After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

Gongsun Heng's face turned deathly pale, and he vomited bile and bitter juice. He spat on the ground for a long time before his mouth finally stopped feeling so bitter.

In the darkness, she crouched down and groped her way over.

Worried about touching a corpse, Zaoxie shuffled forward, quickly changing direction whenever he touched something soft. He finally managed to grab Ning Nan's arm and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Do you kill people often?" she asked, her eyes reddening.

Hearing the tremor in the female disciple's voice, Ning Nan jokingly tried to scare her:

"Of course not."

Before Gongsun Heng could feel relieved, she heard the man say again:

"I only kill one occasionally."

The two slender hands that were gripping Ning Nan's arm suddenly loosened, startling Gongsun Heng, who had only ever seen a cook kill a chicken once in her life.

She gritted her teeth, then grabbed the only support in the darkness with both hands, her fingers gripping the man's arm even tighter than before.

She spat out a mouthful of saliva, then slapped his shoulder angrily, saying, "So proud of yourself, huh?"

Ning Nan smiled upon hearing this.

The candles in the dark room had just gone out on their own. After the two men entered, the last one hurriedly closed the door, leaving the room eerily dark.

He carried a sharp knife used for slaughtering pigs in his right hand, and slowly made his way to the door that had just been closed, with the female disciple who was clinging tightly to his right arm.

"You wait for me here." He used the blade to pry open the door, and Gongsun Heng quickly said "Oh" and obediently squatted down by the wall.

Ning Nan took a breath, held it, and slowly used the blade to pry open the wooden door. Seeing that it was also a dark room outside, empty, he slowly exhaled.

The room outside is no more than half a zhang wide and about a zhang deep. The ceiling is also not high; you can reach out and touch the top.

Narrow, cramped, and somewhat oppressive.

He reached out and touched the mud walls of the room from side to side, then looked around at the supporting beams and confirmed that this place must be a cellar.

He took a few steps forward and walked to a square table with an oil lamp on it, where he saw a small dish of vegetables.

I was starving, so I picked up a piece of roasted pork skin and stuffed it into my mouth. It was fragrant and crispy, and the oil oozed out with every bite. It was delicious, and it seemed to have been roasted with honey. It was just a little cold, so it lost some of its flavor.

There was some other meat on the plate.

He pinched off a piece and tasted it, discovering it tasted like beef. This made him even more astonished. These thieves ate so well? The pork was well-grilled, and they even ate beef?

He quietly called the female disciple out and told her to eat something to fill her stomach.

Gongsun Heng glanced at it, saw that it was meat, and her stomach began to churn again. She quickly covered her mouth, frowned, and said she wouldn't eat it.

Master Ning didn't care about any of that, and quickly ate half a plate, wiping his mouth as he said:

"That's good. If you don't have the strength to keep up when we escape, you can help your master fend off the thieves."

Gongsun Heng's phoenix eyes widened: "And what about you?"

"Did they escape?"

Ning Nan nodded and said,

"After Master goes home and takes a shower, he will send someone to rescue you."

Under the oil lamp.

The female disciple stared wide-eyed at the young man who took it all for granted and said he would abandon her and run away alone; her eyes suddenly reddened.

"Pooh!"

She sniffled, held back her tears, and spat at him.

He looked down at his clothes and carefully wiped his fingers on a relatively clean spot.

After examining it closely under the oil lamp, he finally managed to suppress his nausea and picked up a piece of pork to put in his mouth.

The vomiting I had imagined didn't happen; instead, as the greasy aroma burst in my mouth, my stomach started to rumble with anticipation.

Her eyes lit up, and she carefully sat down in the chair, chewing her meat politely, feeling completely relaxed.

Ning Nan glanced at the hands reaching into the dish faster and faster, and curled his lips. To prevent himself from getting an upset stomach from eating too much, he gave the rest to the female disciple.

I turned my head and looked back, and saw that it was a dirt staircase.

"This looks like a sacrificial offering," the female disciple said, her mouth bulging slightly.

Ning Nan turned around.

"Sacrifice?" He frowned.

Gongsun Heng nodded and said that the only time she remembered seeing such well-roasted meat was when the Gongsun family held a grand sacrificial ceremony. They would go to a restaurant with a retired imperial chef to invite the master chef to roast a few pieces for the ceremony.

Sometimes they would secretly slaughter a sick cow and roast it as a sacrifice.

Ning Nan's expression was serious, his mind quietly pondering something. He then shook his head, realizing this wasn't the time to think about such things, and whispered:

"You stay here."

That's all.

He tore a long strip of cloth from his clothes.

He held the knife in his right hand and wrapped the strip of cloth around his hand with his left hand, finally tying a knot.

The earthen steps were unexpectedly long, about two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters), indicating that the cellar was dug extremely deep.

The past few days have been filled with continuous autumn rain.

The earthen steps were covered with footprints and were still a little damp, so Ning Nan climbed more carefully.

When I reached the top, I touched it and found that there was a wooden plank above my head.

The faint sound of voices could be heard.

Ning Nan held his breath, gripped the knife, and waited there for a while.

half an hour.

After seeing that no one was coming, he nudged the spot with his left-hand fingers.

The wooden board above his head was loose.

Ning Nan then slowly pried open a small gap in the wooden board.

Light suddenly streamed in, and he squinted, holding his breath. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the light.

bright……

It was daytime outside.

Ning Nan opened her eyes and looked outside.

The cellar appears to be located within a room.

Fortunately, the door was not closed.

Looking out from here, you can see about half of the main hall outside.

Inside the main room outside, the thieves were drinking, eating meat, and chatting in groups of three or five. Ning Nan listened for a while.

Some were bragging about how they were in the north back then, some were saying that the Southern Dynasty emperor was too weak and now they had an even weaker empress, and some were saying that the Right Protector was incredibly insightful... Ning Nan narrowed his eyes.

His eyes glanced at the ground on one side of the main room, and his gaze suddenly froze.

That place.

There were many colorful wooden boxes on display.

They were long and rectangular, and quite large, with various patterns. Some of the wooden boxes even had yellow paper pasted on them.

"This is..." Ning Nan's breath hitched, "A sacrificial box?"

……

……

Peng Liangang glanced at the sky outside; the sun was setting in the west, and night was approaching.

The slightly plump old man, with graying temples but a booming voice, asked, "Brother Xu, is it almost time? Which point exactly does the Right Protector want us to meet up with?"

talking.

He glanced at the indifferent young man leaning against the door.

The young man had regular features and a slender figure, but his expression was too cold, making him seem unapproachable.

Xu Tianji.

The third of the seven disciples personally taught by the Right Protector.

Upon hearing this, the members of the Heavenly Principle Sect, who had been sucking on their oily fingers, wiped their fingers on their clothes, let out a burp, and picked up the weapons beside them.

Feng Yu opened her eyes.

Shen Shou, with his long face, also looked at Xu Tianji.

Xu Tianji glanced at the three altar masters who were looking at him.