On the one hand, Zhuo Mulan had protected her too well in the past. On the other hand, she had been coming and going to Taoist temples of Chongxian Sect, and each of those temples was luxurious and magnificent.
Even when traveling, there were wealthy families, landlords and gentry to receive him on the road.
Of course, they also understand the "suffering of the people", but knowing is one thing and seeing it with their own eyes is another.
Obviously, the lower class is in full swing and the people are living in poverty, but people living in the middle and upper classes can only see the splendor, prosperity, feasting and revelry in front of them... There is actually nothing strange about this kind of thing.
"The rich enjoy wine and meat, while the poor freeze to death on the street!" Shi Hao sighed, "At any time, the people who suffer the most and work the hardest are the common people. The food they grow feeds the people of the world, but they themselves are like grass on the roadside, and their lives can be harvested at any time."
Du Yuejiao remained silent, left Chongxianmen, left the protection of her master, and followed Shi Hao and Xu Xiaoyan. Suddenly, she felt like she had arrived in another world.
These things clearly happened around her, but she had never paid attention to them in the past.
At this moment, Shi Hao was wearing a blue Taoist robe with a crane embroidered on the back. Taoist robes come in many colors and styles, and the blue one represents "Fatian".
There was a sword slanted across his waist, but it was not the one made for him by Taoist Tie Yu. That one was snatched away by Xu Xiaoyan.
He was dressed like a Taoist disciple, while Du Yuejiao was wearing an ordinary skirt, but the fabric was exquisite and embroidered with flowers, making her look like the daughter of a noble family.
Xu Xiaoyan was wearing an emerald cloth skirt and had her hair in a bun with flowers hanging down her hair, but she had the "stick sword" that looked simple and inconspicuous inserted diagonally at her waist.
Without Shi Hao's consent, she named it "Su Jian", which means "seeing Su embrace and pounce". Shi Hao had no choice but to let her do what she wanted.
At this moment, the three of them were preparing to go to Yechan Forest to attend the Hongqiu Meeting.
The last time was not long after the full moon night, Shi Hao was taken by Xu Xiaoyan to attend the Hongqiu Meeting.
Now, seeing that the day of the Hongqiu Meeting is approaching again, they have nothing to do for the time being and are preparing to go to the Hongqiu Meeting again.
Shi Hao has further confirmed that, except for the three Dream Grasses, he might be able to ask Zhuo Mulan to help him get the immortal materials for his next advancement, but he will have to rely on himself for the remaining Fantasy Sea Divine Ganoderma and Blue Sky Vermillion Fruit.
After all, the following immortal materials are all needed for medium-grade and above. Chongxian Sect is very strict, Zhuo Mulan herself is not yet at the stage of advancement, and even if she wants to advance, these two are not the immortal materials she needs.
In addition, Xiaoyan also wanted to sell the Blue Frost Moonlight Bamboo Shoots and the nine Lihuo Tianye leaves in her hands.
They walked south and passed through a forest. Shi Hao suddenly paused and turned his head to look.
"What's wrong?" Du Yuejiao turned around and looked at him.
Shi Hao looked at a tree. Although the weather at night had begun to turn cooler, it was still late summer after all, and there were not many dead leaves in the forest.
However, there were piles of fallen leaves gathered together, looking like they were covering something.
Xu Xiaoyan jumped over, drew the sword from her waist, and pushed aside the pile of leaves. Under the leaves was a pit, half covered by mud and branches, and buried a female corpse.
The body was naked, with marks of strangulation on its neck, and a torn floral skirt piled next to it.
—You can tell at a glance what she went through before she died.
Du Yuejiao raised his eyebrows and asked angrily, "Who did this?"
Xu Xiaoyan was silent for a while, then silently piled the dead leaves on top.
"Let's go!" She looked very unhappy, but she didn't stay here any longer.
Shi Hao followed behind her. Du Yuejiao looked at them in disbelief: "We are just going to leave her alone like this?"
Xu Xiaoyan didn't even turn her head: "I'm already dead, what else can I do?"
Du Yuejiao said: "At least we should find her family, send her body back, and report to the authorities... Even if the authorities are useless, we should find out who did it and make the murderer pay with his life."
Xu Xiaoyan snorted: "This kind of thing happens everywhere, can you manage it?"
Du Yuejiao said coldly: "Even if you can't manage the affairs of the world, can't you even do such a small thing in front of you? You usually act so chivalrous, but it turns out you are so cold-blooded."
