At the end of winter, a few days later is the end of the year, the snow in Kyoto is falling in the summer, and the big families in the inner city begin to prepare for the New Year's goods as early as the moon.

The eastern part of the inner city of Kyoto in Daxia is the residential area of dignitaries and nobles, a wide street crosses the entire eastern district, at the end of this street, there is a huge mansion, this mansion occupies a vast area, accounting for almost one-tenth of the entire eastern district, there is still about half an acre of flat land outside the door, the piles of the bolted horses stand neatly on the ground, several magnificent carriages are parked here, next to the car, a handsome horse boy wrapped in thick clothes is adding feed to the stone trough.

On the gate of the house, in order to avoid suspicion, go to the dragon word, the three pure gold characters of the Taifu Mansion flying and dancing are shining on the door plaque, on both sides of the door plaque, two huge lanterns have been lit, and the place in front of the door is printed with a fiery red, and the gatekeeper stands under the lantern, and accepts the gift list of visitors one by one with a smile on his face

Entering the gate of the Long family, I saw the little maids and maids with clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes running in the shouting of the steward, some of them were preparing the materials for the New Year, and some were serving delicious food to the guests, in short, they were busy.

Their faces were filled with happy smiles, and they laughed with each other from time to time, and when the stewards saw it, they laughed and scolded twice, and did not punish them, that is, they had a few more warnings to act cautiously - the end of the year is approaching.

Passing through the many houses in the front yard, and then through the garden at the atrium, behind the garden is a beautiful and beautiful small lake repaired, on the small lake, a zigzag bridge extends from the garden to the opposite bank, straight to the backyard, the backyard is not large, several small houses are randomly placed in a small but exquisite inner courtyard like stars, a three-storey attic stands in the center, it looks quite solemn and solemn, this is the place where the elders of the Long family live and manage the major events in the clan.

Different from the lively and extraordinary scene in the front yard, the backyard was quiet, and there was not even a trace of the atmosphere of the New Year, in the main hall of a house in the middle, an old man with crane hair and a childish face slowly raised the teacup, took a sip gently, and then slowly spoke: "Ah Li, Long Qingfeng has been going to Hidden Spring Town to investigate the matter of Shenquan for more than ten years." ”

"Yes, Mr. Six, it will be fifteen years in a few months. A voice came from the wall, and a figure stood in the shadows of the wall, which would have been completely ignored if it had not been observable.

"It's been fifteen years, I can't wait any longer, Long Qingfeng brothers, if they want to break away from the family and set up another door, it's not a big deal, the old man can support them, but this Long Qingfeng, hehe, standing with his son, there is an immortal master who has postponed the task of this ten-year period again and again, and this has been delayed for five years, really when the old man I am old and have no temper? The old man with a childish face carefully put down the teacup, stood up, and suddenly exuded a strong momentum from his body, which was immediately put away, as if nothing had happened.

"Hehe, those two brothers can't even think of it, if the family is really as simple as they think, how can they stand tall in this Great Xia, and actually want to break away from the family? If their father is not in the third brother's lineage, I have some scruples, how can I let them delay, or not, it will be the end of the year soon, just wait for a few months, Ah Li, you are tired, after the New Year, just go to Hidden Spring Town. The old man carefully arranged his clothes, smoothed out a wrinkle on the front hem of his robe, and then walked out of the hall door with his hands behind his back.

On the other hand, the townspeople of Yinquan Town are busy hanging lanterns and sticking couplets, originally there is no such set in Longquan Town, the New Year's Pass, that is, your family makes a pig, my family makes up some food, the people in the whole town all get together to eat and drink, and have a good time, but since the Long family came, every year the New Year has to be celebrated, and in the past 14 years, the townspeople have also learned, but they have also made it decent.

Hidden Spring Town is located in the southernmost part of the Great Summer, there is no snow here, just slightly cool, the sun at the end of winter is lazily sprinkled, and the children who used to play behind Long Xuan are chasing and playing in the streets and alleys of the town, but Long Xuan is not seen.

Long Qingfeng frowned, sat alone in the conference hall, and after a while, he pushed open the door and strode out, and the middle-aged housekeeper standing outside the door hurriedly trotted to follow.

Long Qingfeng walked out of the council room, walked through the courtyard with the butler, and stepped out of the gate.

The two of them crossed the town, greeting the neighbors from time to time kindly, asking who was going to help, turning their heads to let the housekeeper write it down, and slowly walking out of the town in a burst of applause from the townspeople, coming to the west of the town, seeing that there was no one around, the two of them ran for a while, and finally stopped at the entrance of Xilin.

"It's been three months since the second master took the deacons in, and now there is no news coming out, this Xilin is extremely dangerous, and I'm afraid I won't be able to come back before the end of this year. Long Qingfeng looked at Xilin for a long time and said slowly.

"Don't be anxious, the second master and the deacons are naturally blessed with all the blessings, and there should be news about this divine spring, with the second master personally leading the team. The housekeeper bowed to Long Qingfeng and spoke.

Long Qingfeng nodded and spoke again: "How is Xuan'er's matter arranged." ”

"Master, the matter of the third young master has already been arranged, the old slave sent it out of Hidden Spring Town with a few reliable people, and found a small village to live in temporarily, my family personally took care of it there, and I thought it would not go wrong. The butler was very cooperative and stepped forward to whisper back.

"In this case, let's go back, the year is over, and everything will be discussed after the year is over. Long Qingfeng took one last look at Xilin, turned around and walked towards Hidden Spring Town, and the housekeeper hurriedly followed.

