Chapter 55 The Populus euphratica Forest (Fox Xiao xian's the Third life)
Linghu Xian saved hundreds of thousands of Beiwang city soldiers and civilians, sacrificing their lives for the candle with their own for the introduction of the Samadhi accurate fire as a hundred miles of firewall, this wall of fire burned a whole 30 days, for the north lookout city and even the whole of the middle of the Kingdom of the ZhongMing Dynasty for the escape of self-help of the precious time. After the firewall was gradually extinguished, the sky instantly fell in a torrential downpour and rained repeatedly for a month or two. The land at the location of the previous firewall collapsed, and the rainwater gathered in the lowlands to form a narrow swamp a hundred miles long and half a mile wide. If one looked down from the air, it was like a graceful arc in the middle of the prairie desert, embedded in a necklace of slender crystals that shimmered with a surfeit of luster.
This swamp became a new habitat for many animals and gave birth to more new life. Small fish in the water in the joyful chase play, reeds in the frogs singing insects, geese, egrets, ducks, swans, a variety of birds breeding habitat here, even the surrounding herders also like to horses, flocks of sheep rushed to drink water here to clean.
Grassland began to spread a legend, saying there was a kind and beautiful girl, ordered to protect the people from slaughter and harm rather than sacrifice themselves to keep this side of the water and land peace, and then the girl turned into a heavenly fairy spirit, continue to bless the grasslands of the living beings happy and well-being, no one knows the actual name of the girl, because of that day she turned into a flame to purify the soul, so people gave her an image and simple name --Fire Maiden. Because the girl's story is so deeply rooted in the grasslands, many ordinary people worship her as a god and set up altars to pay homage to her.
One morning in the height of summer, a clump of green shoots sprouted from the ground near the water. At first, no one noticed the weak seedlings, which increased and formed a forest stretching hundreds of miles in less than ten days. The tree's name was the Populus euphratica.
When the poplar grows into a forest, not yet to the autumn season, it turns into a golden red color like fire, warm and depressed. Branches to the sky wantonly show a muscular tension of life, and the fading leaves and short branches and the wind was swept up in the sky and the ground fluttering and spinning, the wind shuttles between the trees always sing a song, beautiful and sad.
It is said that this poplar forest is not dense but often inexplicable fog, so the mistake of entering the human or animal disorientation. Although not trapped for too long and suffering a life-threatening, people do not have three or five days. It is simply easy to get out of, people will say as if walking into a dream. As for the dream, it is what the scene does not remember; however, people have had that kind of complex emotion for a long time. The Populus euphratica Forest has become one of the most popular places in the world.
This has made the Populus euphratica Forest a taboo place that people do not dare to enter quickly.
However, not far from the Populus euphratica Forest is a small courtyard named "quiet hut," with a few thatched roofs and half an acre of thin field. The field planted a few common vegetables and fruits and a few of the most common but commonly used medicinal herbs.
Although the location angle is tricky, the people coming and going are endless. The small courtyard is always overcrowded with people, making the owner of this place laugh and cry. Some are here to inquire about the weather changes in the fall harvest and spring planting; there are also with their livestock to seek medical advice; there are also with eggs and leg of lamb to send gifts of thanks; there are even people to and from the grazing business people pass by here to ask for a drink of water and take a break to talk about the day; there is even a good thing because he heard of this small courtyard living in the two graceful and capable of superb beauty, commissioned a matchmaker to come over to say marriage, and then the two masters directly blasted out of the house. Then, they were directly blown out by the two masters.
Shan Xiaohu and Fox Xiaxia are the masters of this "quiet hut" courtyard. Their Master ordered them to stay on Earth to further their cultivation and, more importantly, to wait for and guard Fox Xiaoxian's third life. The Master took them and gave them 90% of the magic power, and the magic spells to change their appearance and peacefully stay on Earth.
In the mortal world, Shan Xiaohu originally wanted to disguise himself as a woodcutter, guarding the Water swamp and the Populus euphratica Forest, waiting for Fox Xiao Xian's rebirth. As Shan Xiaohu was good at observing the stars and predicting the weather, the farmers and herders in the neighborhood came to him for advice. He also knew a bit of medicine, particularly bone massage, animal diseases, and so on, so he also became a little famous doctor—ah, that, to be exact, is a veterinarian.
On the contrary, people often forget his woodsman persona and professional function. When he thought about it later, it wasn't a big deal. As the saying goes, a veterinarian who can't read the stars isn't a good woodcutter. Compared to his senior brother Fox Xiaxia's 8,000 heart eyes, Shan Xiaohu was straightforward, warm-hearted, and very good at getting together. After all, he had stood alone on the pointed mountain for a hundred years in the first place; it was too lonely, and he had to find some people to amuse him. So he would greet small animals when he saw them and help humans when he saw them, and as long as others asked for him, he would not refuse as long as he would. He would grab his senior brother, Fox Xiaxia, and come over to help solve the problem if he encountered something he needed help with.
