It was afternoon and the sun was shining brightly.
In Gosying Village, there are children playing in the shade of the big trees, and old people sitting on the street corners holding wooden stools and talking.
Goshawk Village has a peaceful scene.
At this moment, Chu Qingxiao was sitting cross-legged in his small courtyard.
In the fence not far away, several slightly larger chickens were chirping and rummaging in the land for food.
Chu Qingxiao closed his eyes tightly and was completely unaware of this.
There was a faint qi and blood surging all over his body. Whenever the qi and blood condensed to a certain peak, he would frown.
Immediately, the energy and blood all over the body surged throughout the body under his urging, but every time it converged back at the critical moment, as if encountering an invisible barrier.
This situation has been repeated nearly a hundred times, and Chu Qingxiao's forehead was already dripping with sweat.
After trying again and again to no avail, he finally slowly opened his eyes.
He frowned and took out a purse from his arms, which contained four or five red bloodworms. He took out one and swallowed it in one gulp.
Only then did I feel that the energy I had consumed slowly recovered.
The way of the warrior.
One realm is called a treasure vase, which means that the body is like a treasure vase, condensing without leaking.
The second level is called Tongmai, which emphasizes that the meridians of the whole body are connected, and the bones and flesh are like gold and stone, which lays the foundation for the third level of spiritual residence to receive spirits.
Although these two realms are not simply realms of body refining, they still have the effect of strengthening the whole body and condensing the speed of blood energy.
Chu Qingxiao knew very well that as the Zhuyin Divine Blood in his body continued to grow, the blood power he needed would become even more powerful. At that time, one red blood worm every day might not be able to satisfy him.
And once he leaves Goshawk Village and loses the supply of red blood worms, the cost of blood coagulation pills will be even more expensive. If he wants to stay alive, the money he needs to spend every day will probably increase even more.
Chu Qingxiao thought that if he could break through a realm and go to the realm of Tongmai, the whole body could generate more qi and blood, and his chance of survival would be greater.
But unfortunately, he has the blood of Zhu Yin in his body.
Whenever he condenses Qi and blood to penetrate the entire meridians, Zhuyin Shenxue feels the strong power of Qi and blood, and will compete with Chu Qingxiao's body for the power of Qi and blood, as if being awakened.
Therefore, every time it came to a critical moment, the physical power he needed to break through was always so short of the mark.
"You won't be trapped in this Aquarius realm for the rest of your life, right?" Chu Qingxiao muttered helplessly.
"Hey, kid, are you alone?" At this moment, a fat head poked in from outside the wall and winked at Chu Qingxiao.
He is the commander of the Black Hawk Army, huge and powerful!
"Commander Pang." Chu Qingxiao came back to his senses and looked at the other party.
"What do you call a commander? There are only about ten people under his command. The boss got the name just for fun. Just teach me, brother Pang Pang." Pang Pangzhuang waved his hand and said carelessly, and walked into the hospital without waiting for Chu Qingxiao's permission.
middle.
Then he looked into the house with a stern look and asked in a low voice: "Where is your wife?"
Chu Qingxiao was stunned for a moment, but he was not familiar with this title. After coming back to his senses, he hurriedly said: "Zhaozhao went with Sanniang to help pick wild fruits outside the village."
"The berries are ripe these days, so they are very busy. They are almost all outside these days."
After Chu Qingxiao said this, he asked again: "Brother Pang Pang has something to do with her?"
"Why am I looking for her? I didn't know about your relationship before!" Pang Pang Zhuanghan said with a smile, and immediately took Chu Qingxiao's hand: "I'm here to find you. While your wife is not here, let me have a drink.
go."
"I don't want to drink..." Chu Qingxiao waved his hand quickly, but Pang Pangzhuang didn't care and pulled Chu Qingxiao out of the yard.
…
"Try this, this kind of wild fruit, the slightly yellow one is the best."
Under the shade of a tree outside the village, Sanniang reached out and handed over a fruit.
