() The strange cry suddenly sounded behind them, which really startled the three of them. He quickly turned around, but there was nothing behind him. The three of them heard it very clearly, and the cry came from the small courtyard a few steps away, the courtyard wall was in tatters, and the courtyard was clearly empty when looking over the broken bricks and tiles.

Zhu Xiaomin and Hua Qingyu held each other's hands tightly and trembled unconsciously. Tianyao held the Gu Ding Sword in his hand and kicked open the courtyard door. "Who!" he shouted, "What kind of trick is it?" The shout echoed over the deserted village, but there was no response.

Suddenly, a cool breeze blew again, and the strange cry sounded again, "Woo", the three of them looked at the place where the sound came from, but they felt that the crying and laughing was actually a hole in the broken courtyard wall.

"Well, what is this called? Tianyao laughed at himself and walked to the courtyard wall to take a closer look. The courtyard wall is made of bricks, with two layers, the inner hole is large, and the outer hole is small, and when the wind blows through the hole, it makes a sound similar to that of a woman crying with the strength of the wind. Tianyao kicked the hole in the wall, kicking several wall tiles on the outer layer to pieces, and the man's "cry" also stopped abruptly.

"I was scared for a long time by a broken wall. Zhu Xiaomin breathed a long sigh of relief.

Tianyao turned around and smiled: "Who made you so cowardly......" As he spoke, he suddenly put away his smile and pointed with his hand, "Look!"

Zhu Xiaomin and Hua Qingyu looked back, and in the deserted farmland north of the village, there was a blue-green light looming among the grass, fluctuating.

Hua Qingyu was surprised: "That's ......"

"It's a ghost fire!" Tianyao said with great certainty. He had seen this strange scene when he was a child, when he was about seven or eight years old, and one summer night, he and Tianxiao secretly ran up to Dongshi Mountain to catch insects and play, and they saw a faint blue-green light flashing a few miles away, and the two brothers were so frightened that they quickly fled back home. Because he ran out to play, he didn't dare to ask his parents, and quietly asked Huang Lao Butler in private. The old butler Huang was well-informed and told the brothers that it was a ghost fire, a sign that there were dead people buried underground.

Hearing the word "ghost fire", Zhu Xiaomin couldn't help but shudder again, and said faintly: "The ghost fire has light but no flame, I heard that it is the soul of a person who died unjustly, it is very evil!"

"I don't know if it's evil or not, I just know that there must be dead people buried under that land. It's strange, it used to be a field, how could there be dead people?" Tianyao muttered and walked towards the ghost fire.

Zhu Xiaomin pulled the sleeve of Lahua Qingyu: "Sister Qingyu, let's not go over, it's scary." ”

Hua Qingyu said: "No one has been here for several years, but there are dead people buried in the farmland, don't you think it's strange? Maybe it has something to do with the disappearance of the villagers of Jingren." Then you wait here, I'm going to go over and have a look. ”

"Well, then I'll go too. Of course, Zhu Xiaomin didn't want to stay here alone.

Tianyao has entered the weeds. The weeds were about a man tall, and there were countless vines tangled with each other, and he had to swing his sword to clear the way as he went. At this time, the wind suddenly stopped, and the ghost fire that was originally drifting with the wind floated to his side along the air flow brought by Tianyao's sword, lingering up and down. He didn't care about the ghost fire at all, his eyes were attracted by something in the earth.

It was a small piece of white bone that was sticking out of the ground.

Tian Yao slashed a few swords at random, cut off the weeds around him, cleared a small clearing, and then pulled the white bone out of the ground. It was one of the man's thigh bones, but it had been severed.

Tianyao thought about it and dug it up against the ground with the fairy sword. Sure enough, after digging twice, another bone was revealed. He said: "If you can make a ghost fire, it means that you have been dead for three or four years, and it is almost the time when the villagers of Jingren disappear. ”

"Do you suspect that these two things are related?" said Hua Qingyu.

"Hmm. Tianyao responded, "Even if there is a dead person in the countryside, it will not be buried in the field, and there must be something strange in it." In addition, this leg bone is broken strangely, the fracture is flat and smooth, it does not look like it is broken, it should be cut off by a sharp blade. ”

Hua Qingyu deduced from this: "That is to say, after someone was killed, he was buried here indiscriminately by the murderer." ”

Zhu Xiaomin was puzzled: "Sister Qingyu, how do you know that the murderer buried it?"

