Jiaohua

The little girl plucked up her courage and boldly met Shen Lie's gaze.

But Shen Lie only looked at her twice more and then looked away.

"Are all the people in this temple surnamed Qiao?" Shen Lie looked back at Zou Zhan.

Zou Zhan didn't answer, his face was ashen.

"Speak!" Ye Zheng shouted.

Zou Zhan suddenly threw the knife in his hand to the ground: "Without the young master's order, I won't say anything. Otherwise, just kill me!"

Ye Zheng sneered: "Do you really think I dare not kill you?"

Zou Zhan raised his head: "Kill him!"

Shen Lie got off his horse and walked towards the Taoist temple. He stopped when he passed by Zou Zhan and said calmly, "I'm surprised that you have been with Shen An for so many years, but you haven't learned his way of hiding your true nature and not showing it."

"Don't go in!" Zou Zhan turned around and looked at Shen Lie's tall, straight, and thin back. "If you still think of Shen An as your big brother, don't go in!"

Shen Lie paused slightly, and then without hesitation, he stepped onto the short stone steps in front of the temple gate.

Liang Jun followed behind Shen Lie and sneered at Zou Zhan as he approached: "I guess you are mistaken. Shen An has never regarded our general as a brother."

As Shen Lie came in, everyone in the courtyard stepped back quietly.

The young woman held the little girl's hand tightly, and suddenly took her hand and strode out: "Shen Lie, you are Shen Lie, right!"

Shen Lie stopped and looked at her, his dark eyes devoid of any emotion.

"Look at her," the young woman pushed the little girl forward, "Does her face look familiar?"

Shen Lie glanced at the little girl, then looked back at the young woman: "What's wrong?"

"Her face," the young woman said in a trembling voice, "Don't you think her face looks a lot like..."

Liang Jun looked at the little girl, frowned, and knew at a glance who the young woman was talking about.

But Shen Lie didn't say anything, and Liang Jun wouldn't speak either.

Shen Lie asked: "You want to say, it's Ah Li?"

The young woman was delighted: "Yes, does it look alike? Does it look alike? She..."

"No," Shen Lie interrupted her, "Back in the capital, Yanyun Guards captured nearly a hundred girls who looked very similar to Ah Li. Compared to them, she doesn't look like them."

The young woman was stunned.

Liang Jun frowned even more tightly when he thought of what happened that year.

Yes, in order to catch her, Li Dongyan caused a sensation in the city. It was also at that time that the name "Ali" officially entered the ears of people all over the world for the first time.

"No!" the little girl shouted, "I'm not like those girls! Ali is my cousin, and my grandfather and her grandfather are brothers!"

Shen Lie suddenly walked towards her, his tall figure blocking the light of the garden lamp, like a dark cloud slowly covering her, his handsome face was like a piece of ice jade, chilling her.

The little girl stepped back and looked at him in horror.

Shen Lie said coldly: "Listen carefully, Ah Li's surname is Xia, from the Duke Dingguo's Mansion of the previous dynasty. Considering that you are still young, I will not bother with you. If I find out that you are still talking nonsense outside, I will kill the people who instigated you first, and then kill you."

The little girl cried softly: "But what I said is true, she is mine..."

Shen Lie's eyes narrowed suddenly, and murderous intent rose up. The little girl was silently frightened and her face turned pale.

"Tell me again, who is she to you?"

The little girl cried out loudly and didn't dare to answer.

Several middle-aged men in Taoist robes walked out of the temple quickly.

"Are you... Second Young Master Shen?" a man said.

Shen Lie turned around and the men came over. The man who had just spoken raised his hand: "Hello, Second Young Master Shen. My name is Qiao Kaishi! I wonder why Second Young Master Shen is here?" His voice trembled a little, because he couldn't figure out the purpose of Shen Lie's visit, and Shen Lie's temperament and his current identity made him afraid.

The other men followed behind him, all of them looked terrified and bowed their heads to Shen Lie and clasped their fists.

