I saw the old man limping into the courtyard with a long knife in his hand, and when he saw Duan Feng and Han Qing, the old man asked sharply: "Who are you? Why did you break into my old man's courtyard in the middle of the night?" ”

Duan Feng looked around, and did not find anything abnormal, although the old man in front of him was menacing, but after all, he was a human being, and it seemed that he lived alone in the entire courtyard, so he said: "Don't misunderstand, seniors, we are passers-by, seeing that it is getting late, we want to take advantage of this to stay for a while." ”

The old man looked at the two suspiciously, and saw that they had no malicious intent, so he put the long knife behind his back and said, "Passers-by, where did you come from, and where are you going?"

"We are here from Dongzhou County and we are going to Nanhai County. ”

"What do you do for a living?"

"Merchant. ”

"Merchant?" the old man shook his head suspiciously, looked at Liu Yuwei and the others standing outside the wall, and said, "No, I think you seem to have fled." ”

"This ······"

Without waiting for Duan Feng to explain, the old man continued: "Forget it, no matter what you do, I don't think you look like a wicked person, so come in." ”

So saying, the old man went back to the house, threw his long knife behind the door, and lit an oil lamp again.

At this time, Duan Feng called Liu Yuwei and others in from outside, and the old man looked at so many people and said, "I don't have so many beds at home." ”

Duan Feng said with a smile: "We only need to borrow two thatched huts from our seniors, and we have to worry about our seniors." ”

The old man said, "That's fine." ”

Duan Feng said: "We have been on the road for a day, I wonder if there is anything to eat here in the seniors?"

The old man glanced at Duan Feng and said, "Okay, you all come in, since you are here, I won't treat you badly." ”

Duan Feng and the others crowded into the old man's narrow room, this room was extremely simple, only a table and a few stools, and there was an old painting hanging on the wall in the center, on which were painted several strangely shaped figures, due to the age, the picture was already a little blurry, Duan Feng thought to himself, this may be a local worship of the gods.

The old man brought out a pot of wild vegetables and a pot of rotten meat from the back room, and at this time a kind of wild vegetable common in the mountains, as for what kind of meat, he could not tell what kind of meat.

The old man said: "In this barren mountains and mountains, except for wild vegetables, that is, some wild game from hunting, it is not as good as the delicacies of the mountains and seas outside, so you can eat it alive." ”

"There are seniors. Duan Feng and the others were already hungry, where could they still care about the taste, and they picked up the bowl and ate it.

At this time, the wind asked, "Are you the only family here?"

The old man said: "Originally, this was a village, relying on the passing caravan to make a living, and then due to the abandonment of the trade road, the young and strong people fled out for a living, leaving only some old and frail, and then those old guys also passed away, leaving me alone old man, thinking that everywhere I went was to eat with one mouth, and I didn't have a few days to live, so I didn't move away." ”

Duan Feng said, "Then what do you live with?"

The old man said: "I usually hunt when I have nothing to do, and sometimes I dig some wild vegetables, but I can't be hungry anyway." ”

Duan Feng asked again, "I heard that this valley used to be a busy trade road, why did it fall abandon?"

The old man said: "I heard that the valley is haunted, and many merchants have disappeared inexplicably, and then as more and more merchants disappear, this road is gradually no one to walk. ”

Duan Feng said, "Haunted, have you seen it?"

The old man smiled and said, "I've lived most of my life, and I've never seen a ghost look like it." Besides, there are really ghosts in this world? I don't believe it, what kind of ghost can be so powerful, can kill so many merchants? I see, eighty percent of them are ghosts!"

"What do you mean?" Duan Feng asked.

"It's not interesting, whatever! Anyway, old man, I haven't seen a ghost. ”

Duan Feng looked at Han Qing, smiled and said, "Then did you hear any sound?"

The old man said: "Old man, I am old, and my ears are not very good, and I can't hear any sound clearly. ”

Duan Feng had a trace of doubt in his heart, when he and Han Qing entered the courtyard just now, with the light skills of the two of them, their voices should have been very weak, but they were all discovered by the old man, but now the old man said that his ears were not good, isn't it inconsistent.

Duan Feng asked again, "Is there a team of merchants passing by here today?"

The old man's hand suddenly knocked on the table, and then he said, "There is a group of people who just passed here this afternoon, and I have only seen that team, old man, and I have not seen anyone else." ”

"Do you know what they do?"

The old man pursed his lips and said, "I don't know, but it's really annoying to talk about this group of merchants, earlier today, a young man came to me with a pair of people to beg for water, and this young man looks like he is in his thirties." It was past noon, and during the break, I heard the leader say that there were still 300 miles to Phoenix. ”

When Duan Feng heard about Phoenix City, his heart throbbed, and the group of people they met should not be heading to Phoenix City judging from their route of action.

