He Zhuo listened, but did not react for a long time.

"Uncle?"

He Xiaoqian stretched out his hand and shook it in front of He Zhuo.

"Don't worry, I'm fine. He Zhuo barely calmed down the emotions stirring in his heart, calmed himself down, and asked while thinking, "Where is Erxi now, and how much money did you give him?"

"He's ...... now. I gave him ten silver coins, and if he was obedient, he could get a gold coin. ”

He Xiaoqian is not sure.

He was no less surprised than He Zhuo when he learned the news, and he didn't even think of giving Erxi a hush money.

It was Erxi who reminded him, and he took out all the money on his body to buy Erxi to keep the secret.

Being He Xiaoqian's own uncle, He Zhuo didn't realize that He Xiaoqian's handling was not safe, so he asked where Zhou Ye'er's body was parked, and immediately rushed over.

......

After seeing off He Zhuo and Da Zhuang, Shen Zhiwei rested for a while and came to the courtyard to admire the spring flowers.

The flowers planted here are not precious varieties, and most of them are collected from the deep mountains, which can be used for viewing and medicine. Some exude a sweet and greasy fragrance, some are tall and beautiful, and some are ordinary like weeds.

The people in Zhuangzi neglected to take care of it, neither fertilizing on time nor pruning the branches and leaves properly, and the plants grew according to their instincts, extending the branches and leaves in six directions, forward, backward, left, right, and up and down, to get the best sunlight possible.

Shen Zhiwei liked these plants that had not been pruned, and approached patiently for a moment, and his face gradually became solemn.

It's not the same.

The plants in Zhuangzi are not the same as the plants in her home.

They seem to be sick, and they are miserable, and they can't lift their spirits.

Is there a problem with soil and water?

She looked at a nearby banyan tree that had grown for decades, and by the naked eye, it was very healthy, with lush foliage, no shortage of water, and no insect infestation.

However, when she stood under the banyan tree, a faint smell of decay enveloped her.

Just like when she went to visit her sick grandfather with her father and siblings, she also felt the smell of death from her grandfather.

This banyan tree did not live long.

Shen Zhiwei couldn't sense the existence of the banyan tree, so he put his palm on the thick trunk to make contact with it to reduce the difficulty of perception.

In the world of consciousness, the banyan tree has lost all its leaves, leaving only bare branches, and wisps of unknown dirty ash are wrapped around the roots, gnawing at the vitality of the banyan tree like locusts, eroding the spirituality of the banyan tree.

Assuming that a healthy banyan tree is a very sturdy stone building, the current banyan tree is a crumbling thatched hut that will not last many days even if there is no wind and rain.

Shen Zhiwei frowned, pouring a small amount of vitality into the banyan tree—this action annoyed the filthy ash.

They seemed to possess the instincts of beasts, and the hungry tiger pounced on that little bit of life, and slew at her with lightning speed.

"It's weird. Shen Zhiwei's hand was still pressed on the banyan tree, her eyes were wide open, and she could clearly see a faint gray gas floating from the depths of the trunk.

The ash struck like a venomous snake, baring its deadly fangs and biting down on her palm.

Shen Zhiwei's reaction was not slow, he raised his hand and patted it, and the palm attached to the occult technique immediately scattered the gray qi into eighteen pieces.

"Uhhh

She heard a faint sound similar to a balloon being poked and leaking, and her fingers opened at the same moment, grabbing at the scattered ash.

Under the occult perception, the gray qi dispersed, and its essence was immediately revealed.

They are not qi, but small gray scaleless snakes, with strange life fluctuations and powerful abilities to erode spirituality, not like normal creations.

Shen Zhiwei's attack was caught off guard, the scaleless gray snake hurriedly scurried, and hid back in the banyan tree with a quick reaction, and was caught with a normal reaction, and the slow one fell into prey before he could run away.

Fifteen scaleless gray snakes were grabbed by Shen Zhiwei with one hand, and they were so anxious that they bit her hand.

However, Shen Zhiwei attached a mystical technique on the surface of her skin, and the gray snake bit her hand, and she was neither painful nor itchy.

