Hengshan faction

The last light between heaven and earth gradually dimmed in the rainy weather, until it was completely dark, and the autumn rain was still dripping, and the lights were already in the courtyards. The rain was thick and the light was dim, stretching the figure long and blurred in the ripples of the puddles on the ground.

Li Zifeng walked in the rain with an oil-paper umbrella, and his hand holding the umbrella was already icy. Walking to a very ordinary building, he stopped, and by the dim light, he stared at the three words 'Library Pavilion' on the plaque above the main entrance.

The Library Pavilion sounds like a place to store books, but it is actually a place where the confidential archives of the Hengshan Sect are stored, except for the head Ouyang Ze and the strict elder Hai Yi, no one else, including the chief disciple Li Zifeng, is allowed to trespass without the permission of the head Ouyang Ze, and those who violate the rules of the door will be dealt with. Therefore, there are secret guards around the library day and night, and if they find an intruder, they will be captured immediately.

Thinking of this, Li Zifeng's eyebrows and eyes tightened, but the next moment, before a complete breath was completed, there were three dark guards blocking in front of him, one of the dark guards stepped forward, and finally saw the person clearly through the dim light, and immediately saluted, "Senior brother." ”

Li Zifeng nodded silently.

The leading secret guard continued to ask tentatively, "Senior brother is here, is there something wrong?"

At night in the mountains, the temperature plummeted, and there was a bit of heat in the heavy breath, Li Zifeng frowned, and his voice was still calm and calm, "I am afraid that there will be movements in the Lingye Palace recently." I'm not at ease, so I'm here to have a look. ”

Li Zifeng's eyes flashed a hint of dodge almost invisibly, he didn't expect that such a clumsy statement would come out of his mouth one day.

The leader of the dark guard breathed a sigh of relief, "Senior brother, please rest assured, your subordinates will guard the library day and night, and they will not dare to make the slightest mistake." ”

"Good. Li Zifeng responded softly and waved his hand, but when a gust of wind blew, the three secret guards hid their bodies in the darkness again.

When I returned to Yuntian Pavilion, it was the end of the day, and when I opened the courtyard door, I saw a small figure standing in the courtyard from a distance, not affected by the drizzle falling on my body in the slightest.

"Senior brother, you're back. Xu Zining hurriedly greeted him, "This kid has been here for half an hour, saying that he came here to look for you on your orders, and when he saw that you were not there, he waited in the courtyard all the time, and he didn't enter the house, nor did he use an umbrella, and he was very stubborn." ”

Hearing the voice, the small figure turned around, it was Mo Xuan, the miscellaneous disciple who was responsible for distributing the clothes, Mo Xuan saw Li Zifeng coming back, so he hurriedly stepped forward and bowed steadily, "Meet Senior Brother." ”

Li Zifeng just nodded slightly, and said lightly, "Come in with me." ”

After walking two steps and stopping, he turned to Xu Zining, who was still standing in the rain, and said, "I have let you be lazy for the past two days, but in two days, I am afraid that there will be an autumn wind blowing urgently, you should also cheer up, there are some weeds, it's time to pull them out." ”

Xu Zining's expression was grim, and he bowed solemnly according to the rules, "Senior brother, don't worry." ”

After getting the answer he wanted to hear, Li Zifeng nodded with satisfaction, and then walked into the study, and Mo Xuan also took two steps to follow

The lamp in the study was held, and the soft light hit his body, which seemed to be warmer, Mo Xuan just stood stupidly, letting Li Zifeng dry the water droplets on his body and change into clean clothes.

When Li Zifeng looked up again, he saw Mo Xuan looking at him stupidly.

Only then did he take a closer look at Mo Xuan, he had a simple bun on the top of his head, his broken hair floating casually on his white cheeks, and the black grape-like eyes under his light eyebrows were wet and a little innocent. The thin little mouth kept pursing, as if at a loss.

Li Zifeng retracted his mind, sat down in front of the bookcase, rummaged through a few books at random, and let Mo Xuan stand in front of him in an orderly manner, his face did not show the slightest emotion, he looked like he was doing business, and said indifferently, "Do you know why I came to you?"

