Of Mountains and Rivers

Chu Huan had just washed his hands, and before he could stand up, Nanshan suddenly grabbed his shirt and pulled him up.

Chu Huan: "Whoa - no matter how broken this one is, I won't be able to change it!"

But no one cared about whether he had a change of clothes. Chu Huan was dragged away by the prodigal Nanshan, and found that everyone seemed to have forgotten the mountain gate that was in danger at any time. They looked in one direction together and passed each other from a distance. whistle.

Chu Huan didn't shake off the drops of water with one hand, and asked inexplicably, "What are you doing all this?"

"The mountain gate is closed," Nanshan said.

Chu Huan was stunned for a moment, and finally figured out what the concept of "the mountain gate is closed": "It means that there is no one guarding the big stone gate, and little monsters can't come in, right? Isn't that good?"

Nanshan looked back at him, and said softly, "When the mountain gate is closed, the inner gate to the other side may open, understand?"

Chu Huan remembered the time and place when he first met Ruge and almost got into a fight. He was silent for a few seconds and understood.

However, he didn't know whether this was good or bad. He couldn't help but look back at the closed rock, and saw that the alignment of the rock was flawless, and the bluestone was dense. Even though the mountain gate was full of corpses, it would not move. —What is the mountain gate?Isn't it just a big rock?

Why is it so smart?

Chu Huan suddenly had a feeling that this mountain seemed to be alive.

As soon as this idea came to him, he was taken aback for a moment, and then he realized that it was reasonable for him to think so——Chu Huan remembered that Yuan Ping said that in a sense, the gatekeeper is the mountain itself. Holy water can give birth to people, so the view that "mountains have life" is absolutely reasonable.

Chu Huan was mechanically dragged away by Nanshan, and his mind had already drifted far away. As soon as he opened his mind, he suddenly thought that his whole body was chilling—if the mountain had life, could the world also have life?

Could the so-called "dead land" and "dead land" also be a kind of life?

Chu Huan was thinking about it, and suddenly, he stopped his footsteps, and they had already arrived in the cave near the mountain gate.

Luge continued walking in without stopping, and soon passed through the holy spring, which was still fluorescent, and Chu Huan always felt that it seemed to be different, but he only had time to take a quick glance at it, and then He was dragged away by Nanshan, so he didn't observe clearly.

Further in, it is a place that Chu Huan has never been in. The cave here is long and winding. Although it is not narrow, it seems to be endless, which brings people a sense of psychological depression.

The initial confusion, surprise, or nervousness had passed by now, and the two patriarchs quickly regained their composure. Nanshan pulled Chu Huanyue to Luge's side, and suddenly asked, "If it opens over there, what are you going to do?" ?”

Luge resumed his cold water grimace: "What can I do, send your old, weak, sick and disabled away, and we will continue to stay here."

Nanshan's face darkened: "What are you talking about?"

"No other meaning," this Ruge was probably affected by that drop of blood from Nanshan. The mountain gate is closed abnormally, and no one knows what will happen in the future. If the inner gate really opens, you should leave as soon as possible—maybe it will never open again. But we gatekeepers cannot leave the mountain Yes, do you understand?"

Nanshan didn't answer, and Luge didn't look back.

After a long while, Luge sighed: "You mountain guards are dragging their families, I actually know your difficulties."

Nanshan's throat twitched, as if a little bit of sourness in his heart was caught off guard.After a while, he said in a low voice: "It's not time to say this yet, let's go."

The two patriarchs were in front, familiar with the road, and walked fast. Suddenly, the narrow path like a corridor came to an end, and the vision suddenly opened up. A ray of light broke into people's eyes. Take a nose--there's a smell.

In fact, there is nothing unusual about the smell. After careful identification, it seems to be the smell of damp soil in the cave for many years.

Some dampness makes people feel musty, and some dampness smells like rot, but here it gives him the illusion that... the front is covered with young shoots all over the mountains and plains.

But in fact, there is nothing in front of it, just a cave.

