across the Quartet

Chapter Five

"The third question," Gai Nie said, "Who is the person in Chu who cooperates with you?"

"... I don't know."

Seeing that Wei Zhuang was about to hold his sword and smile again, Mr. Changping hurriedly threw out a series of words: "Qi really doesn't know. Qi was forced to join forces with the people of Chu, but he still didn't know who the person behind the scenes was. If the words are half false, they will be destroyed by heaven and earth."

"Helpless?" Wei Zhuang said with a smile: "Then you killed all your accomplices in the woods outside the city, presumably because of helplessness?"

Mr. Changping opened his lips halfway, and the muscles on his face twitched slightly, as if he was caught off guard by the question.Gai Nie said: "It's meaningless for you to deny it at this time. We salvaged the bodies of the killers who ambush us in the river where the incident happened, and also identified your Yuenv swordsmanship and poisonous needle hidden weapon. "

Changping Jun's eyes were dim, and he sighed: "...Yes, from the moment you appeared in the county government court, Qi knew that the matter was half lost. I thought you would go to Xinzheng first, even if you were not arrested by the rebellious Koreans. If you are taken into custody, you will be delayed there for a while; but you came back so quickly." He then looked up at Wei Zhuang, "Everyone in Xianyang knows that sword masters are always solitary and never come back. I didn’t expect Chu State to add such a powerful helper to others.”

Wei Zhuang smiled again: "Helper? Mr. Changping is serious. Wei is just a thug hired by a sword master, a dog butcher, nothing to worry about."

Mr. Changping bulged his eyes and collapsed on the ground, indeed a bit like a chicken or dog on a chopping board.Gai Nie shook his head and continued to ask: "You said that you 'cooperated' with the Chu people out of desperation, but Changping Jungui is the son of the King of Chu, an important minister of the Qin State, and is far away in Xianyang. Coercing you? How do you plan to silence them? I would like to hear the details."

"Important minister of the Qin State? Heh..." Lord Changping laughed, mixed with coughing, "Qi was born as a proton, and his father, Chu, and mother, Qin, may not even know where he should stand. The marriage of his parents is just a state matter , I have no kinship with Qi and my brothers. My father fled back to the state of Chu with the help of Lord Chunshen to succeed him. Later, his position became more and more stable, but he never had the slightest thought of bringing my mother and son back to China. Although Qin Chu We have been married for many years, but the relationship is deteriorating day by day. The life of the hostage is difficult. Fortunately, the current king of Qin was once a hostage in Zhao. Serving the Qin State wholeheartedly...but in the end... people's hearts are unpredictable. Ever since Yan State sent assassins last year, the King of Qin was really frightened; there are villains spreading rumors, and everyone in Xianyang Palace is in danger. We guest lords No matter how much he was relied on, he was still separated from the Guanzhong Qin people who had grown up here for generations. Qi Cong had gradually noticed half a year ago that there were some servants of unknown origin and suspicious behavior in the mansion, and there were vaguely followed around when he went out. Qi pretended to have a clear conscience and was unwilling to confront Luo Wang head-on. But such monitoring and spying became more and more difficult day by day. Later, a trustworthy person in the palace secretly sent a message saying that the war between Qin and Chu was imminent, and Luo Wang was tracking down the country. Qi was the object of their suspicion about the spies who might have exchanged news with the state of Chu. Xianyang did have spies from the state of Chu, but Qi had no contact with them before; One day a few months ago, when Qi Fang returned from the court meeting, he found a wooden box and a secret letter in the study—"

"Could it be that the letter that was read by the secret agent just now, the letter that you burned?"

Mr. Changping said in a low voice, "Exactly."

"You also wear the jade ring sent by the people of Chu since that day?"

"Yes. They said in their letter that they would enshrine me as Lord Chu, but Qi didn't believe it. But at the time, Qi felt uneasy day and night, worried that sooner or later he would be caught by the net and find an excuse to go to prison, so he had to leave a way out for himself. After that, King Qin He ordered Qi to move to Chen, which originally belonged to Chu State, and it is even more suspected that it was a temptation from the king..."

"After arriving in Chencheng, you received another contact from the people of Chu, and then you made a plan to go hunting?"

"Yes."

