As the wagons creaked into the penal colony, it was dawn and silence.

When the night watchman trotted to report the news to Yan Beixing, the supreme governor here, Yan Beixing was facing an oil lamp and cursed viciously at the Shangguan family in Jinwu City, cursing that this damn grain truck was half a month late and hadn't arrived, didn't this force him to take snow into the pot?

"It's finally here. Yan Beixing was overjoyed, and when he was over sixty years old, he put on a thick black leather jacket and hurriedly went to greet him.

When Yan Beixing smiled and opened his arms and walked over, Shangguan Qi, who was escorting the grain and grass, did not appreciate it, he frowned and tightened the snow-white mink fur, and took two steps back, he didn't want this dirty and smelly old man to stain his clothes.

Yan Beixing lowered his arms and rubbed his hands as if warm, he knew how to resolve the embarrassment in his sixties.

"Shangguan Xiaohou is tired of traveling and driving, it's really hard. Yan Beixing still laughed with him, although he was not under the jurisdiction of the other party, but after all, people sent grain and grass, and it was better to have more than less.

He turned around and shouted at a few people: "Dogs, a few people will take the little Hou Ye to rest, feed the horses, and send the Hou Ye back early tomorrow morning." ”

"Don't worry," Shangguan Qi stopped the visitor and said, "Old man Yan, I came all the way over, you just want me to sleep and send me away, no way." ”

Yan Beixing was stunned, he had been here for forty years, and he really couldn't think of any fun to find in this icy and snowy exile.

"What does Hou Ye mean?" he asked curiously.

"The Seven Kingdoms all say that this place of exile is the northern border of the north, the end of the world, I want to know, what else is outside your wall, weird elves?" Shangguan Qi pointed to the huge high wall not far away, and the implication was to go out and have a look.

"Haha, don't mention it," Yan Beixing didn't want to be troubled, "I've been guarding here for forty years, and I haven't found a single bird feather, and the puppies patrol every day, and the records say that they found a tree, or they found a stone, this group of pups." ”

"That's easy," Shangguan Qi had an idea, and a smile regained on his face, "Today I will lead the patrol, I will be your dog and your soldier." ”

Yan Beixing couldn't refuse, and everyone was willing to be their own puppies.

Besides, what can I do, in the past 40 years, the biggest disaster is that someone repaired the roof and broke a finger, even if you look at the patrol log of the past two hundred years, it is empty, not as bad as this half a day.

The hard life has given Yan Beixing a wealth of experience, and he is too tired of these gentlemen, and he is tall and arrogant in his eyes, but he just wants to mix up some experiences as a conversation point to reply to errands or coax women to bed.

"Then I'll arrange a few competent people for you?" Yan Beixing asked.

"There's no need to arrange anything, just let him go with me. Shangguan Qi pointed to a middle-aged man who was wiping an iron sword not far away and said, "I want him to go with me." ”

"What's the Hou Ye, do you recognize him?" Yan Beixing said as he beckoned to the middle-aged man, who was dressed in black, his face was like black iron and rock, and his steps were vigorous and steady.

"What's your name?" Shangguan Qi asked the man while carefully looking at the black sword emblem on the man's clothes, he recognized this emblem, this is the emblem that the Bat King gave to the Seven Kingdoms "Andrew" in the Dark City era of the previous dynasty, and it is a symbol of the warriors of the Seven Kingdoms.

"Back to the little marquis, my name is Qin Xueying. The middle-aged man replied.

"Your name is Qin Xueying, so you are ranked fifth in Andrew, the commander of the forbidden army in the Dark City, and the rising star who became famous in the Battle of Liaodong, am I right?" Shangguan Qi proudly flaunted his knowledge, and when he saw the man's acquiescence, he asked: "The famous Andrew Warrior, how did he end up in such a field?"

"Back to the little marquis, fifteen years ago, the dark city was broken, and the little ones were left here. Seeing that Shangguan Qi couldn't finish asking, Qin Xueying had no choice but to answer.

"Haha, it's better to stay in the penal colony than to cut off your head, isn't it?" Shangguan Qi finally saw a real person Andrew today, and became more and more interested: "But when it comes back, there shouldn't be such a bastard place as an exile in the Seven Kingdoms, what bullshit gives people who have no way out a place to go out, I'm sorry, isn't it that all the scum in the Seven Kingdoms has gathered here, so they should all be cut down." ”

Yan Beixing's heart tightened for a while, he really didn't know what ivory would come out of the mouth of this arrogant little bastard, and hurriedly said: "Little Hou Ye, it's not too early, or you should set off now." ”

Qin Xueying saw Yan rushing away from the north, and without waiting for Shangguan Qi to speak, he got on the horse and walked in the direction of the stone wall.

