The fairy is fierce

The awning boat passed through the wind and rain and arrived at the beach of Macheng County.

Shangguan Lingye was wearing the imperial concubine's phoenix skirt, and the glittering golden light was too eye-catching in the market. At this time, there was no way to use magic to change the outfit. They could only row the boat to a remote place outside the port, and the three of them disembarked and landed.

Lu Chen seemed to be a man who loved swords. After being pointed out by Zuo Lingquan, he didn't even say much. He walked in front and led the way, gesticulating with his fingers, imitating Zuo Lingquan's movements when he drew his sword.

Zuo Lingquan didn't bother him. He supported Shangguan Lingye and observed the surrounding environment.

Macheng County is just an ordinary secular city. There is no trace of spiritual practice. There are trenches everywhere outside the city gate to block horses. There are still people patrolling, but they are not wearing armor and they do not look like regular troops.

There were some people on the pier, but not many. They were all in ragged clothes and carrying weapons. There were almost no people in clean clothes.

Zuo Lingquan followed Lu Shen from the trail to the main street of the county town. The scene he saw could only be described as devastated and the people were in dire straits. There are no intact houses on the street, there are signs of fire everywhere, it is sparsely populated and looks like a ghost town.

In such a dilapidated state, there are naturally no shops open for business on the street. As for the inn? There are vacant buildings all over the county, so something like an inn is needed.

Lu Chen was used to this. After leading the two of them to a relatively complete house, he kicked the door open and said:

"You guys stay here first. This family fled out of the city last year. There should be a bed inside. I live in front. If you need anything, just say hello."

Having said this, Lu Chen quickly returned to a courtyard not far away. After a while, he came to the front with two dried fish and a bowl of rice:

"Brother Zuo, don't be too little. The county is short of food. I saved this. If it weren't for the fact that I couldn't open the pot, I wouldn't have gone out to fish in the rain. You guys eat first and think of a solution after the rain stops."

When Zuo Lingquan saw the appearance of the county town, he understood the situation of the people here. They could not refine the spiritual energy, so he had to eat to make up for the consumption. He did not refuse at the moment and raised his hand to take it. Although Linglong Pavilion could not be opened, Zuo Lingquan had always had the habit of bringing silver as a spare. He took a piece of silver from his waist and handed it to Lu Chen as a thank you.

Lu Chen's life was indeed not easy. He refused several times, but still accepted:

"Brother Zuo is so polite. If you need anything, just say hello. Lu is obliged to help."

After Zuo Lingquan watched Lu Chen leave, he entered the yard with two dried fish and rice grains.

The courtyard was very messy, with a few items scattered around. It must have been ransacked several times. The doors and windows were open, and all the valuable items inside were gone, leaving only old and dilapidated furniture.

Shangguan Lingye was very weak. He was already a little sleepy when he got here. He said softly:

"This place looks too remote. I'm afraid it won't be easy to get back to Jiuzong. Let's rest for a while."

She turned around and walked into the main room from under the eaves. Looking at the messy old room, there was really no place to stay, so she leaned over and started to tidy it up.

Zuo Lingquan was not injured. After putting the things in the kitchen, he came over and made the wooden bed with only thatch left. He took off the curtain and spread it on top as a bed sheet. He took off his robe and spread it on the bed sheet.

Although it was still messy and damp, it at least looked clean and wouldn't make people unable to lie down.

Shangguan Lingye was born as a monk, so it was not that he could not tolerate harsh environments, but being able to lie down in a clean place was better than being crowded with dirty thatch piles. When she saw this, she smiled and said, "I'm determined." She lay down on her robe. He also took out the small dumpling buried in his chest, placed it in front of his neck, and then patted his side;

"You should also take a rest."

I don't know whether this was a joke or a real invitation to Zuo Lingquan to rest in the same bed.

Zuo Lingquan saw the concubine's grandma with a beautiful body, and really wanted to lie down together, but now was not the time. He helped close the window, shook his head and said:

"I'm almost exhausted. Get something to eat first, otherwise the more you rest, the weaker you will become. I'm going to cook, and I'll have a good rest."

