The north wind whistled through the sky with yellow sand, covering the royal city of Zhao in a yellow sand. The mountains not far away can only be seen in the mottled greenery mixed with the large patches of dry yellow, but more often than not, the gray of the stones.

This is the Zhao Kingdom, the Zhao Kingdom that is very different from the painting styles of other countries in the Shenzhou Continent.

If the ten countries of Shenzhou come to a comprehensive environmental score, Zhao Guo must be the first-to-last. It is not particularly large, but more than half of the land area is mountainous, and it is not like Yan Kingdom. Although the people are also mountainous, except for the border circle, most of them are hilly terrain, not uninhabitable, but have good production. However, the territory of Zhao is not only mountainous, but also full of steep mountains and dangerous peaks, which is a place that cannot be reached by human beings. Although there is vegetation on the mountain, it is also a non-climate in the east and west, and it is not wrong to say that it is a barren mountain.

Of course, Zhao also has that kind of lush mountains and forests, but these mountains and forests are all a paradise for monsters, not to mention output, there are often monsters infested, and some living people are abducted from outside to make tooth sacrifices. Such mountains and forests are not as good as barren mountains.

Drought, desertification, monster infestation. Such a state of existence in Zhao can be imagined. This is also the reason why Zhao Guo is bent on Song Guo. Because Zhao Guo is too poor, too biased, and too bitter. It is precisely because Zhao Guo is so unbearable that Song Guo and Yan Guo will not be interested in it. Otherwise, even if there is a natural barrier, Zhao State may not be able to become an indisputable place.

In fact, a long time ago, Zhao Guo was not what it is now. Although the original Zhao State may not have the prosperity of the southern states, it is not too barren. Until a certain time, Zhao Guo had a traitor, communicated with foreign countries, and transported more than half of the gold bricks in Zhao Guotaimiao out in one go, which led to the decline of Zhao Guo's luck, the deterioration of the land, the decline of the population, and an unsustainable half-dead appearance.

It is precisely because of this loss of Zhao that the national fortune missions of various countries have become increasingly bloody and brutal and bottomless. Because there is already a living example in everyone's eyes, and they understand what it means to lose the gold bricks and what it means to get them.

Speaking of which, the beneficiaries of Zhao's loss were precisely the five countries of Qin, Tang, Wei, Chu, and Qi. The half of the gold bricks transported from the Taimiao of Zhao State, after some fighting, finally flowed into the Taimiao of the five countries, which also made a big jump in the strength of the five countries.

For example, the Qin State, a long time ago, was similar to the current Zhao State, and the living environment was harsh. It was only after winning those BRICS that the domestic environment improved. The same land, the same people, but the output has suddenly increased a lot, the number of illnesses of ordinary people has also decreased significantly, and all kinds of accidental casualties and monster attacks have eased horizontally.

On Earth, luck is simply a fictional concept used to describe a probabilistic set of events. However, in this Divine Continent, luck is a real power, a real power that can be manifested in all aspects of life immediately. Otherwise, countries will not be willing to expend their young talents in such dangerous national tasks, all of which are driven by interests.

God bless them, when they appeared outside King Zhao's city, they saw such a desolate scene. Yellow sand, cracked roads, damaged abandoned car frames on the side of the road, half-dead crops mixed with weeds. This is the Zhao State in everyone's eyes, so desolate that people are even a little embarrassed to attack Zhao Guo.

Since they decided to turn their target to Zhao Guo, God blessed them and they immediately took action, and in less than a day, they mixed out of Tang King City, and then used the teleportation array to teleport directly outside Zhao King City.

Although Zhao is one of the countries with the most lax defenses, it is not completely defenseless. At least God bless them, they don't dare to swagger and directly teleport into the royal city. However, the desolate scene outside the royal city still startled everyone.

You must know that this is still the area around Wangcheng, and it should be the most developed area for all countries. If even this place is like this, then what kind of purgatory-like scene should those places far from the royal capital be?

"Why is Zhao Guo like this?" asked Da Da Hai in surprise as he looked at the tea stall shack that fell on the side of the road not far away.

"Zhao Guo was like this more than ten years ago, there is nothing to make a fuss about. After Tianyou finished speaking, he beckoned to everyone: "There is still some distance from King Zhao City here, and the next route may require us to do some camouflage." ”

"How do you disguise it?"

