Of Mountains and Rivers

Chu Huan did not rush forward, frowned and looked at the other party for a moment, then asked cautiously: "You are Ji..."

He once dreamed of this middle-aged man by the holy spring, and asked the elder about it, but the elder probably didn't know much about it, so he only mentioned one sentence. What is it called, I can only roughly remember that it sounds like "chicken wings", so the words paused, and I didn't continue in embarrassment.

The middle-aged man turned his head when he heard the sound, and smiled at him gently: "I am not, the man you mentioned is the last mountain guard I have ever seen, and he is dead. I borrowed his appearance by the holy spring I met you once, remember?"

Chu Huan's pupils shrank, and the short knife was held upside down in his hand. His face remained calm, but his muscles were already tense to the point of ready to go. Not only because of what the other party said, but also because he saw what the other party was wiping. A long human leg bone.

This is the person Chu Huan saw in his dream, the one who pointed at him and called him "Tinder", so is it also he who carved the words on the stone and the back of his hand?

Who is he?

Chu Huan was full of doubts about this person, but these doubts were circling in his chest. Chu Huan didn't know if this person could be trusted, so he didn't ask for a while.

However, the middle-aged man explained in a polite manner: "I am the one who carved the characters on the road, and I am also the one who guides you near Shen Xing Island. You must be guessing who I am now..."

When he said this, he smiled, with a little quiet memory on his face, paused for a moment, and said to Chu Huan: "I used to be a gatekeeper, patriarch."

Chu Huan was originally a late stage of persecution delusion, and he had a lot of doubts about this middle-aged man from the beginning, so he was not so easy to be trusted, so he still maintained full vigilance: "I remember that the patriarch of the gatekeeper is a very good-looking man. The person who looks like a water ghost is named Luge."

The middle-aged man didn't think it was disobedient, and holding the thigh bone, he politely said to Chu Huan, "Luge is my next job—sit down, kid, and I'll tell you from the beginning."

Chu Huan raised the corner of his mouth slightly, with a smile that was not a smile, and his expression was slightly cold. He intuitively felt that there was something disgusting or even vigilant about the other party. Coupled with his agitated mood, he basically regarded this middle-aged man of unknown origin as his old enemy. Big and small ghosts.

Chu Huan didn't move, and looked at him condescendingly, his eyelids slightly drooping: "Say it."

"I saw you in this way, not to lie to you... Well, this is actually me." The middle-aged man said, and raised the thigh bone in his hand at Chuhuan, "I turned into a dry bone, and now I am just a Intangible consciousness, I don't remember what I used to be like. I... I am indeed the patriarch of the gatekeepers, but that was a long time ago, before your friend Ruger was born, and there was no such thing as ' Mountain Keeper'."

When Chu Huan heard this, his eyes moved.

The middle-aged man had already caught it keenly. He seemed to have a mind-reading ability, and sighed slightly: "Yes, you are right, the human bones you met below were all gatekeepers——Chu... Huan, um, is that what it’s called? Sorry, I can’t say it well—when you saw this seawater mountain, didn’t you think of anything?”

Chu Huan really felt that the seawater mountain gave him a very strange sense of familiarity, but he couldn't tell what was so strange for a while. He was sure that he had never seen a mountain made of seawater in his life.

"Sacred Mountain has two layers of gates, inner and outer. Every year, the outer gate is closed and the inner gate is opened, and the gatekeepers can rest for a few days. You should have seen the inner gate. Passing through there, you will reach another world, your side world."

When he mentioned it, Chu Huan suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He remembered that when monsters surrounded the mountain and the mountain gate was suddenly closed, Ruge led people quickly through a narrow cave, and led them to a large crystal. It is said that there is the inner mountain gate leading to their side.

When a person stood on that piece of crystal, ripples spread out from the clearly solid ground, as if it was a pool... a pool made of rocks.

Mountains are made of water, and water is made of mountains. Is there any special connection between them?

"Yes." The middle-aged man nodded.

In front of people of unknown origin, Chu Huan is still a little confident in his indifferent city. He is sure that he has absolutely nothing on his expression. Why does this person guess what he is thinking time and time again?

The middle-aged man smiled helplessly: "I can indeed feel your consciousness, that's why I warned you not to think about it on Shen Xing Island, don't worry, I won't harm you."

