wait a minute

Chapter 299

There are three dragon veins in the world, Huangming Mountain is the north dragon vein, Nanxiao Mountain is in the south, and the Yashan Mountains are in the middle.

However, thousands of years ago, when the Central Plains region was still in the Northwest Plains, there was only this winding mountain range in the northwest, and Huangming Mountain was also called the ancestor of Wanshan.

Later, when the heavens and the earth were turbulent and the land was sinking thousands of miles away, Liangzhou was flooded and turned into the country of Qianlize. Huangming Mountain in Liangzhou was called "Hongshan". Place names such as Wangheya and Honghe were also there. The birth of time, in fact, Wangheya can't see the river at all, and there is no mountain torrent in Hongshan, and there are only desolate and desolate mountain walls that are thousands of miles away.

The main peak of Hongshan Mountain is Zanglongling, also known as Tianzhu Peak. It is one of the highest mountains in the world. It is rumored that it is the habitat of dragon pythons. It has long been abandoned now, but if you search carefully, you can still find some remains of bricks and stones buried deep in the ground.

In the middle of the night, on the mountainside of Hidden Dragon Ridge.

Yejingtang was wrapped in a black cloak and led a white steed in his hand. After a long night of running, he had gradually reached the snow line. The already cold weather in late autumn had completely turned into a biting mountain wind, which made people unable to keep their eyes open.

Although he was born and bred in Liangzhou, Ye Jingtang climbed Hidden Dragon Ridge for the first time. His physical fitness is amazing but he is not afraid of fatigue. However, the oxygen on the mountain is thin and the consumption is still quite high. Both humans and horses exhale like a cow.

When the Empress Dowager saw the top of the snow at first, she thought it was very beautiful, but when she really climbed up, she realized that this is indeed a place where gods live, and it is not suitable for people to set foot in.

At this time, the queen mother was sitting on the horseback, wrapped herself tightly in a blanket, her cheeks were still flushed from the cold, and she looked up at the towering mountain that went straight into the sky above, not sure if she could climb up to it alive.

In contrast, fat and strong big birds are much easier.

Niao Niao has thick white hair, which is suitable for activities in the snow field. Now it is on the high mountain, but it is more energetic. It has been flying around in the mountains, and occasionally ran to the top of the snow to grab a small ice skate. Look at the empress dowager.

Based on Ye Jingtang's estimation, Jiang Zhahu and a dozen of his family members should be somewhere on the north side of Hidden Dragon Ridge. If he wants to find the meeting place, he has to cross Hidden Dragon Ridge first.

Since the day before yesterday, he has not closed his eyes for two days and two nights. It is a lie to say that he is not tired. Moreover, the horses have been traveling intermittently and have no chance to rest. If they forcefully climb over the snow-capped mountains, they will definitely die from exhaustion.

For this reason, after Ye Jingtang reached the snow line, he did not continue to go higher, but moved laterally along the mountainside, looking for a place to stay overnight.

At this time, we have arrived near Hidden Dragon Ridge, the mountain wall is full of rocks and permafrost, and occasionally we can meet a few rare flowers and plants that are hardy, such as snow lotus and so on.

Wrapped in a blanket, the Empress Dowager looked at the desolate yet majestic mountains. Although she was blown by the cold wind enough, there was a faint light in her eyes. Even if she is a wandering wanderer, she will never see her a few times in her life, and it is an unforgettable memory in her life.

The two walked around and looked, and after searching for about half a mile, they came to a big rock leeward of the wind.

Ye Jingtang parked his horse under the stone, and let Niao Niao go to watch, then put his hands on the Empress Dowager's waist, and directly carried her down.

After sitting on the horse for so long, the Empress Dowager also suffered from back pain. After landing, she supported the rock with her hands, tapped her thighs a few times, looked around, took a rolled up blanket from the side of the horse, and wanted to spread it on the ground.

However, the Empress Dowager has been a golden branch and jade leaf since she was a child. Although she wanted to be virtuous, she had never slept in the wild, and she really didn't know how to lay a blanket so that the two of them could sleep in the messy cracks in the rocks.

Ye Jingtang stuck his spear on the ground as a horse stake, tied the white horse to it, and fed it with fodder from his luggage. Seeing that the empress dowager was holding the bedroll, he stepped forward to take the blanket and put it under the stone wall:
"I'm sure you can't lie down in this place, let's rely on it to sleep, and make do with it."

