bookrebus Chapter 271 Boundary
Chapter 271 Boundary
Last time, we talked about how Li Yi and his group found Gu Zhou and his tribe on the grassland northwest of Dunhuang and learned from him about the disaster that had occurred on the grassland. So what will Li Yi do next? Let's read on.
Li Yi put on his clothes and walked out of the tent. He looked around and asked, "What are those kids doing?"
Liu Ruyun shook her head and smiled, "Langya wants to be the leader of the children, but Wei Lue and Wei Zhen disagree. They are probably fighting right now."
"Oh? Interesting, let's go check it out."
When they arrived at the grassland, they saw a group of children gathered in a circle. In the middle, Langya, Wei Lue, and Wei Zhen were wrestling with young men from the Guzhou tribe. Zhang Biao was also watching the fight. When he saw Li Yi coming, he immediately stepped forward and saluted, saying, "The young master is here."
"What's going on? Where's Yu Jiuren? Why didn't he fight?"
Zhang Biao replied, "Sir, you are such a joker. These kids are no match for Yu Jiu. That kid was too disdainful to play with them and went over there to practice swordplay."
Li Yi shook his head and laughed, "The brat is not sociable. It seems that we need to find him an equal opponent, otherwise he will become arrogant." He looked at Zhang Biao and said, "Guard Zhang, can you do me a favor?"
"Sir, you are joking. Just give me instructions if you have anything to say."
Li Yi pointed at Langya and said, "Teaching Langya martial arts, you should have seen that he has talent, right?"
Zhang Biao said awkwardly, "Master, you are right. Langya is indeed a talented kid, but he is already thirteen years old. It is probably too late to train him now."
Li Yi waved his hand and said, "It's not too late. You can teach him during the day and teach the children of Gu tribe at the same time. Gu tribe is in a period of transition and lacks combat power. There are no experts. Sending them back to the grassland is tantamount to sending them to death. Find a way to organize them to fight effectively."
Zhang Biao said in embarrassment: "Master, you want me to train them? How can that be possible!"
Li Yi waved his hands and said, "No, no, no. I asked you to teach Langya, but if they want to learn, let them follow and learn from the side. There is no need to avoid them. How well they can learn is up to them."
Zhang Biao bowed and said yes, then called Langya and asked him if he wanted to learn martial arts from him. However, Langya refused very straightforwardly! He said: "I heard from Yu Jiu that you are the most powerful person here! I would like to ask you to teach me!"
Zhang Biao looked at Li Yi with embarrassment, and the latter smiled and said, "Langya, it's not that I won't teach you, but I only teach talented children. Look at Yu Jiu, he has only been with me for less than a year, and he has gone from a child who peed in the mud to the current level of a fourth-grade strength. His progress is so fast that it is definitely not something that ordinary people can achieve. If you can show me your talent, it is not impossible for me to teach you."
Langya immediately asked, "What does it mean to show talent?"
Li Yi replied: "You have some basic skills if you learn martial arts from Guard Zhang. If you can reach the level of martial arts within ten days, I will accept you as my apprentice!"
Xiao Ziyi whispered to Liu Ruyun, "Aunt Yun, I, who have a solid foundation, took seven days to learn from you before I could enter the rank. It's impossible for Langya to enter the rank in ten days, right? Li Yi was teasing him on purpose, right?"
Liu Ruyun shook his head and said, "Martial arts is different from other cultivation methods. The entry threshold is not high, and the three primary levels are mostly training essence, training qi and training spirit and tranquility. So if a child has talent, he can train his essence, qi and spirit at the same time. If he practices correctly, he can even skip levels and upgrade. Langya is indeed a good seedling. Although he started a little late, it is not impossible for him to catch up later."
Langya on the other side wanted to take a gamble, so he bowed to Zhang Biao and said, "Brother Zhang, please teach me!"
Li Yi chuckled and said to Yuehua, "Go tell Gu Zhou to gather all the children who want to learn martial arts, and let them learn as many as they can." Yuehua nodded and left.
