Chapter 361 The Price of Divination

Chapter 361 The Price of Divination

At dawn, Shi Lei, a Qianhu household in Laizhou Prefecture, received a package from the Civil Information Bureau.

The sender's name is "Wang Xiang". Shi Lei didn't know him.

At first he thought it was sent to the wrong place.

But after a closer look, his name and address were indeed written on the package, and the sender also paid the most expensive "wine power" and "number fee", requesting the credit bureau to deliver it as soon as possible. The package was delivered to him without any mistakes.

So, with doubts, Shi Lei carefully opened the package.

…………

After a few days of bed rest and medication, Shi Xiaohan’s injured soul has basically recovered, and he is now able to get out of bed, walk around, and practice normally.

However, because Shi Lei unilaterally broke her engagement with Gu Xu and burned the betrothal gift sent by Gu Xu, Shi Xiaohan has been having a cold war with his father recently and never took the initiative to follow her. Father speaks.

When Lei came to talk to her, she would turn her head away and ignore him.

"Xiaohan, someone sent you a package."

Early this morning, when Xiaohan was sitting at the table having breakfast, Shi Lei suddenly walked up to her and said to her.

Shi Xiaohan lowered his head and said nothing.

She held her chopsticks tightly and kept stuffing the hot and sour noodles in the bowl into her mouth. Her little mouth was covered with chili pepper and oil stains.

“It’s your ‘Kunwu Sword’.” Shi Lei added.

When he heard the words "Kunwu Dao", the chopsticks in Shi Xiaohan's hand fell on the table with a "snap".

She stood up suddenly, and sure enough, she saw a machete that was as red as fire and glowing crimson lying quietly on the coffee table not far away.

She walked forward in three steps and held "Kunwu Dao" tightly in her arms.

The petite girl and the heavy sword form a sharp visual contrast.

Shi Xiaohan clearly remembered that on the day Luojing City was destroyed, the "Kunwu Sword" was carried by Gu Xu.

She originally thought that after Gu Xu was forced to flee the capital on the "unfounded" charge of treason, the knife would go on a long journey of escape with him and never return to her hands.

"Let Kunwu Dao take my place and stay with him, maybe... he won't be too lonely." This thought came to her mind more than once.

She had already planned to find a new natal magic weapon.

But she never expected that Gu Xu would send the "Kunwu Sword" back to her mansion quietly.

How did he do it?

Has his whereabouts been exposed and discovered by the authorities?

Did he take a big risk?

Shi Xiaohan bit his lip, his eyes lowered, his heart was touched and worried at the same time, his heartstrings suddenly tightened, and his palms became sweaty.

At this moment, someone outside the window suddenly shouted: "Princess Zhaoning has arrived!"

Hearing this voice, Shi Xiaohan hugged the "Kunwu Sword" like a rabbit, He quickly got into his room and locked the door.

She was in a bad mood today and didn't want to deal with this annoying princess at all.

Shi Lei glanced at his daughter's back and sighed helplessly.

Then he walked to the door, bowed his hands respectfully towards a carriage parked at the door and said: "I am a humble minister, Shi Lei, I don't know that Her Royal Highness the Princess is here, and I am sorry for not being able to welcome you from afar. I hope that Your Highness will forgive you." "Sin."

After a moment's pause, he added: "My daughter is not feeling well today and cannot go out to greet her. Please forgive me."

Shi Lei was bent very low. Also placed very low.

He knew that his and his daughter's identities were sensitive now - even though the court was very merciful and did not intend to implicate them, he also needed to be cautious at all times and never give others the leverage.

“You don’t need to be polite when you have thousands of households.” A soft and pleasant voice came from the carriage.

Subsequently, Princess Xiao Wanjun of Zhaoning, who was simply dressed and graceful, stepped out of the carriage with the help of her maid.

Behind her, there was an old man with gray hair, a bloated figure, and a gilded crutch.

"Shi Qianhu, this is Mr. Mu Yunkai, a divination master worshiped by the royal family," Princess Zhaoning pointed at the old man and introduced to Shi Lei, "We are here today to invite you. Let’s help investigate the whereabouts of the fugitive Gu Xu.”

The purpose of the two people's visit was not beyond Shi Lei's expectation.

His eyes became solemn, and he humbly invited the two of them into the room.

As soon as he sat down, Mu Yunkai said straight to the point: "I want to know Gu Xu's birth date."

In the wild world, a person's birth date is extremely important. Private information.

It is like the code of destiny.

Some monks who master special spells can know and influence other people's fortunes and even impose curses after learning their birth dates.

Therefore, except for fortune telling and marriage discussions, under normal circumstances, people will not easily disclose their birth and horoscope information.

At this moment, after hearing Mu Yunkai's words, Shi Lei knew that the Da Qi court was testing his loyalty again.

