At dawn, amid the chirping of cicadas in late summer, Ma Sheng, the protector of the Huaiyou League, and his daughter Ma Ping'er set off on their way together.

"Put away the sickle that ignited the fire. Don't let it get wet by the rain."

Ma Sheng looked at his daughter who was dressed as a man, and reminded him in a low voice, "There is no dew today, and it's very boring. I'm afraid it will rain again. If it rains, I won't be short of food if I don't need this..."

"Understood!" Ma Ping'er, who was only in his early twenties, responded impatiently, but he still rolled a long sword thinly in silk, and then went to look at the pile of sundries in the bag.

I didn't forget to take out a comb and thin out my greasy hair, then took out a piece of oil paper and wiped my face.

When Ma Sheng saw this, he wanted to say something else.

Unexpectedly, Ma Ping'er had already guessed, and immediately choked back before his father could say anything: "The sword is the most important thing... Dad, look at how chaotic the world is, there are bandits, gangs, and Zhuangzi everywhere.

Come on, there are people from the imperial court who are worse than bandits. Without knives, people will really die!"

It was as if she was just protecting the sword.

"Having said that, you don't have the cultivation level of Yitian Sword." Ma Sheng sighed after hearing this. "If you don't have the skills, in the world, rules, face, favors, and profit are the most important things... We have something important to do.

It doesn't matter if you are a little dirty... Remember, we are the trendy people who came from Surabaya. We are the trendy people who heard the news about the Xu family and had no choice but to come to the Wang family to send messages. Don't force yourself to come forward."

Ma Ping'er knew to some extent that his father was right, and that his own cultivation was indeed only at the level of the eight Zhengmai. He couldn't even express his true energy, so he couldn't be considered a master, so he had no choice but to shut up and make a quick check.

object.

But before the father and daughter left the hut of the nightclub outside the city, the daughter was still a little unconvinced. After all, she led the mule and retorted: "I'm not high in cultivation, but I'm good at martial arts and have a lot of strength! If we really fight,

You may not be afraid of masters who are more qualified than me!"

Her father, Ma Sheng, is a master of the ten true meridians.

However, how could Ma Sheng care about such trivial matters with his daughter? He just looked up at the gloomy weather above his head, then sighed and fell onto a bad horse.

Moreover, Protector Ma is not only a master of the ten righteous meridians, who can make the true energy attach to the weapons, but also worked in Liangjun Gongmen when he was young. He is familiar with all three religions and nine schools, has profound eyesight, and speaks properly. Otherwise, how would he be able to achieve the prosperous Jianghuai today?

The largest group of guardians from the Huaiyou League, with a high salary of five taels of silver and five stones of food per month, command directly in front of the leader Du?

In fact, because Ma Ping'er was a rare female cultivator in the Huaiyou League, she was protected by her biological father, and because she was young, she was always respectable. She was protected by so many young men that she had

A nickname for the heroine of Guohekou.

However, now that the leader of the alliance, Du Pozhen, has personally asked him to go through the most chaotic Central Plains and the eastern border area, he will go to the north to visit someone and find out some information. But the leader of the alliance, Du, did not want to reveal the identity of the Huaiyou Alliance.

It was deliberately scrawled... One was riding a bad horse, and the other was riding a mule. They were all dressed in commoners, just like the poor people from the Eastern Border.

In this way, the father and daughter set out on the road together and crossed the boundary marker in the afternoon, from Liang County in the Central Plains region to Jiyin County in the Eastern Border region.

The trip went smoothly, except that in the afternoon, it rained as expected.

Now that the rain has fallen, the good news is that the summer rain can eliminate the previous heat, but the bad news is that for people on the road, this kind of continuous rain is the most annoying. It is not only muddy, but also can make people moldy.

That kind of wetness.

It can only be said that the two of them were fortunate to be practicing practitioners, so they were able to endure the rain and continue walking.

"Something's wrong."

After walking for a while, Ma Sheng, who was wearing a bamboo hat with a missing mouth, suddenly reined in his horse and stopped. "This road is the main road from Waihuang to Jiyang. It shouldn't be so peaceful..."

