Dao fruit.

After stopping to watch for a while, Qiu Yan shook his head.

"The things in the city have nothing to do with me, so we should proceed step by step. Let's calm down the eight spirits first. Besides, the Taoist Lord Yuxu will come at some time, so we have to prepare early. However, since he was invited this time, Come to help me, there is a vision in the city of Dongdu, I think I'm busy."

Thinking of this, Qiu Yan turned around and walked towards the houses and temples.

After walking a few steps, he stopped again, with a hint of surprise on his face: "Huh? I didn't expect that there would be people of Darui who believed in me, but they caused such an accident! As believers , then we can’t ignore it, besides, this is also an opportunity..."

………………

Yuan Shoufang stood on the fence of the stockade, holding the bow and arrow tightly in his hand, he was extremely nervous, but calmed down his panic, his eyes were staring outside, not daring to relax for a moment.

Although the night is dark, under the illumination of the torches, one can still get a rough idea of ​​the surrounding scene.

Their village has been surrounded!

Suddenly, a loud voice came from outside——

"Listen to the people in the village, surrender quickly, destroy the statues of evil gods, and welcome the Buddha into their hearts! Otherwise, no dog or dog will be left behind every time Linzhai goes up and down!"

The person who spoke was full of spirit, and he used his energy to help his voice. The words spread all over the village. The men, women, old and children in the village were already trembling. Now when they heard these words, many women and children burst into tears , All of a sudden, mournful clouds spread, everyone's thoughts swayed, and indistinctly, the whole village was shrouded in decadent thoughts.

"Father, I can't hesitate anymore! Isn't it just to convert to some kind of Buddha? What's the point? Which god is worship? Let's get over the difficulties in front of us first!"

Deep in the stockade.In a larger house, Zhang Xue was arguing with someone.

across from him.Sitting was a hulking-backed man with a pale complexion, blue eye circles, and a cloth wrapped around his body, bloodstains could be seen on the cloth.

This person is the owner of Fenglin Village, Zhang Lin.

Zhang Lin looked distressed: "Is it as simple as you said? I have heard about the Buddha. Many tribes in these five marshes have converted. It's just that this religion is very evil, and it is too obscene|obscene. There is hardly any difference between human beings and beasts, what is there to say about the five nectars, they are made of feces and urination, we are the descendants of the Celestial Dynasty, how can we eat feces and drink urine? Do the behavior of wild beasts?"

"I'll talk about these things in the future. If Dad doesn't agree today, the village will be wiped out. How can there be a future?" Zhang Xue shook his head, then gritted his teeth and said, "Speaking of it, it's all about Yuan Shoufang's fault. This person returned Later, I preached about the God of Zao and asked us to worship it. Now that I think about it, it may be because of worshiping the God of Zao. If you annoy the Buddha, then there will be disasters!"

After hearing this.Zhang Lin sighed, waved his hands and said, "I can't blame the defending party for this matter. Even if he didn't come back, those swamp tribes who worship Buddha will call sooner or later. I was negligent before, thinking that the Buddha is the same as the five marsh gods. Believe it or not, who would have forced people to convert..."

Even so, it was hard to dispel the resentment in Zhang Xue's heart, and he couldn't help recalling the scene when Yuan Shoufang came back.

………………

Fenglin village, as its name suggests, although it was named after Zhang Lin, it is also located in the dense forest, adjacent to Jiuling Mountain.

This village is not in the territory of Darui, but on the south side of Jiuling Mountain, in the land of five marshes, and the folk customs are sturdy.

Like many villages in the north of the mountain, Fenglin villagers are not as keen on plundering as the marsh people, but fishing and hunting for a living, but sometimes they also do some free business.

The woods around Jiuling Mountain are full of monsters and ferocious beasts. When hunters in Linzhai enter the forest, they also have to be frightened. Fortunately, there are fewer people in Darui in the south of the mountain, and the competition is not fierce. You don't need to go too deep to get something. But it is inevitable that someone will fall occasionally.

However, this situation began to change a month ago.

The change brought about was Yuan Shoufang.

Speaking of Yuan Shoufang, I have to mention his tortuous life experience.

Yuan Shoufang's father, a desperate merchant, was desperate to sell iron. He was discovered by the frontier army, handed over the convoy, and was hunted down again. He fled into the forest under the protection of his guards, but met a small group of marshmen, and the guards died tragically. He was seriously injured, but fortunately he was quick-witted, so he saved his life and fled to Fenglin Village in a staggered manner, and finally married into a family and married Orion's daughter.

With such a background, Yuan Shoufang was often ridiculed and discriminated against since he was a child, but he was ruthless. The more others laughed at him, the more he wanted to make a name for himself. fame.

It's a pity that the good times didn't last long. A few years ago, a caravan from the Central Plains passed by, and Yuan's father was moved. After a few days, he abandoned his wife and son, and his whereabouts are unknown.

Yuan Shoufang was ordered by his mother and grandfather to go out to find his father. He had been away for two years and did not come back until a month ago.

After he came back this time, he immediately created a storm in the village. His martial arts skills greatly improved, he challenged the brave men in the village, and knocked them down one by one.

