December 419 of the Eltino calendar, the Guijiang River basin in the south of the Eltino calendar

The news leaked by the White Deer Cave really caused a sensation in the entire Wind Continent: Zhou Gongjin, Lu You's most important second disciple, was ordered by his mentor to secretly change his name and surname, and entered the Guiyi rebels to work in lurk and investigate secrets.

The two surviving elders in Bailu Cave are not fools, if they directly announce Gong Jin's identity, they may force Gong Jin to defect to the Guiyi rebels, and the rebels will easily accept him, but the news leaked out through the "secret leak" channel is a completely different situation.

Recently, there has been a lot of negative news about the White Deer Cave, whether it is the disciples or the people of the empire, they are all frowning at the continuous power struggle, so it is necessary to release some news at this time to let the people of the empire know what the White Deer Cave has done and win back their respect and trust.

Moreover, leaking this news can make Zhou Gongjin be surrounded by angry ghosts and people all of a sudden, and kill people without much effort. This person has been following Lu You for many years, and he knows too many secrets, if he intends to use these secrets to attack the White Deer Cave, the consequences are really serious, in fact, due to his means of provoking conflicts, the White Deer Cave has been turned upside down in the past few months, and his vitality has been greatly damaged.

Originally, this method of killing people with a knife should have been used a long time ago, but it was pressed first for two reasons. The first reason is that the three elders are really jealous of the secrets that Zhou Gongjin knows, and they don't want to force the tiger to jump over the wall too much; the second reason is that after the three elders turn their faces and make a move, the current and future elders hope to use Gongjin to eradicate the past elders who are on the run.

When the news of Su Laotang's death on the battlefield came out, the remaining two elders immediately expressed their condolences for their dead colleagues, and leaked Gong Jin's identity without hesitation.

It's just that they didn't expect Gong Jin to be smarter than they expected, and before the news reached the Guiyi army, they fled and left first, and then neither the White Deer Cave nor the Guiyi rebels could find his whereabouts.

Of course, Su Laotang's strategy was not unanswered, and it was not only the imperial soldiers who were shocked by this news, but also all the rebels of the Oniyi, but the former was rejoicing and praising the hero, while the latter was angry and resentful, vowing to find the traitor and put him to death.

Originally, Gong Jin was able to be respected by people in the Guiyi Army in the name of Zhou Yu and became an important figure in the creation of the Alliance, mainly because of the Battle of Jingyanggang, he rescued a large number of Guiyi people from the hands of the Eltino Army. But if this is just a fake show, and the hero who rescued the Guiyi clan is actually the executioner who caused the Jingyanggang tragedy, then the original respect will turn into raging anger.

Unable to find Gong Jin's whereabouts, a group of his subordinates bore the brunt of the attack and became the target of people's anger. Xiao Qiao and Yan Ning, who were hurrying to go, were one step late, and half of the horse thieves of the Phantom Brigade were already dead, and none of the remaining half were uninjured, and they were struggling in the crowd with blood.

"These people are all innocent, what are the tactics of the White Deer Cave, they won't know at all, in a way, they are all deceived like us!"

Xiao Qiao advocated so loudly, but even with her prestige, she couldn't save the fate of these people, and after a twist, the remaining members of the Phantom Brigade cursed the coalition and Zhou Yu, dragged their tired bodies, and were banished.

Little Joe is deeply saddened that innocent people have been hurt, but the situation is stronger than people, angry people need to vent their object, if someone stands in front of them at this time, even if this person is the true son they usually love, they will tear that person to pieces.

After learning that Zhou Gongjin had mixed into his camp, everyone seemed to be mad, and the Guiyi people sent a representative to ask Xiao Qiao to give an order to chase and kill. It was difficult for Xiao Qiao to say no words, especially when they cried about how their father and brother died at the hands of Zhou Gongjin, and the blood was deep, and they did not share the sky, Xiao Qiao felt that he had no way to heal their pain and hatred.

But when Xiao Qiao hesitated slightly, the order to hunt and kill Gong Jin had been issued, and the person who gave this order was Yan Ning. In the eyes of everyone, Yan Ning, who was used and deceived by Zhou Gongjin, seemed to be very angry, vowing to break the body of this former fellow senior brother into thousands of pieces, so as to be able to relieve the hatred in his heart.

