However, he said that since leaving Phoenix City, Duan Tiande led Wen Bo all the way east to the imperial capital, and he was calm all the way, which made Duan Tiande a little worried.

Half a month later, the convoy arrived at a town called Shihe Valley, which was located in the Xiaoyun Mountain at the junction of Nanhai County and Yunxia County, and a river running through the mountain range from north to south, and the town was located on the Nanhai County side of the river valley.

One hundred and sixty miles north through the Shihe Valley is the boundary of Tianxing County, and the imperial capital is located in the center of Tianxing County, about 900 miles away from Shihe Valley.

At this time, the night was approaching, and the valley became more and more gloomy due to the obstruction of the mountains on both sides, and the whole town was filled with a white mist, and a few wisps of cooking smoke could be faintly discerned from a distance.

Duan Tiande rode a horse and stood on the ridge and looked at it, the river valley was narrow and steep, there were several families scattered among the dense forests on the slopes on both sides of the town, it was difficult to find their existence without looking closely, the people on both sides of the river valley echoed each other from afar, the people were about 100 zhang high from the valley bottom, just to be able to overlook the valley bottom, in addition, the whole Shihe Valley was densely distributed, the river passed through the center of the town, and there was a wooden bridge on the north and south sides of the town.

"Master, it's getting late, let's stay here tonight. Wenbo stepped forward and whispered.

"Hmm-" Duan Tiande nodded thoughtfully, and there seemed to be a trace of worry between his eyebrows.

Then, everyone dismounted, walked on foot, a moment later, the horse team came to the front of the town, at this time there were a few children playing by the river, saw a horse team coming, have run over to watch, the town is in a remote area, if it is not necessary, people rarely go out of the town, and few outsiders come to disturb, see so many strange strangers come at once, naturally cause a sensation among people.

Wen Bo stopped a little boy with a fishing rod in his hand and asked with a smile, "Little doll, where is your mayor?"

The little boy looked at Wen Bo timidly, clutched the fishing rod in his hand, and did not reply.

Wen Bo took out a small paper ball from his arms, took out a few reddish-brown sugar cubes from it, handed them to the little boy's eyes, and said with a smile: "Come, little doll, you help grandpa call your mayor, and I will give you all this candy." ”

With that, Wenber tried to eat a piece of candy, and then handed the paper ball to the boy.

The little boy tentatively picked up a piece of candy and put it in his mouth, then grabbed the paper ball and ran quickly into the town, and soon a group of strong young men, armed with farming tools, sticks, knives and forks, came out surrounded by a silver-haired old man.

The old man was about eighty years old, a little rickety, but his eyes were clear and his spirit was strong.

The old man came to Duan Tiande and looked at everyone carefully, Duan Tiande was dressed in casual clothes at this time, and the guards behind him were also dressed as servants, only the weapons they wore showed that they were not ordinary travelers.

"I don't know where you came from, where you are going, and why you got to our Shihe Valley. The old man clenched his hands into fists and asked methodically.

Duan Tiande also looked at the old man carefully, although he was a farmer in the mountains, his palms were covered with thick calluses, and his face was like a layer of brown wax due to the perennial wind and sun, but his speech and demeanor were very decent.

Duan Tiande was about to reply, but Wen Bo took the lead and replied: "We are business people, because it is late, passing by the precious land, we want to spend the night, this is a little heart. As he spoke, Wenbo took out a piece of broken silver from his bosom.

Watching Wen Bo take out the silver, the old man's face sank and he was a little angry.

"What is this, although the people of the countryside are not as rich as you, but the so-called guests from afar, we should have done some landlord friendship. The old man said so, but he still looked at Wen Bo and the others vigilantly.

As he spoke, the old man waved his hand to let the young people behind him make way and led Duan Tiande and the others towards the town.

Wenbo led the horse and walked ahead, and asked the old man about the situation of the town, but the old man seemed to be deliberately concealing, and he was divided along the way, and he always answered Wenbo's questions ambiguously.

Wen Bo looked at it and thought to himself that maybe the people in the town were wary of them outsiders, and it was understandable, after all, in this isolated edge town, so many strangers with weapons suddenly came, which inevitably caused people to panic.

While speaking, the old man brought everyone to a small courtyard door, the yard is not big, surrounded by a circle of low earthen walls, a little foot can see the scene in the courtyard, there are three thatched houses in the yard, there is a three-foot square grinding disc in front of the main house, because the area is full of dust all year round, a tree of more than three feet is located in the center of the courtyard, the lush canopy still covers the entire yard, although it has entered winter, but the ancient locust is still full of branches and leaves, compared to the elf, Wen Bo thought.

"The town is poor, so I can only grieve you to live here tonight, and I ask for your forgiveness. The old man apologized slightly.

"Where, where, thank you old gentleman for taking it in. When Wen Bo saw that the old man was older than himself, he called him the old man.

"As for the meal—" said the old man as he left.

"We bring our own, so we don't have to worry about the old man. Wen Bo Shi said.

Afterwards, the old man led everyone out of the small courtyard, and Wen Bo ordered someone to clean up one room in the middle for Duan Tiande to live in, while the rest of the people were crowded into the other two houses.

After dinner, Duan Tiande had nothing to do, walked to the courtyard, circled around the ancient acacia twice, and then looked at several low locust trees around him, which had fallen yellow leaves, and was very surprised in his heart, as the so-called tree in the courtyard is "sleepy", which is a bad omen, the age of the tree is still thousands of years old, and from the neatness of the thatched house, at most about ten years, why did the owner of the yard build a courtyard here.

