The Sword of Smiling and Proud

Chapter 22
A few days later, the turmoil in Nanyang has gradually subsided.

As for Henan Province, the aged Nanyang County Prime Minister was appointed as the interim county magistrate, and after the dust settled, new officials were appointed.Everyone in the county government was in awe of Guan Xiu who personally pulled down the county magistrate.

The palace family and many other wealthy households were confiscated, and the families with lesser crimes also dumped all their property to buy a way out.

Although Jin Sangu later testified against the magistrate and others, but after all, the crime was serious and she was sentenced to ten years in prison.

That wonton old man He Sanqi had left long ago, and he didn't know where Yunyou had gone.

When Princess Xing and her party were about to leave, they specially sent Zhu Baihu to look for Guan Xiu.

"Master Guan, it's all thanks to you that we can handle such a big case well this time."

"Zhu Baihu is too polite, it's because the lower officials rely more on the prestige of the palace."

"The prince appreciates you very much, and asked me to ask you if you are interested in going to Xingwang's mansion to make a book?"

Guan Xiu thought about it carefully, even though such a toss in Nanyang was for the sake of eliminating harm for the people, all his colleagues had already kept him at a respectful distance.I was born as a Juren, and the local upper limit is not high. It is also great to be an official in the Xingwang Mansion.

"To be appreciated by the prince, the officials are sincere and fearful, and are willing to go."

"Hahahahaha, yes, it's so good. The prince said, you wait in Nanyang. After the Dragon Boat Festival, the prince and princess come back from visiting relatives in the capital. You can follow the car and go to Anlu Prefecture together."

Zhu Baihu was very happy to see that he had completed the task of the son, and he insisted on pulling Guan Xiu to drink, saying that he was cultivating his colleagues' feelings in advance.Guan Xiu agreed.

Guan Yuan looked at the matter here and wanted to leave too.

This Nanyang is to the southwest of Henan Prefecture, and further south is next to Hubei Xiangyang Prefecture.Guan Yuan wanted to go to Xiangyang before to see if he could find the Dugu Sword Tomb described in The Legend of Condor Heroes.

One day Guan Yuan said goodbye to his cousin, rode a fast horse, and went south out of the city.

Guan Yuan is not in a hurry along the way, trusting the horse to let the horse go. At this time, it has just arrived in March of Yangchun, a hundred flowers are blooming, and a hundred birds are contending. It is also very elegant to enjoy the roadside scenery while driving.

Within two days, Guan Yuan saw a big river blocking the way, which was the Han River.Xiangyang City is surrounded by the Han River on three sides, and Xiangyang is opposite to the river.

The ancient city of Xiangyang has been a traffic fortress since ancient times. It is known as "the south ship and the north horse, and the thoroughfare of the seven provinces". It has been a channel for north-south trade and cultural exchanges.There are many ships on the Han River, sailing back and forth, mooring between the banks, gathering thousands of sails, and gathering thousands of merchants, it is a prosperous scene.

Looking at the river and the city wall of Xiangyang in the distance, Guan Yuan couldn't help but sigh with emotion.At that time, Guo Jing and Huang Rong stood firm in Xiangyang City and resisted the Mongolian army for decades, adhering to the purpose of being a hero and serving the country and the people, which is really admirable.It has been nearly a hundred years since Daming restored the Chinese clothes. I don't know how the two of them feel when they see the prosperous scene of Xiangyang.If they knew that in another hundred years or so, Manchuria would invade again, Shenzhou land would sink, and countless murders would be committed, they would be so angry that they would not be able to hold down the coffin.

Guan Yuan looked up for a while, then found a ferry to cross the river.He wanted to go to the city to taste Xiangyang's special food first, and then make plans.

After entering Xiangyang City, he first wandered around the city to look around, and then found a restaurant. Of course, he was only 16 years old, so he would not go drinking, but ordered a bowl of Xiangyang butter noodles.But don't say that in ancient times, cattle could not be slaughtered. You can't eat beef in the face, but eating some butter and offal is still not a taboo.

Don't tell me, Guan Yuan tasted this Xiangyang butter noodles in his previous life, and this time he ate a bowl in Daming hundreds of years ago. It is dogwood, but it tastes really fat but not greasy. The soup is fragrant and has a long aftertaste.

Guan Yuan was a gourmet in his previous life. In this life, besides pursuing the road of martial arts, he also planned to eat all over the Ming Dynasty to see what kind of food was there hundreds of years ago.

After eating the noodles, he brought over a buddy and began to ask if there were any high mountains and deep valleys near Xiangyang City.

"Hey, if you go west (here), there are all big mountains. If you want to find a valley, there are everywhere."

It turns out that from Xiangyang to the west is Shennongjia, Hubei. There are high mountains and dangerous obstacles everywhere. It is too difficult to find a valley.

"Then is there any valley that is famous for its snakes, especially a strange snake with a little gold on its head. There must be a waterfall nearby."

"That villain doesn't know, brother, you can go to the meat shop in the western suburbs of the city to inquire about it. There are often mountain people there who come out to sell wild game."

After Guan Yuan heard the words, he paid for the wine and went out of the city to the west.

In the meat restaurant in the western suburbs, Guan Yuan asked many people, and indeed found out a few suspected valleys, but the mountain road was not easy to walk, so he fumbled around by himself, fearing that he might get lost.

Guan Yuan knew that this was not something that could be found in three or two days, so he rented a residential house nearby, hired an old hunter, and took himself into the mountains to search every day.

After more than half a month, Huangtian paid off, with the blessing of strange snakes, deep valleys, and mountain streams, he finally found the valley that Yang Guo encountered by chance at a place more than 20 miles away from Xiangyang City.

Guan Yuan paid Orion's reward and climbed up alone.

It is said that no one has dared to enter this uninhabited deep valley in recent years. There are many big snakes on the mountain, which are extremely poisonous.Guan Yuan thought to himself that it should be the Pusi curved snake in the divine sculpture. Without the divine sculpture to prey on it, it has multiplied again in the past few hundred years.

Guan Yuan was careful, the grass grew up to his knees along the way, and there was silence. He did see many snakes sloughing. After walking for more than half an hour, he finally found his destination, which was a cave on a mountain platform.

I saw him performing the Golden Goose Kungfu, using both hands and feet, and he climbed onto the high platform and walked into the cave in a short while.

The cave is actually very shallow, less than three zhang long, and it has reached the end. There is nothing else in the cave except a stone table and a stone bench.Guan Yuan looked around in the cave, the stone tables and benches were covered with dust, and saw a pile of rocks rising up from the corner of the cave, which looked like a tomb, and thought: "It seems that this is the burial place of the sword demon Dugu Qiubai." The bones are gone, and after the divine sculpture was taken away by Yang Guo, no one has visited for hundreds of years."

Guan Yuan looked up and saw that there seemed to be words written on the cave wall, but it was covered with dust and moss, so he couldn't see clearly in the dark.He lit a dead branch, stretched out his hand to wipe off the moss on the wall of the cave, and sure enough, three lines of characters appeared, the handwriting was very thin, but it penetrated extremely deep into the stone, obviously it was drawn with a very sharp weapon.Look at those three lines:
"Across the rivers and lakes for more than [-] years, killing all enemies and defeating all heroes, there is no opponent in the world, there is no way to do it, but live in seclusion in the deep valley, and make friends with eagles. Woohoo, I can't find an opponent in my life, and I am really lonely and embarrassing." The inscription below is: "Sword Demon Dugu seeks defeat."

(End of this chapter)