Seeing this, Chu Zhaozhao hurriedly thanked him, took the wild fruit and took a bite. As Sanniang said, his mouth was full of fragrance.
Sanniang took advantage of the situation and sat down next to Chu Zhaozhao.
A group of them had been busy all morning and had picked more than a dozen baskets of wild fruits. At this moment, everyone was a little tired. They were sitting under the shade of the trees in the forest, either getting tipsy and resting, or basking in the sun in a daze.
Sanniang glanced at Chu Zhaozhao beside her and said: "We usually have a lot of leisure time, just picking wild fruits, vegetables and herbs unique to the mountains in each season. In autumn, we may even help Mr. Du and the others go to the Crescent Lake.
Salvage fish and shrimp.”
"Only when the goods are received from the mountain, we will be busy and help decorate the goods, such as some clothing, silk and other goods. We will find a way to re-cut or imitate them, and then hand them over to Huang Tong and others to take action at the foot of the mountain.
In this way, it can be somewhat deceived, making it less easy for others to discover its origin. When buyers see it, they will be more willing to offer a higher price."
Chu Zhaozhao nodded when he heard this: "It is stolen goods after all..."
After hearing this, Sanniang seemed to feel something. She smiled and asked, "What? Do you feel uncomfortable being a bandit?"
Originally, according to Chu Zhaozhao's idea, the most important task for her and Chu Qingxiao now was to win the trust of Goshawk Village and find an opportunity to escape.
But facing Sanniang's eyes, Chu Zhaozhao felt inexplicably that his lies would probably not be able to deceive the woman in front of him.
"Indeed... I'm still a little uncomfortable with it." Chu Zhaozhao hesitated for a while and then said truthfully.
Sanniang smiled slightly: "In fact, who wants to be a thief..."
"We in Gogying Village have been cultivating fields, and each household has raised chickens, ducks and some silkworms. In fact, we are living a good life. If Mr. Du and the others can cultivate another seventy or eighty acres of land, it will be almost
I can also be self-sufficient.”
"But there is nothing we can do. If Guiyanzhai is on top, we will always be thieves."
"Why?" Chu Zhaozhao was a little confused.
"Gui Ya Village collects money based on the number of people in each village. Every person, old or young, gets two coins every month..."
"You said you don't want to be a bandit and go to the mountains to get goods. Where will the money come from?" Sanniang said with a bitter smile.
"Two coins?" Chu Zhaozhao was stunned when he heard this.
If a person has two taels of silver a month, he must have 2 liang or four taels of silver a year.
You must know that more than ten years ago, the taxes in Dayu were very heavy. At its peak, each person only had one, two or three pieces of silver per year. Even so, rebels had risen everywhere, and the people were in dire straits. The various cottages in Taixuan Mountain were
The amount of money that was to be handed over to Guiyazhai was actually nearly twice what it was when the Great Yu was at its worst, which really surprised Chu Zhaozhao.
"Isn't it said that there are hundreds of mountain strongholds in Taixuan Mountain? If Guiya Village acted like this, wouldn't the other strongholds resist?" Chu Zhaozhao asked in confusion.
"That's not something I can know, but I think it's either impossible to defeat him or he's not aligned. Isn't it just a little bit of knowledge that goes around in everything in this world?" Sanniang said.
Chu Zhaozhao was stunned when she heard this. She turned her head and looked at the woman beside her. The woman was hugging her knees with her hands and looking forward with a somewhat hollow look. Her eyebrows were so charming, as if they were hiding stars, but those two knives on her face were
The scar is as ferocious as a poisonous snake, as if it is a constant reminder of the difficulties that such a beautiful woman like Chu Zhaozhao has suffered.
"Sister, haven't you ever thought about redressing the injustice for your family and asking that dog official to plead guilty and be brought to justice?"
After hearing this, Sanniang glanced sideways at Chu Zhaozhao, with a bitter smile on her face.
"Think about it, why don't you think about it?"
"I think about it day and night. Sometimes when I close my eyes, all I see are my father, my mother, my uncle and my two brothers."
