Life is a long journey.

Although this kind of remark is already a cliché, Xu Beiyou thinks it is true.

Especially the word trek, it can be seen that it is difficult.

Compared with nesting in a city all day long, Xu Beiyou prefers to travel 90,000 miles like his master, see the vastness of the world and taste the red dust.

This is one of the reasons why he decided to hike to the imperial capital.

After coming down to Yishan, Xu Beiyou did not stay too much in Huizhou and transferred to Yuzhou.

Even if Xu Beiyu is only on foot, the speed of progress is still difficult for ordinary people to reach, but it will be almost a day's walk to the capital city of Yiyang Province.

Yiyang Mansion is located in the southernmost part of Yuzhou, east of Huizhou, west and south of Huzhou, is an important place for Jianghuai, known as the north and south of the Yangtze River, the north of the Yangtze River is called the south of the Yangtze River, it is a good place to go first-class, but Xu Beiyou does not have the meaning of staying here, just passing by.

It's just that Tiangong wanted to keep people, and when Xu Beiyou was only a dozen miles away from Yiyang Mansion, a wind suddenly rose, and the sky suddenly darkened.

Xu Beiyou stopped and looked up at the sky.

The sky, which was originally gray, seemed to have been splashed with a basin of thick ink.

The lead cloud overhead grew heavier and heavier, and in a few moments, the sky had completely darkened.

"Let's go!"

A raindrop fell on Xu Beiyou's face.

Then ten, hundreds, tens of millions.

Countless rains poured down from above the nine heavens, as if to envelop the entire heaven and earth in a dense rain curtain.

Xu Beiyou lowered his head, pulled the hat on his head, and did not decide to rush in the rain, but chose to find a place to shelter from the rain temporarily.

Of course, with his cultivation, he will not be afraid of raindrops, but on the premise that there is no emergency, he doesn't want to pretend to be a master who doesn't get wet in the rain.

The outline of Yiyang Mansion City was already faintly visible in the distance, Xu Beiyou casually pulled a few branches and leaves of wild plantain as an umbrella, lightly tapped his feet, and his body was a few points faster, and he floated away in the direction of the city.

This sudden autumn rain is getting denser and denser.

A young woman was braving the rain to run into the city, but the road was muddy, and the embroidered shoes on her feet were already covered with mud.

When she finally ran to the gate of the city, she had become a veritable chicken in the soup, with strands of hair sticking to her forehead, and her clothes were already soaked, but fortunately, she was not a woman from a big family, and she was wearing thick muslin clothes, and she would not reveal her inner situation, but the wet clothes were tightly attached to her body, but they more and more highlighted the exquisiteness of the woman's figure.

The soldiers guarding the city gate kept glancing at the woman, but they didn't dare to make any moves, the prefect of Yiyang Mansion was notoriously harsh, and he could only get past it with thunderous means at every turn.

The woman slipped through the hole in the city gate and continued to run towards the city in the rain, not forgetting to turn around and glare fiercely at the soldiers guarding the city gate.

Just as she ran to Granny Cui's cake shop, the rain was getting heavier and heavier, and she really couldn't bear the autumn rain, which was almost comparable to the summer rain, so she hid under the eaves of the cake shop.

The woman wiped the rain on her face with her sleeve, the wind was blowing, she couldn't help but put her hands on her shoulders, she looked at the rain outside, and decided to take shelter here for a while, and then go home after the rain became lighter.

The woman's name is Zhou Xiuning, the name is not cheesy, and it stands out among women, especially in this world that does not pay attention to women's names, often only large families will give their daughters a name, but Zhou Xiuning is not a lady, but a florist's daughter, can only be regarded as a small family jasper, a native of Yiyang Mansion, living here for generations.

Zhou Xiuning inadvertently turned his head to look, and suddenly found that there was a person standing on the street not far from the cake shop.

This man seemed to be a Taoist priest, with long black hair neatly combed, and then pinned with a hosta, with a long sword on his back, and from the front, only the hilt of the sword could be seen from the shoulder.

