Of Mountains and Rivers

The bow of the boat just turned slightly, and then it never moved again, and the mysterious figure who had been following them quietly disappeared again.

Yuan Ping lightly pressed his fingertips on the bowstring, glanced at Chu Huan, and signaled him with his eyes—is it an enemy or a friend?

Chu Huan wiped his face and shook his head.

This time, the guiding behavior can be said to be guidance, or it can be said to be temptation.

But having said that, whether it is pointing or seduction, it is actually the same to them.Far and near are boundless seas and waves, they might wander around here in the Year of the Monkey, and the trap might also be their destination.

The fishing boat went forward for another half a day, but the exact distance could not be verified—the boat was sailing in the sea, and several people had two knives, which made the boat go east and west, going in and out, and the route was extremely horrible.

At first, there was still some light wind and waves on the water surface, but I don't know when, the sea water didn't even have normal ups and downs, and the water surface seemed vast and stiff.

Pinghu Qiuyue is a scenic spot, Pinghai Qiuyue... probably haunted.

The legendary Shen Xing Island was still unknown, but Chu Huan and the others encountered a large group of boats first.

They were all big ships, all weather-beaten, and they should have been ruined long ago, but they were kept fresh in a strange way. Most of the hulls were damaged, some were half broken, some were turned over, and some were turned over. The ones on the shelf... Normally, they should all sink to the bottom, but now they are all floating on the surface of the sea.

Chu Huan looked at it for a while, then took off the glasses that were turned into telescopes and handed them to Nanshan: "There are some boats over there with water plants on them, and mud and sand in the cabin, like a sunken ship."

Nan Shan was not used to binoculars, he was dizzy wearing them, and he could see everything without them, so he handed them to Yuan Ping: "Can a sunken ship still float up from the water?"

In Chu Huan's view, a dilapidated boat that had been filled with mud on the seabed was not so much floating by itself as it was lifted up by something.

"Didn't I hear that there are various hidden reefs near Shenxing Island, so could these be the fishing boats that sank here?" What if we run into a reef?"

Chu Huan said expressionlessly: "With our 'leopard's speed', it's okay to hit it. Don't worry. These boats will not float up for no reason. Come on, prepare for a tough battle."

Although the two of them were talking like this, neither of them moved the boat, and the fishing boat just stopped on the surface of the sea, which was quieter than the swimming pool.

Nanshan looked at this and then at that, wondering why the two of them didn't move, and were about to start to row the oar, Chu Huan seemed to be startled by his movement and came back to his senses.

"Let me do it," Chu Huan said in a low voice, "I think I'm a little proficient."

Yuan Ping sat down on one side, lowered his head and stared at Xiaolu's big eyes. He probably understood why Ruge loved this snake. It is said that it grew up drinking holy springs. The wildness of the beast is very aura, and it is really likable.

Yuan Ping patted its head, and said calmly: "What if there is no holy book on Shen Xing Island?"

No one answered.

Yuan Ping continued: "What if the so-called holy book is just a trick? If we finally find the holy book, but still find that we can't do anything, why..."

Chu Huan: "Shut up."

Yuan Ping ignored him: "What if you find the body of 'it', but find that there is no way to defeat it?"

Chu Huan took a deep breath and eased his tone slightly: "Listen to me, so far, the attacks we have encountered in each stage have certain commonalities..."

Yuan Ping: "What if those who were swallowed can't come back even if 'it' is killed?"

Chu Huan said to himself: "For example, the fire in the fishing village by the sea, I suspect that it is the realization of the consciousness of 'anger'."

Yuan Ping: "Even if the devoured people are still there...we don't have time...what should we do?"

"Another example..." Chu Huan held his hand, and finally stopped talking to him. He sighed, and looked at Yuan Ping sideways, "I have asked you these questions before."

Yuan Ping responded slowly to him.

