In Gu Xu and Shangguan Jin's perception, the shopkeeper who looked very much like Wu Angelica, a former member of the "Shenji Battalion", had neither the aura of a ghost nor the fluctuation of the true yuan on his body, as if he was an outright ordinary person.

However, the man's steps were silent and swift, and in the blink of an eye, he went straight through the backyard and disappeared into the back door of the restaurant.

Even if Gu Xu and Shangguan Jin mastered the high-grade martial arts of "Meteor Walking to the Moon", they felt that it was very difficult to catch up with him.

When the two of them left the shop and came to the alleyway outside, they were surprised to find that the mysterious shopkeeper had completely disappeared from the range of their divine sense.

Shangguan Jin's eyes narrowed slightly.

As a Fourth Realm cultivator, she possessed extremely majestic divine consciousness power, which could cover a radius of several hundred meters.

But she couldn't sense the location of the shopkeeper at all.

This undoubtedly meant that the man either had the means to hide his aura, or had slipped out of range of hundreds of meters in an instant—whichever way he used, it meant that he was no one to sit idle.

"Gu Daoyou, can you use divination to find out where he fled?" She turned her head and looked at Gu Xu beside her.

Because Luo Sishou once said that "Gu Xu's divination skills are very special", and because Gu Xu led her to find this small restaurant hidden in the alley purely by relying on a copper coin today, she is quite confident in Gu Xu's divination skills.

However, before she could finish speaking, Gu Xu had already squatted down, took out a copper coin, and did divination on the ground.

The copper coins currently used in the Great Qi Dynasty are engraved with the four characters of "Tianxing Tongbao" on the surface, the color is light red, and the edge is cast.

Gu Xu silently recited the names of "Taishang Haotian" and "Emperor Ziwei", and asked in his heart: "In which direction did 'Wu Angelica' flee?" ”

Then he gently tossed the copper coin.

Theoretically speaking, when the copper coin falls to the ground, the direction of the word "heaven" in "Tianxing Tongbao" is the direction in which "Wu Angelica" escapes.

Surprisingly, however, the coin stood upright on the ground – even if the ground was not flat, and even if the cool breeze blew, the coin still stood.

Gu Xu pondered for a moment, tried to change the way he asked the question, and asked:

"Where did the man who looks exactly like 'Wu Angelica' flee?"

"Where did that ghost with the same appearance as 'Wu Angelica' escape?"

"Where did the ghost of the disguise shop run away in this hotel?"

“……”

However, the coin remained firmly on the ground, and did not tell him the answer.

"Did that guy evaporate out of thin air?" His brow furrowed, and he was quite surprised.

Then he put away the copper coin, stood up, and said to Shangguan Jian beside him: "Shangguan Daoyou, I think this matter is quite strange - this person has no fluctuating aura fluctuations of fluctuating power, but he can instantly escape from our perception range; My divination technique also showed this strange reaction in him.

"Who he is, what he is capable of...... It may have been far beyond what we could handle. It may be the best choice to report this matter to the yamen and let stronger people investigate the case. ”

If you don't make a decision, report to the yamen, and never take risks easily, this is Gu Xu's style of doing things all the time.

Shangguan Jin was silent for a few seconds, then nodded.

Since she received this task, she felt that there was an extremely strange aura in it—the former members of the "Divine Machine Battalion" had reappeared in the world nearly twenty years ago, and Luo Sishou's Heavenly Machine Technique could not understand the specific situation, and Gu Xu's divine divination technique had also suffered a setback here.

Now they have lost the clue to the target person.

It is clear that it is already difficult to continue the investigation.

But Shangguan Jin did not give up completely.

She returned to the diner and found the proprietress of the restaurant in the backyard hallway.

The proprietress was a bloated middle-aged woman, wearing an oily apron, and the fat piled up on her neck was like layers of waves, sitting on the grass mound, as if it were a bulging balloon.

She was keeping her head down, intently sewing patches on a coarse cloth garment.

When Shangguan Jin asked about the origin of the mysterious shop Xiao Er who looked like "Wu Angelica", the proprietress raised her head and frowned slightly: "He started working here more than two months ago. When I saw that he was homeless and looked pitiful, I took him here and gave him something to eat.

"I don't know anything else."

Shangguan Jin nodded, keeping the time point of "more than two months" in mind.

When she left, she did not forget to praise the proprietress for her virtuous and capable - not only did the needlework well, but also managed the restaurant in an orderly manner.

As a recognized social master of the Exorcism Division, Shangguan Jian always habitually put words of praise on his lips.

And she praises people for always starting from the details, and never fakes and looks hypocritical.