Shangguan Lingye didn't even want to move his fingers, closed his beautiful eyes and said:

"Thanks for your hard work.

……——

The rapid and violent rainstorm swept through the county town, which had ten rooms and nine empty houses. The only place where people gathered was the 'military camp' built under the city wall.

There are only about 300 people in the military camp. In troubled times, rebels are everywhere, and only a small number of them are entrenched in Macheng County. The leader Jiang Heng came from outside the northern pass. It is not so much a rebellion, but a rebellion. It would be better to say that they stick together to survive in this troubled world where people cannibalize people.

It was noon, and under the heavy rain, the ground in the military camp where wooden houses were clustered was covered with mud. The "rebels" wrapped in red turbans still had some military discipline, and they strengthened the city defense in the rain.

In a shop with a tea shop sign, several men were sitting around a table. Two of them were wearing swords and one was cleaning a gun. There was also a young man dressed as a scholar who was speaking softly inside:

"As the saying goes, 'The world will be divided if it is united for a long time, and it will unite if it is divided for a long time'..."

"Stupid Su, you picked up a robe worn by a scholar and you really think you are a scholar? Do you know a few words? Don't talk about these literate things. Now you don't have enough to eat. You can't find a way to get food. At most one Yue has to break up..."

"One more month? The Qingjia Army in Ninghe has given an ultimatum. If they don't join, they will lead people to massacre Macheng County. They have about 4,000 people under them, and there are more than 500 elites in armor, as well as bows and crossbows. , I think it’s better to go to the top of the mountain and sit on a smaller chair than to be tied up and used as a shield..."

…

Several people held their own opinions, and their words were all for the leader to hear.

As the leader, Jiang Heng, no matter how popular he is, cannot produce food with his bare hands; but Jiang Heng has great ambitions and does not want to be a pawn of the Qingjia Army who rapes, plunders, and robs the ground. At this time, there is no way to break the situation, so he can only pretend Deaf and mute, I came to the eaves alone, looked at the sea in the distance, and prayed that God would open his eyes and a few grain ships would float over.

He stood alone for a moment, wondering if God heard his voice. Before the grain transport ship came, Jiang Heng found the ranger Lu Chen, who always walked alone, walking over from the muddy ground.

Both of them were from Jianghu backgrounds, trying to make a living in troubled times. Lu Chen didn't like to form cliques, so he still took the path of paying people to do things. Jiang Heng never recruited him.

When Jiang Heng saw this, he thought he was here to surrender. He walked up to him in the rain and said with a smile:

"Swordsman Lu, what brought you here?"

Lu Chen simply said: "Do you have any leftover food? Give me a few liters, and I might be able to recruit an expert for you."

When Jiang Yi heard that he was borrowing food, her face didn't look good on the spot, and she turned around and left.

"Wait, don't rush."

Lu Chen grabbed Jiang Heng, looked around, and whispered:

"I just fished two people out of the sea. They said the ship sank passing by here, but I think it's definitely not that simple. The man among them looks young, but his swordsmanship is superb..."

"Is your swordsmanship better than yours?"

"Who am I? Old Zhu and Old Cao from the tea shop, plus me, three against one, probably won't survive even three moves."

"Are you kidding..."

"Who are you kidding? I'm serious."

Lu Chen pretended to be nagging, leaned a little closer and said:

"I heard that Mr. Shu said that every time there is trouble, a saint will be born. These 'sages' are immortals sent from heaven to save all people from fire and water. The two people I caught today look like they are immortals. He looks like an immortal descended from the earth, especially the master surnamed Zuo. His swordsmanship cannot be practiced by humans at all. He looks like an immortal at first glance..."

Seeing that Lu Chen was speaking very seriously, Jiang Heng's expression gradually became serious:

"There seems to be such a saying... Where is the Zuo banished immortal you mentioned?"

Lu Chen hooked Jiang Heng's shoulder and hooked it with his hand:

"First get a bag of rice, ten pounds of meat, and two jars of wine. I will give them to you as a meeting gift. This expert naturally behaves like an expert. If you are sincere, they may help you achieve great things. I am sincere. If you are not sincere, you may switch to the Qingjia Army."

