The mist was swirling, filling the middle sky, and the rising sun was still outside the thick fog.

Wuyang Post House, on the main hall of the East Courtyard.

Ren Hongchang and He Ying had already packed their bags, left the East Courtyard with their personal maids, and took the car first.

After the women left, Li Li sat alone in the hall and drank tea slowly, without a trace of the hurried demeanor that a person who was about to leave should have.

But seeing that his face was calm, his expression was calm, and his demeanor was tepid, it was impossible to associate him with the situation of the alien country, as if he were the master of the land. But in reality he was in the territory of other princes, and the princes who sat there were always on guard against him, as if they regarded him as the most dangerous and impossible to ignore.

With the sound of "tom tom" footsteps, Zhuge Liang stepped into the threshold, walked quickly in front of Li Li, and said respectfully: "Yiqiē is ready, and you can go." ”

As he spoke, Zhuge Liang sat down next to Li Li, and Li Li poured him a cup of hot tea and waved his hand to signal him to sit down and drink tea, so he didn't have to hurry.

"While there is still time, you and I can drink tea with peace of mind. The next part of the journey is not easy to walk, and the security of the southwest border is not good, so we must not relax at any time. At that time, it is tantamount to extravagant hope to drink hot tea in peace. After speaking, Li Li picked up the teacup and motioned for Zhuge Liang to drink it together.

Zhuge Liang's state of mind is quite similar to Li Li's, advocating "indifference to clear ambition, tranquility to far", and hand-cranked feather fan to keep himself awake at all times. He was not impatient like Li Li at the moment, and he was blowing hot air unhurriedly after sitting down. Tasting tea carefully, I also looked at the furnishings in the main hall from time to time, and a touch of understanding appeared in the corner of my eyes.

"Oh. By the way, the foolish brother almost forgot to get down to business. After drinking a cup of tea, Zhuge Liang suddenly remembered something, immediately put down the teacup, and said in amazement: "There is one thing that must be presented to the lord, the Wu family walked with us, and she and Mrs. He Ying sat in the same carriage." It's just gone. ”

"Ugh! Poof! The sudden words made Li Li's voice change, and after being stunned, a sip of tea was immediately sprayed out, leaving a large water stain on the flat brocade robe on his chest.

"She's on the same path as me? Where does this begin? Does she know where we're going? Li Li said in surprise.

When Zhuge Liang saw this, he looked stunned and said in surprise: "Could it be that the lord disagrees, why is this?" Wouldn't it be better for Wu to walk with us! ”

Li Li was surprised when he heard this. Suspiciously, he said, "Okay." How so? ”

Zhuge Liang said without thinking: "This time, we will stay in Wuyang Station, if we don't meet the Wu family, if we meet her, we will expose our whereabouts." Although she still doesn't know the true identity of us, Wu Yi's name thorn alone lets her know that we are definitely not the Wu family's caravan, and their behavior is very suspicious. In addition, although she is a female streamer. But he was born in Jiangmen, and after getting along with each other day and night in recent days. How could she not see that the servants around the lord were all battle-hardened elite soldiers? ”

Speaking of this, Zhuge Liang paused for a moment, and continued with a solemn expression: "In addition, the horses used by us to pretend to be caravans are all high-grade war horses from Xiliang, and the items on the carriage are also valuable. If these details fall in the eyes of ordinary people, they will naturally not be able to guess the identity of our others, and they will not even pay attention to it at all, but Wei Chen is sure that the Wu family must know the Xiliang war horse, and know more clearly the value of the items on the carriage. If she linked these together, it would not be difficult to guess the identity and origin of our others.

In particular, several lords and duchesses have excellent appearances, which can be called the appearance of a fallen city, and their demeanor is graceful, their conversation is extraordinary, and the things they use are also good, which is by no means something that ordinary eunuchs can have. What's more, through the observation of the past few days, it is not difficult to see that the Wu family is not only young and beautiful, but also extremely intelligent. In this way, the identity of the lord is about to come out, and it is absolutely impossible to hide it from the Wu family. ”

Li Li bowed his head slightly and said, "That's true." Wu is beautiful and intelligent, and the most rare thing is that she is still a calm and extremely stable woman. She was able to guess where we were, and she must have doubted my identity the day after I moved into the inn, and then she only needed a little attention to find out who I was. It would be wise for her to take the initiative to go with us now, otherwise she would ??????"

Zhuge Liang nodded happily, a meaningful smile appeared on his face, and he smiled: "It is true that the Wu clan is indeed very intelligent, and it is undoubtedly an extremely wise decision to choose to go with us after learning our identity." Otherwise, in order to ensure the safety of the lord and several sisters-in-law, she will either follow me to Xiangshan or ??????

