[On the fifth day of the second month of the tenth year of Daqian Jingyi, at noon, west of Chang'an City, at the foot of Bashan Mountain]

Xu Ke led a thousand-man guard, all the way to the northwest, and at this time he had arrived at the foot of Bashan Mountain. The closer everyone got to the Bashan Demon Cave, the more they felt stuffy and uncomfortable, and at the same time, the poisonous dust in the black smoke was also denser.

Bashan is only less than sixty miles away from Chang'an, and when the world was not demonized, it was still a place with verdant scenery. However, at this time, the beautiful flowers and tall trees of the past were no longer visible, and all the soldiers could see when they looked up was charred black earth and broken stones. A huge magic cave at the top of Naba Mountain was spewing endless smoke into the sky. The smoke was also mixed with hot magma and poisonous dust, and in a radius of more than ten miles around the Demon Cave, birds were extinct, and there were no beasts, and only a black and bare hill was left as far as the eye could see.

Accompanying Xu Ke was his lieutenant Shangguan Long. Ten years ago, Shangguan Long was a lieutenant in the Tsing Yi Wei Luan Division. In that catastrophe that year, he was fortunate to escape his life. In the past ten years, he has been following Shen Huan to play in the Beijing Guard. At this time, Xu Ke asked Shangguan Long beside him, where is the so-called "Bashan Demon Cave"? Shangguan Long pointed to the huge caves in front of him and replied, there were dozens of caves of different sizes in the belly of Bashan Mountain, and countless monsters were gathered in them. In one of the largest caves, there is the "Demon Legion" of the Tsing Yi Demon King. However, they don't know where the largest cave is.

In the past ten years, these soldiers have followed the main general to fight the monsters everywhere, although there are casualties, but on the whole there are more victories and fewer defeats. Before, they set off early in the morning every day, and returned to the city before sunset, and the farthest, sometimes going south a hundred miles away, but there has always been a strict order in the army, that is, within fifty miles around Bashan, do not go!

It's just that there are too many monsters clustered in the belly of Bashan Mountain, and the combat power is also the strongest. Moreover, there is a demon cave next to it, and the smoke next to it is the densest, and the poison is the most fierce, and no one dares to go to Bashan to easily take risks unless it is absolutely necessary. Therefore, for many years, the sergeants of the Chang'an Guard have known very little about this magic nest in Bashan.

Now, the emperor personally ordered that Bashan must be taken, and the soldiers dare not disobey it. However, once they really arrived at the foot of Bashan Mountain, the soldiers still showed nervousness and fear on their faces, and it could be seen that they were all worried in their hearts.

Xu Ke saw that the black smoke here was very thick, so he ordered the sergeants to cover their mouths and noses with cloth covers, and the whole army went up and down, all in one go, and marched hard into the belly of the mountain.

However, at this time, Xu Ke was also unusually anxious in his heart. First, in his more than 20 years of career, he has never led troops to fight, and at this time, he was suddenly asked to lead a thousand soldiers and horses, and he really did not know how to command, how to distribute, how to plan, and how to command. Second, although he led the soldiers to Bashan, facing this black and oppressive mountain, and not knowing the exact location of the demon cave, he was really at a loss, and he could only move forward......

Early this morning, Emperor Li Ci also personally went to the west gate of Chang'an City to practice for all the soldiers who went out on the expedition. In front of all the soldiers, Li Ci personally poured a bowl of water and wine for Xu Ke, and said affectionately: "General Xu, I am waiting for the good news of your triumphant return!"

At that time, Li Ci was sticking to Xu Ke's body, and even whispered: "General Xu, if you can take down the Bashan Demon Cave and destroy that Demon Cave, I should share the world with the general!"

Xu Ke was stunned when he heard this, and he immediately thought to himself, how can you share your world with me? As the Son of Heaven, can you still share half of the country with me? When he saw that the Son of Heaven would "quietly" make such a big promise for him, he was even more worried about the attack on Bashan Mountain......