Jiang Heng gathered a team of several hundred people. He was not a fool with a lot of money. He frowned:

"Lu Chen, I respect you as a man, so I treat you well. Do you think I'm a three-year-old?"

Lu Chen sighed: "It's not that I want to be the king and hegemony anyway. Someone taught me a swordsmanship, which is enough for me to learn for a lifetime. If you don't believe it, just pretend that you haven't said anything about it. Lend me a bag of rice first, and I'll be there for two years." I will go out to sea and catch two baskets of fish to return to you.”

"..."

Jiang Heng knew something about Lu Chen, and he was not a charlatan who cheated and deceived him. He was silent for a while, maybe because he felt that he was running out of ammunition and food, and being defrauded of a few kilograms of meat would not change the situation. Finally, he turned around and said:

"Xiao Su, go get a bag of rice, ten pounds of meat, two jars of wine... and get an old hen."

Seeing this, Lu Chen patted Jiang Heng on the shoulder:

"With your eye for understanding people, you can definitely achieve great things."

……——

bang bang

Under the rain, the dilapidated courtyard was lit with smoke.

Zuo Lingquan was busy working back and forth in the old kitchen. There was no dry firewood or fire source, so he used his sword to chop down a broken window and started a stove fire by drilling wood to make fire.

He has had no worries about food and clothing since he was a child, and has almost forgotten all his past life memories. Zuo Lingquan actually doesn't know how to cook, but it's no problem to cook things. Anyway, he can't do it without oil, salt, sauce and vinegar.

Smoke curled up from the green tiles, and as the water boiled, the smell of boiled fish filled the courtyard.

In the main room, Shangguan Lingye closed his eyes and concentrated. Although he was mentally weak, he was in an unknown place and couldn't sleep. While he was thinking wildly, his chest suddenly moved slightly:

"grumble……"

A very weak cry sounded.

Shangguan Lingye's bulging skirt arched twice, and the little white dumpling stuck his head out from the collar and turned to look at the kitchen. He was obviously awakened by the smell of boiled fish.

Shangguan Lingye opened his eyes, took out the dumplings and put them beside him, and said softly:

"Are you hungry? Linglong Pavilion cannot be opened and the dried fish cannot be taken out. Please be patient for now."

"Ji~"

Tuanzi had just woken up and was a little confused. After tilting his head and being stunned for a moment, he turned around on the bed and looked to the southeast, northwest, and seemed to be trying to figure out the direction.

After a long while, Tuanzi let out a "chichiji?", probably saying, "Where is this place? Why is Niaoniao's kingdom missing?"

It's a pity that Shangguan Lingye couldn't understand Tuanzi's words and thought it was confused about its current situation. He just raised his hand to rub it and comforted:

"If you're lost at sea, don't worry, we'll be back in a few days."

"grumble……"

Tuanzi was dubious, and couldn't figure out why, so he stopped paying attention. He spread his little wings and leaned on Shangguan Lingye's chest, looking like a pitiful bird that was too hungry to walk, and sighed.

Shangguan Lingye felt a little distressed. Although he was weak, he still stood up and walked out of the main room holding the dumplings and went to the kitchen at the back.

The house is very old, and there are still some leaks in the roof, which are covered with broken bowls.

At this time, there was a firewood burning in the kitchen, and the smoke mixed with the steam rising from the pot. Even people couldn't see clearly. They could only see two boots moving in front of the stove.

Shangguan Lingye grew up in an immortal family and had never had the opportunity to be exposed to a place with such strong smoke and smoke since he was a child. There was a rare sense of novelty in his eyes.

She walked to the stove with the dumplings in hand and saw Zuo Lingquan holding a spoon and tilting his head to listen to the movement in the pot lid. His expression was more focused than that of a monk refining alchemy.

"I didn't realize that you still get up to eat."

"Haha, my cooking skills are average."

Zuo Lingquan put down the spoon and said with concern:

"Why are you up? Are you uncomfortable sleeping?"