Such a reaction made everyone very reassuring, because if even Yan Ning was also annihilated, none of the most important people in this coalition army could be trusted and supported.

"That guy Zhou Gongjin is really cunning, and he actually used this method to put me together...... Hmph, but it's no wonder that when he was in the White Deer Cave, he was a perverted shemale who didn't like to be seen by women, wearing a mask all day long, no one had seen his true face, it was really despicable and shameless, I would never let this cold-blooded thief live, and when we captured the White Deer Cave, we would skin him and put him to death, and hang his filthy head!"

Surrounded by countless crowds, Yan Ning spoke indignantly, waved his hand indignantly, and interrupted a thick flagpole next to him, with an astonishing momentum.

The people around her liked this kind of performance, cheering with her majestic roar, turning their revenge into a raging fighting spirit, vowing to destroy the cunning White Deer Cave dog thief.

Xiao Qiao watched all this, and although the cheers and shouts around her were so frenzied, her heart could not be lifted with it, but was unusually cold.

If war is still inevitable in the end, then by being the leader himself, he can reduce most of the killings, and he can also educate his soldiers so that they will not be lost in the bloodshed of war, and remember the ideal why they stood up to fight.

Previously, this ideal has been practiced, to avoid the disadvantages of empty words, and to use practical life to make soldiers understand that harmony between ethnic groups can bring benefits, and when they calm down, put aside hatred and disagreement, and shake the hands of past enemies, each other's lives can be better, and the world can be better.

During that time in Huaguo Mountain, I almost believed that this ideal had succeeded, but now, watching hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians cheering and shouting in the city, asking myself and Yan Ning to lead them to wash the White Deer Cave in blood, kill every human dog thief, and redress the past humiliation, my heart could not be comforted by the fact that I was still supported, and only a strong sense of loss and bitterness remained.

Especially the condensation. Although when Gong Jin was still there, she pretended to be unfamiliar with him, but in that mine distress and many subsequent battlefield battles, Xiao Qiao could see that there was a deep friendship between Yan Ning and Gong Jin that transcended words, and for this affection, they could even sacrifice their lives for each other.

Xiao Qiao was deeply moved by this affection, and hoped that he could have such a friend, but what is the current situation? If even a friend who was once so good can grit his teeth so hatefully and swear not to give up if he does not take off the other party's head, then what is the meaning of these efforts he has made? What is the purpose of these efforts? What is the purpose of it?

Since the Pengfenpo Conference, a lot of things have happened in a row, and Xiao Qiao has never felt tired, but she feels tired now, as if she has never been so tired in her life.

"Alliance leader, your face is so bad, have you been too tired lately?

When everyone left, Yan Ning went to Xiao Qiao's side, noticed that Xiao Qiao's complexion was not good, and asked worriedly.

"Yan Ning, in the last few days I feel ...... Tired. ”

Xiao Qiao whispered, and Yan Ning looked directly into her eyes, his gaze was so deep that he seemed to be able to see through everything, and it took a long time to speak.

"Don't think too much, it's no good to think too much at this time, as a leader, you just have to look straight ahead. ”

Xiao Qiao shook his head and said, "But you know that I've never been the kind of person who doesn't use brains. Bailu Cave said that Brother Yu was the one who infiltrated our side, but I couldn't believe it. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that he has done more things for us and made more achievements than anyone else; at every opportunity that can harm us, he chooses to protect us, even if he is Zhou Gongjin, isn't what he has done enough?"

"Whether it is enough or not is not something we can say in a word. There are so many people in the world, not everyone has a heart like yours, you bring happiness to people, but even you, you don't deprive them of the right to hate people. It's far harder to hate people than to love them, and these people live most of their lives with hatred, and if you take that away, how are they going to face their past lives?"

Yan Ning spoke as peacefully as possible, using words and phrases euphemistically, not wanting the coldness in her words to hurt people.

"Alliance leader, you hope that everyone can live in peace, but water and fire cannot be put in the same bowl, if you let go of one person's hand, you can make most people shake hands, that is what a leader should do, so, Gongjin He should leave, if he doesn't leave, where should you go, Alliance leader?"

