Twilight War

04

The ring slaves that kept breaking out of their shells let out shrill screams in this huge lair.

Wisipel held the long | spear in his backhand, and protected Zichen behind his back. His red right eye was like the dangerous and powerful ancient dragon's eye in the poems chanted by bards.

"The person who used the power of thought to construct the entire illusion should be here." Wihipel said.

Zichen looked around in shock, and pulled out the two daggers from his waist. One was black and the other was as clear as autumn water.

These two daggers are both melted and destroyed from ancient swords, and they still take their original names. One is called Xiaolian and the other is called Chengying.

Dozens of ferocious ring slaves suddenly rushed towards the two of them. Wihipel scratched the gun, and the dark red blood of those ring slaves splashed on the ground of this huge lair.

The sharp dagger directly cut Jienu's throat, and Zichen felt that the Chiyou blood in his body was burning slowly, as if he was eager for more killings.

...No, Vehipel is still here.

But once injured, Chi You Kuangxue will frantically want to awaken in his body.He looked at the wound on his arm from the ring slave.

It hurt like a burn there.

Since he was five years old, he has been suppressing the mad blood of Chi You in his body, and was locked in the meditation room of the temple to cleanse the cursed blood over and over again.

But once the beast had been fed blood, it remembered the taste, and once, it craved more.

The ring slaves gathered around the two of them, as if they were waiting for an opportunity. Their eyes were strangely bloody when they looked at the two of them, and the burning brand on their foreheads was like molten gold.

He remembered that when he was nine years old, the man who should be called his father threw him into the animal farm of Huangxuan's Tianyuan. Can't even hold the sword on it.

The man asked him, "Are you frightened?"

he said yes."

At that time, even his voice was trembling, and the eyes of those beasts seemed to be staring at him, as if they wanted to peel him off and devour him.

"Very well," said the man, "fear keeps you alive longer."

The man stood beside him, but he didn't look at him, but looked at the ferocious beasts waiting around, he said:

"But you should be more afraid of yourself, because—you are the most ferocious beast here."

……

Zichen bit his lip and kept killing those monsters that were neither human nor ghost.

He knew that he had the blood of the beast in his veins.

The ends of his eyes gradually turned bloody, and his figure was shaking a little. Wihipel seemed to sense that Zichen was not in a good condition, so he held Zichen's wrist with his backhand.

"What, can you still hold on?" Wisipel asked, looking back at Zichen.

The redness at the end of Zichen's eyes dissipated, and the burning blood in his body gradually cooled down. He looked up at Wisipel, nodded and said, "I can still hold on."

Wihipel closed his left eye, his vision was covered with a thin layer of red, and those black crows kept shuttling back and forth in the depths of the empty island.

——It was abandoned...

——It was really reconciled to be left behind like this.

——Why me, why was it me who was abandoned.

"It's the abandoned crew." Wischpel said: "It's the crew who were abandoned on this island who built this illusion, because of their resentment."

The crow's obsidian-like eyes reflected the entire depths of the empty island.

"There." Wisipel said, pointing to the high place.

Zichen looked up to the high place, where a man was bound by countless vines, those green vines connected the man and the depths of the cave like an umbilical cord, and he seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep, quiet and peaceful lethargy.

"I'm in charge of blocking these ring slaves, you go and kill him," Wihipel said.

"But he..."

"He has long been turned into something like a ring slave, but he still maintains a human appearance." Wihipel said: "Don't forget, there are not only us in this illusion, but also other people who participated in the trial, If we delay for a while, more people may die in the illusion."

Zichen nodded.

Vehipel slowly closed his eyes, and the crows flew across the depths of the island, passing through the body of the ring slave like a sharp blade.

Those monsters that were neither human nor ghost uttered ferocious cries, echoing throughout the space, like stern ghosts from hell.

Wihipel broke a path between the ring slaves, and Zichen climbed up the vine until he reached the sleeping man, and he drew the dagger from his waist.

