In the first year of Chongning of the Great Song Dynasty, Mengxia.

The twilight is vast, the afterglow is veined, the heat of the day is gradually subsiding, and there are bursts of cicadas in the mountains and forests. In the northern suburbs of Wuzhou City, on a rugged mountain road, a young scholar with a book on his back is singing in the sunset.

"Hang the dragon Feng, cry than dry, envy Zhuang Zhou, worship Lao Dan. Weiyang Palace is wrapped in the king and grandson. The coix from the south slandered the coix, and the seven-foot coral only harmed itself. Kong Ming was the hero in vain, and he knew that the thatched house was lying high, and he would save how many six out of Qishan. The voice was intermittent, and after singing a song, I suddenly heard the scholar sing in a different tune: "I am a loose person in Wollongong, relying on yin and yang to pass through the past and the present, ······"

The boy was no more than sixteen or seventeen years old, with beautiful eyebrows, a gray and white shirt, a royal blue scarf, and a pair of black silk brocade boots on his feet.

Sweat droplets flowed down the delicate face, and the young man didn't wipe it, letting the mountain breeze dry it, bringing a trace of coolness. Singing and walking, and watching the beautiful mountain scenery along the way, he only felt that his heart was flying, and even the weight of the book behind him was a little lighter.

This is the Great Song Dynasty more than 900 years ago, and he has long been unable to distinguish whether he is a passerby or a returnee.

The blue sky is clear, the sunset is like fire, a flock of homing birds and finches quietly fly overhead, the mountains in the distance are stacked, the stream is gurgling around the mountain, and a few ape cries can be vaguely heard from the deep stream. Li Ji climbed a towering hill and looked into the distance, only to see an ancient temple with red walls and black tiles looming under the shade of green mountains and cypresses.

"The ancient temple in the deep mountains, wonderful, wonderful, it's really a mountain and a heavy water can't see the village, and suddenly there is a temple!" Seeing that the sky was about to dark, and there was no one in this radius, he thought that he was going to sleep in the barren mountains tonight, but he didn't expect this unexpected joy.

After crossing the stream and walking along the steep stone steps for hundreds of meters, you came to the ancient temple. At this time, the temple door is wide open, the red paint on the wooden door has long been peeled off, there is no plaque on the frieze, and the outer wall has collapsed in several places, which is particularly dilapidated. Walk into it, but see the temple tower magnificent, the monk's house is like, but the artemisia grass on both sides of the stone path has no knees, as if no one has lived for a long time. There are three monks' houses in the Zen monastery, and the doors of the east and west rooms are hidden, and only the monk's house in the south chamber has a new lock. There is a bamboo forest in the east corner of the hall, and at the end of the bamboo forest is a huge pond under the stone steps, and the wild lotus root in it also blooms.

Li Ji liked the seclusion of this place, and he was about to look for the master of the temple, but he saw a young Confucian student walking towards him under the corridor.

Before he arrived, Li Ji bowed: "Under Li Ji, he is a student of Lanxi County School, this time he entered Wuzhou City to participate in the state examination, passed by Guisi, and saw that it was getting late, so he wanted to rest here for a night, I don't know if it is convenient?"

The young Confucian was stunned for a moment, and then said with a smile: "Brother Li misunderstood, in Xianning Caichen, a person from Yongkang County, like Brother Li, also wants to stay here." ”

"Ning Caichen, it can't be such a coincidence, right?" Li Ji was stunned, then he had a lot of thoughts, and then looked around, and suddenly felt ghostly.

"Barren Mountain, Ancient Temple, Ning Caichen, Jinhua, go to the test, am I Lan Xisheng?" However, the temperament of the original owner is the same as the greedy and lustful scholar in the story.

"Lan Xisheng came with a servant to wait for the test, lived in the east chamber, and died violently at night. There are small holes in the center of the feet, such as those with cone thorns, and there is blood coming out of them, and they don't know why. After the death of a servant, the symptoms are the same. ”

This place is not Guobei County, this temple is not called Lanruo Temple, Guo is the outer city, Guobei is the north of the city, Lanruo is Sanskrit, the original meaning is the forest, and then it refers to the abandoned temple, here is just a deserted nameless ancient temple in the northern suburbs of Jinhua County, and he became the unlucky Lan Xisheng.

But when you think about it, there are a few differences between this and the original.

First of all, because of his crossing, he drove away the unscrupulous servant as early as Lanxi, so he did not bring a servant with him on this trip, and he arrived here half a day earlier than in the book.

