—155 A.D.——

In Jizhou, Hebei, there is a county named Julu, where Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, had defeated the Qin army, but after the two Han Dynasty, it was only an inconspicuous county town with two counties of Pingxiang and Guangzong.

"Big brother! You don't have to venture into the mountains! A few minor injuries, the little brother will be healed in less than ten days! ”

"Yes, the tigers and leopards in the mountains are fierce, but you are only a scribe, big brother......"

On the outskirts of the county, in front of a dilapidated and old mud house, a sturdy young man in cloth with a simple face was stopping a young man with a medicine basket on his back and a long staff with a serious face from going out.

"Scribe...... But I call ourselves among my brothers," the young man sighed, "and my brother is thirty in his twenties this year, but he is still not a good talent, and all his classmates in the county who have a little family affairs have already entered the office, and they are quite cold when they meet each other, and they will pretend not to know anything soon." ”

"How can those humble officials compare with the eldest brother?" The sturdy young man was a little excited: "Big brother and talent, as long as you are appreciated by a high family, it is not a problem to be filial and honest and enter the official rank-"

"Do I have any extra money in my family?" The young man interrupted.

"Uh......" The stout young man dodged his gaze and quietly looked around, but he didn't know where to stop his gaze.

The young man shook his head and said, "It's okay to be a small official, but all officials who can be on the list need to pay a 'donation' to the imperial court according to their positions, and where does my family have this surplus wealth?" ”

"How can you argue with the eldest brother? Just stop him! The thin young man's voice came from inside the room, he paused and then said: "The eldest brother can say Ah Bao, but he can't hide it from me, the 'recommendation' is true, but the 'expedition' does not need money, the eldest brother has a small reputation at this time, and he can't say which official will be recruited as a staff member one day, and he must not be ......in danger at this time."

"Xiao Liang, you were injured when you went to accept the test of 'Conquest', right?" The young man asked suddenly.

"Wow......" The thin boy muttered.

"This 'conquest' doesn't seem to have any requirements, but it is more talented," the young man shook his head: "If you don't have the 'peerless' qualification, it is useless for you to defeat twenty people with the strength of one person by virtue of tricks." ”

"How can the eldest brother's speech be exactly the same as that of the junior official?" The thin young man was dissatisfied: "When I asked him what his 'unequaled' qualifications were, he refused to say. ”

"The so-called 'Wushuang' is-" The young man was halfway through his words, and suddenly stopped, and the sturdy young man thought that he was going to leave, so he stepped forward to catch it, but it seemed to be a very safe grasp but it was empty, and then the young man's figure was instantly shattered, and appeared outside the courtyard gate seven or eight steps away, and said to him: "-That's it." ”

"Ah Bao" still wanted to chase, so he heard "Xiao Liang" say behind him: "Let the eldest brother go, with such a hand, ordinary tigers and leopards really can't hurt him." ”

————

"Whew...... Ahem, ahem! ”

Although the young man was calm and light when he left, he finally couldn't help but bend down and cough violently after holding on to his mud house where he could no longer see his own mud house.

"Damn ......it," he said to himself in a hoarse coughing voice, "I, [Zhang Jiao], will never do nothing for the rest of my life. ”

After the death of his parents, the living expenses of their three brothers were basically maintained by Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao's hunting and work.

At present, the only thing that can be called capital is this "Musou Technique" that makes you cough violently even though it is not used for a long time, called "Phantom".

It is rumored that when Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty, a meteorite fell from the sky, exploded in mid-air, like a volley of the sun, and there were clouds around each other, and Emperor Guangwu was called "unparalleled" because of his comprehension, and defeated 400,000 with 2,000, and the puppet dynasty was destroyed.

Although the new dynasty claimed that this was the immortality of the Great Han Dynasty and that the "Wushuang" could only be understood by the bloodline of the Liu family, but in the following years, many "Wushuang generals" appeared in various places to defeat this statement, so they had to turn to vigorously "conquer" for the use of the imperial court.

At this time, it was the ninth year of Emperor Huan's accession to the throne, and the name of the year was changed to "Yongshou", although it was not surprising, but it was secretly passed on the national jade seal, "Ordered by the sky, both longevity and eternal prosperity".

Emperor Huan ascended the throne when he was young, and now he is strong, and the Empress Dowager Liang listened to the government, and the general Liang Ji jointly controlled the government for many years.

Even from Zhang Jiao's insight, it can be seen that Emperor Huan intended to exterminate the general Liang Ji and his henchmen, and at this time, many officials went back and forth to the counties and counties that the general could not influence, and the rangers "recruited" were undoubtedly used to deal with this operation and fill the vacancy in the aftermath.

In an ordinary military formation, under the same physical and equipment conditions, being able to fight with one enemy and two is already considered a strong one, let alone two hundred? Even if there were such warriors, they would have been recruited by local officials after their first appearance, so the standard for these improvised "unrivaled warriors" was only to be undefeated with one enemy and twenty.

Therefore, when he heard that Zhang Liang went to participate in the expedition test and failed and returned injured, Zhang Jiao didn't know whether he should regret that his younger brother missed the opportunity, or whether he should be glad that he was not involved in that whirlpool, and put aside everything else, in order to make his young brother recover as soon as possible, so as not to leave any chronic diseases, it is also imperative to go into the mountains to collect medicine this time.

In addition, it is not that Zhang Jiao underestimates his other younger brother Zhang Bao, he is indeed strong enough, but his personality is a little ...... If he is allowed to go to the mountains to collect medicine, it may only turn into hunting in the end.