Seeing this, the Empress Dowager came to the front, took off the wrapped blanket, then crossed her arms and sat down in front of Ye Jingtang:
"You used to walk darts, did you sleep like this?"

"Yes, but it's not so cold on the Gobi Desert."

Ye Jingtang pulled up the blanket, rolled it around the Empress Dowager, and wrapped the covered blanket in front, wrapping the Empress Dowager like a caterpillar.

The empress dowager is so warm, but when she saw Ye Jingtang wrapped in a cloak, she was still concerned:

"This blanket is big, just cover it together, your face is turning red from the cold."

Ye Jingtang was wearing autumn robes, and it was indeed a bit cold on the mountain. Although he could bear it, it was definitely not comfortable. Seeing this, he didn't say much, and leaned against the queen mother, curled up in the blanket, and fetched dry food at the same time:
"Eat something and sleep peacefully. Niao Niao and I take turns keeping vigil."

The Empress Dowager often dozed off on the road. At this time, the lonely men and widows were leaning against each other in the dead of night. Anyway, she couldn't sleep. She reached out from under the blanket to take the bag of dry food, and gave half of it to Ye Jingtang, and said softly:

"It is said that Hidden Dragon Ridge is the place where the gods live. It is recorded in the book that a person in the previous dynasty met an unworldly expert in the mountains by chance. He was enlightened by him and became a peerless expert..."

Ye Jingtang threw the jerky into his mouth, drank two more sips of water, and responded: "Zhang Ziming from the previous dynasty, the ancestor of the Hongshan Clan, is indeed good at martial arts, but not good at being a bandit. The gang leader, too, was killed by Liu Qiansheng in the end."

"Really? I thought these were just legends, but I didn't expect there to be such a person... Speaking of the prince of Liang, he even went to the top of Hidden Dragon Ridge to watch the sunrise. I don't know if it's true..."

After chatting for a while, the Queen Mother found that there was nothing in her ear, so she turned her head and looked, but saw Ye Jingtang leaning on the stone wall with his eyes closed, and fell asleep.

The queen mother saw that Ye Jingtang was behaving as usual and wanted to chat a few words, but at this moment she realized how tired Ye Jingtang was, and quickly stopped talking.

Seeing the stern side face close at hand, the empress dowager's eyes moved, and she pulled up the thin blanket on her body, and put it around Ye Jingtang's neck.

Noticing that Ye Jingtang's hands were cold, the Queen Mother held them lightly and put them on her stomach to warm them up. After staring at them for a long time, sleepiness slowly came to her mind, and she closed her eyes and leaned against her shoulders...
-
Huhu——

The cold wind is howling, the tops of the mountains are covered with snow, the gunman wearing a bamboo hat, carrying a long gun wrapped in black cloth on his shoulders, stepped on the snow-covered snow top covered by thousands of years of snow in the cold wind, looking at the surrounding Endless mountains.

All those who stand on the highest point of the main peak of Hongshan Mountain should have the heroic feeling of "being at the top of the mountain and seeing all the small mountains at a glance".

But the eyes of the gunman in the bamboo hat are rather dull. After all, he is called Duan Shengji. If the hundred kinds of weapons in the world are a hundred different peaks, he himself stands on the top of the mountains, and he has stood there for ten years. .

Duanshengji was a strong man who suddenly appeared to the people of the Great Wei Jianghu. As soon as he came out of the mountain in his 20s, he won the title of gun leader with a natural posture and won the title of Bingshiyi for nearly ten years.

He didn't have many records in his life, and he only fought three times in ten years. The first one was Pei Yuanming, and the last two were unconvinced spear masters. He killed his opponents in all three battles. Since then, no one dared to come to ask He has confirmed his reputation as the overlord of Yazhou.

It's not a good reputation to kill someone with a gun, but Duanshengji usually doesn't take the initiative to provoke troubles. To the outside world, he is a hero of "you are honest and responsible, and I can pretend that I don't exist; if you dare not accept it, I will make you understand". attitude.

For this reason, Duanshengji has quite a lot of followers in the Jianghu, at least he has a better reputation than Xuanyuan Chao, who is cruel to younger generations and cares about not killing his face completely.

Jianghu knew so much about Duanshengji, he had no wife and no children, and no one dared to fight him, so he couldn't find much to talk about.