The simple words, but there were already very clear hints, letting Xiao Qiao know that Yan Ning was by no means "unaware" as she claimed, and Gong Jin must have had some degree of tacit understanding with her before leaving.

If Gong Jin didn't leave, then the fierce backlash of the Guiyi clan would make it difficult for Xiao Qiao to deal with it, so he had to leave that night. But knowing this didn't make Xiao Qiao much better, because she didn't have the person who could protect it, and she didn't even know where he went.

"Brother Yu...... Where the hell has he been now?"

※※※

According to the general conjecture, Zhou Gongjin, who completed the task, must have returned to the White Deer Cave, this speculation is not far from the truth, after leaving the rebels, Gongjin did go towards the White Deer Cave, stopping halfway, because his injuries were difficult to drag on.

Staying in a secret place for a short time, to recuperate the serious injury on his chest, Gong Jin himself did not expect that he would fall ill from the seriously injured, and it took seven days before he regained his mobility again and went towards the White Deer Cave again.

The seven-day healing was very lucky, although he hid in a cellar, there was no food and no medicine, but he hid in the cellar for seven days, isolated from the outside, but he avoided the light and dark search network of the White Deer Cave and the Ghost Yi rebels, and did not incur the disaster of death.

returned to Bailu Cave, of course, not to surrender to Cheng, it is more similar to say that he threw himself into the net, but Gongjin felt that he needed to go to see it once and personally confirm the master's attitude.

Lu You and Sansu Lao are not opponents of the same level, if the enemy is limited to Sansu Lao, Xiao Qiao can lead the army to win gradually, but if he really wants to face Lu You, no matter how many victories he wins now, he will still lose once in the end, so Lu You's attitude will determine the outcome of this war.

The power of the heavenly position is an extinction lethality that mortals can never match. With the three artifacts, Xiao Qiao can certainly enhance his own strength tenfold or hundredfold, but whether he can compete with the power of heaven is really undecided, according to Gong Jin, it is simply nine deaths, therefore, being able to avoid fighting is the best policy.

Gong Jin didn't expect to be able to convince the master that when Lu You had already made a decision, it would not be easy to change, what he wanted to fight for was to bet on whether Lu You valued this matter, if for Lu You, it didn't matter who became the Lord of Altino, then there might be a chance for Lu You to change his position.

If the plan doesn't work out, then at least explore the current movements of the White Deer Cave. Although the Qinglou Alliance's exploration ability is unparalleled in the world, there is some in-depth information, and Gong Jin is confident that only he can find out.

This bold plan was hampered at the first step, and it was a fatal one. Taking advantage of the cover of the night, Gong Jin tried to return to the White Deer Cave silently, but on the Wusong Gang half a mile away from the gate, a black shadow seemed to have been there for a long time, blocking Gong Jin's way.

They were hundreds of feet away from each other, but such a distance could not make Gong Jin feel safe, although the figure was almost integrated with the surrounding darkness, and it was impossible to see clearly, but from the contained and awe-inspiring sword qi, the pure martial arts momentum of the White Deer Cave, Gong Jin knew who was standing there.

"Master......"

Gong Jin couldn't describe his stunned feelings, since he started, except for that time when the master had personally gone out to deal with it because of the problem of his backup body, he would never leave the Houshan Ice Cave for hundreds of years. However, now he is out of the customs for his own sake, and he is waiting for himself here.

There is no need to say much about the meaningless words, just standing there, forced to emit a heavenly sword aura, Gong Jin has already understood what the master wants to say to him, and the only thing to do next is to do his best to save his surname.

A snow-bright sword light pierced through the deep darkness and turned into a powerful meteor, bombarding Gong Jin. This Haoran sword, which does not belong to the thirty-six stunts, quickly bloomed in front of Gong Jin's eyes; life and death, in a short moment, met by his side, Gong Jin's mind suddenly went blank, and the only thought left was to struggle for that glimmer of life.

Even Gong Jin didn't understand how he escaped from that sword aura, and how did he take the sword of a Heavenly Rank Martial Artist who had not yet left the earth realm? Perhaps, this could only be said to be a strange force in the fire.

