Yangcheng County Ya, it was dark and silent everywhere, only the study was still lit by candlelight.

Zhou Cunjian sat in front of the table and worked hard to write. Nowadays, there are so many things that he needs to deal with.

The county government of Yecheng will be merged into Yangcheng tomorrow. The placement of relevant personnel is a big and onerous problem.

Originally, the 1,000 defenders of Yecheng were also going to be incorporated into Yangcheng, but today I received news that they would not come again, and they would be merged into Dong Chongjun's soldiers on the spot.

This made Zhou Cunjian feel humiliated.

The army of the imperial court, how could it have been incorporated into the private soldiers of the feudal monarch, is this the suspicion and distrust of his own ability?

But he is just a small county lieutenant, and he is a high-powered Dong Chongjun. Even if Zhou Cunjian was dissatisfied, he could only swallow it in his stomach.

He just didn't understand why the boss had made this decision.

As Yexian County becomes the food town of Dong Chongjun, this means that the strength of the Lan family will be one step stronger.

The reason for this is not what Zhou Cunjian's position can be qualified to know. Maybe the Star Keeper knows, or maybe he doesn't have the right to know......

"Woohoo!"

There was a knock on the door, followed by a voice:

"Your Excellency. ”

Zhou Cunjian heard the voice of the official in charge of the carrier pigeons, and he replied:

"Come in. ”

As the door opened, the servant entered.

"Haven't the carrier pigeons of the defenders of the East and West Pass arrived yet?" asked Zhou Cunjian.

The official replied respectfully:

"Back to the adults, the little ones have been guarding the pigeon cage, and no carrier pigeons have arrived. ”

When Zhou Cunjian heard this answer, he frowned deeply:

"It's not even here yet...... I had given the order early on that I had to return to the situation every day. And now, it hasn't even come!"

The carrier pigeon, which was supposed to arrive early, has not been heard from.

There are only two possibilities for such a situation, one is that the defenders in the east and west directions are all wiped out, and even the carrier pigeons have not had time to be sent. The second is that they received other, higher-level orders.

Neither situation is good news, but Zhou Cunjian is most worried about the latter.

If the defenders are all wiped out, then they can retreat if they can't do it. And if it is the second case, then it means that you are waiting for someone to ...... There is no escape!

Zhou Cunjian only felt upset, and he handed the letter written on the table to the officer:

"Immediately pass this letter to Taishou-sama with a carrier pigeon!"

When the official received the letter, he was ordered to withdraw.

The candle was bright, and Zhou Cunjian sat in front of the table and was stunned for a long time.

Eventually, he reopened a piece of letter paper, picked up the brush and continued to write.

Too many letters had to be conveyed in a timely manner, and things were getting more and more wrong.

"Woohoo!"

The knock on the door rang again.

A familiar voice came from outside the door:

"My lord, my subordinates ask to see me. ”

Zhou Cunjian was slightly puzzled when he heard this voice:

"Jiang Yuan, it's all this time, what is he doing here?"

In another hour, it will be the time of the hour. If you really have something, you can wait until the time to talk about it.

"Jiang Zhutou, come in. ”

Zhou Cun said without raising his head.

The door squeaked, then closed again.

Footsteps also came to the table, and then stopped.

"Jiang Zhutou," Zhou Cunjian put down his pen and raised his head, "When you-"

Zhou Cunjian's voice suddenly stopped, and his heart was beating wildly.

In front of the table, there is no one!

A cold sweat soaked his clothes.

He obviously heard Jiang Yuan asking to see him, and he obviously heard Jiang Yuan walking in.

However, at this time, he was the only one in the entire study.

"Tick!"

Sweat dripped from his forehead onto the letter, causing the ink on it to spread.

"Jiang ...... Far away?"

He opened his mouth, but he felt that his voice was hoarse and dry, and no one answered him ****** room.

Zhou Cunjian only felt that his hands were trembling slightly, he twisted his neck stiffly, and shifted his gaze to the saber hanging on the wall.

Then, he slammed into the saber.

At the same time, the candles in the study were extinguished.

All around, there was a sudden darkness in the boundless.

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

The moon hung in the sky, and the moonlight sprinkled all over the weedy hills.

A half-human-tall stele came into view, one side dimmed by the moonlight, the other shrouded in dark darkness.

Jiang Yuan came to the stele, and after this stele, there was the legendary murderous place not far behind.

I saw that at the top of the stele, there were four eye-catching big characters:

"Don't come near the living!"

Underneath, there is a carving of someone who disappeared or died here in a certain year and month.

Jiang Yuan bypassed the stele and ran quickly towards the bottom of the hill.

Beneath the hill is a flat meadow.

The grass is thick and soft, and there is a smell of decay in it.

Jiang Yuan continued to walk, his eyes searching around the open grass.

Finally, at the end of the meadow, among the low bushes on one side, Jiang Yuan saw a person.

It was a slender figure, and it seemed to be a woman.

"Girl!" Jiang Yuan said hello, and then stepped forward.

As she approached, she saw that the woman was wearing a long linen dress, with a delicate carved wooden hairpin stuck in her hair, and she was holding a pipa painted with Ogihua in her arms.

The woman kept her head down quietly, and as Jiang Yuan gradually approached, she slowly raised her face.

It was a terrifying face, half of which seemed to have been burned by fire and covered in scars. Half of her lips were burned off, and even with her mouth closed, you could faintly see her teeth.

