"Ahem!"

Hoarse coughs echoed in the empty palace, and in the distance there was a roaring thunder, and another rainstorm was coming.

Su Li added a piece of charcoal to the stove and slightly approached to keep warm, it was already the beginning of summer, and the air on the eve of the rainstorm was still a little stuffy, but she felt very cold inexplicably, as if there was a cold wind drilling into the cracks of the bones from all directions.

"Ayi."

Zuo Yihe called her outside the door, Su Li put down the iron tongs and walked over gently, Zuo Yihe looked left and right, and took out a dry bun from his arms and handed it to her.

"Eat fast, hot, fragrant." Zuo Yihe even said with a gesture, his eyes were shining, and he was looking forward to it.

She is a woman who has a lot of money, she survived that night a year ago, and then became a tool for Kutar and several brothers to vent, and then she became pregnant, and was tortured to a miscarriage in the bed of Kutar, it was Su Li who found a way to save her, and since then she has been quietly in contact with Su Li in private.

Su Li and her language are not compatible, at first they can only barely communicate through gestures, but later they become more familiar with it, and gradually they can understand some vocabulary.

It's just that Zuo Yihe's pronunciation is inaccurate, and he always calls Ah Li Ah Yi, and Su Li really can't correct it, so she goes with her.

Su Li's throat was very dry, and she didn't have a little appetite when she held the bun, Zuo Yihe bumped her elbow and urged her to eat quickly, not wanting to waste other people's kindness, Su Li took a bite and chewed for a long time before swallowing it with difficulty.

Zuo Yihe looked at her expectantly, and Su Li pulled out a smile again: "It's delicious, thank you!" ”

Zuo Yihe hurriedly shook his head with a tense face, meaning that she didn't have to be so polite, Su Li smiled slightly, lowered her head and continued to eat, and inadvertently saw that Zuo Yihe's right palm seemed to be injured, and subconsciously grabbed her wrist.

Zuo Yihe was startled, and wanted to push Su Li away but failed, Su Li stared at the wound in her palm.

It was a mark made with a soldering iron, round on the outside and square on the inside, and in the middle of the square was a kneeling woman.

This is the sacrificial mark used by the Hu people.

Generally, there are major matters, and the Hu people are sacrificed with animals, how can Zuo Yihe have this mark on his hand?

"What's going on?"

Su Li asked in a deep voice, her head became dizzy because of the sudden emotion.

Since the beginning of spring this year, her body seems to be getting worse and worse, and I wonder if it is the reason why she has stayed in the palace all day and has no activity.

Zuo Yihe originally wanted to hide it, but when Su Li recognized the significance of this brand, he gave up the struggle and lowered his head.

Then Su Li heard her say, "Ayi, I'm leaving."

Zuo Yihe has been in Hudi all her life, she was robbed by Ku Keduo, Hu Keduo has never been gentle with her, and then Hu Keduo died, her life is even worse, and the woman who was sold into Goolan Courtyard is almost the same, where can she go?

"Where are you going? Is there anyone with you? ”

Su Li asked, she already had a faint bad feeling in her heart, but Zuo Yihe smiled, she looked up at the dark night sky, a flash of lightning flashed, and the sudden bright light illuminated the expectation at the bottom of her eyes clearly: "Go and see the gods." ”

God? Is there any god in this world?

Su Li wanted to refute, Zuo Yihe's yearning eyes were dyed with a trace of sadness, Su Li lost her voice, and suddenly understood that she already knew that seeing the gods was fake and death was real, but she had no sadness, only relief.

"I can help you get out of here." Su Li said abruptly.

The sacrifices of the Hu people have always been grand, when everyone is focused on preparing for the sacrifice, the guards of the palace are the most lax, Zuo Yihe is a Hu woman, unlike Su Li who is too petite, no matter how she disguises, she can be easily recognized.

Zuo Yihe couldn't understand the long sentences, she only heard the word 'leave', she was stunned for a moment, she didn't expect Su Li to say such a sentence at all.