A beam of light penetrated from somewhere in the supposedly dark cave, illuminating the area, like a naturally formed patio, surrounded by bare rocks, but the material of the ground is very strange, as if The astonishingly large natural crystal, like a solid version of the holy spring next door, also exudes that milky white fluorescence.

Standing on it, you can see your own shadow when you look down—it’s still the skin-brushed version, no matter how rough it looks, it looks like the nose is the nose and the eyes are the eyes.

Chu Huan asked in a low voice: "This is..."

Nanshan: "Hush."

I saw Luge stepping forward and stepping on the big crystal. With his steps, the surface of the hard crystal was covered with ripple-like patterns. Patriarch Naluge walked to the center of the big crystal, and his whole body was illuminated by the fluorescent lights, like a dummy dancing on a music box.

Luge took a deep breath, knelt down, murmured, and hummed a distant sacrificial speech like singing.

Everyone couldn't help but hold their breath following his voice, but 5 minutes, 10 minutes... or even longer time passed, and the ripples on the surface of the "crystal" had dissipated, but nothing happened.

Ruge's expression changed, he opened his eyes and stood up, shaking his head towards Nanshan from a distance.

Nanshan: "So the side of the mountain gate is not open."

That end is closed, but this end is not open, that is to say, they are now completely trapped on this mountain.

At that moment, Nanshan's expression was not so much "disappointed" as "relieved". He turned around calmly, waved to the people behind him calmly, and said, "Go back, ten people a Group, from now on everyone will work every half a day, don't leave the mountain gate."

Ruger walked over from the huge crystal surface: "Come on, come up the mountain with me, I'm going to see the elder."

Before they went up the mountain, the elder probably already sensed the movement of the mountain gate through some unknown feudal superstition method. When they came out of the cave, they found that old thing with a goat face was already waiting there. How did he climb down from the top of the mountain step by step at such an old age.

The elder also brought a guard with him - a little bald man who was not as tall as his crutches.

A group of people formed a circle at the entrance of the cave, and the elder was beating hoarsely with his crutches to order the people around him: "Hurry up, hurry up! Hey, get out of my way, don't get in the way... What about the medicine? No, not enough! Increase the amount, increase the amount!"

Nanshan and the others pushed aside the crowd and strode over: "What's going on?"

There is a person lying on the ground, it is Dashan, and Chu Huan no longer wants to figure out how many days Dashan is not injured all year round. The young man's eyes are bubbling black blood, no need to ask, it is obviously injured by the eye-eater .In the matter of being injured, Dashan was a freshman for the first time, and familiar with it for the second time. This time, he seemed to be familiar with the wound medicine, and he was still breathing while pointing others.

As soon as he heard Nan Shan's voice, Da Shan immediately stretched out his hand and groped a few times, then turned over and grabbed Nan Shan's trouser leg: "Patriarch!"

Luge leaned over and took a look at his eye injury: "Aren't the mountain gates closed? What did you do just now?"

Dashan: "I went to a high place to look around, Chief Luge, I saw the land that fell."

This young man was desperately trying to avoid it, and when he climbed up to look far away, everyone didn't know whether to praise him or scold him.

Chu Huan squatted down: "Did you see it? The border is probably not at the foot of the mountain."

Dashan: "It's not at the foot of the mountain, it's too close."

The elder gently grabbed his shoulder: "Where is it? How far is it?"

Dashan: "Less than ten miles."

Everyone was silent for a while, only Luge, who had only one eye left, suddenly said, "When I saw the eye-eater, I hadn't seen the sign of the cave outside the mountain gate."

It's moving at high speed.

Is it because of this that the mountain gate is closed?

At this moment, Xiaolu, the poisonous snake who had been idly circling around Chu Huan, suddenly straightened his upper body, and made a movement that seemed to be both attacking and fearful towards the direction of the sky. Chu Huan looked up in that direction, The big eagle raised by the gatekeeper on the hillside was originally circling around the foot of the mountain. Suddenly, one of them uttered an extremely mournful cry, made an unnatural bend, and fell straight out of the mountain gate.

It's as if... was sucked by something.

