Zhang Xun walked to the end of the secret passage, and found that there was a heavy door here, through the crack in the door, he saw that the lights were bright inside, and pushed the door hard, only to hear a "squeak", and the door slowly opened. Zhang Xun straightened out his sword, and stepped into the light with an arrow step, and this place suddenly opened up, and a wide circular underground palace suddenly appeared in front of him.

This underground palace has more than one person high, can stand more than twenty or thirty people, look around, Zhang Xun found that there are a total of eight gates on the circular wall, evenly distributed in eight directions, and in front of Zhang Xun, there is a thick stone pillar on the left and right sides, the stone pillar rises from the ground, carrying the underground palace up and down.

There was a person standing next to the stone pillar on the right, and the man found Zhang Xun and said in an old voice: "Ahem, you are here." ”

"Are you King Chen?" Zhang Xun asked suspiciously.

The man replied, "The king is gone, and I am waiting for you here." ”

"Wait for me? Who are you? ”

"I'm just an old slave, ahem."

Zhang Xun walked towards the man with his sword, and when he looked closer, he found that the man was dressed in eunuch clothes, with gray hair, and was old and frail.

Zhang Xun asked, "How do you know I'll find here?" ”

The old slave looked up at Zhang Xun with a kind smile on his face, "I didn't know you would come, but I will wait, ahem, you are really a handsome offspring." ”

Zhang Xun took half a step back in disgust and continued to ask, "What about King Chen?" Where did he go? Say it quickly, or I'll kill you! ”

The old slave smiled and said: "Ahem, the king is naturally out of the city, here is connected to the palace, the palace, and some other places, there are several passages to get out of the city, I am afraid it is impossible to find the king." ”

Zhang Xun raised his sword, pointed at the old slave and asked, "How long has King Chen left?" Which passage to take? Tell me! ”

The old slave was still smiling, cocked his fingers and pinched the blade of the sword, gently moved it to the side, and said, "The king has already left, ahem, you can't catch up." ”

"Hmph, then why don't you leave?"

"I'm old, I can't walk anymore, ahem."

Zhang Xun smiled, took back his sword and said, "You don't have to act, I know that King Chen is still nearby, and it's behind one of these doors." ”

The old slave's expression suddenly became nervous, and he said in a little panic: "Young man, I really can't bear to see you die, go back quickly, take advantage of the chaos to escape, otherwise you will definitely die!" The king has long since left, and you can't find him! ”

Zhang Xun saw that the old slave was obviously flustered, so he took advantage of the victory to pursue, "Are you panicking? Hehe, just now you said that you were waiting for me, but in fact, it was for His Royal Highness King Chen, right? ”

"I didn't ...... No! King, he's long gone! Long gone! ”

"Old man? Why don't you cough now? Originally, I wasn't sure if King Chen was nearby, but I just wanted to trick you into saying a few words, but now, I can be sure that King Chen must still be here! ”

"You!" The old slave pointed at Zhang Xun, so angry that he couldn't speak.

"The first cough I heard before I came in must have been Chen Wang's cough! Hearing my footsteps, King Chen hurriedly hid behind the door, while you came out to cover, just now you deliberately coughed non-stop, just to cover up! Now you're panicking, and you've forgotten about coughing! Right!? ”

"Huh!" The old slave sighed deeply, "Forget it, forget it, you go chase it!" Anyway, I've done my best, fate is decided, you just have to chase after it, the king escaped through that door. The old slave said and pointed to the gate behind Zhang Xun's left.

Zhang Xun walked in the direction of the old slave's finger and found that the door that the old slave was pointing to was next to the left of the door where he entered the underground palace. Zhang Xun came to the door, and his eyes were already used to the dimness, but they were a little uncomfortable by the dense firelight in front of him. Only then did he notice that there was a torch every few steps on the circular wall in front of him, and the light of the fire illuminated this half of the side, while on the half of the wall behind him, the torches were very sparse, and he could only barely light that half.

Noticing this, Zhang Xun looked at the two stone pillars in the middle of the underground palace. There are six torches on the stone pillar on the right side of the room, while there are only two on the stone pillar on the left.

Suddenly, Zhang Xun had a flash of inspiration, isn't this underground palace a Tai Chi!

