No, gentlemen also guard against

Chapter 810 A Little Gift at Midnight

The night is quiet.

Inside a temple.

The light cast a shadow of a man sitting in front of the desk onto the window.

Ouyang Rong walked around the room with his hands behind his back.

These pavilions were guest rooms used by the Longcheng County Government to entertain distinguished guests.

When Shen Xisheng and the envoys from Luoyang came to Longcheng, they all stayed here.

After discussing with Magistrate Diao, Qin Ying and others in the evening, Ouyang Rong was brought here to rest.

The reason why he didn't return to Meiluyuan was that these houses were closer to the Longcheng County Government Office, and Ouyang Rong could receive the latest reply from the county government office first.

Second, Rong Zhen was there. She asked the Longcheng County Government to prepare a bathroom and hot water. Ouyang Rong didn't care, but the two of them had been traveling for many days. After all, she was a girl and a noble princess. The female official in colorful clothes represented the majesty of the emperor, so she still needed to be clean and decent.

It just so happened that there had been no reply to the news that Ouyang Rong had asked Magistrate Diao to investigate, so they decided to take a rest in the temple for a while.

Ouyang Rong paced around, stopped in front of the window, opened it and looked at the night scene outside.

The Longcheng County Government Office across the street was still brightly lit. Because of the order he gave, County Magistrate Diao and the county government would have to work overtime tonight.

Although the prince and the junior sister just left last night, the mysterious traces of the White Tiger Guards appeared on the official road outside Longcheng during the day, which inevitably made people make some associations.

But just in case, we should first find out where the prince and the junior sister are.

Whether it is by water or by land, and whether it is the same route as that of the White Tiger Guards.

Avoid misjudgment and chase without thinking.

The escape route from Longcheng was prepared by Pei Shisan Niang. After reviewing it, Ouyang Rong found that it was not a fixed plan, but rather there were several alternative plans, one of which was to take a boat at Tanlang Ferry in Longcheng County.

Because we are going back to Beijing from the north, we are not pursuing speed, but secrecy is the most important. Changing the route more often, even if it is a slightly longer route, is an acceptable option.

I don’t know which route my junior sister and the others chose to travel last night.

However, as long as the county government makes every effort to investigate, it will always be able to find some clues and figure it out.

Because the passes of their group were obtained at the Longcheng County Court, they would have left behind the pseudonym Su when passing through. However, the administrative efficiency was low in this era. If it were not for Ouyang Rong's order tonight, it would probably take half a decade for County Magistrate Diao to see these pass documents archived in the county government treasury.

But right now, Ouyang Rong has one thing that he doesn't understand.

What if the worst possibility is true, this group of unknown White Tiger Guards are really Li Congshan, Miao Zhen and his group who were missed in the Battle of Xunyang, and they have malicious intentions.

So how did they track down Junior Sister, the prince and the others? Was there a traitor who was reporting them along the way?
However, the few people who were able to follow Li Xian and run north had all suffered a lot of tests.

Needless to say, Lu Ya, Pei Shisan Niang, and Wang Caozhi, Cai Shou, Shun Bo and others are all old people from Longcheng and have followed all the way, loyally.

It is almost impossible for these people to betray, but if you think about it from another perspective, if one of them really betrays, the harm will be magnified exponentially.

The candle on the table was half burned, with occasional crackling sounds.

Ouyang Rong sat down again and closed his eyes to rest.

Adjust your breathing and calm your mind.

He first entered the Pagoda of Merit and took a look at the small wooden fish.

【Merit: 4,291】

This is the merit gained after the battle of Shuangfeng Peak destroyed the giant Buddha and withstood the thunder from the sky. It can be considered a net increase. The merit accumulated before the battle was all used up by Cui Hao when the Buddha was destroyed.

But if you think about it carefully, the collapse of the four Buddha statues including the Donglin Buddha and the Songde Tianshu, although there was a surge in merit, the increase in merit was not as exaggerated as the huge amount. Logically speaking, this should be a matter of great impact...

But then again, to be precise, this was Cui Hao's doing and it was also Cui Hao's hobby. He was at most just an accomplice, so it was reasonable that he didn't take the lion's share.

After a while, Ouyang Rong opened his eyes and took out the Mohist sword box and other items.

Finally got time to take inventory.