According to the plan of the entire operation, Xu Ke led a thousand-man team as the front army to open the way, and Shen Huan also led a thousand-man team as the rear army to meet behind. But now, Xu Ke looked behind him, but he couldn't see anyone at all, so he really didn't know where Shen Huan's team was following?

"Report ...... Report to the general, find a cave ahead!" a scout at the front of the team hurried to report. Xu Ke looked ahead, only to see a large black hole in front of a towering dirt slope, and he didn't know what was hidden in the hole.

Xu Ke thought for a moment, and then ordered: "The army is waiting outside the cave, I will bring a team of 100 people into the cave first!"

Shangguan Long, the adjutant general next to him, immediately dissuaded: "General, there is danger in the cave! It is better for the last general to enter and investigate first, and after the situation inside is investigated, it is not too late to report to the general!"

Xu Ke waved his hand and said, "The more dangerous it is, the more I will have to come and check it in person, you don't have to say much, just wait outside!"

There were ten hundred-person teams under Xu Ke's command, and the ten guard captains heard that Xu Ke was going to enter the cave to investigate in person, and they all stepped forward to dissuade them. Just because Xu Ke is the commander of the entire team at this time, if the main general has an accident, the whole army will be in chaos immediately, so it is usually advisable to send a guard captain to lead the hundred-person team to check first.

Xu Ke pointed to Shangguan Long and said to the ten captains of the guards, if the general really had an accident, the deputy general Shangguan would lead the whole army......

In fact, Xu Ke himself didn't know what kind of fierce monsters were hidden in the cave, and he was not sure at all whether he could escape with his whole body. If they really encounter misfortune, it will be a capital crime for these soldiers to abandon the battle and flee, and they may not be the opponent of the monsters if they resist stubbornly, so whether they can survive or not can only be resigned to fate.

When they saw that the Lord would insist, they obeyed. At that moment, Xu Ke led a team of 100 people and quietly walked into the cave.

In order to prevent the monster from attacking, Xu Ke ordered more than ten torches to be set up in the team, and by the light of the torches, the sergeants followed Xu Ke and crept away. There were a few timid soldiers, and they were so frightened that they didn't dare to take a breath.

This cave looks inconspicuous from the outside, but I never thought that the inside is tortuous and endless. Xu Ke led the hundred sergeants and walked inside for about half an hour, but he still didn't find the end. Moreover, the further you go inside, the more spacious the tunnel becomes, and from time to time there will be various forks.

Xu Ke ordered people to mark the fork in the road, so as not to get lost when they got it. The cave was littered with the bones of dead people, and even severed hands and feet and human heads that had not been gnawed off. A burst of fishy smell wafted from time to time, and it smoked so straight that Xu Ke and the others couldn't help frowning. Everyone walked for half an hour, but they didn't see a single monster, and they couldn't help but be surprised. Xu Ke asked the captain of the guard named "Li Cheng" beside him, "Li Cheng, why can't you see a demonic beast in the cave?"

Li Cheng replied: "General, my subordinates also feel strange! It is said that this is the nest of the demonic beasts, and most of these demonic beasts are day and night, and now

It's daylight, and they should all be hiding in their holes and sleeping! Why haven't they seen any of them?"

Xu Ke asked again: "When you followed General Shen in the past, did you ever come to Bashan to hunt?

Li Chengdao: "General, General Shen also led us to Bashan a long time ago. At that time, my brothers and I were ordered to go into a cave and investigate. Don't say that we walked for half an hour like today, we only walked a few dozen steps into the entrance of the cave, and we saw a large area of red and red haired monsters lying there, all of them with horns. I was so scared that I ran out of the cave like a stream of urine, and finally those horned monsters like to sleep during the day, and they didn't chase them all out......"

Xu Ke: "Will it ...... All these monsters have changed their lairs?"