"Duanzi woke up because of the fish cravings. The rice is not cooked yet. Let's feed it some first."

"Ji~"

The dumpling lay in the palm of Shangguan Lingye's hand. He didn't even have the strength to lift his head. He just opened his beak and pretended to beg for dried fish.

Zuo Lingquan felt heartbroken when he saw this, and raised his hand to lift the lid of the pot.

Rolling white mist rose, and as the mist dispersed, the steamed rice appeared in the pot.

Tuanzi was no longer picky about food at this time. He jumped on the stove and looked into the iron pot. He saw a circle of dried salted fish inserted between the yellowed brown rice. Maybe it was for the sake of presentation. Two fish The head is still inserted in the middle, and the dead fish eyes are looking at the sky.

"...?!"

The concubine, who was about to praise the man, her beautiful and majestic smile froze slightly, then tilted her head and opened and closed her lips, unable to think of the right words to comment.

The dumpling was in a hurry, but when he saw the rice in the pot, he froze for a moment, then took a step back and said, "Chichi?" twice, which seemed to mean, "Suddenly I'm not hungry anymore. You guys eat first, don't worry about the birds." .

Zuo Lingquan felt good about himself, picked up a piece of salted fish with chopsticks, picked up the dumpling, and brought it to the bird's beak:

"We have enough to eat. You don't have to be modest. You can't eat much. Come on, open your mouth."

"grumble?!"

Tuanzi's eyes were filled with astonishment, and he turned his head to avoid it.

Shangguan Lingye stared at the fish with an expression that was hard to describe. He thought about it and helped tear the fish pieces into small fish sticks. The two of them worked together and stuffed the dumplings into his mouth.

"Gugu..."

The dumplings, who would rather die than give in, were originally hopeless, but after tasting a piece, they unexpectedly found that the taste was not that terrible, and then they started devouring it.

Shangguan Lingye pursed his lips and smiled. He felt that it was not appropriate for Zuo Lingquan to work alone. He turned around to get the washed bowl and filled two bowls of salted fish rice with a spoon.

Shangguan Lingye was still wearing a phoenix skirt. She exuded a graceful and gorgeous temperament from head to toe, and she was full of fairy spirit. She was holding a spoon and serving rice by the stove. The contrast in the picture was so strong that it made people feel unreal.

Zuo Lingquan watched for a long time and wanted to praise him for being virtuous, but in the end he sighed:

"I remember when I first met my empress, she had a frighteningly cold personality, without the slightest hint of fireworks. It was less than a year before and after, what a big change."

Shangguan Lingye carefully pressed the rice into the porcelain, added two more pieces of fish to Zuo Lingquan, and responded calmly:

"What? You think this palace is not fairy enough and boring?"

Boring...?

How is it possible...

This slightly ambiguous statement really stumped Zuo Lingquan. No matter how he answered, it was not appropriate, so he laughed and did not answer.

Although the rice wasn't very tasty, it was quite filling and enough to fill their stomachs, so the two of them didn't care too much.

There were no tables and chairs in the room, so the two of them stood by the stove and started cooking. Tuanzi squatted in the middle, begging for food one bite at a time.

Shangguan Lingye had not been involved in the human world for seventy or eighty years, and was not used to eating with men. He actually looked a bit shy, turned his back to Zuo Lingquan, and then began to eat slowly and slowly.

Zuo Lingquan was almost exhausted from hunger, so he didn't pay much attention to it. He held the bowl and wolfed it down, feeding him a mouthful of dumplings from time to time.

If the two people's clothes were not incompatible with the environment, at a glance, they really looked like a pair of desperate mandarin ducks.

But what is a little troublesome is that the body of a practitioner is already different from that of an ordinary person, and whole grains cannot support the body's consumption.

Zuo Lingquan feels that he can only eat one cow now, and Shangguan's grandma can probably eat two; a bowl of rice and two salted fishes, not to mention Shangguan Lingye's half-step jade, can't even eat dumplings.

Before they knew it, the rice was ready in one pot, and the two of them were half full at most. The dumplings were still unfinished, and their dark eyes were staring at the iron pot, as if they wanted to eat the pot.

