Visitors

Chapter 46 Visitors

As the sky brightened, Li Wuxiang's first pot of dry food for Xue Baoping was almost ready. First, cook beans and grains such as broad beans, soybeans, black beans, and millet until they are fully cooked, and then grind them into powder. Then add oil to the pot, add a clove of star anise, a handful of fine salt, and a little sugar, and then add these with a small amount of sugar. Slowly stir-fry until dry. In this way, it can be stored for four or five days without spoiling, and it is also convenient to eat on the mountain.

While cooking, Li Wuxiang reviewed the action plan he had thought up at night.

The first is Chen Xin. What she said to Xue Baoping were all excuses, just so that she could leave with peace of mind as soon as possible without restricting her own hands and feet.

Chen Xin is a scheming and smart man. When chatting with him before, he also revealed his fear of Zhao Qi. If you tell him the truth, he will believe it. The problem is that he is the local overlord, and his temperament is by no means as weak as he seems. He must have strong ideas of his own.

When doing work, I hate such partners, especially those with families. According to his experience, sometimes two plus one will be less than three or even equal to zero, so Chen Xin cannot be used until a critical moment.

The opportunity last night was a real pity. Now Li Wuxiang can be sure that he is most likely a key part of Zhao Qi's sacrificial ritual, which can explain why he is eager to accept disciples and why he is eager to give himself medicine.

But when I went to see him last night, he was quite nice to me and even took me to hunt ghosts. This meant that he might have really thought about accepting him as his disciple, which gave him the opportunity to see the talisman and get a glimpse of part of the truth of the matter. If he had behaved more kindly at that time, Chen Sanyao might still have been killed, but it would have been Zhao Qi himself. But now, perhaps as his true successor, I know what he wants to do.

If only he had another half month. He had several ways to make Zhao Qi believe that he was definitely not someone who would bully his master and destroy his ancestors.

But now, he felt that he might have to use the least technical method - to subdue Zhao Qi and force him to get what he wanted. This is quite risky. From an industry perspective, Zhao Qi is equivalent to his former self, and now he is equivalent to a strong man. The strong man might still have a slight advantage in physical strength, but his former self had too many skills and tools to defeat him.

There should only be one chance, and it should be unexpected and not give him the chance to use any invisible and intangible magic spells.

But Zhao Qi's martial arts skills should also be very good, and he would not be killed unless it was necessary.

First, it would not be able to meet the needs of external evil spirits. That thing has not yet fully revealed its ferocious features to me, but since it is called an "external evil", there must be a reason. At this point, he has no doubt about the experience and lessons passed down from generation to generation by practitioners in this world.

Secondly, when he was trapped in the stove, it seemed that Zhao Xi's ghost helped him at a critical moment. This means that death is not the end in this world, especially for practitioners like Zhao Qi.

He just thought about it carefully and considered every step over and over again, feeling as if he had returned to the time when he was working on a project in his previous life.

When the sun began to rise over the horizon, he felt that he had almost prepared everything. At this time, I heard a knock on the door.

Li Wuxiang was stunned for a moment, walked to the door with bated breath and looked out through the crack in the door. What I saw outside was a strong man wearing a white short coat, carrying a knife and carrying a baggage. The corners of his clothes were frayed and dirty, and they were almost turning yellow. His feet were full of mud and water, his lips were chapped, his skin was rough, and he looked like a traveler. Dressed like a servant on the road.

The strong man patted the door again: "Is there anyone here? Ask for a bowl of water!"

Li Wuxiang wanted to ask Xue Baoping to reopen the Xue family store before, so that he would have the capital to settle down after leaving him. It's just that it's the flood season, so there are even fewer passers-by. Today, this is the first foreigner I've met in these days. He should have seen the "Xuejiadian" store sign.

He was not in the mood for business today, but when he saw the man's attire, he changed his mind.

This person seemed to be a wandering man, and he happened to be asking about other things while waiting for Xue Baoping to catch up on his sleep.

He said "Here we come" and removed a door panel. He was stunned for a moment and then laughed: "It's really rare. I haven't seen anyone outside for a few days."

The strong man also smiled and clasped his fists slightly: "Asking for a bowl of water - this is a restaurant, right?"

Li Wuxiang put the door aside, stepped out of the way, and pointed to the bench in the room: "Yes, but there are not many people now. You have to bring your own food, and I can also get you some hot soup and hot water. Come in and sit down. Bar."