If Gu Huai has become a refinement, the master is here to absorb Gu Huai's qi element, but he can't feel Gu Huai's qi at all, looking at the world, Duan Tiande thinks that even if his qi realm is not the first, he can be ranked among the top three, and it is impossible not to feel Gu Huai's qi element.

What is even more strange is that on the way they came, they saw the doors of the people on both sides closed, although they could hear the voices of people coming from behind the doors, but then they disappeared.

"Sir, I think it's strange here, so we'd better be careful. Wenbo said worriedly.

"Hmm-" Duan Tiande looked at Wen Bo, pointed to the Gu Huai in front of him and said, "Wen Bo, do you think there is anything unusual about this Gu Huai?"

Wen Bo, walking into the ancient acacia, his face was almost attached to the trunk of the ancient acacia, his two hands were tightly attached to the ancient acacia, his eyes were slightly closed, and he listened attentively, and after a while, his brows were tightly locked, and he shook his head slightly, and said: "Master, the so-called art of cultivating qi, cultivating the heart is essential, and then cultivating the soul, then cultivating the qi, and the most secondary is cultivating the body. ”

Wen Bo said and looked at the ancient acacia again, and said with a puzzled expression: "But this ancient acacia, after the old slave's observation just now, I can indeed feel a trace of free qi in its body, but I can't feel where its qi is. ”

"What does this mean?" Duan Tiande asked.

In other words, the tree is dead and dead. Wenbo replied.

"Dead?" Duan Tiande took a step back, looked up at the lush branches and leaves, and then looked at the withered small trees around him, and his heart was even more strange.

"Could it be that someone has already absorbed its qi element, but who would have such a large qi realm that can absorb the qi element of a thousand-year-old acacia tree in an instant?"

Duan Tiande was a little frightened in his heart, in the face of such an ancient locust, even if it was his own qi realm, it would take at least twenty years to suck up its qi yuan, during this period, the ancient locust would inevitably wither and die, and the ancient locust tree in front of him was still flourishing, which meant that the person who absorbed it would suck up the qi yuan of the ancient acacia in a very short period of time, and this time was likely to be no more than three days.

Thinking of this, Duan Tiande and Wen Bo both had a cold war, they had never seen a person with such an aura realm, I am afraid that even a qi master of the qi saint realm would not be able to complete it.

"Could it be the Immortals?" said Wen Bo suspiciously.

"No, the immortal cultivators and even the Yang Immortal Method, even the Qi Master who cultivates into an immortal will do everything possible to absorb the Qi of Heaven and Earth to the Yang, and the Qi Yuan of the Human Realm will only make their Immortal Law more mixed, and then weaken their Immortal Law, not to mention, the Qi Yuan is useless for their immortal cultivators, so why take this risk?"

"Is it a demon world? or a demon beast?"

"It's even more impossible, since the Demon Venerable was beaten into the Netherworld Abyss, there is no one in the Demon Realm with such magical power, and according to the news of Jingtiansi, the Demon Venerable is still suppressed in the Netherworld Abyss, and the Demon Beast cannot absorb the qi element of the outside world, so it can only cultivate by itself. ”

"Then it's strange, who is so skilled?"

"Whoever it is, it is not advisable to stay here for long, and we must hurry to our journey. Duan Tiande said and hurriedly walked towards the house.

"Do you want to go back to the official road?" asked Wenbo.

In order to delay the time to enter the imperial capital, Duan Tiande sent people to enter the imperial capital from the official road to inquire about the news, while he led everyone to bypass the official road and take the small road, once the emperor had news that was unfavorable to him, he could quickly return to Phoenix City.

Duan Tiande thought for a while and said, "Counting the days, they have been in Beijing for many days, and there is no news so far, it seems that there is nothing to do in the DPRK." ”

"Okay, I'll give the order to go down and take the official road. Wenbo said and withdrew.

While everyone was packing their luggage, there was a sudden noise outside, and Duan Tiande hurriedly ran out of the room, and the town was blazing with fire, and the shouts were endless.

"Master, there are robbers!" a guard hurriedly rushed into the courtyard and knelt down in front of Duan Tiande.

"Robbers?" Duan Tiande came to the gate with a gentleman's sword in his hand, and looked into the town, only to see two teams of men and horses rampaging through the streets, shouting and slashing around.

"Is it really a robber?" asked Wen Bo, standing behind Duan Tiande.

"Not really. Duan Tiande shook his head, "Although the horse team looks chaotic, it is orderly, and there is a commander for every five of them. As he spoke, Duan Tiande pointed to several masked people in the distance.

Although those men were slashing and killing the villagers like the others, they were always surrounded by the other four men in black.

"Don't you think this formation is familiar?" Duan Tiande asked.

"Yes, but it's a little familiar, as if I've seen it somewhere. Wen Bo stroked his gray beard and tried to recall, and suddenly exclaimed: "Royal Forest Guard! That's right, it's them, they used to fight side by side with us when the Orc Rebellion was quelled, and this is the common formation of the Royal Forest Guard!"

"But why did they kill the villagers?" Wenbo wondered.

"Their purpose is not the villagers, I'm afraid it's us. Duan Tiande sneered.

"We, just a few of them?" Wen Bo looked at the masked people roughly, although there were hundreds of them, but they were all ordinary soldiers, he could deal with them by himself, not to mention Duan Tiande.

"Of course it's impossible to deal with us, but it's more than enough to kill these villagers and then spread the word about it······"

"They want to blame it?" Wen Bo suddenly realized.

"But I'm afraid they're going to miscalculate!" Duan Tiande looked up at both sides of the valley, and a few lights were faintly lit on the hillside in the distance, but then the lights disappeared again.