But after a moment she laughed and shook her head gratefully.

Leaving here would mean betraying her people, and her soul would not return after death, and she didn't want that, and even if she did, she didn't know where else to go.

Her roots are in Hulun, and even if she dies, she will die here.

This idea has long been engraved in her mind, and even if she is not chained to her cell, she will never be able to leave.

Su Li felt a little sad, this feeling also appeared when she first heard Gu Yuanfeng say that since ancient times, women have taken their husbands as their heavens, and at that time Gu Yuanfeng said that he hopes that future women will have their own poetry and book temperament, and that women can also have their own world.

At that time, Su Li was still young, and he broke the shackles in her mind, otherwise after her reputation was ruined, she would obey Su Liangxing and her grandmother's arrangement, and be willing to be sunk in the pond.

Luckily, she met her husband.

Su Li took the steamed bun and was distracted, Zuo Yihe saw that the hour was not early, and said goodbye to Su Li and left in a hurry.

Hudi grain production is small, after the beginning of spring, Kutar sent people to transport away the tribute grain promised to Yuanzhao last year, after the tribute, the Hu people's own grain became scarce, and Su Li changed from two meals a day to one meal a day.

The steamed buns given by Zuo Yihe were very precious, and Su Li forced herself to eat them all, and it didn't take long for the rainstorm to come as scheduled.

The rain in Hudi was just in time, and the wind whined in the sky and made people panic.

Su Li was so noisy by this storm that she didn't feel sleepy, she was in a daze by the stove, she knelt a little too much this year, and her knees fell into some problems, and this rainy weather would be faintly sore, uncomfortable from her bones.

It continued to rain until the second half of the night, the rain continued unabated, and there was lightning and thunder outside the house, and the light of lightning came in from the glass on the roof, like a ghost, Su Li's uneasiness reached its peak, and a loud bang suddenly exploded overhead.

Rumble!

With a slight cracking sound, the glass on the roof was split by lightning and fell to the ground, Su Li quickly pulled the stove to the side, and the heavy rain poured down from the mouth of the glass cave.

The men who were guarding outside ran in and took a look at it, and hurried out, and not long after, the Tartar and the wizard arrived.

Counting that Kutar has not returned to his dormitory to rest for nearly half a month, tonight Su Li found that he was not wearing his usual clothes, his waist and abdomen, elbows and knees were protected by iron armor, and his body was still wrapped with white strips of cloth, and he was dressed very strangely, the wizard was still wearing the black robe he wore when he first met, but he was much older, and a closer look could find that almost half of his hair had fallen out.

The palace has a history of nearly 100 years, and has experienced countless wind, rain, sand and dust, and this glass skylight has never had anything happen, but today it was split by lightning, which is really not a good sign.

The faces of Kutar and the wizard were ugly, and the rest of the royal family soon rushed to hear the news, all of them looked at the residue of the glass that was scorched black by thunder and lightning, and then looked at Su Li's eyes were very unkind, and said something to Kutar in a vicious voice, and finally Kutar raised his hand to stop it.

Kutar said a few words to the wizard with a calm face, and the wizard nodded, and quickly ordered someone to take Su Li away.

Going out of the palace, Su Li was sent to a carriage, the carriage of the Hu people was not as luxurious as that of Yuan Zhao, in order to adapt to the bad weather, the carriage door was not a curtain made of cloth, but a wooden plank, which could be locked directly from the outside.

Su Li was locked in, the wind and rain outside were even greater, and the carriage staggered forward, giving Su Li the illusion that the carriage would turn over at any time.

After walking for half an hour, the carriage stopped, and the people outside opened the door, and the wind and rain immediately poured in.

Su Li got out of the carriage and looked up to see the endless desert.

What are they going to do?

Su Li was a little surprised, according to the habits of the Hu people, if she was determined that she and Liuli were inseparable, she should have been killed in front of many people, after all, that was in line with the sense of ritual they usually believed.

