The vast desert, wild clouds, the north wind blows geese, and there are no people. Zhan Wuxian rode a red horse, walking lonely on the horizon. It's been forty days, and I still haven't seen a single family, looking at the sunset over the long river in the distance, Zhan Wuxian sighed, and looked back at the few steppe wolves not far away, they have been following Zhan Wuxian for more than ten days, just silently following, those wolves may be able to feel the sword qi on Zhan Wuxian's body, although their eyes are shining with blue light, they just don't dare to approach.

Zhan Wuxian walked north for another three days, the weather was getting cooler, snowflakes began to fall in the air, and the ground was gradually covered with silver. The mountain in front of him began to steepen, getting higher and higher, and he hadn't gone far, when suddenly a mountain crossed in front of Zhan Wuxian, renting his way. Zhan Wuxian looked left and right, and saw a valley not far from the left, stretching into the mountain.

"Maybe this valley can be passed." Zhan said without compassion, and walked towards the valley. As soon as he arrived at the mouth of the valley, a cold wind hit from the valley, and Zhan Wuxian couldn't help but shiver, feeling even colder in the valley. The red horse was blown by the cold wind, and suddenly neighed, saying that he would not take a single step into the valley.

Zhan Wuxian felt a little strange, this valley was different from ordinary valleys, so he turned into a phantom warrior and asked him to go to the valley to check first. About half a pillar of incense had passed, and the Phantom Warrior returned safely and reported to Zhan Wuxian that there was nothing abnormal in the valley. In order to find the Northern Darkness Essence Water earlier, Zhan Wuxian pulled the horse into the valley, while the wolves stopped at the mouth of the valley, not daring to go further into the valley. Zhan Wuxian had just walked a mile away in the valley with the horse in tow, and the horse started to make a commotion, saying that he would not go any further.

At this moment, a dark shadow swayed down from the valley, arrived in a blink of an eye, and then suddenly disappeared. The horse neighed, broke the reins, and turned around and galloped like mad. As soon as they ran out of the valley, the wolves who were waiting outside surrounded them. The horse completely ignored the wolves in front of him, and with all four hooves forced, he jumped to his feet and rushed over. At the same time, the wolves jumped up and pounced on them. Just listen to the sound of "bang", several wolves collided in mid-air, and then fell heavily to the ground, howling, but the horse disappeared, just a straw fell from mid-air and landed in the middle of several wolves lying on the ground.

Zhan Wuxian stood in the valley and looked at Taniguchi, smiled, withdrew his outstretched arm, and turned his head to the depths of the valley to see what the black shadow was. The deeper you go into the valley, the snow gets heavier and the fog gets thicker and thicker, and you can no longer see how high the cliffs on either side are and how deep the valley is in front of you. Zhan Wuxian walked forward for more than ten miles, and saw a faint black spot shaking in front of him, and after shaking a few times, a black spot suddenly appeared from a black spot, and the two black dots rotated around each other, up for a while, down for a while, before and after, left for a while, right for a while, and there was no regularity to find. Zhan stood still, waiting for the two black dots to get closer to see what they were.

In a moment, the two black dots merged together and became a black shadow, and then another black shadow arose from within this black shadow, and they stopped at a distance of ten zhang from Zhan Wuxi. On closer inspection, the two black figures were more than five feet tall, resembling human shapes, with two right-angled scimitars stuck in their backs, the tips of which were curved like a sickle; The face of the black shadow is hidden in the black cloth, like a black hole, bottomless; Two long sleeves, drooping down, the same length as the body, you can't see what the palm looks like; The underside of the robe was empty, suspended in mid-air, and there were no legs or feet. What's even more strange is that the snow flakes falling in the sky actually passed through the body of the black shadow and fell directly to the ground.

Zhan Wuxian was taken aback, and a hoarse and gloomy voice came from nowhere, saying, "Who is here, who dares to enter the Shadow Valley alone?" ”

Zhan Wuxian fixed his mind and said: "In the next ranger, passing by here, don't bother, please make it convenient." ”

"In the Valley of the Shadows, whoever comes in will die."

"What kind of rule is this, if you cross the road, you still have to die?"

The voice did not reappear, and the shadow vanished. At some point, two identical black shadows suddenly appeared, exactly the same as the previous two, encircling Zhan Wuxian together, and at the same time, the two right-angled scimitars behind them were already in their hands. Zhan Wuxian jumped up when he saw the momentum, and at the same time, eight black shadows swung sixteen right-angled scimitars and chased upward. Zhan Wuxian waved his right hand, and the eight phantom warriors rushed towards the eight black shadows from top to bottom, and in an instant, lightning flashed, flints burst out, and the sound of gold and iron clashing came and went, and suddenly the black shadows and red shadows were entangled in mid-air. Zhan Wuxian saw the opportunity, and released several phantom warriors, holding Changge in his hand and stabbing the black shadow. In the blink of an eye, Chang Geqi came out, piercing the black shadow, and Zhan Wuxian felt that he had been stabbed with a cloud of black smoke, and the phantom warrior followed the inertia, and his body also rushed over. What's even more strange is that the body of the phantom warrior was not hindered in any way, and followed Chang Ge through the black shadow. Before the phantom warrior's body could all penetrate the black shadow, he saw that the black shadow turned around and struck backhand, and the scimitar slashed the phantom warrior's back, and with a bang, a red bean fell to the ground.

