This year's snow in Qingzhou came very early and was particularly heavy.

Now it has been more than half a year since Luqing Shangqi Xia Mountain, and now it is just the time when the New Year is approaching and the cold winter is sparse.

Lu and Lin each led a horse and walked slowly on the official road covered with snow, and the snow creaked under the feet of the man and the horse.

Lu Qing did a little disguise on his face, his complexion became sallow, his eyebrows became thicker, his nose was bigger, and his lips were thicker.

It can be said that the original handsome little prince has now become very ordinary, like a passerby.

He frowned lightly at this time, holding a few documents in his hand and constantly looking back and forth, and Lin Shiyan on the side was also very well-behaved and did not disturb him.

..

"Senior nephew Lu, senior nephew Lin, listen well, a few days ago, the Daoist Yamen sent a batch of official documents on the handling of abnormal events.

One of the official documents mentions: In the area of Yongchang County under the rule of Qinghe County in the south of Qingzhou, there have been cases of villagers disappearing for no reason in the past six months.

After the local yamen accepted it, no progress was made for more than three months, and then they treated the case as an abnormal event according to the process and handed it over to the imperial court Daoist Yamen for acceptance, and the Daoist department pressed the case to our Qingyun Palace according to the process.

After careful consideration, the hall master decided to send a disciple to investigate the truth and find out the ins and outs of the matter, and this is your entrance assessment task this time, understand?"

"Disciple understood.."

..

That's right, he and Lin Shiyan finally accepted the entrance assessment... In good conscience, the task given to them by the Demon Subduing Hall this time is relatively simple, what they have to do is nothing more than to investigate the cause of the disappearance in Yongchang County, and finally find out who did it, which is much simpler than killing the famous evil cultivators on the rivers and lakes and exploring the secret realm of the ancient land.

In this mission, cultivation may not be the most critical, it is precisely observation and judgment that are the focus of assessment.

And this point is very crucial to Lu and Lin, which means that they can try their best to eliminate their weaknesses in cultivation, which can be regarded as a relatively advantageous task that Songhezi can fight for them.

As for the document in Lu Qing's hand, it is naturally the appointing document for this operation... They are a letter of entrustment issued by the Yamen of the Great Xun Dao Division to Qingyun Palace, a handwritten letter of the Qingyun Palace Ziyang Zhenjun and a letter of order written by the first seat of the Demon Suppression Hall.

With these three things, as long as they are related to this mission, they will be able to travel freely in the territory of Daxun.

"Senior Brother Lu, why did you say that the master chose to let us participate in the entrance test at this time?"

At this time, Lin Shiyan asked suspiciously, and Lu Qing was also pulled back to reality by her question.

Oh, yes.. He also had doubts about this, he didn't understand why Song Hezi was in such a hurry to stuff them into the Demon Descending Hall, of course it was a good thing to be able to enter the Demon Descending Hall, and as soon as he entered, he was at the level of a fourth-level deacon, which was far faster than the regular way in.

But Matsuru won't be so impatient, right?

"Alas, I don't know, maybe the master has his own plans. ”

Lu Qing had no choice but to reply ambiguously.

Lin Shiyan saw that he didn't have a clue, and nodded lightly and didn't speak again.

..

The sun is setting... The two of them have been walking on the official road for three days, and according to the distance, they will probably reach Qingshui County tomorrow morning, and they will be able to reach the boundary of Yongchang County tomorrow evening.

In the past three days, the two of them slept in the pavilion, and today is of course no exception, after renting two rooms as usual, Lulin and the two went back to their rooms to rest.

At night, Lu Qing lay on his bed, but he couldn't sleep for a long time. I don't know why the closer he gets to his destination these days, the more he feels frightened!

He wasn't sure what was the reason for this feeling, it was his own nervousness... Or is it an instinctive reaction to something that is about to happen?

But there's no denying that the feeling left him with insomnia.

Seeing the cold moonlight spilling in through the window, Lu Qing simply stood up and walked to the window, pushed open the window, and took a deep breath, hoping to calm his mind.

"Senior Brother Lu.. Didn't you rest either?"

A deliberately suppressed pleasant female voice came with a gust of fragrant wind.

turned his head and looked, sure enough, it was Lin Shiyan... She hadn't slept either, and was standing in front of the open window in her room, speaking to him through the air.

"It's you... Didn't you sleep too?"

Lu Qing and Lin Shiyan are now very familiar with each other, and said with a slightly bitter smile at this time.

Lin Shiyan shook her head noncommittally when she heard this, and then her eyes shifted to the sky, as if she was also worried about something. Could it be that she also has this uneasy feeling?

"Are you also a little upset?"

Hearing him ask, Lin Shiyan turned her head slightly and glanced at him and said, "Aren't you the same?"

And this time it was Lu Qing's turn to look up at the sky and be silent.

The two of them were silent for a long time, both worried about the next task... In particular, the feeling of uneasiness that appeared at the same time between the two deepened this worry.

Lin Shiyan probably felt bored, and turned around to close the window and go back to rest.

"Don't worry.. I'm here."

At this moment, she suddenly heard Lu Qing say this... Turning her head to look, she saw him give him a thumbs up, trying to make a relaxed expression to calm her nervousness.

Seeing this, Lin Shiyan felt a warm current in her heart, and then looked at him a little clumsy and wanted to cheer herself up, and felt a little funny and moved for a while.

She glanced at him with a smile and said, "You too.. Rest early. ”

Lu Qing mumbled indistinctly and closed the window.

He didn't know why he was saying that, maybe he was just too nervous...