But Duanshengji's unknown experience is far more than the people of the Great Wei Jianghu imagined.

Duanshengji was born in Yanjing. His adoptive father was Master Xiang Han, the head of the Four Sages of Beiliang, and the God of War who protects the country of Beiliang.

Before Jiazi, Beiliang made a surprise attack on the Northwest Royal Court, beheaded countless pharmacists and obtained incomplete formulas of various secret medicines.

All the tribes in the West Sea are thinking of recreating the myth of the Qinchi tribe. The Beiliang court has already obtained the secret recipe and Tianlangzhu, so why not want to use it for their own use.

Beiliang's reverse research started before Jiazi, and achieved some results about 30 years ago. Although it is not as good as Qinchibu's secret medicine, it is still considered an enhanced version of Daliangzhu. The cost is not exaggerated and it can't kill people.

For this reason, Emperor Liang selected a group of children, and began to try to cultivate Duan Shengji, who was already extremely talented. Unsurprisingly, he was the best one among them, and was finally adopted by Master Xiang Han as a foster son.

At the age of ten, Duan Shengji had already become the most important person of his adoptive father. He was ordered to move to Yazhou with merchants. He was deliberately discovered by Duan Beiya's people, and then he was selected as a good seedling to worship as a teacher, and he was named "Duan" Shengji', after lurking for several years, came out of the mountain one day, and became the spear leader of the Great Wei, and also became a hidden child buried in the Great Wei by the Northern Liang Guoshi.

He rarely had disputes with others in the past ten years, not because he was indifferent to fame and fortune, but because most of his thoughts were spent on cultivating cronies to infiltrate the Southern Frontier Army, and he had no time to deal with worldly affairs.

Yesterday morning, he received an urgent message from Feiying from Langxuan City, mentioning that Yejingtang was investigating Linwangang, and that Yejingtang might go to Hongshan.

Duanshengji didn't care about the small profits of scale steel at all, but it was an order from Emperor Liang to smuggle scale steel to Beiliang so that the imperial court could reverse study and equip the army, and he could only transport it back through rivers and lakes.

Now that the court has found clues, there is a risk of exposure, so naturally it has to be dealt with.

Ye Jingtang is too popular, and it is already one of the high-level officials of the Southern Dynasty that the Beiliang court pays attention to. It is beneficial to Beiliang to be able to kill it in advance. For this reason, the first time Duanshengji received the news, he came here in a thousand miles. Hongshan.

According to Duan Shengji's estimation, Ye Jingtang set off from Langxuan City, and he set off from Yashan on the border of Liangzhou. He is nearly 700 miles away, so he should arrive at Hongshan in advance. As long as he keeps an eye on Jiang Zhahu, he should Can block the Nightmare Hall.

But Jiang Zahu hadn't come back yet, and Duanshengji didn't know the specific movements of Ye Jingtang, nor where Jiang Zahu was, so he could only go into Hongshan alone, and tried to wait for the rabbit on Zangfo Ridge to see if he could wait for the passing people Night Jingtang, or the returning Jiang Zhahu.

After all, to travel from south to north in the mountains, one must cross Hidden Dragon Ridge, as long as someone passes by, he can find it.

Duanshengji stuck the spear by his side, sat on the ground on the snow cliff, patiently waiting for the prey to appear.
This waiting is two hours, from early morning to noon.

And a long-lost figure also appeared on the snowy slope below Hidden Dragon Ridge.

Duan Shengji turned his head to look, and he saw that the person who came was a quack on horseback.

Jianghu Ke is quite tall, with a saber hanging from his waist, and wearing a gray cloak. He drives his horse in the wind and snow.

With such a sharp and sharp aura, people can tell at a glance that he is a top swordsman who has been in the rivers and lakes for many years.

This momentum, this appearance, still appeared in Hidden Dragon Ridge at this time, except for Dao Kui Ye Jingtang, there seemed to be no one else.

Now that he had reached his target, Duan Shengji didn't hesitate, stood up immediately, drew his spear, and walked down the snowy slope.

----

And below the snow ridge.

Xi Tianshang, the saber sage of Beiliang, drove his horse slowly towards Hidden Dragon Ridge, keeping his eyes on the wind and grass in the mountains.