"The burial of the dead in the countryside will never be buried in the fields on which they depend, this is one thing;" Hua Qingyu explained, "Second, you can see that this corpse is buried so shallowly, even the bones are coming out of the ground, which shows that the person who buried the corpse was in a hurry, and this can only be done by the murderer." ”

Tianyao listened to Hua Qingyu's words, his brows furrowed, and he suddenly remembered those sword marks found in many rooms in Jingren Village, and suddenly a sense of apprehension surged in his heart. He carefully looked at the white bones in his hand: "You guys hurry up and dig around here to see if there are any other bones." ”

"Other bones?" Hua Qingyu and Zhu Xiaomin were stunned, not knowing what Tianyao meant.

Tianyao pointed to the ghost fire flickering next to him: "A shallow burial of bones will not produce ghost fire." The faint turquoise light reflected on his face, and the serious expression was unsettling, "Alas, I hope I'm wrong......" He shook his head and sighed, digging into another place on the ground, Hua Qingyu and Zhu Xiaomin also found a place each.

After a while, Hua Qingyu let out a soft shout, and a skull was dug out, and then, Zhu Xiaomin also dug out one, and the three of them were taken aback and continued to dig around. The ghost fire dissipated unconsciously, and more and more bones were dug up from the ground, some buried deep, some buried shallow, but all the bones had one common feature, and none of them were intact. The barren field is like a pit of the dead, with broken bones and torn clothes, which makes people tremble and jaw-dropping.

Three, you look at me, I look at you, I don't know what to say. The villagers of Jingren Village suddenly disappeared overnight, and they were brutally killed and buried

In the middle of this field! No wonder the weeds here are so dense that they have been fertilized with a "dead man."

After being silent for a long time, Zhu Xiaomin finally spit out a sentence: "It's too cruel!" She didn't dare to look at the pile of bones.

"Will Senior Brother Tianxiao also ......" Hua Qingyu was very worried.

"Impossible!" Tianyao said categorically, "Four years ago, Brother Tianyao must have been in the Void Realm, and he should have the ability to protect himself." ”

"Then where will he go?" Zhu Xiaomin muttered. No one knows the answer to this question.

"No matter where he goes, we must find him!" Tianyao said.

"Anyway, let's get out of here. "Hua Qingyu said. The three of them couldn't bear to be exposed to the white bones everywhere, and after burying them a little, they hurriedly flew away from Jingren Village.

Back in Xuzhou, they didn't bother Liu Zimu again, but went to Xueqing Inn. All three were depressed.

"I really don't know what the city lord of Xuzhou eats, the people in a village have been missing for four years, so it's not good to investigate!" Zhu Xiaomin slapped the table angrily. According to its location, Jingren Village does belong to the territory of Xuzhou.

Tian Yao asked rhetorically: "Xiaomin, have you forgotten the current situation in the Qinglong Continent? In the past few years, the relationship between the kings of the seven counties has always been tense, which has made people panic, and it has only eased up recently. At the beginning, even if the city lord of Xuzhou found out, it was estimated that it was a hasty matter. ”

In the past ten years, the demon beast army has been firmly occupying half of the Qinglong Continent, the original Shenglong County Dingjun King Kong Yingren, Youlong County Town Commander Qin Yongshan, and the Feilong County Angui King Bai Wenchao's son Bai Yunbo once jointly raised troops to the west, and the major immortal cultivation sects also participated in it, intending to recover the three western counties, but unfortunately failed in the end. It doesn't have much impact on immortal cultivators, after all, they can cultivate anywhere. It doesn't matter to the people of Limin, more than ten years have passed, and the people who left their hometowns have already taken root in the new place and are accustomed to a peaceful life. But for the three county kings, it is uncomfortable, the land is gone, the power is gone, and the position of the county king is completely useless. Therefore, after the failure of the western expedition, the three county kings secretly stationed troops, intending to regain their own territory in the eastern part of the Qinglong Continent. Several other county kings were also wary, and there were several small-scale conflicts, but the people didn't buy it, so it didn't make a big deal after all, but the relationship between the seven county kings was much worse.

With the news that the immortal cultivators and the dragon clan had returned from the Shuzang Palace to get the sword, it set off an uproar on the Qinglong Continent. Zhengang, Moyang, Shengxie, Seven Stars, and Juque, these five immortal swords are the targets that people are most concerned about today. Not only the Taiqing Sect and the Chiri Sect, but other major sects have also sent disciples to find clues, even small and medium-sized sects are no exception. Following the last search for the Five Dipper Star Silk, a new wave of sword-seeking craze has appeared in the Qinglong Continent.