Chu Huan didn't make a sound, and temporarily suppressed the idea of ​​"killing people to silence them".

Seeing that he didn't believe it, the middle-aged man didn't argue anymore, and continued: "The mountain you see is actually the same as the inner door of the sacred mountain. It is also a door, and it is also connected to another world through it .”

The answer came as a bit of a shock.

But soon, Chu Huan came to his senses—the mountain guards called the twice-yearly migration between the two worlds "reversing the mountain gate", so there is also a sacred mountain here, and there is also a mountain gate. Reasonable.

There was a gleam in the eyes of the middle-aged man, as if he was staring at a far away place, lost in memory, he said softly: "You know, our family has always been worshiped as mountain gods, so we overheard When the merchants who traveled far away mentioned that fishermen strayed into Shen Xing Island and saw another "divine mountain" under the sea, they felt a lump in their hearts, and as time passed, they had thoughts that they shouldn't have."

Chu Huan may not be so sensitive to beautiful things, but he is aware of bad things. Hearing this, he immediately said: "You are afraid that the existence of another 'Sacred Mountain' will endanger your status."

The middle-aged man sighed: "In the beginning, there was no distinction between mountain guards and gatekeepers. We are the authentic children of the holy mountain, transformed from the spirit of the holy mountain, immortal, and will go to you every year with the mountain gate. At that time, you It was still a barren area, there were no people, but the anger and aura were compelling..."

Chu Huan quickly interrupted him to reminisce about the past: "Because I'm afraid that this underwater mountain also has a gatekeeper, can open its mouth to lead to another world, and will be regarded as a mountain god, so you brought someone to smash the scene yourself?"

"Because of my own selfishness, I took away all the warriors in the clan," the middle-aged man closed his eyes slightly, as if this incident still caused him pain, "The gatekeepers cannot leave the holy mountain. This is a clan rule. As a The patriarch actually betrayed Shenshan... At that time, all the warriors of our family were trapped here, Shenshan was furious, buried our family alive under the mountain, took back the spirit of the mountain, and then used holy water to reshape the second generation of gatekeepers, Let them have birth, old age, sickness and death, selfless and fearless, and only instinctively guard the gate. In order to continue the gatekeeper, Shenshan created the gatekeeper again, so that they have mortal bodies, but they can communicate with the holy spring with blood."

Buried alive sounds like an earthquake or a landslide. Chu Huan didn't get too entangled, but asked sharply: "Isn't this all after you left? How did you know?"

The middle-aged man smiled bitterly: "Because I was swallowed up here and became a part of it. With its power, I can see anywhere in the world."

Chu Huan couldn't help standing up straighter: "What exactly is 'it'?"

This time, the answer given by the middle-aged man once again exceeded Chu Huan's imagination. He said, "It's a seed."

Chu Huan was dumbfounded: "What?"

"Young man, don't be so surprised. Any world starts from an ambitious seed."

Chu Huan always felt that his words were meaningful, and when he was still thinking about the mystery in these words, he heard the middle-aged man continue to say: "We have come here after a long journey, and we are looking for a place on the coast again. It took several years to find Shen Xing Island and witness the underwater holy mountain. The originally closed mountain gate here was inspired by the blood of our holy mountain, and opened the door to another world. We saw that there was no sunshine and nothing there. , just a sneaky black shadow, like a vine, coveting to come over, but it couldn't pass the mountain gate, so it pushed a seed over - that's what you see, the 'stone' on the top of the mountain .”

"We wanted to burn the unknown plant," said the middle-aged man, "but guess what?"

Chu Huan hesitated for a moment: "You feel a joy for no reason from it."

The elders said that there are too many strong people, and they are usually not trapped in their own troughs.

"A seed, with only a small bud that has just emerged from its body, carrying the most contagious joy at the beginning of life, do you think it will be a bad thing?" My engagement stone is so similar, so pure..."

Chu Huan didn't know how to answer this question, worry, fear, fear, anger - aren't they all born of joy?

This world is so unscientific, but somehow, it seems to make sense.

Chu Huan came back to his senses: "That's why it confused you with hallucinations and trapped you here."

"You're wrong," the middle-aged man shook his head and smiled wryly, "'it' is not a low-level fake like Phantom Monkey, it never creates hallucinations, it just subtly transmits its emotions to you, and you will not know it Sink into it unknowingly, and then you will create illusions for yourself, so that you become a part of it, under its rules and control, become a part of its support, and you will never be free."

