When Zhou Yan arrived at Xiliu Village, it was already evening.

Nearly fifteen, the moon is more than halfway full, hanging high in the sky, alone in the ancient and modern.

The wind is blowing, the night is quiet, and there are occasional crickets and insects, but the night is more quiet.

The life of the peasant family has always been regular, and most of the families have fallen asleep at this time, and only a few households are still lit with lights.

If there is a painter here, he can probably depict a picture of the village on a moonlit night, peaceful and peaceful.

Zhou Yan smelled the slightest strangeness from such tranquility, and always felt that a dark cloud was hanging over the village.

It's still the moon when you look up, but is the moonlight still the usual moonlight?

Shaking his head and shaking off the uneasiness, he took the right direction and walked northeast of the village.

Thanks to the blessing of the memory of his predecessor, he, a newcomer, can find the Dragon King Temple alone.

Within a stick of incense, he saw a bonfire burning in front of him, and he didn't have to think about it, it must be Liu Yun.

Quickened his pace and approached him, and sure enough, it was Liu Yunsheng's fire.

So the people by the fire changed from one to two.

Liu Yun took a bun and burned it on the fire, and after biting it, he sighed inexplicably: "It's thanks to you." ”

Zhou Yan was staring at the fire, and the wooden branches that had burned to red made a sound of "peeling", and occasionally the red star splashed, but it failed to jump out, and still fell back into the fire, turning into black ashes.

"What do you mean?" His thoughts were interrupted, and the other party's words sounded strange, and he couldn't help but ask.

"If Zhang Zhong comes, can I eat buns now?" Liu Yun pointed to the bun in his hand and said with a smile.

"That's just as well." Zhou Yan turned his head and smiled at him.

Zhang Chong's little monthly money, listening to music and drinking by himself is no longer enough, and he has to tighten his belt to live on weekdays, let alone bring buns to others.

"I said Xiao Zhou, ......" Liu Yun took another bite of the bun and started a new topic.

"Brother Liu, you say." Over the past three months, Zhou Yan has always been quite polite in dealing with people, except for Zhang Chong.

"You're in your early twenties, aren't you?"

"Two out of twenty." Zhou Yan replied, it is a coincidence that he and his predecessor both died at the age of twenty-two.

"Is there a match?" Liu Yun has transformed into a neighborhood aunt who loves to talk about the shortcomings of her parents.

"Never." Zhou Yan shook his head, the situation of his previous body, it is rare to be able to grow like this with all beards and tails, how can there be a marriage match.

"It's time to get on the head, you and Zhang Zhong are the only ones left in the county office." Liu Yun half-jokingly.

"Don't worry, if I also go ashore, won't Brother Zhang become a real loner?" Zhou Yan waved his hand, also joking.

The two of them laughed together.

After the laughter stopped, Zhou Yan's expression was solemn: "Brother Liu, you have been on this day, have you ever noticed anything unusual?" ”

The two of them gathered here not to go on a spring trip, but naturally to return to official business.

"Nope." Liu Yunzheng said, "But I have been guarding the Dragon King Temple, and I may not be able to know what is going on elsewhere." ”

"Are the villagers still in the dark?" Zhou Yan asked again.

"I'm here and no one has ever gone in." Liu Yun's implication is that if there is no other way, the news should not be leaked.

"There are only 100 households in Xiliu Village, and if something really happens, it will spread throughout the village immediately." Zhou Yan muttered, "So if you haven't heard of any movement, it should be calm." ”

"That is, nothing else but that line?" He was puzzled.

They have agreed that it is an evil cultivator who is doing ghosts behind their backs, but can there be such an evil cultivator in the world? Leave a line and then disappear.

Is it a covert hand? Or do you really think that the local people will listen to the so-called "edict" and sacrifice a pair of virgins and boys?

Or is it not an evil cultivator at all?

That would be......

Thinking of this, Zhou Yan was shocked.

If that's what he thinks, then the situation can be explained now.

No, it must not be like this, there is no precedent for a hundred years, it is their words, it doesn't make sense, it doesn't make sense. He shook his head.

Liu Yun saw that his expression had changed several times, and he said curiously: "Xiao Zhou, what did you think of?" ”

"Nothing." He himself does not want to believe the conjecture, naturally he will not tell others.

I hope Ah Qi is right, he thought.

"Brother Liu, Wang Tou asked us to investigate one or two before leaving, do you have a clue?" Pack up your mind and get back to business.

