Chapter 291 Unbreakable Xiongcheng
In the perception of Gu Xu and Shangguan Jin, the waiter who looks very much like Wu Danggui, a former member of the "Shenji Battalion", has neither the aura of a ghost nor the real energy in his body The fluctuation seems to be a completely ordinary person.
However, this person's steps were silent and his movements were extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, he went straight through the backyard and disappeared at the back door of the restaurant.
Even if Gu Xu and Shangguan Jin mastered high-grade martial arts such as "Meteor Walking on the Moon", they still found it very difficult to catch up with him.
When the two of them left the shop and came to the alley outside, they were surprised to find that the mysterious shop waiter had completely disappeared from their consciousness.
Shangguan Jin narrowed his eyes slightly.
As a fourth-level monk, she possesses extremely majestic spiritual power, capable of covering a radius of several hundred meters.
But she couldn't sense the position of the waiter at all.
This undoubtedly means that the person either has the means to hide his aura, or has slipped out of a range of several hundred meters in an instant - no matter which method he uses, it shows that he is absolutely Not just anyone.
"Gu Daoyou, can you use divination to find where he escaped?" She turned her head and looked at Gu Xu beside her.
Because Luo Sishou once said, "The divination skills mastered by Gu Xu are very special", and because Gu Xu relied solely on a copper coin to lead her to this small restaurant hidden in a shady alley today, she was very interested in Gu Xu's divination skills. Have confidence.
However, before she finished speaking, Gu Xu had already knelt down, took out the copper coins, and did divination on the ground.
The copper coins currently used by the Daqi Dynasty are all engraved with the four characters "Tianxing Tongbao" on their surfaces. They are light red in color and have a lathe edge.
Gu Xu silently recited the names of "Tai Shang Haotian" and "Emperor Zi Wei", and asked in his mind: "Which direction did 'Wu Danggui' escape to?"
Then he threw it gently Pick up copper coins.
Theoretically speaking, when the copper coin falls on the ground, the direction pointed by the word "天" in "天行通宝" is the direction in which "Wu Danggui" escapes.
However, unexpectedly, the copper coin actually stood upright on the ground - even if the ground was not flat, and even if the cool wind blew by, the copper coin still stood tall.
Gu Xu pondered for a moment, then tried to change the way he asked the question, and asked:
"Where did the person who looked exactly like 'Wu Danggui' escape to?"
"Where did the ghost who looked similar to 'Wu Danggui' escape to?"
"Where did the ghost who was disguised as a waiter in this hotel go?"
"..."
However, the copper coin still stood firmly on the ground and did not tell him the answer.
"Did that guy evaporate out of thin air?" He frowned, feeling quite surprised by this.
Then he put away the copper coins, stood up, and said to Shangguan Jin beside him: "Fellow Shangguan, I think this matter is quite strange - this person has no aura fluctuations, but he can instantly Escape from our range of perception; my divination also had this weird reaction on him
"His identity, his abilities... may be far beyond what we can handle. Reporting this matter to the Yamen and letting stronger people investigate this case may be the best choice."< br>
Reporting to the Yamen without making a decision when something happens, and never risking oneself easily, this is Gu Xu’s style of doing things all the time.
Shangguan Jin was silent for a few seconds, then nodded.
Ever since she received this mission, she felt that there was an extremely strange aura in it - the former members of the "Shenji Battalion" from nearly twenty years ago reappeared in the world, and the secret skills of Luo Sishou Unable to figure out the specific situation, Gu Xu's miraculous divination skills also encountered setbacks here.
Now they have lost the clue of the target person.
It is obviously difficult to continue the investigation.
But Shangguan Jin did not give up completely.
She returned to the small restaurant and found the proprietress of the restaurant in the backyard corridor.
The proprietress is a bloated middle-aged woman, wearing a greasy apron. The fat on her neck is like layers of waves. Sitting on the grass pier, she looks like a bulging balloon. .
She was lowering her head and concentrating on sewing patches on a piece of coarse cloth.
When Shangguan Jin asked about the origin of the mysterious shop waiter who looked like "Wu Danggui", the proprietress raised her head and frowned slightly: "He started working here more than two months ago. I saw that he was homeless and looked like He was very pitiful, so he kept him here and gave him food to eat.
"I don't know the other situation. "
Shangguan Jin nodded and kept the time point of "more than two months" in her heart.
When she left, she did not forget to praise the landlady as a virtuous and capable woman - not only for needlework He did a good job and managed the restaurant in an orderly manner.
As the recognized social master of the Exorcism Department, Shangguan Jin always kept words of praise on his lips.
Moreover, she always pays attention to the details when praising people, and never seems hypocritical or pretentious.