After a while, Gu Zhou came with a group of teenagers and asked them to learn from Langya. Guard Zhang began to teach them according to the formation mode of the Imperial Army and practiced with them, of course, the focus was definitely on Langya.
Li Yi looked at the children and asked Gu Zhou: "I want to go to the grassland to see the Black Demon Wolf, the Evernight Flower, and the minions of the Evernight Demon you mentioned. Can I find someone to lead the way?"
Gu Zhou was stunned and asked, "Why does Brother Li Yi care so much about the grassland?"
"If this disaster continues to spread, it may threaten the Great Wei, so I can't just ignore it. Moreover, I want to entrust Yuehua to you. She wants to go back to the grassland to live, but how can she go back to such a grassland?"
Gu Zhou nodded and said, "Yes, we dare not go back to such a grassland. All the surviving tribes send people to check the border every day, and we are no exception. Let Gu Ting take you there to have a look later."
The so-called border is the edge of the land where the Evernight Flower appears. This black flower is like a poisonous mosquito, biting the ground and greedily absorbing nutrients. It only takes seven days for them to grow from germination to flowering and maturity. One Evernight Flower can absorb nutrients from the land within a three-step radius, so its surroundings are all in decay, and no flowers, shrubs or towering trees can compete with it for nutrients.
Moreover, the cold winter cannot freeze them to death, but can only slow down their growth, so after the winter, the Evernight Flowers spread. Gu Zhou sent people to check the border in order to monitor the growth of the Evernight Flowers and lead the tribe to migrate. They called the land occupied by the Evernight Flowers Night Soil.
Li Yi, Liu Ruyun, Xiao Ziyi, Zhou Guanjia and Yu Jiu followed Gu Ting to the border. This withered and yellow scenery was not supposed to be a spring grassland. Li Yi dismounted and came to a flower of the Eternal Night to observe it. The more he looked at it, the more familiar it became, as if he had seen it somewhere before, but he just couldn't remember its name.
The corolla of the Evernight Flower is composed of four small flowers, with black petals curled inward and white stamens turned outward. The whole corolla looks like a four-fingered devil's claw, and the towering flower stems are covered with thorns without a single green leaf. Each plant is more than two feet high. It must be said that the Evernight Flower blooms beautifully, but it also exudes a kind of weirdness that makes people shudder.
Li Yi took out the small shovel he had prepared and started digging. Xiao Ziyi asked curiously, "What are you doing? Why are you digging it?"
Li Yi dug up a bead in a few strokes, put on cotton gloves, held the flower stem, and pounded the soil attached to the roots on the ground to reveal the bulbous root system. Then he took out a dagger and cut open the bulb, smelled it, and brought the bulb to the mouth of his mount.
Seeing this, Gu Ting hurriedly stopped him and said, "Brother Li Yi, don't do that! The animals will go crazy if they eat the Evernight Flower."
Li Yi said seriously: "I just want to see what kind of madness he has."
Li Yi's horse first sniffed it, then opened its mouth and ate the bulb. Everyone was nervous, waiting for it to go crazy. But after a long time, the horse did not change. Li Yi thought that the dosage was not enough, so he dug two more bulbs to feed his horse, but still nothing happened.
Li Yi looked at Gu Ting and asked, "Who told you that livestock will go crazy if they eat this?"
Gu Ting was surprised and said, "The priest said so."
Li Yi asked: "You mentioned the priest, which reminded me that I didn't see any Zoroastrian priests in your tribe. Did Zoroastrianism not send priests, or did you not bring any priests with you?"
Gu Ting replied: "The Zoroastrian priests have all followed the main force to Tianshan to assist the high priest in repairing the seal."
Li Yi nodded and asked, "Have you ever seen a mad animal?"
Gu Ting nodded and said, "I have seen it. I saw it deep in the grassland. A sheep ate the Evernight Flower and then went crazy. It ran around everywhere and actively attacked other companions and even people!"
Li Yi asked again: "How do you attack? Biting or ramming?"
Gu Ting thought Li Yi's question was a little strange, but he still answered: "Of course it's by hitting. How can a sheep bite it?"