Mo Xuan lowered his head slightly, his eyelashes hung low, and he opened his dry little mouth, "Because Mo Xuan wastes food and plays around, Senior Brother wants to ......"

Li Zifeng frowned, as if he interrupted him impatiently, "There is no punishment for one crime, and the matter of the dining room ends here." I came to you because you resemble me when I first entered the mountain gate. So..."Li Zifeng stared at Mo Xuan, slowed down his speech, and said word by word, "I believe you can stay by the master's side and do what you need to do." ”

Mo Xuan's eyes widened in surprise, with a look of disbelief, but Li Zifeng didn't give him time to hesitate at all, as if he directly assigned a task, "From tomorrow onwards, you will go to Elder Zongyuan on time every day to learn basic etiquette and swordsmanship, for a period of three months, and after three months, you will participate in the entrance assessment, and after passing the assessment, you will directly stay in Shangqingyuan as the follower disciple of the head." ”

Seeing that Mo Xuan couldn't react for a long time, Li Zifeng raised his eyebrows, "What's the matter?"

Mo Xuan came back to his senses at this time, and hurriedly knelt down and saluted respectfully, "Thank you senior brother for your love, it's just that Mo Xuan is still young and afraid of ......."

Li Zifeng was extremely serious, and his voice was deep, "From now on, I don't want to hear the word 'afraid' in your mouth." ”

Mo Xuan shook, quickly stabilized his body again, and solemnly kowtowed, "Yes." Mo Xuan will definitely live up to the expectations of the senior brother. ”

Li Zifeng nodded with satisfaction, what he didn't expect was that this unintentionally selected child would save his life in the future with Lingye Palace.

The bell rang in the morning, and the mountains after the rain were covered with layers of mist, Li Zifeng put his sword back into the sheath, and saw Xu Weixiang standing in front of him not far away, with his hands around his arms, looking at him with sympathy on his face, Li Zifeng was surprised, and walked forward and was about to ask, but Xu Weixiang took the lead in answering, "The Feng guard just sent someone over to spread the word, saying that the head of the house is waiting for you in the council hall." Elder Solemn and Elder Dharma Ring were there. ”

"What's wrong?" Li Zifeng frowned, and his heart sank, "Is it the dungeon?"

Just now, I found that Wang Zhuang, who was imprisoned in the dungeon, died quietly in his sleep, as if he had been poisoned. ”

"What?" Li Zifeng flashed a trace of surprise, in order to prevent an accident, after he sent Mo Xuan back last night, he also went to the dungeon to check the situation, everything was normal, if he found Wang Zhuang dead in his sleep in the early morning, it would prove that he had been poisoned last night.

"What about the corpses?"

"It's been sent to the council hall too. ”

Li Zifeng threw the sword in his hand to Xu Weixiang, didn't have time to change his clothes, stepped on the slippery road, walked quickly to the council hall, stopped not far from the council hall, slightly adjusted his breathing that was accelerated because he was walking too quickly, and before he could ask about the situation inside, he was called into the council hall by Ouyang Ze who couldn't hear his emotions.

After the rain, it was still overcast, and the hall was particularly gloomy, the head Ouyang Ze sat in the front position, the solemn elder Haiyi, and the law ring elder Yan Cheng sat on both sides, and below, kneeling were the guards and law ring disciples who were in charge of guarding the dungeon, a total of four people. On the side was Wang Zhuang's corpse, his face was serene, if it weren't for his pale face and stagnant breathing, it would look like he was sleeping.

Li Zifeng stabilized his breathing, stepped forward to the guards and the disciples of the Dharma Ring, knelt on the ground with his robe, clasped his hands into fists and saluted, "The disciple greets the Master, the Elder of the Solemn Commandment, and the Elder of the Dharma Ring." ”

Not surprisingly, Ouyang Ze didn't let him get up as usual, Li Zifeng's expression was awe-inspiring, and he couldn't help but be a little annoyed, he just had eyebrows, but he cut off the clues because of his carelessness, Yu Guang caught a glimpse of the slightly trembling body of the kneeling person next to him, and asked casually, "What's the matter?"

