Strange Tales: The Yin-Yang Celestial Master

Uncle Beard is right, the further you go along that small river, the lower the temperature will be.

It seemed to become cold all of a sudden, and before they realized it, Qi Buyang had already sneezed.The grass blades under my feet were covered with frost, and they creaked when I stepped on them. Even the flow of the river slowed down, and a thin layer of ice formed on the surface of the river.

At this moment, a voice suddenly came from behind——

"Yangyang!"

Qi Buyang rubbed his ears with stiff hands, thinking that he had heard it wrong, but he heard a second sound immediately.Looking back, the sheep Baa Baa followed pitifully, with tears in her round eyes, so pitiful.

"You can call me by my name?" Qi Buyang jumped down in surprise, and ran over to pet its sheep's head.

As soon as he came over, the sheep bleated and stuffed its head into his arms, almost knocking the bear down, looking extremely aggrieved.It was eating happily at first, but when it was full, it looked up and wanted to ask the owner to rub its belly, but it couldn't find it anywhere!How can the owner run around? It took a long time to catch up with the smell.

Don't you want me anymore?It looked at Qi Buyang with such eyes.

"I'm sorry." Qi Buyang felt guilty and distressed, "I thought you wanted to stay."

The sheep bleated "baa", purred, shook its head, and stuck out its tongue to lick his face.

"Do you really want to come with us?"

"Bah!"

"Okay!" Qi Buyang smiled and hugged it affectionately.Luo Lang curled his lips, he thought he could get rid of this stupid sheep, but he didn't expect to be able to catch up with it.

The procession was joined by a sheep bleating, and they continued on.Soon, large pieces of ice floes began to appear in the river, weeds almost stopped growing, and the starry sky that had been twinkling on the roof of the cave also dimmed a lot, and only a few glowing bugs lying on it could be seen after a while.

After walking for a while, I couldn't even see a single bug. The top of my head was completely dark, and the river was frozen and turned into a glacier. Fortunately, it can still emit a little bit of light blue fluorescence, even brighter than when it was flowing. Like the stars in the night sky, guiding them.

The ground turned into hard frozen soil, the surrounding stone walls were covered with a layer of solid ice, and the top of the cave was covered with stalactite-shaped ice cones, which were crystal clear, as if walking in a crystal palace.But they no longer cared about admiring it. Although they were mentally prepared for the low temperature, they still didn't expect it to be so cold—the cold wind blowing from nowhere, wrapped in ice slag, hurt their faces when it was blown like The knife was cutting, the breath brought out clouds of white air, and the nose and ears were already frozen.

Even the sheep baa-baa, who was covered in thick fur, was shivering from the cold, and Qi Buyang had to make him change back into a bead and hide in the Qiankun bag.The hands and feet tightened the belt less flexibly, and Qi Buyang felt that his hands and feet filled with cotton wool began to stiffen, poking the furry skin, it seemed that it was not an illusion, the touch really became a little harder, and he couldn't help worrying whether it would be real were frozen.He went to look at Luo Lang again, and found that his eyebrows and even eyelashes had quietly formed a layer of frost, and his black hair was also covered with snowflakes.

The little celestial master hummed and climbed onto Luo Lang's head, and covered his ears with his hands.

"Mr. Luo, let me be your hat."

Luo Lang gave a "tsk".She reached out and grabbed him, wrapped her tightly in her arms, and blocked the bitter cold wind for him.

Little Bear tried to show his face from between his arms, "Mr. Luo, are you cold?"

"It's not cold." Luo Lang said flatly, he looked as usual, and there was no sign of freezing at all, which made Qi Buyang a little relieved.

The person behind them was not so lucky. He looked enviously at the two people in front of him, and even envied the sheep that could jump into the bag to escape the severe cold, but he could only wrap his clothes tightly around his body silently, shrinking his neck , Walking tremblingly, feeling that the toes have been frozen to the point of being unconscious, I can't help feeling a little regretful, maybe I shouldn't have followed.