Although the imperial court did not regard him and Shi Xiaohan as Gu Xu's accomplices and punish them together, it was always observing his performance.

Shi Lei sighed softly and answered truthfully: "Xin Chou year, Xin Mao month, Jiayin day, Renshen time."

In order to save his daughter's life, he did not dare not cooperate with the court's investigation. He could only silently hope that Gu Xu would be happy for himself.

Mu Yunkai wrote down this information, and then asked: "Do you have Gu Xu's fingerprints here?"

Palmistry is also important personal information in divination, and a person's Numerology and fortune are closely related.

Shi Lei fell into deep thought.

The first thing he thought of was Gu Xu’s fingerprints on the marriage certificate. But the marriage certificate had been thrown into the furnace and burned to ashes.

Then he thought that after Shi Xiaohan gave the elixir workshop to Gu Xu as a birthday gift without permission, the two of them later made up a formal industrial delivery agreement - on that document, Gu Xu also left his hand print.

Shi Lei was hesitant whether to hand over the document honestly as requested by the other party.

Intuition told him that the more information this person named Mu Yunkai knew, the more dangerous Gu Xu's situation would be.

However, just when he was hesitating, Mu Yunkai's lazy eyes suddenly became sharp, as if he could see through his mind and get a glimpse of his thoughts.

Shi Lei had to wave to the servant in the room and ordered: "Go to the first drawer of my desk and get the delivery agreement for the elixir workshop."

The servant immediately did so.

After a while, Mu Yunkai took the agreement from the servant's hand, saw the red fingerprints on the paper, and nodded with satisfaction.

He thought for a while and then asked: "By the way, do you still have the items left by Gu Xu here?"

Shi Lei had given up struggling.

He asked his servant to fetch a "Fengxing Talisman" - it was the one Gu Xu affixed to Shi Xiaohan on the day Luo Jing City was destroyed.

Mu Yunkai took out a writing brush, dipped it in ink, squatted down, and drew a circular, complex formation on the ground. He placed the agreement and the "Wind Talisman" at both ends of the formation.

Then he began to chant the incantation in a low voice.

As the formation glowed with silver light, the color of Mu Yunkai's pupils became lighter and lighter, becoming gradually more transparent.

His voice also became ethereal, giving people the feeling of auditory hallucinations.

After reciting a spell, his black eyes had disappeared, and there was only a pale color in his eyes.

"Shi Qianhu, I have begun to search for Gu Xu in the long river of destiny," Mu Yunkai raised his head slightly and said to Shi Lei, "I need you to tell me as much information about Gu Xu as possible, such as his character, his His preferences, his living habits... This way I can clear away the fog of fate faster." "Gu Xu, he——"

"——Shi Qianhu, is it? Could you please invite your daughter to talk too?" Just as Shi Lei was about to speak, Princess Zhaoning beside him suddenly interrupted, "I think she is the person who knows Gu Xu the most in the entire Luojing City. "

Shi Lei immediately stood up, bowed to the princess and said, "I'm sorry, Your Highness, my daughter's soul was injured on the day Luojing City was destroyed. She has not recovered yet, and it is really inconvenient to come out to meet guests."

Shi Lei didn't dare or didn't want Shi Xiaohan to appear in such an occasion.

On the one hand, he was afraid that she would get into trouble by saying some irrational and silly things in front of the princess;

On the other hand, things like today were too cruel for Shi Xiaohan - or because Become the villain yourself.

Hearing his words, Princess Zhaoning said lightly, "It doesn't matter" and didn't force it anymore.

Shi Lei cleared his throat and said slowly: "As far as I know, Gu Xu has always been a very hard-working and self-disciplined person... My daughter once told me that when she was in Yishui County , he is either practicing or doing tasks every day, almost never leaving time for himself to rest...

"...The reason why he works so hard is because he is born with deficiencies and has a broken foundation. If he cannot If you reach the realm of a saint before the age of thirty, you will die young...

"...He is well-read and has an excellent memory. He can accurately remember the content of all the books he has read...

"...He eats lightly and does not drink alcohol. ...My daughter said that his favorite thing to eat is the almond tofu in the kitchen of Yishui Exorcist Department Yamen...

"..."

Shi Lei silently told about him Know everything about Gu Xu.

Princess Zhaoning listened quietly.

In her mind, Gu Xu's image became more complete and more distinct.

When she heard that Gu Xu was "congenitally deficient and defective," she inadvertently clenched her fists with her hands flat on her knees.

She used to admire his brilliance.

At this moment, she sympathized with him for his bad luck and poor fortune.

"In this case, why did Gu Xu choose to rebel and treason?" Princess Zhaoning once again had such a question in her mind, "If this accident had not happened, he would still be the favored son of heaven that everyone is looking for. , will be cultivated by the Da Qi court, and have rich spiritual resources... It is not impossible to become a saint before the age of thirty.