"Just follow me. ”

Releasing the spirit horse, everyone turned over and got on their horses, and did not go in the direction of the royal city, but went the opposite way, first running over a mountain not far away.

Looking at the barren mountain from afar, Bai Bingyu accelerated with some incomprehension and kept pace with the head of Tianyou. "Where are we going?"

"Go buy some clothes. ”

"Why do you want to buy it here? Can't you buy it again when you enter the royal city?"

Tianyou shook his head. "You can't enter the royal city in our body. ”

The land of Zhao has dried up, and even if there is no desertification, the sky is full of loess. God bless them from the warm and humid Tang Kingdom, although their bodies have been changed into their own clothes, they are still too clean, far from the dress of the Zhao people. Therefore, they had to re-disguise themselves according to the actual situation of Zhao Guo, and the place that Tianyou was going to was a black market where he had stayed when he was wandering around with Xiyan before.

It's said to be a black market, but it's actually more like a thrift market.

The circumstances of the Zhao state determined that the internal composition was very different from that of the other nine countries. Because other countries have to resist the pressure of the major factions in the neighboring countries and neutral zones, they do not feel too harsh on the people, and they can be regarded as rational and clear-minded. However, there is a sense of broken jars and broken pots in Zhao State, on the one hand, natural disasters and man-made disasters, and the people's lives are extremely difficult. Because of this, the Zhao State has always been sparsely populated, on the one hand, because of the lack of arable land and not much production, and more because of the chaos of the government caused by the flight of residents.

Of course, there are only a few who can run away after all, border checkpoints, mountains and forests blocking the road, in this Shenzhou continent, travel is by no means as simple as on the earth. Here, for ordinary people, a trip to the far side may mean never coming back. Bandits, natural disasters, wild beasts and monsters in the mountains and forests, there are too many things that can kill people. As a result, most people choose to stay in their local area, even though they know that they will only suffer if they stay.

However, those who stay naturally need to find a way to survive. As a result, a hidden black market appeared.

The royal city of Zhao was different from other countries, and it was the only royal city that required to pay the entry tax. The people chose to trade outside the city, on the one hand, they saved the entry tax, and on the other hand, they could also avoid all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes. When you go to the city, you not only have to pay a bunch of miscellaneous taxes, but also all kinds of exploitation by tax collectors and green skins. In comparison, it is obviously outside the city that is more acceptable to the people.

In fact, there are almost few people in the royal city of Zhao, and most of the entire royal city is a variety of portals such as everyone and Haoqiang, and the rest are either various consumption and entertainment places that serve these people, or the homes of these people, in short, the truly independent people can hardly be found in the king city of Zhao. This can be regarded as a strange thing about Zhao State.

However, although there are almost no free people in the city, there are many characters such as rangers and swordsmen in King Zhao City. The reason why there are these people is because the land output is not much, and the cultivation of the industry cannot support the family population, so they can only take risks and pick up knives and guns to beg for a living.

God blessed them all the way to the bottom of the mountain pass, and they began to find the sparse people pushing wheelbarrows and carrying flat poles to gather towards the mountain pass. Seeing Tianyou and his entourage coming, the pedestrians on the road hurriedly hid in the fields on both sides, and even overturned the wheelbarrow in the field because of panic.

Zhao Lingyun saw a woman's wheelbarrow overturned on the side of the road and wanted to leave, but she couldn't bear the things in the car, but she couldn't help her after trying hard for a long time, so she wanted to stop and help. However, as soon as she slowed down, Tianyou grabbed the horse's head and shook her head to signal her not to stop.

"Why?" Zhao Lingyun looked at Tianyou puzzled.

Tianyou let go of Zhao Lingyun's reins, and saw that she didn't mean to turn around and go back before he began to explain: "These people are used to being bullied by powerful people, and if you go to help her, it will only make her more frightened, and she may even have some extreme reactions." Leaving as soon as possible is the best help for them. ”

"But what are we going to do when we enter the black market?"

"Naturally, the black market has the rules of the black market, and there are people who are responsible for maintaining basic law and order, and although these people are also afraid, they are not so afraid. Other than that...... It's not really a black market, at least not entirely. ”

"It's not the black market?