For example, if you praise a beautiful girl, she will not simply say "You are very beautiful", but she will say "This hairpin on your head matches your temperament very well. It reminds me of the opera "The Immortal Comes to Earth" "The heroine in "."
Today, she smiled and stared at the needlework fabric in the hands of the landlady, praising her fine sewing skills - she chose threads of similar colors, sewed from the inside out, and finished in a circular motion. , so that the thread can be hidden, and the traces of sewing are not visible from the front.
Hearing Shangguan Jin's words, the landlady raised her head and smiled broadly - she helped her husband sew clothes every day, but her husband disliked her old age and beauty, and never sympathized with her hard work. You won't notice the delicate thoughts hidden in her needlework.
I didn’t expect that a stranger who met by chance today could reveal her good intentions in one word!
She was vaguely moved.
The depressed mood that was interrupted just now disappeared without a trace in an instant.
Hearing the conversation between the two, Gu Xu couldn't help but sigh in his heart: Shangguan Jin's little mouth is really like honey. No wonder he is so comfortable in the officialdom, and Luo Sishou is more willing to Take her with you to deal with daily affairs, instead of Chu Fengge, who is more talented and has higher cultivation level. If she uses this ability to deal with men in the future, I am afraid that most of the young elites in Luojing City will fall under her pomegranate skirt.
…………
After leaving the restaurant, the two of them wanted to board the carriage and return to the exorcism department.
However, at this moment, Shangguan Jin suddenly narrowed his eyes slightly and pointed to a simple wine shop nearby: "Fellow Daoist Gu, have you seen it? There are several Capital Guard soldiers who have left their posts without permission in that shop."
Gu Xu looked in the direction she pointed, and indeed saw several soldiers in light armor sitting drunkenly in the tavern, carrying a wine bowl as big as a basin, and pouring wine into their mouths. .
The turbid wine seeped out from the edge of the bowl and flowed on them, making them smell of wine.
The metal helmets were placed at their feet and kicked around like balls by passers-by, without them noticing.
Two of them were even drunk, lying unconscious on the table, snoring in an extremely indecent manner.
Seeing this situation, Shangguan Jin frowned.
Before Gu Xu could respond, she walked up to the drinking soldiers in three steps and said to them in a stern tone: "Which captain are you from? Subordinates? Do you know that according to the laws of the Daqi Dynasty, as a city defense soldier, if you leave your post while on guard, you will be punished with a stick? "
In fact, these soldiers are marked with their armors? name.
Shangguan Jin could just keep their names in mind, go back and look through the files, find out which team they belonged to, and then tell their commander about the situation.
But Shangguan Jin is a compassionate person after all.
She knew very well how terrible the "stick punishment" in the army was. In the history of the Daqi Dynasty, there were by no means a handful of soldiers who were crippled or even beaten to death by torture sticks.
Considering the safety of these soldiers and the families behind them - Shangguan Jin felt that it would undoubtedly be a better option if they could be persuaded to go back and avoid punishment. choose.
However, the soldiers were still immersed in drinking and ignored her words.
Only one person waved his hand towards her and said in a dazed manner: "Our captain...he is also drinking in the pub opposite...he will not punish us..."
Shangguan Jin suddenly felt a headache: Is this actually because the upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked? The chief and his subordinates neglected their duties together?
She frowned and said: "With your drunken appearance, if ghosts suddenly entered Luojing City, wouldn't they all become fish on the chopping board?"
The soldier was one-sided. Drinking wine, he laughed and said: "With Emperor Taizu's 'Tianlong Formation' here, how can the ghosts attack?"
Listening to his tone, he seemed to regard Shangguan Jin as a fool.
“What if?” Shangguan Jin straightened his hair and said coldly. In her mind, the figure of the shop waiter who looked exactly like the former member of the Shenji Battalion "Wu Danggui" appeared again involuntarily.
"If the ghosts and monsters really attack, they will be supported by tall men..." The soldier continued to smile drowsily and said, "Our captain once said that mortal soldiers like us are just a group of decorations, just a formality. The significance is far greater than the actual significance... When the critical moment comes, we still have to rely on the monks of the Exorcism Department..."
Shangguan Jin didn't speak again for a while.
She lowered her head and caught a glimpse of the name engraved on the soldier's armor - "Zhou Tieniu".
Zhou Tieniu's drunken remarks can be said to be very unruly in attitude; but after Shangguan Jin thought about it carefully, she found that what he said made sense.
She sighed softly, took out a few sobering pills from the storage magic weapon she carried with her, and woke up the drunken soldiers, as well as the colonel officer in the pub opposite.