This time he fell asleep after a short time after lying down on the bed, not only did he fall asleep, but he also slept deeply.

In his dream, he saw a huge white lotus flower circling endlessly, and when he saw the white lotus, Lu Qing's inner uneasiness climbed to the extreme!

He watched this white lotus devour the whole world little by little but couldn't do anything about it, this is what the world looks like when it is destroyed!

The voice in his heart kept telling him that this white lotus was the seed of destruction... Wherever it exists, it will be destroyed!

..

Early the next morning, as soon as the sky was bright, Lu Qing, who had a nightmare, got up, he was not in good spirits today.

Even if he had already woken up from the dream, as soon as he closed his eyes, he could see the terrifying white lotus.

He had a gut feeling that the dream must be some kind of cue, and it was unknown where it came from.

Of course, he also asked Lin Shiyan, and she said that she slept very deeply last night and had no abnormal dreams.

It seems that he is the only one who has dreamed this dream.. The worry in Lu Qing's heart deepened for some reason... Looks like there's some strange trouble coming your way.

and Lin Shiyan had some breakfast casually, and Lu and Lin hurried to leave.

After galloping on the road for two hours, they finally reached the boundary of Qinghe County.

From time to time along the road, you can see some small villages, because the New Year is approaching, every household is lit up with lights, and they are full of joy.

The villagers have been working in the fields for a year, and now they have gone to the city to sell a year's harvest, and they are returning home with their hard-earned money to have a lively New Year.

At this time, the children were even more happy to play, shouting and running all over the mountains in groups, and the little faces that were red from the cold bloomed with the most primitive expressions of human beings.

Lu Qing had never seen what the folk New Year Festival was like, no matter how luxurious and extravagant the palace was in the past, he had never seen a smile like the one on the faces of these villagers even once on the faces of those little eunuchs.

He only remembered that when he was a child, he not only had to study during the New Year's Festival, but also practiced marksmanship with his mother, and learned all kinds of knowledge about governing the country and the country from the masters of various houses.

He had never seen such a shouting and screaming all over the mountains, what it was like to shout and shout unorthodoxically, and he had never experienced it.

Lin Shiyan, who was on the side, saw the envy in his eyes, and a trace of complexity flashed in his heart, and then said, "You envy them very much, right?"

Lu Qing hesitated for a moment and nodded slowly.

Seeing this, a hint of thought flashed in Lin Shiyan's eyes, but she didn't say anything more.

Lu Qing also cleaned up his mood at this time, no longer entangled in these haves and nots, there are more important things to do at present... For example, they will rush to Yongchang County before tonight!

...

The two of them did not delay any longer, and continued on their way, but strangely enough, as they got closer to the boundary of Yongchang County, the smaller villages along the road became more and more desolate, and the smiles on people's faces became less and less.

Until the end, it completely became a kind of numbness and defense, and the eyes they looked at Lu and Lin contained vigilance, xenophobia and indifference.

Of course, this strange change can't escape Lu Qing's eyes, and his intuition tells him that it seems that there is indeed a big mess in Yongchang County...

The two of them accelerated non-stop along the way, and it was not until it was almost dark that they finally arrived at the county boundary of Yongchang County.

Lu Qing saw from a distance that there was a team of soapy clothes on the county border, and they were standing in a neat line at this time.

The leader is a square-faced man over forty years old, wearing a tie coat and a head-catching official uniform, which should be the commander of this team of fast catchers, and the strange thing is that he did not see the sedan chair of the magistrate of Yongchang County.

Generally speaking, in cases like this that were suppressed by the Dao Division, the disciples of Qingyun Palace were considered half an official during the period when they took over, and their status was not much different from that of the royal Qincha, and the local officials all had to come to see the salute in person.

Lu Qing saw that the magistrate of Yongchang County sent a catcher to pick them up, and there was no expression on his face, but there was a faint chill in the depths of his eyes.

When the square-faced man saw Lu Lin and the others coming, he asked to inspect the assignment documents of the two, and Lu Qing opened a corner of the document with a cold face, showed him a look, and then put it away.

These three documents were supposed to be personally inspected by the magistrate of the county, but now that the magistrate of Yongchang County is not there, no one is qualified to inspect them.

What kind of thing is this mere head catcher, just a dog dressed in black skin, just because he is also worthy of reading the handwritten letters of Ziyang Zhenjun and the head of the Demon Descending Hall?!

I'm not afraid to fold his lifespan!

After seeing the paperwork in the air, the head of the cloth did not think it was angry, and immediately curtsied and saluted.

"Daxun Qingzhou Qinghe County Yongchang County Jiupin Clothes Capture Head Zhong Wanquan, on the order of the Lord of Zhi County, here to welcome the Qingyun Palace Envoy!"

Lu Qing couldn't see an expression on one of his faces, so he saw him waving his hand behind him and said expressionlessly: "Zhong Zhutou doesn't have to be polite! Take us to see the magistrate. ”

The square-faced head catcher surnamed Zhong smiled when he heard this: "The county magistrate is in the county office, and the lord has prepared a banquet for the two immortal envoys to pick up the wind and wash the dust."

When Lu Qing heard this, he turned over and got on the horse, pinched the horse's belly with his legs and pointed at the head catcher surnamed Zhong with a horsewhip, and said with a smile: "Guizhi County is very interested.. You're leading the way!"

After speaking, he took Lin Shiyan to the county office.. After a trace of anger flashed in Zhong Wanquan's eyes, he accelerated to catch up with Lu Lin and the others, and showed them the way ahead.

That's it, Lu Qing finally arrived in Yongchang County...

...