Chu Huan paused, and after a while, he said calmly: "Counting you, eighteen brothers died during the ghost fight. At that time, I was in Southeast Asia. It was so hot every night that I couldn't sleep. I thought about it." , spent such a high price, what if it doesn’t work? What if those sons of bitches run away in the end? What if you can’t catch them all in one go, what if you continue to harm society in the future?”

What if I could go back alive and face my brothers' parents, wives and children?

Chu Huan omitted the last sentence, and patted Yuan Ping on the shoulder openly: "I thought about it later, no matter what the cause and effect are, anyway, the reality is like this, and I am the only one left, so I have to face it. It’s safe to come — that possibility only becomes a reality if I believe things are going to work out for the better.”

When Chu Huan said this, he even showed a smile, as if what he was talking about was true.

However, even if he speaks better than he sings, it still can't change the fact that he brags and doesn't write drafts. Only Chu Huan knows that he was never so handsome and handsome at that time, and he was just a bear full of hatred and depressed.

"The elder also gave me a holy object and a secret word," Chu Huan said, "'When the holy fire burns, all those who are lost can be reborn', this is what the old goat said, I believe it, do you believe it? "

Yuan Ping froze for a moment, then nodded involuntarily. When a person is almost desperate, it is very easy to give him a belief, and he will hold on to it like a straw.

Chu Huan slowly pushed the small fishing boat forward with an impeccable expression, thinking: "Believe it, I'm just lying to you anyway."

But he was able to deceive Yuan Ping, but failed to deceive Nanshan.

Nan Shan couldn't tell the reason, he might have been fooled too many times, and he had already cultivated his intuition. Chu Huan had something to say, and he could feel how much water was in it after listening to two or three sentences.

Nanshan thought about it for a long time, and found that he would never learn Chu Huan's half-truthy way of speaking, so he had to imitate it in a low-level manner, and mentioned in a pretend chat: "Then you never thought that if one day I What are you going to do when you're gone?"

After hearing this, Chu Huan glanced at him with a smile, and said briskly, "Then I'll go dig your grave, fish out the bones and make a pot of soup."

Nanshan: "..."

They slowly approached the shipwreck area. Yuan Ping didn't notice any mystery in the "casual joke" between the two of them. Holding the life-saving straw that Chu Huan threw him, Yuan Ping tried his best to return to reason: "What did you just say? What is the embodiment of anger?"

Chu Huan: "Oh, I feel that after 'it' devours these people, it expresses its emotions and desires through these people, and the consciousness here can be embodied, so if the effect of sadness is to make people breathless Come on, then I suspect that the embodiment of 'anger' is the fire next to the fishing village."

Nanshan looked towards the silent shipwreck area with his hands behind his back, and asked in a deep voice, "You mean, we might be burned again?"

Although he was reluctant to admit it, Chu Huan nodded helplessly.

Yuan Ping: "What should I do?"

Chu Huan stopped the boat again: "We also use fire."

As he said, he turned his head and glanced at the short scepter of the patriarch: "When we were surrounded by burning sea water, I thought so, but at that time, there was nothing around us except our own boat. None, so it's not feasible-don't they have so many shipwrecks now? I wonder if we can be the first to attack their shipwrecks first, and use our fire to fight their fire. "

"But I suspect that we won't catch fire at all." Yuan Ping's eyes also fell on the short patriarch's scepter. He thought about it for a moment, and suggested with some helplessness, "You forgot, we used rockets all the way, but the fire It will be destroyed in a blink of an eye after leaving the patriarch's scepter-this distance is just right, how about we do a more reliable experiment?"

After finishing speaking, Yuan Ping took out an arrow and touched the fire on the scepter. After a long whistle, the burning arrow sank straight into the hull of a sunken ship. A shadow on the hull spread out quickly, revealing the real mottled old hull, which was burned a hole by Yuan Ping's arrow.

But the result was very disappointing, the fire did not burn, and the small flames lingered near the big hole in the hull for a moment, and were soon swallowed back by the scattered black shadows, and even a spark could not be seen.

Once the fire on the scepter leaves the scepter itself, it loses its vitality.

