Huang Xiekou is not only the hometown of Wu Zixu, a famous general of Chu during the Spring and Autumn Period, but also the hometown of Huang Xie, one of the four sons of the Warring States Period.

Just after noon, the scorching sun was scorching, the avenue by the river was dusty, and a group of people and horses were rushing rapidly, silencing the noisy acquaintances on the sparse green trees beside the road. It wasn't until the group was far away that they began to squeak one after another.

The deadwood who took the lead was already sweating, and while galloping, he kept wiping the sweat from his forehead with his hands. Suddenly, he saw a lush hill two or three miles ahead, and his heart was overjoyed, and he raised his hand and said loudly: "Let's go to the mountains and forests in front of us to rest for a while!"

Qingshi, who was following him, asked, "Uncle Shi, how far are we from Yueyang Tower?"

"More than a hundred miles! In a little more than an hour, we will be there!" Deadwood did not look back, and was bent on getting there as soon as possible.

The disciples of Qingshi, Huangshi, Hell Stone, Hedron Stone, Phantom Stone and other disciples hurriedly whipped their horses and whipped, and soon followed the dead wood to the side of the mountain and forest.

Deadwood jumped off his horse, and after tying it to a tree beside him, he sat down on the ground, leaning his back against the trunk of the tree, whose bark had been mostly mottled and peeling, and gasped for a few breaths. Then he took out a bulging water bag from his waist, pulled out the plug, raised it above his head, raised his neck and opened his mouth, and poured the clear sweet spring into his mouth with pleasure, until the water bladder was already dried up, and he closed the plug with great satisfaction.

All the disciples also dismounted, drinking water and eating dry food.

"Uncle Shi, do you think you can believe the words that the Yueyang Tower has been breached by the group of merchants I heard from the group of merchants before?" Qingshi was worried, and asked the dead wood beside him with a frown.

"It's hard to say!" the dead wood that was gnawing on the biscuits shook his head slightly, showing a slight look of worry, "These people in the rivers and lakes, seeing the wind is rain, and they often spread falsehoods, who knows which sentence is true and which sentence is false?...... Anyway, it's almost there, and we'll see when the time comes. ”

"Uncle Shi, if it is...... If Yueyang Tower is really lost, what should we do?" the spar asked with a quick blink.

"Uh...... If that's the case, we'll have to find your Uncle Shang first, and then we'll make plans!" Deadwood scratched his cheek lightly and frowned slightly.

"What if you can't find it?" it seems that the spar is a pessimist, and the veteran thinks badly about the problem. In fact, what he wanted to say was, "What should I do if Uncle Shang has already sacrificed?"

"This ......" Deadwood had been hanging on this situation, and he didn't dare to think about it anymore, and muttered slightly: "Let's do it then...... If the tide is gone, we'll retreat!"

Everyone was uncertain and silent for a while.

"Listen, there seems to be a fight on the other side of the mountain!" Stygian Stone, nicknamed "Shunfeng Ear", has quite good ears, and suddenly stood up in surprise.

Everyone looked nervous, stood up in unison, listened carefully, but most of them couldn't hear it, and looked at the dark stone suspiciously.

"Do you hear that?" asked Stygian as he walked up the hill in high spirits, "Come with me, get closer and listen carefully!"

Deadwood took two steps forward, and sure enough, he faintly heard the sound of blade collision and shouting, his face tightened, and he said loudly: "What the Stygian Stone said is right! There are really people fighting on the other side of the mountain, and there are quite a few of them!"

All the people got on their horses, and urged their horses to climb up the ridge along the mountain path, and crossed the ridge, but when they heard the neighing of the horses, the sound of the fight suddenly became clear. But the mountains are full of trees, and the four eyes are all eye-catching emerald colors, how can you see human figures?

Deadwood pulled out his long sword with a "brush" from his back, pointed at the foothills of the southeast and said, "It's over there, only outside the inside!"