He looked at the man's face, but he was just an ordinary man.Neither tall nor short, neither fat nor thin, even his appearance can only be regarded as ordinary.

——Just an abandoned person.

The slaves below screamed shrilly, and Zichen's eyes flashed the wild wolves, tigers and leopards surrounding him.

The dagger sliced ​​across the man's neck.

He fell from a height surrounded by countless vines.

The entire cave is collapsing, and the vines wrapped around the towering ancient trees are broken and hanging down.Those ring slaves struggled to be annihilated into ashes.

The sacrifice of the gods was eventually destroyed by the interruption of mortals.

When Zichen woke up again, he was resting on Vehipel's chest. He raised his upper body and looked around.

Surrounding it was an endless glacier, and the sky was so blue that it was almost clear.

This place seems to be the end of the world that has been forgotten by the world. It is covered by severe cold all year round, but it is strange that Zichen doesn't feel cold at all.

Vehipel also slowly woke up, "This place should also be an illusion."

He closed his eyes, and countless black crows broke through the blue sky and flew across the endless ice field, like countless cracks on the clear ice.

"There is no gap in this illusion," Wihipel said.

Zichen suddenly found that the glacier under their feet was soaked with blood, showing a strange red color.

The red color spread along the lines of the glacier, gradually becoming thin and almost colorless from the tragic scarlet.

"Brother, look." He pulled Vehipel.

Wisipel didn't speak, but his brows were gloomy.He held Zichen's wrist, "Look at the surrounding situation first."

But no matter how far he walked, it seemed as if he hadn't moved a single point. Zichen looked up at the clouds in the sky, "We seem to be walking under this cloud all the time."

"Moreover, I have been stepping on this piece of blood."

Wihipel closed his eyes and felt the breath flowing in the entire illusion, but he didn't feel anything.Even if it is an illusion, there should be gaps, if there are gaps, there will be wind, and if there is wind, there should be air flow.

But there was nothing, everything seemed to freeze.

Even the movement of air is gone.

Zichen looked around, the whole world was quiet and almost deserted, only the two of them trekking in the endless white.They have nothing but each other.

It seems that time has been frozen here, and everything has frozen into eternal ice and snow, which will never melt from ancient times.Thousands of years of time have been frozen here, piled up layer by layer, day by day and year after year.

Until one day, unable to bear it anymore, the huge glacier crashed and swallowed everything...

"Brother, I know where this is." Zichen said suddenly, "This is the battlefield of the first Twilight Battle."

"The sinners of the gods want to rebel against the heavens and commit all kinds of crimes. This is the beginning of the first twilight battle. The god of the throne broke his wings and stained the nine glaciers with blood." He read the poems in the "Fragments of the Edda" .

"This is Yemengard's illusion, which is what he saw after the first twilight battle." Zichen continued: "According to the records in the Ada fragments, when Yemengarde arrived During the battle, Loki was already dead, his blood dyed the glacier red, and Yermungard got the phoenix blood from his corpse, and sank into the endless deep sea."

Wisper didn't speak, Zichen looked at him and asked, "Brother, did you already know?"

Vesper nodded.

"Then why didn't you tell me?"

"This kind of place..." Vehipel looked at the endless distance and said, "I always feel a bit too sad."

Zichen was stunned, yes, for Yemengade, this kind of place should be very sad.Otherwise, how could it have sunk in the endless deep sea for nearly a thousand years.

"But it's strange, there is no Loki's body here." Zichen said.

"Perhaps for Yermungandr, Loki's corpse is the most sad existence here." Vihipel said.

"Have you still not found the gap in the illusion?"

Vesper nodded.

Zichen sighed and lay down on the ice, his whole body spread out in big characters.

"what are you doing?"

"I'm imagining myself as the dead Loki." Zichen said, "If nothing works, the best thing to do is to do nothing."

Wisper looked at Zichen.