First of all, there are two newly acquired precious magic weapons, which were confiscated in the Battle of Shuangfeng Peak.

A picture of Peach Blossom Spring... [Han Shi] The only extant fake Ding sword, the two shafts are made of blood bronze.

A string of eighteen-bead Buddhist beads... Before Cui Hao used the stealth formation to destroy the four giant Buddhas and Tianshu, he used all the secret gold on the field to melt down the fake Ding sword of [Emperor Wen], which was able to call upon the golden sword energy of [Emperor Wen].

Now, the Four-sided Buddha and the Great Zhou Songde Tianshu have been destroyed. This is the only surviving fake Ding sword of Emperor Wen, and it has special significance.

In addition to these new acquisitions, there was also a string of cracked sandalwood Buddhist beads and a wooden pipa.

The former was given to him by the saint, and its previous owner was Lin Cheng.

Although he could only "avoid death once" and his vest had been used up when he escaped from Shuangfeng Peak that morning, Ouyang Rong did not throw it away.

Because he remembered something.

Since there is secret gold in the fake tripod of Emperor Wen, is there also a small amount of secret gold in this string of cracked wooden Buddhist beads?
However, Cui Hao left early after the battle and time was tight, so Ouyang Rong did not have time to ask.

If this inference is correct, and the sandalwood Buddhist beads are wrapped in secret gold, it means that it can be recast into a fake tripod.

Maybe it can be reused and used as a fake tripod for his own natal sword [Craftsmanship].

Put away the Buddhist beads for now.

He looked at the wooden lute.

The old musician gave it to me before he left.

Ouyang Rong brought the pipa closer to the light and looked at it carefully.

I found it to be relatively new and unremarkable. Considering the fact that the old musician came from a family of carpenters, it seemed to be handmade by the old man.

When the old musician was in Xunyang City, he seemed to like listening to the pipa in Xunyang Tower very much.

Ouyang Rong withdrew his thoughts, injected some spiritual energy, and played the strings for a while...but he didn't see any clues.

The wooden pipa was put aside.

He was lost in thought, and thought again of Yuan Huaimin's words about "the harmony of the harp and the zither".

Ouyang Rong shook his head.

This old guy is such a jinx.

After looking at the new things "except the white sturgeon wandering in the yard", Ouyang Rong turned his gaze to his old friend, the Mo family sword box.

There was a click.

The sword box opens.

He reached into the box, and a silver-white arc of electricity wrapped around his fingers, spreading along his right palm and up his right arm, making every hair on his body stand up.

It is the lightning essence thread that the thunder magic practitioners dream of.

Apart from a slight numbness, Ouyang Rong's right palm was safe and sound.

There was only a single lamp in the room, and the young man in scholarly robes took out several items from the box with his "silver-white hand":

Night-shining pearl, mirage beast mask, square face, red lotus sword seal, red and black talismans, etc.

There was only one red and black talisman left, and all the prepared tubes of spiritual ink had been used up by Cui Hao.

I am not in a hurry about this. I have wonderful ideas and can continue to exploit them. There is no other way. The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. I can only suffer for the fairy lady...

The Night Pearl was intact. Unlike the [Craftsman's Work] which experienced all the thunders from the sky, it only withstood the thunder once and did not seem to have any sequelae.

But that was the ninth level of golden thunder, and Ouyang Rong had a feeling that it was not that simple...

At the table, after taking out all his family assets, Ouyang Rong reached into the box with his right hand again.

There was a flash of lightning across the room.

He felt the state of [Craftsmanship].

There is a thunder punishment cage in the box.

【Craftsmanship】Cannot move.

For the active little ones, this is like torture like being locked up in a small dark room.

I could faintly hear the trembling and wailing of swords.

Ouyang Rong pursed his lips.

This battle on the twin peaks was a great relief for all the pent-up anger in our hearts.

But there are gains and losses.

[Craftsman] is trapped in the "Thunder Punishment Cage" and cannot be used temporarily.

For the sword-bearer, losing the Ding Sword is like losing his left and right arms.

The merits of the small wooden fish have also declined compared to the more than 6,000 or 7,000 before the Great War.

The identity of the owner of Butterfly Love Flower was revealed, the Donglin Buddha was destroyed... The aftermath of the Battle of Shuangfeng Peak was quite large, and he needed to finish it carefully afterwards.

This is a loss.

