"Three nights ago, I had a dream. I dreamed that the earth was cracked, the rivers were flowing backwards, and a dazzling golden light burst out from the ground like a vast ocean..."
In the warm pavilion of the Qiantai Palace, the emperor sat cross-legged on a velvet mattress and leaned behind a golden nanmu table. He was only dressed in dark purple thick satin uniforms.
And half of the important officials in the imperial court who hold military power are standing in this small warm pavilion, including seven or eight generals including Hushi, Fuguo, and Zhenjun. Yu Wenhu is also dressed in purple clothes and gold belts, standing silently. In the center of the team.
Xie Yun had already changed into the Flying Fish robe of the commander of the imperial army with a deep red background and white satin, standing next to the queen, behind him was the unsmiling Shan Chao holding the seven-star dragon. I saw that everyone in the Nuan Pavilion was dumb-faced, and the generals bowed their heads and stood in silence, only to hear the emperor in front of him continue to say: "I am afraid that something unexpected will happen, but all your lovers have disappeared, and no one has come to rescue you, so I feel very sad." Frightened. Just when there was nowhere to hide, suddenly a light burst from the cracks, and gradually twelve golden men with inscriptions on their chests rose up..."
"Your Majesty," the empress had been talking behind closed doors with the emperor for three days, and she didn't look too good at the moment, but she was always in better health than the sickly emperor, so she spoke in a very steady voice: "My loves are all loyal to you. , if there is any real danger, they will definitely rush to rescue you without stopping. The theory of dreams has always been unreliable, so it is better not to take it seriously, Your Majesty."
As soon as the words fell, everyone’s expressions slowed down a little—anyone who was drinking tea and was suddenly called by the emperor to criticize Huai Huai, “I dreamed that you were unfaithful!” would feel very fucked, the queen’s words really hit everyone’s heart up.
However, the emperor waved his hand and was unexpectedly paranoid: "I am very clear about the loyalty of the ministers, so there is no need to discuss it here. It's just that dreams foretell reality. This has happened since ancient times. How can it be completely untrue?"
Queen: "..."
Everyone was speechless, and the queen was speechless.
"After I woke up from the dream, I felt very terrified. I didn't know what the dream meant. But I thought the golden man implied swords and soldiers, and all the lovers are the pillars of the country with great military exploits, so I want to call you to interpret the dream." The emperor looked around and asked with a condensed voice: "Everyone, what do you think?"
The emperor's tone was really quite unfriendly. Several important ministers looked at each other, but they didn't dare to speak.
"Why are you silent?" The emperor said dissatisfied: "Yuan Yu, you speak first."
Yuchi Yuanyu felt aggrieved in his heart, but he stood at the top of the military general, so he had no choice but to go forward and bow: "Reporting to the Holy Majesty, I am not good at interpreting dreams, but the appearance of a golden man underground may mean that God is about to bestow immortal military exploits on the Holy Majesty. …”
"It's nonsense." The emperor interrupted Yuchi Yuanyu with a cold face, and swept his gaze to the officials: "Yuwenhu?"
General Yuwen took a breath from the sympathetic gazes around him.
"Your Majesty." Yu Wenhu thought for a while, and said in a deep voice: "It is said that the first emperor sold all the soldiers in the world. He thought that there were twelve bells and gold men, and they placed them in front of the Efang Palace. Afterwards, they disappeared due to the chaos of the war. I dare to think that the Holy Majesty looked at it." The one who arrived may be the Twelve Golden Man whose whereabouts are unknown."
The emperor's mind was finally hit, and his face became a little better: "Oh? Then why do you think I dreamed of them?"
—The monarch and his ministers answered that at this time, they usually want to flatter, and everyone is used to it, so Yu Wenhu replied docilely: "The first emperor visited Mount Tai in the past and left his name in history. The emperor's feats will be rewarded by the heavens, and the earth will be cracked to reveal golden light... "
Snapped!
Yu Wenhu suddenly fell silent, only to see His Majesty slapping the table heavily: "One or two, they only know how to fool me with these eulogizing rhetoric!"
The Snappers were silent.