At the same time, the news of the decisive battle with the demon beast five years later also spread. This news greatly eased the relationship between the county kings, and in the face of the threat of demon beasts, it was natural to have the same hatred.

The next day, Tianyao used the Spirit Breath Jade to report everything he had found the night before to Lu Hailong, and Lu Hailong fell into deep thought after knowing it. Moments later, he sent back a message and told the three of them to continue their search for Tianxiao's whereabouts. In fact, he was very uneasy in his heart, and he had already made a rough inference about the tragedy in Jingren Village. If it weren't for the preparation for the upcoming fairy and demon war, he would definitely go down the mountain to find Tianxiao in person, but for now, he could only hope for the three of them.

......

At this time, in a dark cave, Tianxiao was lying quietly on a stone platform.

On the ground next to the stone platform, a man dressed in black and covered with a black cloak sat cross-legged. The cloak was very large, and he had a hat attached to it, and his head was covered, so that the man's face could not be seen, only that he was not tall and that he was rickety.

Suddenly, Tianxiao seemed to wake up from a nightmare, coughed lightly, and sat up.

The man next to him said coldly: "Stinky boy, let me ask you again, do you agree?" His voice was very low, slightly hoarse, and seemed to be not young.

Tianxiao gasped for breath in exhaustion and did not answer.

"What a hard ......," the man in black scolded, "I have a way to cure you!"

Tianxiao glanced at the man in black, his eyes full of disgust, disdain, and indifference. He only said four words: "Wishful thinking!"

"Hmph, I want to see how long you can hold on!" The man in black said, "Teng" stood up, stretched out his black gloved hands from the black robe, and grabbed Tianxiao's two wrists respectively, secretly lucky. Suddenly, a huge pain swept through Tianxiao's body, and he persevered, but his lower lip, which was already full of scars, was bitten again, and blood flowed into his mouth, salty and astringent. "Ahh

The man in black clenched tighter.

Tianxiao's body trembled, and after a long scream, he finally couldn't hold it anymore, and his head tilted and he fainted. The man in black shook off Tianxiao's wrist, and Tianxiao fell limply on the stone platform. The man in black lowered his head and spit: "This stinky boy who doesn't know whether he lives or dies......"

The next day, when Tianxiao woke up, the same situation happened again. The man in black worked again, and Tianxiao fainted again.

In this way, in four years, Tianxiao didn't know how many times he was tossed, but he didn't know this mysterious man in black at all.

After waking up again, Tianxiao said weakly: "You better kill me......

"Want to die, it's not that easy!" the man in black said coldly. Suddenly, his tone softened again, "Why are you bothered? we could have become masters and apprentices, or even good friends." I advise you to obediently assist me, so that I do not suffer more. ”

Tianxiao closed his eyes, breathing

"From the time you did those things, we weren't destined to be friends...... You, so hateful!"

The man in black was annoyed and angry, and raised his voice: "With your state of mind, how can you achieve great things!"

Tianxiao smiled contemptuously: "If you have to be like you when you become a big thing, I would rather give up." ”

The black-clothed man was so angry that he held back for a long time before he breathed a sigh of relief: "Okay, then it depends on which of us can afford whom! Anyway, I waited so long, I don't care about this little time." ”

"If you don't kill me, I'll kill you one day!" said Tianxiao hatefully.

The man in black laughed wildly: "You don't need to provoke me, I just like to see you in pain, hahaha!"

......

It all started one night four years ago.

Since the death of Huang Lao's housekeeper, Tianxiao has almost stayed at home, meditating in the room during the day, and practicing knives in the courtyard in the dead of night. Fortunately, the small courtyard is located at the end of the west of the village, and it is against the East Stone Mountain, so it is relatively remote. The villagers only said that it was a distant relative from Old Man Huang's family, but they didn't know Tianxiao's true identity.

It has been seven years since I parted with my younger brother Tianyao and others, and Tianxiao misses them very much. He didn't know the result of Lu Hailong and the others after they went to Shuzang Palace, so he often remembered that amiable and respectable senior. The steady senior brother Han Mingfei, the kind senior sister Tang Junhe, the gentle Hua Qingyu, the wise Tianyao, the lovely junior sister Zhu Xiaomin, as well as the old-fashioned master Yu Ruijiang and the gentle senior sister Hua Qianxue, everyone in Zhuyuan made him very concerned, and recalling the happy times in the past has become a must-do for Tianxiao when he is free.

