one's door

From time to time, kerosene rattan balls would be thrown from behind the city wall and smashed to the front. The blazing flames could last as long as a cup of tea, allowing the female eyes on the dark city wall to see the situation outside the city wall at night.

Today it was the turn of Zhang Yan's team to be on duty at night.It’s okay during the day, and it’s not that cold on Yubei Mountain, but it’s suffocating at night, especially when you stay by the wall for a long time and don’t move, your hands and feet are cold in the middle of the night.

Zhang Yan tightened the armor on his body, held the spear, put his hands in balls by his mouth and breathed non-stop.His eyes were restless, and he followed the kerosene takraw ball thrown out from time to time to look at the situation under the city wall as a warning.Not far to the left is the position of the flower dog. At this time, you can faintly hear a soft snoring sound, which seems to be squinting.Huagou asked Zhang Yan to follow him before, and said to remind him when the night watchman came over later, so as not to be caught and whipped.

Zhang Yan didn't have such a big heart as Huagou, and Huagou was now an official soldier of Yubeishan Fortress, even if he was caught sleeping before the battle, he would only be woken up with a whip or two.But Zhang Yan is now a criminal soldier, and if he dared to doze off, he would be beaten up. The next day when he came, he saw an unlucky guy who was also a criminal soldier who was caught by the night watchman and whipped more than a dozen times for dozing off. The whip, the blood bubble all over the face.But that unlucky guy didn't survive the third day, and he's gone now.

"Hush...breath...breath...breath..." In order to keep himself awake, Zhang Yan picked up the breathing method that he hadn't practiced for many years, and followed a method between exhaling and inhaling. The special rhythm is carried out, and at the same time, the subtle changes in each breath are calmly felt.

The breathing technique that Zhang Yan practiced is called "Sweeping the Sky", a method of breathing that is said to be very domineering, and it is also the core technique of breathing that was only open to the head of Longhushan before.Later, Longhu Mountain declined, and Zhang Yan was the only one left in Zhang Yan's generation.

It is not the first time that Zhang Yan has used the breathing technique since he came to Huangtianyu. He has also used it before, and it is effective, and the effect increases slightly every time.

That feeling was very strange, as if some kind of dirt that he hadn't noticed before was deposited in the exhaled air between breaths, while the inhaled air contained something that made him feel agile.

According to the records in the classics in Longhu Mountain, those "spiritual things" should be the ubiquitous "spiritual energy" wandering in this world, and it is also the foundation for the legendary era of the earth.

To absorb spiritual energy into the body, and then slowly retain it in the dantian, forming a cyclone, this is the first step in the practice of surgery, and it is also the first step in the practice of Shinto.

Of course, this is still a long way for Zhang Yan, at best he has just taken the first step in his practice.You only need to rotate these auras along the meridians around the sky, and finally gather in the lower dantian, and you can take it slowly.

However, this process should have been very simple, but Zhang Yan encountered unnecessary troubles.

"Buzz!"

Suddenly there was a slight tremor in the chest, and all the aura left by Zhang Yan's circulatory cycle was taken away in an instant, leaving nothing in his dantian.

The aura was withheld just like that, blatantly.

"What on earth are you going to do?" Zhang Yan asked more than once in his heart speechlessly.Too bad he won't get an answer.

At this time, there was a pendant under Zhang Yan's armor, and on the pendant was a grape-sized multicolored bead.It was this thing that cut off his aura.

This bead is not an inheritance from the previous body, but it was brought by Zhang Yan when he traveled from the earth.Even the reason why he was able to cross over is because of this bead.

This bead is called "Wanxiang Bead", and it was picked out by Zhang Yan from a jade scroll handed down from Longhu Mountain.At that time, he was going to clean up the scroll, but by coincidence he opened a hidden mechanism on it, and got the bead from it.

The beads are colorful and flickering all the time, and they are not ordinary at first glance, and they are almost exactly the same as the treasure "Wanxiang Pearl" mentioned many times in the legends of Longhushan classics.So Zhang Yan inlaid it in a necklace and always wore it next to his body.

A few days ago, Zhang Yan was invited to an underground palace in the Tianzhu Kingdom to help people watch the earth to hide their murderous intentions, but he missed and was swallowed by a poisonous mist from a mechanism. Wanxiangzhu took a sharp breath of the poisonous mist, and then seemed to get excited, and hit Zhang Yan's forehead in turn, taking his soul away.Afterwards, Zhang Yan went to Huangtianyu and became a criminal soldier like he is now.

