffs are steep, and the river is turbulent. There are many beasts, and I don't dare to spend the night in that area, so I just want to find the eighth master and the eighth grandmother. After wandering around for a long time, I didn't see anyone, and it was getting late, and I didn't dare to spend the night on the ground, so I found a solid tree, and I didn't dare to sleep all night, and spent the night on the tree. The next day, the old man dared to go down to the ground, and returned the same way-"

When the old man said this, he looked out again, lowered his voice, and said, "I went back the way I came, and when I was halfway down the road, I saw the injured Eighth Master lying on the grass, one leg empty, and blood stained the grass leaves around me. ”

When Ma Laosan heard this, he frowned and said, "When he comes back, I also know, I don't eat, drink, or speak." The whole village went to look for the eighth grandmother, but they couldn't find it. ”

"What about the aftermath?" Jiang Chengzi frowned, thinking that these two healers must have encountered a fierce beast.

Later, when the eighth master got better, he came to guard the ancestral hall by himself, and never mentioned the events of the year. Ma Laosan replied.

Yao Ziqiu coughed, pulled them back from the topic, and asked the old man, "Have you really seen Baimaoziyan near Luojiang Mountain?"

"I've seen it, there is a sinkhole near Luojiang Mountain, which is full of white hairy rocks. By the way, I saw a dog over there. The old man said.

"Dog?" Yao Ziqiu and Jiang Chengzi screamed in surprise at the same time.

Jiang Chengzi immediately asked, "Are you sure it's a dog?" and not something else?"

"Not a wolf. It was a tall dog, with a rope wrapped around his neck, and he was sitting on the edge of the white-haired rock and munching on something. "The old man is very sure.

"So, there's someone there. Jiang Chengzi exhaled lightly, thinking of the man named Long Dao he had met earlier, and the remnants of the Qiang people in his analysis. Maybe these people have already set up camp in the deep mountains of northern Shu.

"I guess so. However, there are one or two families living in this kind of deep mountains, and there is nothing. The world is chaotic, many people can't survive, flee into the mountains, and live in seclusion and war to pay taxes. In addition, there are many bandits in the surrounding mountains. The old man sighed.

"Escape the war, self-sufficiency, seclusion in the mountains. This is normal, but near Luojiang Mountain, there is no flat land for farming, and it is far away from the town, the mountain road is difficult to walk, and there are many fierce beasts, how can it be a long-term place?" Yao Ziqiu said with doubt.

Jiang Chengzi also had this doubt, but she couldn't say anything about the Qiang people, so she just listened silently. At this moment, there was a commotion outside the house, and he excitedly shouted: "Get out of the way, get out of the way." ”

(To be continued.) )