Just thinking about it, the person next to him pushed Su Li, Su Li walked forward slowly, and after walking for a quarter of an hour, there was a sound of ping-pong in her ears, and there was a faint light in front of her.

Walking a little further, Su Li was stunned, in the middle of the endless desert, there was a natural narrow ravine, the ravine was several zhang deep, by the light of lightning, Su Li saw that the ravine was different from the desert above, and there were dense trees growing below, lush and vibrant, and there was a rushing river in the middle.

With this river, isn't it possible to grow a lot of food??

This was Su Li's first reaction, before she could take a closer look at the terrain here, the people next to her pulled her down from a path next to her, and the further down she went, the clearer the sound of ping-pong became, and the impression in Su Li's mind became clearer.

Below this is the Hu people's weapon refining warehouse!

The cliffs on both sides of the ravine are solid rocks, and there are many karst caves behind the rocks, and of course many of them are artificially excavated, and many people live in caves on both sides.

The caves on the rock walls are all connected, and they are like a huge labyrinth to Su Li, and if she walks alone, she may not even be able to get out.

After going down four or five floors, and passing through seven or eight more caves, the man took Su Li to a narrow stone cave where only five or six people could squat, and after waiting for a while, the wizard came, took out an oil lamp from his wide black robe, and then handed Su Li a fire fold.

The wind and rain were too strong for the stove to come, so he should have brought the fire from the stove.

Su Li lit the stove with a fire fold, and the wizard handed Su Li a bamboo tube, which could be held with one hand, only about three inches long, Su Li smelled it, it looked like oil, but it was not tung oil and kerosene that were commonly used, but it was like oil refined from animals.

The wizard muttered the incantation to Su Li for a long time, and finally raised his hand and tapped it on her eyebrows.

After he clicked on Su Li's eyebrows before, there was an extra pea-sized red mark there, a bit like the beauty mole written in the book, which usually doesn't feel much to the touch, but every time he clicks it, there will be a slight burning sensation.

Su Li frowned, and was a little suspicious that she was sick now because of this red mark.

The wizard was soon gone, and the people outside closed the door, and the door was made of iron bars, one of which was as thick as three fingers, and she couldn't shake it herself except that the people outside opened the lock and let her out.

Of course, Su Li didn't want to play any tricks, even if she got out of this stone cave, she couldn't escape without alarming others.

The stone cave did not open the window, there was a smell of mold and rot, and Su Li was a little sick to his stomach after the smoke, only the oil lamp brought in by the wizard in the cave revealed a little dim light, Su Li carried the oil lamp and shone around the stone cave, and did not find anything special.

The clothes were wet and a little cold, Su Li gathered the placket of her clothes and squatted down, her head was drowsy and she wanted to sleep, and she inadvertently caught a glimpse of a touch of scarlet on the ground, like human blood.

Su Li came to her senses all of a sudden, approached with an oil lamp, and saw a few words written on the ground, corpses, insects, photos, a few words without a beginning or an end, Su Li used the oil lamp to shine a circle on the ground, and found that the ground was densely written with blood.

What is it?

Su Li didn't know where she had started reading these words, so she read them from all directions with her sleepiness, trying to see something from them.

Fortunately, these characters are all words of Yuanzhaoguo, not Hu language.

It took Su Li a moment to understand the words.

It was supposed to be a woman who had been locked up here for years, who was almost mad in despair, and who knew she would soon be a corpse from the moment she wrote it.

She is actually not from Yuanzhao country, she comes from a mysterious family, at the best age, she accidentally met a person she liked, she lied to the man, saying that the family was very bad to her, begging him to take her away, the man had a sense of justice, and really decided to take her away.

She was able to leave with a broken hand, but when she returned home with the man, she found that the man had a family, his wife was pregnant, and the man and his wife were very good, and they took pity on her for the broken hand, and took her to live in the house, treating her like a sister.