However, there was one thing that surprised Wei Chen, the Wu family actually knew about the dustless palace on Xiangshan, and it seemed that he and Fairy Mengxin were still old acquaintances. In addition, she also said that she came here from Chengdu this time to visit the Mengxin Fairy in Xiangshan, and she would stay in the Wuchen Palace throughout the winter and would not return to Chengdu until after the beginning of spring. This is true not only this year, but also in previous winters, and this is the fourth year. For this reason, she brought ten carts of belongings, which did not seem to be a lie, it seemed that she really planned to live in the Dustless Palace permanently, at least for more than three months. ”

Li Li was stunned when he heard this: "Oh? If that's the case, I'll be able to rest assured. ”

Before the words fell, Li Li got up and said, "Let's go, I'd better wait to rush to the Dustless Palace, otherwise the longer we delay, the easier it will be to expose our whereabouts." Now is a critical moment, more things are better than less things, and it is indeed not appropriate to make extraneous branches. ”

Zhuge Liang got up when he heard this, and without saying anything, he immediately followed behind Li Li and left Wuyangyi.

?????? In the cold winter season, the wind is angry, the river is condensed, and the jungle is bleak.

By this time, Li Li and his entourage had left Wuyang Post Station for ten days, and had entered the mountains and forests for three full days.

In the past three days, a group of more than 300 people slept in the open air, walked in the jungle all day, traveled more than 40 miles a day, until the evening of the third day, and finally approached the destination.

"Zicheng, it's almost there, right?" In the col on the bank of the mountain stream, Li Li sat by the campfire by the stream, paying attention to the rabbit meat baked on the iron fork, and asked Li Zhi in a low voice.

Li Zhi heard this and said: "Soon, there are still thirty miles of mountain road from the Dustless Palace here, and I think I can arrive tomorrow afternoon." As he spoke, he did not sit idle, turning the elk on a stake, lest the venison on the three-edged fork be roasted.

Li Li nodded lightly and looked up at the jungle in front of him, although the mountains were not high, they were stacked and undulating, and there was no end in sight. Seeing this situation, he couldn't help but think that the secluded life in the depths of the jungle was not as beautiful as ordinary people imagined, the mountains were high and the roads were far away, the transportation was inconvenient, and all the necessities of life needed to go down the mountain to procure, which was not easy to come and go.

It goes without saying that the Dustless Palace founded by Mengxin is in this jungle, and the specific location is thirty miles away from the southwest mountain forest where Li Li and the others are at the moment. The reason why the dojo was chosen to build in such a secluded place is because Taoism advocates the unity of heaven and man, quiet and inaction, away from the strife and hustle and bustle of the world, and returns to nature. It is because all the Taoist people practice in the dojo are selected in the deep mountains and rivers, self-cultivation, life is extremely calm and poor, self-sufficient, sunrise and sunset, most of the time is concentrated in cultivation, hone the state of mind.

As for whether such penance can become an immortal, there is no way to know. But one thing is certain, that is, these monks who live in seclusion in the mountains and forests generally live longer, except for accidental casualties, they do live longer than people in the world, and occasionally people who live a hundred years old. It may not be surprising to future generations to live a long life, but it is extremely rare nowadays. At present, the life expectancy of most people is about forty or fifty years old, and there are not a few people who die before the age of 36, and the old people who can live to be over 60 years old are considered to be long-lived, and the elderly who are over 70 years old account for a very small proportion of the total population of the whole society, so there is the saying of "seventy ancient rare".

As night fell, the temporary tent by the stream had been set up, and Li Li and the others had already had dinner and returned to their tents. After they left, Jin Yiwei and the servants began to eat, the food was quite rich, everyone could get a little meat, and the main meal was wild vegetable gnocchi soup. (It's a paste of flour mixed with wild herbs and boiled, which the people of Xiliang call "gnocchi soup", which is already a very good food at the moment.) Many dignitaries also eat this at night, but they just add some minced meat to the noodle soup and add some oil and water. ）

The camping in the mountains and forests was limited and the tents were relatively simple, so Li Li and his four wives and concubines all lived in one tent, while their personal maids lived in the same tent. However, due to the sudden addition of Wu Amaranth, Li Li and his wife had to separate and add another tent next to his tent. For this reason, Ren Hongchang and He Ying secretly agreed that they would take turns to accompany Wu Yuan every night, and the remaining three sisters were in the same room with Li Li.

Perhaps it was because of the pretty widow Wu Amaran living next to her that Ren Hongchang and Xiao Qiao were extremely excited, and they yelled and screamed every night until they were exhausted before falling asleep. After a few days, the four of them were all radiant and radiant, but Wu Yuan looked haggard and had two extremely conspicuous dark circles under his eyes. Obviously, she was careless in making friends, unladylike in meeting people, and was so noisy by the sound of the "neighbor's house" that she couldn't sleep, so that the whole person was sluggish and haggard.

It was another night of singing, Wu Amaranth was once again disturbed by the lingering and mournful sound in the camp tent next door, and finally stayed up until dawn, and after half an hour of freshening up and eating, the group set off again and went to the dust-free palace located on the Xiangshan Mountain thirty miles away.

On the way forward, Wu Amaran finally couldn't help but complain to Xiao Qiao and Ren Hongchang: "It's like this every night, I don't know how to converge at all, the four sisters really hurt the little sister!" ”

"Hee-hee-hee!" Ren Hongchang and Xiao Qiao glanced at each other after hearing this, and they all looked at Wu Amaranth with strange eyes, until Wu Amaran's pretty face turned crimson, they couldn't help but smile and tacitly agreed.

―――――― to be continued―――――――――― (To be continued......