Chapter 12: The Missing Relics

At night, the streets of Lingyang City are extremely quiet. The streets were dark and devoid of pedestrians, except for an inn in the south of the city with lights and candles.

A slight clatter of rubble shattered the silence in the darkness. A dark shadow dressed in a night suit suddenly appeared on the roof of the side of the street. A few light jumps, shuttling back and forth between the houses on both sides, startled a few cats hunting on the rooftops, and then faded into the night.

The dark shadow's goal was clear, and he ran all the way to the inn where the light was still on.

The fatigue of the past few days made Luo Xiaotian fall asleep deeply. The more he thought about it these days, the more he dreamed. He dreamed that his mother was trapped in the chaos of undivided vitality, a void, like a black hole devouring the starry sky. The mother looked at herself, her eyes were full of affection, as if to say - the mother is also involuntarily. At this moment, a bright light shone into the chaos and slowly dissolved. A drop of cold water fell between Luo Xiaotian's eyebrows, and his mother disappeared with the light and the mixed yuan.

Luo Xiaotian opened his eyes, and a cold light appeared. A short sword suddenly hovered between his eyebrows, and it turned out to be the icy water droplets that fell between his eyebrows.

At the moment when the short sword stabbed down, it suddenly stopped in the air. Outside the window, there was a strange sound of breaking wind, and a silver needle shot in, hitting the man in black who was stabbing.

Seeing that his actions were revealed, the injured man in black spun around and jumped out of the window.

Frightened, Luo Xiaotian immediately got up and rummaged through the cabinet next to the bed. found that his mother's relics were gone, so he immediately went out of the room and chased in the direction where the man in black had fled.

The relic retrieved from the bank was a black metal box carved with ornaments.

After parting from the king of Bei'an that day, it was nearly dusk. When I left the palace, I wanted to go to the money bank to redeem my mother's deposit ticket. When I got to the street, I saw that the money village was ready to close, so I had to give up. I found an inn to settle down for the time being, and the next day I hurriedly took away the relics left by my mother.

The relatively large amount of silver in the deposit ticket was transferred to Luo Xiaotian's name; There are also several lists of personnel, and the name should be a spice merchant in the Western Regions; Then there is a black metal box, which must be an important clue left by the mother. But the box was locked, and there was no keyhole or any other sign of it that could have been opened.

And now, it has been taken away by the mysterious man in black who attacked at night.

Luo Xiaotian followed the footprints of the fluorescent light all the way. The disciples of the Heavenly Apocalypse Palace are out of the house, and there must still be some awareness of precautions. The fluorescence left by the footprints was the glowstone powder sprinkled by Luo Xiaotian last night. As soon as someone enters the room and gets it, the glowstone dust glows, and the blinding light in the darkness will wake up the sleeping person, and it can leave a trailing mark on the road.

The black-clothed man who attacked Luo Xiaotian was injured, the silver needle should be poisonous, and the glowing fluorescent footprints became denser and denser, and the obvious poison caused him to lose his physical strength and unable to walk. However, who shot the silver needle? Why did the mysterious man in black steal the black metal box left by his mother? He even had to take Luo Xiaotian's life!

Luo Xiaotian didn't have time to think about these mysteries. He remained vigilant, and the man in black who had been tracking all the way was close at this moment.

He looked at the place where the footprints had disappeared, only to find that there was no one around.

At this time, a black shadow suddenly fell from the top of Luo Xiaotian's head, and there was a compelling cold light with it. Luo Xiaotian felt the oppression on his head, and with a dodge, the black shadow of the sneak attack jumped into the air.

After the man in black landed, he stood still, holding a bright short sword in his hand, pointing at Luo Xiaotian.

Without waiting for Luo Xiaotian to react, the black shadow stabbed at him with a sword step by step. After all, the man in black was already injured and poisoned, and his body was weak. Luo Xiaotian didn't dodge, made a move forward, clasped his wrist with two fingers, held it with one hand and twisted it hard, "bang", and the short sword fell to the ground.

Luo Xiaotian subdued the black-clothed assassin and detained him under him.

In a moment, the man in black collapsed to the ground. Luo Xiaotian saw that he was weak and unable to resist, so he let him go. Then, he searched his whole body, but he searched all over his body, but found nothing.

