"On days like this, you should light a fire in the pavilion in the yard and cook a pot of wine."
Just when Zhuo Siwei was lying lazily on the ground, a man suddenly appeared outside the house.
"What's so urgent?"
"The King of Zhennan has sent troops!" the visitor said.
"What, so fast?!" Zhuo Siwei suddenly sat up from the ground, his eyes suddenly became sharp and bright.
"How are the preparations over there?"
"It's very hasty and not well prepared. I'm afraid I won't be able to stop it." The visitor said after pondering for a moment.
"Well, Yangzhou is a prosperous land. There have been rich people and beauties here since ancient times. The same is true now, but there are no strong soldiers and horses.
One came prepared, the other responded hastily, and the result can be imagined." Zhuo Siwei turned to look at the map hanging on the wall.
"Who is the general leading the army?"
"Li Kaishan."
"That guy, hiss, his temper is not very good. Now the people of Yangzhou will suffer!" Zhuo Siwei frowned.
Xiao Ren's people attacked the city and captured the territory along the way, but in just two days they conquered four cities. They encountered little resistance and even some people even surrendered on their own initiative.
The general who led the army, Li Kaishan, was a ruthless man. He didn't care when the soldiers passed by, burning, killing, and looting. On the contrary, he deliberately condoned it.
It was supposed to be the time when spring plowing was about to begin, but there was a military attack.
The fire of hope that the people had just raised was extinguished by a bucket of cold water.
Outside Kuaiji Mansion, in a ruined temple, a fire was burning and a man was lying down.
Suddenly he suddenly sat up and stared at the door. A gust of wind blew up, and a man entered the ruined temple.
"I finally found you."
"Brother Lin, why are you here?" Ye Zhiqiu was a little surprised to see the person coming.
"I haven't received your letter for a long time, so I came here to see you." The visitor was Lin Zhiyou.
"Why don't you live in the courtyard prepared for you? Is it because it's not good enough?"
"No, I was chasing a thief recently and ended up here." Ye Zhiqiu said.
"This place is only a few steps away from Kuaiji Mansion." Lin Zhiyou said with a smile. "Why didn't you go back during the Chinese New Year?"
"The work here is not finished yet."
"You are busy now. Xiao Ren, the king of Zhennan, has launched an army to attack Yangzhou. This place is about to be a place of turmoil." Lin Zhiyou's words made Ye Zhiqiu slightly startled.
"So fast?"
"Well, what happened so quickly? Did you get the news in advance?"
"I've heard some news." Ye Zhiqiu nodded.
"Why don't you report this to the church?"
"I wasn't sure at the time." Ye Zhiqiu said calmly.
"The General Forum originally planned to increase the development of the Yangzhou area, and now is the opportunity."
"Is it chaos or opportunity?"
"Of course, Yangzhou is recruiting troops now. The lowest rank for any monk above the eighth grade who enters the military camp is a captain. The church has sent brothers to join Dayong's military camp."
Ye Zhiqiu said nothing after hearing this.
"Zhiqiu, are you interested?"
"Me?" Ye Zhiqiu was stunned after hearing this.
"Yes, your own power is limited after all. The more people you have, the more power you have. If you had hundreds or even thousands of people under your command, wouldn't it be much easier to eliminate the gangsters in a place?"
"This is indeed true, but I have completely given up on the current imperial court. The officers and soldiers in the military camp are probably no different from gangsters." Ye Zhiqiu said.
Soldiers are like a comb, bandits are like a grate, and the troubles of soldiers are better than the troubles of bandits.
"That's why people need to control them more." Lin Zhiyou said with a smile.
He was sitting in the ruined temple, smiling and chatting with Ye Zhiqiu word by word.
"This is the elixir that the general altar has recently refined. It can heal wounds and increase a certain level of cultivation. Please keep it." Lin Zhiyou handed a white porcelain bottle to Ye Zhiqiu.
"Thanks."
"By the way, one more thing. Have you found any ghosts in Yangzhou recently?"
"Of course there are some innocent souls."
"Not that kind, I mean Yin soldiers." Lin Zhiyou said.
"Yin soldiers?" Ye Zhiqiu thought carefully after hearing this.
"No, I rarely go out at night. Even if I go out, I only see wandering ghosts, not the brigade of Yin soldiers."
"I'd like to trouble you to pay attention to this news in the future."
"Okay." Ye Zhiqiu nodded in agreement.
"One more thing, have you visited that immortal recently?"
“Went there once a year ago.”
"What does he think about today's world?"
"The world is too chaotic, the people are too miserable, and the emperor is ignorant and immoral."
