Rainy night.

The rattling downpour continued to wash over Xuanxue City, and a few lightning bolts across the sky from time to time in the distance also added a bit of gloomy atmosphere to this night. Because of this bad weather, most of the residents in Xuanxue City chose to return home early, and Xuanxue Country, which usually has a bit of a city that never sleeps, almost fell silent on this night.

Yet even on a night like this, there are still a few places in the city that are still noisy. A small pub next to a post house in the city is one of them. I saw that the decoration of this wine shop is quite simple and even simple, but it is a hastily built wooden house with some long tables and benches, and a few round tables and round stools are set up by the window and other places with a wide view, which should be prepared for those "big customers" who are willing to pay a few more pennies for copper plate wine.

At this time, at a round table near the window of this wine shop, Shaoqing was holding a cheap turbid wine and pouring himself a drink. I saw him raise the wine cup, first take a sip, then drink it all, slam the wine cup on the table, and then pick up the wine pot on the side and fill the wine cup again. However, this time he did not raise the wine cup again, but just looked at the cloudy wine a little stupidly, and then turned his eyes to the window, looking at the gloomy rainy night outside, feeling the cold wind blowing from the window, and couldn't help but sigh.

The effect of "Jingxue ......" alcohol made Shaoqing's thoughts slightly dazed, and the shadow that haunted him seemed to appear in front of his eyes again. Soon after Shaoqing left the palace of King Xuanxue that day, there was news in the palace that the eldest princess of Xuanxue Kingdom, Murong Jingxue, was recruiting relatives by martial arts, and for a time the whole country of Xuanxue Kingdom was a sensation, not to mention that Jingxue was a princess of a country, and being able to become a concubine was a great opportunity for anyone with ambition to rise to prominence, and it was rumored that Princess Xuanxue's peerless appearance was a fatal temptation that every man could not resist. Soon after the news of recruiting relatives came out, the palace sent the crown prince Murong Jingfeng as the imperial envoy to recruit relatives, and Murong Jingfeng immediately sent a heroic post to the world, regardless of background, nobility or lowness, regardless of sect, as long as you are willing and pass the preliminary examination of the palace, you can show your majesty at the recruitment conference and win the heart of the princess. For a while, the news spread all over the north and south of the Great River, and some famous families and factions in the rivers and lakes also couldn't bear it anymore, and sent their proud young disciples to Xuanxue City to try their skills. There have been more and more people in Xuanxue City recently, and even the drunken chatter in this small wine shop where Shaoqing is located is all kinds of rumors about the recruitment conference. And these people, whether they are Jianghu people or peddlers' pawns, don't know that the people who have long been bound to win this recruitment conference are sitting beside them.

But Shaoqing was a little uneasy in his heart at this time, and even he didn't know where this uneasiness came from. If it comes to martial arts competitions, Shaoqing thinks that there is nothing to worry about too much, because after all, he is a person who has practiced immortal arts, and he can barely be regarded as an entry-level sword immortal, and the conference of martial arts competitions and recruiting relatives, although it is a prosperous era of the rivers and lakes, but presumably the legendary hidden immortal gate will not care about this kind of red dust and mundane affairs. Moreover, although the children of the famous families who came to participate in the meeting were from famous families in the world, their strength was definitely not as strong as the strength of the elder martial artists in the various sects. Therefore, as long as there are no hidden sword immortals or elder-level figures in the famous sects at the martial arts competition, Shaoqing thinks that he has the strength to deal with it. But this did not make Shaoqing dispel the sense of uneasiness from the bottom of his heart, that feeling was not from the threat of strength, but a sense of helplessness about the uncertainty of the future, Shaoqing always felt that there were some things in this recruitment that he could not control, and the only variable seemed to be the little princess Murong Zining, that is, Shaoqing's soul for Ning'er.

"What's the use of thinking about that? You can only take one step at a time. Shaoqing smiled bitterly at himself, and then raised the wine cup and drank it all. But when he had just put down the wine cup and had not poured it again, the conversation of several people at the next table suddenly reached his ears.

Just listen to what seems to be a conversation between a middle-aged man, a young man and a young girl. I only heard the girl say anxiously: "Master, senior brother, we were originally here to attend the senior sister's wedding, but first on the road was inexplicably ambushed by an unknown master, and after solving this matter, we hurried to Jiangdu, and the senior brother-in-law's house had such a tragic incident, and the senior sister was also missing, you say...... You think something must have happened to Senior Sister, right? Then I heard the young man also say with some uneasiness: "Xiaoxi, don't worry, your senior sister is strong in martial arts, and besides, she has a peerless knowledge of our sect, so she should be fine." Then I heard the middle-aged man sigh and said: "So far, we have no clues, and the people who know the process of the matter seem to have been sealed by the Jiangdu government. ”

Tang Yueyao! Shaoqing, who remembered this name again, felt a pain in his heart, and the desolate figure in a red-clothed wedding dress but holding blood-stained knives seemed to appear in front of him again, and the few people who wanted to come to this adjacent table were Zhuo Yunkong, Zuo Pofeng, and her little junior sister who Tang Yueyao wanted to invite to be her foreign aid at that time. Presumably, a few people rushed from Kunlun Mountain, but on the way, Gu Tianhao, who got the news, sent someone to secretly ambush and delay time, and when they arrived in Jiangdu, Tang Yueyao was already dead, and several people couldn't find a clue all the way to come to this Xuanxue City to visit.