"Cangzhou Queshan County, County Magistrate Xu Anmin."
"I am forty-eight years old this year. My ancestral home is Baixucheng, Ningzhou. I was transferred to Queshan County in the fourth year of Chongsheng. I live in No. Jiazi Dingyi, Sanqiao Street, Queshan County."
"There are thirteen people in the family, four sons and three daughters..."
"In the ninth year of Chongsheng's reign, the Xue family was framed for collaborating with the enemy and plotting rebellion on the grounds that an ancestor on the memorial tablet for ancestors of the Xue family had the same name as a certain military temple god in the Northern Wei Dynasty. As a result, seven members of the Xue family, six of them, died in prison."
Sanniang paused for a moment before speaking again.
"That's what my petition said back then."
When Chu Zhaozhao heard this, his expression changed: "Sister, are you going to submit the petition?"
But Sanniang shook her head: "After I learned about the death of my family, I cut my cheek into pieces. The dog official lost interest in me, so he bought me to a brothel."
"But how can any drinker like me like this? They just treat me like an animal, help carry shit and urinate, give me one or two mouthfuls of leftover soup every day, and hang on to my life."
"I actually wanted to go and die, but then I found out that the new governor of Cangzhou was taking office and was going to inspect various counties, so I had the idea of filing a lawsuit to redress the injustice of my family."
"On the day when the Zhou Mu arrived, I hid in the crowd with the certificate in my arms. When the team passed by, I went up to stop his sedan chair..."
At this point, she paused again and laughed.
"But before I could run out, a beggar with a broken arm rushed out first. I still remember that the paper in his hand was written crookedly in blood."
"What he said was that Xu Anmin occupied his family's property and killed his father and brother. He burst into tears."
"But he didn't even see the Zhou Mu people. The person in the sedan stretched out his hand and shook it towards the person next to him, and the beggar fell to the ground..."
"From then on, I gave up completely and found an opportunity to escape into Taixuan Mountain. I was rescued by Yue Jian and brought back to Gosying Village..."
After hearing this story, Chu Zhaozhao suddenly fell silent.
She felt a little stupid, even a little vicious.
Who in this world can forget the hatred of genocide?
If given the chance, who wouldn't want to avenge that blood feud?
In the final analysis, it's just that you can't forget it, but you can't do it.
So I can only carry that nightmare and live day after day.
But she just wanted to touch the scar that might have been carefully licked by others and then hidden out of curiosity.
She suddenly felt guilty, lowered her head, and whispered: "I shouldn't ask..."
"It's been so long, I don't care so much anymore." Sanniang smiled and stood up: "It's still early, let's go to the mountains to see if we can pick some wild vegetables and dry them in the sun.
You can pickle it and share it with everyone during the winter."
At that moment, the woman in front of him seemed to break free from the painful memory before.
Her smile is bright and full of energy.
Chu Zhaozhao also quickly stood up, trying to wake up his companions who were still napping.
But Sanniang held her back: "Let them rest, they are tired enough this morning. Just go with me. After all, your physique is different from ordinary people, so this little thing is nothing to you."
Chu Zhaozhao nodded, but did not forget to sigh: "Sister treats them so well."
After saying that, she paused and continued: "The entire Goshawk Village is very good. Sometimes I feel that this place does not look like a bandit stronghold, but more like..."
"family."
"No, it seems closer than a family. There are only about a hundred people in my family, and they are all blood relatives. Sometimes intrigues are inevitable."
"But there doesn't seem to be any such trouble here."
When Sanniang heard this, she just turned her head and looked at the mountain stronghold in the distance.
"We are just a bunch of homeless dogs."
"We bumped into each other by chance."
"This world doesn't want us..."
"We just rely on each other to keep warm."
"It's not about how good we are, it's just that we know that apart from each other, we have nothing."
"What's more, I'm just working harder. Some people are working hard for Goshawk Village..."
…
"Brother Pang Pang, Brother Guan... I really don't drink."
Guan Zijin was the skinny man among the three bandit leaders who originally stopped Chu Qingxiao and his two men.
