Liaozhai: A scholar should draw a sword

Chapter 162

After searching in mid-air for a while, Ying Ning suddenly stopped and murmured, "I seem to smell blood."

Zhou Yu frowned and asked, "Oh? In which direction?"

"and many more……"

Ying Ning wrinkled her nose, then pointed to the front left: "It should be here."

"Go and have a look."

To some extent, although Ying Ning's cultivation is not as good as Zhou Yu's, she is born with a keen sense, and sometimes she can perceive what Zhou Yu doesn't perceive.

This is also a talent.

After searching for a while, Ying Ning found the source of the bloody smell.

The scene was horrible.

Several camels fell to the ground motionless, their skulls were shattered, and the yellow sand was stained red with blood.

There are six bloody corpses not far away, like skinned frogs...

This scene was exactly the same as what Zhou Yu and the two had heard in the tavern.

"It's completely devoid of conscience!" Ying Ning looked indignant.

Zhou Yu checked the scene and said in a deep voice, "These people are tea merchants. They camped here overnight, but they were killed. Their clothes and goods are gone."

"Is it really a robber? If it's a robber, it's a big deal to kill people and rob money. Why do you have to do such a brutal act of skinning?"

Zhou Yu replied: "Bandits don't have such high skills, judging from the technique, it is clearly an extremely evil quack technique.

Since this happened continuously, the other party might be nearby, so let's go and search. "

Ying Ning said angrily: "If these people are caught, they must be skinned and cramped!
As a result, the two found each other's lair without much effort.

Of course, this is the reason for the superiority in the air. If you look for it from the ground, it may be really difficult to find it.

The terrain of Mingsha Mountain is very complicated, and the mountains here are even more jagged. In addition, the opponent has arranged formations around it, and ordinary people can't find it at all.

Seen from mid-air, the main building of the opponent's old lair is an ancient castle with an exotic style.

There are some statues and strangely shaped stone pillars scattered around.

At this time, the open space on the west side of the castle was brightly lit, and there were about [-] people singing and dancing in a circle, and no one knew what ceremony was being held.

An old man sat cross-legged in the circle, with a beard covering almost half of his face.

A few sheets of bloody human skin were spread out in front of the old man, and the old guy was drawing some strange symbols on them with a pen.

Zhou Yu took a closer look and found that there are quite a lot of human skins here, some of which have been made into lanterns, some of which have been made into drums, and some of which have been made into inscriptions...

The following people are almost all from the Western Regions.

Although Mingsha Mountain is located in the desert, it still belongs to the territory of Daqian Dynasty. Unexpectedly, there are people from the Western Regions hiding here, and they are even an evil organization.

Now that Zhou Yu has found this place, there is nothing left to say, he must be uprooted.

"Yingning, I'll go down and clean up these guys, you stay outside..."

"People are going down too."

"Be obedient, you watch outside, if I strike, someone will definitely escape, you just look outside, don't let anyone go."

Having said that, Ying Ning finally nodded reluctantly: "Okay, then you have to be careful."

"Yeah. I know."

Zhou Yu moved his head closer, gave Ying Ning a slap on the face to show comfort, and then quietly flew down.

The opponent just set up formation organs on the ground and the mountain, so Zhou Yu went down from the sky without any hindrance.

And at this time, he had a vague feeling that this evil organization might be related to the black hand behind the arrangement of the water tap.

Firstly, both sides are from the Western Regions, and secondly, the formation here seems to be the method of the Central Plains, and it is quite subtle.

Therefore, Zhou Yu will inevitably suspect that the previous mountain temple was built by the same person.

Although the Western Regions also have formations, they are very different from those in the Central Plains.

Relatively speaking, the formations in the Central Plains are much more mysterious, and most of them use the existing topography.

The formations in the Western Regions are more dependent on the power of elements, and they can also be simply called magic formations, which have great limitations.

"Gualajilitupalu..."

The group below were still chanting and dancing in circles, and the bearded old man was also diligently drawing runes.

Suddenly, a blast came from the sky: "A group of demons are here to pretend to be gods and play ghosts, killing people's lives, and the laws of heaven cannot tolerate it!"

As soon as the voice rang, the place below suddenly became chaotic.

"Gulujiwa..."

"who?"

"Lei Zalu Piza..."

"So bold..."

Some of the group spoke bird language, while others roared loudly in blunt Central Plains language.

The face of the bearded man in the middle changed, and then he slowly got up and glanced at Zhou Yu who descended from the sky.

