"If the sky does not love wine, the wine star will not be in the sky; if the earth does not love wine, the earth should not have wine springs..."

It was just the third day of the winter moon, and Changning City, located in the northern border, was covered with snow deep in knees, and the streets were sparsely populated. An old drunkard who had just come out of the small street was breathing white fog and humming a tune that flowed from somewhere.

At the intersection of the street, three horses slowly stepped across the snow surface. The three of them were immediately wrapped in thick furs, two women and one man, one man wearing swords, one woman carrying a pipa, and the other holding a white bird that looked like a snowy owl, looking like a young child who was coming out for fun.

Passing by the old drunkard, holding the charming beauty of the sleeping white bird, sniffing, and said softly:

"The wine inside is quite fragrant, it's almost up to my skills. Do you want to try it?"

Another girl who looked like she was 28 years old and glanced at the street:

"It's just an ordinary drink, I have nothing to drink. After drinking the wine given by Mr. Zuo several times, I've kept my mouth full of tricks..."

The young man between the two seemed to be doing something, stopped at the intersection and spoke:

"It smells quite fragrant. Let's do your business first, come here later..."

While speaking, the three of them rode their horses and continued to walk into the interior of Changning City; the man who was talking was naturally Zuo Lingquan who came from afar.

After receiving Jingyan in Xiangshui Bay, Zuo Lingquan only stayed for one night and continued to set off to the Caiyi Kingdom far away in the northern border.

As for Jingwei's crying that night, she was just talking. Jingwei couldn't bear it, and Zuo Lingquan couldn't do it either, so the two of them hugged each other and said love words all night. Whether the ancestor frowned and was frightened and frightened for the whole night, naturally there was no way to know, and he had never expressed his opinion when he set off.

The trip to Caiyi Country was to help Xie Qiutao find a way to enlighten the dragon turtle, and take this opportunity to see the mountains and rivers of Yuyaozhou. Things were not urgent, so the few people chose to go on foot.

Qingwan has the lowest cultivation level. If she doesn't make up for a while, she may be overtaken by Jiang Yi and Lengzhu in the future and does not follow her closely. After leaving, she will take the peach pit and go into seclusion in the cabin where she sleeps in the pleasure boat.

When a monk goes to retreat and goes to the realm, he needs a large amount of spiritual energy to support, and generally he can only do it in a cave with abundant spiritual energy; in order to create an artificial cave, Lingye set up a spirit lock array in his room, using white jade beads to replenish spiritual energy, and takes care of him at all times. Only when he encounters famous mountains and rivers with good scenery will he come down from the pleasure boat.

When people travel abroad, as long as there is nothing wrong with tourism, they are basically not very different from those in tourism. With Jingyan, Xie Qiutao walked north for about a month. During this period, the scenery they saw was only sand and nothing to talk about. It was not until they walked out of the vast sea of ​​sand and arrived at the northern border with snow in October that the scenery began to change.

The reason why Caiyi Country is called "Caiyi" is because since ancient times, the specialty of silk cloth here should be "Han", but people outside basically don't call it that.

The land of Caiyi is not poor, but its disadvantage is that it is too cold. It is only October, and the snow in some places can be as deep as the waist. When you meet cities, counties and counties on the road, you rarely see the secular people wandering around outside.

The Caiyi Kingdom is larger than the Great Dan Dynasty, and its national conditions are similar to the previous Great Dan Dynasty. There are people who are practicing, but it is rare to be able to reach the Ling Valley. There are no monks on the surface. As for whether there are any deep water old turtles hidden in the mountains and fields, there is no way to know.

Different from the Great Dan Dynasty, people like to drink here, and wine shops can be seen everywhere between prefectures and counties. After all, the weather is too cold. In the middle of winter, there is nothing else to do except sit in front of the stove and come to see two cups.

Zuo Lingquan came here this time, so he was not looking for wine. He and Xie Qiutao asked around and focused on various legends and allusions. Later, from a wild Taoist priest in Qi training, he learned some secrets worth two white jade beads:

The matter still starts with the battle to steal the elixir.

Back then, stealing elixirs and causing trouble to Yuyaozhou, interrupting the entire path of cultivation. Whether it is the sects on the mountain or the secular city, they basically turned into ruins under the flames of destruction.

However, this disaster did not affect the entire Yuyaozhou area. The elixir was stolen from the south. No matter how loud the movement was, it would decrease from south to north. This allowed some population in the northern border to be preserved. Various legends and books naturally escaped.

The path of practice has been passed down for thousands of years, and there are countless classics and legends that record strange talks between gods and ghosts. Although most of them are heard or fabricated stories, there are also true allusions with great opportunities hidden behind them.

There was a monarch in the history of Caiyi Kingdom who liked these ancient stories and specially sent people to collect these things in several countries in the north, sorted them into a book, and named them "The Catalog of Mountains and Rivers Miracles" for reading and studying in his spare time.