Yuan Ping turned his head and shrugged at Chu Huan: "The experiment failed."

Chu Huan's eyes gradually became serious: "No... it seems that it's not just a failure."

He wore binoculars and could see clearly after the rocket hit the ship.

From the broken hole, Chu Huan saw that there was a person in the boat. That person was floating on the water, and countless dark shadows rushed out of that person's body. Then, he heard an earth-shattering roar. The water surface of "Autumn Moon" suddenly boiled.

The huge black shadow was flying up and down in the sea water, soaring through the clouds and fog, as if dumplings had been cooked.

And what came with the shadows was the familiar and deadly flames, enveloping them in the blink of an eye.

Yuan Ping was dumbfounded: "I... did I provoke 'it'?"

Chu Huan said nothing, he looked at the patriarch's scepter, and quickly verified his thoughts - the scepter was surrounded by a smooth circle, and the fire on the shadow did not dare to penetrate into the range of the scepter's fire.

The question is how to use it?

Nanshan dangerously separated the fire around the cabin in the vast water surface and the cramped space, and the small fishing boat rushed out from the frozen sea like an arrow, trying to break through.

But who knows how big the wreck area is?

The fishing boat went deep into the shipwreck area in a blink of an eye. Chu Huan, who seemed to be thinking about something, suddenly picked up an arrow, and when a big boat passed by, he suddenly ignited and shot at a large group of aquatic plants on the boat.

Yuan Ping: "What are you doing..."

His voice stopped suddenly, because the group of water plants was instantly ignited by the fire, the fire on the tip of the arrow, which had been dying, burst into flames as if it was full of blood and revived when it touched the water plants, "Wow With a sound, all the surrounding shadows and the fires burning on the shadows backed away, and the pressure of the fire on Chu Huan's side became significantly smaller.

It turns out that the fire is not impossible to burn, but it can only burn living things.

Seeing that this was feasible, Chu Huan immediately used the telescope as a scope.

He ignited all the aquatic plants within his vision extremely quickly, and the shadows and fires that had been menacing suddenly weakened, sweeping out a passage for their small fishing boat.

Nanshan's pressure suddenly eased, he turned his head and glanced at Chu Huan, feeling that that man was simply a hope in a desperate situation.

Yuan Ping and the poisonous snake on his shoulder, Xiaolu, were stunned. Yuan Ping quickly moved the scull without giving orders. After all, the water plants are limited, so it won't last long.

Just when they were about to pass through the shipwreck area, "it" seemed to realize that the waves in the sea suddenly became fierce and rolled over violently, which not only seriously affected the speed of the ship, but also repeatedly washed the sunken ships, sticking them Even the large group of aquatic plants brushed down.

Chu Huan's eyes darkened suddenly.

As the water fluctuated, the aquatic plants seemed to be covered with a layer of shadow, unable to ignite.

How to do?

When Chu Huan held up the bow and arrow, the tip of the arrow involuntarily turned slightly at an angle, aiming at a person behind the wreck who seemed to be peeping at them from the inside out.

Man is also a living thing.

Yuan Ping was taken aback, and pressed his wrist: "What are you doing?"

Chu Huan's cheeks were tense, and Yuan Ping could feel that his hand holding the arrow was as firm as a stone.

Yuan Ping looked at his gloomy side face in horror: "Chu... Chu Huan."

Chu Huan finally relaxed his arm muscles slowly, and the corner of his mouth moved slightly, as if he smiled self-deprecatingly: "It's okay, I'm a little crazy."

After finishing speaking, Chu Huan slowly put down the bow and arrow, took a deep breath, probably feeling that he was looking hideous, and turned his face sideways to avoid the sight of others.

Through the binoculars, he could already see the sea surface behind the sunken ship. It seemed that he was about to get rid of the pursuers behind him, but what would happen ahead?

How long can this fire chase after them?

Chu Huan was clueless.