"Who are you?"

The old man's Central Plains dialect is still a little better, and he knows how to say Your Excellency.

Zhou Yu said coldly: "Those who kill you!"

On weekdays, it was actually rare for Zhou Yu to make a murderous attempt, so he tried to educate as much as he could.

However, there is a limit.

It's just a beautiful wish to put down the butcher's knife and become a Buddha immediately. It's not too much to kill this group of people ten times.

"Your Excellency is a monk from the Central Plains, right? There is no enmity between us, why come to provoke us?"

"Listen well, first, this is the Dagan Dynasty, not your Western Regions. Second, you have killed the people of our Central Plains here, and you deserve to die!"

"kill him!"

Seeing that they couldn't reach an agreement, the bearded old man couldn't help waving his hands to order.

Give an order, and the group immediately became the first to attack with a murderous look.

All of a sudden, fireballs, frost, and waterballs roared in densely, like a battle that engulfed Zhou Yu.

"Heaven and earth are righteous!"

Zhou Yu stood motionless on the spot, and let out a loud shout.

In an instant, these five characters appeared out of thin air, shining brightly, and cast them on the top of Zhou Yu's head, forming a light curtain, blocking all the opponent's offensives.

"What kind of trick is this?"

The bearded man was taken aback.

"A move to butcher a dog!"

Zhou Yu moved his body and rushed towards the crowd with his sword.

It is said that the thief should be captured first, so it stands to reason that he should deal with the old guy first, but if he really dealt with the old guy in twos and threes, wouldn't these little ones run away in fright?
So, clear the mobs first.

These guys are hardly good at close combat, Zhou Yu rushed over, like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, butchering dogs and sheep, the sword light passed, and the blood splattered.

In just a few breaths, there were seven or eight corpses lying on the ground.

Seeing this, the bearded man was completely enraged, holding a short staff in his hand, and chanting incantations in his mouth.

Some of the remaining subordinates continued to attack with stiff hair, while others ran away from the bearded man to seek shelter.

"Zizzizi..."

Suddenly, there was an arc of thunder and lightning in the air, and a faint blue light was cast on the ground.

When there was movement and movement, those subordinates quickly dispersed in all directions.

Zhou Yu looked up, but he didn't dodge or dodge. Instead, he slowly raised his sword above his head... Does this mean the lightning rod?
"court death!"

Seeing Zhou Yu's movements, the bearded old man snorted coldly and swung his staff violently...

"Crack!"

An electric ball the size of a round table flew down and hit Zhou Yu's head in an instant.

If it was Tianlei, Zhou Yu would not dare to be so careless. After all, let alone him, even some great immortals would not dare to resist the power of Tianlei.

However, this thunder and lightning is just a spell, how can its power be compared with the sky thunder?
"boom!"

Before the crowd could be happy, they were horrified to find that the opponent had split the lightning ball with a sword, and then with a heavy swing, the thunderbolt was reversed.

The bearded old man absolutely did not expect such a move from his opponent, before he could recover, he was slashed, and his whole body convulsed immediately, emitting black smoke all over his body.

Immediately afterwards, another sword shadow slashed down in the air, as if cutting a watermelon, directly cutting it into two halves.

Such strength frightened the courage of the group of men, and they turned around and ran for their lives one by one.

"Want to run?"

Zhou Yu's figure flickered and he started chasing him.

In the sky, Ying Ning also started to move his hands, and cooperated with her husband to chase and intercept.

However, in the end, four guys escaped into the castle.

Ying Ning flew down, stood beside Zhou Yu and said, "Husband, do we want to kill in?"

"No need, it's just a few rats who directly burned the whole place with fire."

"Yeah, it's better to burn it, so that these guys don't come here again in the future."

Next, Zhou Yu spent a lot of time arranging it, and finally retreated to the hillside outside, raised his hand a little, and a spark flew out.

"boom!"

As soon as the small spark landed on the ground, it immediately ignited a raging fire, and spread to the surroundings at the speed of a single spark.

This is of course due to Zhou Yu's layout, otherwise, these buildings are almost all made of stones, and it would not be easy to burn them down.

But now, with the fire, the entire valley is like a flaming mountain, and even the stones are burning, and even slowly melting.

"boom!"

Not long after, the ancient castle collapsed, with thick smoke billowing and flames surging into the sky.

"Husband, why are these people from the Western Regions hiding here?" Ying Ning couldn't help asking.