"It's just a spontaneous market, but there are not so many harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, everyone only charges an entrance fee for a copper plate, and an additional 1% transaction tax is levied on those who sell things. This was the rule more than ten years ago, and I don't know if it has changed now. ”

The spirit rider was fast, and he had already reached the foot of the mountain while speaking. There's a boulder here, and it looks like it's rolled all the way down the mountain. Behind the boulder is the entrance to a col, but it is also very hidden. There was a faint peeping gaze on the mountain not far away looking at Tianyou and his party, and after Tianyou found it, he raised his left hand and made a very special gesture, and the feeling of peeping immediately disappeared into invisibility.

"Is this a code?" Zhao Lingyun and they are not stupid, they also noticed the sight just now. Thinking of the changes before and after the Tianyou gesture, I naturally guessed that this was a code for communication.

Tianyou didn't answer, because the guards with swords and guns could already be seen in front of them.

"Isn't this a black market, how can there be guards?" asked Danghai.

"Isn't there anyone managing the black market?" Tianyou asked rhetorically, "Otherwise, who do you think I am going to pay for those expenses?"

As soon as Da Dahai thought about it, he didn't speak again.

A group of people rode to the vicinity of the guard, and the guard on the opposite side immediately raised their swords and guns and began to be on guard, but Tianyou raised his hand and threw out thirty copper plates, which happened to fall on the table behind the guard and folded them in a string.

"It's a bit unreasonable to charge the entrance fee and point a knife and gun at the guests, right?" asked Tianyou, leaning over on the spirit horse.

The guards looked back at the copper coins on the table and knew that it was a monk, so they lowered their weapons a little, but not completely. One of them, who looked like the leader of the team, came out and said, "According to the rules of Montenegro City, no one can enter Montenegro City on horseback. The mount can only be held in our hands, or it can be stored with us. ”

"Yo, haven't you added new rules for a long time? It's more like that than before. Tianyou said as he rolled over and got off the spirit horse. Although this is the spirit horse that Qin Guo assigned to them for this mission, it is also much more high-end than the ordinary spirit horse. The captain of the guard should be a knowledgeable person, and after a second glance, he knew that this was not something that ordinary people could ride.

Listening to Tianyou's words, the captain immediately waved his hand to signal the others to put down their weapons, and then accompanied the smiling face to talk. "You look very young, you actually came to us a long time ago?"

Tianyou beckoned the others to dismount and said: "I have been here with my family in my early years, and it has been more than ten years. That's right. Is Aunt Zhao's little noodle restaurant still there?"

"Yes. "As soon as he heard this, the captain of the guard was completely relieved. Those who can know this kind of information are obviously really here. The black market is most afraid of new faces, as for regular customers...... Naturally, the more the merrier. Because regular customers understand the rules and can repeatedly explain that they will not cause trouble, this is the favorite guest of the black market. "Sure enough, the guests know about us. Aunt Zhao's noodles are getting more and more fragrant now, and I'm a little greedy for you to say this. ”

Tianyou casually threw a certain amount of broken silver into his hands, "If you are hungry, wait for the shift change and take the brothers to rub it, I invited it." ”

"Yo, what's so embarrassing about that?" the captain of the guard was polite, but he didn't mean to return it in his hand.

Tianyou didn't care, waved his hand to interrupt him and asked, "By the way, is Lao Jiu's business still doing now?"

"Lao Jiu?" The captain looked confused, obviously not knowing what Tianyou said.

A guard who was quite a big grade in the back hurriedly came over and said a few words in his ear, and he immediately smiled and said to Tianyou: "Guest, you want to take care of his business?"

Tianyou nodded. "I've used it a few times before and it's pretty good. ”

The captain of the guard was a little embarrassed: "But Lao Jiu has not taken this job for many years." If it weren't for the fact that this brother of mine is an old man, I wouldn't know who you are talking about. I'll tell you the truth, I've been here for seven or eight years, and I haven't heard of this person. ”

This time, Tianyou frowned. I didn't think that the previous way went wrong. But after all, it hasn't been here for more than ten years, and Tianyou is also mentally prepared.