Shan Xiaohu pragmatically organized this small courtyard and mixed very well with the herders, villagers, merchants, and even small animals in the surrounding dozens of miles.
Fox Xiaxia took the alias Hu Xia in Ouyang Zhong's army and was a military doctor accompanying the army. His medical skills were indeed superior. However, his temper was too eccentric. Cure or not? To whom? To what extent will he treat the disease? It all depended on his mood. For some ordinary people and even along the streets of the small beggars, he gave free diagnosis and treatment, but one or two would be able to needle the disease, almost heal the dead flesh and bones. However, the dignitary's royal relatives are arrogant, condescending, and bossy; he will not even pay attention to riding a little. Meet the ungrateful who want to use fists and feet to bully Fox Xia Xia; Fox Xia Xia will let them know what is the vixen's ass like touching not, and change the way to let these self-seeking trouble guys standing in lying out.
In this way, the military doctor Hu Xia's name became well-known in Zongcheng, and an endless stream of people came to see him. Sometimes, he was in a good mood and could cure hundreds of people without closing his eyes for three days and nights, and sometimes, when he got tired of looking at them, he would run away from Zongcheng when people weren't paying attention to him. He was an idle and spontaneous character and was not willing to take everything seriously. With his 10% magic power, he could travel thousands of miles daily and run faster than a horse. Even though this small courtyard is thousands of miles away from Zongcheng City, as long as he wants to, no matter when, he will run back to the courtyard, looking for his third senior brother Shan Xiaohu to drink tea and wine, chat, and enjoy the moon, so comfortable.
Ouyang Zhong and Fox Xiaxia fight, knowing each other's identity is unique and more or less have some weaknesses. Although this is the time to use people, we are very much in need of Fox Xiaxia, such a high person to give a hand. However, he also knew he could not make Fox Xiaxia willingly give himself a hand. So, when he encountered Fox Xiaxia's occasional errand right when he took a break, Ouyang Zhong had to disregard Fox Xiaxia's mind.
Shan Xiaohu often ridicules Fox Xiaxia on how to do a human when a difference so no qualitative, three days fish two days sun net too arbitrary, not like a serious in the organization of the military doctor, and still with the team fleeing the military doctor. However, Fox Xiaxia rolled her eyes and replied, "I don't want to care about Ouyang Zhong's business. If it weren't for Master's orders, I would have already beaten him to death to avenge Xiaowu's death! I'm pissed off just looking at him, and I'm not in the mood to accompany them in Zongcheng to prepare for war and desertion at all."
Initially, to escape the pouring of Dingling's millions of iron horse riders, nearly 400,000 soldiers and civilians moved to Zongcheng City from Beiwang City. Then, the fleeing people from several towns in the north also converged into this army of exiles, and the number of personnel surged to nearly one million. With such a large number of people settling into the former royal capital of Zongcheng City, many thorny issues inevitably arose.
For example, should the local state and county officials or the army manage the security inside and outside the city? For example, how do you distribute the living materials when the weather is still cold? For example, how should the people who didn't escape from the city and the outsiders who fled to the town be arranged to live and settle down? And what should we do after this? Should we stay in Zongcheng City or continue southward to enter the new imperial city of Nandu City? What should we do to defend ourselves in case the Dinglingan army comes? Would the court have accepted so many people if they had abandoned the northern counties before going to Nandu City?
The number of daily affairs kept Hussar General Wei Kongji and Left Guard General Ouyang Zhong busy.
Simply put, the problem of feeding more than one million people in the city and treating the sick and wounded has become the most significant difficulty at the moment. In the spring, because of the war and relocation of the capital did not plow, to the end of spring and early summer, the influx of strangers into the vertical city, even if now to work the ground, it is too late to wait until the vegetables and food grow, the city's officers and soldiers of the people will go hungry. There is not much left in the city's remaining official and military grain, as well as the granaries of some families. What should we do in the future? Ouyang Zhong was so anxious daily that he had several giant fire bubbles in his mouth. On top of that, he also had to constantly watch out for Xiao Feifei, whose mental state was sometimes good and sometimes bad and could go wrong at any time; Ouyang Zhong felt physically and mentally exhausted like never before.
Shan Xiaohu builds a quiet hut and small courtyard at the edge of the Populus euphratica Forest to guard this poplar forest that Fox Xiaoxian's spiritual consciousness illuminates from being harmed by other people, especially enemies or demons. Ouyang Zhong accompanies Fox Xiaxia to help him at the critical moment, but also for the rebirth of Fox Xiaoxian to make all the preparations. Although Shan Xiaohu and Fox Xiaxia had different divisions of labor, their moods were the same; they were both waiting for Fox Xiao Xian, who was waiting for her return in her third life. As for the rest, it was not their division of labor either.
