Of Mountains and Rivers

This sudden fire from the sky made Chu Huan feel very miserable—they had endured a lot of hardships along the way, and suffered great physical and psychological torture. They finally adapted to the attack of hallucinations. As a result, they suddenly changed the rules of the game. Changed to a physical attack!

Why can't it follow a path and end in one?

What troubled Chu Huan in particular was that Yuan Ping was poking at his side with a stick. In this situation, he still assiduously doubted that everything he saw was fake.

Yuan Ping: "Wait, let's see if it's really popular first?"

While speaking, flames burned along the rope, and violent sparks flew everywhere.

Chu Huan: "How is this true! You..."

But just when they were ignoring the fire, the flame burned on Chu Huan's palm, and he was stunned: "Eh?"

At the same time, both Nanshan and Luge were aware of it.

Nan Shan was stunned for a moment, and tentatively put a hand into the flames. The seemingly ferocious flames swept across his palm and forearm, and the light of the flames added a layer of red to his face.

Nanshan looked at the flames in front of him unharmed, as if the red boy had possessed his body, and asked doubtfully, "Isn't it hot?"

The temperature of the "flame" was at most forty degrees, very warm, and evenly warmed, as if dispelling the gloom and coldness of the sinking land a little bit, several people invariably took it as a hand warmer, and stuffed it into it Keep one hand warm.

At first glance, the picture is quite brutal, and the four of them seem to be engaged in self-mutilation performance art.

Yuan Ping was able to say it right once in his lifetime, and his tail was so proud that he boasted desperately afterwards: "Look, I'll just say it, I've always been very foresight."

... Well, it can be regarded as a fool who has a thousand thoughts, and there is something to gain.

"Who knows what's going on?" Nanshan curled his fingers in the flames.

As a qualified translator, Chu Huan conveyed this sentence to the man who was on his way.

Under the light of the fire, I saw that the man was about forty years old, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a handsome appearance without anger and prestige. Behind him was a long braid, which looked like a girl, and was wrapped around a pair of braids. The colorful hairband is decorated with small bells without cores.

Ruger's gaze stayed on the strange-shaped bell for a moment: "Wait, this person seems to be a 'wizard'."

The "wizard" in Luge's mouth is of course not referring to Harry Potter. In the language of the Liyi tribe, this word contains meanings such as "the person who communicates with the gods", "the person who presides over the sacrifice", "the wisest person" and so on. , Chu Huan heard it from the elder once, but what puzzled him was that there were no people with such status in the two clans of mountain guards and gate guards.

He was puzzled, so he asked casually. Ruge didn't explain what he heard, but just gave him a haughty smile that didn't bother to explain.

Chu Huan was stunned at first, then suddenly opened his eyes wide -

The gatekeeper was born from the center of the mountain and the center of the water. He is not old or young, and to outsiders, it seems that there have always been such a few faces for thousands of years. Not to mention the strange blood relationship between the mountain guard and the gatekeeper, every once in a while will disappear for no reason...

This kind of mysterious existence, to the local aborigines, isn't it just...

Nanshan looked at him with a half-smile.

Chu Huan was extremely messed up, and he stammered, "Yeah, that is to say, I... I abducted a 'mountain god'?"

Luge continued: "This generation of mountain guards in Nanshan has never experienced it. A long time ago - when the mainland was full of people and businessmen were walking around, there would be a 'big fair' every three years at the gate of the mountain, and many people would Led by the wizards of the clan, they come down to the mountain gate for pilgrimage to pray for blessings and avoid disasters. For them, the mountain is the only true god.”

It turned out that the so-called "Sacred Mountain" was not boastful, but really believed by the local people, and existed like a holy place. Chu Huan began to reflect on whether he was too disrespectful.

At this moment, he heard a faint "ho ho" sound, carefully distinguishing it, and found that it was like the sound of a very weak person squeezed out of his throat.

Along the way, Chu Huan was probably brainwashed by Ruge's very characteristic "chi" sneer, he was nervous for a while, and heard the "ho" as a sneer.

Chu Huan: "Hey, brother, can you hear me?"

The man seemed to let out a long breath, and responded with an extremely weak voice: "It is... who..."

Nanshan poked Chu Huan lightly on the shoulder, as if he was going to insist on his "false theory", Chu Huan held his fingers in his palm, turned his head and lowered his voice: "Shut up, you are unreliable!" of."

I only heard the wizard say again: "Are you... an outsider? You... Do you have a 'fire' on you?"

As he opened his mouth to respond to Chu Huan, the beating flames on the rope gradually extinguished, and the hemp rope itself was unharmed.

Chu Huan was taken aback. The little girl he met earlier asked him if he was in his heart, but this middle-aged man used the very subtle word "outside". Compared with the confused child, this person seemed to be clearer He knew that he was in a sinking place.

Chu Huan turned a corner in his heart, he didn't dare to fully trust this person, so he also used a very subtle way: "We came from the other side of the mountain, what is the fire?"