In the end, somehow, the news spread to the path of cultivation; those monks who were struggling to find opportunities were looking around in a daze on the path of cultivation and found that there was such a thing. Naturally, their eyes lit up and they ran over to try their luck.

At first, the monks who came here were quite polite. They borrowed books and asked someone to inform them. They would give them a reward for "Yangqi Dan" and "Golden Gun Pills". The monarch of the Caiyi Kingdom was naturally not stingy.

Later, more monks checked the information, and most of them were Zhongzhou monks with cleaner faces in their pockets. Their quality was getting worse and worse. Without mentioning elixirs, they would not even say "a good person's life is safe". They could not see anyone without a trace, and occasionally they would throw a book or two.

The monarch of Caiyi Kingdom is a dignified king of a country. He was naturally dissatisfied with being so fussed with his treasures. The immortals on the mountain don’t care about such trivial matters, so please be careful, but they can’t help but they can’t help but finally copied a copy and built a “gentlemen’s hall” outside the imperial city, so that people who practiced the cultivation of their names would sound nice, but the meaning was “gentlemen gathered together in the beam”, which was considered to be a secret criticizing the people on the mountain without any quality.

After all, people who have no virtue in their practice are not the mainstream. Since the establishment of the bookstore, they can occasionally see some elixirs and rare treasures placed at the door. Later, the successor monarch passed on the Junzi Hall when he saw this and continued to send people to the people to collect various legends and ancient books, which have continued until today.

When Zuo Lingquan heard the news, he came to Changning City, the imperial capital, and wanted to see if there were any legends related to the dragon turtle in the Junzi Hall.

Caiyi Kingdom has a remote geographical location, and people who practice cultivation often use Jiazi to calculate the time. There may be many monks who come to Changning City to read books, but on average, it is considered dense for one to come in ten days and half a month. It is common for no one to come in a year or two, and there are no monks on the streets at all.

In order not to disturb the people, Zuo Lingquan dressed in a normal person, put on a thick winter coat, rode his horse to a remote market outside the imperial city, and you could see a high wall between the buildings from afar.

The high wall is much taller than the surrounding buildings, with horn towers on all sides, and there are no officers and soldiers on duty, but there are four auspicious beasts. The shape is very fairy-like, but the details cannot stand the details. Except for the correct position in the southeast, northwest and north, other aspects are probably all thought by the secular Feng Shui masters.

Under heavy snow, Zuo Lingquan rode his horse to the periphery of the high wall, and there were several guards at the gate below the wall.

No one came to this place for ten days and half a month, and ordinary people could not see it when they came. There was no difference between the guards and the mascots. At this time, they were sitting next to the stove under the wall to keep warm.

Zuo Lingquan did not alarm the guards, turned over and dismounted in the alley, and spoke:

"It should be here, I'll go in and take a look."

Tang Jingyi is the best, but he can't do the work of climbing over the wall to check the files. He is afraid that he will accidentally make noises and interfere with the two of them's serious affairs, so he held the reins:

"You guys go in, I'll let you go outside."

Zuo Lingquan nodded slightly, hugged the extremely alert Tuanzi, and flew up with Xie Qiutao and climbed over the tall wall.

There is a three-story book building inside the fence. It can be seen that I am old and there are many traces of paint and repair, and no one is on duty.

Zuo Lingquan’s Taoist practice in Youhuangjing, touching the secular buildings, naturally would not alarm the guards outside. He and Xie Qiutao came outside the bookstore, checked the gate, and after confirming that there was no formation mechanism, he pushed the door and entered it.

There are rows of bookshelves in the bookstore. Each bookshelves is even thoughtfully classified according to region, era, gods, ghosts, and monsters. It has been accumulated and sorted out by generations of monarchs. It is probably less than ten thousand books in it. It even feels a bit oppressive when you look at it.

"so much……"

When Xie Qiutao saw the books all over the room, he felt that his mind was getting bigger. After turning around the bookshelf twice, he found the bookshelf about the divine beast, took out one, went to the desk beside the window of the bookstore, and read it carefully.

After Zuo Lingquan closed the door, he looked around for a while, and took out a book and looked for clues on the desk.

Although the bookstore has a reputation, it makes sense that very few people come. The records in the book can no longer be described as trivial. They are completely nonsense, such as "A certain year and month, someone suspected of seeing an old deer in a certain place. A certain divine beast can speak human words, and eating can increase life by 500." All of these are nonsense.

The only thing that made Zuo Lingquan's eyes shine was that you can see the annotations left by your ex-book friend in some books.

For example, a legend about [The wind and clouds of Donghuang Mountain change color, and strange phenomena can be seen thousands of miles around, as if an immortal appears in the world]. Someone next to him commented [No need to go, it is the Lord Fulong in the south who has passed the tribulation. I saw it with my own eyes]. There was another person behind him who said [Hiss, how dare you ask about the immortal's long road?], but unfortunately no one replied.

Most people in practice are low-key, and it is impolite to leave random handwriting on books. After all, this kind of annotation is a minority, and the remaining records are very boring.

