Chapter 1933: Perpetual Madness Empire (18)

Imperial West.
On the endless grassland, a convoy of about fifty or sixty people was heading east along the official road.
Although it is an official road, it is just placing landmark stones on both sides and tamping the dirt road surface in a very careless way, and because the road surface is not wide enough, the team's riding guards even set the lane on the other side. also occupied.
Protected by these guards wearing lavender armor, there are a total of four carriages. Their shapes and decorations are low-key and restrained, but they can still reveal the high-ranking atmosphere of the owner's home.
In the carriage at the front, an old man and a young girl were sitting.
The old man has snow-white hair, a thin body, a straight waist, and a pure black civil robe. He is leaning on a crutch with a dragon head in his hand, and is closing his eyes and contemplating.
The girl had black hair and black eyes, and was wearing a blue turban and a long one-piece dress with intricate patterns that are common among nomads. She was holding a silver short gun in her arms, and quietly raised the curtain of the carriage to look out.
"Miss Sibia," the guard accompanying outside the carriage noticed her movements and said, "The speed of the convoy is acceptable, and we should be able to arrive at the inn to rest before sunset."
"Well..." The girl called Sibia blinked, lowered the curtain, and turned to look at the old man beside her: "In order to prevent the minister from doing the wrong thing, Grandpa Jolly went back out of the mountains to the imperial capital to set things right. It is a great blessing for the country."
Her voice was clear and clean, and her words were quite formal, but her half-smiley expression made the whole passage sound more like a joke.
"Since I decided to return to the imperial capital, you have laughed at me four times along the way," the old man known as Jolly opened his eyes and glanced at the young girl beside him: "'The current minister' did something wrong, and the 'former minister' came out to stop him , is it so funny?"
"It's normal on the surface, but from the point of view of those who know the inside story..." Sibia blinked: "[Dong Zhuo] is going to stop [Lu Bu] from doing something wrong. It's a bit funny to think about it."
"Oh, hand over the empire to [Fengxian], it will definitely become what it is now," Jolly closed his eyes again: "Only by force, it is impossible for him to put [war], [plague], [ Famine] and [death] are out of the country, and in terms of ability to govern the country, he may be able to barely lift the shoes of the [monarchs] who have left."
"Then why don't you leave?" Sibia put his chin in his hand: "What are you, [Lu Bu] and [Liu Bian] all insisting on staying in this [ended world]?"
"You've asked this many times," Jolly said slowly: "They can take their relatives, friends and even all their officials away, but I can't. Although the person I want to wait for is no longer in this world, But only this world has traces of her left, I can't guarantee that after I leave here, I can still find her clues, and maybe she will come back one day?"
"Hmph, one or two are like this," Sbia turned his face: "[Lü Bu] that guy, shouting that his Diaochan is gone, he won't leave unless he finds it, and [Liu Bian] is the most outrageous, saying that he His father is the emperor, his sister is the emperor, his younger brother is the emperor, and he has to pass the addiction of being an emperor. In the end, it has been [three thousand seven hundred years], and he has not been enough? Just take the [immortal medicine]. Vomiting? Besides, the 'race' of the people he ruled has changed several times, what kind of strange [crazy empire that lasts forever] is this?"
"Because of this," Jolly raised his eyebrows: "Since he is no longer under the rule of [big men] but of [foreign races], then whether these people live or die has nothing to do with him, and he can govern whatever he wants."
"Isn't it the result of provoking the 'Rebel Army'?" Sbia sighed: "As a result, you have to come out and clean up the situation after you have retired."
"Who said I'm worried about those rebels?" Jolly shook his head: "Unless they gather all the emperor's tools, they can never be the opponents of [Unparalleled]."
"Aren't you worried? Then why are you going back to the imperial capital? Beat [Lu Bu]?" Sibia tilted his head.
"...I thought you, as a [Kirin], would feel it more clearly than me, but you didn't feel it?" Qiao Li opened his eyes slightly, looked at Sibia and said, "[Jiang Zuo Meilin], she came back already."
"!!" Sibia's eyes widened, and after being sluggish for a few seconds, he suddenly lifted the curtain and jumped out, lifted his foot and kicked a guard off the horse's back, then grabbed the reins and rode away.
