Xuanxia

Chapter 8 Entering the Mountain
Meng Zhugang's eyes were out of focus, his hands and feet were tied behind his back and thrown aside, with a cloth stuffed in his mouth. He could only utter slight moans of pain.

At this time, Fu Qingzhou had already used the medicine left by the Miao old woman in the kitchen to detoxify him - he was really lucky, that thing really was an antidote.

The wound under his ribs was bandaged and the bleeding stopped temporarily, but how could Fu Qingzhou let him have a chance to breathe? After the bruises on his face faded, Fu Qingzhou stuffed a pill into his mouth without hesitation.

"You guys in Wandu Mountain are the masters of poison. My little poison will definitely not do anything to you."

Fu Qingzhou smiled and took out a dozen more pills from his waist: "But if I take out a bunch of different poisons, how will you deal with it?"

Meng Zhugang, who was seriously injured and whose body functions were severely damaged by the "Green-faced Beast", was fed with more than a dozen poisons.

These were the poisons that Fu Qingzhou had made himself to deal with the charlatans, using the recipe provided by the Smoker - they were not as strong as the poison that had killed the old Taoist priest before, but they were cheap, used simple ingredients, and... the effects were random enough after mixing them together.

At this time, Meng Zhugang's hands and feet kept twitching, and he felt weak all over. He was also poisoned so much that he temporarily lost his sight and the ability to speak.

"Speaking of which..."

While Fu Qingzhou was looking for the key, he quietly asked, "Why don't you just teach me how to make him unable to move by pressing the acupoints? It should be possible, right?"

"Why should I teach you?" The Smoker sneered disdainfully: "So that you can quickly find a way to break the curse?"

After that, its tone changed and it asked curiously: "Come to think of it, aren't you afraid of killing him by messing around like this?"

"Just die."

Fu Qingzhou didn't take it seriously: "I've said before that Wandu Mountain has a close relationship with the imperial court. If he dies here, the mountain will definitely send someone to investigate soon, and I will be able to get in touch with them by then."

"Although it will be troublesome and we have to wait a few more days, there is always a way."

The Smoker snorted, "Actually, there's no need for you to be his enemy. It would be better to join forces with him."

"I won't associate with people who kill for their own selfish interests." Fu Qingzhou said calmly.

The Smoker sneered: "If you kill him, wouldn't that be killing for personal gain?"

"I won't kill innocent people." Fu Qingzhou said without wavering, "I don't want to argue with you. If you don't want to help me, just shut up. I won't smash your heart of stone, but be careful or I'll sink your stone into the cesspool."

"you dare?!"

The smoker screamed, and then actually quieted down.

Fu Qingzhou finally got a moment of peace and began to look for the key seriously.

Finally, after about an incense stick of time, he noticed something he had previously overlooked - it was a "block of wood" piled in the firewood pile in the backyard. It looked like a stake with six strange protrusions. It looked a little weird, but if you look closely, you will find several very thin splicing and wedging marks on the block of wood.

If I had to describe it, it would probably be somewhat similar to the "Lu Ban Lock" and "Kong Ming Lock" that he had played with in his previous life. They must be twisted and pulled in a specific way and sequence to be unlocked.

"The five numbers are three-two, five-eight, six-three, twenty-nine, and one-one. The largest prefix is ​​six. This 'wooden block' has exactly six heads, so what is the number of rotations corresponding to each different protrusion?"

"But how do I know which is one and which is six?"

But this was not a difficult task. Fu Qingzhou observed for a while and found that the number of wood grains on different protrusions was different, which just corresponded to the numbers from one to six. This made it easy. He sat on a small stool in the backyard and fiddled with this thing for less than a quarter of an hour. He found the pattern according to the code and solved it.

As the last mortise and tenon was dislocated, a small brass key was revealed in the moonlight.

……

Before dawn, Fu Qingzhou took Meng Zhugang away from the courtyard.

He carefully cleaned the house and the yard, erasing all traces left by the two men, and destroyed all the poisonous smoke and poisonous arrow mechanisms.

Next, some constables or the like might come, and if we don’t clean it up, someone might get hurt or even die.

Meng Zhugang was worthy of being a disciple of Wan Du Mountain. He only suffered for two hours under the ravages of the dozen or so poisons. When the sunlight slanted into the mountain, he had already survived.

Of course, in order to prevent him from escaping, Fu Qingzhou tied him up like a big dumpling and mercilessly broke his hands.

"This place is still more than 200 miles away from the gate of Wandu Mountain. The mountain road is rugged and we may not be able to get there today."

Meng Zhugang said weakly: "I'm so badly injured...can you give me something to eat?"

At this time, Fu Qingzhou was riding an old horse, wandering through the mountains and forests. As for Meng Zhugang, he was led by a rope and walking behind the horse.

Hearing this, he turned his head and smiled: "Don't worry, if you are really dying, I won't ignore you. Instead, you should save some energy and walk less distance, so don't take me around in circles."

Meng Zhugang's abilities far outweigh his own. Only by starving him and making him unable to even speak can his safety be guaranteed.

In this way, Fu Qingzhou had to carefully test for poison every time he took out dry food and water from the package.

The disciples of Wan Du Mountain... who knows how many poisoning methods they have?
Better safe than sorry...

The road that Meng Zhugang pointed out was to go all the way south from Lingxiang Town, deep into the Shiwan Mountains, then go over an unnamed stone mountain in the southwest direction, and after going down the mountain, look for a swamp filled with poisonous miasma nearby. As long as you cross the swamp and pass through a valley, you can see the village on the Wandu Mountain from afar.

Fu Qingzhou felt helpless when he heard this, but there was nothing he could do. This was how it was in ancient times. No one built roads for you, and it was impossible to put up road signs everywhere. In places like these in the mountains, the locals had to rely on some special landforms to find their way.

They walked from early morning till dusk before they finally climbed over the rocky mountain. The old horse was not good at climbing mountains, so Fu Qingzhou let it go halfway. He was left to carry the dry food and drag the half-dead Meng Zhugang by himself.

After climbing over the rocky mountain, Meng Zhugang fainted from exhaustion again. Fu Qingzhou walked around twice but couldn't find the so-called swamp. He didn't dare to go far. Seeing that it was getting dark, he set up a bonfire on the spot.

Soon after, night fell.

The Shiwanda Mountains are a truly remote primeval forest with wild animals roaring at you from time to time. Fu Qingzhou sprinkled the dry tiger feces he had prepared long ago around the temporary camp to prevent a sneak attack by wild animals in the middle of the night.

But at this moment, Meng Zhugang, who had been pale and unable to lift his eyelids all the way, was now breathing slowly and powerfully.

He breathed in the mountain air greedily, and the skin between his eyebrows twitched slightly, as if the air here was very different from that outside.

Then, he slowly opened his eyes and stared at Fu Qingzhou, who was leaning against a tree not far away and eating dry food, and his eyes became extremely vicious.

(End of this chapter)