Zhan Wuxian was taken aback when he saw this, he suddenly thought of Fei Wuji's one-sword and three-body technique, but the current scene was different from Fei Wuji's stealth swordsmanship, this black shadow was real, but the phantom warriors fought with it, it was like fighting with a cloud of smoke, except for the scimitar in their hands, the others were like a void. All these feelings, through the battle between the phantom warrior and the black shadow, continue to pass the information to Zhan Wuxian.

After more than a dozen rounds of fighting, the phantom warriors disappeared, and Zhan Wuxian immediately decided to find out for himself. Immediately, Zhan Wuxian used the escape technique, instantly approached a black shadow, and stretched out his fingers to ** the dark shadow's embarrassed face. Zhan Wuxian thought to himself, no matter how human or beast creatures in the world, the most vulnerable thing is the head, although these black shadows in front of him are like ghosts, but they will never be ghosts, even if they are ghosts, his head can't withstand this finger. However, Zhan Wuxian was wrong, and when his two fingers struck out, he felt that the face of the black shadow was empty, like an abyss. As soon as Zhan Wuxian's fingers struck the dark shadow's face, a scimitar slashed at his arm. Zhan Wuxian reached out with his other hand, grabbed the scimitar, and the hand that struck it withdrew at the same time, and kicked the black shadow in the chest with both feet, then snatched the scimitar, rolled over and flew back. These moves are done in one go, and they are not handsome.

The moment Zhan Wuxian flew back, he felt that the arm that had been hit was blocked by something, gently, softly, softly, and his feet felt like they had kicked into a pool of water. Zhan Wuxian immediately understood that these black shadows in front of him were not void, but real things. Zhan Wuxian immediately decided to explore further, and he performed the escape technique again, changing his palms and claws, and instantly flashed behind a black shadow, sliding from top to bottom. Zhan Wuxian felt that there was something hanging on his hand, ethereal and transparent, like smoke and fog. Zhan Wuxian's hands shook, and the thing in his hand appeared, it turned out to be a colorless cloth, and when he approached something, the color changed with that thing, which was really wonderful.

Looking at the black shadow after the colorless cloth faded, it turned out that below it was a small man more than a foot tall, completely naked, wearing nothing, covered with black ink, and his face was covered with black beard. As soon as he saw that the colorless cloth was withdrawn, he pulled his legs and ran, and the other black shadows saw this situation, and no one dared to approach Zhan Wuxian again, and they turned around and ran away. Zhan Wuxian was willing to let them escape, and once again performed the escape technique, peeling off all those black shadows one by one.

Zhan Wuxian was about to chase after him, and the hoarse and gloomy voice remembered again: "To be able to defeat the ghost shadow, Your Excellency must not be an ordinary person." As soon as he finished speaking, a man of about sixty years of age, tall and tall, wrapped in a gray-white fur blanket, shirtless and barefoot, draped from head to shoulder with a large black cloth, holding a stone cane, followed by a dozen large men of the same costume.

The old man continued: "I have offended you a lot just now, and I ask your Excellency to forgive me. ”

Zhan Wuxian did not let his guard down, and asked, "What is this place and who are you?" ”

"This is the Northern Wilderness Shadow Valley, and we are the guardians of the Shadow Valley, the Ghost Fang Clan."

"Gloomy Valley? So you've killed a lot of people here? ”

"Your Excellency misunderstood, we are not here to kill people, but to protect others."

"What do you mean by that?"

"This valley was not called the Valley of the Shadow before. It is a happy valley with green grass and flowers, and our ghost tribe calls her the Valley of Candlelight. Our Ghost Fang tribe has lived here for generations, until thirteen years ago, a snow demon came out of nowhere, entrenched on the big snow mountain at the end of the Candlelight Valley. She made waves and wreaked havoc, and since then the Candlelight Valley has been blowing cold winds all year round, and soon it has snowed heavily, the previous green grass and flowers have been covered with ice and snow, the water in the river has frozen, the fish in the water have frozen to death, people can no longer live here, and they have moved to other places, and finally only our ghost tribe remains. In the past thirteen years, our Ghost Fang tribe has been fighting against the snow demon, and in order to catch the snow demon, I don't know how many people have died. Every time we sent people to the Great Snow Mountain to catch the snow demons, but every time we fell short, none of the young and strong men who went up went down the mountain, and all died on it, so that the rest of our Ghost Fang tribe were all old people, children and women. After several battles with the Snow Demon, we know that we can't defeat the Snow Demon on our own, so we plan to ask all the world's martial arts master rangers to help us deal with the Snow Demon. I see that Your Excellency's martial arts are extremely high, and you have broken the ghost shadow technique of my ghost tribe in just a few moves, which is really a five-body throw to the ground that the little second child admires. Little Lao'er dares to ask Your Excellency to help my ghost tribe to eliminate harm for the people and capture the snow demon. ”

Zhan Wuxian listened, but he didn't know if it was true or not, so he didn't speak.