"Then do you know who is doing this now?" Tianyou took a picture of a silver ingot. Or know who can find those people. Dude, do me a favor. ”

The captain of the guard put away the silver with a smile on his face, and said with a wrinkled smile on his face: "Little brother is polite, polite." What's this little thing? Come, I'll take you there. As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and motioned for Tianyou to walk forward, and turned his head and shouted: "I'll do something about the stone, help me look at it." ”

With the guards here leading the way, it is naturally a lot more convenient along the way, at least petty thieves and those who go down to the side to make trouble will not dare to come to trouble. Of course, there are all kinds of cheats and abductions on the black market, and there are more than ordinary markets, but the premise here is that you can't let the guards catch them, otherwise the punishment is stricter than the government, so even if there are such people, it won't be too much, at most it's a side game. But God bless them with the captain of the guard, and those who want to make a bad will naturally not hit the muzzle of the gun.

In fact, the so-called black market is just a market set up by borrowing the terrain of the valley, and most of the simple stalls are filled with daily necessities such as fruits, vegetables and food, but there is nothing prohibited.

The group passed between the vendors, gradually approaching the second half of the valley. Although there is no obvious division, the flow of people here is noticeably sparse, but the stalls on both sides are noticeably more refined, and even the fixed shops can be seen at the end of the valley. Although it is only a simple house built of wooden sheds, at least they have roofs, which are much more luxurious than those open-air stalls.

The captain of the guard and Tianyou stopped in front of one of the large-looking wooden sheds, and the two big men standing outside stretched out their hands to block them.

"What are you doing? What's the matter, there's no business to be done?" the captain of the guard shouted before he could speak to the other side, and it was very loud, obviously for the people inside.

Sure enough, the two people outside looked back into the shed, and then saw a diminutive dwarf come out of it. "Have a guest? Why don't you come in quickly?" the dwarf came out and fired two words at his men before turning to God and arching his hand. "A few of you look at the eyes, forgive the little clumsy eyes, have you seen me before?"

Tianyou shook his head, "We used to follow the path of the Ninth Master, and it has been more than ten years, but I didn't expect the Ninth Master to stop doing this." But the people are gone, and the road still has to be walked, you say?"

The other side immediately laughed, "It turned out to be a friend of the Ninth Master, disrespectful and disrespectful, quick, please inside." The dwarf let everyone into the house, but in the end God blessed them to enter, and the wolf soldiers remained outside. The shed was not big enough for so many people.

When everyone was standing or sitting down, the dwarf said politely: "I learned the craft from the ninth master back then, no, after he quit the old man, I took over his business and took the brothers to eat." ”

Tianyou nodded noncommittally, and asked instead: "Then ...... way?"

"Of course, there is a road, and we brothers rely on this to eat, and we must not be idle. It's just that I don't know if the guest is leaving, or if the goods are gone? Since you and Jiu Ye are old friends, it can be regarded as an old Jianghu, and you should know this way, right?"

Tianyou nodded. "We're leaving. Just us, there were thirty of them. Nothing, light. But ......"

"But what?"

"You may need to bring something with you when you come out. ”

"Prickly hands?" asked the dwarf.

Tianyou nodded again.

The dwarf groaned at this moment, and after a while, he spoke: "You are a person in the industry, you know the situation. It's not that I'm cheating you, like you, most of the time that road will be useless after that. So ......"

Boom. A gold ingot was placed on the table.

"We bought it all the way. ”

The dwarf immediately reached out to take it, but Tianyou snatched it back first, and only when the dwarf looked at him in confusion did he continue to speak: "I want a new one, don't fool me with the old road that people have walked." After saying that, Tianyou put the gold ingots on the table again.

