East China Sea dust

After listening to the steward's words, Ao Zhan frowned, subconsciously stopped Zhang Qinglan behind him: "This is impossible."

The reason why the enchantment was set up around the palace was to prevent the townspeople from entering by mistake.The enchantment doesn't hurt people, it will only make people hit the wall at the edge, and after giving up the idea of ​​continuing to approach, they will be released back to the city safely.

Although this enchantment is not some profound secret method, if only relying on a group of ordinary people, it is definitely impossible to make the spell invalid.

Steward Wang stood at the bottom of the stairs, raised his sleeves and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Seeing Ao Zhan's uneasy expression, he quickly explained: "I didn't believe it just now, so I went to investigate first."

The old man seemed to be very angry, and the white beard on his chin was trembling: "Now I know that the group of villagers in the mountains are very rude. They cut down half of the bamboo forest next to the palace, and forcibly cut a road."

"About a stick of incense, this group of people stayed at the gate of our house and kept asking to see you." Wang Yi added.

Standing behind the man, Zhang Qinglan was mostly covered by the man's tall figure, and froze after hearing the butler's words.

The reason why he was able to easily find the Dragon King's Mansion hidden in the deep mountains back then was entirely based on the compass leading the way and three-point luck. He made mistakes all the way, and it took three or four days to come here before he could squat at the door and wait. Travel with Ao Zhan.

But according to the steward's description, those mortals were able to break through the maze and drive straight in, and even ruined half of the bamboo forest used for cover... as if they were instructed by some expert.

The image of the man in the gray robe described by the clam spirit suddenly flashed in his mind, Zhang Qinglan's heart sank, and his lower lip was bitten white by himself.

With his back turned to him, Ao Zhan naturally didn't notice the young man's strange expression.

After pondering for a moment, Ao Zhan signaled Steward Wang to lead the way, pulled up Zhang Qinglan's wrist, and dragged the young man forward: "Go, go and have a look."

A layer of fabric separated the wristband, and the cold temperature of the man's fingertips leaked in from the outside.

Zhang Qinglan came to his senses because of this, followed Ao Zhan's footsteps, the Dragon King's thought moved, and the three of them had arrived at the outer courtyard in an instant.

The white marble stone door was closed tightly at this time, but it couldn't stop the noise coming from outside the door.Several low or sharp voices with local accents overlapped, making the noise annoying.

Ao Zhan raised his brows lightly, stood in the middle of the courtyard with his arms crossed, and looked at the crack of the door calmly, with an unfathomable expression, making it hard to figure out what he was thinking right now.

Hearing the commotion outside the door, Zhang Qinglan thought that her behavior at the beginning might be the same as these people, they were also bothering others, her complexion became a little ugly at a certain moment.

He subconsciously took two steps back, but Ao Zhan's right hand suddenly grabbed his shoulder.

Just as he was in a daze, someone hooked his neck and hugged him by his side.

Seeing his pale face, Ao Zhan stretched out his hand and snorted on the top of the young man's head: "Scared? Scared?"

Feeling the man's touch, Zhang Qinglan shrank subconsciously in the direction of Ao Zhan, then raised her eyes, and shook her head in denial.

Receiving Ao Zhan's teasing look, Zhang Qinglan pursed her lips, and whispered an apology in her heart.

Steward Wang was eager to protect the lord, and offered to go out and ask himself first: "Don't let those ordinary people offend the lord."

Naturally, Ao Zhan didn't think that those few mortals at the door could cause any disturbance, so he nodded noncommittally after a while, signaling for the butler to act.

With the king's consent, the housekeeper bowed and saluted.Turning around and taking two guards guarding the outer courtyard, he walked to the back of the Baiyu Gate, gently opened the gate to a gap that only allowed one person to pass sideways, and signaled the people behind to follow closely.

After a few strokes, the old man flashed out, with an expression of vigilance and disgust on his face, and his expression was as serious as defending his territory.After the guards also went out, they immediately pulled the latch with their backhands and closed the door tightly again.

Seeing this, the young man took advantage of Ao Zhan's connivance, trotted to the open space, and stepped on the bronze sculpture near the door in the inner courtyard with his toes, only revealing a pair of black and bright eyes, looking at everything that happened outside through the fence .

Steward Wang only brought two guards with him when he went out. As soon as he opened the door, he was shocked by the situation in front of him and frozen in place.

The gate of the Wangfu was originally a flat yellow mud open space, and behind it was the endless sea of ​​pines and bamboos.On weekdays, due to the protection of the enchantment, except for a few hunting men who got lost in the bamboo forest, the Dragon King's mansion has been clean for more than ten years, and no one has disturbed it.

But the current situation is very different, it seems to be earth-shaking.

I saw that the originally flat and clean sandy land has become a mess, with footprints piled up messily and dusty, and some places seem to have been stirred into muddy water, which is so wet and sticky that it is disgusting.

A dozen or so men with big arms and round waists rushed forward, lined up with hatchets in their hands, and sat directly on the open space at the entrance of the mansion.The robe on his body was stained with mud, but he didn't care at all, his eyes were fixed on the carved beams and paintings in front of him, and occasionally a hint of greed flashed in his eyes.

Behind them gathered a group of old and young women and children, some of them were family members of those men, and some were not.But they have one thing in common, that is, hugging or supporting a person next to them. Most of the people supported by them have gray complexions, blue lips, and look sick.