Xu Xiaoyan sneered: "You are wrong, I am not a chivalrous woman, I am just a female thief. You are a chivalrous woman, you just stay here and help her."
"Brother Shi..." Du Yuejiao looked at Shi Hao.
Shi Hao was in a dilemma for a while. On the one hand, as Xiaoyan said, there were too many things like this, and he couldn't handle them all if he had to take care of every one of them.
It's not that Xiaoyan is cold-blooded. In fact, in Shi Hao's opinion, no one cares more about these things than her. But she has been in the martial arts world, and all kinds of tragedies have happened one after another. There will never be an end. It's hard not to be numb.
But for Yue Jiao, this moment was like her first time entering the world of martial arts. Seeing such a corpse with her own eyes, she was shocked and could not suppress the urge to do something.
He could understand Xiaoyan's departure. In fact, he made the same choice himself.
The world is about to be in chaos, and all the horses are silent. Even a great hero cannot control everything.
Just like they had just watched the barbarians conscripting men, everyone knew that most of the people being conscripted would end up dead in the ditches, but they couldn't do anything about it.
But no one could say that Yue Jiao was meddling in other people's business at this moment... Even if she was just a newcomer to the martial arts world, one day, she would become accustomed to it.
Yet deep down they knew that even though they should just walk away, they would still feel uneasy.
Shi Hao looked at Xiaoyan and whispered, "Let's take her down the mountain first and visit the nearby village. At least hand her over to her family."
Xu Xiaoyan remained silent and didn't say anything. She just turned her head back silently.
The two girls pushed aside the leaves again and helped the woman put on the tattered clothes thrown beside her.
Shi Hao checked and roughly confirmed that the woman had been dead for about three or four hours.
She had some good looks, but her fingers were rough and her skin was not well maintained. It was obvious that she was not a woman from a wealthy family.
Judging from the looks of it, he must have been robbed on the road, tied here, and met with misfortune.
Shi Hao picked her up, and the three of them walked out of the forest.
They arrived at the nearest village, where the villagers looked at them with vigilance.
Those pairs of wooden, frightened eyes intertwined with each other, making them feel uncomfortable.
Du Yuejiao came to a house and knocked on the door.
After a long while, an old woman slowly opened the door.
There was another pair of eyes behind the old woman, but it was a thin and small girl.
There is no man in the family. Perhaps the man in the family has already been captured and used as a forced laborer.
"Old lady!" Du Yuejiao asked, "Is she from your village?"
The old woman looked at the woman in Shi Hao's arms, shook her head, and sighed, "No!"
They asked another company and got the same answer.
In a small village like this, everyone in every household knows each other.
If the female corpse was really from this village, they would naturally recognize her.
They had no choice but to leave with the female corpse.
When she arrived at the next village, she still couldn't find her family.
I didn't even find any useful clues, and before I knew it, half a day had passed.
As it was getting dark, they could only dig a hole in the mountains, bury the woman again, cut down a wooden stake, cut it in half, and inserted it on the grave as a tombstone.
That night, they did not rest but continued to rush towards the wild Zen forest, but they were all in a bad mood.
On the morning of the second day, they came to a small town. It started to rain. The rain was fine and continuous. Although it was not heavy, it was uncomfortable.
At the entrance of an alley, they rested in a teahouse.
Although it was still morning, the whole world looked gloomy.
After a while, many more people from the underworld appeared around them. They were divided into two factions and confronted each other.
The tea master in the teahouse ran away in fear, but they didn't care and just sat in the corner, drinking tea by themselves.
Suddenly, people from both sides slammed the table and stood up, first they started to curse each other, then they smashed the tables and chairs, drew their swords and started to chop, then more people came to support them, blood was flying, the scene was a mess.
Perhaps it was because the three of them were too calm and didn't take the matter seriously, the fight between the two sides did not affect them.
However, yesterday they were still depressed because of a corpse that had no place to go.
At this moment, very quickly, they were surrounded by corpses.
They recalled the frozen, desperate, frightened expression on the woman's face.
Some people don't want to die, but they die. Some people are not afraid of death, but they die too.
Maybe... this is the world of Jianghu!
Chapter 137: Wing Fight, Bashan Laughs at Jia
Yechanlin is close to Bashan Mountain, located on the east side of Bashan Mountain.
Shi Hao held up an oil umbrella and ran along the forest. On his left and right sides, Yue Jiao and Xiao Yan each held one of his arms.
The wind and rain in this area are unpredictable. It didn't look like it was going to rain just now, but suddenly it started raining.
A misty fog also rose in the mountains and forests.