"Second master, you go first, I'll stop this beast!" A slightly heavy shout sounded in the depths of Xilin, and a deacon of the Long family with a broken left arm quickly slapped a few times on several of his big holes, barely stopping the blood from the broken arm, this arm was not like being cut off by a sharp blade, but was vigorously torn apart, and the fracture was uneven.

He strode forward with a pale face, his right arm swinging his knife horizontally, blocking the path of a ferocious beast.

Behind him, there were scarred Long Qinglei and the remaining deacons of the Long family, the deacons of more than a dozen people, but now even counting the one-armed man, there are only six people left Long Wuying, Long Xing and others, and these six people are also injured, and their eyes reveal heavy exhaustion.

"Let's go!" Long Qinglei's eyes flashed, and he said to the remaining deacons.

The five deacons bowed to the one-armed deacon with their fists and quickly withdrew, and after all the deacons around him except for the one-armed man retreated, Long Qingfeng straightened up and bowed to him: "This great favor, thank you without words, your relatives, my eldest brother and I will definitely live up!"

"Hahahaha! Second master, you go first, when I slaughter this beast, I will catch up with you and wait for peace! Why do you bother to say such discouraged words! It's just a pity, there is no wine here!" The one-armed deacon smiled heroically, and when the beast was about to hold back, he waved the knife first, and the man followed the knife, rushed up, and fought with the beast.

Long Qinglei bowed again, took one last look at the deacon, turned around and ran, and after a while, he converged Long Wuying and the others who were deliberately slowing down and waiting, and then accelerated and fled.

A few hours later, the moon quietly poked its head out of the clouds, in the natural tree fort formed by several ancient trees, the corpses of the two fierce beasts that were still steaming were thrown aside at will, Long Qinglei and others sat here, and they didn't dare to light a fire to barbecue, for fear of causing trouble, a few people ate a few pieces of dry food that they carried with them, silently took out the wound medicine, smeared the wound, Long Wuying and Long Qinglei were expressionless, and several other people grinned from time to time, and several people did not make a sound.

After a long time, Long Xing raised his head and slowly spoke: "Deacon Long Xiao, I'm afraid I'm going to ......" No one responded, several people's heads hung heavily, their hands shook, and they could barely hold the wound medicine in their hands.

After a long time, Long Qinglei raised his head, "If I wait to get out alive, I will still wait for Long Xiao's relatives!" After speaking, he shook his head and said self-deprecatingly: "This is the eleventh time I have said this sentence since I entered Xilin." ”

Long Wuying interface: "Second master, we are all willing to enter Xilin, the family needs us, if we don't work hard to complete the task, the family will be destroyed sooner or later, the deceased has gone, we all swear to treat their family is, but now, don't say this, don't say that the divine spring has not been discovered, even if the cause of the mutation of the trees in Xilin has not been found, how can this be good." ”

After another period of silence, Long Xing pondered for a long time and said, "This matter is actually already showing signs. ”

"Oh, is there really such a thing? You can tell me carefully, if this matter is serious, it should be counted as your first credit!" Long Qinglei was overjoyed, and the rest of the deacons also looked at Long Xing, waiting for a reply.

"Second master, deacons, I don't know if you have noticed that after the mutation, we entered Xilin, and there were no fierce beasts and poisonous insects at first, and we were able to go deep smoothly, but after getting used to it, suddenly many fierce beasts and poisonous insects attacked, and we waited to catch us off guard, but we were only injured, and we did not reduce the number of personnel. Long Xing said slowly.

"I'm also curious about this. Long Wuying spoke out when everyone nodded, and everyone moved their eyes to themselves, and then said: "Originally, the task of exploring Xilin was mainly responsible for me, I have led people into Xilin several times, all of them have just entered the periphery, and there will be fierce beasts attacking, the distance of encountering fierce beasts is completely incomparable with the distance we are waiting for deep this time, but as we go deeper, the fierce beasts become more and more powerful, so that I have explored several times to no avail." ”

"The fierce beasts we encountered this time are far stronger than the ones I encountered before, these fierce beasts are no obstacle for us to unite, but ordinary martial artists can't deal with it at all when their internal force can't be used, but this strength is not right, it seems that all the low-level fierce beasts in the area before have disappeared, so we rushed directly into the depths. ”

"And no matter why the ferocious beasts on the periphery disappeared, there is still one thing to pay attention to" Long Xing looked around at everyone and spoke again: "Originally, the fierce beasts we encountered did our best, although they were a little reluctant, but they were still able to deal with it, but in the past few days, we have suffered heavy casualties, why? Have you ever seen a tiger with wings on its back before? Or have you ever seen a giant bear covered in bone spurs? And the four-armed fierce ape that I met at the end......" Speaking of this, Long Xing couldn't help but shudder, as if recalling some terrifying memory.

"The most important thing is that these fierce beasts will all disappear in one night, and only during the day will they appear, do you remember the giant bear? Originally, I was about to be shot to death by him, but for some reason it suddenly gave up the pursuit and killing, and we were able to survive, and now I think that the same should be true of the fierce ape before I came, but I couldn't wait for so long before Deacon Long Xiao gave up his life to block the road. ”

"First of all, if such a fierce beast appears, this place must have reached the depths of Xilin, so boldly imagine, these fierce beasts, every night, have something they have to care about, and would rather give up chasing and killing us!" Long Xing said excitedly and then asked rhetorically, "So, what attracts these fierce beasts?"

"It's not the thing that caused the mutation in Xilin, or the divine spring, or rather, the two are the same thing!" Long Qinglei concluded.