When they got closer, they saw the horses tied to the trunks of the trees on the periphery neighing in fright, trying to break free from the reins, and a large group of murderous men in the forest, with swords in their hands, turning and shouting loudly, surrounded a group of men and horses around the core, and attacked in turn.

The roots and trunks were half-covered and half-blocked, and the dead wood vaguely saw that there were hundreds of people on the periphery, and there were only a dozen people who were surrounded, and all of them were scarred and fought bloodily. Although he didn't know which side was right and which side was evil, when he saw the situation of being overwhelmed by the crowd, he couldn't help but be moved to help the needy.

"Stop!"

Most of the group turned their heads in surprise, and saw a group of Taoists, busy staring.

"Where did a group of stinky Taoist priests come from? Report your name!" Tian Kunpeng, who was in danger of killing Wang Zhanpeng, abandoned his opponent, and dragged the bronze stick to separate the gang that was blocking the way.

"Wudang Deadwood!" Deadwood's voice was not very loud, but everyone could hear it clearly.

"Huh?" Hearing this, the Chu Xiang League looked at each other in horror.

Not only Tian Kunpeng, but Bai Zhanhong was also taken aback, and immediately stopped the attack, leading most of the gang to meet the dead wood and his party, and only more than 20 gangs were left to trap Qu Feng and the others.

"Elder Deadwood! I am Yueyanglou Qufeng! Save us, they are people from the Chu Xiang League!" Qu Feng, who was fighting desperately, suddenly felt the pressure decrease, and heard Deadwood report his name, and looked up, it was really him, and he shouted loudly under great joy.

At the moment of the great enemy, he was afraid that Deadwood would be distraught after hearing the bad news of Yueyang Tower, so he didn't tell him the news immediately.

※※※

Deadwood and Qu Feng and Wang Zhanpeng have had several relationships, and they immediately recognized it. He saw that their group was besieged here, and he had already determined seven or eight points about the situation of Yueyang Tower being breached, so he didn't have time to ask carefully, jumped off the horse, raised his sword and pointed at Tian Kunpeng, and sneered: "Dao Ye will not kill unknown people under the sword, report your name!"

"'Stick Demon' Tian Kunpeng!" Although Tian Kunpeng was intimidated by his prestige, when he saw that his figure became more and more dry after he dismounted, he quickly regained his confidence and shouted loudly.

As soon as the words fell, he felt that the cold light was dazzling, and a sword stabbed in, and in the blink of an eye, he was a foot in front of the center of his eyebrows, and his heart was cold, and he hurriedly sealed it with a horizontal stick.

With a "clang", the sword and stick gently intersected, the dead wood changed his moves very quickly, and with a flick of his wrist, a sword light came straight to his throat like a practice.

Tian Kunpeng suddenly felt that the cold sword qi was already too late to cover it, and he was frightened and rose up with his life's strength and fell out of the range of the long sword. It only took a moment to delay his throat, and his throat had been pierced, which immediately shocked him into a cold sweat and a chill down his spine.

In fact, although Tian Kunpeng's martial arts are inferior to Deadwood, if Deadwood wants to defeat him, he has to do it with dozens of moves. However, one was that he underestimated the enemy, and the other was that the dead wood suddenly attacked, which caught him off guard and was embarrassed.

Bai Zhanhong saw that Tian Kunpeng was killed within two moves of the dead wood, and he flew up in anger, and a flying knife-like light slashed towards the dead wood's neck. Deadwood didn't dare to take advantage of the victory to pursue Tian Kunpeng, and sealed it with a sword on his wrist, but he felt that the knife was so powerful that his arm was slightly numb, and his heart sank.

Tian Kunpeng breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly swung his stick up, and the two of them fought against the dead wood. Tian and Bai both have profound skills and fierce momentum, and for a while, they saw the shadow of the sword and the single man all over the sky, and the figure wrapped in dead wood like a storm and waves.

Deadwood's martial arts are only slightly stronger than one of the two, but fortunately, his swordsmanship is pure, and his moves are ingenious.