Dozens of people just sat at the gate of the palace, talking to each other before Butler Wang went out.Not far from them was the fallen bamboo forest.The green bamboos were hacked randomly by the hatchet, fell to the ground and piled up in a mess, and the bamboo leaves flew wildly, leaving a mess on the ground.

Zhang Qinglan looked at a certain man with a butcher's knife in his hand, and for the first time, an almost gloomy expression appeared in his usually calm dark pupils.

The housekeeper suddenly appeared in front of everyone, and the townspeople who had been shouting non-stop were taken aback for a moment, and their eager eyes immediately turned to the door that opened and closed quickly.

It's just that when they took a closer look and found that it wasn't Ao Zhan, it was like pouring water into a frying pan, and there was a "boom" and there was a commotion.

A burly man standing at the front rushed up aggressively and stopped in front of Steward Wang, his face was trembling with his movements, and he asked in a rough voice, "Why isn't it Master Ao?"

"Presumptuous!" Steward Wang couldn't help but said angrily, "Master, is it something you can see whenever you want?"

The man who didn't know much was taken aback by his yelling, and he wanted to say something, but at this moment he had completely forgotten it.

"You guys have been making trouble here for so long, what exactly do you want to do?" Wang Yi stretched out his hand that had been tucked in his cuff, and waved it sullenly.

"I won't tell you," the man came back to his senses, looked down at the slightly hunched old man in front of him, and yelled back, "I don't care, we must see Master Ao today! See Master Only then can I say!"

Steward Wang always thought that ghosts were superior to others, but now he was shaken by a rude man, and he couldn't hold back his face.Immediately, with a dark face, he called out to the guards with knives, wanting to chase them away.

"Wait a minute!"

At this moment, a frail scholar suddenly emerged from the crowd, first shook his head at the reckless man, then pulled him back into the crowd.Immediately afterwards, he bowed to the butler, seemingly politely saying: "Old man, let Xiaosheng explain a thing or two to you."

Reaching out without hitting the smiling face, Wang Yi looked at the scholar's appearance of collapsing in the wind, so he held his temper for now: "Forget it...you say it."

Hearing what the housekeeper said, I saw the scholar "plop" and knelt down in front of the old man, the calm expression on his face changed as soon as he wanted to cry, and he said, "I just beg Master Ao, save me!" Save our people."

Steward Wang was immediately stiffened by the gift.

Asking the guard to lift him up from the ground, the old man twisted his beard in frustration, looked at the scholar's red eyes and frowned: "How do you say that?"

Stretching out his hand to wipe off the loess on his knees, the scholar wiped away his tears and said with a sob: "Last night, a thick fog suddenly appeared in the city, which lasted for about two or three hours, and did not fade away until early morning."

"It's summer time at this time, and there shouldn't be such a big fog. Everyone thought it was strange, but they didn't take it to heart at first."

Zhang Qinglan squatted behind the wall, counting the time in her mind, and found that during the time the scholar said, he and Ao Zhan had been in the palace, and there was an enchantment around the palace, so he couldn't immediately notice the changes in the outside world .

The scholar watched the complexion of the old man who came out instead of Ao Zhan gradually soften, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then said: "But not long after, when the sun came out, we found that half of the people in the town... all... "

Just as the scholar was stammering and showing a look of unbearable expression, suddenly the closed jade gate was pushed open.

I saw a tall, slender young man with a clear face come out from behind the door quickly, his voice was like a clear spring of broken jade, he took the words and asked calmly: "What's the matter?"

Behind the young man was a tall man with a lazy expression on his face and a leisurely pace, as if he never cared about the group of people surrounding him.

Most of the people present were ordinary people, they had never seen the so-called "Master Ao", and they were all taken aback.

It wasn't until he saw the servant-like old man retreating all the way back, showing a respectful expression towards the man, that the scholar came to his senses, walked up to Ao Zhan's eyes, and bowed in the same way: "Master Ao."

The people behind were in an uproar when they heard this, and dozens of probing eyes immediately fixed on Ao Zhan, and began to whisper.

Ao Zhan thought the sour smell on the scholar was too strong, so he just cast a sideways glance at the man.Noticing that Zhang Qinglan beside her was nervous, she opened her mouth and said to the scholar, "Speak."

The scholar didn't react for a while: "Ah...?"

Seeing his stupid look, Ao Zhan felt very impatient, and then raised his chin towards Zhang Qinglan: "If he asked just now, you should answer truthfully."

The man's noble aura is overwhelming, and he is born with an aura of disdain for the world.Unknowingly, the scholar was bent over by the aura, and quickly nodded in agreement.

Then I saw the scholar turning back into the crowd, walking back to the center of the open space with an eleven or twelve-year-old child by his arm.

The child's face was extremely ashen, and he was as thin as a bone, his lips were dark purple, and his eyes were empty.What was even more frightening was that a piece of festering flesh and blood could be seen from her fingertips. The scar seemed to spread over time, and most of the girl's other hand was already rotten.

The scholar raised the girl's hand and said in a trembling voice: "We found that most of the people in the city have become like this. Even the most experienced old doctor in the medical center said that he has never seen such a strange disease. I'm afraid A medicine stone has no cure."

Suddenly, the scholar and dozens of townspeople behind him knelt down at the same time and kowtowed three times in the direction of Ao Zhan.

"The oracle said that the name of this strange disease is 'Miasma'. Only you can go south to seek medical treatment in person to save them and the people in our city."