You have mastered the art of thunder and you tell me that it is in a strange world?

Chapter 41 Coming out of seclusion
When An Yi and An Er arrived at the carefully prepared upper room, they saw five monks with pale faces lying on the beds. They walked over and reached out to touch them, and found that they had no breath, no pulse, and the bodies were cold!
"What's going on?"

An Yi and An Er were completely dumbfounded. They had been thinking of waiting for Master Xuanmi to come back and ask him for advice on matters concerning King Kang's retainers. However, they did not expect that the five monks who carried Master Xuanmi's sedan chair died in just one night!

What should I do to explain this when the master comes back?
If he were to blame them, how could Anming Temple withstand King Kang's wrath?

The two men were so frightened that they looked almost like the dead body on the bed.

While they were wandering around here, thinking about countermeasures, a cook suddenly ran in from outside the door.

He looked grim, as if he wanted to tell the two of them something, but An Yi and An Er were in no mood to care about him. They were about to wave their hands and tell him to get out, but they heard the cook speak anxiously:

"My two great shopkeepers, this is bad! The rice in our jars has all turned to dirt!"

"what?"

What the hell is going on?

The two of them didn't care about anything else and rushed into the kitchen in a hurry.

When they arrived here, they found that many monks were squatting on the ground and retching. What came out of their mouths was a yellowish-brown substance, some of which was condensed into a ball, and some was scattered all over the ground.

I opened the lid of the tightly closed rice bucket next to me and found that there was no white rice inside, but just layer upon layer of yellow soil.

"this?"

An Yi stared at the loess for a long time, and as if he suddenly remembered something, he slapped his bald forehead:
"Ouch, it's spoiled!"

Then, he pulled up his dazed junior brother An Er and ran straight to their secret treasury.

When the two of them arrived at the small treasury, they pushed open the cellar door with both hands, and the two monks walked in anxiously.

But they soon discovered that there was nothing in the entire cellar.

They still remember that they had piled up a lot of silver and shining gold in the temple, as well as treasures donated by wealthy businessmen from all over the country.

The calligraphy and paintings are gone, the night pearls are gone, and the antique bottles are gone.

All their savings over the past decade are gone!
"Me, you, Xuanmi!" An Yi was so anxious that he couldn't say anything. His face turned red, and he felt his heart twitch. His head was buzzing with coldness, and then his eyes fell into darkness. His whole body was straight, and he fell backwards. He fell flat on the ground and fainted.

An Er was also in a hurry to help his fat senior brother, and he also realized what was happening around him.

"Xuan Mi! I will kill you!"

An Er's eyes also turned blood red in an instant.

How could this be an opportunity for them?

It's clearly a disaster!

……

Zuo Chen and Cai Yi stayed in the town's post station for one night. The next morning, they cut some silver and drove their donkey cart towards the border.

On the way, Zuo Chen explained some Taoist principles in a simple and easy-to-understand way to Caiyi. Caiyi seemed confused but took it very seriously. She took notes in a small notebook and asked Zuo Chen when she encountered something she didn't know. This was completely different from her previous noisy behavior.

The monk asked her why there was such a big difference between before and after, and Caiyi said:
"I'm not a fool. The things that the Taoist priest is willing to teach me are all great magical powers! No matter how much money you spend, you can't learn them. I'm stupid to begin with. If I don't listen carefully, I won't be able to learn these magical powers."

The monk thought what she said made sense.

The donkey cart soon reached the pass, and from afar one could see the connected city walls and open gates.

"Huh?" Zuo Chen stared at the city gate with some doubt: "I thought this gate would be sealed." "I thought so at first."

The monk poked his head out from the relic and sighed:
"When I saw the gate of the border gate open with my fellow villagers, I thought the people in Qingzhou were kind and opened the gate to help the refugees from Xuzhou. But later I found out that the soldiers guarding the gate were trying to lure the refugees from Xuzhou to come over and then shoot them to death with arrows."

"Then how did you get in, monk?" Caiyi asked this question.

Since the soldiers guarding the pass would shoot arrows at the refugees, and the monk was also a refugee at the time, why didn't he die?
"I don't know. I just ran with my head down. No arrows hit me. When I came to my senses, I had already entered the pass. At that time, several soldiers came down from the city wall. I thought they were going to stab me with swords, but I didn't expect them to pat me on the shoulder and say that I was lucky and blessed to have entered the pass under the rain of arrows. They didn't stop me and let me go into the city to make a living. They were the ones who pointed me to the road to Anming Temple."

The monk said, although it was the soldiers guarding the pass who killed the villagers he brought with him, there was no hatred in his tone at the moment, only numb calmness.

"No wonder Liu Biaotou said that it's easy to pass through but hard to return. And we have to return under a rain of arrows. It's really difficult."

After the chat, the two of them and Dan had already arrived at the border.

Looking around, there were quite a few soldiers guarding the border. They were not training, but had set up tables inside the border with wine and meat on them. Soldiers often passed by, picked up a piece of meat and threw it into their mouths, then grabbed the wine jug and took a sip, looking quite comfortable.

Looking deeper, you can see several kitchens where cooks gather together, blowing into the stove with their cheeks puffed out as they cook.

As soon as they arrived here, they attracted the attention of the soldiers guarding the border. There were not many people here, and the soldiers usually had nothing to do. The combination of a Taoist priest and a young lady was even rarer, so they couldn't help but look at this place more.

Seeing that the carriage was still moving outside the pass, a young soldier could no longer sit still and stood up and walked to the donkey cart.

"Master, we can't go to that place ahead!" The young soldier stopped the donkey. "Ahead is Xuzhou, which is now a dead place. The people there can't afford food, so they are no longer human. If we go to Xuzhou, I'm afraid we will both be stewed into rice meat!"

"Thank you, Bingjia. I have made some preparations and should be able to pass through Xuzhou smoothly."

Zuo Chen said politely.

As soon as he said this, the soldiers next to him burst into laughter.

After hearing what Zuo Chen said, the young soldier stopped trying to stop him and watched him drive away in the donkey cart.

After the donkey cart had completely passed the checkpoint and could no longer be seen, the soldiers began to laugh and curse:

"Still want to pass through Xuzhou? You'll get your head chopped off halfway!"

"The Taoist priest is also with a little girl, and they are having a lot of fun."

No one thought that the two of them could survive. They were so delicate and fragile, how could they possibly survive?
The soldiers guarding the border continued to eat and drink, forgetting about the Taoist priest and the girl. After three rounds of drinking, when they seemed a little tipsy, suddenly a fast horse came from the direction of Xuzhou.

The soldiers guarding the pass were startled and were about to draw their bows to shoot the man on the horse, but unexpectedly the man took out a token from his pocket:

"Who dares to act rashly among the disciples of King Kang?!"

After the other party took out the token, the soldiers guarding the pass were in a dilemma as to whether to shoot or not.

They are soldiers under Prince Shou, and soldiers are just soldiers after all. Now Prince Shou and Prince Kang are fighting fiercely in private, but they are still friendly on the surface. If they really kill Prince Kang's followers, they don't know what will happen to others, but they are afraid that they will lose their lives.

In the blink of an eye, the man on the fast horse had already arrived at the border.

He stepped off the saddle directly, and the soldiers guarding the pass immediately approached him.

"Sir, what are you doing here?"

The man stared coldly at the soldier in front of him:

"Someone killed King Kang's retainer. Let's investigate!"

(End of this chapter)