Luo Xiaotian got up and asked, "Who ordered you to come?" Where is the stolen box hidden? ”

"Hahaha......" The man in black laughed, already putting life and death out of the question.

The laughter stopped abruptly, the black-clothed mouth vomited blood, and the last of his limbs struggled with his limbs, and his whole body fell to the ground, and he died of poison.

Luo Xiaotian tore off his entire black mask, only to see that on his forehead, the tattoo of a prisoner of the Northern Guard suddenly appeared. Seeing that he is still young, he should be the descendant of captives. It is said that the descendants of captives within three generations must wear this tattoo, the male on the forehead and the female on the arm.

The people are dead, and the whereabouts of the metal box can no longer be asked. Where was the box hidden by him? There is no good place to hide in this distance after chasing all the way. Could it be that he transferred the tiger away from the mountain? The assassin knew that he was poisoned and could not get out of his slow movements, so he deliberately delayed Luo Xiaotian to track him down, and the box on his body should have been taken away by his accomplices a long time ago.

Yao Qingshu and the little junior sister, who arrived from the inn after hearing the noise, saw Luo Xiaotian and hurriedly stepped forward to check the situation.

"Senior brother, what's wrong?" Seeing a corpse lying on the ground, the little junior sister was frightened, turned her face sideways and asked Luo Xiaotian, "Senior brother, did you kill someone?" ”

"No, look at his dark face and bulging blood vessels in his neck, this man died of blood clotting caused by poisoning. It can't be killed by Xiaotian. Yao Qingshu explained after examining the body.

"That's good, it's just the middle of the night, why did the senior brother run out of the inn, is he chasing this man in black?" The little junior sister continued to ask.

Zhang Ruyue may have 10,000 reasons in her heart to ask, and Luo Xiaotian is the same, but even he doesn't know the answer yet.

"This man in black broke into my room, stole the box left by my mother, and when I was about to hurt my life, I don't know who shot the silver needle, ran away and was poisoned and died."

"Ah......?" The little junior sister opened her mouth wide and was a little stunned.

"It seems that the master is right, the one who should come is still coming!" Yao Qing wrote.

"It's good that they showed up to show that they knew something, otherwise why would they have robbed their mother of her relics! We don't know what secrets this box should have. Luo Xiaotian felt that it was precisely these dangers that would get him closer to the answer, "The secrets they want to know are also what I want to know." ”

"Senior brother, Ruyue. Tomorrow you will accompany me to the captive village outside the city! ”

……

After last night's incident, Luo Xiaotian had no sleep all night. He had already taken the first step and was not allowed to turn back or allow himself to stop.

The metal box left behind by his mother was lost overnight, and now the only clue was the prisoner's tattoo on the Assassin's forehead. The nearest captive village was on the outskirts of Lingyang City—the same small mountain village that Chen An'an had taken Luo Xiaotian to last time.

The trio set off early in the morning. When I arrived at the captive village, the fog in the mountains had not yet dispersed, the village was hidden in the ethereal, a few rays of sunlight penetrated the past, and there was a feeling of entering the underworld.

It's this exaggerated feeling, if you let a normal ordinary person go in, you will get a chill in your back. The little junior sister performed slightly better at the moment, and hid behind Luo Xiaotian tremblingly.

"Senior brother, let's go back! I seem to have seen Meng Po. The little junior sister pointed to the old man sitting at the entrance of the village and said to Luo Xiaotian.

Luo Xiaotian took advantage of the timidity of Zhang Ruyue not paying attention, and quietly reached out and patted her back from behind. The corners of his mouth slanted with a wicked smile.

"Ahh

Zhang Ruyue closed her eyes, her body shrunk into a ball, squatted on the ground and screamed.

"Senior sister, it's Xiaotian."

Yao Qingshu saw it clearly in the back, and immediately went over to pull Zhang Ruyue up.

"Senior brother, Xiaotian bullied me......" Zhang Ruyue's tears almost fell.

Luo Xiaotian and Yao Qingshu couldn't help but laugh when they saw such a timid Zhang Ruyue.

"You ......"

Zhang Ruyue was so angry that she stomped her feet, but found that she was still behind, so she hurriedly ran after the two senior brothers.

The three of them walked to the entrance of the village.