Shen Lie glanced at them and asked Qiao Kaishi: "What are you doing here?"

"We are refining medicine here. Young Master Shen thinks our medicine is useful, so he specially built a temple here and asked us to come here to refine medicine."

"It's useful," Shen Lie frowned, "Is it really useful?"

"Mr. Shen said that he felt better after eating it!"

Shen Lie didn't say anything. After a pause, he walked towards the hall.

Although it is called a main hall, there are no statues of gods enshrined in it, only a few landscape paintings and calligraphy.

The hall is brand new but also simple. Once you enter, the aroma of medicine and flowers in the courtyard becomes stronger.

Shen Lie's gaze immediately fell on the row of incense tables near the north.

No wonder he felt the scent was familiar, he had smelled it before, in Qianqiu Palace. Ah Li later told him that it was the moon peony specially cultivated by the Qiao family.

Ten large furnaces with blazing fires were placed on the left and right sides of the hall. All the furnaces were burning red. The temperature in the entire hall was extremely high, and one could feel the heat as soon as one stepped in.

Qiao Kaishi led his men to follow behind Shen Lie, always looking respectful.

Shen Lie looked at the alchemy furnaces for a long time, and suddenly asked, "If this elixir is effective, then can the root of his illness be cured?"

Qiao Kaishi said: "Well, I can't really say for sure, but at least... it can alleviate some of the pain."

"Relieve it a little?" Shen Lie asked in a low voice.

He took a deep breath and turned to look at Qiao Kaishi: "You are all members of the Qiao family?"

A look of timidity flashed across Qiao Kaishi's face and he nodded.

"Have you heard of Qianqiu Palace? It is located on Longdan Mountain, with Longyuan behind it, Shuangjiang Palace in front of it, and Yuanhe Sect on top."

"Second Young Master, I can't answer what you want to ask," Qiao Kaishi raised his head and looked at Shen Lie carefully, then lowered his head and continued, "We have heard of Qianqiu Palace, but we don't know more. We don't know why those people want to harm us. We don't know what our ancestors did. When we were born, we were just ordinary villagers. Our fathers were rural doctors who traveled around the country to practice medicine. If there is anything special about the village and our family, it is that there are many ancient books related to alchemy, that's all!"

"Has Shen An mentioned Qianqiu Palace to you?"

Qiao Kaishi frowned and nodded: "I mentioned it."

"How?"

"Actually, you don't need to tell me, young master," Qiao Kaishi's eyes turned red and he choked up, "When Yuanhe Sect was recruiting people to flatten Qianqiu Palace, I deliberately went there to infiltrate them. I saw it with my own eyes. When I stepped into the mountain stream, everything I saw was no different from Purgatory."

Recalling the past, Shen Lie also felt uncomfortable.

He looked at those alchemy furnaces again. They were not similar to the ones he saw in Qianqiu Palace. These alchemy furnaces still looked very new.

Shen Lie said: "Give me the formula for the pill. If you don't have it, write one now and get me ten more pills."

Qiao Kaishi whispered: "The pills are still being refined..."

Shen Lie looked over and asked, "No medicine available?"

"The eldest son ate very quickly, and this medicine is not easy to refine. If you are lucky, you can succeed once out of ten batches. If you are unlucky, you will fail after thirty batches. And you have to wait a long time for each batch, and someone needs to keep an eye on the temperature all the time, so there can't be any mistakes."

Liang Jun couldn't help but ask: "Is it so difficult?"

"This is an ancient method. We are inexperienced and are still trying to figure it out. Thanks to the Shen family's wealth and numerous rare medicinal materials, we have the opportunity to practice. Before this, we had no chance to try it at all."

Liang Jun looked at Shen Lie and said, "General, it sounds like this medicine is really top-grade and may be really useful."

Shen Lie looked at Qiao Kaishi and said, "After a cup of tea, I want to see the formula. As for the ready-made medicine, give it to me after the furnace is opened."

Qiao Kaishi had no choice but to bow his head: "Yes! I'll ask them to write it right away." (End of this chapter)