When I woke up, it was still early, and Zhou Tianshen was the only one left in the room.

Zhou Tianshen sat up from the bed, his mind was unusually clear, he didn't know what was going on recently, he always fell asleep inexplicably, and the old locust tree in the village always appeared in his dreams.

Zhou Tianshen often dreamed that he was sitting under a locust tree, and the wind blew the leaves, making a pleasant sound. Whenever I was about to fall asleep in a dream, I woke up in reality.

I couldn't think of a reason, so I didn't waste time on this.

Taking advantage of some free time, Zhou Tianshen wanted to go around Tianxiang County to see if there were any good things, this time he gave him some silver taels before going out, and Meng Cheng also wrote down the medicine needed for quenching on a piece of paper, and the money on his body was enough, as for the ones Zhang Yunan wanted, he would not be able to get them until tomorrow's auction.

Zhou Tianshen washed up briefly, didn't waste much time, picked up the small bamboo basket, pushed open the door, and the maid standing at the door saluted respectfully.

Zhou Tianshen nodded in acknowledgment.

Walking down the stairs, four men and a woman were approached.

The men were all dressed in white, with long swords hanging from their waists, a bunch of golden ears of rice embroidered on their chests, and a brown wooden box on their backs.

The woman is dressed in a white veil and a hat with a white veil hanging from the hat, her hands folded on her abdomen, and a brown wooden box on her back.

The woman with a string of dark red bells tied to her ankles was surrounded by four men.

Zhou Tianshen stood on the side of the stairs against the wall, making room for the five of them to go first.

When passing by, Zhou Tianshen tilted his head slightly, and his eyes saw a white-folded face under the veil.

The six of them said goodbye.

Walking to the door of the pre-booked room on the second floor, the woman wearing a hat turned her head to look at the place where Zhou Tianshen had just left behind her, and after a long time, she retracted her gaze, pushed the door and walked into the room.

Four men with wooden boxes on their backs stood in turn at the door of the room.

The first floor of the inn is no longer as crowded as before, but it is also full. In order to attract more business, the inn put up benches in all the spare places, and many ordinary people and monks from other counties sat next to each other at this moment, and drank and talked happily.

There is no gap between them, but they are also distinct.

One of the most striking was the table of guests next to the window, surrounded by seven sword-wielding heroes, all about the exhibition.

One of the men with a tiger's back and a big knife with a sheath hanging on his waist was the most heroic, drinking and eating meat, and spitting and flying, "If you want me to say, the last buyers of the three-scaled fish this time are only the twelve rooms and the Minork Crane Dart Bureau from Jiuxiang County." Others are simply not qualified. ”

The thin young man who was short and carried a peachwood sword on his back was unconvinced, "I heard that this time there are big people in Tianxiang County, Bodhisattva Castle, Huanyuguan, and even the Fuxi Gang who have not been out for a long time have an elder to visit the Treasure Pavilion. ”

As soon as the young man said this, there was silence in the inn, and even the arrogant man with a sword stopped drinking and waited for the following, not to mention the truth of what the young man said, just because he could name three of the six major sects one after another, it could be concluded that the young man was not cheating. Although the names of the six major factions resounded throughout the land of Cunzhou, there are still people who can't figure out their names, just like the Huang Zhao Academy under the gate of the Huang Zhaozi Temple in Zhongzhou, most people think it is called Huang Zhaozi College. One of the six major factions is the most low-key Fuxi Gang, which is a gang that is divided into ranks by age, and the elders of the gang are all elderly.

Among the six major factions, it is the Bodhisattva Fort and Huanyuguan that are the most ostentatious in the market, and this time the Treasure Pavilion is willing to take out such a rare treasure as the three-scale fish, according to their character, they must be willing to come and have a look.

