When Nian'an's donkey cart went out of the north city gate, according to his habit, people stepped out of the donkey cart, pulling the old donkey who was quite humane and walked gently step by step, for fear of sparing the dreams of the military masters.

The two ends of the city gate are exactly 12 zhang, which can accommodate three carriages passing in parallel.

In the past, the young man was only in awe of this majestic city gate, and the important military aircraft such as city defense and alert were not among the things that he should care about as a mud-legged boy.

But today is a little different, the young man had a vague nightmare last night, in which the city gate somehow opened its bloody mouth, forcing Nian An and her mother to hide in the well in their yard.

Therefore, when Nian'an crossed the city gate today, he deliberately stopped and looked at this twelve zhang place inside and out.

The city gate should be made of fine red shirt wood, tightly seamed, inside and outside are wrapped with a layer of fiery red glue paint, and the middle of the door bolt is deliberately made of good black iron plus a thick layer of enclosure.

Nian'an heard that this city gate was replaced, thickened and widened after the disaster in the twenty-first year of Longqing, so that people could feel at ease. Looking at the black iron bolt on the city gate, the fear in the young man's heart faded slightly.

After leaving the city, you have to pass through a flat official road six or seven zhang wide, and the official road will have a fork in the place where you are about to reach the grove outside the city, and the left side will continue to the north to the "Great Xia Dynasty" The military city in the northern region will lead to the Sunset Border Pass, and if you go to the right, you will pass through a forest to Longxi County, and the place where the young man is going to dump the trough water today is in a depression a little farther away on the road to Longxi.

It was specially carved out by the government to accumulate filth in the city.

In the northwest, the wasteland is sprawling, and most of the cities are far apart, so it is not safe to go out of the city and into the woods alone. Fortunately, the murderous creatures such as the steppenwolf that originally lived in this forest were slaughtered by people more than ten years ago, and it was not too late at this time, and one or two caravans heading to Longxi could be seen from time to time on the official road. The sky is glorious, and no matter how vicious the villains are, they will not haunt at this time.

Today, the weather was hot and humid, and the young man leaned on the donkey cart for a while, feeling that the sweat around his body was baked by the sun and connected with his clothes, sticky and uncomfortable.

The old donkey seemed to be the same, shaking its wet black back, and leaning down under the shade of the tree with such a good sense of spirit.

When the young man saw that the old donkey was uncomfortable, he took out a rag specially prepared for it from the cart and carefully wiped the sweat from his back. Nian'an was skillful, and the old donkey seemed to be more comfortable, revealing his yellowed teeth and hissing.

......

It took about half an hour for a man and a donkey to walk from the city gate to a rock not far from the pit, and the boy jumped out of the donkey cart and took out the wet cloth he had prepared with him and wrapped it around his mouth, and then carefully carried the bucket to the pit.

"Wow"

"Wow"

Seeing buckets of chickens and ducks mixed with oil being dumped into the pit, the young man's eyes were a little unbearable.

Overall, it didn't take much time to drain all the heavy trough water.

But if you say that Nian'an's errand seems simple, you underestimate the risks involved.

Nian'an heard that two years ago, there was a small worker from a restaurant on South Street who also came to deal with the tank water, and it happened that there was wind and rain in the sky, and the small worker had just finished moving seven or eight counts, and wanted to quickly dispose of the last bucket, but because of exhaustion, he slipped into the pit with one foot and never got up again.

The pit wasn't steep, but it was full of suffocating swamp gas, and a thick layer was crawling there, ready to swallow everything thrown into the pit.

At the beginning of April this year, Nian An even saw a few beggars in this biogas pit who had begun to rot, and it seemed that this group of people must have been crazy with hunger, and they jumped into the biogas pit desperately to find a way to survive.

I don't know if it's bold or stupid.

Because of this, even if the young man had finished today's errand at this time, he still did not dare to take off the wet cloth from his mouth, and it was not until he drove the old donkey far away that he took a deep breath of greed in the woods.

"Today, we have to go to the Wei River to help Yu Xianchang find the dark green stone. As he walked, the boy unnaturally crossed his fingers together and stirred back and forth.

"Old donkey, should it be true that the fairy chief said that he would change my life for me?"