But the peaceful life was shattered by sudden evil.

On a dark and windy night, when Tianxiao was meditating, he suddenly heard the sound of tiles on the roof. Before he could stand up, a dark shadow suddenly broke through the roof and fell into the room. He was dressed in black, with a cloak on his head, and his face was tightly covered, and he was small and had a somewhat hunched back.

"Who are you?" asked Tianxiao.

The man didn't speak, and his figure flashed to Tianxiao's side, grabbed his wrist, and the man in black even wore black gloves on his hands. Tianxiao struggled hard, but he couldn't let go of his hand at all, the man in black was so tight that Tianxiao felt that the bones in his wrist were about to break.

The man in black suddenly snorted softly, then laughed, aimed at Tianxiao's neck and slapped him, knocking him unconscious. Then, he carried the unconscious Tianxiao and quickly disappeared in the dark night.

When Tianxiao woke up, he was already in this dark cave. The man in black stood beside him and said coldly, "You're awake." ”

"Who the hell are you? where is this?" asked Tianxiao warily.

"Boy, how can you cultivate demons, say!" the man in black said in a very unceremonious tone.

Tianxiao was taken aback, why did the man in black who didn't know know about his ability to cultivate demons know about it?" "I don't understand what you're saying. He could only pretend to be confused.

"Smack", the man in black directly slapped Tianxiao fiercely, and sneered, "Don't pretend to be garlic for me! If you don't know how to cultivate demons, where does the mysterious power in your meridians come from?"

Tianxiao secretly said in his heart: "Oops, I forgot to block the operation of the Xuan Force! It seems that this person's cultivation is not low, and he can actually detect the Xuan Power running in my body! I don't know what his purpose is......"

"What, don't you say it?"

"Tell me who you are and why you kidnapped me here?" Tianxiao said as he thought about escaping. The man in black can stun him with one palm, and his cultivation realm must be much higher.

The man in black slapped him again, and Tian Xiao had an idea, this was the opportunity! He took a big step back with the power of the man in black's palm, turned around and ran out of the cave. But before he could reach the entrance of the cave, he suddenly saw a flower in front of him, and the man in black had rushed in front of him, and kicked him back with a heavy kick in the chest. Tianxiao suddenly felt stuffy, his chest was extremely painful, and he didn't know how many ribs were broken.

"If you fall into my hands, don't think about escaping, save yourself from asking for hardship. The black-clothed man's voice was like winter, "Let's be honest, why do you cultivate demons?"

Now that the man in black knows about Xuanli, Tianxiao can no longer hide it: "I do know how to cultivate demons." But I'm not going to tell you, you're still dead. ”

"You have hard teeth now, and I have a way to make you speak in the future. As a word of advice, in order to avoid unnecessary suffering, you had better tell me obediently. Otherwise, hum!" the man in black smirked, his voice hoarse and disgusting.

Tianxiao was not afraid of his threat at all and remained silent.

Seeing this, the man in black was furious, grabbed one of Tianxiao's hands, and pulled his little finger in reverse, "click", and his little finger was broken. Ten fingers connected to the heart, Tianxiao snorted in pain, but still gritted his teeth and didn't spit out a word.

"Yo, it's quite bearable!" the man in black grinned and broke another ring finger. A cold sweat broke out on Tianxiao's face, but he just refused to speak.

"I'd like to see how long you can last!" the man in black was furious, and broke the remaining three fingers at once, and then twisted it hard, breaking Tianxiao's wrist as well. Tianxiao finally couldn't help but exhale in pain. The man in black seemed to be happy to see his unbearable pain, grabbed his forearm again, and pulled it outward, with a dull "pop", Tianxiao's elbow joint was also broken. The man in black didn't give Tianxiao a chance to breathe, and then smashed his shoulder bone with a heavy punch, and Tianxiao's entire right arm was useless.

"Still don't say it?" the man in black finally lost his patience. Tianxiao, who was covered in cold sweat, gasped for breath and shook his head gently. He had already made up his mind in his heart, even if he killed him, he would not show a word.

Seeing that this trick didn't work for Tianxiao, the man in black thought of other methods. He pulled out the sword on his back, brushed a few swords and broke Tianxiao's tendons and tendons, and then carried him on his shoulder, and his figure disappeared into the night outside the cave in a flash.