"Miss?!"
"Miss Sibia?!"
"Okay, there's nothing to do along the way. She's suffocated. It's better to let her run. We continue to march as planned." Jolly stuck his head out and said to the slightly flustered guards.
"Yes, Minister."
"It's the former minister."
About an hour later, the setting sun slanted westward, dyeing the grassland and the motorcade with a layer of gold, and the city wall of the inn that was scheduled to rest also appeared on the horizon. Sibia, who ran away on horseback, still did not return.
"Minister, we're almost at the inn, look..." The captain of the convoy came to the car and asked Jolly for instructions.
"According to the usual practice," Jolly waved his hand: "Just arrange a few more people outside the inn. If it gets dark, light a torch. There is only one official road, and she can't get lost."
"Yes, Minister." The captain of the guard saluted Jolly, then stepped back to command loudly.
- Be alert, [Thousand] Don't let your guard down!
- Search carefully in the [inside] of the station! Do not stay in danger!
—You, you, and you, wear torches and patrol the surrounding [grass] plains!
At this moment, the voice beside Jolly's ear suddenly became illusory and vague. The overall sentences of the guards' responses and conversations with each other were almost incomprehensible, but the specific words were extremely clear.
—Captain, do you need to be vigilant while using [River]?
- Ha, this time the task is too [easy].
— After escorting the minister to the imperial capital, we should be able to advance to the [Bronze] Bronze rank adventurer.
"...!" Jolly's eyelids twitched, clutching the faucet cane in his hand, he was about to lift the curtain and rush out, but after taking a deep breath, he still sat in the car and did not move, and continued to pretend to inadvertently listen to the vague voices coming from the window. .
In the case of intentional connection, he quickly pieced together the sentence that came from the wind:
[Thousands of miles grass, He Qingqing, ten days of divination, can't give birth. 】
"Hehehe..." Jolly laughed lowly, the wrinkles on his face trembled: "I haven't heard this voice for [thousands of years], although the content is that I'm going to die soon, but I Just pretend you're shy."

"Grandpa Jolly!"
"Miss Spear! Please slow down!"
When the convoy entered the gate of the inn, the captain of the guard was negotiating with the post officer, and when the guards began to deploy defenses around, Sibia, who had run away for a long time, rushed back all the way on horseback.
"Xi Rong! Xi Rong is here!" After arriving in front of Jolly, Sbia got off his horse, handed the reins to the other guards, and called in the direction of the grassland.
"Calm down, you have to be calm in the face of important matters, although it's not a big matter," Jolly reassured Sibia, and waved to the captain of the guard who came to hear the news: "Go to set up defense, don't worry about it here for the time being."
"I just wanted to go to a place with few people to sense the location of [Jiang Zuo Meilin]." Seeing Qiao Li looking over, Sibia took the initiative to explain: "As a result, I found the 'Xi Rong' that was far behind the convoy. They originally It seemed that he was going to attack the inn at night, but after I discovered it, I took the initiative to pursue it."
"Yeah." Jolly nodded and walked up to the stone city wall around the inn.
The grassland under the sunset may be considered a beautiful scenery for people in big cities, but it is just ordinary for the herdsmen in the Western Regions. At most, look at the clouds to judge the weather tomorrow.
However, if there are hundreds of "Xi Rong" galloping in the sunset, that is another matter.
Tread, step, step.
If you just listen to Xi Rong's movement when running, you may be regarded as a group of cavalry, but if you look at the reputation, people who have not seen these aliens will have the opposite doubt: Why are there no riders? Or, why no horses?
But in the end, it just becomes a unifying question: what kind of monster is that? !
At this moment, running around the inn is a strange creature with a strong upper body and a vigorous horse in the lower body. They are either holding spears or bows and arrows. Although they have not taken the initiative to attack, they are still running. During the process, Leng Zi would occasionally cast a sneak attack on the guards guarding the city walls and gates.
Ding!
Sibia raised his hand and brushed aside an arrow shot at Jolly: "No matter how many times I look at it, I can't accept this half-human, half-beast monster."