Xi Tianshang's trip was entrusted by Zuo Xianwang to assassinate Ye Jingtang. After hearing from Shen Hufa of Qianjimen that Ye Jingtang had entered the customs overnight, he hurriedly turned to Liangzhou to chase after him.

Xi Tianshang didn't know the exact whereabouts of Ye Jingtang. After arriving at Heishi Pass, he asked the nearby people to ask the people who entered the pass in a hurry in the past two days, preferably those with a long spear and a saber.

As a result, he soon learned that the night before yesterday, a good horse, one in a million, galloped past Heishi Pass, and he followed it all the way to the Hongshan area.

Xi Tianshang heard the harsh words of Guo Ye Jingtang in Langxuan City, and guessed in his heart that Ye Jingtang might be looking for Jiang Zhahu.

For this reason, after Xi Tianshang saw that Jiang Zhahu was not in Huafo Village, he wanted to go north along the mountains to see if he could find anything.

It turned out that his luck was pretty good.

Bearing the mountain wind, Xi Tianshang hadn't turned over Hidden Dragon Ridge when he saw an astonishing gunslinger flying out from the side of the towering snow cliff.

Sa——

The gunslinger was dressed in a black robe with a bamboo hat and a cloak. Only his resolute chin was showing and he was holding a nine-foot long spear.

Ye Jingtang defeated Sima Yue in Langxuan City, using marksmanship.

The gunman in front of him obviously has the level of Wu Kui.

Coupled with this imposing manner, this appearance, and still appearing in Hidden Dragon Ridge at this time, who else could this be besides the target of this trip, Ye Jingtang?
Seeing that the opponent made the first move and suddenly rushed out from the shadows, Xi Tianshang reacted extremely quickly and immediately grabbed the handle of the knife.

choke-

On the blizzard-ridden snow slope, a radiant and cold light flashed suddenly!
The moment Duanshengji was holding the knife, the whole person had already landed above, the famous gun "Farewell" in his hand, smashing the wrapped black cloth in the air, and pulling down thousands of snowflakes in the air.

boom -

A gunshot sounded like rolling thunder, and the howling wind and snow on the top of the mountain was instantly suppressed into dead silence!

Seeing such a terrifying spear style, Xi Tianshang felt that Ye Jingtang's spear technique was more sophisticated than he imagined, and immediately rolled to the side, while throwing forward with his left hand.

Sa——

The two-foot plum hidden behind the cloak immediately turned into a flying blade and shot out towards the face of the person. The red silk behind the handle drew a straight thin line in the air.

Duan Shengji, who fell in the air, was taken aback when he saw this, and felt that the smell of "Ye Jing Tang" was not quite right—a short knife on his waist, and a flying knife interfered with a long spear. Make pie.

But Duanshengji and Xi Tianshang didn't have much friendship, and they had already made a move at this time. He couldn't figure out the other party's intention and saw that the other party dared to fight back. Naturally, he regarded the enemy as a hostile target and won first. With a slashing spear, it hit Xi Tianshang's foothold.

boom -

The tyrannical force cut through the ice and snow ridges, and a half-foot-deep groove appeared immediately when the tip of the spear fell on the soft snow surface.

Xi Tianshang was able to become the Sword Master of Beiliang, and his martial arts were definitely not bad. Facing the aggressive spear, he did not charge head-on. After landing, he flew and rolled again. Forward pointing, ready to penetrate close.

But Xi Tianshang hadn't exerted any strength when he landed, and his movements stopped suddenly.

And the interlocking gunshots stopped abruptly, and the two of them froze in place almost at the same time.

ka ka ka-

The sound of ice and snow cracking came from under his feet, and a crack appeared on the snow cliff that Duan Sheng jumped down.

And a moment later, a loud bang spread across Qianshan.

Like a snow cliff cut by a knife, it began to collapse from the very top, and the several-foot-wide layer of ice engulfed the gravel and snow, smashing into the snow slope where the two of them landed, and the entire snow field under their feet was also sliding downward. It's as serious as a crack in the ground!

? !
Both Duan Shengji and Xi Tianshang's eyes changed, they turned around and flew down the mountain, but in a split second, the churning snow covered everything in sight...
-
At the same time, in the crevice of the rock in the lee of the lower part.

It was already bright, and the mountain wind outside was much less.