During the period, there were provocations and counterattacks, twists and turns, and not long after, Yuan Shoufang challenged the number one master of Fenglinzhai's young generation——

This person is none other than Zhang Lin's son, Zhang Xue.

The confrontation between Yuan Shoufang, who is discriminated against by others, and Zhang Xue, who is aloof, is of course arousing people's imagination. If a novelist knows about it, he might be able to compile a novel with tens of thousands of words.

The result of this battle was that Yuan Shoufang was slightly better, and there was no scene of heroes cherishing each other afterwards. Instead, Zhang Xue regarded Yuan Shoufang as a thorn in his side, and picked thorns everywhere.

However, after going through this series of challenges, Yuan Shoufang's prestige in the village has greatly increased, and he even has the voice of the next village owner, especially since he was originally a low-status and unpopular, but now he has turned against him, which is quite legendary. It even attracted the admiration of the younger generation in the village.

With such prestige, Yuan Shoufang explained the reason for his change. It turned out that he couldn't find his father. When he came back, he went hunting with Orion many times in the north of the mountain. During the attack and defense with wild beasts, he developed his eyesight and hearing. and strength.

But this statement made Zhang Xue laugh——

"What a joke! There are not only beasts in the mountains, but also monsters. Orion dare not go deep into the mountains. At most, they can hunt pheasants and hares. What skills can they learn? And you said that you have entered the mountains many times? There are monsters who swallow people. It's rare to get it once, but according to what you said, it's almost once every three days, which is too exaggerated!"

To this, Yuan Shoufang gave such an answer: "Nowadays, all the villages in the north of the mountain worship the Kitchen God, so that they can keep their health and safety. When hunters enter the forest and meditate on the Kitchen God, they will not be attacked by monsters, but they can fight against wild beasts." , I still have to rely on my own ability, I met the people of Linzhai who are tough and can compete with the marsh people, but the marsh people are no match for wild beasts after all."

This remark was just curious at first, but in the next few days, there were bits and pieces of news, which aroused the people in the village to try to build a clay sculpture of Zaogong, and then tried to enter the forest, but they were not threatened by the monster. Overjoyed.

Speaking of which, although the villagers in Linzhai are also descendants of the Central Plains Miao people, they have moved to the south of Jiuling Mountain for a long time and have acquired the habits of the marsh people. They do not need temples or ancestral halls to worship gods. Clay sculpture.

This kind of life lasted for a month, and Fenglin Village gained a lot. Although it also lost a lot of manpower, it was nothing compared to the gains, and it was a far cry from before.

In this way, even though Zhang Xue was full of hostility towards Yuan Shoufang, it could not prevent the opponent's prestige from rising. Even Zhang Xue's father, Zhang Lin, appreciated Yuan Shoufang more and more.

Unexpectedly, misfortune fell from the sky.

Today, Zhang Lin led the villagers back into the mountains, but was ambushed. After a lot of fighting, although Zhang Lin escaped, all the other villagers were murdered.

The sneak attack came suddenly, without any warning in advance. The opponent was obviously prepared and ambushed on the only way Zhang Lin and others must pass. If Zhang Lin had some skills, the entire army would have been wiped out. The fate of Fenglin village can be imagined.

Not long after Zhang Lin returned to the village, the villagers who were active outside ran back in twos and threes, all of them were in a panic, many of them were injured, and they brought news one by one——

"There are people from Dagu Marsh sweeping around. There are more than a dozen of us, and only two of us escaped back!"

"They were all killed! If I hadn't pretended to be dead to escape, there wouldn't even be a messenger!"

"I'll come back immediately when I see the situation is not good."

Regardless of whether these news revealed bravery, fear, or cowardice, after summarizing, a serious question was placed in front of Zhang Lin——

Fenglin village has been besieged, and many living forces have been wiped out.

You must know that in this dangerous place, most of the people who dare to go out during the day are young and middle-aged people. Such people are the main force of the village, and now they are suddenly swept away. Lin Zhai's force was weakened by his eyes.

"What is the purpose of these swamp people! Why did they join hands to attack?"

Having lived in the marsh forest in the south of the mountain for so long, Fenglin Village is no stranger to the marsh people, and has a lot of information about them. They have fought against each other many times before, and regardless of victory or defeat, the village has survived. , but after a short summary, Zhang Lin realized that it was not a single tribe that made the move, but a combination of multiple tribes.

This made him feel puzzled. You must know that the marsh people are not united with each other, and they attack each other from time to time. They were even used and provoked by Zhang Lin. However, it is not common for several tribes to join forces like today. .

Moreover, judging from what happened, the marsh people obviously had a unified command, first ambushed, then mopped up, and finally besieged, and they already had a military atmosphere. From any point of view, it was by no means simple!

"Could it be that they know that I have a lot of hunting and want to snatch it? That's not true. There are poisonous insects and beasts in the five marshes, and there is no shortage of my wild fur."

Zhang Lin's doubts did not last long. When night fell, the other party finally revealed his true purpose——

Such a big battle was made in order to convert Fenglin village to the Buddha!

This was the reason for the quarrel between Zhang Lin and Zhang Xue's father and son. (to be continued...)