Li Yi nodded and said, "How did you deal with the crazy sheep?"
Gu Ting replied: "Of course, kill them and burn them."
Li Yi touched his horse and led it to a flower of eternal night. The horse just sniffed it but did not eat it. Li Yi looked at housekeeper Zhou, who also led his horse to a flower of eternal night. It was the same.
Li Yi said: "These livestock can distinguish what they can eat and what they can't eat, so no livestock will eat the Evernight Flower on their own. So the question is, what happened to the sheep that ate the Evernight Flower and went crazy?"
Gu Ting said he didn't know. Li Yi smiled and got on the horse. He kicked the horse's belly and went into the night soil. Gu Ting shouted, "Don't go. It's too dangerous in there!"
However, his words failed to stop Li Yi. Later, Butler Zhou, Liu Ruyun, Xiao Ziyi and Yu Jiu all drove their horses into the night soil. Gu Ting still stopped at the border and dared not move forward until Li Yi and his group disappeared from his sight. When he was about to turn around and go back, Yu Jiu appeared in his sight again.
After a while, Yu Jiu came up to him and said, "The young master found a skeleton and wants you to come over and take a look."
Gu Ting asked, "What skeleton?"
Yu Jiu smiled and said, "Don't be nervous, these are not human bones, they are from animals, but we can't tell what animal they are from, so we would like to ask you to come over and take a look."
Gu Ting thought about it, then nodded and rode forward into the night soil. However, when he met up with Li Yi and others, he did not see any skeletons. He asked, "Brother Li Yi, where are the skeletons you found?"
Xiao Ziyi laughed and said, "There are no skeletons here. We just tricked you in! Why are you so timid? We are all experts here. Even if you run into any trouble, the five of us can't protect you. What are you afraid of? Come with us!"
Gu Ting didn't know what to say and could only curse in his heart: The people of Wei are indeed insidious and cunning, they are not good people!
Li Yi smiled and said, "I have seen the Eternal Night Flower, and I also want to see the Black Demon Wolf."
Gu Ting shouted, "Are you crazy? Black Wolves never act alone, they come in a group. Even if you are all masters, you have no way to deal with a group of Black Wolves!"
Li Yi smiled and said, "We have a saying in the Central Plains that a skilled person is a bold one. Have you heard of it? I heard that making fire or smoke can attract black demon wolves. Brother Gu Ting, are you interested in trying it?"
Gu Ting shook his head and said, "Crazy, crazy, you must be crazy!"
Li Yi said to Yu Jiu, "How about this, Yu Jiu, you stay with him and wait in the distance while we light a fire to lure the black wolf over. If there is any danger, take him away immediately and don't worry about us. Do you understand?"
Yu Jiu nodded and said to Gu Ting, "Let's go. I'll take you to hide far away so you can run away later."
Gu Ting was a man of the grassland after all, and he was brave. He could not stand being mocked by a child like Yu Jiu. He said coldly, "Who wants to hide far away? Do you think you are the only ones who dare to fight the black wolf? I have dealt with them a long time ago! What is there to hide!"
Li Yi smiled and gestured to Yu Jiu, who raised his hand and the pile of firewood in front of everyone burst into flames. Li Yi looked at the burning flames and said, "Hey, Yu Jiu, your fire has no smoke, how can you attract the Black Demon Wolf?"
Gu Ting said coldly: "Hmph, you pretend to know a lot even though you clearly don't know anything! You used dry grass and dead branches, and they burned so quickly and well, how could there be any smoke!" After saying that, he rode away on his horse.
Xiao Ziyi asked: "Where did he go? Did he run away? If he wasn't there, would we be able to find the way back?"
Li Yi laughed and said, "Why is he running? He is going to pick up horse manure, or to find something that is not easy to burn."
Liu Ruyun asked: "Since you know how to make smoke, why don't you just make it directly?"
Li Yi smiled and said, "To give him a chance to perform, otherwise where would he put his face?"
Xiao Ziyi rolled her eyes and said, "You know how to behave yourself."