Li Cheng shook his head and said: "According to his subordinates, although these monsters are fierce and violent, they are stupid and stupid, and they often do not easily change their nests, and most of them don't like to go out during the day. ”

At this time, everyone had already reached the most spacious platform in the cave, which was more than ten zhang wide, and upwards was a huge spire. Xu Ke looked up at the dome-like spire, and saw that there seemed to be a crack at the top leading to the ground. If he expected it to be right, it should be under a valley. He saw that the torches of the soldiers were swaying slightly, and there must have been a breeze pouring in through the cracks in the spires. The air in the cave has finally improved a little here.

Xu Ke saw that this spacious cave had cracks on it that could lead to the ground, and the stone ground below was also quite flat, with a width of more than ten zhang, as if it was a natural underground stone chamber. He couldn't help but secretly think that this place was a good place to march and camp.

This huge "underground room" suddenly has four forks. At this time, Xu Ke saw that his soldiers were already tired, so he instructed Li Cheng to order all the soldiers to repair here for a while, and send two people to each of the four intersections to investigate first!

Li Cheng got the order of the main general, and hurriedly shouted to his subordinates, and rested on the spot. He called four more chiefs, and ordered each to take two people, holding torches, to go forward to investigate, and when he encountered something unusual, he immediately rushed back to his life.

The four chiefs each took orders, and the rest of the soldiers sat down on the ground, took out some of the boiled dried meat they had with them, and ate them with the water bladder. Xu Ke and Li Cheng walked around the stone chamber, thinking about whether to retreat outside the cave to make a decision next, when they suddenly heard the panicked shouts of soldiers coming from a small cave in front of them. The chief of the pathfinder fled in a panic with one of his soldiers, shouting as he ran:

"Monsters, monsters!"

Everyone saw a long-horned red-haired monster and two three-headed big black wolves following the two of them closely, one of which was about to bite the soldier's clothes. Xu Ke hurriedly shot out with his long sword, and shouted in his mouth: "Break the gold potential!" Wherever the sword qi went, the three big black wolves were suddenly split in half.

Xu Ke was overjoyed when he saw that the Kunwu sword in his hand was so sharp. He flipped his long sword, and then he made another sword: "Break the water potential!" The other three black wolves also immediately accounted for it. The long-horned red-haired monster behind saw that the situation was not good, turned around and fled into the cave, how could Xu Ke let it get out at this time. He shouted again: "Open the wood!" True qi burst out from the tip of the sword, and it was really like a tree breaking through the earth, unstoppable! Everyone only heard the long-horned red-haired monster "whoop" and fell to the ground, silent.

Li Cheng, who was standing beside Xu Ke, saw that Xu Ke had already returned his sword into the sheath, and he couldn't believe that the long-horned red-haired monster had fallen to the ground and died. He cautiously walked up to the red-haired monster and stretched out his spear to flick the red-haired monster's body, seeing that it was still motionless. He had the courage to take three more steps, and only then did he realize that the huge horned head of the horned red-haired monster had long since separated from its body. At this time, where the head and neck of the red-haired monster were severed, blood had already flowed all over a large stone field.

Li Cheng held the spear in his hand and picked it hard, and struggled to pick the body of the long-horned red-haired monster to the sky, and then cheered to the soldiers: "The general killed two big black wolves with one sword, and one long-horned red-haired monster, the general is mighty, and the general is invincible!"

The soldiers under Xu Ke originally had no confidence in this attack on the Bashan Demon Cave. In addition, they walked around the cave for half a day, but they found nothing, and the morale of the army has dropped to the lowest point. At this time, they saw that Xu Ke was just blinking an eye, and they killed all the three-headed trolls at their feet. There were many soldiers sitting on the ground, but they didn't see how Xu Ke made a move, and they saw the three-headed monster fall to the ground, their corpses separated, and blood gushed out. Although these people have been fighting with Shen Huan for many years, when have they seen such a powerful swordsmanship, it is really a flash of sword light, and they are instantly killed among the monsters! The soldiers were immediately greatly encouraged, and they all shouted after Li Cheng:

"The general is mighty, and the general is invincible!"

The chief who almost died in the mouth of the monster also knelt on the ground, kowtowed to Xu Ke and said, "Little one, thank you for the general's life-saving grace, the general is mighty!"