The eye burns were particularly severe, with the eyelids collapsing in both eyes, including the whites of the eyes and no pupils.

Jiang Yuan frowned and asked:

"Girl, standing here in the middle of the night, is it deliberately scary?"

The woman's pale eyes turned to Jiang Yuan, her face was very ugly, but her voice was very good:

"Am I ugly?"

Jiang Yuan nodded:

"In terms of appearance, it's ugly at the moment. ”

The woman asked:

"Did it scare you? Why do they call me...... Saltless girl?"

Jiang Yuan lost interest in talking to her.

He walked around the woman, intending to continue walking.

The woman suddenly said:

"Don't go any further! If you go any further, you'll lose your life! Go back!"

Jiang Yuan turned around and asked:

"Have you ever seen a middle-aged man?"

The woman shook her head:

"My sister brought a child over, and I scared him away. ”

Jiang Yuan felt that talking to this woman was a waste of time.

So he went on his way.

The woman's body suddenly trembled, and her expression seemed to become terrified, which made her face even more terrifying.

I only heard her say with sorrow:

"Why don't you listen to me...... You're going to be eaten......"

Jiang Yuan didn't look back, and continued to go deeper.

He crossed the bushes and headed farther afield. Over there, there seemed to be a flickering fire.

The woman became more and more sad, she sat on the stone, her chin bowed, her fingers slender and crystalline, while caressing the Ogihua lute, while singing softly:

"The bright moon is dark, and the ghosts are swaying in the wind...... Go home and go out of trouble, worship the moon late at night...... Don't look, don't look! The living are dead, and the blood is pouring ......"

The miserable white eyes were full of sorrow, the tortoiseshell false armor held down the strings, the five notes of the pear pipa were extinguished, and the wilderness suddenly fell into the void.

Jiang Yuan has gone farther and farther.

The light of the fire began to clear, and a small village appeared in front of him.

It seems that a festival is being held in the village, which is brightly lit and full of people.

Jiang Yuan walked into the village and saw that the villagers were all gathered in the rice field.

A bonfire was lit in the rice field, and an earthen altar was erected, surrounded by flags, and some utensils were placed on the altar.

Soon a villager noticed Jiang Yuan, and a girl greeted him with a smile:

"It's a rare occasion for you to stay here. It coincides with the moon festival held in the village, and since the guests are here, it is not as good as fun. ”

The girl was only twenty-eight years old, but she was born extremely beautiful.

The surrounding villagers also gathered around, holding the pot pulp in their hands, and warmly invited.

Jiang Yuan said to the girl:

"I'm looking for someone, a middle-aged man, have you seen it?"

The girl took Jiang Yuan's hand and walked towards the final earthen altar of the rice field:

"The sacrifice is about to begin, and the distinguished guests are invited to come!"

Jiang Yuan shrugged helplessly and said to himself:

"Didn't you listen to me......"

At this time, the surrounding villagers suddenly cheered loudly.

In the midst of the shouting of the crowd, I saw two middle-aged men being taken to the earthen altar by the villagers wearing pure white masks.

The two middle-aged men were bound by hemp rope and knelt on the ground, their faces full of horror, and they kept struggling desperately, but to no avail.

The villagers wearing pure white masks began to dance around the two middle-aged men, and every time they waved the hook sacrificial vessel in their hands, they always provoked thunderous applause from the villagers under the altar.

Jiang Yuanchong said to the girl next to him:

"I met someone over there just now, and her face ......"

"That's my sister. ”

As the girl spoke, she wrapped her hands around Jiang Yuan's neck, and her soft body was only against Jiang Yuan's body.

Her big eyes looked at Jiang Yuan longingly:

"Little brother, I like you!"

Jiang Yuan hugged the girl's thin waist:

"I like you too. ”

The girl smiled brightly, licked her cherry lips with her tender tongue, and said ambiguously:

"I want to...... Eat you now. ”

Jiang Yuan grinned and showed his white teeth:

"Me ...... too"

At this time, there was another change in the earthen altar.

The villagers in pure white masks had stopped dancing, and they picked up a middle-aged man and tied him to a wooden frame, and then brandished a sharp hook sacrificial device, cutting the middle-aged man's clothes, revealing his chest.

The middle-aged man became more and more frightened and kept screaming wildly.

Jiang Yuan pushed away the girl in his arms, and asked in a loud voice at the two middle-aged men on the earthen altar:

"Which of you is Xiaolong's father?"

The man tied to the wooden frame was still screaming wildly.

But the middle-aged man who was kneeling on the ground glared at Jiang Yuan violently, struggling and saying angrily:

"Don't hurt my children!

Jiang Yuan locked on to the target: "It seems that it is him." ”

Then, he pulled the girl next to him into his arms, and sniffed the fragrance of the girl's neck for a while, causing the girl to giggle.

At this time, I saw a villager wearing a white mask stabbing the man on the wooden frame into the chest with a hook, and then kept cutting it open.

Blood flowed profusely, and the surrounding villagers screamed more and more frantically.

The ground was covered with ravines, and blood pooled, slowly pouring down the small ditches into a deep hole the thickness of an arm's length in the earthen altar.

Kneel down with them, shout at the bright moon hanging high in the sky, and then keep kneeling.

The man on the wooden frame was in this strange atmosphere, bleeding and dying slowly.

The villager wearing a white mask picked up the kneeling middle-aged man and tied him to a wooden frame.