One of the guards replied, "Senior brother, not long after you left last night, he was shouting that he was dizzy, and his subordinates thought he was hypocritical, so they ignored him. After a while, he fell asleep and breathed normally, but when he explored in the morning, he found that his body was already cold. ”

Li Zifeng frowned, "Then what did he eat during that period?"

"Two meals a day are ordinary vegetable porridge and steamed buns, and nothing else. ”

"Am I not mistaken?"

The guard shook his head, "That's right, the subordinates also complained that a thief would eat the same as his subordinates. ”

Li Zifeng sighed heavily, and couldn't ask anything, everything seemed reasonable, but if he had been patient and carefully observed the surrounding environment at that time, he might have avoided this kind of accident.

Raising his eyes, he saw Ouyang Ze's gloomy face, and he consciously pleaded guiltily, "Master, elder, it was the disciple who was negligent and did not expect the accident that could occur at any time in the dungeon.....

"There is no need to say high-sounding words. After being silent for a long time, Ouyang Ze finally opened his mouth to break the silence of the council hall, and then waved his hand, signaling the Elder of the Law Ring to take the four people in charge of guarding down to punish him for negligence, Yan Cheng was about to speak, but was interrupted by Li Zifeng one step ahead, "Master, Wang Zhuang was brought back by his disciple, and now he died in the dungeon without the slightest notice, and the disciple is willing to take all the responsibility." ”

Ouyang Ze listened, raised his eyebrows, and his heart had just suppressed the anger and was arched up again, this matter could be big or small, he was running around for days and was tired, so he didn't investigate in detail, and it was reasonable. But when he heard Li Zifeng just say that he would bear it with all his might, his heart was panicked, so he didn't want to let him go easily.

Hai Yi stared at Li Zifeng, glanced at Ouyang Ze intentionally or unintentionally, and said with a smile, "Bearing it alone is also a disease, and it must be cured." ”

Ouyang Ze squinted his eyes and stared at Li Zifeng for a long time, then sighed lightly, "Since this is the case, then being a teacher will fulfill you." Then he commanded, "Come, pass the torture staff." ”

After a short time, the bench and the torture staff had already been moved, and Li Zifeng was also firmly pressed on the bench, Ouyang Ze frowned, sighed heavily, and finally relented, "Li Zifeng's poor supervision has caused the clues to be interrupted. Perform the punishment of a hundred rods to set an example!"

The punishment of a hundred rods, hence the name, is a hundred strokes of the rod. It is the heaviest punishment below the rod, and the one who is weak at the bottom of the body can die with fifty strokes. Hearing the punishment, everyone present couldn't help but gasp, and they couldn't even understand, but it wasn't a mistake to talk about, why would the head of the sect punish the apprentice who had always loved him so heavily. All the spirits all bowed their heads, for fear that if one was not careful, the fire would burn on themselves, and after the execution disciples outside were killed, they waved their torture rods and beat them down......

'Bang!' The torture rod fell on his body, making a dull sound, and everyone present couldn't help but tremble, Li Zifeng gritted his teeth even more, and endured the pain that was close to his whole body. Immediately after the second staff fell, the pain superimposed, and the body couldn't help but tremble, but it was quickly pressed down by the Dharma Ring disciple.

There was silence in the council hall, only the regular dull sound of the torture rod falling on the body outside, and the deacon disciples present did not dare to breathe. The four people who were kneeling on the ground couldn't help but shake their bodies, tears and cold sweat mixed together and flowed down their cheeks, one of them couldn't stand it anymore, raised his head and walked two steps on his knees, "Master, it was the disciples' poor supervision that caused Wang Zhuang to have an accident in prison, it's not about the senior brother, please spare the senior brother!"

