Kyushu · Endless Nagato

Chapter 43 Tracing the source (1)
一
"The source of the whole incident actually started when Tianqi City welcomed the eminent monk's body in July." Mr. Yuwen said.

An Xingmian nodded.Of course he had heard of this incident, and later guessed, could it be that the eminent monk's body was burned in full view, which made the emperor lose face, and that's why he took revenge on Nagato so angrily?But when you think about it carefully, such an inference is like a child's play. During the reign of Emperor Hongjing, even if he was not a great sage and enlightened ruler, he was indeed in power, neither a tyrant nor a fool.It is impossible for such a small matter to affect the whole Nagato, so he didn't think about it.But when Mr. Yuwen mentioned it, he remembered it again.

"That body was inexplicably burned, which made the emperor lose face, I know about it," he said, "but can this make the emperor go to war so violently?"

"It wasn't the burning itself that caused the emperor to go to war, but a small situation occurred after the self-immolation of the body." Mr. Yuwen said.

"What's happening?"

"From the ashes after the body was burnt, an indestructible metal plaque unexpectedly fell out. It seems that it has been hidden in the corpse that has been in existence for hundreds of years," said Mr. Yuwen. Metal plates are bad."

"Is there something engraved on the metal plate?" An Xingmian asked hastily.Due to the way of cultivation, it is true that there have been incidents in history where the body of the Nagato monk died and was regarded as a miracle, but it is still unheard of for a metal plaque to be burned in the corpse.This metal plate must be the direct cause of Emperor Longyan's fury.

"It is indeed engraved, and it uses the ancient Heluo characters thousands of years ago. No one at the scene could recognize it," Mr. Yuwen continued, "The emperor is indeed a person with keen intuition. When there was an article, he immediately ordered someone to wrap the metal plate, and he carried it on his body. When he returned to the palace that day, he sent someone to summon a scholar who had a deep research on the history of Heluo, and ordered him to wrap the metal plate. All the words on the metal plate were translated. And the scholar never returned home after entering the palace, and news spread the next day that he suddenly contracted a sudden illness in the palace and died of ineffective treatment.”

An Xingmian was silent.He knew very well that the scholar who "did a sudden illness and died" was undoubtedly killed by the emperor, that is to say, some important information that the emperor would never let the second person know was engraved on the metal plate.So is it possible for Mr. Yuwen to know this secret?
Mr. Yuwen saw An Xingmian's expectations, and shook his head slightly: "Sorry, this is what I told you, which can only satisfy you half. Although I am also very curious, I really failed to find out the specific words on the metal plate Or pictures, it's not that I don't have the ability or energy to continue to explore this matter, but after all, my identity is sensitive, if I get too involved in the drama, it will be a bit rebellious, not only I will suffer, but also the whole family will suffer."

An Xingmian smiled: "I understand. You told me all this not only to help me, but also to use an 'outsider' who has nothing to do with you to help you solve this mystery, right?"

"We hit it off right away!" Mr. Yuwen clapped his hands and laughed, "Yes, I may be more interested in this matter than you. But I can never openly oppose the emperor, so I can only rely on you."

"Then please tell me the important clue that can make me 'half satisfied'." An Xingmian said.

"It's too late, you two should rest first," Young Master Yuwen interrupted suddenly, "I have prepared a guest room for you two. Please ask Mr. An to meet someone tomorrow, and he will tell you about the situation."

An Xingmian didn't quite understand what Mr. Yuwen meant, but he followed his instructions and was led to the guest room by the servant.As soon as he walked into the guest room, he found a note on the table. He unfolded the note and couldn't help laughing.He shook his head, burned the note on the candle to ashes, and then pushed the door to go out, just as he saw Xue Huaiqing coming out of the room.

"It seems that Mr. Yuwen is a very cautious person." Xue Huaiqing said.

"Be careful when sailing for thousands of years. It's right to be cautious when it comes to the emperor," An Xingmian said, "Don't forget, you and I are almost alone, and the Yuwen family has hundreds of members. And If I'm not mistaken, for an important minister like the general, no matter how much the emperor trusts him, he will still arrange scouts to monitor him."

The two looked at each other and smiled, and walked to the door of this small courtyard.A loyal janitor came up to welcome him: "Master An, don't show mercy, I won't blame you."

"Then I'll offend you." An Xingmian actually took out a gold baht and stuffed it into the janitor's arms, then he put on a posture and kicked it out, hitting the janitor's chest.Of course, this kick did not use its full strength, but it was not small. The janitor was kicked and rolled out, lying on the ground and began to cry out in pain.

"I thought Mr. Yuwen was such a great person, but I didn't expect him to be a snob!" An Xingmian cursed angrily.The sound spread far away in the quiet night, and immediately attracted many warriors.Most of these people were acquainted with Mr. Yuwen, and even if they didn't know him, they had at least heard of Mr. Yuwen's virtuous name. At this time, they were very surprised to see this handsome man and woman blocking the door of the young master and loudly reprimanding him.Some people started pointing and guessing.