"But since your plan was successful that day, why did you conflict with them later?"

Lord Changping snorted, and said, "Because they came here with dishonest intentions. They handed over this jade ring to Qi as a token of recognition with the principal; it was agreed that someone should hold the missing piece of the jade ring and match each other to prove it. It is the person who made the contract between the two parties. However, the leader killer saw that I showed the jade ring and confirmed Qi’s identity, but he did not hand over any tokens. , unable to come forward. That is to say, they didn't take Qi seriously at all, and they didn't care whether Qi really trusted them. For the mastermind of this matter, Qi was just a status symbol, a puppet that was easy to use. What Prince Chu's son, what kind of monarch, hehe..."

Gai Nie heard hatred from his sneer, and found it hard to understand, "Just for this, you killed them all?"

Lord Changping endured the pain in his hand, bowed his head and said: "...a person like you naturally can't understand it."

Wei Zhuang said: "That's right, my senior brother was born as a commoner, so I can't understand the hardships of your sons and grandsons. Well, you think that the people of Chu came here with ulterior motives, so you rebelled angrily and turned back to the people of Qin?" "

"Qi... is just a last resort. Qin's guards have been silenced by them; after the people of Chu hold me hostage, if they want to kill me and replace me with others, it will be easy; after that, they can rebel against Chu in the name of Qi, and King Qin and King Chu will only Knowing that Qi has left Qin and turned to Chu, he would not confirm his authenticity at all. In order to avoid being used by others, Qi had no choice but to kill those Chu assassins and fled back to Chen County."

"Really? From the bottom of my mind, the assassins who were ambushing in the forest that day can be regarded as good hands. They were so easily attacked by you, probably because they still treated you as a lord after all, and didn't even think of taking precautions. And you But like a frightened bird, he always suspects that others are going to harm him; and he is ruthless, just because he has doubts in his heart, he can kill people like nothing." Gai Nie said bluntly.He pondered for a moment, then asked again: "The certificates of 'Xinzheng' carried by the killers of Chu State, did you order them in advance?"

Mr. Changping shook his head.

Wei Zhuang said: "I guess, the mastermind behind the scenes heard that Xinzheng has rebelled against Qin and is currently under the control of the Koreans, so he came up with this method to blame other countries."

Gai Nie looked up at the rising column of smoke, paused, and said to Lord Changping: "You thought you were being tempted by the King of Qin, and you were caught by the net, and now there is such a big event as the bodyguard being killed, you really think you can do it." Cover up the past easily? Or, returning to Chencheng is just a part of your next plan, what are you waiting for?"

Mr. Changping opened and closed his lips, but no sound came out, as if he was struggling to weave a reply.

Gai Nie conjectured: "Since you have seen your doubts, Qin may no longer be your long-term residence. Your plan is probably to wait in the city for the person with another jade ring to appear. As I said earlier , after you arrived in Chen, you made an agreement with the people of Chu to go hunting; that is to say, you have a secret way of communicating here. Those who went to greet you have not heard back for a long time, and their behind-the-scenes mastermind must be If you can't hold it back, I will try to contact you. At this time, you can negotiate with him again, and you will agree to continue to cooperate only if they agree to more favorable conditions for you. However, when did you lose your jade ring? I'm afraid it wasn't As you said earlier, you disappeared from the day you came back from hunting, right?"

"It was still there when I came back that day. But Qi didn't dare to wear it next to his body, and only kept it in his residence. Qi didn't know when he disappeared."

"Have you considered that, assuming that the mastermind behind the scenes could steal it from your residence without anyone noticing, it would take your life in a single thought?"

Mr. Changping smiled wryly, "Of course Qi thought of it."

"But they didn't kill you, but gave you a warning. Come to think of it, you must still hold a bargaining chip that is very important to Chu." Gai Nie touched the cloth bag in his arms and said, "I thought that you would never It was not the murderer who killed the county magistrate, because you have no motive, and you will not leave evidence pointing to yourself carelessly... Now that you think about it, it must be 'they' behind the scenes who coerced you to do this?" He didn't wait for the other party to answer, and then He said to himself: "No, if they threaten you to kill people to force you to break with the Qin people, it is enough for people to see you committing murder. Why do they steal your jade ring and leave it there? Isn’t it superfluous to blame again? That jade ring—that jade ring—who broke it?”

