And here, at this time, the third watch is about to pass, a huge banyan tree comes into view, Mr. Jia saw it, let the horse run, and dismounted and walked. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info saw that in front of a person is a piece of reeds more than one person high and withered, on the area of a thick layer of snow, these reeds are obviously too dense, it is winter, but still not falling, Mr. Jia drilled into the reeds, walked for about a moment, suddenly the eyes suddenly opened, open the reeds only to see that this is a huge lake, half a moon reflected in it, even more shining. And in the middle of the lake is the huge banyan tree, only to see this banyan tree occupies the entire center of the lake, and the leaves are luxuriant, almost covering half of the lake, it is said that this tree was worshiped as a sacred tree in the time of Yao Shun, and this tree grows in Chang'an to Luoyang on this dragon vein, so it will go through thousands of years, protect the people. Mr. Jia is going to see the person is a group of people who live under this tree, this group of people have lived here for I don't know how many years, from the beginning of the Warring States period in order to avoid chaos and hide here, and then to the end of the Qin chaos, Gaozu led the troops to pass by here, saw this sacred tree, so he worshipped, unexpectedly met a white-haired gentleman, a hexagram for Gaozu, said: If Gaozu enters Xianyang, don't be greedy, you must first endure it, according to Hanzhong, in order to wait for the future, otherwise you will die in Afang. Later, Gaozu entered Xianyang, made three chapters of the law, retired from the army, escaped from Hongmen, and guarded Hanzhong. Another two years, Gaozu attacked Pengcheng, a great victory, and then was broken by King Xiang, trapped in Xingyang, at this time isolated, the allies scattered, a day a group of people to the front of the tent to take refuge, said that Mr. Bai Hai was ordered to save, Gaozu was overjoyed, and then followed Gaozu out of Xingyang, defeated King Xiang to seize the world, and made great contributions. Gaozu then announced to the world that a sacrificial platform was built for this sacred tree, and it was sealed as the emperor's place, so that the descendants of Mr. White-haired would permanently guard this place, and mortals would not be allowed to enter.

I don't know how many years have passed, and there have been many wars, but this place is still intact and no one has come to disturb it. Mr. Jia came here two years ago and helped the locals, so he received a promise from his elders to help him fulfill his three wishes. Now he is here to fulfill his first wish, but the wish is not everything, the conditions must be negotiated, Mr. Jia knows how difficult it is to come here to ask someone for help, even if it is kind to him.

When Mr. Jia arrived at the shore, he lit a bonfire, untied his clothes, blocked the bonfire in front of the bonfire, took it away, blocked it again, and repeated it several times to extinguish the bonfire. After a while, a bamboo raft was rowed on the opposite side, and the person who came exchanged a few words with Mr. Jia walked towards the center of the lake.

The boatman asked, "I haven't seen you for a long time, sir, don't come all right?" ”

Mr. Jia said politely, "It's okay, it's okay, I don't know if this place can be considered peaceful in the past two years?" ”

"Mr. To's blessing, since the disaster two years ago, there has been no more, I wonder what Mr. wants to come this time?"

Mr. Jia didn't answer immediately, although he believed in the people here, but he always felt a bit childish when he said it here, so he said, "I just came to bother the old man by the way." ”

"Oh?" The boatman smiled and said, "My child has been thinking about you since my husband left, and he has been clamoring to go out and follow him all day long." ”

"Tong Yan is unscrupulous, and I am just a wanderer."

"Sir, we've heard a lot about you in the past two years, so I guess I came here for this purpose, right?"

When Mr. Jia heard that he had already explained, he couldn't help but smile bitterly, "It's really ...... that those things about me have also been reported to you."

The boatman stopped when he heard what he wanted to say, and said, "Since two years ago, although we have heard almost all about the affairs of the husband, we have always had a doubt. ”

When Mr. Jia heard him say this, he couldn't help but be a little shaken, but he heard the other party say again, "No matter how we investigate the identity of Mr., it seems that we will never find out, and your face is just a skin now, right?" ”

Mr. Jia said, "I really haven't used my real identity, I've always lived by other people's faces, and I don't know how long I haven't seen this face in the mirror that even I hate." ”

Both of them were silent on the raft, and Mr. Jia knew that since he had to ask for them, he could no longer hide anything. But do you have the courage to tear off this disguise?

The boatman sighed and said, "Actually, I can guess the purpose of your trip. ”

When Mr. Jia heard this, he clasped his hands and said in a deep voice, "Since you know, take me over." ”

"None of our people are ungrateful, and I want to hear it from you."

Mr. Jia had to shake his head and smile bitterly, and after a while, he heard the boatman say, "It's here." Then the two went ashore together, and the boatman lit a torch. As soon as my feet stepped on the ground, a feeling of being in a swamp spread under my feet.

"It's not my first time here, so I'm not used to it." Mr. Jia said with a smile, the big tree that I just looked at from afar, is now in front of me, the tree in front of me can't be described as huge at all, I see the roots hanging down from the tree everywhere, the small ones are like hair, and the big ones are afraid that five people can't hold them, these natural roots have shaped this place into a labyrinth, these seemingly walkable roads are everywhere, but there is only one way here to reach the trunk of the tree.