Seeing that someone took the lead, the other three also echoed, "The head is gracious." ”

Ouyang Ze watched the torture rod fall together behind Li Zifeng, the corners of his eyes twitched, his right hand trembled slightly with his shirt, his palms were wet with sweat, he grabbed the tears in his eyes, and tried to make his voice sound sound, "It's not that I want to beat him, it's your senior brother... Take responsibility for you. ”

Halfway through the torture stick, a large area of blood oozed from Li Zifeng's buttocks and legs, his face was as pale as paper, cold sweat was all over, his brows were tightly twisted, the knuckles of the fingers holding the stool were white, the wound on his shoulder was cracked again, and a drop of blood dripped down the wound. The rebuke continued, as if it had been long and headless. Li Zifeng slowly closed his eyes, and two tears slipped quietly......

At this time, an unhurried voice came from a distance, "Senior brother in charge called me early in the morning just to see how you beat your apprentice in distress?"

As soon as the words fell, a middle-aged man appeared in front of him, this person was tall and slender, dressed in an ice-blue shirt, with snow-white piping embroidered with elegant bamboo leaf patterns, a jade belt around his waist, a black and dense hair pulled up high, and a pair of eyes under the sword eyebrows were clear and deep.

This person waved the folding fan in his hand leisurely, and the execution disciple immediately realized and stopped the movements in his hand. hurriedly saluted, and the juniors present also saluted one after another, "Meet Uncle Shi." ”

At this time, Li Zifeng, who was paralyzed on the torture bench, was about to get up and salute with his weak body, but was stopped by the middle-aged man with a look, "Do you think you were beaten lightly?"

"Yes. ”

This person is Lu Shiqing, a close disciple of Ouyang Tian, the previous head of the sect, and the same junior disciple of Ouyang Ze, Haiyi, and Shen Zhiping, who is younger, but in his early thirties. Martial arts are mediocre, but light skills are excellent, good at researching poisons, and developing antidotes for various poisons, but never poisoning people, is the right-hand man of the medicine pill elder Mingsu.

Ouyang Ze breathed a sigh of relief in his heart for Lu Shiqing's unauthorized arrest, this step came just right, and he couldn't help but smile bitterly when he thought of it.

Lu Shiqing stepped into the council hall and saluted the three senior brothers present in a proper manner.

Ouyang Ze walked slowly in front of him and straightened his face, "Senior brother is really getting more and more unruly, and he is being punished without authorization in the council hall." ”

Lu Shiqing looked at Ouyang Ze's forbearance, and his moderately thick lips had a playful smile, "Isn't it exactly what you want?"

The corners of Ouyang Ze's mouth twitched, "There are no rules in front of the juniors." ”

Yan Cheng didn't smile, and he was even more unaccustomed to Lu Shiqing's hippie smile, "Since you're here, hurry up and do the right thing, what kind of body does the hippie smile become?"

Lu Shiqing couldn't see Yan Cheng's businesslike appearance forever, so he restrained his smile casually, put on a look of pleading, and said, "What the Fajie Elder said is that if it is delayed any longer, the corpse will not be fresh. ”

Fresh... Yan Cheng's face was full of black lines, his face was even more gloomy, and in a blink of an eye, he saw that the four people were still trembling and kneeling on the ground, and the anger in his heart did not hit one place, and he kicked on one person, "What are you still doing here?!

"The subordinates retired. As if they had been amnestied, the four of them kowtowed and hurried away.

The light gradually sank, the sky was dark, the palm lamp in the room, the candlelight through the parchment lampshade, emitting an orange-red light, making people comfortable and reassuring, at this time, Li Zifeng was lying on the soft couch in the inner room of the Cloud Sky Pavilion, sleepy and sleepy, his brows were slightly wrinkled, and there were beads of sweat oozing from his forehead, and the attendant disciples were busy wiping his sweat and feeding him medicine. When he was done, he bowed to the man standing at the window, and left the room lightly.

Li Zifeng coughed, tried hard to lift his heavy eyelids, and in the dim light, he vaguely saw a person standing by the window in a daze, and the candlelight stretched his figure very long. When his eyes could see clearly, he sighed softly, only to realize that his mouth was filled with the bitter smell of medicine.