Luo Xiaotian walked up to an old man sitting at the entrance of the village, lowered his body and asked her, "What, do you remember me?" ”

The old man tilted his head and looked at Luo Xiaotian left and right with two deep-set eyes. After a long time, he said, "Are you An An's friend?" ”

"Well, yes—" Luo Xiaotian paused vigorously with each word he spoke, raising his voice as high as he could. But I still thought it was too hard to communicate like this, so I could only lean into her ear and ask, "Has An An been here recently?" I'm looking for her. ”

"She came once a month or two to give us money and food. What a good girl, you're her friend, huh? The old man asked again.

"Yes, yes. Do you know where to find her? ”

"Kyoto, the Kyoto of Nanyu. When will she come back? Are you her friend in Kyoto? ”

"Hmm......" The old man was too obsessed with asking questions, Luo Xiaotian's head was stuck when asked, "Well, I want to ask, why can't I see a few young adults in the village?" ”

"I went to the battlefield, I have been fighting for decades, and I want to fight to Nanyu Kyoto, and they are all in Nanyu Kyoto."

"Let me tell you, the war is over, and now there is peace on earth."

The elderly should have a blurred memory, that is, Alzheimer's disease. Luo Xiaotian couldn't bear that she was still stuck in the memories that had hurt her, and tried to tell her that it was a prosperous time and there was no war.

"Two days ago, I came to report the funeral, saying that Achuan died in Kyoto, how can there be dead people without fighting!"

"Well, who is Achuan?"

"I left home at the age of fifteen and didn't come back." The old man paused, looked up at Luo Xiaotian again, and muttered ignorantly: "Are you here to find Achuan?" The poor boy died on the battlefield. ”

"Hmm......" Luo Xiaotian has asked everything he should have asked, and it doesn't make sense to ask any more.

During the conversation, Luo Xiaotian occasionally had the illusion that this old man was his grandmother. For the first time, he felt that his family was so beautiful and warm, and the old man in front of him made him a little unable to move his steps.

"Xiaotian—" Yao Qingshu shouted Luo Xiaotian, who was standing still. "Someone's coming."

On the way into the village, a teenager came on, and when he saw the three of them, he deliberately avoided them with disgust, and glanced at them with disdain in his eyes.

"Young Lang stays, where is Achuan's house? We were his friends from Kyoto and came to visit his parents. ”

Finally saw a young man, Luo Xiaotian hurriedly stepped forward to ask.

The boy ignored him, but ran away like a mouse seeing a cat, his eyes changing from disdain to horror.

Luo Xiaotian was also puzzled, why the young man ran away when he heard his question, and his reaction was so exaggerated. Could it be that this Achuan's death is an unspeakable secret in the village? It seems that everyone in this village avoids them except for the old and the young.

"Brother Achuan has no parents, and his grandmother brought him up."

A childish voice came from behind Luo Xiaotian.

Luo Xiaotian looked back and saw that it was Xiao Chunbao, who was looking at himself innocently.

"You're Xiao Chunbao, do you remember me?" Luo Xiaotian squatted down and smiled at her.

"I know, you're Sister An's friend."

"Well, very smart. Do you know Ah Chuan? ”

Xiao Chunbao nodded vigorously a few times, with an innocent expression.

"Then can you tell me what Agawa is doing in Kyoto?"

"Revenge, he told us when he left."

When Luo Xiaotian heard this, he was immediately shocked. How could the word revenge come out of the mouth of an immature child. He couldn't bear to ask any more, he didn't want to know too much about the story of the village, or their pain, or their secrets.

"Xiao Chunbao, do you know what revenge is?"

Xiao Chunbao shook his head and stared at Luo Xiaotian with ignorant eyes, expecting an answer in his eyes.

Luo Xiaotian looked at Xiao Chunbao's innocence, and he told himself deep in his heart: deceive her, let her know that revenge is not killing, and let her know that the world is as simple and beautiful as she sees. But he didn't say anything, he didn't dare to explain, because Xiao Chunbao's eyes were full of expectation, and she must have wanted to know more why. Luo Xiaotian was willing to answer her why the candy is sweet and why the flowers bloom in the spring!

In fact, Luo Xiaotian already had some answers in his heart, and he couldn't investigate any further. Leaving behind the candy and food they had bought before departure, the three of them left the captive village.