"Old man Yan, do you think you should kill or not?" Shangguan Qi pointed at Qin Xueying and said to Yan Beixing, Yan Beixing pretended to be old and didn't hear or answer, Shangguan Qi was bored and had to get on the horse to follow.

Qin Xueying also recognized Shangguan Qi, to be precise, Shangguan Qi's father, when Qin Xueying was the commander of the forbidden army in the Dark City, he heard that Shangguan Yunfei, the lord of the eastern border guarding Jinwu City, was replaced by a broken little nobleman surnamed Zhou in a battle, so he gave the surname Zhou to settle down and changed the surname to Shangguan, and this Shangguan Qi is the descendant of the broken family.

But at this time, Shangguan Qi was like the head of the Shangguan family, and his gorgeous clothes were embroidered with the emblem of the Shangguan family: the angry purple dragon.

When the heavy wooden door creaked open, and the horse rode across the lowered suspension bridge, the entire continent and the seven kingdoms to which it belonged were left behind.

Out of the wall, the terrain is quite flat at first, and further on, there is a huge snow-capped valley, with towering mountains on both sides that are thousands of feet long, and stretching to the east and west.

The vast stone walls of the penal colony were like a dam blocking the valley, cutting off the Seven Kingdoms from the outside world.

As Yan Beixing said, there are only stones and trees here, and of course snow and mountains. Shangguan Qi looked left and right and didn't find anything unusual, and rode his horse towards the valley.

Walking to the mouth of the valley, there was a thick fog floating in the valley, and Shangguan Qi stretched his neck to look into the valley.

Qin Xueying felt that something was wrong, there were two horseshoe prints in front of him, coming from the deep valley where there was no bottomlessness, as if he had made a detour here, and returned to the valley.

Qin Xueying couldn't help but shudder.

"I was almost cheated by Old Man Yan, and I didn't say anything," Shangguan Qi also saw the horseshoe prints, turned over and dismounted and pretended to be a veteran to inspect them carefully, "Look, there are horseshoe prints, there must be someone in the valley, maybe it's a spy." ”

Qin Xueying didn't speak, and he didn't like to talk himself, he stayed in exile for fifteen years, and he was even more taciturn.

He saw that the horseshoe prints did not come from the horses in the penal colony, and the horseshoe of the horses in the penal colony had plum blossom patterns, and the horseshoe prints left here seemed to be without a horseshoe at all, but how could this be possible, how could the horseshoe alone walk in this snowy mountain forest.

"Little Hou Ye, go back, this needs to be reported to Leader Yan immediately. Qin Xueying said.

"Return?" Shangguan Qi didn't do it, "Let me tell you, I found out about this, and let me tell you, I am good at tracking, I have to catch a spy and go back to Jinwu City, so that he can see my seventy-two methods." ”

In the past fifteen years, he has patrolled here no less than a thousand times, but this time Qin Xueying hesitated. Looking at the misty valley, he really wanted to leave this ignorant fool and walk away.

"You are still Andrew, the Bat King, I'm sorry," Seeing that Qin Xueying didn't want to enter the valley, Shangguan Qi was a little weak when he entered by himself, so he had to stimulate Qin Xueying: "I'll call you Andrew, the rat, anyway, I want to go back to yourself." ”

Qin Xueying had to follow Guan Qi into the valley, the fog was too thick for the horse to ride, the two tied the horse to the valley, and walked through the snow to find the horse's hoof mark into the valley.

As soon as I entered the snow valley, I felt that the twilight was gloomy, and when I looked up, the sky turned to a deep purple like a bruise, and I looked forward as if I had disappeared into the dark curtain.

The fog is sometimes thick and sometimes light, and the horseshoe prints are sometimes deep and sometimes shallow.

Qin Xueying has entered this valley, but he has never entered so deep, the terrain on both sides of the valley is gradually becoming unfamiliar, he has been in the army since he was a child, and the places he has walked are like deep minds.

"Stop. He whispered, leaning down.

"What's the matter?" Shangguan Qi was startled at first, and then didn't see any movement, "The gods chattered. ”

"Something is wrong here," Qin Xueying said, "There is a sound in the fog, look ahead." ”

There was a huge shadow in front of them, and the two of them slowed down and touched it gently, and when they got closer, it turned out to be a tall and lush tree, covered with thick ice and snow.