"Fire... comes from outside the mountain, it is something that it cannot swallow..."

"From beyond the sacred mountain" is very easy to understand, it is the other side of this world - the world that Chu Huan is more familiar with. "What it cannot swallow" should refer to the patriarchal scepter.

"Are you... are you from the sacred mountain? True God, please... save... save..."

There was indescribable earnestness in the wizard's voice, but the second half of the sentence became weaker and weaker.

Chu Huan thought he was saying "help me", and couldn't help but move closer: "What?"

Nanshan reached out and pressed his shoulder to prevent him from approaching.

"It's okay," Chu Huan took another step forward, "Can I help you? How?"

The wizard was extremely weak, and he was silent for a while. When Chu Huan was already agitated, he spit out a few words intermittently: "Chop...cut...my...head..."

Chu Huan: "..."

It seemed that one of his own ears and the big brother's head must be bad.

Generally, "true gods" can't talk too much, talk too much and ask too many questions, they look like a country bumpkin who doesn't know much about shit, and has no fairy air, but now at this stage, Chu Huan can't care about pretending to be a god for his family's nameless "mountain god" He asked again quickly: "You said you asked me to cut off your head to save you?"

As soon as he finished speaking, his eyes suddenly blurred, and his whole body seemed to fall into hot water. Chu Huan looked down and was horrified to find that there was a fire around him. one block.

At that moment, countless pictures flashed before his eyes——

He saw large areas of mountains and rivers soaked in ink, dimmed layer by layer, and then, his perspective quickly fell to the ground, countless people were silently swallowed by the darkness without knowing it, and the hustle and bustle of smoke condensed in the air and floated Without descending, the surroundings were as silent as death.

Thousands of human faces flashed past Chu Huan like garbled characters. After they were shrouded in shadow, they were first swallowed into the shadow motionlessly, and then their faces gradually turned gray from freshness. I recognized that kind of ash, which is the dead air on the face when a person is about to die.

The high-speed switching screen gradually slowed down, and finally it was fixed on a person. It was an old man, who kept turning his head and looking into the distance, motionless. His gray face and stiff body looked like a zombie standing at attention. Chu Huanxin Think: "Is the living dead?"

Before he finished thinking, the next second, the old man's body fell apart like a pile of sand, and Chu Huan watched helplessly as he turned into a pile of powder.

It's like digested food residue, starting from the feet and ending with the head.

Chu Huan suddenly opened his eyes wide. This person seemed to be implying himself that the engulfment of people and animals by the sinking land was in a physical sense!

"It" is to feed on the people and animals in the fallen ground, not what they originally guessed, such as "swallowing people's consciousness, swallowing people's emotions", which seems to be a very advanced way of causing trouble.

At this moment, Chu Huan was dragged out of the flames, and then his back hit Nanshan's chest.

Seeing that he was suddenly surrounded by flames, Nanshan was so frightened that even though he knew that the flames might not be hot, he almost had a heart attack. At this moment, he nervously touched Chu Huan up and down.

... If it weren't for Nanshan's integrity and integrity, Chu Huan almost suspected that he was taking advantage of the opportunity.

Chu Huan coughed lightly: "He is telling me something about the land that fell, don't be nervous."

Yuan Ping: "Look, what happened to this man?"

Chu Huan raised his head following his words, and found that in just such a short while, the wizard's face had obviously turned gray, and a layer of death was also shrouded in it.

The fire just now seemed to burn his life.

Chu Huan suddenly seemed to have a feeling that the direction of this person's journey was the valley they passed through, and he asked softly, "Who do you want me to save?"

"My...my people." This time, the wizard's voice seemed to be clearer, as if he had come back to life, and the wizard himself probably realized that this time, he didn't wait for Chu Huan to ask questions, and he just kept talking to himself. Going on, "My people, in the valley over there, they were trapped by 'it', thinking I abandoned them..."

While listening attentively, Chu Huan dutifully performed simultaneous interpretation. At this time, the effect of supplementing the language of the elders appeared, otherwise he would not understand the uncommon words spoken by others.

Chu Huan: "Trapped?"

"Yes...it will assimilate everyone, the body...and then the consciousness. Our body will become its food, but we will be unconscious. The consciousness will be trapped in a false cage by it, and it will be digested bit by bit. I thought I lived a lifetime of real freedom..."

Yuan Ping: "Fuck, so this 'it' is a carnivore?"

Chu Huan: "I seem to understand a little bit. Don't those monsters outside represent 'can't see, can't hear, can't smell, can't taste, and can't touch'? If all the senses of a person are closed, he can't know what he is. Is it real or living in an illusion..."

Yuan Ping nodded thoughtfully, and said seriously, "Well, it's a bit powerful."