"Indeed, what is his decree?"
"No." Ye Zhiqiu shook his head.
After chatting for a while, Lin Zhiyou stood up.
"Let's go to the city?"
"Okay." Ye Zhiqiu stood up, extinguished the fire, and returned to the Kuaiji Mansion with Lin Zhiyou.
Entering the courtyard, Ye Zhiqiu smelled a scent, which was the smell of food.
“It smells so good!”
"Brother Ye!" A woman's voice said with happiness and surprise in her tone.
After hearing this familiar voice, Ye Zhiqiu was stunned. He looked around and saw a familiar voice.
A girl in her twenties, wearing a blue gown, long hair, and big eyes, she is pretty and charming.
"Xiaowei, why are you here?"
Xiaowei ran to Ye Zhiqiu and looked up at him with affectionate eyes.
"I heard that I'm coming to Yangzhou. If you insist on following me, you can't stop me no matter what." Lin Zhiyou said with a smile.
"You guys talk first, I'll go inside and take a rest first."
"Brother Ye, you have lost weight."
Ye Zhiqiu smiled.
"Why don't you always go to the altar during the Chinese New Year?"
"I'm busy here. Didn't I write you a letter?" Ye Zhiqiu's face was filled with a smile, cheerful and silly.
Xiaowei asked, and Ye Zhiqiu answered.
Xiaowei told Ye Zhiqiu everything she saw and heard at the Qinglian Sect General Forum these days.
The last time we saw each other, I missed him so much that I always dreamed about him in my dreams.
"I made a lot of things you usually like to eat today." Xiaowei surrounded Ye Zhiqiu like a cheerful lark.
In the house, Lin Zhiyou looked outside, listening to the conversation between the two people in the yard, his eyes a little lonely.
After a while, Ye Zhiqiu entered the room with a smile still on his face.
"You seem to have not been so happy for a long time." Lin Zhiyou smiled upon seeing this.
"Yes!" Ye Zhiqiu nodded.
Today is indeed the happiest day he has had in these days.
"Since you are happy, you should drink some wine."
The two people were talking when Xiaowei came in from outside carrying food.
"Get ready to eat, do you want to drink?"
"Then you have to drink some." Lin Zhiyou said with a smile after hearing this.
"Wait, I've already prepared it for you." Then Xiaowei took out a jar of wine.
After patting open the yellow mud that sealed the mouth of the jar, the rich aroma of wine floated out.
Lin Zhiyou just drank two bowls of wine with Ye Zhiqiu, and then left. Only Ye Zhiqiu and Xiao Wei were left in the entire courtyard.
The night was hazy and the small courtyard was very quiet.
Ye Zhiqiu sat at the door with Xiaowei in his arms,
At this moment, he really wished that time would stop and they would cling to each other like this forever.
However, good times are always short-lived.
It will dawn soon.
The next day, Hong Yuanqing also came to Kuaiji Mansion.
He came here specifically to find Ye Zhiqiu and came with a mission.
"You want to see immortals? I can't help you."
After hearing Hong Yuanqing's request, Ye Zhiqiu refused without hesitation.
"We are not going, but we want to invite you to go and ask him a question."
"Problem, what problem?"
"The problem is in this tip bag." Hong Yuanqing handed Ye Zhiqiu a tip bag.
"Can I open it and read it?"
"Of course." Hong Yuanqing nodded.
Ye Zhiqiu opened the bag in front of the two of them, took out a piece of paper, unfolded it, and was slightly startled when he looked at the words on it.
"Three souls and seven souls are missing. How can we save one soul and three souls?"
"You want to save someone, who?"
"A person who is very important to our Qinglian Sect." Lin Yuanqing said.
"He is still alive now, but without these three souls he is a useless person. We need to revive him, but we have tried many methods these days, but to no avail.
I was really at my wits end, so I thought of that human immortal. He might be able to find a solution because of his profound and unpredictable cultivation.
It's just that we have no way of seeing him, so we came here to beg you." Lin Yuanqing's words were very polite.
Although his status in the Qinglian Sect is much higher than Ye Zhiqiu.
"Do you know where his lost soul is?"
"I don't know, that's why I want to ask that immortal for advice."
Ye Zhiqiu looked at the paper in his hand and pondered for a long time.
"Okay, I'll ask, but I can't guarantee anything."
"Thank you." Lin Yuanqing secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
"I'll leave today."
"We are here waiting for news from you."
Ye Zhiqiu and Xiaowei informed each other, then got up and left Kuaiji Mansion, heading straight for Qinchuan.
"Do you think he knows how to do it?"