"According to me, in the first place, my sister shouldn't have helped that guy Ouyang Zhong, and she shouldn't have lit herself up as a firewall for the sake of 400,000 civilians. What's wrong with spending your life peacefully? This is good; Dingling's enemies did not slaughter Beiwang City but the Zhongming kingdom's people to their own deaths. Either they will abandon them, or father and son will turn against each other, or the whole city will be starved to death. Either one is a desperate situation." Fox Xiaxia indignantly poured a large mouthful of wine and muttered for a long time.
Learning about the current situation in Zongcheng from his senior brothers, Shan Xiaohu scratched his head and tilted his head with a serious face, "You said that the time we transformed into human beings and entered the Earth to practice is still short, and we have 10% of our magic power, so it can be said that there are almost no few mortals who can be the rivals of you and me in this human world. We are only curious about this world and these ordinary humans and have no responsibility. Therefore, even though we have transformed into human beings, we are still the same demonic beasts in our hearts, playing the world according to our moods.
But Xiao Xian has already gone through two lifetimes, each starting from infancy, experiencing birth, old age, sickness, and death, love, and separation, seeking and not being able to find grudges and hatred, and all kinds of suffering in the five skandhas. And she doesn't have any magic power, so how did she get through it, do you think?
If, at this time, Xiaoxian knew that a million people in Zongcheng City were likely to starve and have civil unrest shortly and that the people she had saved would still die, what would she do?"
Fox Xiaxia, who had always boasted of being extremely intelligent, didn't expect that her senior brother Shan Xiaohu, who usually seemed to be stupid, would be able to say such a heartfelt and intelligent statement and didn't know how to answer. A time, the two in this moonlit night in the small courtyard, silent to drink for a long time.
They are deeply remembered for their respective hundred years of hardship cultivation, and finally, from the demonic beast into human form, absorbing the essence of the sun, the moon, and the Earth, and the mana increased significantly, thanks to the Master's shade protection. Even with the help of Master and the two elder brothers, the various cultivations during the hundred years were still painful. Fox Xiaoxian the Earth for a hundred years, entirely on their strength through two life and death, a lonely girl, in the end, how many sins have suffered, how much aggression, and who can understand it?
The moon set slowly, and the stars appeared one after another in the sky. A milky white Milky Way across the blue night, the stars blink and blink as if whispering to each other. It also seemed they were joining the quiet, silent discussion between them.
Fox Xiaxia, as a fox, took the lead to break the silence, stretched her back, pretended to be full of care and the world, finished the wine in the cup in one drink, and planned to go back to the room to sleep. Although Shan Xiaohu had turned into a human, he was still a night owl and not too sleepy, intending to sit down longer.
At this moment, the ears of their two divine beasts were sharp, and they both heard a strange noise in the Populus euphratica Forest. They exchanged glances with each other, quickly lifted their legs, and ran toward the Populus euphratica Forest.
To protect the Populus euphratica Forest, they used a formation to draw out a thick fog as a vapor to prevent someone or a demon or devil from harming Fox Xiaoxian's primordial spirit. Even if there was a mistreated animal or human, they could be released quickly unharmed as long as they didn't hurt the woods. So, the Populus euphratica Forest couldn't have any other sounds made by other beings except for the various rattles made by the wind.
At this moment, what Shan Xiaohu Fox Xiaxia heard was the cries of a little boy and the sound of him chopping down poplar trees indiscriminately with his weapon. It looked like he was about to set the poplar tree on fire with the torch in his hand.
"Stop!" Fox Xiaxia scolded angrily.
The sound scared the little boy so much that he screamed and dropped the machete in his hand to the ground. Thinking he had encountered a ghost, the little boy didn't dare turn around and ran haphazardly and bottomless into the Populus euphratica Forest.
However, how could this little boy outrun Shan Xiaohu and Fox Xiaxia? These two left and right pincers, one on the ground speeding, the other in the trees jumping and leaping, ran to the front of the little boy. Fox Xiaxia's anger was still not gone. He grabbed the little boy and quickly lifted him, angrily saying, ''What are you running for? Who are you? Why are you cutting down trees?'
The little boy was shocked and frightened and struggled a few times. Surprisingly, all of a sudden, he turned his back and fainted.
"Hey! Hey!" Fox Xiaxia helplessly shook the little boy on her hand, then patted his face, and there was no response. Throwing it to Shan Xiaohu, she skimmed her lips and said, "This is a wild child from nowhere, not only wild but also stupid. I don't care; you take it. We have to ask him what's going on when he wakes up. Why are you hurting this poplar forest?"
Shan Xiaohu was more patient than Fox Xiaxia, carried over, took a closer look at the child, frowned, and said, "This wild child you're talking about may still be a noble prince of the Dingling tribe."