After that, Wanxiangzhu followed Zhang Yan all the time. The only change was that every time Zhang Yan condensed a little bit of spiritual energy by relying on the breathing technique, he would be cut off by Wanxiangzhu just before it flowed into the lower dantian, without exception.

Although Zhang Yan didn't know what Wan Xiangzhu was doing to cut off his aura, he didn't have much resentment in his heart, he was just puzzled and curious.He always felt that Wanxiangzhu was like a sponge that had been dried up for too long at this moment, and it needed to absorb water before it could show its true appearance.

Don't worry, just wait.Zhang Yan's state of mind is very peaceful.

With such an interruption, Zhang Yan's drowsy feeling suddenly became clearer.While continuing to get used to the breathing technique of "Sweeping the Sky", he prepared to make it a normal state, replacing his previous breathing rhythm.At the same time, he was also thinking about how he should gain a foothold in this barren world in the future.

According to some memories of his previous life, he was charged with the felony of arson. According to the laws of Nanyuan Kingdom, he should have had his head beheaded, but he just happened to meet the demon soldiers and became a criminal soldier.It looks like he escaped a catastrophe.

However, in my memory, my predecessor did not set fire, and I always thought that I was wronged.After all, a coward who can scare himself to death at the sight of a killing array is indeed unlikely to have the courage to set fire to kill.

"Get wronged? Forget it, first think about how to survive is the top priority."

Originally, I wanted to step into the threshold of Shuxiu or Shinto as soon as possible by relying on breathing techniques, and then some methods handed down from Longhushan can also be used to save Zhang Yan's life.But now because of Wanxiangzhu's relationship, this road is temporarily blocked.

"Taoist mantras seem to be useful these days. The "Golden Light Mantra" blesses one's body, which can strengthen one's strength, stabilize one's mood, and slow down physical exertion. The "Jing Tiandi Mantra" can have a similar effect on the monster race Or a great weakening of the reaction ability. This shows that without the blessing of spiritual energy, the power of the divine mantra itself and the resonance of the world can also be generated. Then, can similar methods be tried?"

It seems that the methods of Taoism have a strong restraint effect on the monster race in Huangtianyu.After all, in the legendary era on Earth, Taoist monks also had the title of "Slaying Demons and Eliminating Demons".

I just don't know the difference between this "demon" and that "demon".

Zhang Yan then had a new idea in his heart.When he was running around on the earth, he could not only read mantras, but also draw symbols.

Chapter 4

When it was dawn, Huagou woke up swallowing the dream saliva in his mouth and blinking his eyes. He stole a lazy sleep, looked around, and turned his eyeballs to look listless.

"Hey, lunatic, didn't the night watchman come in the middle of the night last night?"

"not coming."

"Huh? That's strange. Usually it's once in the first half of the night and once in the second half of the night. Why is it shorter?" Huagou has been in Yubeishan Fortress for two years, and it's the first time that he has missed a night patrol.I was puzzled, but as a soldier, he couldn't figure out the reason for these things.

Zhang Yan shook his head, expressing that he was not clear either.He didn't even sleep all night, and he fought for a while before. At this time, he really couldn't bear it anymore, and his eyelids were fighting fiercely.

"Forget it, it's better if you don't come to watch the night. I can take a nap every day. Hey, don't squint your eyes. After breakfast, you will change your guard. Go down and sleep again, so as not to be arrested by the officials again." I'm going to whip you."

Huagou patted Zhang Yan's back vigorously, and there was a loud bang, almost knocking Zhang Yan out of breath, but Zhang Yan's drowsiness seemed to have slowed down.

Not long after, a group of auxiliary soldiers came up from under the city wall carrying wooden barrels, bowls and spoons, and what they brought over was the breakfast for the soldiers on duty at night.

A bowl of thick porridge, a face-sized pancake, two pickles that are thick and long, and a piece of jerky that is two fingers wide.

"Huh? Why is there still jerky? Don't you think it was sent to the wrong place?" Although Huagou was greedy for the jerky, he didn't dare to mouth it carelessly.The rules in the army are very strict, and a whip is light if you are not careful, and it is too unworthy for such a trivial matter.

Huagou is an old man in the front line of the army, and the auxiliary soldiers are not easy to offend him, and most of them are familiar with him, so Huagou replied puzzledly: "Brother Li, this jerky was brought back from the heavy camp last night. There are so many things this time. There will be pickled elbows at noon!"