But I gained a lot.

The two fake Ding swords, [Emperor Wen] and [Han Shi] all fell into his hands.

He can temporarily replace [Craftsman] to provide him with support.

In addition, he also received the teachings of Cui Hao, the ancestor of the Qinghe Cui family, and mastered the top Confucian art "Kui Xing Fu" which is suspected to be lost. There is also the legendary Qi refining art "Taoyuan Sword Formation" involving [Ding Sword]. You can try to set up this formation for [Craftsman] to get rid of the cage of thunder punishment.

Plus a floating white sturgeon whose use is currently unknown.

Ouyang Rong stared at the items on the table, muttering absentmindedly:

"From this perspective, it seems like we have made a profit, but in this case, the Merit Purple Mist will become scarce again..."

He stroked the bronze mask that looked like a fox's head.

"Senior Cui walked too fast and left his words unsaid. The most important thing is that the fox-faced sorcerer's Daomai Qi Refining Technique has not yet been taught. According to him, this fox-faced sorcerer's Daomai is very special and strange. As long as one can collect the fake body of the corresponding Daomai Qi Refiner, the Dantian can imitate the spiritual energy of the corresponding Daomai and activate the Qi Refining Technique of that Daomai.

“That is to say, if there is a Taoist priest’s fake body in the mirage beast mask, then we can save the merit purple mist and directly use the decree of pardon. The Kuixing Talisman is also a Confucianism of the scholars. If we use it now, we can only let the merit purple mist take over.

"However, these two fake Ding swords can accept the spiritual energy of all the cultivators of the Dao Meridians. I can use the spiritual energy of the Dao Meridian of the sword master to activate it, but it consumes a lot of energy. If the seventh-grade Dantian is exhausted, I will still have to use the Merit Purple Mist to replace it."

Ouyang Rong had a slight headache and muttered:

"Why do I feel that these four thousand merits are not enough? If I spend too much, they will be gone. Not to mention that I have to reserve three thousand merits for the finale of the Divine Pardon Order, so that I can use them up when I wake up Senior Cui next time..."

He rubbed his face.

He stared at the items on the table in silence for a long time. At a certain moment, as if he remembered something, Ouyang Rong turned around and immediately went to get the talisman paper.

After finishing his preparations, he concentrated on drawing a Kuixing Talisman.

In the Pagoda of Merit, one hundred merits on the small wooden fish disappeared.

At the same time, a ray of purple light flashed across the Kuixing Talisman, and the talisman paper "whooshed" and shot into the bronze scroll lying quietly on the table.

The scroll slowly unfolded in silence.

There are some "wrinkles" on the drawing paper.

Ouyang Rong imitated Cui Hao that day and tried to put the night pearl, bronze mask, golden mask and other items into it one by one.

I saw that the surface of the paper was like the surface of water, and all objects sank into it one by one. Every time an object was contained, a ripple was created.

Moreover, he also saw that in the Peach Blossom Spring in the painting, there were ink-and-wash graphics corresponding to the various objects.

Ouyang Rong looked delighted.

It really works.

He studied it further, consuming some of his merits, and finally came to a conclusion that the space in the painting was probably as big as the wardrobe where Miao Si lived before.

Anything can be stored except living things.

It is more convenient to store things than in a sword box.

Just enough space for the sword box.

I don’t know if this art of spatial drawing was the unique work of Wu Daozi, but was stolen by Cui Hao.

Anyway, it's his now.

At this time, there was a sound of footsteps outside.

It seemed like a group of people were meeting and talking outside the courtyard gate.

Ouyang Rong's ears twitched, he hid his things, put on his clothes and went out.

At the gate of the courtyard, a group of maids left with empty plates, leaving behind the silhouette of a beautiful young girl.

A beautiful figure walked into the courtyard alone.

Ouyang Rong asked in surprise: "Rong Zhen?"

Rong Zhen was bare-faced, her black hair was wet, and she was not wearing a hairpin. Her little face still had a faint pink color from bathing.

Just like a lotus emerging from clear water.

She was wearing an elegant snow-white nightgown, with a clean and refreshing scent of soapberry, as she passed by Ouyang Rong.

He had a small bag slung over his arm and a bowl of steaming soup in his right hand.

She walked into his room without any hesitation, stood beside the desk and looked around.