"It's not that peaceful, right?" Ma Ping'er immediately retorted. "When it didn't rain in the morning, there were a lot of people on the road... Now it's raining, who of the ordinary people is still on the road? It's summer, aren't you afraid of getting gonorrhea?

"

"That's the problem." Ma Sheng responded seriously. "I worked as an errand in Liang County in my early years. I know very well that Waihuang and Jiyang are both big cities, and they are also the territory of the Wang family... The Wang family relied on Waihuang to get to Jiyang.

It is supported by freight. In other words, how could there be no dealers or skilled practitioners on this road? Are they afraid of rain? We walked all the way in the afternoon, did we see a few of them?"

Ma Ping'er suddenly woke up, but was puzzled: "Then what should we do?"

"Let's go." Ma Sheng thought for a moment and answered immediately. "I know a place, I don't know if it's still there. It's on a small road leading to Jiyang Ferry... Let's go hide for a night and wait.

Tomorrow, when the rain subsides, we can go to the ferry again to avoid being stopped by the Wang family."

Ma Pinger just nodded.

Now that the father and daughter had made up their mind, they moved forward quickly, then turned at the intersection ahead, then turned into a connected trail, and arrived at a place before evening.

This is a very small Taoist temple, dedicated to the Black Emperor, who has a weak incense in the Central Plains and Eastern Regions. It has long been abandoned. Fortunately, the main body of the building is still there, especially the central hall. Considering that it is seven or eight miles away from the main road,

At this time, it is undoubtedly a good place to take shelter from the rain and get away from trouble.

What's even better is that although the hall is a bit messy at this time, the traces are covered by the returning tide, and there is no one inside or outside.

After patrolling around, Protector Ma breathed a sigh of relief. He bowed to the statue of Black Emperor first, then turned to the other side of the statue with his daughter, who bowed her head, and sat down peacefully... and asked her daughter to get the mule.

The charcoal basin and charcoal blocks are ready to light a fire at home.

However, after taking out the charcoal basin and charcoal blocks, Ma Ping'er took out flints and other objects, only to find that the soft grass and tarpaulin underneath that made the fire had already been soaked by the rain, and could not light a fire at all.

Ma Sheng was extremely speechless, and Ma Ping'er was even more embarrassed and angry for a moment, but he had no choice but to wait for the tinder to dry.

"Five years ago, there were still three or five Taoist priests in this place." Ma Sheng was too lazy to blame, so he could only talk nonsense. "They were abolished during the expedition to Dongyi. The Taoist priests were all taken away to join the army and never came back.

People from several clans wanted to take over and fought a few battles. However, when the second conquest of Dongyi came, the nearby villages lost their strength, and the Wang family looked down upon this thing..."

Ma Ping'er's mind was not here, and he just nodded casually.

And just when the father and daughter seemed bored, it was getting late, and suddenly there was a burst of horse hooves outside, and then someone broke into the view directly, and then obviously discovered their livestock, which made the two of them very nervous... What they were most afraid of was

This is what happened. If I could escape later, I can't escape now.

Ma Ping'er was about to get up to check, but was stopped by his father.

"The master of the temple invites you."

The people outside had not yet entered, so they directly raised their voices and asked, with a Northern accent, which seemed polite. "It's raining heavily outside, which delayed the journey. It's too late to get to Waihuang. I'd like to ask if there is still some open space inside, where can we three brothers be accommodated?"

Someone started a fire? If it's inconvenient, leave now."

After hearing this, Ma Sheng felt reassured and immediately responded in the hall: "We have invited guests. We, father and daughter, are not local owners. We are trendy people from Surabaya. We are delivering posts to Wang Wulang's family in Jiyang. We are on the wrong route just like you.

There is no way to cross the river. In order to save some money, I came here... If you don't mind, just come in and worship the Black Emperor together."

"Excuse me." The man responded immediately, followed by the sound of footsteps.