Zhou Yu replied: "I think this should be a secret organization. It looks like this is just one of its strongholds, and I have a hunch that this place is likely to have some kind of connection with the mastermind behind the Mountain Temple."

Ying Ning couldn't help but frowned: "Why is it that guy again?"

"It's okay, let's look in this direction, and I'm very sure to find out who is behind the scenes."

"Well, where do we go next?"

Zhou Yu thought for a while and said, "Continue heading west from here. The largest city is Liangzhou City. Now that you have arrived in the desert, let me take you to appreciate the elegance of Liangzhou City."

Liangzhou City is known as the center of the world, the capital of Wuliang, and the city of Hexi.At the same time, Liangzhou City is also the largest city in Northwest China.

Because of its unique geographical environment, close to the Western Regions, people on both sides often come and go, influencing each other, and finally formed a unique Liangzhou culture.

For example, the world-famous "Liangzhou Ci", "Xiliang Music", and "Xiliang Opera" originated and developed in Liangzhou, and have a great influence.

In fact, Zhou Yu also wanted to see the authentic ancient Liangzhou in person.

For the rest of the journey, in order for Ying Ning to appreciate the scenery of the desert, the two stopped flying, but walked in the desert on foot.

Along the way, a small oasis will appear from time to time.

Some of these small oases are inhabited by people, while others have become temporary habitat camps for passing business travelers.

This afternoon, the couple came to a small market.

This market is located in a small oasis, and its scale is much smaller than that of Crescent Lake. There are almost no fixed buildings, and most of them are temporary tents.

After the two of Zhou Yu entered the market, they saw many people around the roadside roasting sheep.

Seeing Zhou Yu and the others, everyone was a little surprised.After all, most of the people passing by here are merchants, and scholars are rare.

"Friends, come over and eat roasted lamb together."

A middle-aged man greeted warmly.

Zhou Yu didn't refuse, he went up to thank Ying Ning and sat in the crowd with Ying Ning.

"Friend, are you from the Central Plains?"

"Correct!"

"Excellent, the two of you can walk such a long distance, you must have some self-defense skills, right?"

"Hehe, I have learned some superficial sword skills, so I can barely defend myself."

"I've heard people say that you scholars are becoming more and more powerful now, especially the students of the Marquis of Jing'an in the south of the Yangtze River. It is said that some of you have the ability to subdue demons and catch ghosts. I don't know if this is true."

Upon hearing this, Ying Ning couldn't help smiling and glanced at her husband.

Unexpectedly, someone in the desert also knew the name of her husband.

Zhou Yu smiled: "It should be, I have also heard a lot about this."

At this time, another man couldn't help but asked: "Young master, you have an extraordinary bearing, don't you know some skills in catching ghosts and subduing demons?"

"This... I understand a little bit."

"Really? Great, we're worrying."

"Oh?" Zhou Yu frowned and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Recently, the road to Liangzhou is not safe. People often disappear strangely. Some say it's sand bandits, some say it's a large pack of desert wolves, and some say it's ghosts, which makes people panic."

"Oh? Where did it happen?"

"It's hard to tell the specifics, we just came here two days ago and heard people say, it is said that dozens of people have disappeared, and even the entire caravan has disappeared.

If you want to talk about getting lost, it's unlikely. After all, everyone often walks this route, and they all take care of each other.

The strangest thing is that I heard that the goods of the missing caravan were not lost, but the people and camels could not be found..."

Hearing this, Zhou Yu couldn't help saying: "Then it can't be Sand Bandits. It's impossible for Sand Bandits to say that they only kidnap people and don't steal goods."

"Yes, yes, we think so too. You are a scholar, and you help us analyze and analyze. What will happen to this situation?"

Zhou Yu shook his head: "I've just arrived here too, and I'm not familiar with the situation in the desert, so it's hard to explain.

Otherwise, I will help you find the way, and if there is no problem, I will come back and inform you. "

"Ah? This... just you guys going to explore the way?"

"It's okay, just the two of us are enough."

"Friend, this is not a joke. We met by chance, and we can't harm you. Let you help us find the way."

Zhou Yu smiled: "It's okay, just for the sake of warmly greeting us to eat roast lamb, it's no big deal to do you a little favor."

"This……"

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay.

Is this scholar stupid in reading books, or is he really hiding something?

That's all for exploring the way, and you have to run back to inform them?

(End of this chapter)