Qingshi saw that the dead wood was tight, and he hurriedly came up with a sword to help. He is considered to be the best among the young generation of disciples in Wudang, although he is not as good as Zishi, but his martial arts are not under the qu style. After Deadwood had his help, he immediately turned from defense to attack, and two sword lights like training whistled through the air, flickering, and immediately suppressed the opponent's previous fierce sword and stick. Bai and Tian were staggered, and they secretly complained in their hearts.

If there were no Qu Feng and Wang Zhanpeng, the strength of the Chu Xiang League, which was twice as numerous as the opponent and had more than ten hard hands that were enough to compete one-on-one with the Wudang disciples, would not be weaker than the opponent. It's a pity that there are more of them.

This is the way the strength and weakness of the world are like this, one side only needs to be a little stronger than the other to make a judgment. Just like a balance, when there are objects of the same weight at both ends, the balance is always in balance. But if you add something to either end, even if it's just a small embroidery needle, the equilibrium is immediately broken, and the end with something added quickly sinks and lifts the other end high.

The windswept steel knife flew up, blood splattered in the enemy's formation, and wherever the iron hand went, there were always enemies with broken bones and tendons; Wang Zhanpeng tore and grabbed wildly with a pair of eagle claws, and the blockers were invincible; all the Wudang disciples formed a team of three or five, forming a sword formation and attacking vertically and horizontally, and the enemy screamed again and again in the dazzling sword light flying.

However, after the tea time, the Chu Xiang League gang has been knocked down by thirty or forty people.

Seeing that the momentum was not right, Bai and Tian glanced at each other and nodded at the same time.

Tian Kunpeng shouted: "Brothers, withdraw!"

So they both gave up the dead wood and bluestone, and the enemy was Qu and Wang. Chu Xiangmeng's gang couldn't help their injured companions, so they grabbed their mounts one after another and fled in embarrassment.

Bai and Tian quickly forced Qu Feng and Wang Zhanpeng to retreat, and when they saw the dead wood flying after them, they shouted at the same time: "Go!"

"Where to go?!" The dead wood was like a shadow, and the long sword turned into a white rainbow and shot down towards Tian Kunpeng. Bai and Tian worked together to resist the dead wood, and at the same time protected the retreat of the gang.

When the rest of the people saw the dead wood pursuing, they all looked for mounts and followed the pursuit. After chasing and killing along the way, although the Chu Xiang League retreated for three or four miles, they lost more than 20 people.

While chasing and killing the enemy, Qu Feng briefly told Deadwood about the fall of Yueyang Tower and Shang Xiaotian's death. When the dead wood heard this, he was filled with grief and indignation.

"Annihilate them all!" Deadwood's eyes were red, and he attacked Bai Zhanhong and Tian Kunpeng with a sword like a sword, so that they could not spare their hands to rescue their subordinates.

The Chu Xiang League gang was in a hurry, and suddenly heard the roar of hooves behind him, Bai Zhanhong hurriedly glanced back, his face was happy, and shouted: "Brothers, hold on! Brother Xi, they will be there soon!"

The dead wood looked up, but saw that the sky above the riverbank avenue was covered with smoke and dust, and a large gray field of men and horses was swept in, like a fierce black whirlwind rolling up in the wilderness.

"Their brigade has arrived, let's get out of here!" Qu Feng shouted.

"Master Qu Hall, Lord Wang Pavilion, you lead everyone to go first! I'll break off!" Deadwood shouted as he retreated.

Qu Feng and Wang Zhanpeng both believed in the strength of the dead wood, and they were not polite at the moment, turned over on the horse's back, and waved their hands: "Let's go!"

Qingshi, Huangshi and several other Wudang disciples with strong martial arts were unwilling to give up their uncle to go first, and resisted the enemy who counterattacked side by side.

Several Wudang disciples controlled the horses in one hand and led a few empty horses back in the other, shouting, "Get on the horse!"