"If it's really a gift from God, why did I have such a terrible scene in my dream? It's clear that you are perfunctory and unwilling to solve my problems, so you use nice words to prevaricate things!"
"I dare not wait!"
All the officials immediately knelt down to plead guilty, but the emperor was still angry, and when he wanted to reprimand him, he suddenly heard a low and pleasant voice coughing softly: "Your Majesty."
Everyone looked away, only to see Xie Yun stepping forward slowly, and said softly: "I dare to ask the Holy One, why did you have this dream?"
The emperor was still a bit jealous of the commander of the Imperial Guard, so he just frowned and snorted: "Why did I have this kind of dream, isn't I just asking all my loves here? It's just you..."
"The dream may be caused by thinking day by day or dreaming at night, or it may be induced by others with secret techniques, so I asked this question." Xie Yun paused, and said: "Is there anyone who has woken up from the dream? Come to visit immediately? Is there anyone who can accurately tell the content of the dream? If so, then the dream must have been induced by others, so dream interpretation is meaningless at all, hope the Holy One will learn from you.”
The emperor was taken aback, and so were the officials.
The important court officials probably never felt Commander Xie was so cute like they were at this moment, but after the emperor realized it, he immediately became furious: "You are talking nonsense! I think you are the one who is too suspicious, and you can have fake dreams?!"
"It is possible." Xie Yun said lightly: "There are so many strange skills and tricks in the secret door, and there are no fewer than dozens of ways to attract people's minds. I dare to ask Yin Kaiyang, the head of the secret door who has left Beijing without authorization for several years and has not heard from him recently. If it appears, have you ever met the Holy One? If there is, it will be a ghost for the head of Yin, and the Holy One only needs to behead him, and he will be able to crack it immediately."
As soon as the four characters "beheaded" were pressed down, the surrounding air froze instantly.
boom!
The Holy Majesty dropped the tea bowl and said angrily: "Bold! It's fine if you refuse to solve my problems, but..."
"- Commander Xie's words are wrong."
A casual male voice suddenly sounded outside the hall door, and everyone turned their heads in astonishment, only to see a man in a black python robe and a silver mask crossing the threshold with his hands behind his back, and said with a smile: "If you don't agree with me, call for beating and killing. It seems to be a tradition to deceive teachers and destroy ancestors."
The Supreme Son of Heaven and half of the courtiers, but the pace of this man is leisurely, as if he appeared suddenly out of nowhere, and walked in leisurely under the staring eyes of all the courtiers like monsters.
Only the strong muscles on Shan Chao's back suddenly tensed.
——Just like a young male wolf with sharp teeth, when he was about to launch a challenge to take over the power of the wolf king, he suddenly smelled the threatening aura of a foreign beast.
He knows who that person is.
The top expert in Ouchi who has been in charge of the secret sect for thirty years, and the behind-the-scenes ruler of the ghost sect of the Jianghu demon sect; at his peak, it is no exaggeration to describe him as turning his hands into clouds and covering his hands as rain, and his crimes are also murderous There are too many books to describe, and for many people, they are all monsters living in legends.
Yin Kaiyang.
The one who brought Xie Yun into the secret door and brought him up is Yin Kaiyang.
Xie Yun turned his head slightly, and said word by word: "Master Yin."
"Your Majesty," Yin Kaiyang smiled and bowed to the astonished eyes of the important ministers, and the emperor's expression suddenly eased: "Yin Aiqing doesn't need to be too polite, get flat soon."
Yin Kaiyang stood up straight as he said, and glanced at Xie Yun with a smile: "Commander Xie should have seen a lot about secret methods, so why does he think that such an illusory thing as the Holy Majesty's dream of twelve golden men can also be related to my secret door?" relation?"
-Yin Kaiyang's questioning voice is not high, not harsh, nor aggressive. They are all masters of martial arts based on intensive internal strength, but his voice is not as good as Xie Yun's, which is born with a gorgeous, cold and superior quality.
But when he spoke, there seemed to be a kind of surging energy in his voice, which poured straight into the brains of everyone around him, causing all the officials to suddenly feel a sense of spirituality, all of them were intimidated by his internal force, but they couldn't break free a feeling of.