Ouyang Rong was about to ask a question, but she said without turning her head:

"It was just delivered. They said you told them to make it before you went into the hospital in the evening."

After a pause, she lowered her head and asked softly:

"For me?"

"Ah."

She lowered her voice:

"Have a heart."

Rong Zhen turned around and looked into his eyes.

The atmosphere at the table was a little ambiguous.

Instead, it was Ouyang Rong who was the first to feel embarrassed and avoided his gaze:

"Warm yourself up, you may have to travel tomorrow morning."

She stared at Ouyang Rong for a while, then raised her chin to indicate;

"Help me wipe it."

Ouyang Rong turned his gaze and saw that her long black hair, which was tied to her right shoulder, was wet.

He took a dry towel, walked behind the girl, and wiped her with his eyes lowered.

Rong Zhen lowered her head slightly, picked up the porcelain bowl, and sipped the fresh fish soup in small sips. Her long eyelashes trembled from time to time.

I don’t know if it was the scalding heat from the milky white fish soup that had just come out of the pot, or the electric shock from the tips of his fingers that occasionally touched the skin of my neck.

Ouyang Rong wiped it very carefully.

At some point, the fingertips touched the girl's soft red ears.

Rong Zhen suddenly grabbed his wrist, and with trembling hands, she took the half bowl of fish soup that her pink lips had drunk and put it in his hand.

The girl's voice, which was always cold and quiet, trembled as slightly as the soup bowl:
"It's a cold night, drink half a bowl."

Ouyang Rong took the bowl, tilted his head back, and drank it all in one gulp, letting the warmth flow into his stomach.

As I was drinking, I heard her say:

"I like your hairpin."

Ouyang Rong asked inexplicably: "Which hairpin?"

Rong Zhen had already taken out the mandarin duck jade hairpin from her sleeve. She paused after hearing this, her face full of confusion:

"What else could it be? You just gave me a hairpin..."

At this point, the girl in the nightgown was suddenly stuck, her eyes moved downward, her face gradually became hot, and a charming blush appeared on her face.

Ouyang Rong shook his head seriously: "I was a little distracted and my words were nonsense, don't take it seriously."

Rong Zhen bit her lip and lowered her head deeply. She sorted out her expression for a long time before she raised her little face and gestured with the hairpin in her hand. Her tone was old-fashioned and serious:

"The Dao pattern inside was drawn by you? Are you going to give it to me?"

Ouyang Rong didn't think much about it:
"Uh-huh."

Rong Zhen's eyes were as dark as the night, staring straight at him:
"Do you know how precious it is? It's the only relic of the first generation of the lamplighter in this prison. It was almost lost... You gave it to someone without even notifying me."

"Oh, as long as it's useful to you, you can use it."

Hearing his natural and casual tone, Rong Zhen took a deep breath and pointed at the small bag he brought on the table.

"You gave me a gift, and I will give you a gift in return."

Ouyang Rong took a look and asked directly, "What's inside?"

Rong Zhen looked away, his face looked a little cold, and his tone was as cold and hard as ice. For a moment, Ouyang Rong couldn't figure out whether he was angry or not.

"Isn't it just what you like? I'll give it to you. Don't bother me anymore, hum."

Before Ouyang Rong could speak, footsteps were heard in the yard.

"Governor Ouyang."

It was Qin Ying’s voice.

Rong Zhen looked around quickly, and with a "whoosh", hid in the curtains of the bed in the inner room.

Ouyang Rong straightened his eyes and went out to meet someone.

As soon as the door opened, Qin Ying strode into the room. She didn't notice anything unusual, but her first words made Ouyang Rong's eyelids jump:
"There's news from Magistrate Diao! The White Tiger Guards are heading in the same direction as the prince and his men. One of them left at three in the morning, and the other passed through Dragon City at sunrise the next day.

"In addition, some people saw that the leaders of this group of White Tiger Guards were a man and a woman. They looked similar to the portraits you provided. They should be the Qianniu Guard Li Congshan and the colorful female official Miaozhen you mentioned."

Ouyang Rong frowned.

At this moment, he suddenly felt somewhat fortunate... The prince and Junior Sister did not continue to wait for him after waiting for one more day, either because of Li Guoer's request or because Junior Sister took the decisive decision, otherwise he would really have run into this group of White Tiger Guards with inexplicable intentions!
(End of this chapter)