The valley is deep, and the cliffs are thousands of feet high, towering on both sides, covering the sky and the sun.

Only the black clouds above the stone gap above me could be seen rolling. The cold wind whistled by, and the bottomless water jumped like a green emerald ribbon through the canyon between the cliffs, rumbling with the faint chirping of leaf movers, and the wailing of apes suddenly rising from the top of an unknown mountain, as if from hell. In every rapid, there are whirlpools of whirlpools. Two or three people tall boulders stood in the torrent, one next to the other, and the shadow of the demon was generally pressed against the ground.

Xie Junhe stood on top of the boulder, the soles of his feet vibrating and whirling.

Unfolded the topography map of Beacon Ridge, and compared it horizontally and vertically for a long time, but I didn't see any of the fame. He is neither a monkey climbing the cliff nor a fish shuttling in the water, so he can only get stuck on the bank of the river without going up or down.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of fishing songs, faintly coming from upstream.

Stretching his neck and following the prestige for a long time, he saw an old man with white hair, slightly bent on his back, tanned and shiny, a short body, a long penny, a bamboo raft, and slowly and leisurely sent the green mountains and green waters to his back. Hang a wine gourd on the waist, tie a thin back basket on the bamboo raft, look up to the heaven and the earth, very chic.

"Boatman, give me a ride!"

The bamboo raft leaned over unhurriedly, and Xie Junhe jumped and stopped steadily in the center of the bamboo raft.

"Downstream. As he spoke, he took out two pieces of silver from the bottom of his sleeve and handed them forward.

The old man raised his eyebrows, raised his hand and said with a smile: "This thing can neither be steamed nor boiled, neither chewed nor drunk, what is the use of it?"

Xie Junhe said in surprise: "Then what do you want?"

The old man raised his eyes, and his eyes as cold as an ice fountain flashed with unfathomable mystery: "Sit down, most of the day's journey!"

Xie Junhe was just about to sit down when he suddenly pondered a hint of ominous smell. He noticed the old man's hand: long fingers resting on the penny, as light as a blowpipe, without the thick cocoons of an ordinary farmer, and without the crooked joints of the roots of an old tree. Look at his lean figure, there is a sharp edge hidden in it. Looking back, the raft was far away from the shore, and then the corners of his forehead were sweating unconsciously: "Do you know where I'm going?"

The old man laughed heartily, and his bell-like voice reverberated in the valley: "Before you get on the boat, you don't ask about the barren mountains and mountains and the ferry crossing, where is the boat?"

The back is cold, and it goes straight to the heart. Sweat soaked through the clothes in an instant, as if I had fallen into the river and taken a bath. The evil wind blew, and he could feel his heartbeat violently. But now it is too late to know that this old man is not simple. Every muscle joint in his body immediately tensed, but he didn't dare to move—he didn't know where the old man came from, and he couldn't see the weapon in his hand. Any rash action will only expose one's own weaknesses.

"Sit tight and don't move!"

Suddenly, he felt a lightness under his feet, and quickly lowered his body and sat down, and the bamboo raft had swayed and poured down into the rolling angry waves, falling with the current.

The old man seemed to be riding the clouds, standing on the constantly shaking bamboo raft, as if he were walking on the ground. With a nudge of the penny, the raft followed the middle of the current and sidestepped the whirlpools of reefs on either side. In the blink of an eye, Stonehenge was far behind.

Seeing that he had no malicious intent, Xie Junhe relaxed a little and let go of the hand that secretly buckled the hilt of the sword.

The old man swept his eyes, pretended not to see it, smiled secretly, and did not speak. That gaze forced Xie Junhe to panic, as if he could penetrate thousands of things with just a glance.

Near the shallows, the plump swimming fish lie still at the bottom of the water, and suddenly swing their tails and pass away. The penny became a weapon for fishing. Casually forked to the bottom of the water, the tip of the penny was firmly anchored to the body of the fish, and it could not break free even if it swayed its head and tail splashed everywhere. With a shake of the penny, the fish threw itself into the basket as if it were spiritual. Every shot will be rewarded. After loading the half-basket, he stopped making a move, raised his head and sang the fishing song again, his long fingers trembling slightly on the penny, and playing a powerful beat.