The big man with the knife poured wine into the wine glass in front of the thin young man, and said with appreciation, "It seems that your kid is not in vain, if there is nothing wrong with the information this time, I will make an exception and let you join the sect." ”

The thin young man was flattered, he raised his head, the wine glass bottomed out, he poured himself a glass, the wine went into his stomach again, and the thin young man with blushing cheeks smiled, "I guarantee with my life, if the information is false, my whole family will die." ”

The rest of the people are smiling and not talking, just like a thin young man, who does not hesitate to use his family as a guarantor for a position or benefit, what he says is the most untrue, and the man with the knife is also a person of temperament, as soon as he hears the oath of the thin young man, his good impression of him in his heart is instantly halved.

Zhou Tianshen finally walked out of the crowd, holding the small bamboo basket that was about to fall apart, Zhou Tianshen looked up at the sky, and estimated the time to walk towards the city.

In addition to the famous six major factions in Cunzhou, there are countless small sects that are not well known, sometimes two or three people are in love, drunk for a while, drunk and strong, blood alliance, and countless gangs have been established, Zhou Tianshen thinks this kind of person is the most interesting.

It is the existence of these people that makes the earthly world closer to the path of cultivation, so that there will be no immortal energy in the world, and the path of cultivation will not be vulgar.

In order to hold this exhibition and conference, the Treasure Pavilion is definitely painted at a high price, and on the streets, you can see the staff of the Treasure Pavilion wearing colorful clothes and carrying wooden boxes, sending gifts to the passers-by.

Zhou Tianshen also received a gift, a small colorful puppet, the face of the puppet is painted with colorful costumes, holding two small wooden sticks in his hands, a red rope tied around his waist, and wearing clogs on his feet.

There is also a black wood on the puppet's head, and when the wood is pressed down, the puppet's hands and feet will move regularly, and the sticks will go up and down, striking each other and making a slight sound.

Zhou Tianshen put the puppet in the bamboo basket and continued to walk forward.

The streets are lined with stalls, selling old men who sell fruits and melons at affordable prices, shouting that they are not deceitful; old women who sell cheap jewelry put out all their goods, and they are full of dazzling colors; women who sell splendid clothes try on their own clothes, surrounded by their own children, laughing and feasting; there are also fairies who play with big knives, and their spirits are extraordinary.

Tianxiang County is the smallest of the five county towns of Wuheguo, and it is also the one with the largest number of border villages, so Tianxiang County is more like a big bazaar, like this kind of stalls specializing in bargains occupy nearly one-third of the boundary of Tianxiang County, and there are some small shops living next to each other account for one-third, and the famous gate such as the Treasure Pavilion accounts for the remaining one-third.

The streets were full of people, shouting and shouting, and the most striking thing was a thin old man in tattered clothes, holding a featherless duster in his hand, and an old monkey even more thin than him sat squatting aside, wearing an iron ring around his neck, and an iron chain attached to the iron ring, which was held in the old man's hand, and at his feet was a broken bowl with a few copper coins in the bowl. The old monkey stared at the copper coin in the bowl and grinned.

The thin old man stood behind the old monkey and kicked on the back of the old monkey, and the old monkey fell to the ground in response, and did not get up for a long time, just when the spectators were about to leave, the old monkey suddenly stood up, grabbed a large handful of dirt and threw it at the old man.

The old man ducked back, and the feather duster in his hand smashed to the ground, raising a large cloud of dust, and the dust enveloped everyone, and two figures, one big and one small, shuttled through the crowd.

In a moment and three, the dust cleared.

The old man grabbed a folding fan and jade pendant in his hand, thinking that they were all worn by those sons and brothers who liked to chant poetry.

The old monkey grabbed a handful of gold and silver jewelry in his hand, as well as the woman's personal belongings, seeing the things in the old monkey's hand, many beautiful women present were ashamed to hide behind their own men.

The women who thought they had escaped laughed heartily, let you shameless foxes scratch your heads and seduce those men who don't have long eyes, and they deserve it, and the women threw a lot of copper coins into the broken bowls, and they didn't earn it by hard labor anyway.

Zhou Tianshen glanced at it a few times, but lost interest.

He walked straight to a herb shop across the street, and as evening approached, there was not much business in the herb shop, and there was only a white-haired old man in a long shirt and glasses.