"What is a trendy guest?" Amid the footsteps, another young male voice asked out of curiosity.

"I don't know, I am a local from Luoyang." The third person's voice was crisp.

While they were talking, the three young people had already entered the hall. The first one did not look at the statue, but glanced at the Ma family and his daughter, and they suddenly became curious:

"It's getting late, why don't you two make a fire?"

Ma Ping'er was embarrassed for a moment, and the other party was a decent young man, but he was disheveled, so he could only lower his head and whisper in response: "Flint has been dumped."

"I see."

The man smiled, showing a pair of big white teeth, and put down a charcoal basin on the other side of the statue, but he also didn't use flint.

The Ma family and his daughter were still confused, but the youngest young man in the back had already come over, took out the tarpaulin and soft grass that started the fire, and just snapped his fingers, and sparks ignited.

Ma Sheng's eyes were sharp and he instantly realized that this was not a magic trick, but that this young man who didn't even know what a Chao Ke was should be a master of Lihuo Zhenqi, higher than himself, with at least eleven and twelve true meridians.

, or even the Great Perfection of the Right Meridian, otherwise it would be impossible to easily reveal the true energy and stir up the bright fire.

In addition, as the flames ignited, Ma Sheng already had more guesses in his mind... These three people, two in their twenties and one in his early twenties, should all be top masters in cultivation, but they

I don't know what Chaoke is, and their behavior and manners are public. I'm afraid they are military officers who escaped from the imperial commander and returned home to Luoyang, and two of them should be from good backgrounds.

To be honest, this kind of person is much easier to deal with than the people in Zhuangzi, because they don’t care about money and don’t want to cause trouble... As for my daughter, although she starts to look down and frown, she is not afraid... because she is really not that beautiful.

Excellent, even though it rained for half a day, it was greasy and stained.

After thinking this, Ma Sheng breathed a sigh of relief.

"If we don't see anyone else, let's come over together. I'll treat Xian and his daughter to a hot meal, and I'll ask you about things in Surabaya." At this moment, the older man suddenly spoke. "Tanhuo Province"

Just use it a little bit, if you use it too much, you can just renew it with Xian and Daughter in the middle of the night."

Ma Sheng thought for a while and simply stood up, and the two parties immediately sat down together.

As soon as he sat down, Ma Sheng held up his hands and said, "Thank you very much... What are your last names?"

"My surname is Zou!" the younger one responded directly. "This is my third brother Zang, and this is my sixth brother Wang."

The older one immediately burst out laughing and immediately corrected: "His surname is Zhou, my surname is Zhang, and this surname is Wang... Xiao Zhou is from the south, and his accent is wrong... Where are the virtuous father and daughter?"

"My surname is Ma." Ma Sheng responded quickly.

"Brother Ma." After a brief announcement, the young man surnamed Zhou, who was a little embarrassed just now, couldn't bear it anymore. "You come from Surabaya, do you know where the emperor's chariot is?"

really!

Ma Sheng was not surprised, but he had something to say: "I arrived at Xiapi last month... there were too many people, and the Surabaya River was blocked, but Yujia himself was very fast. He should have crossed the Huaihe River before coming, and he should have crossed the Huaihe River now.

, maybe even when we get to Jiangdu."

"Why are you in such a hurry?" The man surnamed Wang was immediately puzzled. "You were still with the team on the Langya section before? Did you run away now? Did something happen again?"

Ma Sheng immediately smiled bitterly: "I don't know, there are all kinds of rumors, some even say that he is a very powerful assassin... But we don't dare to say what it is, I can only say that it is indeed faster."

Xiao Zhou looked at Zhang Sanlang, but the latter just sat and watched the fire, then immediately shook his head, and then continued to ask: "Not talking about this, does Brother Ma know the result of the South Route Army?"

"What can be the result? It must be defeat." When talking about this, Ma Sheng finally became sad. "Of the one hundred thousand Southern Route Army, 30% are from Huaibei, 30% are from Huainan, and 30% are from the Southeast Navy. And then
To be continued...