Looking at the gray snake up close, Shen Zhiwei felt disgusted in his heart, feeling that the thing he was holding was similar to a slug covered with sticky secretions on the surface of his body, which was dirty, smelly, and disgusting.

However, if you've already caught it, don't think it's dirty.

She grasped the gray snake tightly, expanded the world of consciousness, and analyzed the essence of these things with occult arts, trying to find an effective way to save the big banyan tree.

Based on the cleverness shown by the gray snakes, Shen Zhiwei originally thought that their intelligence was not inferior to that of crows, but the fact was that the intelligence of the gray snakes was equal to that of ordinary insects. The reason why they are extraordinarily intelligent is that they have a special perception of their kind, and only when they act together can they exert their transcendent intelligence.

After learning that the gray snake's intelligence came from the collective, Shen Zhiwei was in a bad mood.

Eighteen gray snakes have the same intelligence as crows, and if there are a hundred gray snakes, are they more intelligent than humans?

Putting aside the above assumptions of scaring people, Shen Zhiwei also knew that gray snakes like cold and fear high temperatures, and the vitality condensed by occult arts is the poison that kills them: a small amount of vitality will excite them, and a large amount of vitality will cause them to die.

She refined the vitality equivalent to a small grass into an invisible needle, and easily killed fifteen gray snakes.

They have no corpses, and when they die, they sink into the ground as turbidity and are the fertilizer that nourishes the banyan trees.

Shen Zhiwei raised his hand and slapped it, sending the invisible needle into the trunk of the banyan tree, killing the three gray snakes that had escaped before.

In the world of consciousness, the wisps of gray qi wrapped around the roots of the banyan tree all disappeared, and the branches that looked like they were about to die sprouted tender green buds, and a heartfelt joy and gratitude were transmitted to Shen Zhiwei.

This is the gratitude of the big banyan tree.

In reality, the leaves of the banyan tree are yellowing and falling at a rate visible to the naked eye.

But in a moment, the thick leaves piled up on the ground, the branches withered and died, and then the trunk and roots of the banyan tree.

It withered, and what little life and spirituality was left was concentrated on a twig half an arm's length.

Shen Zhiwei carried the branches and randomly selected the plants in the courtyard to examine, and the result was that almost all the plants were infected by the scaleless gray snake, including an orchid that was about to be promoted to elixir.

It's not easy.

Realizing that he had found something unbelievable, Shen Zhiwei found Shen He and asked him, "Have you ever heard the news of 'a large number of plants dying' in a certain place?"

Shen He was squatting in the animal house to tease a fluffy beast cub, and when he saw his sister's serious little face, he was surprised: "What's wrong?

"Nope. Don't change the subject, answer me first. ”

Shen He didn't think about it, and shook his head: "I have never heard of such news." But I heard Uncle Seventeen talk about a very rare drought that broke out in the north more than 200 years ago, and in only two months, thousands of miles of red land, starvation was everywhere, and no soul survived. ”

"What about the others?" Shen Zhiwei asked, "In addition to drought and volcanic eruptions, what else will cause plants to die at the same time?"

"Demonic Calamity. Shen He quickly gave an answer.

He is older than Shen Zhiwei, and he may not have read as many books as her, but he must know more things than her, because the occurrence of certain events is time-sensitive, and books may not be updated in time.

Shen He explained, "A year before you were born, there was a terrible tragedy in the Qi Kingdom under the jurisdiction of the Seven Peerless Sword Sect, I heard that a certain remote village was unfortunately infected by demons, and all living beings within a radius of three hundred miles were sacrificed. Thanks to the Seven Absolute Sword Sect, they sensed that something was wrong in time and set up a ban to prevent the spread of demonic dye. Otherwise, it will not only be a village that will disappear, but also a county seat. ”

Demon Dye, Demon Plague?

Shen Zhiwei thought of the demons in history and said, "The demon dyed by the demon is the demon of the demon?"

Shen He nodded: "Demon pollution is similar to the plague, only demons have the ability to cause it." His gaze suddenly fell on Shen Zhiwei's hand, "Sansan, are you holding something strange in your hand that I can't see?"