Going forward, the ice layer is getting thicker and thicker, even the wind seems to be frozen, everything is silent, and the white air that comes out can actually condense into a solid, turning into ice slag and hitting the ground.What's more frightening is that this kind of cold does not distinguish between objects, and even time cannot escape.

They walked more and more slowly, not on purpose, but because the passage of time had indeed slowed down, as if they were being dragged by the sticky cold air, and they could only walk slowly involuntarily.The person who was originally following Luo Lang deviated from the route unknowingly because he buried his head against the cold, and walked diagonally behind them.When Qi Buyang realized that there was no sound for a long time, he looked back and saw that the man had turned into a statue on the ice field—still maintaining a walking posture, as if the time stop button had been pressed, frozen in a certain moment .

"How could this happen?" Qi Buyang didn't expect that such a thing as time stopping was beyond his cognition.

Luo Lang looked at the frozen river. Although it had been frozen solid, he could feel that the river was still flowing slowly under the thick ice cover.Perhaps just as the bearded uncle guessed, the severe cold here can even freeze time. Looking around, the huge cave is covered with ice and snow. Those thick and hard ice layers cannot be formed in a short period of time, which means that it has been here for a long time. There has been no change, and time may have stopped passing in those places.

Only this river still maintains a weak vitality, so they walked close to the river bank before, so they didn't get frozen.

Although he was very reluctant, at Qi Buyang's request, Luo Lang went to carry the man who had turned into a statue back to the river bank.

"He must be thawed." The little celestial master was in trouble, thinking of the dry firewood prepared by the bearded uncle before departure, he took it out and tried it, but it couldn't light it anyway.

Just when he was in a hurry, Luo Lang picked him up with one hand, and opened his palm with the other hand. After a while, a small cluster of lovely flames lit up in the palm of his hand. "The fire has become smaller." Luo Lang frowned, and threw the flame into the firewood pile, and the dry firewood immediately began to crackle and burn.

With the temperature of the fire, the layer of frost on the outside of the ice sculpture finally began to slowly melt, but the fire could not last long. After a while, the dry wood began to freeze, and gradually spread to the flames, and finally even the burning fire It was also frozen and turned into a strangely shaped ice sculpture.Fortunately, when the fire disappeared, the statue of the person next to him had already begun to move slowly, but not smoothly, and the joints made a crackling sound, like an aging machine.

That person was terribly frightened. Although he couldn't move just now, he still maintained consciousness. He saw himself stop all movements, as if trapped in some kind of space-time rift. He shouted desperately at the person in front, but couldn't utter a word. sound.Fortunately, Qi Buyang found him, and Luo Lang carried him over to thaw out, and witnessed the spectacle of the flame freezing.He touched his body with lingering fear, feeling the cold from his heart to his fingertips, as if he had died once.On the road after that, he kept his face up all the time, staring at Luo Lang's back, not daring to relax a step.

Finally, after walking slowly for a long time, the starlight of the glacier became brighter and brighter, and in the distance, they saw something emitting golden light, right at the source of the river.

——It was an incomparably huge tree, much thicker than the dead wood Qi Buyang saw in the Demon Realm, with luxuriant branches and green leaves symbolizing vitality hanging all over the branches, the leaves swayed gently like wind chimes, flashing sacred The golden light is dazzling.

"Is this the true face of the tree of life?" Qi Buyang raised his head, but still couldn't see the top of the tree, but was dazzled by the brilliance of the leaves.Luo Lang carried the little bear all the way to the tree, but was blocked by the leaves and couldn't see anything.

The little bear volunteered to climb the treetops, walk through the dense branches, and look around for the fruit of life.

The moment his feet stepped on the thick branches, he heard a beautiful voice from among the branches and leaves, as if talking about something, constantly attracting him closer.Little Bear listened attentively, and found that the sound was coming from the leaves. Those leaves were swaying in his ears, and there were all kinds of gentle voices. They turned out to be telling stories!Every leaf has a story to tell in the ears.Those stories are vivid and interesting, some are legends about the beginning of the world and the prehistoric times of all things, and some are little-known anecdotes about the Three Realms.