Then the old man said, "Then another man came, also on a fast horse, and handed a letter to the leader, and after the rest, the leader will lead the men and horses to the depths of the valley, which is the direction you came." I stopped them, and told them that the valley was full of wild animals, and that the road had been abandoned for many years, and advised them to take a detour. As a result, this group of people not only didn't appreciate it, but said that I wanted to kill for money, I really don't know what to do, who can I hurt as an old man?"

Duan Feng said, "Then where did they come from?"

The old man said: "They came from the north, and if you go two or three miles ahead, it will be a crossroads, and they were originally going to go south, but I don't know why they have to go east." ”

"I guess it was the letter that worked. ”

"Who knows? Anyway, they themselves are going to die, and no one can stop them. ”

The old man kept shaking his head as he spoke, Duan Feng felt that there was something wrong with this old man, "How did he know that the caravan was going to die?"

Duan Feng gave Han Qing a look, and the two of them tacitly agreed that in order not to startle the snake, they decided not to move. After eating, the old man cleaned up two thatched huts for everyone, and everyone thanked the old man and walked into the thatched huts to rest.

Feeling that this old man was a little strange, Duan Feng and Han Qing reminded everyone to be vigilant. After three watches at night, nothing happened, the courtyard was quiet, and the strange thing was that they really didn't hear any sound, and the ghost screams that would have been there at night disappeared without a trace, which further aggravated the doubts in Duan Fengxin, and everyone felt very sleepy at this time.

Suddenly, the lights in the old man's room turned on, Duan Feng also instinctively opened his eyes, and saw that the lights were on in the old man's room, he called out to everyone, they all held weapons in their hands, and were always ready to meet the attack, Duan Feng and Han Qing secretly walked out of the grass hut and quietly came to the old man's window. Duan Feng opened the window paper and secretly looked inside.

I saw the old man walk to the painting, kneel on the ground, light the incense in his hand, shake it a few times strangely in front of the painting, and chant words in his mouth.

Duan Feng thought that the old man was worshipping the gods, but he didn't burn incense in the middle of the night, so he continued to watch, and suddenly Duan Feng found that the characters in the painting began to be a little deformed, he thought it was caused by the smoke, so he rubbed his eyes and took a closer look, only then did he confirm that the figure on the painting was indeed slowly moving and deforming, and the speed of slow deformation became faster and faster, and gradually became Duan Feng's familiar appearance.

"It's that cloud!" Duan Feng almost didn't shout.

Han Qing also sensed the seriousness of the matter, judging from the situation during the day, the lethality of that cloud should not be underestimated, not to mention that they didn't know anything about the cloud group, and the combat power of a few of them alone was not enough to resist the attack of the cloud group.

At this time, Feng had already drawn his Ice Sword, and he wanted to strike first, he knew that if he waited until the cloud was fully summoned, a few of them alone would not be able to fight against it, and no matter what that cloud was, he would have to stop it from appearing.

So, Duan Feng and Han Qing kicked open the door with swords in their hands, and when the old man saw the two of them breaking in with swords in hand, he immediately stopped chanting the incantation, and a puff of green smoke that had been oozing out retracted again, and the painting slowly returned to its original state.

The old man put the incense in his hand in front of the statue, tidied up his clothes, sat down with his legs together, and looked at Duan Feng and the two coldly.

At this time, Liu Yuwei and others who heard the voice also gathered.

"What's the situation?" asked Liu Yu in a soft voice.

Duan Feng glanced at Liu Yuwei and didn't answer, looking at the calm old man in front of her, she naturally understood a thing or two in her heart, so she didn't continue to ask.

Duan Feng pointed his sword at the old man and said, "Don't you need to explain?"

The old man smiled slightly, slowly stood up, dusted off the dirt on his body, tidied up his old clothes, and said, "Don't you all see it?

Duan Feng said, "What is that white thing, did you kill the caravan before?"

The old man sneered twice, glanced at everyone contemptuously, and closed his eyes slightly.

"Who the hell are you?" Han Qing asked sharply.

The old man shook his head and smiled, turned around and sat on the stool next to him, took a deep breath, and said, "The caravan was killed by them, it has nothing to do with me, I am just a messenger." As for who they are, that's a long story. ”

Duan Feng felt that the threat had been lifted, and it seemed that the old man really didn't have any other skills, even if that thing was his spirit beast, but the way he summoned the spirit beast was a bit of a waste of time.

Duan Feng said: "It's okay, what we have is time. ”

As he spoke, Duan Feng found a stool and sat down, placing the Cold Ice Sword on the table.

The old man did not speak, but quietly looked at the three incense sticks in front of the statue, as if he was in deep thought.

Duan Feng saw that the old man had not reacted for a long time, so he knocked on the table hard and said, "The matter has come to this, do you think there is any point in delaying it any longer?"

The old man still ignored Duan Feng, his eyes stared at the three incense sticks in front of the statue, Liu Yu just wanted to get angry, but was stopped by Duan Feng.

After a while, the incense was burned, and the old man nodded slightly, and said slowly, "It's okay now." ”