"What? There are pickled elbows? Be good! Since when did those gentlemen in the supply camp become so capable?" Huagou swallowed subconsciously.It is not easy to preserve food in the frontier army, and there is basically no need to think about fresh meat. All meat is either smoked or marinated.Although it does not have the taste of fresh meat, it has a special flavor when marinated properly, especially the marinated elbow, a delicacy that Huagou often dreams about.

Half a year or a year?Huagou can't even remember how long it has been since the gang of waste in the supply camp got hard goods like pickled elbows.

The auxiliary soldier looked around, then leaned closer and said in a low voice: "Brother Li doesn't know something, General Manager Chen of the supply camp was replaced last night, and a new one came, General Manager Chen left the fort early this morning. Listen It is said that the general's mansion was very lively last night, and it seems that it has not stopped recently."

"Mr. Chen has been dismissed? Tsk tsk, hey hey. That's all right, go get busy." Huagou and the other party smiled and didn't say much. Everyone is an old fritter. It goes without saying.

"Brother? What's the matter?"

"Hey, I'm afraid the fortress is about to change!"

"Ok?"

"It's okay, let's eat. After eating, we can change the guard and rest. Maybe there will be work to do in the afternoon." Huagou didn't explain to Zhang Yan, picked up his small wooden basin, took a mouthful of porridge and pancakes, and ate fast.But he put the jerky away in his arms and didn't eat it together.

After breakfast, after waiting for about a cup of tea, the soldiers on duty came up, and then Zhang Yan lined up with his spear and began to change defenses.After returning to the tent, he simply cleaned up the blood on his body, and then fell asleep in his bunk. In the blink of an eye, the tent was full of snoring.

After sleeping for three hours, Zhang Yan was woken up by his companions nearby. He blinked and looked around, and found that most of the people in the tent had already woken up.Some berths are already empty, and people must have gone out.

"Get up, move around, and clean up the shit and urine. It's time to eat, and it's time to go up the city wall later."

It was Huagou who was greeting Zhang Yan.Because when Zhang Yan came, he was assigned to Huagou's gang, and Huagou was the gang leader, and he had to take care of five or six of his subordinates in everything.

"Huh? There's meat?!" After finishing his business, Zhang Yan rushed to the place where the rice was put and took the rice bowl. He saw pieces of meat in the dry rice, which exuded an attractive aroma mixed in the vegetable leaves. .

"Hey, the pickled elbows are still deboned, so be careful!" Huagou squatted beside Zhang Yan with a rice bowl in his hand.He likes this criminal soldier better. Although he is sometimes crazy, he grows up very fast after going to battle. From his experience, this lunatic can live for a long time. If he cultivates a relationship, he may save his life in the future.

"Brother, do you know where I can get cinnabar?"

"Cinnabar? I don't know, maybe there is over there in the supply camp. Why do you want that stuff?"

"Hey, I want to draw a safe sign, and I hope you can live for two more days." Zhang Yan has been thinking about drawing symbols after waking up.The first choice is naturally cinnabar and yellow paper, first ask if you can get it, if not, then find another way.

"Peace card? Is the Ping An card on your side painted with cinnabar? Well, I'll take the time to ask for you, and if you have any, get some for you."

"Hey, thank you bro."

"Don't thank me in a hurry, you will know if it will work after you ask. By the way, don't bother with your safety card anymore. Didn't you find anything different after waking up?" Huagou scratched While eating, he asked Zhang Yan vaguely.

"What do you mean bro? How can it be different?"

"Here, look over there."

Following the direction of the flower dog's finger, Zhang Yan slightly raised his head and saw the erected fortress flag.This...isn't this the same as before...wait a minute, this banner seems wrong!

"Ah? Change, change the general flag?!" Zhang Yan could see that something was wrong.In the past, there was a word "Liu" on the banner, which represented "Liu Wen", the supreme commander of Yubeishan Fortress.Although the style of the flag has not changed, the character on it has changed to "Song".

"That's right, General Liu has returned to the imperial city in the morning to return to his command. Now General Song Qinghe Song is in charge of the Yubei Mountain Fortress. This is the military report from the peak when you were still dozing off. But don't worry, The ones who move this time will be the ones at the highest level here, little soldiers like us won’t be affected. But General Song has brought a lot of supplies this time, so we can eat along for a while.”

Hearing this, Zhang Yan understood in his heart that the fortress had changed, and it had no effect on low-level shrimp like them, but they had no way to change it, so they could only accept it.