In short, when Gong Jin regained consciousness because of the pain again, he found that he had flown far away, crashed into a large rock that was broken hundreds of feet away, and the pile of destroyed and dumped houses and human casualties in front of him were the traces of his blood path that he had fallen all the way.

(I...... Still alive...... ）

His hands and feet were pierced by countless small stone chips, bleeding so much that he lost his senses, and his back was in terrible pain, as if even his spine was broken in this collision, but the pain was painful, he could still breathe, and he still had consciousness, which proved that life still belonged to him, and the master's sword did not take it away.

was able to survive, Gong Jin did not hesitate, and immediately fled, leaving this place at full speed. There was such a big stir, even if the master stopped chasing and killing, the rest of the White Deer Cave disciples would be alarmed, and with their own seriously injured state, they didn't even have to be a master of the level of the two old men to come out, and just a few White Deer Cave disciples could put their lives on the line.

Half luck, half strength, Gong Jin successfully escaped from the White Deer Cave and found a place to heal his injuries. The White Deer Cave did not explain the incident clearly, but only announced that a master of the Ghost Yi rebels came to assassinate him, and was repelled by the White Deer Cave, and now he is searching for the remnants with all his might.

This statement is not difficult to understand, because Bailu Cave cannot directly disclose Gong Jin's identity, nor can it be said that Lu You personally dealt with it, so as not to raise the value and momentum of the rebels, so this statement is quite decent, Gong Jin is not strange, what really puzzled him is that in the unparalleled power of the sword that slashes the sky, he feels the deep killing intent contained in it, although the master did not go all out, but he did not show mercy to his subordinates, he really wanted to kill himself with the power of the heavens.

If the master's intention to expel himself and Yan Ning was to train talents, then there seems to be no reason to kill himself!

Gong Jin thought so, but began to smile bitterly again. Even if the master doesn't show mercy to his subordinates, what can it mean? The master has long been accustomed to training with life and death, even if he is a disciple he has cultivated for hundreds of years, if he is not qualified to take the sword of his trial, then it is better to die directly, because the weak who are not capable of surviving now will definitely not be qualified to deal with the demon invasion in the future.

"Demon ...... Demon ...... Where did so many demons come from? If we continue to practice in this way, we will all be killed before the demons come to the human realm......

Dragging his bloodied body, Gong Jin sighed tiredly. In the past, Yan Ning once said similar things, and he didn't care very much about choosing to be loyal to Bailu Cave, but now that he thinks about it, he feels that those words are really reasonable.

"Damn, why does everyone think only about war...... If there were a few more people like Little Joe, the world wouldn't be like this...... The demons are brutal, and we kill more people than the demons......"

Recalling the many tasks he had done in the White Deer Cave before, Gong Jin felt this way even more, but now is not a good time to dream about the past, the injuries on his body can no longer be delayed, and he must find a place to heal.

Being seriously injured in battle and having to find a place to recuperate, this should have been a familiar experience for Gong Jin, but in his past many healing experiences, he has never had such a difficult time, not only to recuperate, but also to try to avoid the search and pursuit of a large number of people.

In the previous lurking work, although he would be hunted down by the enemy every time he was injured, Gong Jin could always hide in the sphere of influence or hidden stakes of the White Deer Cave and recuperate quietly without being disturbed. But this time it didn't work, not only did the Guiyi rebels send experts to search for them in all directions, but they couldn't go to the shelter in the White Deer Cave in the past, and as a result of being surrounded by the two major forces at the same time, Gong Jin only felt that the world was so big that it seemed that there was nowhere to stay.

It is a very uncomfortable feeling to be searched and chased by others, and everyone you see around you is like a fatal crisis for yourself, as long as you say the wrong word or do something, you may be exposed and killed.

Even if you have strong martial arts, you must pretend to be lowly in martial arts to avoid attracting the attention of others, otherwise the team of people and horses will rush up, and the power of the ants and male soldiers, even if it is a fierce lion, they will not dare to take it lightly, not to mention that they are seriously injured now, as long as the battle time is longer, the rupture of the wound alone can be fatal.

Fortunately, Gong Jin has never been a person without a sense of crisis, and he already knew the truth of the three caves of the cunning rabbit hundreds of years ago, and he has already put it into practice, leaving a few hiding places in the territory of Eltino in advance.