Yuchi Yuanyu, Yu Wenhu and others subconsciously pulled their legs back at the same time, but saw Xie Yun standing where he was, facing Yin Kaiyang's gaze with a smile behind his mask, and said expressionlessly: "The tradition of the secret door is not only about deceiving teachers and destroying ancestors, but also professional Let’s dance to the Great God, right, Master Yin?”
Yin Kaiyang didn't answer.
Xie Yun said coldly: "The secret door that was once loyal to the emperor has left the capital without authorization for a long time. Not only has it become a bandit in the rivers and lakes, it even calls itself a disrespectful 'God and Ghost Gate'. Last time the Holy Majesty was dreaming on the front foot, and you appeared on the back foot, ask the ministers in the court, is there any other reason to explain the dream of the Holy Majesty besides the secret door?"
What he said made all the officials show their approval, Empress Wu nodded slightly, and even the emperor couldn't think of any words to refute for a while.
However, Yin Kaiyang shook his head with a smile, raised his hand and said to Xie Yun from the air: "Ah Yun, you can't think of any other words to swear besides the four words of pretending to be a ghost."
Xie Yun's slender eyebrows twitched.
"But the secret door has many other methods besides acting as a ghost..."
Yin Kaiyang paused, and a strange white light suddenly flashed in the deep eyes behind the mask, like a cold star in the sky, and it was reflected in Xie Yun's eyes. It seems that you really need to revisit it, and think about whether you want to always hold on to a dream to fight against the secret door—"
The last word was infinitely elongated in Xie Yun's ears, like a magic sound piercing into his mind, echoing for a long time.
Xie Yun didn't make a sound or move, but if you observe carefully, you will find that when Yin Kaiyang's eyes flashed, Xie Yun was watching his pupils suddenly dilated—
All the sounds and colors in the Snapper turned into whirlpools, whistling and flying away.
The figures were plunged into the darkness, and the abyss approached from below; Xie Yun seemed to be caught by an invisible giant hand and thrown down, and countless strange pictures in the illusion surged up from the tomb of memory.
"The method of the secret door," Yin Kaiyang knelt on one knee on the barren grass slope twenty years ago, condescending, with the same coldness and mockery in his eyes.
A child curled up behind a haystack, barely wrapped in an old jacket with torn cotton wool, his face turned blue from the cold wind, and his mouth full of chilblains clenched his fist tightly so that he could barely let out a trembling cry. .
Through the gaps in the weeds, he saw the once invincible prince Chengqian with a white silk wrapped around his neck, his face turned purple and black, his hands and feet twitched violently as if he had been struck by electricity, but all the struggles were of no avail.
"This king clearly... is... the destiny..."
Yin Kaiyang shook his head under the dying stare of the prince, seeming to feel very ridiculous and a little pitiful: "No, prince, you have never been. The tradition of the secret door since ancient times is to select people who are destined to support them, so as to never lose their lives." The power of the dragon to seize the greatest power in the world. But compared with King Jin and King Wei, you, as the heir, have not been included in my consideration at all... "
Li Chengqian's eyes protruded, almost reaching the limit of a person's eyeballs, his throat made a gurgling sound, and blood flowed from his eye sockets, nasal cavity, and ears at the same time. The scene was like a ghost crawling out of hell.
"You... evil... devil..."
"I haven't reached the point where I can really be called a devil," Yin Kaiyang replied with a smile.
Li Chengqian could no longer make any sound, Wu Qing's lips opened and closed silently, his eyes were covered with spider webs of bright red bloodshot eyes, and he stared straight ahead. Yin Kaiyang let out a last breath under such gaze, it seemed to be a sigh of regret, and then his hands holding Bai Ling suddenly tightened.
- Click!
There was a crisp sound of the neck bone breaking, Li Chengqian's body froze, and the back of his head fell heavily and powerlessly to the ground.
he died.
The prince of the East Palace and the crown prince of the world ended his life like this on a grassy slope of barren land thousands of miles away from the capital.
Yin Kaiyang let out a long breath, stood up and patted the dirt.