If the entire circular underground palace is divided by the line between the two stone pillars, the half in front of Zhang Xun is bright with firelight, symbolizing the yang fish in Taiji, and the half behind it, the fire is dim, symbolizing the yin fish in Taiji, and the two stone pillars just symbolize the yin eye and yang eye in Taiji.

In this underground palace, do not distinguish the direction, the shape of the eight gates is the same, so how can the people who enter the underground palace distinguish these eight gates, it seems that it depends on this Taiji diagram, and these eight gates correspond to the Qimen Dunjia in the rest, life, injury, Du, Jing, death, shock, and opening.

Thinking of this, Zhang Xun looked around again, only to understand that the gate he walked out of was the Jingmen located in the middle of Yangyu, and the left side of the Jingmen, that is, the door that the old slave pointed out to him, corresponded to the door of death!

Zhang Xun suddenly realized, suddenly turned around and walked straight in the opposite direction.

The Gate of Death is in the southwest, the Gate of Life is in the northeast, and King Chen should be behind the Gate of Life!

Zhang Xun lifted his sword and walked straight to Shengmen, the old slave saw that Zhang Xun's eyes were firm and the direction was clear, so he hurriedly said: "Don't waste your efforts here!" The king is long gone! If you want to chase it, hurry up! ”

Zhang Xun ignored the old slave, still staring at the door and walking straight away.

Seeing this, the old slave knew that Zhang Xun had cracked the mystery, so he suddenly pounced on Zhang Xun when he passed by him, hugged Zhang Xun, and shouted loudly: "The king is running away!" Run! ”

Zhang Xun was even more sure of King Chen's position, he tried hard to push the old slave away, but who knew that the old slave was desperately hugging Zhang Xun's thigh, and his nails almost broke Zhang Xun's flesh. Zhang Xun put the sword on the old slave's neck and scolded sharply: "Quickly let go!" Or I'll kill you!" Fast! ”

The old slave still held on to Zhang Xun and shouted loudly: "The king escapes!" ”

Zhang Xun couldn't break free, but he couldn't bear to kill him, so he could only freeze in place for the time being. At this moment, the door was pushed open with a creak, and a person came out from behind the door.

The man said unhurriedly: "I am the King Chen you are looking for." ”

Zhang Xun took a closer look, and saw that the person in front of him was over fifty years old, looking old, with hoarfrost, wrinkles on his forehead, thin and weak, and his body was rickety, he was dressed in a black brocade suit, leaning against the door with a cane.

"King! Why did you get out! The old slave is guilty! Didn't protect you! The old slave is guilty! The old slave let go of Zhang Xun, knelt down and cried.

Zhang Xun walked to King Chen's side, pointed his sword in front of King Chen's eyes, and said, "King Chen, you have no way back!" Surrender. ”

Chen Wang smiled, took a difficult step forward on crutches, and asked calmly, "Young man, what is your name?" ”

"My name is Zhang Xun."

"Do you know this Qimen Dunjia technique?"

"Let's know a little bit about it."

"Hehe, the afterlife is terrible, the afterlife is terrifying, cough, cough, cough." Halfway through his words, Chen Wang suddenly bent down and coughed violently.

Seeing this, the old slave hurriedly stepped forward to help King Chen beat his back, and King Chen coughed a few more times, and finally eased up. He waved his hand at the old slave, then supported his body with his crutches and said, "Old, old, my body is not good, and my legs are broken." ”

Zhang Xun was slightly puzzled and asked, "I have never heard that King Chen has a leg disease. ”

"The widow has been in poor health, and he had a leg problem last year, hehe."

Hearing this, Zhang Xun didn't know how to pick it up, and in the face of such a sick little old man, Zhang Xun felt a little invincible.

"Zhang Xun? Repeating the cycle, right? ”

"Exactly."

"Hehe, good name, Zhang Xun, let me ask you, how did you know that there was a mechanism behind the throne? It is said that this secret passage is built and hidden, and not many people know about it. ”

Zhang Xun hesitated for a moment and replied, "By chance, I happen to recognize the mechanism structure of the throne. ”

"Oh? That's not easy, in this way, it's fate, and I'm afraid that others won't find the entrance to the secret passage at all. ”

"This secret passage is exquisitely designed and hidden, and it will never be discovered by others, and even if it is discovered, I am afraid that it will be lost in these eight gates."