"Young man, you see, although its body has been growing, it has grown very slowly. After so many years, it has only grown to such a large size. It must establish its own rules everywhere, and it must not be able to rely on itself. So it has been gnawing at the people and animals around it, and after it has been devoured, their consciousness has become its vines, those shadows, and continues to devour other people—you are so smart, you should have guessed it.”

Chu Huan nodded: "So people who still retain their own consciousness can't become its vines, they will die..."

"There is no dead body, only a pile of powder." The middle-aged man said softly.

Then why does the person in front of him retain his consciousness and still have a pile of bones left?

And why is he still not dead with only a pile of bones left, and why can he transform himself in some way to talk to him?

Chu Huan's vigilance, which had been a little lowered just now, was raised again, and he interrupted the middle-aged man's emotion with a blank face: "What are you? Haven't you been swallowed?"

The middle-aged man smiled strangely: "You are really too smart-yes, you guessed it right, I have been fighting against it and merging with it for so many years, and in the end I am not dead, nor am I alive , because I have become 'it', from your point of view, I am 'it', 'it' is me."

Chu Huan: "..."

This is the third news that shocked him. He has been struggling with whether this "it" that swallowed everything is a single consciousness or composed of many parts, but now the other party clearly tells him that "it" is a split personality.

No wonder he always had unreasonable fear in his heart, no wonder he couldn't develop a good impression of this person no matter what.

"I became it, but not quite it. I don't know why, but I kept my memory as a gatekeeper. After so many years... I have always felt guilty. I also know that regret is useless, so I have always been Looking for a chance to kill it...kill myself."

Chu Huan stood beside him silently for a while, sorted out his thoughts, and boldly guessed again: "So the legend of the fallen land, the rumor of the holy book, and those kinds of monsters are all fabricated by you."

No wonder those monsters are clearly inextricably linked with the fallen land, but they are still afraid of the shadow land; no wonder they have corresponding medicines for every kind of wind poison to the eye injury of the eye-eater, and Mutai’s wind injury is actually It can be solved with the blood of the gatekeeper; no wonder the forms of those monsters are so deliberate.

The middle-aged man whispered: "I can't communicate with the outside world, so I can only fabricate this kind of monster on the edge of the collapsed place, and use the mouth of the flat film to remind them..."

Chu Huan sneered sharply on his chest, "I don't think so? The fighting power of those monsters is hard for your descendants to resist, let alone ordinary people. Do you want to remind them? I think you want to harm They are almost dead! Those monsters are born on the edge of the land, and they will go crazy when the shadow spreads. In this way, those who have no time to escape will be killed by them first. Of course, the dead will not be conscious, 'it' can't swallow people Consciousness, wouldn't spread that fast, would it?"

The middle-aged man stared blankly at him for a while, then sighed in a low voice, but did not deny it.

Chu Huan had no intention of talking about moral issues with him, and asked aggressively: "Then what am I? Why didn't I solidify? Why can I hear those voices? Why were you fabricated in the holy book? And why are you standing here?"

"The rumors that I fabricated the holy book were spread through the mouths of flat people. I didn't know there were people on the other side of the river." The middle-aged man paused and said, "I just reminded 'it' to wade in from Another world, but people's word of mouth is always wrong, unknowingly, this legend has been distorted into what it is now."

"In order to eliminate 'it', I tried my best. I found that the mountain guards would use Mutai's brain marrow as medicine to treat trauma, so I spent nearly a thousand years, carefully avoiding the sight of 'it', pumping out my bone marrow. It came out and hid in the brains of several Mutai, hoping to be found by them."

Chu Huan's eyes slowly fell on the thighbone in the middle-aged man's hand: "Your bone marrow?"

"I was born in the sacred mountain, and I am the head of the clan. My bone marrow is the essence of the most primitive mountain, which is different from the second-generation gatekeepers like Ruge who were born in the holy spring." The middle-aged man said slowly, "Yes The real essence of the mountain, integrated into the body of ordinary people, can communicate with the holy mountain and the holy spring, and can talk to the heart of stone, that is the only thing that can compete with 'it'."