"But now, he has become a prisoner of the imperial court and has lost his previous channels for obtaining resources... Even if he escapes to Youzhou and successfully joins Zhao Changying, he may not be able to obtain more cultivation resources than before... "

The more she thought about it, the more confused she became.

Mu Yunkai sat cross-legged beside the formation, muttering a spell.

His consciousness has already drifted to the long river of mist shrouded in mist.

But he searched and searched, but never found any trace of Gu Xu - it was as if this person did not exist in the world at all.

Time flies.

The sun rises from the eastern horizon, climbing higher and higher.

In the courtyard of the Shi family's residence, a few rays of golden sunlight also shone diagonally. As if it had legs, it moved and rotated silently in the courtyard, flowing over the bluestone steps, passing over the carved window lattice, and passing in front of the girl's quiet boudoir.

Several hours passed quietly like this.

In the afternoon, as the sun gradually shifted to the west, the silver light from the formation on the ground suddenly became extraordinarily bright without warning, overshadowing the sunlight shining into the room, making everyone present unable to open their eyes.

Mu Yunkai suddenly stood up excitedly.

"I see it! I finally see it!" he shouted loudly. Looking at his excited expression, it was as if he had solved a century-old problem in the spiritual world.

However, before he finished speaking, his expression suddenly became painful and ferocious.

His face turned pale first, then flushed, and finally purple. His facial features were twisted into a ball, the deep wrinkles turned into twisted lines, and the muscles on his face were twitching uncontrollably.

“Ah——”

As he let out a shrill scream, his eyes suddenly sunk deeply, and bright red blood flowed out of his eyes like a stream.

He covered his eyes and fell to his knees in pain.

"Gu Xu...Gu Xu went to Jingxing..." he said with a trembling voice.

Mu Yunkai finally found the answer he wanted in the long river of destiny at the cost of his eyes.

"Jingxing..."

After hearing his words, Princess Zhaoning did not waste a moment and immediately used the "message jade talisman" she carried on her body to issue new orders to the officials who were searching for Gu Xu.

Shi Lei looked at his blind eyes, silent and with complicated emotions.

Since recognizing the limitations of his qualifications and abilities, Shi Lei has long stopped pursuing further career advancement. His daughter's safety and happiness are the top priority in his heart.

When his daughter got engaged, he did not hesitate to spend 3,000 merits to ask Luo Sishou about Gu Xu's future, fearing that Gu Xu would die young and make his precious daughter a widow.

After Gu Xu became a wanted criminal, he immediately made the decision to "draw a clear line, cooperate with the court, sacrifice Gu Xu, and save his daughter", for fear that the court would regard Shi Xiaohan as a compatriot of Gu Xu. Party, let’s punish the crime together.

In his opinion, there is a high probability that this matter will end with Gu Xu being arrested. There is a small probability that Gu Xu will escape the country and wander around the world from then on, never returning home.

Shi Xiaohan will also gradually forget this young relationship as time goes by, and then form a new family and live a plain and happy life.

But now he found that he had underestimated both the ability of Gu Xu and the determination of the Qi court.

"Perhaps, another bloody storm is coming."

Shi Lei looked at the slowly moving sunlight by the window and let out a long sigh.

…………

At the same time.

After several hours of non-stop driving, Gu Xu finally arrived near Jingxing before dark.

Jingxing is the fifth of the eight mountains in Taihang. It is located at the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain and controls the Taihang Fortress. There is an important post road connecting Yan and Jin within its territory. It was named because of its terrain.

An ancient book says: "The four sides are high and the center is down, as deep as a well and as deep as the edge of a stove, so it is called a well."

Gu Xu did not rush to cross Jingxing, but hid in a dark forest, took off the mask on his face, and breathed a long sigh of relief.

Due to his rest adjustment last night, he was interrupted by Sima Chang and the "Reggae".

If you don’t take off the mask, there is a high probability that it will cause side effects.

But as soon as he took off the mask, Gu Xu faintly felt that an invisible gaze fell on his body, giving him a needle-like discomfort.

But there was no one in the forest.

Gu Xu looked around and couldn't find any trace of the peeping person.

Just as he was doubting, the surface of the "astrolabe" in his hand suddenly lit up with a dazzling silver light, and then he heard a painful scream.

The gaze spying on him disappeared instantly, as if it had never existed.

Gu Xu frowned slightly.

Out of caution, he put the mask back on his face.

However, at this moment, a loud voice sounded behind him:

"My official, Qianhu Que Juchang, Liaozhou Prefecture, is here to apprehend key criminals of the imperial court. Quickly take out your 'road guide' Check! If you dare to conceal it, you will be deemed to be guilty of the same crime!"

(End of this chapter)