The man turned around, it was Lu Shiqing, Lu Shiqing saw that Li Zifeng was awake, and he looked lost again, and couldn't help but wonder, "What's the matter? I didn't see your master at this time, are you very disappointed?"

Li Zifeng was stunned, his mouth was dry and he couldn't speak, he stood up and sat up, he couldn't help coughing a few times, and he screamed that the staff wound behind him was in pain, and his body couldn't help trembling. Lu Shiqing walked to the side of the bed, took a cushion and leaned against his side, tried his best to avoid the injury, helped him adjust to the most comfortable sitting position, poured another glass of water and handed it over, "You've been asleep for a day, are you okay?"

The water poured into his throat, and he slowed down for a long time before he made a hoarse voice, "It's okay, thank you Uncle for saving your life." ”

Lu Shiqing was so angry with him that he laughed, "If it hurts, it hurts, if it's tired, it says it's tired, who will you show if you want to do it?"

"Uh..." Li Zifeng was dumbfounded, but he didn't feel strange, he was used to seeing the outspokenness of this Uncle Lu in front of him, so it was not strange for any strange words to come out of his mouth. After being stunned for a while, Li Zifeng collected his emotions and forcibly kept his mind clear, "With all due respect, disciple, you have been here for a day, just to wait for the disciple to wake up, and then admonish a few words?"

"Rotten wood can't be carved!How did the master teach you such an elm pimple?!" Lu Shiqing glared at Li Zifeng hatefully, and then took out a piece of official paper full of words and threw it at him.

Li Zifeng smiled wryly, picked up the piece of paper, took a cursory glance, and picked out the key point, "Drunk for a thousand years?

"Yes. Lu Shiqing nodded, "This poison comes from Jiangnan, it is colorless and tasteless, and if it enters the body through eating and drinking, it will not consume half a cup of tea, and you will feel dizzy, sleepy, and slurred speech, as if you are drunk, and you will die quietly in your sleep after three hours." Hence the call 'drunk millennium'"

"Is there a cure?"

Lu Shiqing's face was solemn, and he said word by word, "So far, there is no cure. However, if the poisoning is still shallow or a small amount is ingested, ordinary antidote pills can detoxify. ”

"Diet?" Li Zifeng muttered, it seems that there is a problem with the diet, and it seems that it will be checked from the person on duty yesterday.

Lu Shiqing saw him pondering, saw through his thoughts at a glance, and a vengeful smile appeared on his face, "Put away your thoughts! Your main task now is to take care of your injuries." With that, he gently patted Li Zifeng's shoulder and got up to leave.

When Lu Shiqing walked to the door of the room, Li Zifeng came back to his senses, unwilling, "Uncle Shi, is this how you appease the injured?"

"It's your master's business to comfort the wounded, not mine......"

“......”

The autumn wind is bleak, the forest is cold, and the mountains in the autumn evening are extremely cold, Ouyang Ze wrapped his coat and stood quietly outside the Yuntian Pavilion, looking at the hidden courtyard gate, and watching the figures back and forth in the courtyard through the crack in the door, so as to get all kinds of news inside in time. When I was distracted, the courtyard door was completely opened with a 'squeak', and what caught my eye was Lu Shiqing's smiling face.

Lu Shiqing couldn't help muttering, 'Death is a shame to suffer', and then jokingly said, "There is really what kind of master there is, what kind of apprentice, everyone loves to hold everything in their hearts, and they are not afraid of suffocation." ”

Ouyang Ze straightened his face and said angrily, "Talking is becoming more and more impertinent, and when I have time one day, I will find a needle and thread to cure your nonsense." ”

Lu Shiqing saw through Ouyang Ze's absent-minded appearance at a glance, and no longer quarreled, and reminded 'kindly', "Your apprentice didn't see you when he woke up, and he was very depressed!"

Ouyang Ze glanced at Lu Shiqing angrily, "It's late today, and there are still some things at hand that haven't been dealt with." Tomorrow he will bring him his favorite pork ribs and corn soup. ”

Lu Shiqing shrugged, "You are the head, you have the final say." ”