At this moment in his small courtyard, Chu Qingxiao blushed and declined the wine glass he handed her.
"How can a man not drink?" Pang Pangzhuang said angrily. As he spoke, he slapped his hand heavily on the wine table filled with food in front of him.
The two of them took turns to fight, and they had good things to say, but Chu Qingxiao didn't want to touch a drop of wine.
Chu Qingxiao was stunned by Pang Zhuang's reaction. He smiled bitterly and said: "I'm not satisfied with you two eldest brothers. I promised a deceased elder that I'd better not drink alcohol in this life..."
When these words came out, Pang Pangzhuang and Guan Zijin were both stunned, with slightly embarrassed expressions on their faces.
Guan Zijin took back the wine glass he handed out and said sarcastically: "This...is like this."
As he spoke, he raised his head and looked at Pang Pangzhuang on the other side.
Pang Pangzhuang also looked embarrassed, clasping his hands in front of his chest and moving his fingertips randomly.
Chu Qingxiao looked at the two of them. From the beginning, he felt that something was wrong with these two people. The appearance of the two of them now strengthened his judgment.
"Two eldest brothers, do you want to talk to me for something?" Chu Qingxiao simply put down the bowl and chopsticks and asked.
The two of them looked at me and at you, both of them kept encouraging each other with their eyes, but they themselves refused to speak out.
Chu Qingxiao felt a little funny when he saw them acting so coquettishly.
He simply stood up and said: "If nothing happens to the two eldest brothers, Qing Xiao will leave now. There are still..."
"No! No!" Upon seeing this, Pang Pangzhuang and Guan Zijin hurriedly stretched out their hands to hold Chu Qingxiao.
Then the two looked at each other again and seemed to have made up their minds.
"Actually, it's not a big deal. Last time I heard Xu Xiazi talk about Brother Chu's Shura realm skills, we two brothers found it very interesting and wanted to..." Pang Pangzhuang said coquettishly. At the end of his words, he seemed to have some
Sorry, I can only stare at Guan Zijin.
Guan Zijin hesitated for a while, then gritted his teeth and said: "I want to see if Brother Chu can grant us this method!"
Chu Qingxiao blinked his eyes when he heard this, and then he came back to his senses.
"So it's a lie that the two eldest brothers invited me to drink and eat, but is it true that they want to learn skills?"
Chu Qingxiao's face was calm, and he could not see the joy or anger in his heart at this moment.
However, Pang Pangzhuang and Guan Zijin probably had a guilty conscience, and they were afraid to look directly into Chu Qingxiao's eyes.
"It's not that it's all for this..." Pang Zhuang lowered his head, and his two index fingers kept touching, spreading apart, and touching again on his chest.
"We actually hit it off with Brother Chu, and we really got to know each other during this meal..." Guan Zijin also took over the conversation and said.
Just saying these words, when he met Chu Qingxiao's eyes with an inexplicable smile, he suddenly felt that this lie was stuck in his throat and he could no longer repeat it.
Guo Zijin is also a cheerful person. Seeing this, he simply broke the jar and said: "Well, the two of us brothers really wanted to get Brother Chu drunk at first and learn the secret of the Shura world."
"But who would have thought that Brother Chu, with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, doesn't even drink!" Pang Pangzhuang said with a sad face. Obviously in his mind, the fact that men don't drink is probably because women don't like gossip and old people don't like to join in the fun.
Something completely unreasonable.
"But we two brothers really want to learn this method. If Brother Chu is willing to grant this method, we two brothers will be grateful. If you have any request, you can tell us. As long as we can do it, we two will never do it."
Wrinkle your brows!" Guan Zijin said again.
"Yes, yes!" Pang Pangzhuang quickly took over the words, nodded repeatedly and said: "Me too!"
After saying that, the two of them looked directly at Chu Qingxiao, their eyes full of expectation.
Chu Qingxiao had a look of helplessness on his face, and he also looked at the two of them: "Two eldest brothers, this Shura world is not the kind of method that you think can be taught."