If it was he who personally prepared these places, then the surname that was tracked down by someone might be too high, and he had seen the pervasive ability of the White Deer Cave and the Qinglou Alliance, Gong Jin would never believe that there were real secrets in the world, so he did not establish his own escape place, but hid in those reliable places in the form of parasitism.

It is estimated that it will take more than a month to recuperate, and before several times in a row were forcibly suppressed the injury, rushing to act, and now these accumulated injuries have broken out at once, if you use the previous method to suppress it, even if you don't die afterwards, you will lose a body of martial arts, so you must calm down and heal the injury first.

The hideout chosen by Gong Jin is a martial arts hall in the middle capital, which is originally a place where a wealthy foreign merchant recruits customers and cultivates talents, and many wandering swordsmen who want to get ahead will go to such a place, hoping to get ahead one day. Of course, the dragons and snakes in the martial arts hall are mixed, and the warriors and swordsmen from all sides compete all day long, fighting if they don't agree with each other, and boasting about martial arts.

The wealthy businessman who funded this martial arts hall behind the scenes, it is said that he is a big businessman who settled in Wulian, and he is a descendant of the former Dashi Kingdom, Gong Jin is not familiar with this person, but if he is far away, he will not often come to the martial arts hall to inspect, and he can save a lot of trouble. In the martial arts hall, you can hear a lot of rumors and intelligence, in addition to the news of the Ghost Yi rebels, of course, there is also information about the White Deer Cave.

In order to search for the assassins, Bailu Cave asked the officers and soldiers to cooperate, and checked every place in the capital, and also posted a high bounty, which really made trouble for a while, but because it only said that the assassin was to be arrested, there was no appearance and name of the assassin at all, and as a result, in order to receive the reward of the officers and soldiers and the bonus hunters, they only indiscriminately hunted and killed some ghosts and other races in the city, and then it was over.

More than a month passed in a blink of an eye, and Gong Jin's body gradually recovered, as long as he was free, he thought about how to guide the power that erupted when he was in distress in the mine and faced with his master's desperate sword.

During this time, the offensive of the Ghost Rebels was disappointingly slow, although they swallowed up some territory, but under the counteroffensive of the Eltino army, the two sides engaged in a tug-of-war, and frequently exchanged occupied areas.

On the whole, the rebels still have the upper hand in all aspects, and the Eltino army can only be forced to take a defensive position in the war because of the internal turmoil, and the reason why the rebels cannot expand smoothly seems to come from within the rebels, but what those reasons are, everyone in the martial arts hall can't say why.

Gong Jin was really worried, in the few battles that had happened recently, he didn't hear Xiao Qiao's name, it seemed that she didn't rush to the forefront as before, from this point of view, Yan Ning did keep her promise, covered Xiao Qiao well, and didn't let her hurt much, but ...... The sense of foreboding in my heart is always hard to erase.

"Strange, what about that beautiful chick in the ghosts? I used to hear her in every battle, but I haven't heard about it lately? Didn't she come out to fight again? It's a pity, it's worth it to die at the hands of this kind of beauty!"

The person who spoke was the first nameless strange old man in the martial arts hall. Ragged clothes, short stature, wrinkles on the face are so many that you can't see your age, like an old monkey-like appearance, it seems as if the wind will blow down; everyone in this martial arts hall is equipped with a sword, but he only hangs a tattered bamboo sword, when every martial artist tries to make himself look fierce and vigorous, this strange old man has become a strange person in the martial arts hall, if you have to find a description for his "momentum", it is an old man who sweeps the floor and takes out the garbage.

In fact, many swordsmen, including Gong Jin, who came to the martial arts hall for the first time, regarded this strange old man as an ordinary servant and invited him to come in and deal with the clutter in their room.

The reason why the strange old man is strange is not because of his funny appearance like an ugly old monkey, but because of his special surname. Everyone in the martial arts hall believed that the strange old man had suffered a lot of losses from women in the past, so he became crazy, and often dangled next to some swordsmen who practiced martial arts, and watched others practice swords without suspicion, and then said nonsense about how strong muscles and good bones were good, and whether they were willing to go home with him to be trained, and ensure that they were happy every day as if they were going to heaven, etc.