It was late at night, and the place illuminated by the torches was still quite narrow, and the road was extremely difficult to walk, so I had to grope slowly. "Be careful!" The boatman whispered a reminder, and Mr. Jia looked at the firelight, only to see a small cave on the ground. "It's a fox's burrow, and my kid has been watching over it."

"I remember two years ago it was summer and there were bird eggs all over the place."

"yes, thanks to these birds, we were able to survive."

The two of them talked about trivial things, and they didn't know how long they had been walking, but they felt that their feet were getting drier and drier, which was completely different from when they first came in, and Mr. Jia knew that they were about to arrive.

Sure enough, a "tall building" came into view, which was the trunk of the tree, on which countless houses were built, like a huge city, the city was brightly lit, and there were streets, sentry posts, markets, and barns. And there is a natural road on the main trunk, this road is about three zhang wide, there is a pillar every few meters on both sides of the road, the pillar is hung with oil lamps, and at the end of the road is a huge door, the door is about one zhang high, this door is the original Gaozu sent people to use steel according to the size of the natural tree hole to build, it is extremely hard. The boatman took Mr. Jia here and left, and he needed to go alone, and Mr. Jia looked at this distance of less than ten zhang, which was so "rugged".

His heart was entangled, hesitating, and wanted to retreat, but his feet were walking forward step by step, and he didn't even have a trace of consciousness in his heart that he wanted to move forward, but his feet still stepped out step by step, and he didn't even notice it when he reached the door, and he hit the knocker headlong. I only heard the sound of "dang", which was so harsh in this silent night, and someone began to talk in the originally quiet door at this time, obviously awakened. After a short while, one of them pushed open the window above the giant door, poked his head out, and said, "Who is visiting late at night?" ”

Mr. Jia said, "True and false, fake and false." The heavens will distinguish between truth and falsehood, why should mortals be crazy. ”

The one above listened, and hurriedly turned his head to the person below, "Open the door quickly, it's sir." There were also some voices from below, saying that the gentleman was coming, and hurriedly opened the door. I saw a small door on the side of the giant gate open, and the people inside came out and said, "I don't know that Mr. is driving, I can't meet him from afar, and I hope to forgive my sins." Since it was late at night, I asked my husband to enter through the small door. ”

"You're welcome" Mr. Jia entered through the small door, only to hear the people inside shouting, "Palm lamp!" I saw a few people running out to light the lights on all the roads, and the originally dark inside became brighter, and the structure inside could be clearly seen at this time. The center of the tree was hollow, and in the huge hollow left behind, everywhere had been transformed into tree paths, criss-crossing and cluttered with layers, completely like a spider's web. The walls of the trees are covered with houses of various shapes, and in the very center, a huge hive-like house hangs in the air, which is like the heart of the whole tree, and all the tree paths are directly or indirectly connected to it, and this is also the center of the inhabitants of this place, which controls everything in this place.

Two people lead the way in front with lanterns, and there are four people behind them, and each floor has to pass through a level-like place, and in these places, there will be people who exchange places with the person leading the way, that is, two people are left and the people at the level here follow the two people instead of these two people. In this cycle, the higher you go, the more people you exchange, and when you reach the last layer, you need to exchange six people, because the people at the lower level have no right to enter the upper level, so there are such complicated rules, and it is because of this rule that the secrets of the people at the top have never been leaked.

When the six people around him were replaced, Mr. Jia began to see familiar faces, and there were some accostings on the boring road, but he couldn't say a few words, and he would be exchanged again at the next level. I don't know how long I walked until I finally reached the top floor, only to see that the level here is obviously more complicated than the below, it is a wooden door full of spikes, and behind the wooden door are two tower whistles, on which there are several archers, and the wooden door opens, only to see a row of guards in silver helmets and silver armor standing on both sides, all holding spears, neat and serious.

Mr. Jia looked at the drums in his heart, and as soon as he stepped in, the people who followed behind him all left, and the wooden door was closed. In front of me is a straight tree path that leads directly to this heart, and then look around, there are broken tree paths everywhere, the road that originally connected this place has been smashed, and now there is only one road to get here, and it seems that the damage caused here two years ago is too deep.

I think of two years ago, where there would be such a guard of honor, everywhere was figured out, during the day when there was no secret meeting, children could come and go here at will, and everyone was kind and simple, hospitable, where would there be such vigilance. It's no wonder that Mr. Jia feels a sense of strangeness here, and no wonder he hesitates to enter the gate when he chooses to enter the gate, which is what worries him the most, worried that what happened two years ago will make people here feel uncomfortable.

"The elder is waiting for you in the hive." One of the guards said.

Mr. Jia nodded, walked to the wooden house in front of him, and when he arrived at the door, he knocked lightly twice, and the door opened by itself. I saw a guard standing at the door to greet him, and led the gentleman along the spiral tree path to the upper level of the hive, and when he reached the top, the guard knocked on the door, and said outside the door, "The man has been brought." ”

An old voice came from inside, "Stand down, sir, please come in." ”

Before he could finish speaking, the guards withdrew, and Mr. Jia pushed open the door and went in, and found that it was a small hut, but in the middle was a huge round table, and in the center of the round table was a large oil lamp, and around the round table sat ten old men, all with white hair and white beards, wearing white robes.

"You may be seated!" The old man sitting due north said.

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