The old man said, "I know Your Excellency has some suspicions, and I don't blame you. Now this Shadow Valley is icy and snowy, it is the snow demon that did it, we sent people to guard here, pretending to be ghosts just to prevent others from entering the valley, so as not to be harmed by the snow demon and lose their lives in vain. Your Excellency must have come here for a reason, it is better to temporarily live in my ghost side first, as for whether you can help or not, it is completely up to your Excellency to decide. ”

When Zhan Wuxian heard the old man say this, he said, "If what you said is true, I should draw my sword to help." But I have important things to do now, and I will immediately come to your ghost clan to help you get rid of the snow demons. ”

The old man said: "I don't know what Your Excellency has to do, can you tell me, in this northern cold land, my Ghost Fang tribe is still relatively familiar, and I may be able to help Your Excellency." ”

"I'm going to the North Stygian Sea."

The old man listened and said with a smile: "But for the sake of the Northern Darkness Essence Water? ”

Zhan Wuxian was suddenly surprised, why did this old man know that I went to find the Northern Darkness Essence Water, so he said: "Exactly, I don't know how the old gentleman knew?" ”

The old man said with a smile: "Those who go to the North Stygian Polar Sea are all for the Northern Stygian Essence Water, and I don't know how many people in this Gloom Valley have died at the hands of the Snow Demon in order to find the Northern Stygian Essence Water." ”

Zhan Wuxian said: "In this way, please ask the old gentleman for guidance." ”

The old man said: "This Valley of the Shadow is the only way to the North Stygian Polar Sea, and before the snow demon comes, you can go straight to the North Stygian Polar Sea after passing through the Valley of the Shadow and along the North Glacier River." And now, after the appearance of the snow demon, this place has been frozen for thousands of miles, and the northern glacier is also covered with heavy snow, and there is no guide to discern the direction, and it will be even more difficult to find the North Stygian Polar Sea from now on. ”

Zhan Wuxian said: "In this way, only the guide of your Ghost Fang clan can find the North Stygian Extreme Sea. ”

The old man was also polite, and said, "Exactly, there is also the surrender of the snow demon." ”

"Then I don't have a choice?"

"It's not impossible to find the North Stygian Polar Sea with your skills, but it will take some time. Your Excellency might as well go to my ghost clan to sit down first, and then it's not too late to make plans. ”

Zhan Wuxian nodded silently in his heart.

Zhan Wuxian followed the old man along the Valley of the Shadow for half a mile, turned left, walked for another thirty miles, came to a big snowy mountain, climbed up to the halfway up the mountainside, and came to a mountain rock that was not covered by ice and snow, and there were many scratches and cracks on the stone, as if it had been scratched by the claws of some wild beast. The old man used a scimitar to insert a crack in the rock, and then turned to the right forcefully, turning three times in a row, and then he heard the sound of the roar behind the stone, and the mountain began to break away from the mountain behind it and began to move to the right. When the rocks were removed, there was a cave behind it, dark and dark, and bottomless.

The old man said, "Please come with me, close your eyes, and you will see everything." ”

Zhan Wuxian followed the old man, closed his eyes, entered the cave, and suddenly felt a fresh breeze blowing in his face, and the wind contained the fragrance of grass. Zhan Wuxian felt that there was an endless prairie in front of him, blue sky, white clouds, green grass, hills, two or three people riding horses, holding leather whips in their hands, driving herds of cattle and sheep, the eagle in the sky spread its wings and soared, and a pair of eagle eyes overlooked everything on the grassland. At this time, there was a melodious singing voice from a distance, high-pitched and loud, and the sound was in the ears, making people feel refreshed and happy. A ten-year-old toddler, wearing a fur coat and holding a small sheep in his arms, suddenly came to Zhan Wuxian with an innocent smile. Zhan Wuxian heard: "It's here, open your eyes," but it was the old man's voice.

Zhan Wuxian couldn't help but shudder, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that the yellow sand was rolling, the cliffs were everywhere, the bones were messy, and the dead trees were smoky.

The old man said, "This is where our Ghost Fang tribe is. With that, he walked forward. Zhan Wuxian froze in place, unable to take a step for a long time. The old man stepped on the sand with both feet, sighed, and said, "Isn't there a big contrast?" What you feel in the cave is not the same reality as what you see with your own eyes, but it's all real, it's the same place. Before the Snow Demon appeared, our Ghost Fang tribe was what you saw when you closed your eyes, and after the Snow Demon appeared, it was what you saw when you opened your eyes. Let's go, let's talk to my ghost tent. ”