The dwarf hurriedly snatched it up, took it to his mouth and took a bite, and when he saw the clear tooth marks on the ingots, he smiled and agreed: "No problem, it is guaranteed to be a new road, and no one has ever walked it before." ”

Tianyou nodded and asked, "When will you be ready?" ”

"It's done now. The dwarf rubbed the gold ingots with joy and asked, "Do you have anything else to prepare? If not, I can have someone take you there now." ”

Tianyou suddenly pulled out the Taiyi sword, and a lightning-like sword slashed, and before the dwarf could react, the gold ingots were split into two, and half of them were picked up by Tianyou back in his hand. "You've got a deposit, and we'll have something to prepare and pay the other half when we're out of town. ”

The dwarf said a little unhappily: "Okay, you are guests, of course I listen to you." ”

Tianyou nodded, but did not leave, but suddenly stretched out his hand, and returned to his original position without waiting for the other party to react. The dwarf covered his neck and looked at Tianyou with a surprised face and asked, "What are you doing here?" he asked while holding his hand in front of him and looking at it, and found that there was a little blood stain on it, not much, but it was indeed bleeding.

"It was this needle that just pierced you. Tianyou raised the silver needle in his hand and said, "There is a secret poison made by me on the needle." Seeing that the dwarf was about to go crazy, Tianyou immediately preemptively said: "Don't get excited, I'm just doing insurance." This toxin doesn't kick in so quickly, and when we run out of the tunnel, it will leave an antidote in the tunnel. As long as you don't cheat us, I promise you'll be fine. ”

"You ......"

Tianyou said with a smile: "Everyone is running the rivers and lakes, so I don't need to say the indispensable truth of guarding against people, right?" Back then, Jiu Ye and we also assured each other that we were safe, as long as you don't do superfluous things, you don't have to worry about anything. ”

Compared with the so-called black market in the past, these are the real black markets that do real underground business. There are only two kinds of people who can easily trust others here: Guo Jianglong, who has a reputation and no one dares to mess with, and a rookie who doesn't know anything. The former is prestigious, knowing that no one dares to lie to him, and the latter is pure inexperience.

Tianyou is obviously not the kind of ruthless person who can rely on fame to make a scene, but he is not a rookie either, so the best thing to do is to leave an insurance. As for the poison...... It is a genuine real poison, taken from the tail needle of a poisonous scorpion, of course, with a passivating agent added to it, so the effect of the medicine is very slow, and it will not attack in a short time. But if there is no antidote, he will not live for more than a month.

Of course, it's okay to pay someone to detoxify or buy an antidote, but that price is definitely higher than the benefits of selling God to bless them. No matter how difficult the business in this world is, there are people to do it, but no one does the loss-making business.

Leaving from the dwarf for the time being, Tianyou took everyone around the bazaar, bought a lot of local clothes, and then found a place to use a few pieces bought by the way, surrounded the city, and let everyone take turns to go in and change their clothes.

The clothing of the Zhao State is obviously different from the style of the Qin and Tang dynasties, and it is easy to be recognized after entering the city if you do not change it, so you must buy clothes locally, and it is best to use old clothes, so as not to look abrupt.

After the costume change was completed, the group of people who originally looked glamorous instantly turned into a group of gray travelers. The country of Zhao is dry, and the wind and sand are naturally large, so the clothes of the people here seem to be covered with a layer of soil. God bless them to be easy to recognize, so that the gray ones can better blend into the crowd.

Returning to the dwarf, let the other party personally lead the way, and the group left the black market and went directly to the wasteland outside. A short distance in the direction of the royal city, the dwarf led them into a deserted field. The withered yellow weeds on the ground just above the feet looked sparse and bald, revealing the cracked yellow soil underneath.

"Take your mounts and come with me. The dwarf said in front.

Qi Xiaomei asked, "Didn't you say you were going to take us to the city?

The dwarf smiled and asked, "Little sister, this is the first time to walk the rat path, right?" Let me tell you, this rat path is the tunnel, the passage from under the ground through the city wall to the city. Not only do you not have to pay the city tax, but whether you want to bring something you shouldn't bring into and out of the city defense, or if you have something on your body that no one can see, you can pass through us to ensure that the people of the government can't catch you. ”

Qi Xiaomei turned her head and asked Tianyou: "We want to drill the tunnel?"

Tianyou nodded: "What? Are you afraid of the dark?"

"Not really. But I'm a little scared of the cramped environment. When I was a child, I fell into a well, and although I was rescued later, I was still afraid of the very narrow place. ”

Qi Xiaomei's expression was unnatural when she spoke, obviously recalling her original feelings, and she was very afraid. But Tianyou immediately understood, isn't this claustrophobia? I didn't think there would be this kind of situation before, but now I suddenly heard Qi Xiaomei mention it, Tianyou began to be a little embarrassed, because he didn't think that he would encounter this kind of problem in the original plan.