Yejingtang fell asleep in the early hours of the morning, and had just woken up not long ago. After changing shifts with Niao Niao, who had worked hard outside for half the night, he put his arms around the queen mother and watched the surrounding movements alone.

Because the leaning position was not very comfortable, the empress dowager adjusted her figure in her sleep, twisting and twisting, she got under Ye Jingtang's arms, her cheeks were buried in her chest, and her bulging skirt was squeezed into Ye Jingtang's body. To rib side.

Ye Jingtang supported the queen mother with one hand, as if he was holding a big thermos bottle, except that his arms were a little sore, everything else was fine. Seeing that the queen mother was sleeping soundly, he didn't wake her up.

Originally, Ye Jingtang's plan was to wait until the wind and snow stopped, and then take the queen mother over Hidden Dragon Ridge; but when he was bored watching the snow, there was a loud noise like thunder on the mountain:
boom -

Then there was a muffled sound like a walking dragon, and the mountain was trembling.

The Empress Dowager woke up suddenly, raised her head from her arms, and looked around blankly, with three points of panic in her eyes; and Niao Niao also woke up, and flew up to the sky to look around.

Ye Jingtang sensed that something was wrong, turned over with the queen mother in his arms, and jumped onto the boulder to check.

It turned out that there was a landslide on the top of the mountain a few miles away, and the avalanche rolled down overwhelmingly. From a distance, it looked like an immortal spewing fog.

The empress dowager used to live in the deep palace, she had never seen such a big scene, she shrank her neck slightly, and said:

"The mountain collapsed?"

"Avalanche. Don't worry, we are below the snow line, and Avalanche can't come here."

"Oh……"

Seeing that the problem was not serious, the empress dowager relaxed her eyes a little, took out the binoculars from the side of the horse, and looked curiously at the scene of landslides and ground cracks.

Ye Jingtang had never seen an avalanche scene before, so they stood in front of them and watched together, but just after a second glance, they noticed the birds flying in the sky, and began to "cheep...", probably meaning——Look, hurry look……

Ye Jingtang was taken aback, squinted his eyes and looked carefully, and found that there seemed to be two small black spots between the overwhelming avalanches.

He took the binoculars from the Empress Dowager and looked carefully, only to see billowing white snow waves engulfing everything along the way, and in the center of the waves, two figures drifted with the waves, sometimes being submerged by the sea of ​​snow and rushing out again.

One of the figures seemed to be a gunman, his figure was like a dragon python wrapping an avalanche, moving towards the side of the avalanche, and he did not forget to shoot like a dragon while running, stabbing the swordsman not far away.

The swordsman not far away is also trying to get out of trouble. He holds a three-foot sharp blade in his right hand, making the front airtight, while his left hand holds a two-foot short knife upside down, and throws it out from time to time. When the flying knife hits the gunman's legs, the knife The handle seems to be wrapped with a rope, which can be pulled back after shooting.

The fight between the two was dangerous, but Ye Jingtang saw it inexplicably. He put down the binoculars to look at it with his naked eyes, and then raised the binoculars to take a closer look.

Although they have never met each other, there are only so many masters in the world. To be able to show such a formidable agility in an avalanche, and not forgetting to trip up the opponent, must be the pinnacle of the Wukui level.

Moreover, one uses Liuhe spear and the other uses double sabers. It seems that only Duan Shengji, the leader of the gun, and Xi Tianshang, the saber saint of Beiliang, can match up.

When Ye Jingtang saw these two people, he was sure they were coming for him. After all, Xi Tianshang was a professional assassin invited by Zuo Xianwang; and Duanshengji was the mortal enemy of Honghualou. There are reasons to kill him.

But he really couldn't figure out how these two people fought on the top of Hongshan, and they had such a big hatred that Xue Beng didn't care about killing each other.

The Empress Dowager soon discovered the two surfing in the avalanche and said in surprise:
"What is that? Immortal?"

"The two idiots probably came here to kill and then admitted the wrong person, so they got angry. If they want to fight, they don't know how to run out before fighting, and they insist on tripping each other..."

Because the distance was too far, Ye Jingtang didn't have a chance to go up to make up the knife, and could only watch helplessly as the two dragged each other's legs, and finally they were all washed into the ravine.

Ye Jingtang didn't want to clash with the two warriors before sending the queen mother to the destination, so he seized the time and led the queen mother around to the ridge from the side...

(End of this chapter)