Chu Huan didn't bother to cut back this kind of mentally retarded remarks—he heard the wizard's voice getting more and more urgent, and finally he was almost out of breath. He was afraid that he would die before he finished speaking, so he hurriedly asked: " How do you say we save people? How to do it specifically? Your clansmen don’t know what’s going on, the crying is earth-shattering, and they can’t breathe when they get close…”

The wizard said: "They cry because they are trapped in the fantasy, which makes the people think that I and the mountain god have betrayed them. I'm about to die... No one can take it away, while, while my consciousness is still alive, you cut off my head, take me back to the valley, burn it in front of the people of the clan, and wake them up..."

Chu Huan: "Are you dying?"

Wizard: "I've been fighting against it for an unknown number of years, and I'm almost digested by it."

Not to mention the fact that burning one head can wake up the people in the valley is not scientific or scientific, but——thousands of people cried together because they thought the wizard had rebelled?

It's not that the father died and the mother married, as for it?

Chu Huan thought that the wizard was either a little crazy, or he was being sentimental. While relaying the wizard's words, he played Tai Chi with the sufferer very sincerely: "I can't kill people for this reason, or you can think about other things... ..."

Nanshan heard this, but suddenly pressed Chu Huan: "Tell him 'yes'."

On the other side, Ruge had already drawn out the knife. He raised the tip of the knife flat and stuck it on the wizard's neck. He raised his chin slightly and nodded to Chu Huan.

Chu Huan: "But..."

"That's how we are here," Nanshan explained softly, "The sacred mountain is belief, and wizards are regarded as people who can communicate with the sacred mountain, so they are the incarnation of gods. In a clan, wizards are their beliefs."

In fact, Chu Huan was very disapproving, there were only a few true gods he knew - but he just thought about it in his heart and didn't say it out.

For many days, Nanshan has been able to see something from his eyes, he sighed: "Oh, you still don't understand, even though there are no monsters here, it is not peaceful in the first place, and people in many places are poor , I heard from the elders that in the past, the clansmen who lived in various places would often fight in melee. If there was a plague, a large number of people would die at every turn. People worshiped and believed in the holy mountain, which is a kind of sustenance. Do you know what sustenance is? ?”

Chu Huan did not expect the local people to be so firm and devout in their belief in the mountain god, so he shook his head hesitantly.

"Sustaining is a kind of hope. When you can't survive, think about the sacred mountain, and tell yourself that this is the experience given by the sacred mountain. Only by gritting your teeth and getting through it will you be blessed by God—without such hope and sustenance, They might be missing a pillar."

Suffering and faith have never been separated.

Nanshan said: "How does it feel when the pillars fall? If a group of people think that the wizard and Shenshan have betrayed them, it is equivalent to one day I think you have betrayed me. Do you understand?"

Chu Huan: "..."

He understood at first, but this sentence... still contains a lot of information.

Nanshan touched his hair with his hand, his eyes softened: "Promise him."

Chu Huan's throat was a little tight. He coughed quickly, cleared his throat, and continued his simultaneous interpretation work with difficulty.

"I have one last question," Chu Huan asked the wizard in front of him in a deep voice, "why hasn't your consciousness been swallowed?"

The wizard was silent for a while: "Maybe it's because the only thing left in my mind is 'go back'."

This statement coincides with the words of the elder of the mountain guard to some extent, and Chu Huan nodded silently.

One person begged another person to cut off his head and take it away. Chu Huan couldn't imagine this kind of obsession, but it didn't prevent him from being touched a little.

"Okay." Chu Huan said.

I don't know if it was his illusion, but he always felt that when his voice fell, a slight smile curled up on the wax-like wizard's stone-like face.

Luge raised his hand and chopped off the wizard's head neatly. The moment his head was separated, the wizard's body was completely turned into a puddle of powder from his feet to his neck.

He couldn't die any more.

Luge picked up the wizard's head: "Let's go."

They managed to circumvent that terrible valley, and they had to go back again. When they thought of the thick air in the valley, they suddenly felt a sense of tragedy, "knowing that there are tigers in the mountains, but walking towards the mountains of tigers", as if It's fate that you can't get around it.

Fortunately, on the way back, except for a little waste of footsteps, nothing happened.

Chu Huan said as he walked: "The few words I talked with the wizard just now, I actually thought of another question-I heard what the wizard said, most people are almost unconscious when they are swallowed. It’s too late to react, why didn’t they run beforehand?”

Nanshan thought for a while: "Maybe it's too late. They're not near the holy mountain. When 'it' came, there wasn't even a barrier to stop it for a while. By the time someone realized it, it might have been swallowed up."

Chu Huan: "Then where do the legends about the fallen land come from?"

If everyone who knew something died, where did it come from?

Several people were stunned.

Chu Huan went on to say: "So I suspect that someone must have used some method to escape from the trap back then."

While talking, they had already returned to the side of the weird valley with ease.

The thick clouds that had originally covered there seemed to have dissipated, and only a row of clansmen, old and young, were left, trapped in the painful fantasy.

Yuan Ping took a deep breath: "To be honest, I now feel a little like a savior."

Chu Huan sighed: "Savior, hold your breath and prepare to pierce."