Xu Ke hurriedly helped him up, and Wen Yan asked, "How is the situation inside?"

The chief replied: "Back to the general, the little one walked more than a hundred steps into the cave in front of the left, and saw a fork in the road, and the little one didn't know how to go, and was thinking about whether to divide into two teams, when suddenly the roar of the monster came from the darkness, and the little one hurriedly turned around and fled! The monster chased after us, and the little one ran desperately to escape, and finally the little one fled here. Thanks to the general's action, the little one finally escaped with his life......! The situation in this is not clearly investigated......"

Li Cheng said: "Long-winded, you didn't find anything except the three-headed monster?"

Xu Ke waved his hand, signaling not to blame, he asked Shi Chang to go down to rest, and Shi Chang walked to the side with a thousand thanks. Xu Ke lowered his head and pondered for a while, then asked Li Cheng:

"Could it be that these dozen or so caves are all connected in it?

Xu Ke recalled what he saw outside the cave, all the caves were in the belly of Bashan Mountain, which covered a vast area and the mountains were towering into the sky. Although there are many caves, maybe the inside is connected in all directions?

Li Cheng looked at the four intersections of this underground stone chamber, thought about it for a while, and immediately replied: "Back to the general, we have been walking in it for so long, and we still haven't been able to get to the end. The subordinates thought that all the caves here were very likely to be connected. If the general thinks that there is a nest of monsters hidden inside, he only needs to give an order, and his subordinates will swear to the death!"

While the two were talking, the other three leaders had all retreated. Their answers were roughly the same, and Shi Chang and his soldiers kept exploring the way inside, but the more they went

Walking inside, the more forks in the road, to the back, more and more forks, they are afraid that they will not be able to find the way back if they go on, so they have to turn around first, and after making a decision to Xu Ke.

After listening to these returns, Xu Ke was even more convinced that there were endless caves hidden in the belly of this Bashan Mountain. These caves are interconnected, and one of them must lead to the monsters' lair.

Next, he was faced with two choices. First, send someone out to bring the remaining nine hundred-man teams he brought into the cave, and follow him all the way forward, investigate the forks in the cave, and find the road to the demon cave. The second is that he will first take this team of 100 people out of the cave, and after Shen Huan and another team of 1,000 people come here to join him, the two will make a decision after discussion.

Li Cheng saw that Xu Ke was contemplating, so he didn't bother. He saw the three monsters lying on the ground, and the broken neck was still flowing with blood, and he hurriedly ordered people to drag the two big black wolves to the side, skin and cut the meat, and use them as military food. He himself took a sharp short knife, struggled to cut the belly of the long-horned red-haired monster, took out a pair of palm-sized "red-haired galls", and put them in the skin bag to put away. He took another short saw, sawed open the long sharp horn of the red-haired monster, and presented a complete pair of "long-horned essences" to Xu Ke's eyes, and said:

"General, please drink this 'Longhorn Essence'!"

"You're going to let me eat this, don't eat, don't eat!" Xu Ke hurriedly waved his hand.

"General, this is a great supplement, I heard that ...... It works best when you eat it fresh!" Li Cheng said with a smile.

"I don't eat, I want to eat...... Eat it!"

"How can we have this blessing! Now a complete pair of long-horned essence yuan has been sold for one hundred and twenty taels of silver in the East Market! General, please use it......" Li Cheng still held the bloody broken horn in his hand and sent it to Xu Ke's eyes.

Without thinking about it, Xu Ke's eyes widened, and he said in a deep voice: "How can this be reasonable!

"This ...... I can't help it!"

"Hmm...... How dare you disobey orders?"

Li Cheng smiled innocently, so he had to hold the long-horned essence in his hand, called the ten chiefs under him, and everyone took a big sip, and finally shared the whole pair of long-horned essences. Li Cheng and these elders had long heard that the sharp horns of the long-horned red-haired monster contained something that greatly replenished Yuan Yang. It is said that the long-horned essence not only nourishes the body, but also resists the poison of black smoke. Now, seeing that their own master general had given such a precious medicinal herb casually, they were not only happy, but also had a heartfelt love for this demon suppression general.