Mr. Changping booed, it was difficult to answer.

"The style of the mastermind behind the scenes is really unpredictable. But Mr. Changping is in our hands, and we will be able to catch this person sooner or later." Wei Zhuang interjected.He kicked Mr. Changping on the back, and said: "After all, you people's small actions in private can't be hidden from the current king of Chu; he has already sent the most capable sorcerer under his command to deal with you and the people behind you. Even if you don't know Who is the mastermind behind the scenes, and you probably know which families are involved in this matter? Otherwise, with your prudence, if the allies are not really powerful, you will ignore the so-called plan from the very beginning. The so-called 'they' 'Who the hell? I don't believe you can't give me a name.'

Lord Changping hesitated for a long time, and finally said in a low voice: "As far as I know, the three families of Qu, Jing, and Zhao were all involved in this matter; I also heard that after Lord Chunshen was killed at the Thorny Gate, his retainers fled in all directions, but many of them The few loyal and righteous people vowed to avenge their master, so they formed a private party to kill the Li family's children, calling themselves "Thorn Gate Rebellion". Incorporated into a group of assassins. This group of people is bold and reckless, and they don’t like the royal family of Chu, so there is nothing they dare not do. Qi thought that the one who was lying in ambush in the forest a few days ago was the assassin of Thorny Gate Ni.”

Wei Zhuang said impatiently: "You seem to know a lot of things, but in fact there is nothing useful. It seems that they really don't take you seriously."

Mr. Changping's face turned red, but he finally swallowed his anger.He coughed a few more times, and finally spit out two words in a muffled voice.

"Jin Ran."

"what?"

"When Qi was traveling with the people of Chu, he happened to hear them say the word 'Doctor Jin'. The descendants of the Jin family are not very distinguished in Chu, and Qi can only think of Jin Ran as the rank of the title of 'Doctor'. .”

Gai Nie turned his head to Wei Zhuang and said, "It turned out to be him! This person is now in Xinzheng, but he will not be good for Quicksand—"

Wei Zhuang's eyes flickered, and he suddenly smiled: "Brother, why are you in a hurry? If Xinzheng becomes chaotic because of internal strife among the Chu people, wouldn't it be a great opportunity for the Qin people to take advantage of it? Why aren't you secretly happy, the guard next to the King of Qin?" , become worried instead?"

"..." Ge Nie paused, then sighed, "I'm really not used to it yet."

It has been more than a year in Xianyang, but for Gai Nie, it is still difficult to equate himself as a "Qin person" deep in his heart.Although his ideal is to assist Qin Jun to eliminate the flames of war in the world, when he heard that the Qin army had conquered the city and gained a lot of land, he could not resonate with the joy of the officials in the court; When Qin seized the city, he didn't curse the hateful rebels, but secretly admired their loyalty and bravery.

After all, Qin people and Zhao people could not be merged by changing the place names of several counties and counties.The hostility in the past, the bloody battle, the hatred of siblings, flesh and blood, close friends, and comrades, are like sharp thorns born deep in their hearts; , These thorns must be swallowed and slowly digested together with the flesh and blood.

Guizhou Head of the Six Kingdoms, I don't know how many people are experiencing similar and long-term pain.

The three of them were immersed in their own thoughts, but such emotions could not last long.After a while, Gai Nie noticed a group of noisy fighting voices lingering outside the royal city. "There seems to be someone fighting outside."

"Once the fire becomes big, even if Wu Shen is a fool, he will think that there is something wrong in the palace, so he will come to check it." Wei Zhuang said, turning his head and throwing the wooden box containing the blood-stalking beetle far away, "This thing It's useless. It's better to set a trap here, lure him over, and solve it altogether."

"Hmph, hum, hum..."

Unpleasant and strange laughter suddenly came from the depths of Merlin one after another.The brighter the place where the fire is, the darker those shadows are.

"He Fang, why don't you show up?!" Gai Nie said in a deep voice.

"Hahahahaha... Juggernaut, Wei Zhuang, you two are pretending to be a team behind your back. You just acted in front of everyone, did you deceive me that there is no one in Qi Kingdom?!" The laughter suddenly became shrill. "I hate it that my son actually listened to your nonsense!!"