She couldn't intervene in their lives, she couldn't resent the man, she just regretted her betrayal, and then the man's family suffered a catastrophe and gave her a sum of money to leave sooner so as not to be implicated, and she began to look for a way to return to the people.

She accidentally heard that the Hu people were good at witchcraft, and their wizards were even more divination and could know many secret things, so she trekked to Hudi and found a way to meet the wizard.

The words behind this became sloppy and messy, as if the woman's emotions were too excited to control herself, Su Li looked at it with difficulty, but she couldn't make out what was written, but at the end of these words, she drew a flower with blood.

The shape of the flower was very unique, and Su Li felt a little familiar, but for a while she couldn't remember where she had seen it.

"Ahh

The wind and cold worsened, Su Li couldn't hold it anymore, and sat on the ground with her eyes closed.

The breath was hot, her throat was sore, and she felt sick at an inopportune time.

I fell asleep in a daze, and when I woke up again, it was still dark in front of me, but there was a bowl outside the iron door, and there was a steamed bun inside, which was brought by someone outside.

Su Li brought the steamed bun in, forced herself to eat it, and continued to read the words on the ground by the light of the oil lamp.

The light of the oil lamp was a little weak, Su Li opened the bamboo tube and poured it in, the flames suddenly jumped up, and between the lightning and flint, Su Li remembered the flower drawn with blood.

She had seen it on the mask of that elder in Lizhou!

Su Li covered the bamboo tube, cheered up and continued to look at the words on the ground, some places were not clear, she reached out to sweep away the excess gravel, and her fingertips touched the uneven stone, this word was not directly written with blood, it was engraved!

Su Li carefully wiped the sand and gravel on the ground with her sleeve, and the words behind her that were originally unreadable were finally recognizable.

After the heroine found a way to find the wizard, she said her request to the wizard, hoping that the wizard could help her, and the wizard agreed and arranged for him to live in the royal family of Kulun and accept VIP treatment.

The woman is not shocked, she is used to seeing life in the outside world, and now she misses the peace and tranquility when she was with her people, she misses her parents, she just wants to go home.

The sorcerer divined for her, and soon told the sorcerer what kind of environment the clan she lived in, what kind of clan rules there were, she was convinced of the wizard's ability, and told the wizard all about how she left the clan and how she lived after entering the world, and the wizard grabbed her bare wrist, and her eyes burst out with strange light, and asked her why she didn't take her hand.

That was the punishment she deserved for betraying her people, and it was also a shame that she would accompany her for the rest of her life, and she was responsible for her choice, and of course she couldn't take it back.

Moreover, if you want to take back your own hand, you must first cut off someone else's hand before you can put it on your own.

Why should others bear the responsibility for the mistakes she made?

The wizard was overjoyed to hear her answer, and it was then that the woman realized that something was wrong, but by then it was too late.

She was imprisoned in this cave by a sorcerer and raised a flower with her severed hand.

The flower is rooted in her flesh and blood, breathes with her, lives and dies together.

She had seen that flower many times, and in her homeland, which she would never return, had a beautiful name: the Flower of the Dead.

It is the sacred flower of their clan, which can be used as medicine, treat any wound, and even have the effect of reviving the dead.

But there is no such flower to be found anywhere else except in their clan.

She didn't expect that one day she would raise such a flower with her own flesh and blood.

She was scared, because she could clearly feel the roots of the flower stretching through her body, and the more bright the flower, the more flesh it sucked, and the more pain she felt.

The wizard is the same as her, he is a person who has defected from the clan, but the difference is that after the wizard leaves the clan, he kills people.

He doesn't want to walk in the world with a mutilated body, nor does he want to be confined to the small space of their clan for the rest of his life, he wants the most noble position and the supreme power in the world.

He had killed on his hands, and he had no mercy in his heart, so he couldn't raise the Flower of Death, and he was already dying, but fortunately, he met her later.