In addition, in Zhang Yan's heart, he couldn't help but take a high look at the carefree flower dog beside him. The flower dog muttered "the sky is going to change" in the morning before, so he must have guessed the change of general in advance.It seems that the other party is by no means as vulgar as he looks on the outside, and his mind is quite lively.

Chapter 5 Talismans

After five consecutive days of high-intensity offense and defense, the sixth day finally stopped.

Zhang Yan didn't know whether the monster races under the city wall had just retreated, or they were accumulating strength and waiting for an opportunity.But today is the most relaxing day for him since he traveled to this barren realm.

In the evening, Huagou was called away, saying that the general manager asked all the gang leaders to explain. Zhang Yan guessed that there were some new arrangements after the fortress changed generals.

It was just after dark that Huagou returned to the city wall with a smile on his face.Raising his hand, he slapped Zhang Yan with a small bag the size of a palm.

"The cinnabar and small board you want, and half of the pen, you can try to get it yourself, if it doesn't work, then I can't help you." Chance found his friend in the supply camp and asked for the things Zhang Yan asked him before he came.Not to mention, there are quite a few cinnabar things in the supply camp, and it is said that they are used to make insect repellents.

Zhang Yan took the small bag, thanked him again and again, and opened it at the same time. Inside was indeed a small bottle of cinnabar that had been mixed, a half brush, and a stack of five and a half palm-sized thin wood chips.

Forget about yellow paper.After asking Huagou before, Zhang Yan also had a lot of information about "paper" in his memory. Although that thing is not expensive in this world, its output is not much. It is used by scholars, and it is rarely prepared in the army. , the quantity is in the hand of the clerk, and the people in the supply camp dare not withhold it, and it is not the yellow paper that Zhang Yan wants.

However, it is not impossible to use thin wood chips instead of yellow paper, but according to the description in the classics, the talisman effect of this kind of wood painting will be less effective, unless it is a special wood such as peach wood or fire sycamore.

As long as there is no battle on the city wall, the general garrison is relatively free, and as long as you don't lose your position, don't doze off, and don't ask you to stand up straight and concentrate on guard all the time. After all, there are watchtowers on the city wall. The main security task is not on ordinary soldiers like Zhang Yan.

So Zhang Yan took out the cinnabar and half of the pen while he was free, and began to draw the talismans he wanted on the thin wood chips.

There are many types of talismans in Longhu Mountain, and it can even be said to be all-encompassing. The techniques and methods in it also look simple but are actually complicated.Of course, although Zhang Yan has now arrived in a world where he can cultivate, he still can only choose the most superficial talismans that "can only be tangible" to draw because of the Wanxiangzhu. Those advanced ones are described as those that can borrow the power of heaven and earth He is not qualified to try the talisman.

In the end Zhang Yan chose two kinds of talismans.One is called "Exorcism Talisman", and the other is called "Spirit Gathering Talisman".

The exorcism talisman is easy to understand, it is a kind of talisman that can be used to drive away evil spirits and monsters. What is the specific effect? ​​Zhang Yan remembered that there was a saying in the classics of Longhu Mountain: It can make monsters feel uncomfortable and avoid them.

Zhang Yan's understanding is that it should be similar to the effect between mosquito repellent water and mosquitoes.

The spirit-gathering talisman is not used to deal with monsters, but for personal use.It is said that it can make it easier to gather spiritual energy around the talisman, creating a more suitable external environment for practicing breathing, and the effect of this talisman can be superimposed multiple times.

The most important point is that these two kinds of talismans are "just visible" and can be effective without the assistance or blessing of spiritual energy.

Of course, these are all said in the classics of Longhushan, whether it is true or not, Zhang Yan feels that it has yet to be verified.

The first thing to draw is the spirit-gathering talisman. After the painting, Zhang Yan dried the water stains and put it close to his body while watching the lively flower dogs "tsk tsk" at the side. At the same time, he felt the effect of this talisman quietly.

"Huh?! Really useful!"

After Zhou Tian's breathing, although the little bit of aura finally formed was still sucked by the Wanxiang Pearl on his chest, Zhang Yan still noticed the difference between before and after he wore the spirit-gathering talisman.

"Seems a little easier than before?"

To put it bluntly, the technique of exhalation is to sieve the spiritual energy by breathing. If Zhang Yan feels that it is easier to filter the spiritual energy, the only possibility is that the concentration of the surrounding spiritual energy has increased, that is, the spirit-gathering talisman has taken effect.

