When Xuanqi turned back to the capital, there was a grief in the palace. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 infoWhen everyone decided to take Xia Xingyun's ashes back to the Blue Flame Valley of the Tianshan Mountains for burial, a shocking news suddenly came out of the palace, Li Rui had a sudden attack of angina pectoris and had died. The sudden news made everyone in the palace have to stay, so they had to let someone inform Xia Chongxiao, who was far away in the Tianshan Mountains.

Everyone was surprised that Li Rui, who was in the prime of life, died suddenly, and the old princess took Li Xing, Li Sheng, and Xuan Qi into the palace overnight. When he arrived in front of Li Rui's dormitory, he was stopped by the Ouchi guards, saying that there was a decree of the queen, and no one was allowed to visit. The four of them couldn't, so they had to stop in the courtyard in front of the dormitory. After a short time, the ministers of civil and military affairs who heard the news were already crowding the courtyard, and they were all talking about the queen's decree. They stayed up all night until dawn before they could enter the dormitory.

A few days later, Li Rui was funeral, and the subjects of the world were sued for seven days. Subsequently, Li Zhe ascended the throne as emperor, changed his name to Tianyuan, and granted amnesty to the world, and the following year was the first year of Tianyuan. On the New Year's Day of the first year of the Tianyuan Dynasty, the Celestial Empire sent envoys to hand over congratulatory watches and meet the new emperor at the same time.

After Li Rui ascended the throne, in addition to granting amnesty to the world, he also reduced or exempted 20% of the country's taxes, and took advantage of the fact that there was no war at the border to recuperate and recuperate.

And Xuan Qi, out of the sensitivity of a killer, always felt that when Li Rui died, Li Rui's queen, who is now the Queen Mother Qi, prevented everyone from entering the palace, and looked at something wrong. Although Xuan Qi was just an intuition and didn't really find any clues, he still discussed it with Li Xing and Li Sheng. The two have always been quite convinced of Xuanqi's intuition, and after discussion, they both felt that they should investigate secretly, so they decided to hide the matter of Xuanmen for the time being.

Xuan Qi had nothing to do except arrange a secret investigation into Li Rui's death. After the rebellions in South Vietnam and the Northwest were put down, only the Xiongnu in the north and the Tubo in the southwest really threatened the Celestial Empire. And these two countries are not moving at the moment, apparently waiting for the right moment. On the other hand, the Heavenly Divine Sect had been disappearing since Xuan Qi uprooted most of the forces in the Celestial Empire, as if it had suddenly disappeared.

Xuan Qi naturally still had lingering palpitations about the matter of the Heavenly God Sect. In addition to the fact that the headquarters of the Celestial God Cult has not yet been found, there is also the matter of the Black Mandala that has not yet been resolved. And this black mandala comes from Tianzhu, and the road is very far away, so I don't know where to start for a while. In addition, Xuan Qi was also deeply suspicious of the sudden death of the lord of Tubo two years ago, and always felt that things were not so simple.

After thinking about it, Xuan Qi immediately decided to take advantage of the peace in the world and go to Tubo first, not only to investigate the death of the lord of Tubo, but also to go to Tianzhu through Tubo to find out the ins and outs of the black mandala flowing into the Celestial Empire.

After Xuan Qi made a decision, he immediately found Chu Lin, as well as Ma Qingshan and other beggar gang elders, and officially passed the position of dog beating stick and beggar gang leader to Chu Lin. Seeing that Xuan Qi had made up his mind, everyone had to accept this fact. After Xuan Qi finished explaining all the big and small things, he said goodbye to his family and set out on the road to the southwest alone.

Alone, Xuan Qi rode lightly on the road, climbed over the mountains directly from the west of Longnan, and entered the plateau in early February. This fashion is a cold spring, and the entire plateau is covered in silver, which has a unique style. Xuan Qi slowed down his horse and let the horse head southwest on the boundless plateau.

Xuan Qiyi was dressed as a literati, with a sword on his back, and he was still under the pseudonym Gu Qingping. Along the way, the Tubo people are very enthusiastic, and they do not doubt the identity of the Xuanqi ranger, and they are obviously a lone ranger like Xuanqi. Sure enough, along the way, Xuanqi could still see a lot of Han people, most of whom were merchants who went to Tubo to do business.

As you move south, the terrain gets higher and higher, and snow-capped mountains can be seen everywhere. At the end of February, Xuanqi crossed the Tanggula Pass and entered the vast no-man's land in the north of Nagqu. In the town below the mountain, countless caravans are gathering. In the face of this vast no-man's land, even the locals are reluctant to go on the road alone. The more people there are, the more likely they are to be able to walk through this no-man's land with the Realm of Death.

Xuan Qi casually chatted with the people around him, and most of the people in these caravans were bold, so they pulled Xuan Qi into the team. When the team was assembled, it was already the morning of the second day, and the team of two or three hundred people, led by the local guide, marched towards Naqu in a mighty way.

The weather here is even harsher, with strong winds mixed with sand and snowflakes flying all over the sky. The seemingly flat ground is full of quicksand that devours human life. In the endless desert, the bones of humans and beasts can often be seen, and it is shocking to be exposed in the wilderness.

After a few days, Xuan Qi and the caravan with him became acquainted. Especially when Xuan Qi threw out the rope and pulled out a man who was almost devoured from the quicksand, everyone became particularly enthusiastic about Xuan Qi.

Seven days later, when the group of men and horses bowed their heads and braved the wind and snow, countless horses' hooves sounded from all directions. The crowd was suddenly in chaos, and from the cursing, Xuan Qi could tell that he had met a plateau horse bandit. Once encountering horse bandits, the caravan will not receive anything from this trip, and the goods brought by the horse bandits will be snatched away, and even their lives will be lost here.

The local Tibetan guides and hired Tibetans who walked ahead were trembling and kneeling on the ground, begging for protection from the mountain gods. Under normal circumstances, horse bandits do not attack the locals.

Four or five hundred fast horses surrounded the caravan from all sides, and squeezed the caravan in the middle. The bearded horse bandit leader was talking about the local language, and a man familiar with Tibetan next to Xuan Qi was translating to Xuan Qi. It turned out that the people were asked to leave all the horses and goods behind.

The guards of the caravan were only a few dozen people, and they did not dare to resist under the siege of these hundreds of horse bandits. In order to survive, the caravan had no choice but to do so, leaving the goods and horses behind. Xuan Qi was hesitating, and the man next to him had already pulled him aside, and said anxiously: "Brother Gu, you are looking for death!

Xuan Qi squatted on the ground as he said, raised his head slightly, and watched as the horse bandits began to tie the goods to the horse's back.

At this moment, not far ahead, there was a sound of shouting and scolding. Xuan Qi looked from afar, but saw that the horse bandit leader was getting off the horse, pulling a girl, and this girl was the daughter of one of the caravan owners. The caravan owner loved this daughter very much, and originally didn't want to take his daughter to this snowy plateau, but he couldn't resist his daughter's pleading, so he took his daughter to enjoy the scenery.

The girl who was originally dressed as a man would be fine if she didn't move. Curious, the girl looked up, and was actually seen by the leader of the horse bandits. The leader of the horse bandits had never seen such a man with such a fat skin and a beautiful face, and he became suspicious and dismounted to check.