The little celestial master simply sat down, with the leaves sticking to his ears, and told him everything he had never heard of before, like a plant that desperately needed to absorb nutrients, he was hungry and thirsty, wishing to hear more.

Until Luo Lang's hand touched him and hugged him down, he was still immersed in the story just now and couldn't extricate himself. When he came back to his senses, he saw Luo Lang's face that seemed to be smiling but not smiling, and felt very embarrassed. leaves, I feel a little scared after a while.If it wasn't for Luo Lang, he might have been sitting here listening to the story, not eating or drinking, and forgetting everything, until the day when the primordial spirit dissipated.

Just like the person who followed, he was already sitting on a branch, leaning against the solid trunk, closing his eyes and listening carefully to the story told by the leaves, with an intoxicated smile on his face, as if he hoped to stay there for a lifetime.It took Qi Buyang a lot of effort to wake him up from the story. The man woke up, jumped off the branch, and broke out in a cold sweat.

He looked at the beautiful tree of life, and thought of how he was obsessed with it just now, he felt that this tree was not at all as beautiful as he first saw it, but rather terrifying.He looked at the end of the glacier again, there was a spring, which was frozen when the spring water was surging, and maintained a vibrant appearance, but it had become an ice sculpture, crystal clear, flashing a beautiful and quiet light, Desperate.

Other than that, there's nothing here.There is no exit, let alone hope, only a big tree that can take away people's will.

Enduring the terrible cold and even being frozen into an ice sculpture, he finally came here, but what he saw was this scene. He was very disappointed and immediately decided to return the same way.Since I can't get out, I might as well go back to that valley and live a normal life with my friends.

"Let's go back together." He said to Qi Buyang: "It seems that you can't find the fruit of life you are looking for." He pointed to the green leaves all over the tree, "It doesn't look like it is in the fruiting period, although it is still alive , but the tree of life has lost the ability to breed life, even this tree in the abyss is not immune."

Qi Buyang shook his head lightly, "Let's look for it again, maybe there are still one or two left."

Seeing that he was unwilling to give up, the man stopped persuading him, and just said: "If you really can't find it, come back. We will wait for you on the grassland."

Qi Buyang nodded, said goodbye to him, and gave him all the food and dry firewood, then watched his back go away.

The man stepped out, and couldn't help but look back at the tree of life that was still shining. He seemed to be reluctant to part with him, but he was also fearful, with a complicated expression, and he didn't know what he was thinking.Then he turned his head resolutely, and left at the fastest speed in the slow flow of time that almost stopped.

Qi Buyang looked at Luo Lang, feeling a little depressed, although he was optimistic to others, he couldn't lie to himself.He knew very well that he didn't see half of the fruit when he walked into the depths of the leaves just now. Could it be that even the last tree of life couldn't bear fruit?

Luo Lang didn't speak all the time, he looked at the tree of life silently, and felt that the tree didn't lose its ability to bear fruit, but because the time here hardly flowed, when it stopped, the tree of life was in a green leaf state, and it kept on this state.

It's not normal.

Although the abyss is hidden in a place that no one knows, it always affects the development of the outside world, just like the reincarnation of the world every 3000 years.But this time, the reincarnation that has existed since the beginning of the world is late, and it has not appeared for 5000 years, and the environment of the abyss is getting worse day by day. Shan Kui said that the lava is getting hotter and hotter, and he has never heard of springs in the abyss before. It will freeze, all this shows that there is something wrong with the abyss, probably related to the frozen spring.

Then, before the problem occurred, before the river froze, the tree of life must have borne fruit. After that, time stopped flowing, and the fruit might still remain somewhere.

Holding the bear in his arms, he followed the branches and leaves of the tree of life to the surface of the river, walked onto the glacier, and found something hidden under the transparent ice layer.

"Mr. Luo! What is that?" The little celestial master also saw it, and immediately shouted excitedly.

——In the frozen spring, there is a bright red and beautiful fruit frozen.