The old donkey lowered his head and chewed on the fresh grass that he had just found with great difficulty, shaking his head and eating it.

The young man pouted and looked at the old donkey for a while, and he didn't seem to have much of a way.

"Forget it, I won't tell you, anyway, you haven't seen the immortal's supernatural powers. ”

Nian An looked up at the scorching sun, which still had not yet set, and waved his hand dryly to fan the wind, and sat back behind the donkey cart.

"Let's go, old donkey, let's go to the Wei River to touch the stones, and by the way, we can take a bath." ”

The old donkey, as if choked on the grass, raised his head and spat on it, coughed twice, and dragged the boy to the river with his hooves.

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The Wei River originates from the perennial frozen Mangdang Mountain 800 miles away from Qubai, stretches for thousands of miles in the northwest wasteland, and several large county towns around it are all thriving along the Wei River. Among them, Qu Bai is no exception, and the water supply in and out of the city almost all depends on the water of the Wei River that surrounds the city.

On the surface, Weishui is not turbulent. But if you go directly to the river for this reason, you are destined to suffer a big loss, and it is common to lose your life.

The bottom of the Wei River is covered with a soft and abnormal mud bottom called "Heze" all the year round, coupled with the undercurrent that comes down from the upstream to wash the bottom of the river and both banks. This seemingly calm Wei River is actually of different depths, and if you are not careful, you will be eaten into it.

There are even old people who say that thousands of years ago, there was a dragon in the middle of the river, and there was an unfathomable dragon king's palace. The Dragon Palace was originally used to suppress evil things such as river demons and water ghosts, but now that they are gone, the things under the water will be even more unstoppable.

Such a story is widely spread in Qubai, because although the river bank is close to Qubai, there are few children who dare to go directly into the river.

When Nian'an was a child, his mother never let him get close to the Wei River, but after his mother passed away in the past few years, he occasionally came to the Wei River to stand far away for a while driven by curiosity.

Take a look at the low trees on both sides of the river that stretch all the way to the end of the wilderness.

Take a look at the undercurrent surging under the heart of the river, whether the mysterious and terrifying Dragon Palace water ghost can be hidden.

......

However, after two months, the boy and the Weihe River seem to be getting closer and closer. Now, every two or three days, he would come here to help the Taoist find the rare dark green stone for the rest of his life. It is strange to say, before the Taoist told Nian An about this for the rest of his life, Nian An had never seen a single dark green stone by the Wei River. But now, if you walk along the riverside and dangle carefully around the cobblestones, you can always find these strange green pebbles.

No, two days ago, Nian'an even saw a few out-of-town foot merchants also carrying baskets on their backs to search on the bank of the river.

This thing looks novel, and it is estimated that there are still a few distribution routes in the big cities in the Guannai.

Speaking of looking for stones, the boy had recently found a good place, which was a small waterhole, located in a small grove not far from Weishui. The pool of water just walked from the Wei River, not deep, but very cool and pleasant. The most important thing is that in this hot and humid weather, the boy comes out of the puddle every day and cleanses his whole body in the pool water, which is really enjoyable.

It was the same today, when the boy tied the old donkey to the grass beside him, came back and took off his clothes, and jumped into the shimmering waterhole.

It seemed to be a little cold, Nian An, who had just entered the water, fluttered a few times and then quickly shrank back, sat on the shore, and first slapped the pool of water around his body, adapted, and then went down again. The water is cold, but if you stay for a while, you will feel a soothing warmth from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.

The boy waved his hand and shaved his soaked hair, looked at the woods around him, and completely submerged his entire body and head in the water.

He's been doing this for the last few days, and it seems that this way, he can be completely isolated from the world.

When he opened his eyes in the clear water, the boy was curious to see the bubbles in his mouth swing left and right in the pool water one by one, and his hands and feet fiddled under the water for a long time to find a comfortable position. Eventually, he bent his legs, wrapped his ankles in his hands, pushed his knees to his chest, and curled up in a ball floating in the water.

This posture is so familiar, as if lying in the arms of his mother when he was a child, and brought Nian'an into a state of confusion.

......