It takes five years for a dead flower to grow to bloom, and the woman was tortured alive for five years.

In the last moments of her life, she wrote down the cause and effect.

She thought of the man she had met in the first place, and if she could, she wished she hadn't seen that person in her life.

He was just a passer-by with a blossoming tree, but she fell into the mud for him, and died of despair.

After reading the whole story, Su Li sighed in her heart.

This woman is actually quite innocent, she has not harmed anyone, and she has no bad intentions, she just made a mistake in her affection, but she was tortured for it.

Is it just that the wizard in her mouth is the same person as the wizard now?

According to the woman, the medicinal effect of the afterlife flower is so good, shouldn't the wizard be rejuvenated? How can you still grow old like this?

That big family has such an ability but has been hidden in the world, which shows that it is extremely self-disciplined, and at the same time restricts the clansmen not to use such an ability to bring harm to the world, after a clansman defects to the clan, won't they send someone outside to supervise and clean up the portal?

Su Li was puzzled, but the words on the ground were gone, and she couldn't get more information.

It's really boring to be alone, Su Li can only read the words on the ground over and over again.

When the people outside sent the bun outside the iron fence for the third time, Su Li felt that her eyebrows seemed to move a little, and at the same time, her eyes didn't know how many times she swept over the sentence: The flowers of the past are planted in my flesh and blood, and they take root and sprout in a year and a half.

Su Li was inexplicably shocked into a cold sweat, raised her hand to touch her eyebrows, the skin of the tentacles was soft and smooth, and it was not as weird as she imagined.

Su Li breathed a sigh of relief, reached out to get the bun, and heard the dull and loud sound of the horn.

The voice was extremely long, constantly echoing in the ravine, causing a commotion, knowing that she couldn't see what was happening, Su Li still threw herself on the iron fence and tried to look out.

The view was blocked by the stone wall, and I couldn't see anything, but I could hear many mixed footsteps around me, as if there were many people running in the accessible stone cave.

Something big should be going on outside.

Su Li guessed and took the steamed bun and sat back to chew it carefully.

She was a little concerned about what the afterlife flower in the woman's mouth looked like, where the wizard's afterlife flower seeds came from, how to plant them, and what would happen to people's bodies after planting. What happens if the seeds of the afterlife flower are planted in people other than the clan?

Su Li had a lot of doubts, but unfortunately the woman in this cave before was dead, and she had no way of knowing the answers to these questions.

When the oil in the bamboo tube was added for the last time, the iron door opened, and Su Li was taken out of the cave.

When she returned to the ground, the sun was shining outside, and Su Li's eyes were stinged by the bright sunlight, and it took a long time to get used to the light outside.

The wizard was waiting for her outside, and the Tartar was not by his side, only the carriage used by the wizard on weekdays, which was actually a bit abnormal.

The person who took Su Li out respectfully talked to the wizard for a while, and then let Su Li follow the wizard away.

The sorcerer's carriage was the most luxurious of the Hu people, even more generous than the Kutars, because in the eyes of the Hu people, the status of the sorcerer was second only to the gods.

When the wizard got into the carriage first, Su Li obediently climbed into the carriage with an oil lamp and sat in the corner.

The wizard closed his eyes and didn't mean to speak, Xu is Su Li has been very obedient for more than a year, and he is not as wary of Su Li as he was at the beginning.

The wizard's carriage had curtains, and Su Li tried to open the curtains to look outside, but the wizard didn't stop them.

It was not like the way back to the palace, but it was getting further and further away, and it was not long before two mountains rose from the ground in sight.

There are few mountains in the desert that are so towering, and those two mountains appear extremely abruptly and abnormally, like a mirage of too strong sunlight.

How can there be mountains?

Su Li was surprised, and suddenly saw a familiar face flashing behind the hill not far away, and her pupils shrank.

Are you dreaming?

How did Chu Huai'an appear here? Hasn't it only been a little over a year?