These words sounded like a man's drunken words in the tavern and the village, and everyone in the martial arts hall guessed that he had been deceived by a bad woman in the land of fireworks in the past, and he no longer trusted the woman's surname, so he came to the man. Most of the people who saw him approaching showed obvious disgust, and only a few people who liked to listen to him, or drink his home-brewed "monkey wine", would befriend him.

Gong Jin was not interested in fine wine, but he was willing to listen to the strange old man, which was the greatest entertainment of his miserable life for a month. At first, he was not so willing to approach this ugly short old man, but the appearance was secondary, mainly because he had been an enemy of Su Lao Tang recently, and he was fed up with the insidious deceit of the three old men, so that he had a splitting headache when he saw the old man.

What's more, the crazy words of the strange old man are really unbearable. Just like saying to others, the strange old man also looked Gong Jin up and down, and then his eyes showed a strange light, saying something He has a strong chest and strong muscles, and he is a rare martial arts wizard, and he should go home to heaven with him.

Gongjin ignored it, those words in the rebels gave him a little sense of humor, otherwise if he didn't turn this old man into eighteen paragraphs according to his previous surname, then he would not be Zhou Gongjin.

However, the strange old man's crazy words were eye-catching, and some of his sober words were ignored. Gong Jin occasionally talked to the old man, talking about the current war situation in Eltino, but some of his words made Gong Jin's heart tremble.

“...... The old man patted his chest and promised that in the future, the defeat of the ghosts would all be due to Gongjin boy. ”

"Oh? But listening to the discussion from all sides recently, General Gongjin has not caused any harm within the rebels, and now that he has left, how can he do anything more?

"Hey, the good fighters have no great achievements, and there are naturally annihilations, but with the means of killing people in the White Deer Cave without seeing blood, do you need to get to the level of using annihilation to such an obscene extent?

The strange old man explained to Gong Jin that he had been paying attention to the reforms carried out within the rebels, and when others only saw the good news of the rebels' victories, he found that the rebels' internal reforms had become unstable.

The Guiyi people account for a lot of rebels, a full one-third, but after all, they are not as many as orcs and humans, but because the alliance leader is from the Guiyi tribe, and the Guiyi tribe is the most persecuted group, so many measures in the rebels give the Guiyi tribe special benefits, and because they want to respond to their calls to resist persecution, they have repeatedly deliberately improved the status of the Guiyi tribe。

"Why can't the Oni get along with humans? Why does this discrimination happen? It's because it's unfair. Human beings think they are noble and discriminate against ghosts and orcs, so they will incur a counterattack today, and the ghosts are now shouting slogans against persecution, but after gaining power, they have doubled down on human beings, and the rift between races will only deepen, this mentality, which I will call ghost chauvinism, is very helpful in the period of fighting the world, but ...... Don't say that after winning the world, I'm afraid that even now, some problems should come to the surface among the rebels. ”

Hehe sneered twice, the strange old man raised his head and drank the last sip of wine in the gourd, wiped his mouth, and then spoke to Gongjin next to him.

"Surrender without a fight, kill without seeing blood, this is the most favorite trick of the White Deer Cave, I don't know who created those policies of the rebels, but if Zhou Gongjin is really the person trained by the White Deer Cave, and he is really as capable as the legend, he has been in the rebels for a few months, which is enough for him to use these methods...... Hey, little brother, didn't you say?"

Gong Jin was silent, unable to hide the surprise in his heart. This old man actually saw through his own methods at a glance, this vision is really extraordinary, because even Xiao Qiao and Yan Ning didn't see what they did before, but now he can see through it at a glance, and say it as clearly as if he participated in the whole process, this is really ......

"However, the White Deer Cave will probably be able to accept the results soon, and the Gongjin boy heard that he will be back soon, and ten days later, the Zhongdu City will hold a very grand welcome ceremony. ”

"Uncle, what did you say?"

"Haven't you heard anyone say that? Young man, Bailu Cave just announced to the public that Zhou Gongjin is going to return to Zhongdu in ten days, and many people are clamoring to see it after hearing it!"

"This ...... What's going on?"

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