Just as powerful "rangers" or "peerless generals" have emerged in various places, the fierce beasts in the wild have also changed, they are more powerful and cunning, as "hunters", if they do not have the corresponding strength, they are afraid that they will be driven down the mountain by a few jackals, tigers and leopards, or they will not be able to hit the prey at all and go down the mountain in disgrace.

Similarly, the effect of wild plants is also more outstanding, even if it is an ordinary wild vegetable, after mixing the filling to make a bun, it can also speed up the healing of ordinary injuries, but because Zhang Liang's injury is relatively serious, the goal this time is to find rare herbs such as bluegrass, licorice, tongcao, and rongcao that are used to make gold sore medicine, and if you are lucky enough to encounter reishi or ginseng...... This rare herb used to make "Huatuo ointment" is still good to sell.

Zhang Jiao coughed twice, straightened up, and walked to the mountains on the outskirts of Julu with his cane.

————

The mountains outside Julu County are the branches of Taihang Mountain and Wangwu Mountain, but they are neither lofty nor harsh, and the only place that can be praised is that the mountains are dense and flourishing enough to provide a small source of wealth for hunters and medicine collectors.

Zhang Jiao traveled all the way, deliberately changed the linen clothes stained a little, and was scratched by branches and shrubs in a few places, although some herbs were picked, but it was far from enough for Zhang Liang's injury, during which he met several medicine pickers who also had no harvest to persuade him to go back together, but Zhang Jiao refused.

Ordinary herb pickers travel at sunrise and return at noon, so that they can leave the mountains and forests around sunset, so as not to encounter fierce beasts, but again, they can only collect herbs within half a day's journey, and Zhang Jiao has no intention of returning on the same day in order to collect enough herbs to heal his brother's injuries.

According to the plan, he would arrive in the afternoon in the lesser-traveled mountains, try to get as much as he could, find a hiding place to spend the night before sunset, and return tomorrow, trying to find more along the way, so that he would most likely harvest enough herbs, and perhaps even be rich enough to sell them to the drugstore.

As the sun gradually set in the west, the light in the forest began to dye orange, and the sound of tigers and wolves could be faintly heard.

The entrance is narrow, dry, and odorless caves, which are preferred, and only need to be covered with branches and leaves, followed by the high places above the cliffs or steep slopes, which are not approached by wild beasts at ordinary times, and are avoided at night, and again by dense trees, although some herbs are collected to repel insects and snakes, but they are not necessarily effective against all insects, and as for the places where you must not camp, there are depressions, water sources, and upwind outlets, which are all places where nocturnal beasts may approach.

"However, this kind of risky behavior is probably only once," Zhang Jiao said to himself as he searched for a suitable location, "After Xiao Liang's injury recovers, he will definitely do everything possible to prevent me from entering the mountain again-"

Sassy ——!

A gust of fishy wind blew, and a brown-haired giant wolf suddenly pounced on the oblique thorn, biting Zhang Jiao's neck with extraordinary precision.

"-let's go, ahem, ahem!!" "Zhang Jiao" shattered and disappeared in an instant, appearing five or six steps away, and then let out an earth-shattering cough.

Roar - The brown wolf swooped into the air with a blow, and after landing on the ground, he was puzzled for a moment, and then slowly approached Zhang Jiao again, and at the same time, two relatively thin brown wolves appeared behind Zhang Jiao to block his way.

Although "cough, cough, cough cough ......" has mastered the new use of "phantom", Zhang Jiao does not dare to press the chance of survival on it at all, if its life-saving effect can only be triggered once an hour or even a day, the next time he is pounced on will be his death.

It was supposed to be a small pack, consisting of only one male wolf and two female wolves, and it was pointless to kill the female wolf, it would only make the male wolf more violent, so it was necessary to risk killing the male wolf so that the two female wolves would flee in fear.

Zhang Jiao made up his mind, clenched the mountaineering staff sharpened at one end of his hand, left his "phantom" in place, and quietly touched the side of the male wolf.

According to experiments with several dogs in the village, this kind of invisibility after leaving an apparition has no smell, so the two she-wolves are not to worry about just stabbing the wolf to death......

Zhang Jiao was thinking so, but saw that the brown-haired male wolf who was originally staring at the "phantom" turned his gaze to himself with a little playfulness...... This guy is pretending!

"Fufu? Where are you going—"

Zhang Jiao was about to stab the long staff in his hand, but he heard the call of a woman not far away, and then, a small animal with white fluff and a body like a newborn milk dog, but with a pair of rabbit ears on its head, ran out of the woods, and the three brown wolves turned around and fled as if they had been trampled on their tails.

"Whoa, Whoa!" The creature screamed at the horns, took two steps forward, and fell flat.

"Alas, is it a lost Orion again?" As the woman's voice sounded again, a shadow separated from the bushes and walked out, no, it should be said that it was the bushes and shrubs that took the initiative to get out of the way.

I saw that she had snow-white fluffy long hair and emerald green eyes, her appearance was as delicate as a fairy in a painting, with a smile at the corners of her eyes and eyebrows, wearing a very old ink-colored lady's dress, wearing a pure white cloak with many pink petals and azure ribbon decorations, and there seemed to be a faint phantom of pink petals falling around her body.

"Thank you girl for rescuing me, I don't know ......" Zhang Jiao lifted the "phantom" and asked with some hesitation.

"Hmm~" The woman picked up the running little animal, seemed to look at the top of Zhang Jiao's head with great interest, and then replied, "My name is Merlin...... No, my name is Lin Hao, and I am an old immortal in South China. ”