In such a state, the boy can finally remove all the mental defenses, hard thorns, and even camouflage around his body. It's like a wounded little beast secretly licking its own wounds here. Sometimes there seemed to be a hot current rising from his body, making Nian An feel comfortable and wanting to scream, and sometimes a few pieces of Xuan Ice popped out, desperately squeezing the young man, making him difficult to breathe, as if falling into the abyss.

It seemed that there was a voice in his internal organs torturing himself.

Why did my father leave me so early?

Why do people hate me so much? Are these ears really so ugly?

Is Yu Daochang really that tall?

Did he have a plan to do what the storyteller called a modified proposition against the heavens?

............

The teenager had a splitting headache.

What if the Taoist is lying to himself?

What if I changed my life and didn't live to be eighteen?

Qiuqiu always said that Nian Anke was stupid, and he couldn't even compare to the lifeless recliner in his house.

The boy himself felt the same way, but there were some things he could see clearly.

Just like now, the boy struggled to curl himself up in the water, happy and sad for a while, and the corners of his mouth were grinning for a while and fluttering for a while.

The boy's mind was spinning, he wanted to connect all these questions, he wanted to find a clue in the middle, as if there was a wisp of white smoke swimming in his soul.

He desperately tried to hold on to ......

In the end, his face was red, he choked on his saliva, and he had to open his eyes.

No one in heaven and earth would answer his series of questions, and all that haunted his ears was the sound of darkness and the "gurgling" of the water that occupied the space around him.

"What is this?" the young man's blurred eyes caught a terrifying green light in the mud beneath the pool, and he hesitated, but still held back the dwindling air in his mouth and pulled the thing out of the dirt.

......

......

"Ha......" The young man jerked his head out of the water, and as if he was a newborn, he took a greedy breath, and lifted the thing in his hand out of the water and looked hard in the sun.

This thing was nothing else, it was a dark green pebble.

But it's not ordinary.

Not only is it larger than the ordinary greenstone, almost occupying the entire palm of Nian An'an's hand, but at the same time, the stone is as clear as glass, and the young man who has borrowed the sun can even clearly see the strange structure of the waves.

The boy was a little puzzled, and now the stone in his hand would no longer emit the terrifying green glow of the water.

"But it's clear in the water just now. ”

So the boy picked up the stone and dived down and tried again. Sure enough, as soon as they entered the Weishui, the stones bloomed with a confusing faint brilliance.

"Is it only in Weishui that this stone can shine?"

To this end, the boy tried several more times in the pool, and finally he found that there were two conditions for the stone to shine, one was that the stone had to be close enough to him, and the other was that he and the stone had to be under the water. Just now, he unintentionally discovered a secret between the blows, the stone was actually struck and released an earthy fragrance towards the surroundings. However, like the green light, as long as the boy is a little farther away, the aroma will naturally dissipate.

That's weird.

After fiddling with it for a long time, the boy felt that he should have picked up a piece of treasure. Just as the sky was getting dark, and it seemed that the hour was not early, Nian An shook the water, put the stones into the cloth bag he carried, and prepared to return.

The boy raised his fist and pounded his chest, the strange and painful experience under the water just now seemed to make him see something a little.

Touching the stone in his arms, Nian An turned around and bowed sincerely to the pool.

"Thanks, see you another day. ”

......

......

Coming out of the pool of water, the donkey cart traveled a short distance, and on the official road branch road, Nian'an met a familiar person - it was a peasant man that Nian'an met when he went out of the city two months ago.

Nian An still remembered that this man was the leader of the four or five people, but today he was walking alone, and he had to follow an empty wooden cart and a few west petals with no flesh behind him.

The man was obviously surprised to meet the young man in this remote place, and was slightly stunned, and then patted his head to show that he remembered the young man. He pointed to the wooden cart behind him, and then looked at Qu Baicheng to the west and nodded continuously.

Seeing that the young man was still confused, he also held his hand up and made a painstaking action of cutting the watermelon.

Only then did the boy know that the peasant man was a mute man selling watermelons

"Are you going to the city to sell melons?"

The man seemed to understand, grinning and nodding vigorously, and the wrinkles on his forehead deepened a little.

"I'm a small worker who carries water in the Chengnan Jushi Building, my name is Nian'an, it's nice to meet you," the young man happily introduced himself.

The man smiled and nodded, and reached over to shake Nian An's hand enthusiastically.