The strong man glanced inside the door and saw that the room was divided into two large and small stoves, the walls were blackened, there were piles of clean dishes and chopsticks, a few benches, and a few pairs of wooden supports. He knew that it was really a restaurant business in the past. He walked through the door and sat down on the bench. He let out a sigh of relief. He took off his baggage from behind and placed it on the ground. He took out four dry biscuits and handed them to Li Wuxiang: "Get some soup cakes and eat something hot."

He took another handful of copper coins from his arms and asked, "How much does this cost?"

Li Wuxiang accepted the cake but not the money: "It's just a matter of convenience. I don't have anything delicious here."

The strong man nodded and took the money. He took the water from Li Wuxiang and drank it in one gulp. He wiped his beard and watched him prepare food while holding the bowl.

——First, soak four dry biscuits in water to moisten the surface, and then cut them into finger-wide strips. The strong man saw that he was very skillful in using the sword, and thought to himself that since he was a young master from a neighboring town, this technique was not practiced as a cook, but as expected, he had practiced swordsmanship and swordsmanship.

——He added more firewood to the stove and blew the blowpipe vigorously. The remaining fat in the pot began to smoke slightly. At this time, he put all the cut cake strips in. With a hissing sound, smoke rose. He quickly sprinkled a pinch of fine salt and started to stir-fry with a spatula.

After stir-frying for more than ten times, he added a little water along the edge of the pot and scooped some remaining oil residue from the porcelain bowl beside it. The aroma immediately filled the nose, and the cake strips that had been soaked in water were also fried until the surface was slightly crispy and yellow, and the spatula made a crackling sound as it was turned. At this time, the strong man did not care to observe this "Li Jiye", but stared at the pot, thinking that this kid actually knows how to cook! Did he learn it from the little girl in this family? With such comprehension, it is a pity that he learned to be a cook. No wonder Zhao Qi chose him as his disciple.

But looking at his white hair and his current attitude towards people, I am afraid that his personality has changed drastically after his family died. If you lose your spirit because of this, it will be difficult to achieve anything in the future even if you have excellent skills.

After the pancakes were heated through, Li Wuxiang put them on the stove, added a ladle of water to the pot and waited for it to boil, then started chatting: "What's your name, brother?"

"My last name is Zeng, Zeng Jianqiu. Your skills are really good."

Li Wuxiang smiled: "You changed your job halfway. Where are you going, brother Zeng?"

"Ah, I go through wind and rain and make a living everywhere." Zeng Jianqiu patted the knife on his waist, "Don't think too much, I'm not a robber, but a guard, I just can't find a good customer - is there a place in your town where I can work?"

Li Wuxiang's heart rang. The people who need people to guard the town are naturally the rich and the town owner's family. Did this person just happen to meet him by chance, or...

His expression dimmed: "Ah, I'm not sure about this either."

After a while, he said again: "But there shouldn't be any. The town lord here has soldiers guarding his house. Brother Zeng, go to Qingjiang City to have a look. There are more wealthy families there."

Zeng Jianqiu nodded: "Okay, thank you for your advice."

When the water boiled, Li Wuxiang scooped some of the fried food for Xue Baoping and put it at the bottom of another bowl. After washing it with hot water, it immediately became a bowl of fragrant porridge. He took out a pair of chopsticks and placed the two bowls of food on the ground in front of Zeng Jianqiu: "Brother Zeng, just make do with it."

Zeng Jianqiu was really hungry, so he picked up the large bowl full of fried cakes and took a bite. Some of the cake strips were close to the middle of the cake, which was slightly thinner. After eating, they were extremely crispy, as if they were fried in oil, and had a dry, burnt fragrance. Some of them were on the side, soaked in water before, and the inner layer was stir-fried to be soft and moist, but the outer layer was also crispy, and it tasted a little tough.

These two flavors intertwined together, and combined with a layer of fine oil residue on the cake, he chewed it hard for a few times and his cheeks felt sour, and saliva oozed out all of a sudden, and his mouth was full of fragrance. He took two mouthfuls and swallowed them, and then took two sips of the porridge, and immediately a layer of fine sweat broke out on his body, and all the pores were refreshed.

When he stopped to take a breath, he saw "Li Jiye" looking at him with a slightly sad smile, and Zeng Jianqiu knew what kind of person he was.

This young man should not have seen any dangers in the rivers and lakes when he was at home, so when he opened the door and saw himself with a sword, he didn't even have a hint of vigilance. He should also have a good heart. When he asked where he could find work, his face darkened, probably because he thought of his home. But then he forced himself to go to Qingjiang City, this kind of mentality is really rare.

As for other things... the man I met at night said that the girl from the Xue family was very beautiful, and the two of them should be getting along well these days... that's easy.