Zhou Tianshen looked at the old man's clothes, and couldn't help but think of Zhang Yunan's dress, and muttered to himself in his heart, do doctors love this dress, long shirts, glasses, and a smile on the corner of his mouth.

The old man also saw the young man who walked in the door, stood up with a smile, and put down the pharmacopoeia in his hand, "What do you want to buy?"

Zhou Tianshen took out the papyrus paper he had prepared in advance, which recorded the list of herbs he needed, and he handed the list to the old man.

The old man held his glasses, his face was pressed to the straw paper, and after a while, he said, "Coincidentally, I have all these things here, and they are all of excellent quality, Xiaoyou, you have come to the right place." ”

The old man put down the straw paper, turned around, grabbed a few herbs from the wooden frame behind him, and didn't look at the amount, wrapped them together, and pushed the herbs in front of the young man, the old man took the grass paper again, and returned it together, "I didn't expect you to be young, you have a lot of knowledge, where do you live?" Is there someone studying medicine, it's a coincidence, the old man is accepting apprentices recently, if you are interested, you can follow me first, study for a decade or two, the price is negotiable." ”

Zhou Tianshen took out the silver, handed it to the old man, and said with a smile, "I don't have any plans to study medicine now, but if I want to study in the future, I will come to the old man." ”

The old man touched it, and said with a smile, "It's enough to have your words, how many years, I haven't heard such a sincere lie, I think of it, this is called a white lie." These are enough, if you don't have enough, buy them again. ”

Zhou Tianshen put away the draft medicine and straw paper, nodded and left.

The old man sat back on the chaise longue, picked up the pharmacopoeia, and read it word by word.

Walking out of the herbal medicine shop, Zhou Tianshen turned around and walked into a study selling books next to him.

The shopkeeper was a man with a big waist and a round waist, who was lying on the table and falling asleep, drooling all over the ground.

Zhou Tianshen walked around the store and took a fancy to a strange novel called "Talking about Harmony", most of which described some stories about ghosts and ghosts, scholars and ghosts, although the name is very ordinary, but the stories in it are very heavy.

I have seen a lot of stories about people and ghosts falling in love in my previous life, and I am also in this world, and I still don't agree with anyone.

Zhou Tianshen took the book off the shelf, walked to the man, put the book on the table, woke the man up, and after paying the money, he left the bookstore.

In fact, in addition to Zhou Tianshen and the sleeping man in the bookstore, there is also a tall woman, the woman wears a golden hairpin, wears a red dress, has light makeup on her face, thin lips, some round cheeks, plum blossom marks painted on her forehead, her long hair is scattered behind her, and she is holding the book "Talking about Harmony" in her hand.

The strange thing is that Zhou Tianshen didn't feel the presence of the woman in red, but when he was choosing books, he often felt a chill in his back, and a cold wind blew from time to time.

After reading the story in the book, the woman in red did not put the book back in its place, the red nails scratched the book, a faint line of fire burned along the traces, the book instantly turned into a pile of ashes, and the woman's eyes always stayed at the bottom of the bookshelf, where there was only one book, called "Tianshou Diary", the author was Ju Baishui.

It was dark, and Zhou Tianshen returned to the inn to prepare to rest.

He walked past the door of the other room, and found that the others had not returned, and asked the maid who had been waiting at the door to find out that the exhibition would be held until the second half of the night, but the inn would not close at night for a few days, so he did not have to worry.

Zhou Tianshen took a closer look, there were originally five maids, but now there are only two.

Lying on the bed and opening the book he just bought today, Zhou Tianshen read it in the dim oil lamp and the clear moonlight.

After reading two pages, Zhou Tianshen roughly understood the story told in the book.

The story is divided into three parts, which are about acquaintance, love, and forgetfulness.

The protagonist of the book is a poor but ambitious scholar who cares about the world, and a female ghost who has just opened his mind and does not know the world.

The woman was wronged and humiliated, poisoned by the adulterer, because the obsession was too heavy, so the soul did not dissipate after death, but became a dead spirit who likes to haunt late at night and suck human blood.