"Hehe, what's the use of being exquisite, even if you try your best to make things perfect, what is destined to happen will still happen, and no one can beat the will of God. It's providence that you and I can meet here, ahem. ”

"Perhaps, if this is the will of heaven, then if the heavens are going to kill you, how can you resist? King Chen, surrender. ”

"Hehe, I hear that your accent looks like a native of the Central Plains?"

"I'm from Shen Guo."

"Oh, that's good, so we're still neighbors."

"It used to be, but after Chen Guo sent troops to Shen State, we are enemies." Zhang Xun's mind came up with painful memories of his childhood, although he didn't want to talk about the national hatred and family hatred all the time, and he never mentioned the national hatred and family hatred between Chen Guo and Shen Guo to others, but it cannot be denied that he had a trace of revenge in his heart when he went to Chen Guo this time.

"You can't say that, since you are from Shen, you should know that our two countries were like brothers back then, and if it weren't for the troubled times, we wouldn't have killed each other."

Zhang Xun smiled disdainfully and said: "Since they are like brothers, why don't the two countries depend on each other?" When the Shen State was destroyed, instead of sending troops to rescue him, King Chen helped the Shen State to attack the Shen State, and was in a hurry to carve up the city of the Shen State afterwards?! What kind of shame is there to be a brother and a brother in committing such an act?! ”

After hearing this, King Chen sighed deeply and said in a lamented voice: "Fifteen years. Hey, fifteen years ago, the State of Chen, like the State of Shen, was sandwiched between many princes and found it difficult to survive. Shen State is adjacent to Chu State in the south, and Chu is strong and oppressive, and King Shen has to bow his head. Although Shen and Chu were allies, in the eyes of Chu, Shen was nothing more than a shield in the Central Plains to the north. And we, the State of Chen, located between the princes of the Central Plains, were looked upon by the Jin, Lu, Song, Chen, Wei, Zheng and other powers, and we had to lean towards the Jin State and ally with the Great Powers. Shen Guo and Chen Guo, although they are like brothers and sisters, they are helplessly controlled by two opposing camps, one is pro-Chu and the other is pro-Jin. However, the mountains and rivers of the two countries are connected, and the people are in the same vein, and they still marry each other in private, and they have close contacts. ”

"Ahem." Speaking of this, King Chen coughed, he looked at Zhang Xun, who could hear it, and then said: "Fifteen years ago, the Jin State convened the Central Plains countries to discuss the crusade against the Chu State, and the Shen State was pro-Chu, so naturally he did not dare to participate, so the King of Jin was displeased and instructed the Cai State to destroy the Shen State. ”

Zhang Xun was emotional, clenched his fists and said: "King Cai is rude, everyone is the minister of the Son of Heaven, what qualifications does he have to order you to take the lead?!" ”

"Ahem, this world has long been ruined, the strong can naturally order the weak to die, and in order to save the Chen State, how can I not do what King Cai said? On that day, I led the troops to stand under the city of Shen Guo, I clearly remember a soldier behind him crying, I asked him what was wrong, he pointed to the opposite city wall and said, there is a person guarding the city on the wall is his grandfather, I looked in the direction he pointed, and sure enough, I saw that on the high wall, there was an old soldier looking at the old tears under the city. ”

Zhang Xun didn't know what to say, and the situation at that time resurfaced in his mind, when he was six years old, his country was ruined.

"Ahem, the city is still broken, we have suffered heavy casualties, and the Shen State has been wiped out. In the end, King Cai rewarded me and asked me to retrieve a few bones from Shen Guo's corpse. Chen Wang told these things calmly, his face was expressionless, only his cloudy eyes were impregnated with complex emotions.

Zhang Xun pulled away from his memories and thoughts, and sighed: "Big countries compete with each other, but small countries are just pawns used to fight. ”

King Chen walked a few steps forward with difficulty on crutches, and came to the stone pillar on the right side of the underground palace, he stroked the old stone pillar and said: "Fifteen years, I didn't expect to wait for fifteen years for this day, enough, enough." ”

"What's enough?" Zhang Xun asked.

"After the death of Shen Guo, I knew that sooner or later I would have such a day, so I asked the master to rebuild Wanqiu City, and built a secret passage and a dungeon under the city, I thought it would be used in a few years, but I didn't expect that my wife would escape for fifteen years. Hehe, long enough, long enough. Let's go, I'll go with you. ”

After saying that, Chen Wang showed a relieved smile on his face.