"This is just one of the 'Xi Rong', a centaur," Qiao Li leaned on the dragon head crutches, motionless: "They are different from the 'Nanman' monsters with human heads and animal heads, whose minds are full of slaughter, even if the human head and beast body, As long as you can communicate, you can barely be considered a human being, but obviously, the guy who is about to kill us doesn't want to communicate."
"The other two are 'tree demon' and 'harpy'? Half-human, half-deer and half-bird," Sibia snorted: "That is, there is no sea in the Western Regions, otherwise there may be half-humans and half-birds. Half-man monster."
"I actually always wanted to ask..." Jolly looked at Sibia.
"Absolutely, no," Sibia glared at him: "It's either a human body or a [unicorn], I definitely don't have such an ugly posture."
"【叏lutelü—]" The head of the "Xirong Centaur" outside was clearly human, but it made a neighing sound.
And with this loud neigh, the centaurs began to projectile the inn with their throwing weapons.
"Obviously, with their size, even a stone city as small as a post station can't be attacked. They can only kill as much as possible by shooting in order to smash the door." Jolly commented.
"So, if I hadn't discovered the clue in advance, and forced them to attack in advance and enter the inn at night, these people would have been miserable." Sbia replied.
"Raise your shield!" "Avoid arrows!" "Shoot!"
On the other hand, the guards and the station defenders responded perfectly, not being shot by arrows. At the same time, they also used a military crossbow to counterattack and shot down more than ten centaurs.
"There's nothing to see, I was worried about whether there would be some kind of Xirong that can climb walls or fly," Jolly shook his head, turned and walked down the city wall: "Sure enough, getting these guys with strong racial awareness to cooperate is itself a A luxury."
After the old man walked down the city wall, he found that the girl who had followed him didn't keep up, and was raising his head with a strange expression.
"..." Jolly's eyelids trembled, and he raised his head to look at the sky.
Beneath the clouds dyed red by the setting sun, nearly a hundred black silk threads were protruding from the void, swaying like seaweed, pointing at the guards, servants and staff of the inn below.
"Tsk tsk...Let me see, what is this time?" Jolly played with the dragon's head crutch, took two steps out, and looked up carefully: "Oh, it's still the same old way, it was split in half by a giant axe, and it was cut in half by a small knife. Throat cut, head ripped off with bare hands... oh, that's a bit new."
Jolly turned to look at Sibia: "You will be skinned alive."
"I see who has that ability," Sbyar said angrily, turning the short spear in his hand twice, "I've lived in the Western Regions for so long without incident, but I met him once I returned to the imperial capital, and it really has become a human world. Hell? Don't allow anyone or anything that can change it to come near."
"It does seem so." Jolly nodded slowly.
"I don't think they have any intention of coming down, if they turn around now..." Sibia narrowed his eyes and looked at the black threads in the sky.
"Then you rush to the Imperial City yourself?" Jolly interrupted her.
"No…"
"Although this world has been devastated by the 'outside darkness', as long as [Jiang Zuo Meilin] returns, everything will be solved," Qiao Li shook his head: "I will go to the imperial capital, and I will definitely be able to. "
【—】
The fluttering black silk thread seemed to understand what he was saying, and began to slowly extend downward.
"I can only protect the [Big Man People]. This pile of things is pouring down. Except for you, none of the people present can run away!"
"So, you quietly tried to shelter other people who were 'killed' by these things?" Jolly looked at Sibia, the corners of his mouth twitched.
"What, what? Can't you? They are all people under your rule, and they look like people." Sbia tilted his head.
shhhhh—
At this moment, the black silk thread in the sky began to spread towards the "post station" like ink immersed in water.
"Oh, I mean—"
Jolly twisted the dragon-headed cane in his hand suddenly, and it suddenly ignited a purplish red fire. In the fire, the ordinary cane melted and deformed, and finally turned into a red-black long knife with ferocious serrations.
At the same time when the long knife was deformed, Joly cut it off the black silk thread in the sky with his backhand.
Although the distance is still far away, and there is no knife light or fire light at all, the black silk threads are suddenly curled like cotton wool being scorched by flames, and then retracted at an extremely fast speed, disappearing.
Until then, Jolly's voice was long overdue:
"—If you want to save someone next time, you can ask me to borrow [Asura]."