However, to solve this problem is actually very simple, as long as you can do it, you can directly knock Qi Xiaomei out of ninety percent, and wait for the opposite passage to wake up. Of course, this method is a little more violent, and with Qi Xiaomei's defensive power, it is not easy to knock her out. After all, people are steel and iron bones.

In the end, the dwarf came up with a solution. They have sweat medicine here, which is specially prepared for guests. Because sometimes there are people who are moving people out of the city, and sometimes those people are not very cooperative, and they will be noisy. In order to avoid being discovered by people on the ground, the best way is to pour the human medicine, which is more convenient.

However, although the method was feasible, Qi Xiaomei's drug resistance really scared the dwarf. Originally, as long as a little powder dipped out of the little finger could make people sleep for a day, but Qi Xiaomei was stunned and drank a whole packet of medicinal powder at first. In the end, there was no way, and the dwarf gave two more packs in one go, which made Qi Xiaomei fall asleep completely. I have to say that the zombie body is really strong in some aspects.

After Qi Xiaomei fell asleep, everyone entered the tunnel as usual. The entrance to that tunnel is in the wasteland, covered with a cover, sprinkled with loess, and a ball of dead grass is placed on it, camouflaged and the surrounding ground is almost the same, if you don't know that this is a tunnel below, specifically close to check, ordinary people really can't find this place.

When you open the lid, there is a large space underneath, similar to a room, with a ladder inside. However, this is only the entrance, and the reason why it was dug so large is that it is designed to facilitate access to the tunnel. The real tunnel is not the kind of passage that allows people to walk directly into it, but a narrow tunnel that only allows two people to crawl side by side.

God bless them, and when they came down, the gnome re-sealed the cover on it, and then personally instructed them how to use the tools here.

Because this tunnel needs to be connected from outside the city all the way to somewhere inside the city, the length is very considerable. The reason why the passage was dug so narrow was to deliberately reduce the amount of work due to the consideration of the length of the passage. However, although the amount of excavation work has dropped a lot due to the narrowness of the passage, it has also become a problem for people to pass through. To crawl seven or eight miles in such a narrow passage, normal people can force out claustrophobia.

So, in order to solve this problem, these guys who dig holes designed a small board car. The structure of this thing is very simple, that is, add a few bearings to the wooden board, and then install the wheels. The user lies on the plank and then pulls the walls or the roof of the cave on both sides with his hands and feet, which is much faster and less laborious than crawling.

Anyway, there was no fork in the passage, and everyone was assigned a fire fold, and then everyone entered the passage one after another, lying on this small shuttle and moving forward. As for Qi Xiaomei, she could only put her on the cart, and then tied her to Tianyou and dragged her away.

After some tossing, everyone finally entered the passage, and then after walking forward for a while, there was a relatively spacious space for everyone to rest for a while, and after relieving the psychological pressure brought by the narrow environment, it took a short time to finally reach the end of the passage.

This side of the passage seems to be a vegetable cellar, and the courtyard above is a safe house specially arranged by the other party, and their families live in it, which can be regarded as camouflage and cover. But when you get here, you still can't go out rashly, and you can't leave until it's dark, otherwise twenty or thirty people suddenly run out of such a big small courtyard, and the fool knows that there must be a problem.

Of course, it is not possible to go out together in a group, but it does not mean that one or two people go out and have problems. Tianyou let everyone stay in the yard, and went out for a walk by himself, until it was almost dark before he came back with a bunch of delicious food.

"Come, taste them all. This is a special delicacy that only Zhao Guo has. He distributed a few pieces of yellowish dough to the people, and then gave a few to the women who lived in the courtyard, and waved her hand in her thanks to let her go first, and then said to the people, "I have gone out in the afternoon to help us arrange a place to stay, and we will stay there in the next few days." But it's not dark yet, and the streets are full of people, so we'll wait until the evening. ”

Bai Bingyu asked with some concern: "We came to Zhao Kingdom so rashly, can we really get close to Taimiao?"

"You don't have to worry about this, the mountain people have their own tricks. ”