"It's hard to say, but the cultivation of human immortals is unpredictable, and their methods are beyond my imagination. Rumor has it that the one who almost destroyed Tianji Pavilion a few days ago was the one from Qinchuan.
I don’t know how many first-level warriors he lost in that battle, and there are even rumors that he killed human immortals, and more than one. This shows the depth of his cultivation."
Besides, we don’t have a better way now, right?”
"Hey, this was supposed to be a great opportunity for us, but we didn't expect that something like this happened and we almost fell short."
"I just didn't expect that Daguangming Temple would also take action."
One day later, Ye Zhiqiu reached the depths of Qinchuan and came to the peak where Wang Zhe practiced.
On the top of the mountain, Laifu raised his head and stared down the mountain.
"Someone is coming."
"Can you tell who it is?"
"Ye Zhiqiu."
After a while, Ye Zhiqiu came up the mountain.
"Ye Zhiqiu meets sir."
"Looking at you coming here in a hurry, is there something wrong?"
"I have something to ask sir." Ye Zhiqiu took out the kit and handed it to Wang Zhe with both hands.
Wang Zhe took it and opened it and took a look.
"One soul and three souls are missing? Is this person still alive?"
"Sir, I have never met this person before. This is a matter for the members of the Qinglian Sect to get rid of me." Ye Zhiqiu told the truth directly.
"It's too general, I can't answer it. You know, that one soul and three souls may not even exist now, and this person will be a living dead from now on.
If we know where the one soul and three souls are, there may be a way."
"I'll go down the mountain and ask more carefully."
"Don't worry, just drink tea before leaving." Wang Zhe pointed to the tea on the table.
"Have you met your loved one recently?" he asked, staring at Ye Zhiqiu's face.
"Yes, I saw Xiaowei. It was the girl I asked you to treat for the last time. She came to Kuaiji Mansion." Ye Zhiqiu showed a rare shyness on his face.
"Haha, no wonder you look like Hong Luan Xing is moving."
Wang Zhe subconsciously raised his hand and counted.
"Huh?" He glanced at Ye Zhiqiu.
"What's wrong, sir?" After receiving this look from him, Ye Zhiqiu's heart skipped a beat.
"It's nothing, lovers will eventually fall in love."
Phew, Ye Zhiqiu breathed a long sigh of relief after hearing this.
Wang Zhe just predicted that Ye Zhiqiu's marriage will be a little bumpy, but the two will eventually get together.
"It's just that you have to be careful about the Qinglian Sect you join."
Ye Zhiqiu was silent for a while after hearing this. In fact, he was also thinking about the Qinglian Sect during this time. He also discovered that the purpose of this sect is not as simple as simply helping the people.
There must be other purposes, so he was secretly wary of it.
If his beloved was not the most loyal person in the Qinglian Sect, he might have left the Qinglian Sect at this time.
"Sir, what you are reminding me is that I will definitely be on guard."
"Don't fall behind in your practice."
"Yes." Ye Zhiqiu said.
He stayed in the mountain for less than an hour before going down the mountain.
After running all the way back to Kuaiji Mansion, I saw Hong Yuanqing and Lin Zhiyou waiting there.
"How, what did the immortal say?"
"He said that he needed to make sure that one soul and three souls were still there. If the soul was gone, the person would be a living dead and would never come back. He could only wait to die." Ye Zhiqiu told the original story.
"The one soul and three souls must be alive, but they were taken away by others."
"Taken by whom?"
"We are not sure, but we have a rough guess that it should be a monk from Daguang Temple in the Western Regions." Hong Yuanqing did not hide it anymore.
"Da Guangming Temple, he wanted to attack his brothers in the sect?"
"We don't know the details of this."
"Then there's nothing we can do." Ye Zhiqiu shook his head.
"Zhiqiu, is there any way you can ask that immortal to come down from the mountain and take a look at the patient in person?"
"You think too highly of me." Ye Zhiqiu said.
"That being the case, we will go back and inquire about the news carefully. You shouldn't go too far these days."
"Okay, I'll wait for you at Kuaiji Mansion."
"Xiaowei, will you stay with Zhiqiu?"
"Okay." Xiaowei responded after hearing this, but her face turned crimson and she lowered her head, as shy as a water lotus that couldn't bear the cool breeze.
Then Hong Yuanqing and Lin Zhiyou left Kuaiji Mansion.
"Elder Hong, will there be any problems if Xiaowei stays?"
"What can go wrong? We can still fight against each other. Besides, Xiaowei's parents and brothers are all over there at the main altar. What are you worried about?"