According to the book, on this first night, Nie Xiaoqian will go to Ning Caichen, and as long as he survives tonight and leaves here early the next morning, he can escape this catastrophe. Thinking of this, Li Ji's heart was a little settled.

While the two were talking, a young man walked in.

The young man was about twenty years old, tall, heroic, beardless under his chin, dressed in black, wearing a black Tang scarf, and carrying a shovel behind him.

Seeing that there were more Li Ji and Ning Caichen in the courtyard, he didn't care much, just saluted each other from afar, and went to open the monk's door in the south chamber. Li Ji knew that this person was the swordsman Yan Chixia, so he hurriedly stepped forward with Ning Caichen to explain his intentions and asked him attentively.

After hearing this, Yan Chixia said indifferently: "There is no master here, and I live here as a guest, since the two of you don't think this place is deserted, and are willing to stay as companions, everyone can ask questions day and night, and it is also an honor to be here." ”

After thanking each other, they each chose a place to live. Seeing that Ning Caichen chose the west room as in the book, Li Ji breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and made a couch in the monk's room in the east with Artemisia Grass.

This night was as bright as water, Li Ji deliberately walked out of the room, and saw that the two were talking and laughing in the corridor of the main hall. Li Jilang laughed, stepped forward to greet the two, and the three of them showed their names.

I heard that this state examination was organized by the state magistrate for the tribute of the Guozi Supervisor, and 15 scholars were selected, and if they were able to pass the middle school, they would have the opportunity to enter the Guozi Prison to study. Li Ji saw that both of them were dressed as scholars, so he asked.

"In Xia Qin, they are swordsmen, and they have traveled all the way here!" Yan Chixia said.

Ning Caichen shook his head and said gloomily: "The inner son of the family is seriously ill, and he has no success in seeking medical treatment in Yongkang, and he has no intention of learning, this time I went to Wuzhou, not to take the exam, but to hear that the Daomen Immortal Master of Jinhua Cave Heaven is going to give talismans to the world in the city, so I came to ask for a life-sustaining spiritual talisman for Neizi!"

"Brother Ning is really a person of great affection, but can this water talisman really cure diseases?" Li Ji has the thinking of a modern person, and he is instinctively a little suspicious of these miraculous things. It's just that it was a strange thing for him to come to this world, not to mention that there are demons, sword immortals and many other strangers in this world, which have shaken his faith even more.

"The art of runic water has been inherited from the witch doctor Zhu Youshu, which has existed since ancient times. Jinhua Cave Heaven is one of the thirty-six small cave heavens of the Daomen, although it ranks last, but the monks in the cave also have some real skills. It's just that if you give Fu to help the world, and the Fu water you give out, what can be cured is only an ordinary disease. I just heard what Cai Chen said, the illness of my brother and sister is probably not an ordinary rune water can be cured, it must be a spirit rune refined by a great cultivator of the Daomen, but the spirit rune is precious, and the entire Jinhua Cave Heaven can't find a few, if they want to take it out, I'm afraid there will be some twists and turns. Yan Chixia hesitated a little, but she also truthfully stated her opinion.

Li Ji saw that Ning Caichen's expression was gloomy, and hurriedly said: "Brother Ning, don't worry, the Daomen refining spirit runes are not only to save people, but how can they hide and not use them because they are precious, since this is the case, why should I refine them?

"The two of you are warm, you admire it in your heart, if you really can't ask for it, you can only admit it in the next!" Ning Caichen's expression was still a little depressed, and when the two saw this, they ended the conversation, said goodbye to each other, and went back to their rooms to rest.

The moonlight was faint, listening to the snoring sound from the monk's house in the south, but Li Ji couldn't sleep. Knowing that there are demons and ghosts in this temple who want to come out to harm people, how can he still fall asleep, not to mention, he just asked to go to the talisman with others, and he will leave early tomorrow morning, and there will be no other words, how will Ning Caichen and Yan Chixia think of him?

"Why am I here? But tonight Ning Caichen is in a low mood, don't really be corrupted by Nie Xiaoqian, then I have really become a sinner, alas, forget it, let's get up and read the book!" He sat up from the couch, took out an ancient book from the book, and did not light a candle, but flipped it at will in the moonlight.

There was a soft "creak", the door was pushed open, and a girl with light steps quietly walked in.

"Oops, Nie Xiaoqian didn't pester Ning Caichen tonight, but found me, how is this good?"