A person may be infinitely powerful and create a series of breathtaking miracles, but now Chu Huan knows that no matter how powerful a person is, at a certain moment in his life, he can only stand somewhere helpless, resigned to his fate Wait for fate or tenderness or cruelty.

He clenched his fingers into fists and slowly retracted them, finding himself groveling for a little luck.

The stern, in pursuit of the fire, passed completely through the wreck area.

And at this moment—I don’t know if it’s been too long because of bad luck, this time Chu Huan actually got a little luck as he wished—the wall of fire that was chasing after them suddenly stopped as if blocked by something no more.

Nanshan suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, removed the airflow protection around the fishing boat, and staggered half a step before standing still, while the fishing boat was still rushing forward at a considerable speed under the strong inertia.

While counting the remaining arrows, Chu Huan said to Yuan Ping without raising his head, "Slow down, don't shake it."

"..." Yuan Ping was silent for a while, then called out to him, and raised his two hands towards him.

No one is moving the boat, it is automatic in no wind.

Not only did the speed not decrease, but it seemed to be getting faster and faster!

Chu Huan lay on the side of the boat and looked down for a moment: "I suspect there is an undercurrent below."

Yuan Ping: "...You just said that we are fine if we hit a reef at that speed, what about now?"

Chu Huan glanced at him silently.

Isn't this fucking nonsense?

The speed of the boat was getting faster and faster, and the wind was like a racing car. Chu Huan turned to the head of his family: "Nanshan, the good news is that we are really approaching Shenxing Island."

Nanshan: "What about the bad news?"

Chu Huan sighed: "The bad news is that before arriving at the destination, we may face a marine traffic accident first, the ship is destroyed and people die or something."

Nan Shan sneered slightly, as if he didn't care too much: "If you fall into the water, I can protect you."

"No, listen to me." At this time, the speed of the boat has reached a certain level, and Chu Huan couldn't help speeding up his speech, "We are tied together by a rope. , no one here is so easy to drown, the key is the scepter."

Nanshan was taken aback.

Perhaps because the dawn of victory was about to be seen, Chu Huan became extremely excited at an abnormal speed. Before Nanshan could react, he quickly continued: "Shen Xing Island is just an island. No matter how weird the terrain is, there are so many islands. Ordinary fishermen have been in it before, as long as the scepter is not destroyed, people are fine. But if we need to float in the water for a long time, you don't have the strength to cover everything, understand me..."

Before he finished speaking, Yuan Ping interrupted him.

Yuan Ping didn't turn his head, grabbed Nanshan's arm behind him, and murmured, "I...fuck..."

I saw a huge vortex appeared on the sea surface, with a diameter of at least one kilometer, and fishing boats, big and small, looked like ants in it.

The sky was covered by the shadows, so they couldn't observe it, but they could imagine that if it was a clear night full of stars, and the starlight reflected on the side of the vortex, it must be... the scene of the Milky Way collapsing and the stars falling like falling stars, right?

It's Shen Xing Island!This must be Shen Xing Island!

Nanshan didn't have time to think about it, he had already tried his best to protect the flaming scepter firmly in the air current, he only had time to pull the hemp rope in his hand and pull Chu Huan to his side.There was a huge earthquake on the fishing boat, and the small wooden boat irretrievably fell apart almost instantly. The people on board were thrown out mercilessly, and they were dumped in the huge whirlpool.

Nanshan held the scepter in one hand, and firmly held Chu Huan's hand in the other. He understood what Chu Huan said just now. It is inevitable to lose sight of the other.

The three people and one snake seemed to be sucked into a huge front-loading washing machine, spinning for a long time, and then a stream of angry water violently pushed them in one direction.

Only then did Chu Huan try to open his eyes. His glasses had gone to nowhere, but this did not affect his ability to see clearly.

He saw a mountain on the bottom of the sea, which at first glance was familiar, but then he was startled.

That mountain...is exactly the same as the sacred mountain where the mountain guards and gatekeepers live, even the location and shape of the mountain gate are exactly the same.