For example, when praising a beautiful girl, she will not simply say "You are beautiful", but will say "The hairpin on your head is very flattering to your temperament, which reminds me of the heroine in the opera "Heavenly Immortals".

Today, she stares at the needlework in the hands of the proprietress with a smile, and praises her for the skill of sewing clothes - she chooses threads of similar color, sews them from the inside out, and finishes them in circles, so that the threads are hidden and there are no traces of sewing visible from the front.

Hearing Shangguan Jin's words, the proprietress raised her head and smiled on her face - she helped her husband sew and mend clothes every day, but her husband disliked her old age and decrepitudeness, never sympathized with her hard work, and would not notice her delicate thoughts hidden in needlework.

I didn't expect a stranger to meet in Pingshui today to be able to break through her good intentions in one word!

She was faintly moved.

The boredom that was disturbed just now disappeared without a trace in an instant.

Hearing this conversation between the two, Gu Xu couldn't help but sigh silently in his heart: Shangguan Jin's little mouth is really like smeared with honey, no wonder she is like a fish in water in officialdom, and Luo Sishou is also more willing to take her with him to deal with daily affairs, rather than Chu Fengge, who is more talented and has a higher cultivation. If she uses this ability to deal with men in the future, I am afraid that most of the young people in Luojing City will fall under her pomegranate skirt.

…………

After leaving the restaurant, the two of them were going to board the carriage and return to the Yamen of the Exorcism Division.

However, at this time, Shangguan Jian suddenly narrowed his eyes slightly, and stretched out his hand to a simple wine shop nearby: "Gu Daoyou, have you seen it?" There were a few soldiers of the capital garrison who had left their posts in that shop. ”

Gu Xu looked in the direction she was pointing, and indeed saw several soldiers in light armor, sitting drunkenly in the tavern, carrying a wine bowl as big as a basin, and pouring wine into their mouths.

Cloudy liquor seeped from the edge of the bowl and flowed over them, leaving them with the smell of wine.

The metal helmet was placed at their feet, kicked around like a ball by passers-by, and they were unaware of it.

Two of them even fell drunk, lying unconscious on the table, snoring indecently.

Seeing such a situation, Shangguan Jin's brows tightened.

Before Gu Xu could respond, she walked up to the soldiers who were drinking in three steps and two steps, and said to them in a stern tone, "Which lieutenant are you?" Do you know that according to the laws of the Great Qi Dynasty, as a city defense soldier, if you leave your post while standing guard, you will be punished with a cane? ”

In fact, the armor of these soldiers is marked with their names.

Shangguan Jin could have memorized their names, gone back to the files, found out which team they belonged to, and then told their superiors about the situation.

But Shangguan Jin is a person with compassion after all.

She is well aware of how terrible the "cane punishment" in the army is.

In the history of the Great Qi Dynasty, there were not a few soldiers who were crippled or even killed by the torture rod.

Considering the lives of these soldiers and the families behind them, Shangguan Jian felt that it would be a better choice to persuade them to return and save them from punishment.

However, the soldiers were still drinking and ignored her words.

Only one of them waved his hand at her, and said in a somewhat delirious voice, "Our captain...... He was also drinking at the tavern opposite...... He won't punish our ......"

Shangguan Jin suddenly felt a little headache: dare to love this is actually the upper beam is not correct and the lower beam is crooked? The chief and his subordinates derelict their duties together?

She frowned and said, "With your drunken appearance, if a ghost suddenly enters Luojing City, won't they all become fish on the board?" ”

The soldier poured his wine and said with a laugh: "With Emperor Taizu's 'Heavenly Dragon Great Array' here, how can the ghosts attack it?" ”

Listening to his tone, he seemed to regard Shangguan Jin as a fool.

"What if?" Shangguan Jin cut his hair and said with a cold expression. In her mind, she couldn't help but reappear the figure of the shopkeeper who looked exactly the same as the former Shenji Battalion member "Wu Angelica".

"If the goblins do come in, there are tall men on top of them...... the soldier continued to laugh in a daze, "Our captain said that mortal soldiers like us are just a bunch of ornaments, and the formal significance is far greater than the actual significance...... When the critical time comes, you still have to rely on the monks of the Exorcism Division......"

Shangguan Jin didn't speak again for a while.

She lowered her head and caught a glimpse of the soldier's armor with the name engraved on it—"Zhou Tieniu".

Zhou Tieniu's drunken remarks can be said to be very improper; But after thinking about it carefully, Shangguan Jin found that what he said made a lot of sense.

She sighed softly and pulled out a few sobering pills from the storage magic weapon she was carrying, waking up the drunken soldiers, as well as the lieutenant officer in the tavern opposite.