Hearing the sound, Mr. Yuwen came out of the bedroom. He was wearing an inner garment and only a outer robe, as if he had been awakened from his sleep.He frowned and walked to the gate of the courtyard, looked at the gatekeeper on the ground, and said in a deep voice: "Mr. An, you and I don't agree with each other. It's just a matter of flirting with each other. Why bother to vent your anger on my servant? He didn't Offend you."

"He's just looking down on others." An Xingmian sneered, "Young Master Yuwen, my friends and I came to get acquainted with you sincerely, but as soon as you heard our identities, you looked down on us. , It’s really disappointing. Yes, I am a long door monk, a long door monk who was barely let go by the emperor just now, so what? She is a corpse dancer, did you dirty your eyes?”

The crowd was in an uproar.Most people have heard of the tragic experience of the long door monk in the past few months, and the corpse dancer is an existence full of mystery and terror.It is indeed surprising that a Nagato monk and a corpse dancer appear at the same time.And when these two people appeared, they were arguing with the famous Mr. Yuwen, which was even more bizarre.

Mr. Yuwen sighed: "Mr. An, please don't judge a gentleman's belly with the heart of a villain. I can't agree to the request you made to me. You should go."

An Xingmian snorted and greeted Xue Huaiqing to leave.By nature, he doesn't like to have verbal quarrels with people, and he doesn't even like to swear at people. Being able to say these words is already exhausting enough.But after Xue Huaiqing took two steps, she suddenly stopped and looked at Mr. Yuwen coldly, with such a sharp and cold gaze that made the onlookers shudder.

"Master Yuwen, your body is very good," she said lightly, "I hope that one day, I can make you my corpse servant."

The crowd fell silent.Anyone who knew a little bit about Corpse Dancers knew what this sentence meant. When the two left, people consciously moved out of the way. It seemed that even a little approach to Xue Huaiqing might bring danger.

"You're really good," An Xingmian said quietly, "you're better at acting than me."

"Corpse dancers are humans too." Xue Huaiqing responded easily.

The two found another small inn run by fishermen and rested separately.Early the next morning, according to the previous note, they came to the riverside, pretending to visit the scenery on the river, and stepped on a black-covered boat with a broken fishing net hanging on the bow.The boat sailed quickly and came to the middle of the river, and the two entered the cabin. There was a strong fishy smell in the cabin, and a woman masked with a black cloth was sitting in the darkness.This is the most important scout of Mr. Yuwen. Except for Mr. Yuwen himself, no one has ever seen her true face.

"You two, I am a non-existent person with no name and no gender; I don't even know anyone else, do you understand what I mean?" The voice of the female scout was deep and hoarse, with almost no ups and downs.

"I understand, you don't know anyone, and you have nothing to do with anyone." An Xingmian replied.

"Very well, let's get straight to the point," said the female scout, "The avatar of the eminent monk who was sent to Tianqi City that day set himself on fire in a strange way, and a metal plate fell out after burning. You have heard of this, right?"

"Yes, and we also know that the scholar who was invited to translate the ancient Heluo characters on the metal plate died of a sudden illness in the palace, so only the emperor was left to know what was written and painted on the plate." Xingmian said.

"On the metal plate, there is no specific incident, but a map and some guiding signs are engraved on it." The female scout said.

"Map? A map about what?" An Xingmian was not surprised.Before that, he had already faintly thought that it is difficult for a small metal plate to carry too much information, and maybe there is only a guide on it, leading to an ominous unknown.

"No one knows what the map on the metal plate is related to, but the day after the scholar's sudden death, the emperor also fell ill and did not go to court for more than ten consecutive days, leaving people with various guesses space." said the female scout.

"The emperor left the palace in his micro-clothes," Xue Huaiqing interjected, "he went to the place indicated on the metal plate."

The female scout nodded approvingly: "This girl guessed right. The emperor is sick, and the civil and military officials are probably just concerned about it, but some people guessed that the emperor's sudden illness is not accidental, so they took the risk to send someone to track down the whereabouts of the emperor. , I found out that he has already left the palace."

An Xingmian and Xue Huaiqing looked at each other, and they both knew that this "certain person" must be the restless Mr. Yuwen, and the person sent to investigate was probably the female scout in front of him.

The female scout went on to say: "The man followed all the way and finally caught up with the emperor. He found that the emperor brought dozens of Jinwu guards, disguised as a caravan, and left Tianqi City all the way west with some temporarily purchased goods. Entered the Anlan Mountain at the junction of Wanzhou and Zhongzhou."

An Xingmian breathed a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, it's not a place like Leizhou, Yunzhou, and Shangzhou. It's not too far away." Anlan Mountain is connected to the ancient Gobi in the northwest, and the Leiyan Mountains in the southeast. The area between Tang Plain and the Imperial Capital Basin was named because of the year-round clouds and mist, and it was not too far to drive from Yunzhong City.