They saw a ruined temple in front of them and ran in quickly.
Shi Hao put away his umbrella and shook the water off it. Water droplets began to drip, leaving a circle of water stains on the dusty ground.
"This weather is really terrible!" Du Yuejiao placed the soles of her embroidered shoes on the edge of the steps, rubbed them twice, and scraped off the mud on the soles. "I don't know why everyone likes to travel around the world. Isn't it better to live a peaceful life at home?"
Xu Xiaoyan said sarcastically, "If everyone can live peacefully at home, who wouldn't want to stay at home? It's because everyone is uneasy that they want to venture out. Do you think everyone is a spoiled rich girl like you?"
Du Yuejiao was also scathing: "How dare you, a thief, to mock others?"
Xu Xiaoyan smiled and said, "Even if you are a thief, you are self-reliant. Unlike some people who have never earned a penny by themselves since they were young, they still think they are very powerful. If someone like you didn't have anyone to rely on, you would have been sold to a brothel long ago."
Du Yuejiao was furious and grasped the sword at his waist.
Xu Xiaoyan was not afraid of her and followed her to grab Su Jian.
"You two!" Shi Hao quickly stood between them.
Du Yuejiao glared at him: "Master, who are you helping?"
Xu Xiaoyan poked her head out from beside Shi Hao and said with a grin, "He won't help you!"
Du Yuejiao grabbed the sword and looked like he was going to poke a hole in Shi Hao as well.
Shi Hao quickly said, "Stop making trouble, someone is coming!"
Du Yuejiao and Xu Xiaoyan turned their heads together and saw the sound of hurried running outside.
I saw four people running in the rain outside. I ran into the temple and immediately became nervous when I saw them.
Immediately afterwards, the four people looked confused, probably wondering what was going on here.
Among these four people, there is a boy about twelve years old, two warriors dressed as hunters, and a middle-aged man.
The four of them looked a little embarrassed. The boy was held by one of the hunters and was put down after they ran into the temple. When they saw there were people in the temple, they immediately protected the boy behind them.
But the situation in the temple left them a little confused.
They saw two girls, one holding a sword, the other holding a wooden stick at her waist. The two girls were obviously dressed differently, one wearing a colorful silk dress, the other a coarse cloth dress.
Separating them was a young Taoist wearing a blue gown with a crane embroidered on the back and a Taoist bun on his head. He looked helpless.
"Stop it!" the young man whispered.
The girl in colorful silk clothes snorted and put the half-pulled sword back in place.
The young man smiled at them and said, "We are not in harmony and we are fighting. I am sorry to have embarrassed you. It is raining heavily outside. You just need to take shelter here. We just happened to be passing by."
Du Yuejiao and Xu Xiaoyan looked at him together.
The middle-aged man looked at him suspiciously and suddenly asked, "Could it be the young city lord of Xiaohan Mountain City?"
Not expecting that this person actually recognized him, Shi Hao showed a slightly surprised expression and looked at the man. He saw that he was rather fat, had a round face, and was of medium build. He did look like someone he knew, but at the same time, he seemed like a complete stranger.
The man smiled awkwardly: "Young City Lord is really busy, after not seeing you for half a year, have you forgotten about me?"
His smile reminded Shi Hao, who said with a smile, "Isn't this Mr. Wu, the 'Laughing Jia'? Nice to meet you, nice to meet you!"
It turned out that this man was called Wu Yincai, nicknamed "Xiaojia", and was a merchant who did foreign business with Heshou Village, one of the nine villages in Bashan.
Shu brocade has always been the most famous commodity in Bashu. The silk brocade of Xiaohan Mountain City is also quite famous in Bashu.
Within the Western Shu Province, Xiaohanshan City mainly cooperates with the Yuanrong Chamber of Commerce, but trade outside of Bashu is completed through other middlemen, and Heshou Village is one of them.
Wu Yincai had been to Xiaohan Mountain City many times to buy and sell silk, so he naturally recognized Shi Hao. However, he was known as the "Laughing Merchant" and he always smiled and had a wide smile on his face. But just now, he was not smiling, but looked a little sad, so Shi Hao had the illusion that he "clearly recognized him, but seemed not to recognize him".
So we know each other! The two hunter-dressed warriors also relaxed.
When Du Yuejiao saw that the man recognized Shi Hao, she stopped being angry, but still looked unhappy and went to the side to watch the rain.
Shi Hao chatted with Wu Yincai for a few words, then looked at the boy and whispered, "Mr. Wu, this child is..."