Lin'an City, Xiangguo Temple.

Originally, more than a hundred years ago, Lin'an City should have been called Hangzhou City, which was the capital of Hangzhou Prefecture! However, after the Jingkang Incident and the Jin Kingdom in the north destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty, Emperor Gaozong of Song promoted Hangzhou to Lin'an Prefecture in the third year of Jianyan (1129 AD) as a residence.

Immediately afterwards, Lin'an was officially established as the capital of the Song Dynasty in the eighth year of Shaoxing (1138 AD).

However, because the emperors and ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty wanted to restore the foundation of their northern ancestors, Lin'an City had not expanded much except for the city walls and buildings, and still maintained the layout of Yuanzhou City, which was a few circles larger than Qiantang County, and then a little smaller than Suzhou City.

But even so, no one can deny that this big and small city is the capital of the Song Dynasty! So, the prosperity here is definitely not comparable to Qiantang County or Suzhou City! Although it seems a little crowded, the roads seem a little stingy... However, in ancient times, when traffic was basically carried by traffic, it was acceptable to squeeze a little.

Well, I won’t go into details about what happened in Lin'an City now.

The flowing light easily throws people away, the cherries turn red, and the banana leaves turn green...

This is a sentence in a poem by Jiang Jie, a poet of the Song Dynasty, lamenting the ruthlessness of the passing of time and the rush of time... Fahai has actually experienced this year!

Because because he had eaten something extraordinary and potentially fatal, he had been hiding in the Zen Temple in Xiangguo Temple, Lin'an City for the past year and was not afraid to ask about external affairs, for fear that one day the heavenly soldiers and generals of the Heavenly Court came to punish and questioned?

Therefore, he had never left Xiangguo Temple in this year, and sometimes he could not even feel the passage of time. He just tried hard to pretend that he was harmless, and he quickly used the various benefits brought to him by the nine thousand years of peaches to practice hard.

Then, in the blink of an eye, when he felt something and came out of seclusion, a year had passed.

Although the year has been calm, the heavenly court that Fahai was most worried about has not responded, and no heavenly soldiers and generals came to him, but... Fahai himself also knew that this did not mean that he was really safe and could be completely relieved!

Other mortals may not know, but Fahai himself must have known the statement that "one day in heaven, one year in the mortal world".

So Fahai knew that although he had been hiding at Xiangguo Temple for a whole year, it was only a little over a day in the sky, and he could not be said to be safe and would not be held accountable. Unfortunately, little Annie was not here, otherwise she would definitely be the bald old monk at high speed. Her peaches were legal and reasonable, and she could eat them casually and hard, so she didn't have to worry about problems!

But, unfortunately, Fahai, who thought he had boarded the pirate ship, did not know this.

So, even though his cultivation has been greatly improved over the past year, but...

He had things and worries in his heart, and almost turned into a demon in his heart, but he did not feel too much joy in the improvement of his cultivation. Instead, he could only eat vegetarian food and chant scriptures carefully every day, for fear that he would make too much noise and accidentally cause the gods and Buddhas in the sky to notice it?

Therefore, these tormented days have continued until now. Even if a year has passed in the blink of an eye, they cannot reduce their worries much.

“Hmm?”

Strange...

I don’t know why, Fahai, who was wandering in Xiangguo Temple, suddenly realized that looking into the distance from the hill where Xiangguo Temple is, there seemed to be more people in Lin'an City in the distance? Even the experts at Xiangguo Temple burn incense and worship Buddhas and donations are several times more than usual?

Calculate the time, it is obviously not a festival recently, nor is it a big day for the birth of gods and Buddhas. Therefore, this situation made Fahai very puzzled!

Therefore, after being disturbed by the excessive crowd of people, he had to temporarily throw away all the troubles in his heart, clean up his mood, and continued to wear his calculating monk's robe without putting on his cassock, and slowly pace towards the main hall of Xiangguo Temple with empty hands.

“??”

However, soon, Fahai, he met two rich pilgrims dressed in a corridor of Xiangguo Temple. The things the other party was talking about made Fahai, who was curious, stop and listen to him.

‘Oh! Who can’t even look at walking?’

‘You...are you not the Wangshi next door to my house?!’

“!!”

‘Oh! It turns out it’s Mr. Ximen. You are so lucky to be lucky…’

‘You are here to burn incense to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas again today?’

‘Of course! Why, wasn’t you here to burn incense today and ask for the Buddha’s blessing?’

‘Well! How can it be? You know that, it’s been a few days now. I heard that Qiantang is still in panic, and even the people in Qiantang County have run away! Nine out of ten rooms may not be empty, but at least ten rooms and five out of five should be empty!’

‘I just hope that Buddha bless us to return to Qiantang early. Now that we are leaving our hometown, living in other people’s houses every day is not a big deal!!’

As the rich Wang Yuanwai talked, he couldn't help but shook his head with a sigh. Because he also knew that it would be a bit difficult to return to his home in Qiantang County as soon as possible.

'well……'

'There is no way to do this. I just heard that the water in West Lake has spread... That's right, that's definitely the monster who is doing it! When the lake water rises under the city wall, no one in the city can survive! Now if they don't run away, they will have no chance to run away in the future!'

‘…’

‘Well! My father was unwilling to come to Lin'an City to take refuge with me. He said that his hometown was hard to leave and he would die at Qiantang's home even if he died. He would die at Qiantang's home? Tell me, it's only a short time for us to ride a carriage and ox carriage. Is he so careless? The house and land were thrown in Qiantang, and no one dared to take it casually!’