The middle-aged man said, glanced at the "walnut" on Chu Huan's neck, and shook his head: "I have been waiting for my gatekeepers and mountain guards to catch those mutais, and I have been waiting for the one who gets the essence of the mountain. , The person who communicated with the heart of the stone appeared... I thought it would be a descendant of a certain tribe, but I didn't expect it to be you."

When Chu Huan first met Nanshan, he had two gunshot wounds on his body. At that time, Nanshan used some unknown medicine to cover his wounds. Later, he learned that the thing was made of Mutai's brain, and he secretly vomited. It took a long time... Unexpectedly, the medicine Nanshan gave him happened to be the "essence of the mountain" that was dusty and unknown.

Hearing this, Chu Huan breathed a sigh of relief. From this point of view, he himself does not have those messy bloodlines. He is really just an ordinary child with an ordinary life that Chu Aiguo picked up from nowhere.

The middle-aged man stared fixedly at Chu Huan, and after a while, he sighed: "The rumors that were rumored turned out to be true, I really don't know..."

The last words were drowned in a wry smile. The middle-aged man stood up. The last thing he left in this world was Chu Huan. This young man was like a continuation of his life. He looked at Chu Huan, ignoring him. Chu Huan was clasped on the dagger, ready to cut his hand to death at any time, and stretched out his hand as if wanting to touch Chu Huan's head, but seeing the murderous eyes of the other party, he had no choice but to give up, and the raised hand finally fell on his arm , patted gently.

"As for the 'solidification' you mentioned." The middle-aged man smiled wryly, "I think it probably means the mountain of God...Because of our ignorance, we opened this door and put this kind of seed in. The root of the disaster, Shenshan probably wants to put an end to this possibility, so it set up restrictions on the side of the mountain gate?"

After he finished speaking, he knelt down on the spot at Chu Huan's feet, raised his bones above his head with both hands, dropped his body to the ground, and muttered in his mouth.

This paragraph, Chu Huan understood, the old goat taught him, it is an ancient ritual language, begging the gods to show mercy, begging for the forgiveness of sins, hoping to be blessed.

Chu Huan didn't know the taboo, and he didn't hide or dodge. He watched the middle-aged man recite the prayer over and over again with cold eyes. At first, the voice was very weak, and then it became clearer and clearer. A stream reached his ears, but it was rare and not noisy.

The dull walnut on his chest gave off a faint light, like a silent fire in the cold night, and then it became brighter and brighter, but it didn't burn people, it just made people feel warm.

"My kindling," he heard the middle-aged man sigh, "my kindling..."

Chu Huan opened his mouth involuntarily, jerkyly followed the voice and recited the ancient sacred mountain sound in a low voice.

The middle-aged man kneeling on the ground raised his head and smiled slightly at him.

The fire ignited by "Walnut" became more and more bright, and the tongues of flames enveloped Chu Huan in it. The middle-aged man rubbed the flames with the top of his head affectionately, like a young man who had left home when he was young. Returning to hometown after hair loss, infatuation, dependence, nostalgia, guilt...

All kinds of tastes seem to be mixed feelings.

Then the middle-aged man turned into a ball of light in front of Chu Huan, submerged in the flames, leaving only a solitary leg bone in front of his eyes, the flames seemed to have gained some kind of power, and spread all the way from Chu Huan.

Chu Huan's mind was blank, and he let the fire wrap him in the middle. All the illusions in front of him were swept away by the flames, and in front of him was a dark sea mountain, indestructible vines, and the star that started everything. the ambitious seed.

When Chu Huan heard the earth-shattering roar, his ears became deaf for a moment, and then the whole ground shook violently, and the stagnant seawater mountain burst into the sky in the flames, and the vines opened and closed, turning the whole sea into a pot of porridge.

In contrast, a flame as tall as a person seems insignificant like a firefly in such a precarious situation.

Chu Huan felt the fear of "it".

He was sent to a higher place by the sea roaring soaring into the sky, in the air, beyond all the mountains, and he could see the endless plains at a glance.

Chu Huan saw that every person awakened intentionally or unintentionally along the way was a small spot of light in the boundless shadows, and they were connected together by the light at some point, like a big net intertwined with flames, echoing him from afar .

At that moment, Chu Huan understood the true meaning of "fire seed".

He knew that his fire would burn out in the dark, but his heart was strangely calm.

Don't live alone, don't die alone.

He felt that he was hopeless.

[Volume [-]: Epilogue]