Deadwood quickly glanced back, but seeing that everyone had run out of dozens of zhang away, he put his mind at ease, and "brushed" two sharp tricks to force Bai Zhanhong and Tian Kunpeng back, and was about to fly on the horse, when he suddenly saw a purple shadow flying in the air, and in the sound of "Xiu Xiu" breaking the air, two black and faint iron claws slashed and grabbed the surface like lightning.

"Another master!" Deadwood was horrified, and with a sweep of his sword, he sealed the claws with a "sonorous" sound.

"Hurry up!" Deadwood shouted to Qingshi and a few other disciples beside him.

Qingshi and the others saw that the soldiers were pressing the realm, and in a blink of an eye, they had reached more than ten zhang away, and if they hesitated, they didn't have time to get out, so they all flew on the horses and galloped wildly.

"Old thief, you can't go anymore! Suffer death!" Tian Kunpeng's bronze stick swept across the waist of the dead wood.

Deadwood unfolded the Thirteen Swordsmanship of the Divine Gate and tried his best to resist, but how could he be the opponent of the three-person combined attack? After three or four rounds of fighting, he had already been hit by a claw on his shoulder, and he immediately turned red. He knew that he would die here in less than twenty moves, and decided that he could not fight any further.

Thinking of this, he rose up with his life's strength, forced Xi Fenglie back with a shocking palm, and then knocked Bai Zhanhong's long knife away with a sword, turned around and leaped out.

With a "Peng" sound, a stick hit him hard in the back of the heart. Fortunately, he was struggling to leap forward, eliminating part of his strength, but this stick was really not light, and it hit him so hard that his eyes were full of stars, and a bloody arrow blurted out, spraying a bush of wildflowers next to the road into blood-red mottling.

※※※

The dead wood strengthened its true qi to protect the heart, and the feet did not stop, and the meteors flew out like the moon, and a few ups and downs had already run out more than ten zhang away.

Seeing that he was so good at light work, Xi, Bai, and Tian all thought that they would not be able to catch up on foot, so they all got on their horses and led the crowd to chase after him.

Even if a person has supreme light skills, after a long time, he can't outrun the horse. After the deadwood ran out of Rich, he was finally caught up.

Xi Fenglie was earnest, and caught up with the dead wood first, let out a strange roar, pressed the horse's back with both hands, and grabbed the back of his head in the air.

Deadwood listened to the voice discerner and knew that it was Xi Fenglie who was approaching, and among the three masters of the enemy, he was most afraid of this person. He had just been injured, and he had been running away for a while, his skills had already been discounted, and he was only between Xi Fenglie, and he didn't dare to make a hard connection at the moment, and he rolled out of the rest of the room.

Xi Fenglie missed one claw, chased after him, his claws "swooped" into the air, and grabbed the dead wood that fell to the ground.

Seeing the dead wood raise his sleeves, the cold light flashed, and rushed to his chest, and in the blink of an eye, it was a few inches in front of his chest. The two of them were too close to each other, and Xi Fenglie couldn't struck with his iron claws, so he only struggled to move sideways and dodge for a while, but where could he dodge? A thin short sword had been inserted into his left chest, reaching the handle.

Xi Fenglie only felt a sharp shock in his left chest, which hurt into the bone marrow, snorted in pain, and fell to his knees softly holding his chest.

The dead wood bounced up like a projectile, just landed on Xi Fenglie's horseback, slapped the horse's buttocks with his backhand, and rushed out, more than ten enemy horses intercepted him, and were swept away by his sword, screaming and falling off the horse one after another.

Deadwood did not dare to fight, and rushed out of the enemy camp and left.

Bai and Tian, who came later, were shocked to see Xi Fenglie fall, and they couldn't care about chasing the dead wood anymore, so they jumped down from the horse, and approached to check Xi Fenglie's injuries, but when they saw him in a cold sweat, his face was pale, and his heart was shocked.

Xi Fenglie gritted his teeth and grabbed the hilt of the sword hatefully to pull it out. Bai Zhanhong hurriedly grabbed his wrist and said loudly: "Brother Xi, don't pull it out......!