"Nope." Liu Yun shook his head and said, "What do you think?" ”

"You haven't been staying here all this time, let alone I'm a newcomer." Zhou Yan also felt at a loss, except for that line of words, there were no clues at the moment, and he didn't know where to start if he wanted to check.

He guessed that the reason why the king's head wanted him to come first was to prevent trouble. If something really happens in the village, I'm afraid that Liu Yun will not be able to support it alone.

It's just that I didn't expect it to be calm here, and it seems that I can only accompany Liu Yun to keep vigil.

"So what should we do now?" Liu Yun has been on guard for a day, and he is somewhat tired.

"Why don't you take a nap first, Brother Liu, I'll watch here, and then change me when you wake up." Zhou Yan pondered for a moment and proposed.

Two people are guarding a small temple, which is a waste of manpower.

Besides, the night is still long, if the two of them want to fight hard, when they get to the back, I'm afraid they won't be able to stay up, so it's better to have a rotation.

"Okay, then you watch here, I'll sleep for a while." Liu Yun was not polite, got up and found a tree casually, leaned on it, and was about to fall asleep.

"Wait." Zhou Yan called out, and seeing that the other party was looking at him suspiciously, he took out a thin blanket from the package and threw it over, "Cover this so as not to catch a cold." ”

"I'm glad I'm here." Liu Yun laughed again.

"Brother Zhang is actually not bad, at least to ward off evil spirits." Zhou Yan replied with a joke.

The two laughed in unison again.

When Liu Yun snored in his dream, Zhou Yan pondered whether to take out the mirror and talk to Ah Qi again.

Several times he touched his hand in his arms, but finally dispelled this idea.

Forget it, be careful to sail the 10,000-year-old ship, maybe there will be evil cultivators watching on the side.

Bored left and right, he simply began to practice the "tattered exercises".

This exercise is really wonderful, with his mediocre talent, he can't practice for three months, and he already means that the artistic conception is complete, and he is only one foot away from breaking the realm.

After the meaning is the more ordinary, as the name suggests, the more ordinary you enter, you can be regarded as truly distinguishing from mortals.

According to Ah Qi, it means that Yue Fan is the first threshold on the path of cultivation, and it is no longer a simple accumulation of spiritual power to break through the realm, but requires a qualitative change.

But when Zhou Yan asked her what kind of qualitative change she had, she couldn't answer.

So he sometimes wonders if Ah Qi is in the same realm as his current self.

Sure enough, he had reached the bottleneck, and in addition to making the spiritual power in his body thicker this time, he did not improve his cultivation.

"So what exactly is the so-called qualitative change?" He couldn't help but fall into deep thought again.

"Xiao Zhou, you go to sleep too, I'm here for me." Before he could come up with a reason, Liu Yun's voice came to his ears.

"So fast? Do you want to sleep a little longer? "Zhou Yan will not be sleepy.

"When it looks like it's over, you can go to sleep for a while, maybe what's going to happen during the day." Liu Yun looked up at the moon and persuaded.

Zhou Yan listened, no longer insisted, went to the tree that the other party was leaning on, followed suit, closed his eyes and rested.

I don't know how long it took, someone seemed to blow cool air on his neck, which made him get goosebumps all over his body, and he turned over and sat up after a stirring.

opened his sleepy eyes, but he didn't see Liu Yun.

"Brother Liu, Brother Liu." He called twice, but no one answered.

I rubbed my eyes to make them fit into the night, but I still didn't see anyone.

Looking around, I suddenly saw that the Dragon King Temple on the side was faintly glowing with a cold dark red light!

It's not like this before bedtime!

Zhou Yan put his hand on the ground, turned over, and pulled out his saber with a "swish" to make a defensive gesture.

He pushed his five senses to the extreme, but he still didn't notice half of the movement.

Only the red light of the forest, strange and treacherous, through the small windows on the left and right of the main entrance of the temple, shot out coldly, quite like a human face with a mocking expression.

He tiptoed to the temple.

When he arrived at the gate of the temple, Zhou Yan's figure flashed, leaning against the temple wall, and carefully poked his head in.

That red light turned out to be from a confession!

He stood on tiptoe, used his eyesight, and finally saw where the light on the case came from, it was a line of words.

"The Dragon King's Edict: On the fifteenth day of the fifth month, a pair of boys and girls must be sacrificed!"