These raptors like killers in the sky fluttered all over the hills and ground, their eagle claws scratching the ground uneasily, and their trembling appearance almost turned into a flock of quails.

Someone murmured, "Here it is... It's here!"

Everyone turned their heads in unison, the sky darkened completely at a speed visible to the naked eye, and all the people standing in the mountain gate saw that the boundless shadow was approaching, as irresistible as the skylight and cloud shadow.

All living creatures... people, poisonous snakes, giant pythons, and giant eagles all felt fear from the bottom of their bones when facing the unknown shadow, and the entire hill was completely silent at that moment.

"We are going to be swallowed!" Everyone had such a thought in their hearts, but under the towering shadow, no one could speak.

At this moment, a bright light burst out behind the people.

Chu Huan couldn't help closing his eyes, and it took him a while to recover. He looked back and saw a white light like the sun shining from a certain corner of the mountain, which was so strong that it almost scorched the eyes, covering the whole city. Mountains shrouded in it.

Is that... a holy spring?

The white light emitted by the holy spring is like a sharp knife that is stubbornly resisting. It is carrying the shadow outside the mountain gate, and the people who dare not breathe out have just come back to their senses. They are horrified to find that they are standing at the junction of light and shadow. What should I do.

The first person to speak was Nanshan, and Nanshan's voice was unnaturally lowered, as if he was afraid of alarming something, he said hurriedly: "Carry the elder and Ankaraiya, everyone, retreat to the cave immediately , quick! Don't linger here."

A mountain guard seemed to have not recovered, and instinctively followed the patriarch's order to retreat, while asking puzzledly: "Didn't the patriarch let us patrol the mountain gate in groups of ten just now?"

Luge: "What are you still patrolling? Didn't you find that there was no sound outside?"

Everyone who heard this sentence had goosebumps all over their bodies—there were countless beasts and monsters trying to climb into the mountain gate just now, and they kept hitting the rocks at the mountain gate with their bodies. The muffled crash and growl could be heard here too.

But now there is nothing.

The enemies who fought with them for a whole day and night seemed to have disappeared in an instant, and there was a dead silence at the other end of the mountain gate.

No, the whole world is dead and silent, and this mountain is like Noah's Ark in the doomsday flood, precariously carrying the only remaining living creatures in this world.

I'm afraid everyone present would rather face a group of deadly eye-eaters than live in such "peace".

Soon, the two tribes quickly withdrew to the gatekeeper's daily rest residence. This place is close to the holy spring in the core of the mountain, and the white light seems to be stronger. feel.

The crowd gathered around the two patriarchs and the elders. Chu Huan thought he was an outsider with little right to speak, so he picked up the little bald head, picked up the poisonous snake little green, consciously found a corner to sit down, and drew himself Set in the mascot area.

The elder didn't care about the fact that the people of the clan were destitute, and said straight to the point, "I heard that the mountain gate was closed but it didn't turn around. Everyone, this is not a good omen - the reason why the sacred mountain became a sacred mountain is because of the mountain gate. Relying on the flesh and blood of our people as a medium to communicate between the two ends—now that the door button is dead, the sacred spring of the holy mountain will eventually become a source of water, at most it can stop the temporary fall, and we may not have much time left .”

Ruger: "You mean we don't have much time left to die."

The elder seemed to think that the patriarch of the gatekeeper was a little too simple and rude, so he clicked his mouth, looked at the panicked expressions of the clansmen, and was about to open his mouth, when he heard Yuan Ping say from the side: "What should we do? Crystal Gate can Shall it be smashed or exploded? Will it be able to go back there if it is smashed?"

Senior citizens:"……"

The simplicity and rudeness of the gatekeepers of Ganqing are in the same line.

"Fart," said the elder, picked up his crutches and tapped Yuan Ping on the head, coughed a few times in a senile way, and said hoarsely, "This day has been predicted in the holy book, and we are headed towards an irreversible decline." At that time, only those who came across the river were the only turning point..."

These words successfully shifted everyone's attention to Chu Huan.