The two of Guigu looked at each other with annoyed expressions.One of them lost all their internal energy, and the other had a serious internal injury and just got rid of the control of the Gu worms, and it was only discovered after being touched so close.

"Oh, it's from Tian Rong?" Wei Zhuang replied tepidly, with his arms drooping, and he didn't touch the hilt of his sword; but Gai Nie knew that this was a harbinger for him to launch a hidden weapon.There is still mercy under the sword, but once the copper ball is shot out, no one will be left alive.

"How is Mr. Tian? Don't fall into any demon's spell."

The strange laughter stopped suddenly, then he gritted his teeth and said, "Aren't you guys with that monster?"

"If we were together, we wouldn't be forced to hide here." Wei Zhuang said, "Young Master Tian sent you here to find a way to break the city together with Mr. Wei, right?"

"Exactly! You made an agreement with my son, but unexpectedly you——"

"Your Excellency, don't be suspicious." Wei Zhuang said frankly, "Gai Nie is in the same family after all, and we are in trouble together, so we have to put aside the fight for the time being, it's nothing special. The agreement between Wei and Mr. Tian still counts."

While talking, an old plum tree with strong branches gradually showed a human figure on the edge, flickering under the light of the fire.

As Wei Zhuang expected, the owner of this strange laughter is one of the most capable disciples under Tian's command.It was night, the two sons of the Tian clan lived in Nilu with a group of followers.However, at the end of the night and dawn, the effectiveness of Chiyou's Great Desolation Formation gradually emerged. Many disciples were driven mad by the "corpse beetles" hidden in the fog, or fought with each other with swords drawn, or fled in all directions.The two brothers of the Tian family used to burn the Ningshen Incense when going to bed, the wormwood, mugwort leaves and other things in it, the smoke from burning can just disperse flying insects, so they never got caught.At first they thought they were plotted by the Qin people, so they collected all the retainers who survived madness, fled to the street, and then found that there were similar situations in all directions.Horrified, the second son of Tian decided to fight desperately, led the crowd to storm the city gate, and tried to escape from the city.Although most of the defenders near the city gate were insane, there were still a few sane ones who stood firm at their posts. The two sides launched an extremely tragic melee, resulting in many casualties.Tian Rong saw that it was difficult to win, and when he was anxious and irritable, he accidentally discovered that there seemed to be a fire in the inner city of the palace, and finally remembered the few words Wei Zhuang left in his palm when they parted in the backyard of the county government——There are changes in the city, and the fire is a sign.

He immediately called a competent person beside him and ordered him to follow the firelight to invite Mr. Wei to have a talk.

At this moment, the doorman was half-believed by Wei Zhuang's words, so he said: "My master was kind enough to protect me earlier, but he was deceived by the master. If the master is still a little bit sorry for my master, he will kill the sword master here and fight with me. go together."

"It's not easy to kill the sword master. How about I take him to meet the young master and discuss important matters together?" Wei Zhuang raised his arms as he spoke, as if he wanted to spread his hands; Suddenly, a golden light shot out from the sleeve, and went straight to the speaker's left eye!

This sudden flash, no one had expected.A muffled groan came from the shadows.Wei Zhuang secretly thought that something was wrong - his best skill was to shoot gold and copper bullets from the eye sockets to the brain, and the victim would be killed immediately without any room for screaming; and this time the opponent could still make a sound , indicating that the accuracy is not enough, or the power is not enough.He turned his head to Gai Nie and said: "We can't let him run away. I'll come as soon as I go, and my brother is here to watch this person." Before the words finished, he had already jumped far away.

"..." Ge Nie was left behind before he could say anything.He shook his head, seeing that the fire was getting bigger and bigger, he helped Mr. Changping up, trying to find a hiding place nearby.Suddenly, there was a low-pitched rustling sound in my ears, like a cool wind repeatedly brushing the dense branches and leaves.

Those were countless insect feet, crawling close to the ground.

Gai Nie's eyebrows rose up, and he had a plan. He stripped Changping Jun's robe twice and hung it on the top of an old plum tree; After the rocks.Just in case, he took out the cloth pouch from his bosom again, intending to take a fruit of Shennongcao and swallow it.After untying the bag, I found that apart from the bright red fruit, the stems and leaves of the Shennong grass in the cloth bag all turned black at some point.