Because of the large number of mutilations, she attracted the attention of the cultivators, and in order to escape the pursuit, she hid in the mountains, and it was at that time that she met a scholar named Kikubaisui.

Chrysanthemum water?

Zhou Tianshen closed the book and saw that the position of the author should have been marked on the paper, and three big characters were clearly written - Ju Baishui.

Zhou Tianshen smiled bitterly, the co-author was the author who applied his own name and wrote himself into the book, Zhou Tianshen vaguely remembered that in those boring days spent in that mysterious place where he couldn't remember the name, he had read many stories that the author wrote into the book.

Turning a few pages back, the story began to become boring, nothing more than a female ghost and a scholar fell in love, and in the end I found out that the scholar was a cultivator, specifically to hunt her down, but for some reason when I met her, I had a heart-warming feeling, but the scholar never forgot his identity as a cultivator, at the end of the story, the monk who incarnated as a scholar still broke up the female ghost's spiritual intelligence, destroyed her spiritual root, and since then the female ghost named Zhuo Junsheng has disappeared from everyone's field of vision.

Closing the book, Zhou Tianshen had a lot of questions in his heart, since Zhuo Junsheng already knew the true identity of the scholar, why didn't he expose him, but was willingly stabbed to death by him with a sword? Is this the author's real experience, that honorary mainland novelist Ju Baishui, has really experienced this? But the sleepiness hit him because he couldn't stop it, and as soon as he turned around, Zhou Tianshen was already asleep.

The woman in red walks barefoot on the deserted street, and unlike the heat of the day, the night always brings a sense of silence.

Every household has closed its doors and windows, but only the remote Dayu Inn is still lit at this time.

The innkeeper, who had been busy from morning to night, and the old man surnamed You sat on the threshold together, each holding a bowl of sake in their hands, holding a handful of freshly cooked peanuts in their hands, and three empty jars and two unopened jars full of wine at their feet.

The old man surnamed You drank a sip of sake, ate another bite of peanuts, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he looked up at the moon that was half covered by clouds, "Boss, what happened to me today, don't you feel distressed if you invite me to drink such a valuable wine?"

Pu Xiangjin drank all the wine in the bowl, opened the unopened one, one of the jars of wine, and poured it full of white bowls, "Brother You, how old are you and me, so I call you Big Brother, we have known each other for so many years, you tell the truth, am I a stingy person in your heart?"

The old man surnamed You put down the wine bowl, stood up, and patted the dust on his buttocks, "Anyway, it's not generous, boss, I'll go out, let's drink this wine another day." ”

Before he could finish speaking, the old man's figure disappeared into the night.

Pu Xiangjin, who was only one person left, slept on the threshold of his house with the strength of wine.

When the old man surnamed You reappeared, he had already changed into a black dress, and his hands and feet were tied with jet-black iron chains, and at the end of the chains was a towering stone tower.

In addition to the old man surnamed You, there were nine people around him who had the same experience.

Ten people, ten towers, one code name, just for one person.

Ten people formed a circle, and in the middle was a water balloon suspended in the air, and the water balloon began to fluctuate, and an ethereal rickety figure appeared in the water balloon.

The old man surnamed You looked around, looking at these old guys who had shared weal and sorrow with him, and his heart rippled, and he didn't know how long such days would last.

The old man in the water polo began to speak, "We waited for many years, and when the plan was about to be completed, we didn't expect him to escape, but we finally found him again, and now that the world is completely under our control, it is impossible for him to escape from the fate we have created for him." You are all people who have made mistakes in the past, and now the 'Great Master' has decided to give you another chance......"

Ten people, no one spoke.

Coming out of the prison, the old man surnamed You and the woman in red walked side by side on the river, the river was rushing, and the undercurrent at the bottom of the river was surging, but no matter how big the waves were, the river could not wet the clothes of the two people.

The two of them walked like this, from beginning to end, without looking at each other or saying a word.

By daybreak, the two of them had come to the depths of a dense forest, and in the distance they could see a small wooden house standing among the trees.