Chu Huan crossed his legs, put the little bald head on his knees, sat up a little more, and coughed dryly under the eyes of everyone, thinking that he should say something.

But he never came to his senses, all this happened too fast, Chu Huan didn't have a clue in his heart, if he talked too dry, it was easy to aggravate the anxiety of the group, if he talked too much, in case... the greater the hope The greater the disappointment?

This speed is quite difficult to control, but before Chu Huan had time to speak, Nan Shan suddenly said: "If only someone enters the sinking ground to find the chance of life, then I will go with him."

Nanshan's words were like hot water splashing into a frying pan, and everyone present was in an uproar. After a while, Xiaofang, who was the first to react, looked at him in a daze: "Patriarch, what did you say?"

Nanshan looked calm: "I'll go with him, what's going on here, you listen to the elder and the Luge patriarch."

Luge glanced at him, tapped the point of the knife on the ground without making a sound.

"But……"

Nanshan glanced around, smiled, and stuffed the "but" back into his stomach. He walked over in full view and pulled Chu Huan up from the ground: "Take a rest overnight, and we will start tomorrow. "

"Patriarch!"

"Patriarch, wait!"

Nanshan didn't wait, nor hesitated.

When he said that, he almost felt free from something.

Nanshan picked up the poisonous snake wrapped around Chu Huan's body, raised his hand and threw the dumb snake whole to Lu Ge, and then pulled away Chu Huan who was also unresponsive.

Chu Huan: "Wait..."

He also wanted to discuss with the elder about "one hundred and eight conjectures about the land of the fall", and he hadn't had time to ask who the middle-aged man who entrusted him with the dream was!

Ruge looked at the nearly [-]-jin big snake thrown by Nanshan, and without hesitation sideways dodged it, even though Xiaolu hit the ground with a "bang", fell to the ground, and let out an angry "hiss" "Voice.

The people next to him were all shouting at Nanshan in bewilderment, only Yuan Ping stayed for a while, and stood up three feet high: "Then I will go too!"

Ruge tripped under his feet with the handle of the knife quickly, and Yuan Ping staggered, so that he fell to the ground, and before he could stand up, his patriarch pressed his shoulder with the back of the knife.

Luge said lightly, "Sit down, it's none of your business."

Yuan Ping: "But..."

Ruger bowed his head and said to the poisonous snake, "Tell him not to run around."

Xiaolu quickly forgot the revenge of the fall just now, and immediately crawled towards Yuan Ping like a stream of kindness, bound his legs twice, raised his triangular head obsequiously, and looked at the pale-faced gatekeeper full of childishness. , Successfully painted him as a prison.

Nanshan dragged Chu Huan all the way up the mountain, walking on an unusual path. If Chu Huan hadn't staged a forest chase with Yuan Ping every morning, he would have been dizzy long ago.

Before he could catch his breath all the way, Nanshan took him straight to a natural cave halfway up the mountain.

There are few people here, and there are several deformed big willow trees growing beside the entrance of the cave. The soft branches hang on both sides like a curtain, and there seems to be a faint light inside.

Chu Huan took a look with his head, and raised his foot to walk in: "What is shining?"

Nan Shan pulled him back.

"Do you know what this place is?" Nanshan's eyes flashed with an indescribable look.

Chu Huan glanced at the mysterious halo in the deep cave, then at Nanshan, and suddenly had some kind of speculation in his heart, his throat suddenly dried up.

"This is the place where my clan made a marriage contract." Nanshan held his face in one hand, twirled Chu Huan's hair with his fingers, and lingered for a long time as if he couldn't put it down.

The thin calluses on the palms made Chu Huan itchy, but he didn't hide, because the itching on the skin was far inferior to the itching in the heart.

"The agreement of the mountain guard is a life-and-death agreement," Nanshan said. "It may be different from yours. Once it is made, it will never be repented, and it will never be violated."

He suddenly took a step back, knelt down on one knee, grabbed Chu Huan's hand, and turned his palm up.

"Please," Nanshan raised his head and looked at Chu Huan without blinking, "give it to me."