He held an oil-paper umbrella in his hand that looked like he was old, and stood quietly in the rain. The slightly burnt yellow and cloudy surface of the umbrella kept the raindrops from the sky, but the placket and shoulders of the cyan robe were still wet from the thin autumn rain.

The shoes on his feet were also covered with mud, as if he had come from afar, and his whole face was covered under the umbrella and could not be seen clearly, like countless passers-by hurrying by with umbrellas in the rain, but this Taoist was calm and peaceful, which made people feel close.

It seems that the Taoist has been standing here for some time, as if he was waiting for someone.

Zhou Xiuning cautiously approached a distance and asked softly, "This Dao Leader, are you waiting for someone?"

The Taoist didn't look back, but replied briefly with one word, "Yes." ”

Zhou Xiuning looked at the heavy rain outside, seeing that he couldn't walk, he couldn't help but ask, "Who are you waiting for?"

The young Taoist shook his head and did not answer.

Zhou Xiuning hesitated, tried to shrink his body, gave up the vacant seat of most of the people, and said, "It's raining outside, come in and hide from the rain, it's the same here." ”

The young Taoist turned his head to look at him, but he still couldn't see his appearance clearly, but the corners of his mouth were faintly upturned.

Zhou Xiuning's face was slightly red, and seeing that he still didn't speak, he didn't dare to speak more.

After about half a pillar of incense, the rain turned lighter, and just when Zhou Xiuning was about to leave this place and go home, a figure came from the direction of the city gate, it seemed to be walking, but it was like the legendary shrinkage of the ground into inches, and in the blink of an eye, he came to the cooking cake shop not far away, and it was a little funny that he was not holding an umbrella in his hand, but a few big banana leaves.

Zhou Xiuning subconsciously thought, could this person be the person the Taoist priest was waiting for?

The person who came was wearing a large hat, which also covered most of his face, and the long strip-shaped bag wrapped in Shu brocade behind him had been soaked by the rain, vaguely like a big cuboid box.

"Good rain knows the season, autumn kills, so autumn wind and autumn rain are easy to kill. ”

The person who came spoke softly, as if he had met a friend he hadn't seen for many years, but the content of the words made Zhou Xiuning couldn't help but be shocked.

The Taoist who had been cherishing words like gold before finally spoke and asked, "Jiangdu Xu Gongzi?"

The visitor looked at the Taoist in front of him, who should have met for the first time, with a warm smile, "I'm Xu Beiyou, I haven't asked Your Excellency yet?"

The Taoist said calmly: "Dao disciple, Ling Yun." ”

Xu Beiyou was slightly stunned, and then suddenly said: "It turned out to be the head of the Dao Sect who is the real person's high feet." ”

Ling Yun, the eleventh disciple of the Dao Sect Sect Sect Sect Qiu Ye, the entry was still before Qi Xianyun, and there were many people in the Dao Sect who regarded the two of them as a pair of golden boys and girls made in heaven, but the two of them have always scoffed at this statement, and even the two of them don't have much personal relationship in normal times.

Xu Beiyou didn't expect that after Qi Xianyun and Zhiyun left Xuandu one after another, Ling Yun, the youngest of the eleven remaining disciples of the Palm Sect, also left Xuandu.

Xu Beiyou asked, "How do you know that I will choose to pass through Yuzhou?"

Ling Yun said calmly: "There are two roads to choose from Jiangdu to the emperor, take the Dongjiang Grand Canal in Jiangzhou, or take the land route in Yuzhou, Yiyang Mansion is the only way for Huizhou to enter Yuzhou, so the poor road chooses to gamble, if Xu Gongzi chooses the waterway, or simply goes with the sword, the poor road will be a trip in vain, but if Xu Gongzi chooses to pass through Yuzhou, then he must meet the poor road." ”

Ling Yun paused for a moment and said slowly: "It seems that the poor Dao bet is right." ”