"My name is Shangguan Jin, the doctor of the Exorcist Department." She clasped her hands on her chest, standing next to the black carriage with the logo of the Exorcist Department, and introduced herself expressionlessly.
Hearing her self-introduction, the captain and his men were all frightened out of their wits.
For them, a fifth-grade official of the Exorcism Department like Shangguan Jin is undoubtedly an unattainable big shot.
But today, such a big shot appeared in front of them, and he happened to catch evidence of their absence from duty.
They all thought in unison: It’s over now.
However, Shangguan Jin did not embarrass these mortal soldiers in the end.
She said lightly, "It won't happen next time." Then she got on the carriage and told the driver to drive back to the Yamen.
At this moment, Gu Xu was sitting opposite her, quietly looking at the scenery outside the window, looking at the busy figures in the streets and markets - the boys carrying goods, the women at the barbecue stalls , the hawker setting up the shelves...
Shangguan Jin looked at his calm and handsome face and couldn't help but ask: "Fellow Taoist Gu, what do you think about this matter?"
Gu Xu knew that she was talking about soldiers leaving their posts without permission to drink.
He thought for a while and said softly: "Actually, if one day in the future, Luojing City is attacked by a foreign enemy, these mortal soldiers will have to take up arms to defend themselves against the enemy... That will be a really bad moment!"
Shangguan Jin was thoughtful.
…………
The black carriage quickly left the alley and came to the spacious street.
Gu Xu suddenly heard a loud drum sound.
He stuck his head out and looked out the window, and soon saw the towering north gate of Luojing City shining with bright golden light.
There are three door openings in Luojing North Gate.
On weekdays, only the door openings on the left and right sides are opened.
Only when important events occur or important people come and go, the door in the center will be opened.
The North City Gate of Luojing is also part of the "Tianlong Formation".
Its opening and closing does not rely on human power, but is completely controlled by formations and mechanisms.
At this moment, accompanied by brilliant light, the doorway in the center slowly opened.
An honor guard composed of dozens of people, surrounded by several gorgeously decorated carriages, slowly drove into the city from outside the door.
On one of the carriages, there was a crystal clear white jade stone several meters high, shining brightly in the sun.
With his spiritual perception far beyond ordinary people, Gu Xu was able to glimpse the four characters "Jiangshan Yonggu" engraved on the jade stone.
"People from the Jinling Shen family are here too." Seeing this scene, Shangguan Jin next to him said softly.
“Are you here to attend the ‘Luoshui Conference’?” Gu Xu asked.
“That’s right,” Shangguan Jin smiled, “As one of the three great families, the Chen family and the Zhao family have already sent candidates to participate in the meeting, and the Shen family is naturally not far behind.
< br>“However, the more important purpose of their trip is to offer auspicious blessings to His Majesty the Emperor. ”
“Auspicious? Is it that big rock? "Although Gu Xu usually reads the Di newspaper, he rarely spends time paying attention to news that has nothing to do with practice.
Shangguan Jin nodded: "The Shen family not long ago reported in a memorial that they dug this big stone out of the mountain - the words on it were originally on the jade stone, not carved on it by them.
"This shows that today's emperor is a saint, and everyone is looking forward to it. Even God sees it, so it sends such auspiciousness. ”
Gu Xu did not respond immediately.
He had seen a lot of this kind of “offering auspiciousness” routines in history books in his previous life, and most of them were ways to please the emperor.
As for the "auspiciousness" of this world, he doesn't know whether it is true or false.
But he heard that the relationship between the three great clans and the emperor has been somewhat tense recently -
Part of the military power of the Zhao family has been taken back to the imperial court.
Many industries owned by the Jinling Shen Group were also found to have a large amount of tax evasion some time ago.
Perhaps the Shen family wanted to use the method of "offering auspiciousness" to ask Emperor Tianxing to show his favor, thereby solving their own crisis.
At the same time, Gu Xu also noticed that when the light on the north city gate flickered, many people on the street fell to their knees with a "plop" and worshiped in the direction of the city gate, saying " He muttered words and looked extremely pious.
"What are they doing?"
"In the eyes of these civilians, the 'Tianlong Formation' set up by Emperor Taizu is the greatest miracle in the world, which is sacred and cannot be desecrated," Shangguan Jin Explained, "Because of the existence of the 'Tianlong Formation', they can live and work in peace and contentment in the city without having to face threats from ghosts and monsters all the time.
"Many times, compared to worshiping people who are far away in Jiutian Above them, 'Tai Shang Haotian' and 'Emperor Zi Wei' are more willing to dedicate their faith to this great formation that is right in front of them. ”
PS: 4,400-word chapter. It took me a few days to finally rewrite the follow-up outline. It should not be easy to get stuck next time.
(End of this chapter)