His demeanor was so leisurely, as if he had just finished drinking tea and taking a walk, without any feeling that he had just killed someone.
Following his movements, the child behind the haystack took half a step back in fear, straining his body tightly so as not to make any movement, wanting to take this opportunity to turn around and run away secretly. But before he had time to move, Yin Kaiyang suddenly turned around and said, "Stop."
There was vigor in his voice, and the child's knees suddenly softened.
Yin Kaiyang walked over and brushed aside the grass, wondering: "So small?"
Such a young and skinny child half-knelt and hid in the soft and thick wild grass, it was really no different from the size of a rabbit. Yin Kaiyang thought at first that the child behind the haystack must be about ten years old, but now he was a little surprised, and murmured: "The prince's hobby... really..."
He obviously lost his mind, but the child didn't understand, and crawled tremblingly and took another two steps back.
"Come here," Yin Kaiyang waved and said kindly, "Don't be afraid, I'll give you a happy one."
The child jumped up suddenly, and ran back!
At the moment when Yin Kaiyang stretched out his hand, he accurately grabbed the child by the back of the neck, no different from pinching a little rabbit, and brought him back regardless of resistance. With a little force on his fingers, he was about to cut it off easily. His little neck.
To Yin Kaiyang, this was indeed a very compassionate act. If the child didn't struggle, he would die in Huangquan in an instant, so fast that he wouldn't even feel any pain.
However, at this moment, the child finally screamed in extreme fear and collapse: "Help... help!"
"Mother! Mother!"
boom-
In fact, there was no sound, but to Yin Kaiyang's ears, that moment was no different from a bang.
I saw the child's body stiffen suddenly, but an unimaginable burst of energy suddenly erupted from the meridians of the limbs, and then the azure light penetrated from the worn-out little padded jacket, converging on the surface of the skin to form layers of complicated patterns. The pattern quickly spread from the back to the arms and neck, and even pierced into Yin Kaiyang's fingers pinching the back of the child's neck in an instant!
Yin Kaiyang's complexion changed drastically, and he let go of his hand as if being burned by fire.
"Mother!" The child fell into the haystack, struggling and screaming: "Mother, help me! Mother!"
Yin Kaiyang looked down and saw that his fingers were bloody and blood was gurgling down the palm lines, and there was still a terrifying blue light in the wound!
But he didn't care, he half knelt down and stared at the child's rolling and curling body, and saw that the spreading tattoo totem was gradually taking shape, with antlers, beards, and pearls on its jaws, and it really formed a young dragon that hadn't grown yet!
"...No wonder," Yin Kaiyang said softly, "The one who wins the green dragon wins the world. Li Chengqian is determined to make a comeback, but he can find a little hidden sky..."
The child's mournful screams gradually became hoarse and subdued, and the whole person bent down in the grass, almost losing the strength to struggle for the last time.
At this time, as long as you stretch out your hand a little, you can easily send this young little green dragon to the west. But Yin Kaiyang didn't move for a long time, just looked at the lifeless little body quietly, after a while he finally stretched out his hand, picked up the child, turned around and walked down the barren grass slope step by step.
Li Chengqian's wide-eyed corpse was left far behind them.
In the cold wind, the last rays of the setting sun disappeared into the horizon, the wilderness was bleak, the withered grass was flying, and the long winter night flapped its wings, gradually covering the earth.
The child opened his eyes slightly. After a long time, his eyes gradually narrowed. His chapped lips opened several times, and finally he managed to make a weak and hoarse voice: "... who are you?"
"Where are you taking me?"
Yin Kaiyang got on his horse, his cloak was raised and lowered, and the man's eyes shone with a strange white light in the gray sky.
Every detail of that scene is so vivid and deeply imprinted in the child's mind that it has not faded after twenty years of washing, and it has been repeatedly reproduced in countless late-night dreams.
That was the beginning of all the endless nightmares and fates that followed.
"Hell." Yin Kaiyang said casually.
The child's pupils suddenly constricted, but Yin Kaiyang laughed, galloping his horse and galloping towards the end of the winter night field.