"You said that it takes thought power to support the illusion, and the only ones who can move in this illusion are you and me."

"Are you saying that it was you and my thoughts that created this illusion?" Wihipel asked.

"I'm not sure, maybe we are not the builders, but we are probably the supporters." Zichen said: "So to break this illusion, maybe the only way is to do nothing."

Zichen lay on the blood-colored glacier and said: "The three realms are the house of the long night, and the mind is the master of the great dream. All the beings we see today are all seen in the dream. He has awakened from the great dream and realized it in the long night. When confusion and consciousness are destroyed, the three realms will be empty."

What he recited was the scriptures of the Shihan sect among the six schools and seven schools of the Prajna School. Shihan is the knowledge of God.

This sect regards the three realms as a dream, all manifested by the mind.

If the mind is empty, naturally everything is empty.

In other words, if you don't think about anything, the world will naturally cease to exist.

Although the Weichen Temple where Zichen lives inherits Zhengfa Zen, the Sutra Library behind the Daxiong Hall still houses the scriptures of six schools, seven sects, and eight major sects.

According to the number of "Thousand Characters", tens of thousands of volumes are stored on the green wood bookshelf.

And Zichen used to sneak into the scripture building before, and stayed in the scripture building alone for a whole day with the green light on.

It doesn't have to be reading, sometimes you can watch for a long time just looking at the 24 heavens in the scripture building.

Vihipel released the crows once again, and the crows shuttled over the cold glacier, completely unable to find the gaps in this illusion, except for the flow of airflow.

He looked at the boy lying on the glacier, and lay beside him as if accepting his fate.

Zichen opened his eyes and looked at the sky above the glacier.

All actions are impermanent, all dharmas have no self, and Nirvana is peaceful.

If you don't think about anything, the illusion will naturally disappear.

But he couldn't control himself, he couldn't help thinking about things when he was in a daze.

Looking at the overly blue sky, he thought of a long time ago when he was led to the temple by Bi Fang, a retainer of the Huangxuan family.

After shaving and changing clothes, his master should speak for him.

At that time, he didn't know what giving a name meant. He only heard from Bi Fang that Master would tell him why he was given the Dharma name Zichen.

But in the end he still didn't know.

Because when he knelt on the futon, his master only poured him a cup of tea, and then sat back on the mat without speaking again.

Zichen held the cup of tea and looked at the sky above the temple outside the door.

After a long time, a leaf fell into the tea in Zichen's hand. Zichen looked up at his master, and found that the eminent monk Bi Fang mentioned had already fallen asleep, and his long white beard rose and fell with his breathing.

So Zichen continued to look at that piece of sky, and that piece of sky was the same as now, too blue.

His master slept for two hours, and he watched the sky for two hours.

How does it feel to look at the sky through the endless deep sea?Will it be bluer?It was still pitch black, and nothing could be seen clearly.

He suddenly thought of the Yermungandr who sank into the endless deep sea. He had sunk in the sea for a thousand years, so he couldn't sleep all the time, he would wake up sometime.

What will you do when you wake up?

Will you look at the sky above through the endless deep sea?

Zichen suddenly felt as if he had sunk in the deep sea, everything was floating around, only the moss and rusty boat surrounded him.

He blinked, but the deep sea was still in front of him.

... Is this really Jormungandr's illusion?Or...his own.

He suddenly saw the blood of the black-eyed boy spreading along the lines of ice and snow. There was no sadness or pain in his eyes, only endless emptiness, as if he had been abandoned by the whole world.

Suddenly the huge glacier began to collapse, and huge cracks broke through the old blue ice.

But Zichen closed his eyes as if he was still dreaming.

The boy was walking alone on the huge glacier, his eyes were indifferent and clean, as if he wanted to confront the whole world alone.

All dharmas are only consciousness, and all five aggregates are empty...

You know that everything is an illusion, but can you know that everything is also real.