"This official is the Exorcist Shirou Nakashangguan Hibiscus." With her hands folded over her chest, she stood next to the black carriage with the logo of the Exorcist Division, and introduced herself with a blank face.

Hearing her introduce herself, the lieutenant officer and his men were all frightened.

For them, an official of the Fifth Rank of the Exorcism Division like Shangguan Jin is undoubtedly an unattainable big man on weekdays.

But today, such a big man actually appeared in front of them, and he happened to catch the evidence of their unauthorized departure.

They all thought to themselves: This is the end.

However, Shangguan Jin did not embarrass this group of mortal soldiers in the end.

She lightly threw down the sentence "Don't make an example", then boarded the carriage and instructed the coachman to drive back to the yamen.

At this moment, Gu Xu sat opposite her, quietly looking at the scenery outside the window, and looking at the busy figures on the streets and markets-the little guy carrying the goods, the woman next to the barbecue stall, and the vendor setting up the shelf......

Shangguan Jin looked at his calm and handsome face, and couldn't help but ask: "Gu Daoyou, what do you think about this matter?" ”

Gu Xu knew that she was talking about soldiers leaving their posts to drink without permission.

He thought for a moment and said softly: "Actually, if there is really such a day in the future, Luojing City is attacked by foreign enemies, and these mortal soldiers will have to take up arms to defend against the enemy...... That's the really bad time! ”

Shangguan Jin was thoughtful.

…………

The black carriage soon left the alley and entered the wide street.

Gu Xu suddenly heard a loud drum sound.

He poked his head out, looked out the window, and soon saw that the towering north gate of Luojing City was shining with golden brilliance.

There are a total of three gates in the north gate of Luojing.

On weekdays, only the left and right side openings are opened.

Only when there is an important event, or an important person comes and goes, will the door opening in the center be opened.

And the city gate of Luojing is also part of the "Heavenly Dragon Great Array".

Its opening and closing do not rely on manpower, but are completely controlled by formations and mechanisms.

At this moment, with the brilliant light, the doorway in the center slowly opened.

A guard of honor of dozens of people, surrounded by several richly decorated carriages, slowly drove into the city from outside the gate.

On one of the carriages, there was also a crystal clear white jade several meters high, which shimmered in the sunlight.

With his divine perception ability that far surpasses ordinary people, Gu Xu can glimpse the four big characters engraved on the jade: "The country is eternal".

"The people from the Shen clan in Jinling are also here." Seeing this scene, Shangguan Jin next to him spoke softly.

"Are you here to participate in the 'Luoshui Conference'?" Gu Xu asked.

"That's right," Shangguan Jin smiled, "As one of the three major gates, the Chen family and the Zhao family have already sent candidates to participate in the meeting, and the Shen family is naturally not far behind.

"However, the more important purpose of their trip is to offer auspicious gifts to His Majesty the Emperor."

"Xiangrui? Is it the big rock? Although Gu Xu usually reads Di Bao, he rarely spends time paying attention to news that has nothing to do with cultivation.

Shangguan Jian nodded: "The Shen family said not long ago that they dug up this big stone from the mountain—the words on it were originally from the jade, not carved by them.

"This shows that when today's son is shengming, everyone expects it, and even the heavens are in their eyes, so it will descend so auspicious."

Gu Xu did not respond immediately.

This kind of routine of "offering auspicious rui" was also seen a lot in the history books in his previous life, and most of it was a means to please the emperor.

As for the "auspiciousness" of this world, he doesn't know whether it's true or not.

But he heard that the relationship between the three major lords and the emperor has been a little tense recently-

Part of the Zhao family's military power was taken back to the imperial court.

Many industries under the Shen family in Jinling were also found to have a large number of tax evasion and evasion some time ago.

Perhaps the Shen family wanted to ask Emperor Tianxing to raise the power of the emperor through the way of "offering auspicious rui", so as to solve their own crisis.

At the same time, Gu Xu also noticed that when the light flickered on the north city gate, many people on the street knelt down with a "plop" and bowed in the direction of the city gate, chanting words in their mouths, and their expressions were extremely religious.

"What are they doing here?"

"In the eyes of these civilians, the 'Heavenly Dragon Great Array' laid by Emperor Taizu is the greatest miracle in the world, sacred and cannot be desecrated," Shangguan Jian explained, "Because of the existence of the 'Heavenly Dragon Great Array', they can live and work in peace and contentment in the city, and they do not have to face the threat of ghosts all the time."

"So many times, compared to worshipping the 'Taishang Haotian' and 'Ziwei Emperor' who are far above the Nine Heavens, they are more willing to dedicate their faith to this great array that is close at hand."

PS: 4400 word chapters. It took a few days to finally rewrite the follow-up outline, and it shouldn't be easy to get a letter next.

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