Although there is not enough food, there is something in the stomach and the body always recovers.

The most important thing now is to return to Jiuzong as soon as possible, or at the worst, find a place with spiritual energy to regain strength.

After Shangguan Lingye finished eating, he took water from the well and washed himself. He held the dumplings and came to the steps, looking at the Feng Shui weather around the county, hoping to find some clues.

It's a pity that everything is desolate as far as the eye can see, and I couldn't see anything after looking for a long time.

After Zuo Lingquan cleaned up the kitchen and saw that Shangguan Lingye's movements were no longer affected, he wanted to go out to find out the news and return with some food to regain his strength.

He rummaged through the yard and found a coir raincoat, which he used to protect Shangguan Lingye from the rain and the eye-catching palace skirt. But before he handed the coir raincoat to Shangguan Lingye, he heard some noise coming from the street in the distance.

"there……"

"It's really not a fucking thing..."

Shangguan Lingye looked calm and calm on the outside, but in his heart he was very sensitive to the changes in the surrounding environment. He became alert when he heard the sound. He looked from the courtyard wall to the street and saw several men wearing red headscarves running in one direction. .

Zuo Lingquan came to the door with his sword in hand and looked around. He didn't see the reason. Instead, he found young Lang Luchen carrying a lot of things and turning into the alley from the street. His face didn't look very good.

When Lu Chen saw him from afar, he put away his emotions and raised his hand to gesture at the smoked hen he was holding:

"Leader Jiang of the rebel army heard that you had fled here and gave me some rice and asked me to bring it to you. Leader Jiang is a good person, but there are hundreds of mouths waiting to eat, and he can't afford to give too much food..."

"How can I feel embarrassed..."

As the saying goes, no reward without merit. Zuo Lingquan was really embarrassed to be helped like this. He stepped forward and shook his hand. After thanking him a few times, he asked:

"Brother Lu, what's going on in the street?"

When Lu Chen talked about this, the emotions on his face showed again. He shook his head and sighed, and said angrily :

"Just now, someone discovered that a family at the port was killed. That family was the family of the righteous army. There were five people, all old and young. Except for a girl who was not at home, all the others were dead. I just went to check. All the dead were nailed through the back of the head. They were tortured before death. Their tongues were pulled out, their eyes were pierced, their ears were pierced, and their limbs were all twisted off. The bloodstains were very fresh. The murderer did it at most half an hour ago. There were words written in blood on the ground, but there were few people in the county who could read, so they couldn't understand what they meant. Now the righteous army is searching everywhere, but they haven't found the murderer yet..."

While Lu Chen was talking, his eyes were barely noticeable. He looked at Zuo Lingquan's robe, obviously looking for bloodstains.

All the people left in the county were acquaintances. Only Zuo Lingquan had just arrived, and the time he appeared was very consistent with the time of the crime. It was not strange to be suspected, and Zuo Lingquan naturally didn't mind.

Shangguan Lingye stood at the gate of the courtyard. When she heard this narration from afar, her clear eyes slowly turned cold. She had been in charge of the Monster Hunting Division for eighty years and was already familiar with this way of killing.

Pulling out the tongue, piercing the eyes, and nailing the Fengfu acupoint behind the head are all to seal the six senses, so that after death, the soul will not quickly leave the body and dissipate; torture is to stimulate people's hatred and resentment, so that they are more likely to turn into evil spirits after death.

These are the basic methods of evil cultivators to refine souls or make corpse puppets.

Shangguan Lingye has been dealing with such things for many years, and his heart has been branded. He hates such incidents, and he guessed who the murderer is. He can't sit idly by. At this time, he put on a straw raincoat, walked up and said:

"Where did the crime happen? Take us to see."

Zuo Lingquan estimated that the murderer was the alien cultivator he met in the cave. He also frowned and motioned Lu Chen to lead the way.

Lu Chen felt that the two did not look like the murderer, so he dared to come to the door. He did not say much at the moment. After putting the food in the yard, he took the two out of the alley together...

In the future, change it to update before midnight, no later than midnight, and the specific time will be based on the completion of writing.