"Strange..." he murmured.There are four usages of Shennongcao - the stems and leaves can be tested for poison, the fruit can be used to suppress poison, and the roots can be used to detoxify...

Gai Nie felt a sudden jump in his chest.He fumbled at the bottom of the pocket, took out a few fragments of the jade ring that had been stuffed in earlier, and looked at it carefully by the light of the fire.Although the light is blurred and flickering, it can still be found that there are small round holes in the cross-section of some fragments of jade; Sealed.

What is this tiny hole used for?

At this moment, my mind turned, and the memories of four years ago, or even longer ago, gradually came to life in my mind.

Gai Nie slapped the tree trunk beside him with his palm, and suddenly said: "The jade ring is there, it's not there to blame - it's there, because it is the murder weapon!"

Mr. Changping was shocked by him, and opened his mouth to ask questions; Ge Nie ignored him, and the countless fragments of thoughts in his mind were connected into threads, and the threads were woven into a net, and many irrelevant things he saw during this journey Stories and strangers are included in it.

But at this time, a powerful enemy is approaching, and there is no time to sort out these clues.Ge Nie thought it was a pity, but he could only focus on the plum tree not far away.

In just a few breaths, the brocade robes hanging on the branches were covered with densely packed multi-legged monsters.Ge Nie counted the timing, drew his sword towards the surface of the water, turned his left hand into a fist, split the splashed water, and repelled several "hidden weapons" flying in the air - upon closer inspection, those hidden weapons turned out to be strips of black water. Greenish centipede.

A chunky figure stood on a low wall not far away.The sound of the silverfish's wings echoed around him one after another.Ge Nie pressed Mr. Changping's shoulder and said, "If a swarm of insects comes over in a while, you will go into the water." As he said this, he jumped up into the air and drew his sword to attack the shadow against the light.

Gai Nie's style of "flying star" makes people feel happy and dripping, with the momentum of nine days of thunder, and the petals fall like torrential rain where the sword wind passes by.However, Wu Shen just moved his fingers slightly, and two groups of vigor came to him from the left and right sides - one was the blind old beggar who had fought against Wei Zhuang earlier, and the bamboo stick in his hand was thrown at Gai Nie's waist; the other was Wu Shan. The white-clothed swordsman sent out, the long sword shook out, and fell towards his arms.At this time, Gai Nie leaped into the air, just when the old force made the old and the new force unborn, it was difficult to dodge by jumping up or down, so he had to change his moves in a hurry. Yuan Hong grabbed the long sword of the guest in white and used the "sticky" force to attract With this sword, he stabbed at the blind old beggar.There was a "chi" sound, and the point of the sword pierced the old beggar's forehead.However, this person did not dodge or dodge, the bamboo stick continued to hit Gai Nie's right thigh fiercely.This stick is powerful and heavy, if it is a sword, it may have chopped off the person's leg.

Gai Nie reluctantly grabbed the bamboo stick and pulled it behind him. At the same time, he rubbed his body up, flipped the hilt of the sword deftly on his wrist, and hit the blind old beggar's head with the hilt. The tip of the sword was facing the raised right hand of the guest in white.There was only a scream, and the white-clothed swordsman's tendons had been severed by Yuan Hong, and at the same time the old beggar was knocked backwards.Gai Nie didn't kill the killer, and wanted to ask the two people since when they worked for Wu Shen, but suddenly realized that there was no need to ask - the blind old beggar was lying on the ground, the black eye sockets were still the same as before, but the muscles on the cheeks were stiff , Two arching worms gradually drilled out of the nostrils, at first glance it looks like two blue-black thick juices are hanging.Rao Gai Nie was extremely determined, even seeing this situation, he couldn't help feeling sick.

Wu Shen was still standing on the wall, Jie Jie sneered and said, "The Guigu faction only has this ability? What kind of methods did you use to kill the three priests of our clan, use them all!!!" He provocatively said, But it was to distract Gai Nie; the white-clothed swordsman behind Gai Nie had already put his sword in his left hand and wiped viciously at the back of Gai Nie's neck.

TBC