Xie Junhe couldn't understand what he was singing, but only vaguely heard the rhythm of four words and one sentence, which was quite ancient.

After a while, the old man opened the wine gourd, poured a few sips, and sang intoxicatedly.

Xie Junhe smelled the strange aroma of wine, stared at the gourd, and was even more curious.

The old man saw through it at a glance, and raised his long white eyebrows: Untie the gourd: "Do you dare to drink?"

"If it's a fine wine, why don't you dare?"

The wine jug crossed an arc in the air and landed firmly in Xie Junhe's palm.

He also learned from the old man and poured a big mouthful into the sky. The mellow fragrance is compelling, but with a cold bitterness. When it entered the throat, the cold instantly burned like a flame, as if it was about to break through the entire body and burn the whole heart. For a while, I complained bitterly, regretted it, and hated to throw this wine gourd a few feet away.

Hong Zhong's smile echoed in the valley, and the old man easily took the wine gourd from his finger as soon as he raised his hand, shaking his head more than once.

Secretly concentrating on the breath, between the movements of the breath, this burning power gradually dissolved and melted into all parts of the body.

When the time shifted, it was like being reborn, and the muscles and bones of the whole body were full of strength.

"What kind of wine is this?"

"This wine is soaked in the poison of a hundred insects, poisonous snakes, centipedes, poisonous scorpions, poisonous ants gather in it, and tiger bones bear bile, eagle eye antlers. It can kill as well as live. Ordinary people can't drink it. Since it is fate, it is a gift to meet the hero. When you go to the Song family's fire ground, if you don't take a sip of this wine, I'm afraid you'll be scared. ”

"The seniors were very interesting. Xie Junhe secretly laughed and slandered, and he was almost frightened after drinking. I thought to myself that this beacon ridge had always been strange, and I didn't study it deeply, so I only crossed my legs, half-lying and half-lying to enjoy the landscape.

After another half a day, when the sun was already setting in the west, the water was much calmer and the water surface was much more open. The old man stopped the bamboo raft and pointed to the sunset: "Go around the mountain in front, the Song family's fire is in front of you." Find someone to stay at before sunset, this place is full of ghosts, and solo travelers die for life. Xie Junhe jumped off the raft and looked forward, and sure enough, he saw a path extending deep into the mountains.

Looking back to thank each other, he suddenly found that only the bamboo raft floated along the water, paddling through the calm river and creating layers of ripples. The old man, the basket with the fish, and the wine jug were all gone. My heart sank again.

After a few miles of the trail, you came to an open field in the midst of the mountains, where weeds more than one person tall were intertwined, and when the wind blew, they swayed like undulating waves.

If there are indeed blackened remnants of the fire, you can vaguely distinguish the stone road that was once full of traffic, and the deep rut marks are already full of moss. Weeds poke their heads out of every crevice. The bushes hide the broken wells and decaying walls, and the beams that collapsed after the fire will inevitably decay after the sun and rain. The five-room-wide lobby is now only half a wall that is about to fall. Six or seven deep courtyards, there is no place to stay. So far, the remains of the corpses that have not been cleaned up are concentrated in all corners of the lobby, and few of them are intact.

The vultures hovered around the branches, hissing endlessly, their sharp eyes as if protesting against Xie Junhe's invasion of their territory.

I closed my eyes, and I only felt that the ghost of the burned smoke suffocated to death wandered around the ruins without stopping.

Suddenly, I heard the melodious sound of the flute, looked up, and the sunset was already on the horizon, so I remembered the old man's words, so I stepped up. Following the sound of the flute, I saw a shepherd boy on the hillside in the distance, riding on the back of an ox, walking unhurriedly. Behind the hillside, the smoke of three or two houses curls into the sky. Maybe the nearby farmhouse knows something.

Hurrying to catch up with the shepherd boy, before he could speak, a rain of rocks fell in all directions, and four immature shouts of killing surrounded him.