Xi Fenglie lost his square inch under a serious injury, but he subconsciously wanted to pull out this hateful thing, of course he understood this truth, once he pulled it out, blood would burst out, and then the gods would be difficult to save. After listening to Bai Zhanhong's reminder, he stopped and slowly fainted.

Bai Zhanhong probed his snort, although he felt that his breath was weak, but he was not out of breath for a while, he put his mind at ease and hurriedly took off his robe and covered him.

"Brother Bai, the dead wood is running away, let's hurry up and chase it!" Tian Kunpeng was an anxious man, and he was still thinking about chasing and killing the dead wood, and when he saw the dead wood running farther and farther, he was anxious and reminded.

Bai Zhanhong looked at Xi Fenglie, whose life and death were uncertain, and then at the brothers who stopped and waited for their decision, and muttered for a while, and said, "Brother Tian, brothers, Brother Xi has been seriously injured, let's not chase after him first...... According to the information department, the alliance leader will be here soon, and then listen to the alliance leader's decision!"

Qu Feng and the others saw that the dead wood chased after him, and the hanging heart finally let go, and they couldn't help but admire and admire him when they saw that he could single-handedly fight out of the encirclement and retreat.

Deadwood was in a heavy mood, and he rarely spoke along the way, just wanting to lead everyone back to Wudang safely as soon as possible.

In the evening, Deadwood hadn't seen Wudang's follow-up team coming, his eyebrows were knotted, and he asked, "Qingshi, what do you say will happen?

Qingshi groaned, "Maybe...... It's hard to buy a horse on the road...... Or maybe they didn't follow this path. ”

Deadwood shook his head and said, "This trail is the closest, and it's best to ride." They're supposed to take this path!

Qingshi was silent, and after a while, he said in a low voice: "Uncle Shi, do you think they will also encounter the enemy on the way?"

"Who knows?" said Deadwood, his face sorrowful, "Cheer up everyone, be careful along the way!"

They rode past a village, and when they reached a lake, the dark night was already covering the lake, and one or two white cranes were occasionally seen flying leisurely over the lake, and from time to time they swooped down to the lake, and quickly picked up the small fish in the lake.

"The enemy is not yet coming, so we might as well rest here for a while before we hurry!" suggested Deadwood, who was wounded and tired, hungry and thirsty.

Everyone dismounted, and after drinking and eating some dry food, they lay down comfortably in the soft green grass. After a while, the vast majority of people fell asleep in a daze.

Dead wood only felt a faint pain in his shoulders and back, and his chest was also a little stuffy, so he silently used Xuangong to breathe, and gradually reached the realm of forgetting things and me.

I don't know how long it took, but in the quiet night, I suddenly heard a roar, like a group of horses galloping. Deadwood jumped up and shouted, "Hurry up, it seems that the enemy is coming!"

Everyone woke up from their sleep and grabbed the blades around them.

"Strange! The enemy must have caught up from the southeast! Listening to the sound of horses' hooves, why is it coming from the southwest?" muttered Stystone strangely.

"That's right!" the rest of the people chimed in, "it's from the southwest!"

Deadwood heard the sound of the horses' hooves, and looked up, but saw that the fire was faintly on the wilderness, and the people and horses were crowded, and the black pressure was overwhelming, and there were no less than a thousand people.

"It doesn't matter where they came from! It must be the enemy! Let's go quickly!" Qu Feng hurriedly jumped on his horse.

Everyone got on their horses one after another, and galloped away on the avenue in the twilight moonlight.

"Listen!

"The gang is galloping on horseback!"

"Hey, who are you? Are you the brothers of the Chu Xiang League?"

The gang shouted loudly, but when they saw that the people in front of them did not pay attention, some people shouted: "Chase after you! It must be the enemy!"

A hoarse voice like a broken gong shouted: "There are not many of them! Brother Qiu, I will lead a hundred fast horses to catch up with them, and you will lead the rest of the brothers to come later!"