After thinking about it for a while, Xu Ke finally made a choice. He ordered a chief to take five soldiers out of the cave the same way, and bring all the men and horses outside into the cave first.

In Xu Ke's heart, even though the road ahead is difficult and dangerous, even if he dies for a lifetime, as long as he has the slightest hope of attacking the monster's nest and killing those monsters, he still has to go all out!

He suddenly recalled in his mind that the young and beautiful Emperor Jingyi made a subdued speech on the Zichen Palace: "If we only know that we are trapped in Chang'an, sooner or later we will die, either starvation, thirst, or freeze to death, or we will be poisoned by the black smoke emitted from the demon cave! If we take the initiative to attack, although there are many difficulties and dangers ahead, there will always be a glimmer of life! Instead of sitting and waiting for death, it is better to give it a go! If God protects and the human race is not exterminated after all, then this attack on Bashan, I believe, will be able to return with complete victory!"

Until this moment, he had to admit in his heart that the new emperor Li Ci, no matter how handsome his appearance, how elegant his instrument was, how extraordinary his talent was, and how magnificent his bearing were, he was worthy of being an emperor's talent......

Li Cheng, the captain of the hundred-man team, originally planned to advise Xu Ke that it was best to wait for General Shen's rear army to arrive, and after the two armies converged, he would enter the devil's nest through the secret passage of the cave, which seemed to have a better chance of winning. However, seeing that Xu Ke had already given the order at this time, he immediately didn't say a word, just took the order. In his heart, he has developed an inexplicable trust in Xu Ke, and he only feels that following this main general, even if he fights and dies, there is no need to be afraid......

Next, with nothing to do, Xu Ke sat with Li Cheng and the rest of the elders, and everyone talked about some of their parents' shortcomings and the daily trivial matters in Chang'an City. Xu Ke saw that although the sergeants were all rough-skinned and had dark faces, they were all straightforward and simple people. He couldn't help but regret a little, why didn't he go to the army earlier after receiving the edict of the Son of Heaven to meet these "loveliest people"?

When Xu Ke was listening with great interest, he suddenly heard the mournful shout of the chief who had gone out earlier from the cave:

"Report to the general, it's not good!"

"What's the alarm?" Xu Ke asked.

"General, most of the nine hundred soldiers outside the cave have been killed by the demons, and besides, they are also ...... at this time All of them have become demonized!"

"What?" Xu Ke hurriedly stood up and asked, "What about ...... What about Shangguan Long?"

"General Shangguan with a small group of people has already run away......"

At this time, Li Cheng also walked up to the chief, looked him up and down carefully, and saw that his eyes were no different from usual, so he asked, "You said, the brothers have all turned into demons at this time?

Shi Chang trembled and said, "Captain Li, the little one ...... As the little one saw with his own eyes, the brothers had all turned into demons one by one, and they had all chased after him!"

"What! they're all coming after you!" Li Cheng was so anxious that he immediately ordered a few elders around him, ordering them to lead people to the only entrance outside the stone room and bring stones to block the way.

"Captain, those demons are terrible! as long as they bite and get their blood and saliva on them, they will immediately become just like them, and they only know how to bite people indiscriminately. My five ...... below Five people, all of them have been bitten by them!"

"What about you...... I didn't get bitten!" Li Cheng asked with concern.

"Small...... Luck...... Thankfully, it didn't ...... It's okay......" The chief's voice became more and more trembling, and he almost couldn't help but tremble. Suddenly, his eyes rolled and then turned blood-red. His mouth opened, revealing two rows of sharp fangs, and he lunged towards Xu Ke.

"General, be careful!" Seeing this, Li Cheng next to him hurriedly greeted the blood-red elder and hugged him tightly. As soon as the demonized Shi Chang lowered his head, two rows of sharp teeth bit Li Cheng's face.

Xu Ke exclaimed:

"Li Cheng!"

......