Xue Huaiqing frowned: "It seems that he must have found something terrible in Anlan Mountain."

"I'm afraid it can't be described with the word 'scary'," said the female scout. "The stalker followed this team carefully and entered the depths of Anlan Mountain. The road there is already very difficult, but the emperor has practiced martial arts since childhood. , although they are not masters, at least they are physically strong, and they will be supported by others when they can't go up. They finally climbed to an inaccessible peak at the west foot of Anlan Mountain. Because the mountain is too high, if you follow , the other party only needs to turn around to get a clear view, so the stalker dared not follow up, so he could only hide behind a big tree halfway up the mountain and watch from a distance with a telescope. He saw that this group of people had almost climbed to the bottom of the mountain. At the highest point, a huge rock was moved there, exposing a cave behind the rock. According to the size of the rock, if it is a real giant rock, it is estimated that it is impossible to move it unless Kuafu comes, so it is probably just A living man-made mechanism."

An Xingmian looked solemn, knowing that this disguised cave was the source of everything.The voice of the female scout also became indescribably weird: "After the rock was moved away, several Jinwu guards wanted to go in to explore the way first, but they were stopped by the emperor. Judging from the situation of the two sides arguing in the telescope, he turned out to be the If you want to go in alone, you don't bring half of the Jinwu guards. Of course, the Jinwu guards strongly objected, but the emperor was obviously really angry, and seemed to threaten with beheading, and finally forced everyone else to stay in the palace. Outside, he went in with a torch by himself."

An Xingmian and Xue Huaiqing looked at each other.In daily impressions, most of the emperors cherish their lives like gold, and dare not go anywhere without bringing hundreds of escorts.Now that Emperor Hongjing went into the barren mountains in his micro-clothes, it was already risky enough, but he still wanted to visit the unknown mysterious cave alone, either he was too bold, or—what he wanted to explore was indeed terrifying enough.

The female scout continued: "The stalker has been waiting for a long time, and the Jinwu guards must have been more impatient than him, but it seems that the emperor kept yelling from the cave, indicating that he is still alive and there is no danger, so even if half the right time has passed, None of the Jinwu guards couldn't hold back and rushed in. They were relieved when the emperor finally came out, but they could see from the binoculars that the emperor's body was trembling slightly. Although it was too far away to see I know the expression clearly, but it is also conceivable that the emperor's expression must be extremely ugly, because before he could speak, the Jinwu guards took the initiative to kneel on the ground. Perhaps this is what the so-called wrath of the emperor means."

"Did he bring out anything?" An Xingmian asked this crucial question.

The female scout sighed: "That's exactly what I want to say. At that time, the emperor did take something in his hand, but his robe was missing, so it should be that he used the robe to make a burden, wrap it He found something inside. After walking out of the cave, he seemed to be in a daze, but when he came back to his senses, he immediately raised the torch in his hand to burn the clothes together with the contents inside."

"What did you say?" An Xingmian exclaimed in shock.He knew that what the emperor wrapped with his clothes must be an extremely important piece of evidence, and if it was burned with a fire, everything would be over.

"Don't be too nervous, the emperor didn't get what he wanted," said the female scout, "he was probably in a flustered mood, and his hands were shaking so much that he couldn't hold the things steadily. At that time, a strong mountain wind blew by, and he was caught off guard. Blown to the bottom of the cliff."

"I see." An Xingmian sighed, "That is to say, to solve this series of mysteries, I have to go under the cliff to find out."

"That's right, you have to go," said the female scout. "The emperor was upset at the time. He saw things falling into the abyss, so he gave up. He didn't expect that there were people peeping from afar. This is our only chance, otherwise I'm afraid we can only press the emperor himself."

"I understand," An Xingmian smiled wryly, "That is to say, the emperor started to take action against Nagato immediately after this trip to Anlan Mountain?"

"That's not true. It's still some time, and there are probably some things that need to be verified," the female scout said. "After the verification is completed, we can start."

"I understand, I'm ready to go," An Xingmian said, bowing to the female scout, "Thank you."

"Don't thank me, I didn't do this for Nagato," the female scout said lightly, "Besides, you can't get someone's help this time, and you can only find a way for yourself if you need anything, so as not to leave him alone." Pull into the water."

"Don't worry, the housekeeper of Qianyun Hall will prepare everything for me," An Xingmian said, "And I'm not a poor monk."

two

The reason why Anlan Mountain got its name is because of the dense clouds that linger here all year round.Walking into the Dark Lan Mountain, people will always feel an indescribable depression, as if the gray mist has some depressing power.

An Xingmian and Xue Huaiqing walked in the mountains. Although it was only afternoon, the sky was already quite dark. The sun was far behind the thick clouds, and the sunlight seemed to be filtered into a pale white.Under such light, the originally ordinary mountain rocks also look a bit sinister and rugged, like a black monster with teeth and claws, giving people a sense of uneasiness.

(End of this chapter)