He knew what was going on, so he enjoyed the food to his heart's content. After eating two big bowls, he burped and wiped his beard: "Brother, your cooking skills are really good. But I heard that you also worshipped a cultivator in the town as your master. Do you want to open a store or learn magic?"

He saw Li Wuxiang was slightly stunned, and then sighed: "I want both."

Zeng Jianqiu laughed: "It's good to have the best of both worlds. But, brother, do you know? Your master is a demon."

Li Wuxiang was stunned, then frowned: "Zeng... you, I got you food and drinks, why are you so How can you talk like that? "

Zeng Jianqiu's face turned cold, and he let out a long breath: "Don't be angry first, listen to me and tell you slowly. Your master is called Zhao Qi, a long-faced man with thin eyebrows and eyes, right?"

"Does he also claim to be the Dharma lineage of the Ranshan School? Well, it seems that I am right. Then listen carefully, your master has passed through several villages and towns before coming to Jinshui, and he cast spells and killed people wherever he went. I have been tracking him for several months, and the reason I came here is because I met the man whose life you spared last night, and then I knew that he was in Jinshui. "

Coincidence, coincidence, coincidence! Li Wuxiang stared at him again and frowned slightly.

Is it really such a coincidence? Is it Zhao Qi's enemy who came? Or is Zhao Qi trying again... No, if Zhao Qi knew that Chen Sanyao was still alive, why would he try!

This person said that Zhao Qi had killed people before... It's not surprising that he did these things, but it's a pity that I was still thinking that Zhao Qi might not be a bad person last night. However, the enemy of a bad guy may not necessarily be a good guy. Even if he is, I don’t know if he is a good helper or useless...

Li Wuxiang said in a deep voice: "I don’t know whether what you said is true or false."

Zeng Jianqiu laughed and stared at him with piercing eyes: "Young man, it's easy to learn bad things but hard to learn well. Your master asked you to kill someone last night. Would a good person ask someone to take human life? I heard that you showed mercy with the sword, so I went out of my way to do it today. I came to see you first because I was afraid of killing the wrong person! Now I see that you have been temporarily deceived. Think about it carefully. Will you follow your master to kill people and harm the world in the future? "

Seeing that Li Wuxiang was still frowning and silent, Zeng Jianqiu touched his arms and threw a stack of paper on the stove: "If you still don't believe it, see for yourself."

Li Wuxiang picked up the stack of papers, unfolded them, and found that they were all contract documents. The papers were old and new, wrinkled, muddy, water-stained, and soaked with sweat. What is written above are the words that a certain town entrusted Qi Jianqiu to take Zhao Qi's life and how much the reward will be. They are all covered with seals of different shapes. There are some bloody handprints on some of them, some are from adults, and some are mutilated. Little palm prints.

Li Wuxiang slowly exhaled: "What...has he done?"

Zeng Jianqiu smiled coldly: "This demon is looking for his master. When he couldn't ask anyone, he thought his master might be passing by, so he set up a trance to ask. Do you know about trance?"

"I... don't quite know. Why would he harm people if he wants to seize the gods?"

"It's not just about offering sacrifices to the gods, it's about the incense and longevity of the human world! Wherever this demon has passed, how many people have been short-lived and lost their youth, and how many have been sent to death by him!"

Li Wuxiang thought for a while before hesitatingly said: "Then, if you come to me, what do you want to do?"

Zeng Jianqiu clapped his hands suddenly: "Okay! It turns out that you have some right and wrong in your heart! Young man, listen to me -"

"Zhao Qi, this demon, has average swordsmanship and a three-legged cat in his body-lighting skills, but their Ranshan sect's talisman skills are amazing. If he really tries to do something about it, I'm afraid he'll run away. If he runs away, go down. If a village harms the people again, it will be your fault. The reason why he accepted you as his disciple is because he needs someone to help him when he asks the gods, so he needs to find someone who is smart and handy - "

Speaking of this, Zeng Jianqiu paused and a smile appeared on his face: "Oh, by the way, do you know the True Form of the Five Mountains Emperor?"

Li Wuxiang thought for a while: "I knew he was a great god."

"Then Zhao Qi accepted you as his disciple and didn't tell you anything else?"

"He just took it from me yesterday."

"Oh, okay, okay. Then listen, this is a great master. You see, let's do it this way - to deal with a monster like Zhao Qi who is good at escaping, we must act quickly and must not delay. So take a look This treasure." Zeng Jianqiu took out a small oil paper bag from his arms and handed it to Li Wuxiang.

Two chapters merged into one.