"He is more like..." Chu Qingxiao frowned and tried hard to find suitable words in his mind. After a while, he said: "It is more like an ability."
"He needs to go through many life and death battles before he can possess it naturally."
"At least I suddenly gained this ability."
"We know this, so we just want to learn from Brother Chu to see how you understand this life-and-death struggle and whether you have any experience." Guan Zijin said with a smile.
Chu Qingxiao had a strange expression on his face: "There is some wisdom, but whether it works or not I can't say, and in Gosying Village, the two eldest brothers shouldn't have that many opportunities to experience life and death fights, right?"
Being a bandit is indeed half a job of licking blood from the edge of a knife.
Although it is true that confrontation with swords is inevitable, after all, the initiative of whether to fight or not is in the hands of the bandits.
If they encounter a caravan with a large number of people, or a team that is obviously accompanied by experts, the bandits will not be stupid enough to take money rather than their lives, right?
Logically speaking, people like Pang Pang Zhuang would not have the opportunity to experience so many life-and-death battles.
Seeing the suspicion on Chu Qingxiao's face, Pang Pangzhuang and Guan Zijin looked at each other again, seeming to have made up their minds.
"Ahem!" Guan Zijin coughed twice at that time, looked at his wife who was playing with his daughter not far away, and said: "Daughter-in-law, take Huahua to Chef Liu and get us two more bottles of wine.
!”
The woman gave Guan Zijin a warm look and said, "Drink less. Didn't Miss Yue Jian tell you to go down the mountain to deliver goods tomorrow? Don't delay!"
Although the woman was a little dissatisfied, she still took her daughter's hand and walked outside the house.
"It can't be delayed." Guan Zijin chuckled and stared at the mother and daughter. It wasn't until their footsteps moved away that he looked at Chu Qingxiao again.
"Brother Chu, have you heard of the Death Arena?"
Chu Qingxiao shook his head when he heard this and asked: "What is that?"
"The evil taste of the leader of Ghost Crow Village." Pang Pangzhuang said in a low voice.
"It's just two people standing in the ring and fighting to the death..."
When Chu Qingxiao heard this, he probably came to his senses and frowned: "Are Brother Pang Pang and Brother Guan planning to participate in this kind of competition?"
Both of them nodded at this time.
Chu Qingxiao suddenly felt puzzled: "But this kind of competition is so dangerous, you two..."
"Each village in Taixuan Mountain has to pay silver per capita every month. One person is two taels of silver. There are about 500 people in Cangying Village, which works out to 100 taels of silver a month." Guan Zijin seemed to have guessed that Chu Qingxiao
If you want to ask anything, tell him before he asks.
"If there is no money, there are only two ways. One is to send a living person there, a living person is worth ten taels of silver, the other... is to send people to participate in the death fighting field..."
"If you win the village where you are, you can reduce the silver payment by 70%."
Chu Qingxiao finally figured out the whole story at this time: "So, Cangying Village doesn't have that much money this month, right?"
Pang Pangzhuang said with a wry smile: "Not just this month, to tell you the truth, out of the twelve months in a year, Cangying Village can only raise enough money to pay in only eight or nine months. The rest of the time, all
It's up to Huang Quxiang and the boss to fight in the death arena."
"But the opponents are all from the Guiya Village. The evil sect of their village started from the death fighting arena, but within three or four years, each of the guys they sent became more powerful than the last."
"Although Huang Mazi and Boss both won the fight to the death in the past few months, they both suffered considerable injuries. They didn't tell the people in the village about these things, but we two brothers knew it well."
"This month is about to come to an end. We have probably calculated that the money in the village is still not enough, so..."
At this moment, Guan Zijin picked up the wine glass and took a sip, then answered Pang Pangzhuang's words: "We brothers are also seven-foot-tall men."
"You said that if you didn't know, then you could just continue to be our bandit stupidly."
"But now that we know it, if we stand by and don't share the burden, are we still human beings?"
"Boss has already done more for us. There is no reason to put all the burden on a little girl like her, right?"