"A tree scares you, what about Andrew?" Shangguan Qi breathed a sigh of relief, he was tired enough after walking so far, "You climb the tree and see if you can see something, oops, I'm tired." ”

Just take a look, anyway, this boy can't walk, take a look at the tree and go back, Qin Xueying used his kung fu and quietly drilled into the depths of the branches, without any sound, fifteen years have passed, and his kung fu has not fallen.

Qin Xueying looked at the branches and leaves on the big tree, and he was still foggy and couldn't see too far, forget it, let's go back.

"Who's there?" Shangguan Qi's exclamation came from below, and Qin Xueying heard deep fear in his voice, so he hugged the trunk of the tree tightly, not moving, and even holding his breath.

Shangguan Qi had already drawn his sword, and he could still see the cold light through the fog, and the young nobleman entered a state of full alert.

Qin Xueying saw above that there were two big shadows looming behind Shangguan Qi, as if riding on a big horse, silent, tall and weird.

Then disappeared again, Qin Xueying blinked vigorously, and reappeared, but it was on the side of Shangguan Qi, but Shangguan Qi was still looking for it in the fog, Qin Xueying wanted to open his mouth to warn, but his words froze in his throat. Maybe it's a mistake?

Whoa, I saw Shangguan Qi swinging his sword everywhere below, slashing at the air, "Who is it, I'm the marquis of the Shangguan family, there's a kind of get out." Shangguan Qi slashed again.

The fog moved around with the breeze and seemed unfathomable.

Two black shadows suddenly emerged from the darkness, silently, and appeared in front of Shangguan Qi.

They were very tall, haggard and resolute, like dry bones, and their bodies were as pale as snow. And the whole body seems to change color as it moves, looming, one moment as white as the first snow, the other as dark as the abyss, every time the thing moves, the color of the body is as unpredictable as the sparkling moonlight on the water.

"Don't come here," Shangguan Qi's aristocratic faction disappeared completely, and his voice was as small as a mosquito fly. He flipped his precious mink coat behind him, making room to move around and wielding his sword.

They paused silently, as if waiting for Shangguan Qi's attack.

Qin Xueying on the tree saw their eyes, which were dark and deep, like two holes.

They also had swords in their hands, Qin Xueying had never seen this kind of weapon, which was like a transparent sword-shaped extremely thin ice flake.

When the opponent's ice sword broke through the air, Shangguan Qi had no choice but to raise his sword to meet the enemy.

When the two swords intersect, what is emitted is not a collision of metal, but a high and thin that breaks the limit of human hearing.

Another sword slashed, Shangguan Qi continued to resist, and at the same time continued to retreat, still retreating.

Soon Shangguan Qi noticed that their shadows also loomed behind them, on the left and on the right, and they all watched quietly, as if they did not intend to intervene, and they exchanged a few words in a language that no one understood, and their voices were like broken ice, full of mockery and irony.

Shangguan Qi also found out and knew that he couldn't go back.

Shangguan Qi seemed to have forgotten Qin Xueying's existence, and he slashed at his opponent with a sword in both hands, using all his strength.

The two swords intersected, the steel sword shattered, Shangguan Qi was stunned, the ice sword had passed through his chest, he didn't seem to feel the pain, took a few steps back, the opponent pulled out the sword inserted in his chest, and with a flick, the blood on the sword turned into a beautiful arc and fell into the snow, and the ice sword disappeared.

Shangguan Qi fell to the ground with a bang.

Qin Xueying was already creepy on the tree, he hugged the trunk tightly, letting the snow water flow all over his body, almost freezing him to the tree, he stared at everything below with wide eyes.

One of them walked up to Shangguan Qi's corpse, which was lying on his back in the snow, and chanted softly.

Then he mounted his horse gently, his hooves extremely light and almost silent, and led them into the mists of the valley.

Qin Xueying breathed a sigh of relief, but saw that at some point, Shangguan Qi somehow stood up, his body movements were like marionettes, mechanical and stiff, his hair was scattered, with blood stains all over his body, step by step, step by step, he followed the horse team into the valley.

For a long time, for a long time, Qin Xueying loosened his lower limbs and softly cleaned the ice and snow on his body, he drove his cramping muscles and frozen fingers to climb back under the tree.

A trail of blood, a broken sword.

Qin Xueying trembled with all her heart, trembling constantly, and there was silence all around, only the sound of her own heavy breathing.