Zuo Lingquan and Xie Qiutao searched for a long time and found the only record of the turtle, which was the lord of the northern part of Yuyaozhou, who was called "Kuiya" by northerners. In ancient times, they gave blessings to protect the people, so northern dynasties regarded turtles as a auspicious beast, and clits could be found in various buildings, and such reliefs could be seen on the beams and pillars of the book building.

But according to the inheritance, the dragon turtle is a dragon son, first the dragon and then the turtle, which has little relationship with the Xuanwu bloodline, so this news is useless at the moment.

They buried their heads in reading but found nothing. As time passed, both of them felt a little headache. When the dumplings on the side were alert, they started to feel sleepy and lay on the table and looked at them pitifully, wanting to sleep but not daring to sleep.

I searched for it for a while and had not found any available clues. The Tiandun sign on Zuo Lingquan's waist was lit, and a quiet voice came:

"Xiao Zuo, an official has come in."

"Um?"

...

The wind squeezed the snow foam, like a bone-clearing scimitar, shaving the skin on the face to hurt.

Yan Ge, wearing a constable's robe and wrapped in a winter clothes, stood by the stove and found the newly approved notes from the law hall from the collar, but his fingers were so cold that they were not very flexible. After taking them out, he couldn't unfold them for a long time.

The guards guarding the door were all disabled old men who had retired from the yamen. The leader shook his head and said:

"Okay, there's no ghost in this place for ten or half years, so why don't you need a note? Let's take a break here first, drink a few cups to warm up, and then go in and look for it when it's hot, otherwise you can't even turn the paper away, so why do you still read through the book?"

Yan Ge looked less than 20 years old and was very humble. After giving a greeting, he squatted down next to the stove and put his hands on the iron basin of warm wine to cook the fire:

"You have to follow the rules when doing things. There are rumors in this place that gods often come to visit you. If you don't have any notes approved by the court, you will rashly go in and cause trouble. Wouldn't it cause some old men to suffer?"

The leading guard shook his head and took the strip and looked at it:

"It's just a god that's been circulating outside. I've been here for more than ten years, but I haven't seen a real god. They are all pretending liars. Last time I saw an old man coming over. If there is a door, he had to learn to climb over the wall. As a result, he was halfway through. We helped push it before we almost laughed to death..."

"Yeah?"

"That's not...Yo, Yangshan is from, I'm a fellow villager. I heard that something happened in Yangshan is so fierce. What's going on?"

"Oh, I just couldn't figure it out, so I came to the capital. In recent years, people have often gone crazy for no reason, and they are all madmen. Their relatives beat people if they don't recognize each other..."

"Did you drink too much? This thing is harmful to the spirit and body. You can count the number of problems you have had before..."

"There are at most one or two problems every year when drinking, and it is different from Yangshan. This year alone, more than a hundred people in several counties have become crazy. Once they go crazy, even women and children will become extremely powerful and cannot tie the hemp rope, and it feels like they are possessed by evil spirits..."

The guard frowned: "Didn't you ask the gods to try it?"

"I'm welcome. This time I came to the capital, I just inform the court of the court to see if I could invite an experienced god to come and take a look. I heard that there is a way to eliminate ghosts and evil spirits here, so I'll come and take a look..."

"I remember that this place is full of earth recipes. I know what is useful. If I don't know, it's useless..."

"Look, let's talk about it..."

After a few brief conversations, Yan Genuan warmed her hands and stood up and entered the door.

The high walls block the cold wind, and the inside and outside of the book building are silent, as if no one has been here for decades.

Yan Ge came to the bookstore. Because it was the place of the court, he wiped the hand clean with snow before pushing open the door and entering the interior. He began to look for records such as being possessed by evil spirits and going crazy in the bookstore mountain.

The bookshelf are classified and not difficult to find. Yan Ge carefully held a book and sat down at the desk beside the window. He searched carefully for the books, but after rummaging through them, he suddenly frowned and looked around.

On the second floor of the bookstore, Zuo Lingquan, who was standing in front of the window with his hands behind his back, found that the scene was slightly stunned and looked at Xie Qiutao beside him.

Xie Qiutao's eyes were confused and she didn't understand how she was discovered. She looked down at her head, took a lot of things, picked up the dumplings and smelled them. There was no smell. The dumplings also learned to smell them.

Zuo Lingquan never acted roughly, and the temperature of the table had returned to normal just now, and it was impossible for ordinary people to leave clues to be noticed. He thought it was a misjudgment, but immediately heard a man's voice coming from downstairs:

"It is a fate to meet. I will meet Yan Ge in Xiayang Mountain and meet the immortal master."

“…?”

Xie Qiutao spread his hands slightly.

Zuo Lingquan was silent for a little while, feeling that the boy below was pretending to be cheating on him, so he pretended that he didn't hear it and did not respond.

Downstairs, Yan Ge, who saluted respectfully, waited carefully for a moment, and saw no movement, and said:
To be continued...