This needs to be compared, so Zhang Yan drew a second spirit-gathering talisman, and after drying the water stains, put it next to the body, and then continued to sense.

"Sure enough! This spirit-gathering talisman is really effective!" If Zhang Yan felt that the first spirit-gathering talisman was "very inconspicuous", then the effect of the second spirit-gathering talisman superimposed would be "subtle but noticeable".

The spirit-gathering talisman is effective, so it doesn't make sense that the exorcism talisman with the same threshold has no effect.So Zhang Yan drew another exorcism talisman for himself.

After finishing the painting, Zhang Yan thought for a while, and asked the flower dog next to him, "Brother, do you want to get a picture to keep you safe?"

"I have, your sister-in-law prepared it, and put it in your underwear. You can keep that thing for yourself." Huagou smiled. He originally wanted one. The word "safety" always has psychological comfort that cannot be rejected.But when Huagou saw Zhang Yan's so-called "Safe Card", he immediately lost any thought of consolation.

What did they draw?The mess is neither words nor pictures, but just barely regular lines.This thing has a fart relationship with "Ping An".

Simply unreliable!I think Zhang Yan is playing tricks on him.But after thinking about it, Huagou was relieved again.Crazy, don't lunatics just do such inexplicable crazy things?Forget it, expecting a lunatic to do something serious is a disease of the brain.

Seeing Huagou sneer at his talisman, Zhang Yan didn't know what to say.

The last five veneers were painted with talismans, one exorcism talisman, and four spirit-gathering talismans.Coupled with the "Golden Light Mantra" and "Jing Tiandi Mantra", Zhang Yan felt that as long as he was more careful, he should be able to survive the battle of the city wall for a long time.

Zhang Yan carefully put away the remaining cinnabar.This thing still works.

Later in the evening, Zhang Yan went back to the tent after changing his guard, had a meal, and began to meditate.

In the eyes of people on the sidelines, this is completely the weird behavior of a lunatic.The legs are twisted and coiled up, the upper body is straight, and the hands are placed on the sides with the palms facing up... Curious people tried Zhang Yan's movement and felt uncomfortable all over, so they laughed and joked a few words and then ignored it.

As for why no one teased or bullied Zhang Yan, who behaved weirdly, it's easy to understand. If it were you, would you bully a lunatic who could kill demon soldiers?If you go crazy and kill you as a demon soldier, who do you turn to to justify?

Zhang Yan didn't bother to care about what others thought of him, a lunatic was a lunatic, but it made him quiet.Now with the blessing of the four spirit-gathering talismans, he feels that the efficiency of using the breathing technique to sieve spiritual energy is more than [-]% higher than that at the beginning!But in the end, the generated aura failed to stay in his dantian, and was completely sucked by the Wanxiang Pearl.

Chapter 6 Night Attack

Zhang Yan didn't know when he fell asleep, anyway, he narrowed his eyes while meditating.I even had a dream, dreaming that I would fly to the sky, escape from the earth, pick up the stars and take the moon...

But Zhang Yan knew how he woke up.He was dragged out of his dream by the dull and disturbing sound of the horn.This voice was deeply engraved in his soul from the first time he heard it, even a deep sleeper would turn over and sit up immediately after hearing this voice and wake up quickly.

"Hurry up, hurry up! Assemble quickly! Hurry up! Put on your leather armor as soon as possible! Hurry up, Lao Tzu!"

When the horn sounds, the assembly must be completed within [-] breaths, and the city wall must be climbed within [-] breaths.This is the iron law that front-line soldiers must abide by. If anyone misses the time, even if he does not die on the battle line, he will be beheaded by the executioners of the supervising team.

In fact, it doesn’t take a hundred breaths to assemble. Everyone sleeps in their clothes. When they hear the sound of the horn, they get up immediately. The armor is also a pullover style that doesn’t need to be tied up, so the assembly is very fast, and it only takes [-] or [-] breaths. At that time, Zhang Yan's group had already assembled, and then quickly rushed towards the city wall defense area not far away, along with the rest of the battalion who also rushed out of the tent.

This is the second time for Zhang Yan to experience night battles. Compared with fighting during the day, night battles make him a little more nervous.

Unlike the human race, the monster race will not be affected too much at night. They can use the faint moonlight to achieve similar vision during the day, while the human race needs the help of firelight and cannot see things at a distance.