‘Hmph! Others can’t take it away, so maybe the monster is!’

‘Cough… I won’t say it anymore!’

‘By the way! Wang Yuanwai, it’s been so many days, and Qiantang is so close to Lin'an City. I don’t know if the ministers and officials in the court react to each other?’

‘!!’

‘You talk about the court’s reaction?’

The Wang Manwai, who lives next to the Grand Official's house in Ximen, Qiantang, suddenly stopped talking and looked up and down with curiosity.

‘Simen Daguanren, these two days... you wouldn’t have gone to the brothel again to have fun, right? Did you not hear any news and stay in that place?!’

‘…’

"The king was joking. I didn't stay in that place all the time, so I just stayed for one night and half a day... Okay, in a Buddhist important place like Xiangguo Temple, let's not talk about that kind of thing. You should tell me quickly, just that monster in Qiantang, what's the reaction of the court now?"

‘It’s true that I reacted, but it’s useless!’

‘Tell me?’

‘The day before yesterday, the official family was furious and ordered the Imperial City envoy to lead three thousand imperial guards to Qiantang to subdue demons! You might as well guess what the result was?’

‘Hmph! Since you are still staying in Lin'an and still coming here to burn incense and worship Buddha, the ending will definitely not be very good.’

‘That’s right! You guessed it right! Alas… Three thousand imperial guards, there is not even a single one who comes back alive! No one can be seen in life, no corpse can be seen in death!’

‘Okay! I didn’t say anything, I must have eaten up by that monster and sent three thousand living people to no avail…’

‘…’

‘Cough! Isn’t it?’

‘Then, is there any news coming from Qiantang now?’

'It's still the same. Lord Yang, the magistrate of Qiantang, was dismissed. I don't know what the outcome will be. He is still sick now, and no one dares to go to Qiantang to ask him for his crime! So now Qiantang is still under the control of the hero of our Qiantang, the demon-subduing leader Li Gongfu! As for the day before yesterday... Lord Jia, who followed the imperial guards and planned to take over the mess in Qiantang, was so scared that he abandoned his official position and returned to his hometown. The government had no choice but to do anything to him... Anyway, no one dared to go to Qiantang to become an official, one of them was more powerful than the other, and the court could only temporarily rely on Li Gongfu to preside over there.'

'The head of the demon subduing Li Gongfu... He is very powerful. I know his nickname and have seen it many times! Especially the families in his family... they are so beautiful, like a fairy!'

Speaking of this, Ximen Daguanren couldn't help but start smacking his lips, and then shook his head helplessly.

Because he knew that the people in Li Gongfu's family were all tough characters, which were not comparable to those of the Wang Yuan's family's female family! The strange man who knew magic tricks would not dare to provoke the women in the other party's family with the courage of Ximen Daren!

‘But, can he, Li Gongfu, surrender the monster?’

'Hey!'

'Where can it be subdued? Let me tell you, on the day the three thousand imperial guards were killed, it is said that the strange people and strangers in Li Gongfu's family were dispatched! Their group of men and women who could fly and escape had a battle with the monster who was said to be a black dragon on the West Lake, fighting in a dark sky and lightning and thunder!'

'Then……'

As he was talking, Wang Yuanwai stopped. The great official Ximen, who was so anxious that he wanted to know the whole story, wanted to go forward and grab the other party's collar and continue to ask! Even the old Zen Master Fahai, who was shocked and shocked while listening, frowned in displeasure.

‘Then what happened, tell me quickly!!’

‘…’

‘What else can it be done? Of course I lost!’

'It is said that the Li Gongfu family was injured a lot. Although they were not dead, the situation would definitely not be very good! Didn't you see it? There were a lot more people who escaped from Qiantang to Lin'an City today than before! They saw that Li Gongfu's family could not surrender the monster, and they were so scared that those who were lucky enough to come to Lin'an!'

‘If this continues, I guess the entire Qiantang County will become an empty city in no time!’

'ah!!'

‘This...what should I do? My Ximen family’s ancestral home courtyard in Qiantang County has been passed down for several generations. How could it be thrown away in my hands?!’

‘…’

‘Come on! What’s the rare thing about your dilapidated house? My Wang family’s house is much better than your Ximen family. It was just renovated two months ago! And the hundreds of acres of fertile land outside the city are now flooded, and my hair is so worried that I will be white!’

‘Ah…things are difficult…’

‘…’

‘The world is getting more and more chaotic, and the conflict between Jin and Meng in the north is constantly happening. I heard that the government is going to foreign mercenaries again. But now, there are many evil spirits in our Song Dynasty, which is causing trouble to the world. How can we ordinary people live?’

‘This is not a good sign…’

As he spoke, Ximen Daguan began to shake his head and sigh again. He was quite as powerful as a scholar and began to point fingers at the situation in the Song Dynasty, almost saying that "the country is about to perish, there will be monsters"!

“!!”

‘Silence!!’

'You are crazy, how dare you say such things, don't want your head? You don't want it, I still want it!'

‘Ah? Yes, yes, what Brother Wang said is, it was someone who was just confused!’

‘…’

‘By the way, Mr. Wang, if we still have the chance to return to Qiantang, you should go and repair the hole on the rockery in my backyard.’

‘!!’

‘Hole? Why don’t I know what hole?!’

The king's heart was shocked, and then he quickly pretended to be ignorant, but instead asked the other party. Anyway, the king's heart would not tell the other party that he had drilled through the hole at the foot of the wall many times in the dead of night!
To be continued...